CHAPTER 97: LET’S ALL DIE

The rain fell heavily on the city, darkening the sky and violently washing away the blood that ran through the cobbled streets.

Lydia moved nimbly between the red-stained puddles, dodging human corpses and scattered remains of the wild beasts that had not yet cooled down.

As a servant raised within the Medici Clan, her loyalty lay with the higher-ups, not with Kael, her temporary master. So when chaos erupted and she was separated from the seventh young master, she was reassigned to a squad of servants specially trained by the clan for extreme situations.

With every step she took, it became clearer that the destruction had not been caused by wild beasts. There were too many human bodies. Too much precision. When she turned down a narrow alley to cut across, she saw it.

In the distance, under the rain, a female figure stood motionless, wielding a huge scythe. The blade glinted in the lightning, and blood dripped from her weapon, mixing with the drops falling from the sky.

Lydia didn’t need words to understand: this woman was one of those responsible for the hell the city had become... and for the collapse of the Medici territory.

Without saying a word, she slid both hands under her skirt and pulled out a pair of curved daggers. She twirled them nimbly between her fingers. Her face remained impassive, her eyes cold as steel. There was no room for fear.

In contrast, the woman with the scythe smiled. Her bloodstained face looked like that of someone who had just satisfied a savage appetite.

I’m curious... Who is hiding behind that mask of coins? She thought with delight, as the blood from her weapon continued to drip silently.

"Are you sure you want to face me alone?" she said suddenly, her voice calm, almost indifferent. "Many of your companions tried... and they all shared the same fate."

Lydia did not respond with words.

Instead, she transformed her essence of manna into a translucent aura that slid down her arms and enveloped her daggers like a second skin. As she channeled it through her dantian, her body seemed to tense like a string ready to snap.

Then she lunged forward.

Water splashed violently beneath her feet, forming waves that burst as she passed. With a sudden burst of speed, she vanished from view, leaving only a blur and a sharp whistle in the air.

The woman with the scythe narrowed her eyes just in time to feel a chill running down the back of her neck.

"What...?" Her pupils dilated.

She spun her body in a side somersault and barely managed to dodge the slash that grazed her neck. A thin line of blood slid down her skin, warm and real.

"Tch..." Lydia clicked her tongue in annoyance when she saw that her attack had failed.

But she didn’t stop.

She disappeared again.

It wasn’t invisibility. Her speed simply exceeded the limits of the human eye. Only gusts of wind and the sharp sound of water parting in her wake remained.

The woman frowned. She channeled her aura directly into her eyes, causing the veins around them to stand out like living roots. Her vision sharpened; the world slowed down for a moment, and she could finally make out Lydia’s blurry flashes between the raindrops.

"So that’s how you play..." she muttered.

With a fluid twist of her wrist, the scythe began to spin in circles, tracing a lethal arc of steel and aura. Rain slid off the spinning blade like a whirlwind.

And then, the two collided.

Daggers and scythes clashed once, twice, five times in less than ten seconds. The metallic sound echoed through the alley like a rain of blades. Each impact released small shock waves that pushed the water in concentric waves across the ground.

Lightning flashed across the sky, freezing the scene in frames of white light. The figures of the two women intertwined in a dance of death, swift as shadows, precise as machines, human only in appearance.

And yet Lydia showed no emotion.

Only movement. Only the intention to kill.

...

With multiple deadly battles taking place simultaneously in different parts of the city, the two wild beasts of Viscount rank that had been lying in wait outside the walls finally made their move.

The Lightning Boar, a monstrosity of taut muscles and scorched skin, charged like a runaway beast.

Its colossal body lifted the earth in its wake as electric flashes crackled around it, enveloping it in a halo of lightning that propelled it to inhuman speeds. It looked like a wild bull possessed.

In the sky, the three-eyed black crows flying over the city began to caw in unison, creating an unbearable cacophony, a funeral song that pierced the ears.

The sound echoed like an omen, causing the few survivors of the second assault to shudder, overcome by fear and terror.

It was then that the Silver Wolf of Viscount rank raised his head, infected by the clamor of the crows, and howled with a ferocity that cut through the air.

His body began to shrink with each passing second, his muscles retracted, his legs shortened... until he reached the size of an ordinary wolf.

But instead of weakening, that compact form seemed even more lethal. It slipped through the mass of its fellow wolves and began its direct charge toward the city.

The elder Colson and Milson, one of the pillars of the Abraham family, stopped their fierce battle when they sensed a presence. In the distance, the roar of the Lightning Boar echoed like thunder, and a wild, suffocating aura descended upon the destroyed city.

Both fell silent.

Much of the district had been reduced to rubble by their clash, but now the real danger had just arrived.

Their expressions hardened instantly. Without a word, they began to quickly absorb mana stones, trying to restore what little remained of their mana seas.

"Gather everyone," Colson finally said, with emotionless calm. "If we don’t consolidate our defense, we’ll die before we can continue hating each other."

Milson looked at him with contempt as he swallowed the last remnants of magical essence.

"And who are you to give me orders? My only desire is to see your clan reduced to ashes."

Colson didn’t respond right away. He stared at the dark sky for a moment as the rain fell on his face, as if reflecting on the absurdity of it all.

"How many times have we fought, Milson?" he finally asked, his voice lower. "How many bodies have we left behind? Entire families disappeared because of rivalries like ours. And yet, in the end, a beast with no conscience, no ideology, no grudge, can wipe us both out in a single instant."

Colson let out a dry laugh, like an exhalation laden with resignation.

"Maybe that’s fair. If we can’t stop behaving like beasts, why not die like them?"

Then he looked at him with a cold smile.

"Then it doesn’t matter, does it? Let’s all die."