Chapter 140: Exposition from a deadman
“The Demon’s Archive?,” Draigo repeated incredulously, “is that supposed to mean something to me other than being a funny name?”
The saber was being white knuckle gripped at this point, but the holder’s curiousity(small light of hope) outweighed his bloodlust at the moment…until the Marquis started laughing, then it shot back up.
“You…of all people…should know! You should…know the songs,” the Marquis answered between coughs. Out of his audience eyesight however, the Marquis began to do a series of one handed seals on the side where Frosttusk was holding him.
“Songs?”
“The Storm Queen’s shanty…the Drunkard’s Ballad…and the Apostate’s Hymn…you know them…the Ender Songs?”
‘Ender Songs? The hell kind of edgy name is that?,’ Zhen Liu thought once he heard the name. Draigo on the other hand, just looked even more confused.
“The Ender Songs? They’re just finale pieces for a musician’s performance, every knows them,” Draigo replied, “what do they have to do with this Demon’s ar-”
“Everything! They have to do with…everything!” the Marquis managed to shout with unexpected vigor.
“Each of those songs are…dedicated…to…infamous warriors…who have had…their names…struck from history…out of respect and fear. For each…of them…were responsible for…ending…entire dynasties…by themselves!”
As the Marquis kept talking, the aether around him started to feel a little strange and a tad…reactive.
“Go on…,” Zhen Liu finally spoke up. At this point he was now invested in what the Marquis was explaining.
“These warriors…these Era Enders…were all…vastly… different…in their… personalities… backgrounds…everything. But…they all shared two things…” The Marquis turned his face towards Hurricroak. “They all commanded… monstrous warriors…like this, and they all had access…to the Demon’s Archive. The greatest…collection of knowledge in all of Valresta. From common knowledge…to the forbidden tomes of old…it can be found there.”
The Marquis turned his gaze towards Draigo once more. “If…any place has…the knowledge to…bring her back…it’s there.”
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‘Alright I had a feeling a lot of that place was still locked behind some kind of magic lock bullshit, but be honest with me right now: how much of that knowledge is banned/cursed/forbidden?’
‘Not entirely sure, but I think one of the biggest powers on the contient is the…Adamantine Empress, I think.’
‘Damn dude…’
[Milord,] Hurricroak voice suddenly cut in, [The Marquis’s aether is staring to act weird. Should we intervene now?]
‘Of course he’s trying to do shit…alright, it’s showtime. Hurricroak, Frosttusk, here’s the plan…’
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Draigo was stunned by the revelation and began to go deep in thought over the implication…until, the Marquis started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Hahaha… some lost… irony,” the Marquis answered, “I recall… hearing you…made a promise to the muse that… you’d keep playing…after her demise…I made one too…a long time ago.”
The Marquis lifted his head fully now, and stared Draigo dead in the eyes, a look of pure madness plain on his face.
“That I would take this knowledge to the grave, and to take everyone who heard it too.”
The Marquis was about to finish one last seal behind his back, and set off a chain reaction in his body that would cause his and the surrounding aether to go wild and explode in a cascade of colors and destruction, destroying himself, but also killing everyone in this mansion and a bit further past that.
Unfortunate that he tried to do it around a group of highly coordinated kaijin.
What happens next took only a few seconds.
[Explo-]
‘Do it.’
[Thunder Strike!]
[Frost Lock!]
“CUT!”
“GAH!”
Before the Marquis could finish action or get another word out, Hurricroak slammed a heavy palm into the Marquis’s back and sent a surge of lighting aether into his spine and subsequently his nervous system. The surge of energy caused his nerves to go haywire and his whole body began to seize up and spasm.
FWOOSH!
Frosttusk then stole the heat from the air around the Marquis and sealed him in a body coffin of ice from the neck down. Not that the Marquis could notice due to his nerves being shot.
Finally, the Razor Maiden came from above and slashed the Marquis’s head clean off by using her legs like a pair of razor sharp scissors. With the deed done, she kicked the Marquis’s head towards Zhen Liu, who grabbed the head midair.
The eyes in the Marquis’s severed head began to dart around, trying to figure out what had just happened before locking eyes with Zhen Liu. The latter had held the Marquis’s head at eye level this whole time.
“You know…I get the distinct feeling you spent a whole lifetime looking down on others, taking and killing for whatever you wanted…must be incredibly surreal having that shoe on the other foot, no?”
The Marquis tried to retort, but all that came out was a gurgle.
“You know..the funny part is that I probably wouldn’t have rolled up to kick your shit in if you hadn’t kidnapped my girl and my friend,” Zhen Liu mused, “but then I wouldn’t have gotten this much stronger so I think thanks are in order.”
Zhen Liu lifted the Marquis’s head closer to his own face, turning it so that he could whisper in his ear.
“The Archive is in the Jade Lake, only three days journey from Stone Claw City,” he whispered into the Marquis’s ear.
The severed head’s eyes went wide once the words registered in his mind.
Zhen Liu turned the Marquis’s face towards himself for the last time, a sadistic smile on his face.
“Consider this a gift, as you travel to the next world. Nepherage?”
“Aye!”
Without further ado, Zhen Liu tossed the Marquis’s head straight up into the air. As the head climbed upwards, Nepherage gathered aether into a clench fist.
[Magma Arrow.]
KABOOM!
The Marquis’s head exploded into cinders as Nepherage fired off an arrow made of molten rock at the airborne head.
And with that explosion, the Marquis was no more.
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‘It felt appropriate! Now excuse me while I try to suppress this memory for later.’
