Chapter 354: Only you

Yet to the shock of everyone, Axel did not kill him; he bent down, brought out a vial of healing potion, and poured it into the mouth of Taser. The heir of the Vex household felt a profound soothing sensation wash over his whole body and mind. Tears fell from his eyes as if he had ascended to the heavens directly from hell.That soothing sensation felt like the most significant relief of his life, as his eyes regained color and understanding. Even his broken mind showed signs of recovery from the healing of his physical body. Confusion appeared all over his face. Not understanding why Axel Nomrad had healed him. An even worse feeling started to grow in his heart. This can’t be anything good, no, not possible, not after what he just revealed.

Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed his neck, picking him up like holding a child, with effortless ease. Taser looked into the runic eyes of Axel. They looked nothing less than divine, the eyes that were the very symbol of the only one in existence who was chosen by the runes. But he felt nothing but pure dread looking at those eyes. His heart was beating so loud that it might burst out of his chest at any given moment.

Thump... thump... THUMP–THUMP–THUMP!

Axel put another hand on the neck of Taser Vex, while he continued to struggle, not because he thought that he could actually do anything against Axel Nomrad, who was now a 2nd-phase Seeker. But because he could not control the compounding fear increasing within him with each passing second, his survival instinct was taking over.

Axel moved his hands slightly, gripping the neck of Vex’s family’s heir more strongly. Annoyed by the flippant struggle of Taser, he let out a bit more of his killing intent, making him unable to struggle as much. Then he started pulling his neck in two different directions. Like trying to snap a rope with your hands, using only strength and grip.

Taser cried out in horror, and even the assassins and Envoy of Arclight stepped backward in caution. They were already more than horrified by Axel Nomrad’s colossal bloodlust. Everyone knew that bloodlust is something that only increases in two ways. One is by killing more and more people, while the other is by advancing to the next phase.

Even so, no 2nd-phase Seeker should have that disturbing amount of bloodlust. They could barely imagine how many people he must have killed during his trial to command so much bloodlust, and so effortlessly, even.

Axel did not immediately tear the head away from Taser’s body. Still, he deliberately continued to pull it slowly enough for Taser to feel it clearly, his neck slowly being stretched in two directions, the veins and bones all screaming in panic. The pain he was feeling in his brain was too much; his eyes turned bloody. When he was just moments away from death, his brain tried to shut down involuntarily. Unable to bear the pain of it anymore. But before that could happen-

Axel stated one last thing, "Don’t worry, I will personally deliver your head to the main estate of the Vex family, and I hope they will like it."

Then he put all of his strength into his hands, not holding back anymore, and Taser’s whole head was ripped away from his body, as blood poured out like a fountain, spreading all over the area. Axel remained untouched by the splattering blood as his mana evaporated every drop of it before it could touch him. Even the seasoned assassins from Arclight watched on with narrowed eyes at the sheer display of brutality from Axel Nomrad.

He tossed the ripped-out head on the ground, and his headless body dropped flatly with a thud. Blood coming out in liters and liters, spreading all over. There was a moment of silence as Axel kept staring at the horrified, bloodshot face of Taser. His last expression was full of so many negative emotions that even he could not read them all.

Axel turned towards Arclight Envoy and asked, "I presume you recorded that as well?"

The personnel nodded curtly, "Yes, we did. But please don’t worry, as our highest level of client... no one will ever..."

But before the Envoy could finish his sentence, Axel dashed forward at such speed that the first-phase Arclight Envoy could not comprehend, but even the assassin who tortured Taser, who was the only 2nd-phase seeker aside from Axel in that place, could not keep up with that speed. A gray colored sword appeared in Axel’s hand as he swung it with full force horizontally.

Even the protective artifact that the Envoy was wearing could not properly form a barrier in time, as his powerful slash cut the Envoy in half right at his waist. The person couldn’t even comprehend the situation before the soul left his body in that fraction of a second.

All the other figures roared and charged forward, the fastest one being the 2nd-phase assassin. But Axel was too strong; the abilities, advantages, and tools in his arsenal were too numerous. No Human Seeker had a chance against him unless they were at least one whole phase stronger than him. But even then, it was unlikely they could win against him.

So, what followed was a one-sided slaughter; all of them worked together flawlessly, giving it their absolute best to kill Axel Nomrad, no useless chatter or question for why he was doing this, when they were supposed to be allies. They even used countless strange artifacts, but against his runic eyes, none of those tricks could work.

The 2nd phase assassin stated coldly before he was about to be killed, "Do not think our leaders will not find out about your transgression."

Axel chuckled dryly, no humor in his voice, "No, you should be saying that they already know of my backstabbing the moment I killed the Envoy. You think I don’t know about the Soul Pulse spell?

He added with a sardonic smile, "The moment one of the Envoy’s is killed, the mana signature of the killer is sent to the headquarters of Arclight, through a special method. Truly a unique and powerful spell, too well-suited for the Arclight Organization."

The cold assassin who wasn’t even afraid of Death until now, for the first time, lost his composure entirely, as he shouted in rage, but the total panic in his voice was more than evident, "IMPOSSIBLE. HOW CAN YOU KNOW OF THE EXISTENCE OF THOSE THINGS? YOU SHOULD BE THE LAST PERSON WHO KNOWS OF IT."

Axel’s smile turned to a sneer as he stated, "Indeed, I should not know of it, yet I do. What can you do about it? But that is beside the point. What is noteworthy is that once you know the mechanism of the spell. Blocking it is much easier than one would expect."

With that stated, he slashed out and severed the head of the assassin, and an even greater look of disbelief was written on his face, mirroring his last thoughts. Axel disposed of all the bodies, burning all of them to ashes through fire, using a fire rune sword of his creation.

Then he finally turned towards the two unconscious girls being protected inside a barrier, and without a care in the world about all that had happened just now. The personnel of Arclight obviously tried to attack the two girls when they understood that they were no match for Axel. But Axel finished them off fast enough before they could attempt to do anything to the two girls.

He splattered some water on both of their faces. With a hazy mind, they stood up groggily, as if waking from a long sleep. After the conversation on the balcony between Lumina and Axel, when she ran off, Axel had sent an order to the Envoy through one of the servants in the building to keep an eye on both Lumina and Vyra and protect them if anything unforeseen happened.

Knowing what was about to happen, he couldn’t go after them. He had to be in the Dance hall. He had to make sure everything would be as it was supposed to be. He had to be the one to motivate all the students to start the all-out battle, a task Lucien was initially supposed to do. But he wasn’t there.

Vyra and Lumina both took a moment to come to their senses. Vyra was the first one to voice out a question, "Axel, what... what’s going on? Why is there a fire? The last thing I remember was something hitting the back of my head. Wait, you bastard, was that you???"

Axel ignored her and looked towards Lumina. She first seemed very confused, looking at Axel and the surroundings, but then, when she remembered everything that had happened with Axel, Sophia, and in the dance hall, she regained her composure. Her expression towards him turned cold again. She asked in anger, "Axel, what’s going on? Were you the one who knocked us out?"

He sighed and revealed with a hardened expression, "Lumina, the whole island is being attacked. Since you both were out in the open, you went unconscious from the shockwave of that clash between the principal and the High-Lich."

Just as they were about to say something, obviously not believing him in the slightest, Axel cut them off, "Lumina, Vyra, every single student is fighting against the endless hordes of the undead, every second we are speaking here wasting time, someone is dying while fighting, I will tell you everything on the way. But now....more than anything."

He paused and looked intently at Lumina with the most serious expression Lumina had ever seen him with. He requested her earnestly, not a trace of deceit in his eyes, "Lumina, I need your help. No, we need your help, and only you can do it."