CHAPTER 327: RAFFLESIA

Morgan was feeling conflicted as he lagged slightly behind Luna and Lily. Lily’s mother had been like an angel to him in the brief time he had known her. He had no idea how she could have a daughter like this.

As Lily walked, she left a trail of blood and bodies in her wake. Those who sided with the disgruntled elders and had killed their own in the skirmish all met gruesome fates.

Vines would come down from the ceiling, catching men off guard and hanging them there in the hallway. Others were skewered by plants that had suddenly grown spikes. It was a horrifying sight to see men die in such brutal ways.

However she wasn’t the only scary one. Luna was equally terrifying but in a different way. Some men tried to appeal to Lily’s sense of comraderie to get close to her before they struck but the white haired bodyguard was able to detect their concealed bloodlust all too easily.

The first to try that approach had almost touched Lily’s clothes before his hands fell....alongside his arms as Luna chopped off both arms. The strike had been so powerful yet clean that the man blinked at his own severed stumps for a few moments before he screamed.

He had tears in his eyes as blood gushed from the wound yet both girls held no sympathy in their gazes. Luna may have held issue with killing the innocent, but killing scum like that was an entirely different story.

The man’s cries of agony were silenced with a slap from Luna. Not out of fear but because the slap broke his neck, his head spinning around like a top several times before he collapsed to the ground with his head facing the wrong way.

Morgan didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. Every time he opened his mouth, another man died in some new horrifying way. At first, he had tried to rationalize it. Tell himself these were traitors. Killers. Monsters.

But the truth was simple.

Lily didn’t care what he thought. She walked forward like she was following a script written in blood, her hands never dirty, yet death clung to her like perfume.

They turned a corner and came face-to-face with a patrol of five men.

These ones were different. Their clothes were cleaner, their posture disciplined. Their blades gleamed and their faces bore no fear. They had been patrolling the estate like they owned it, heads high and full of righteousness.

That changed when they saw her.

The one in the front, a man with gray streaks in his hair and a crooked grin, narrowed his eyes. His gaze flicked from Lily to Luna, then to Morgan. Recognition dawned.

"Well well. Look what the rats dragged in," he sneered. "The Young Miss has finally come home. She brought her lapdog too~!"

"Dante. Where is my father?" Lily growled, her voice dropping an octave as she stared at the son of Elder Nico. The first of five elders and the one who had always been the one who stood against every one of her fathers attempts at reform.

Dante tilted his head, his grin widening. He didn’t answer right away, savoring the tension in the air.

"Still alive, last I checked," he said with a shrug. "For now, at least. The elders are preparing his punishment. A proper spectacle. Fitting for a man who forgot who he was."

Lily’s expression didn’t change. But the hallway seemed to darken all the same.

"You were always weak, Lucian’s daughter," Dante continued, his voice dripping with false warmth. "But not as weak as your father. He used to be a lion. Now look at him. Meek. Tamed. That woman ruined him."

He chuckled under his breath.

"If it were the old Lucian, he would’ve accepted the arrangement. You would’ve been mine, or maybe Tobias’s, or any of our bloodlines. That’s how things were done. That’s how strength is preserved."

Luna spat on the ground.

"You’re disgusting."

Dante’s face twisted into a snarl. "Who said the mutt could speak?"

He stepped forward, hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

"When I become master, I’ll teach you proper manners. On your knees. Maybe you’ll even thank me for it."

Luna’s eyes went cold. Her body tensed like a wire ready to snap, but Lily raised her hand ever so slightly.

The patrol behind Dante laughed, emboldened by their leader’s posturing. One of them muttered under his breath that they had always wanted to break Luna in. Another made a cruder comment, licking his lips as he looked at Morgan which sent shivers down his spine.

Lily turned to them, her voice low.

"Did you kill anyone during the coup?"

The laughter stopped.

They exchanged glances, confused at first, then the tallest among them straightened and smirked.

"Of course we did," he said, puffing out his chest. "Traitors. Cowards. They got what they deserved. A dozen at least fell to my blade. Some even begged."

The others chuckled, one of them boasting how his kill count had reached fifteen. Another made a show of licking blood from his fingers.

They had bragged. Just like the others. Yet they were clueless on how they got this far. They had no idea that behind them, dozens of corpses trailed in their wakes. Morgan knew he should say something. If he didn’t, these criminals wouldn’t face justice. They would face Death.

Death with Crimson and Emerald eyes.

The man who had bragged the loudest didn’t even see it coming.

His words hadn’t even finished echoing when thick roots exploded from the wall behind him. They coiled around his chest and yanked him off his feet, slamming him into the ceiling so hard the stone cracked. Before he could scream, a vine snaked down his throat and silenced him with a choking gag. Blood trickled from his nose and eyes as his limbs flailed uselessly in the air.

The second man turned to run.

He didn’t make it two steps before the floor beneath him split open. Dozens of jagged wooden spears burst up, impaling him through both knees and pinning him in place like a crucifix. He screamed and begged for mercy, but Lily didn’t even glance in his direction. Her gaze was locked on Dante.

The remaining three hesitated. One dropped his sword and raised his hands, but Luna was already moving.

Her axe cut through the air with a terrifying downward momentum.

The man’s torso remained upright for half a second before it slid off at an angle. The pieces hit the ground with wet thuds, blood pooling faster than Morgan thought possible.

The one who had mocked Morgan stood frozen, lips parted like he wanted to say something witty but had forgotten how to speak. He backed up, hands trembling.

"I... I didn’t mean it. I didn’t even kill anyone. I was just.."

Morgan could tell the man was lying just from the look in his eyes but before he could continue to lie, his legs gave out on him.

Not because of fear, but because Lily had turned her eyes on him.

Vines wrapped around his calves and twisted. Bones snapped with audible cracks, and he shrieked, falling forward into a pool of blood that wasn’t his.

The final man tried to run. Not toward them. Not away. He just ran.

Luna disappeared from view for a split second. When she reappeared, she was holding his head by the hair. The body hit the floor behind her, twitching.

Morgan felt like he couldn’t breathe. His heart thundered in his chest. There was blood on the walls. Blood on the ceiling. The scent of it clung to everything, thick and coppery. Even the air tasted like iron.

Yet Lily stood in the center of it all, untouched.

She didn’t revel in the violence. She didn’t gloat. Her eyes were calm, focused, emotionless. That somehow made it worse.

Dante was no longer smiling.

He had always viewed her as just a beautiful flower in a garden.

But now he could only describe her as a Rafflesia!