As the dust slowly cleared, all eyes fixated on the center of the shattered battlefield. The once formidable Marquis Reynard lay in ruin, his skeletal remains scattered, armor fragmented and broken, with pieces of his body strewn across the ground.
A deafening silence gripped the arena, the crowd too stunned to utter a word.
Slightly disoriented, Aengus stood crouching down at the epicenter of the destruction, his Hellfire and Darkness wings flickering ominously behind him, casting an eerie glow on the debris. His Claws still smoked from the impact, and the ground beneath him continued to smolder.
He slowly rose to his full height, shaking off the dust, his expression unreadable.
“Is Marquis Reynard dead?” the murmurs from the spectators grew louder, their voices tinged with disbelief.
“….”
Suddenly, a low, raspy sound echoed across the hall. It was not a cheer, nor a gasp-it was the unmistakable crackling of bones.
From the rubble, the remains of Marquis Reynard began to stir. His hollow eye sockets flared with an unnatural light as his bones reassembled, piece by piece. The fragments of his shattered body slowly drew together as if some dark force was pulling them back into form.
Aengus narrowed his eyes but remained calm. He had expected this. After he had seen what kind of abilities he had.
Reynard’s skeletal body reformed, albeit shakier than before. His Death Aura flickered weakly around him. “You… think… this will stop me, demon?” he rasped, his voice a hollow echo. “I… am eternal… death cannot claim me.”
The audience gasped, watching in horror as the Undead Marquis, though severely weakened, stood once more.
Aengus, however, did not look impressed. With a wave of his hand, the Hellfire surrounding him roared back to life, brighter and more intense than before.
“Not eternal enough, slave,” Aengus muttered coldly, his eyes glowing with dark power as he prepared to end the battle for good.
“Why is he calling Marquis Reynard a slave?” Belial mused, noticing something peculiar in Aengus’s words. “Or is it just arrogance?”
With a thunderous roar, Marquis Reynard unleashed his Skeleton King’s Domain.
Instantly, a 50-meter radius around him transformed into a hellish dome of skeletons. Aengus was immediately surrounded by hundreds of giant skeletons, while the ground and air became riddled with sharp bones from various creatures.
Those bones radiated a deathly aura, capable of sucking the soul from anyone who dared get pierced by them.
Aengus, unfazed, used Body Duplication, instantly splitting himself into two.
Both Aengus and his doppelganger flew in opposite directions, outmaneuvering the skeletons with impressive speed and keeping them distracted. Although a few of the deathly bones grazed him, his scaly, armored body offered ample protection, bolstered by his affinity with death, rendering the scratches insignificant.
Boom! Crash!
Within moments, Aengus had dismantled Marquis Reynard’s skeletal body once again.
Clatter, clatter echoed through the hall as the bones reassembled themselves, reconstructing into a grotesque form like a true undead.
“Not this time, human slave!” Aengus sneered coldly, his fingers conjuring death strings that danced eerily in the shadows, numbering in the hundreds.
The undead Marquis let out a painful howl as the death strings wrapped around his defenseless body, began sucking away what remained of his life force.
The crowd murmured, having heard the term “human slave” more clearly this time. Their eyes widened as understanding dawned on them.
“There’s something definitely off with Marquis Reynard, isn’t there?” one spectator whispered.
“Yeah,” another agreed. “If Princess Bella’s partner is right, then it seems like Marquis Reynard is under the control of a human.”
They stopped calling him as a “half-breed” as they realised this “Half-breed” they call it, was more powerful than themselves. They could hardly contend against Marquis, much less Aengus.
Belial appeared intrigued, but Duchess Ruliana looked visibly tense, exchanging nervous glances with others.
As the death strings drained his energy, Reynard’s skeletal body became visibly weaker, his posture sagging as if the very essence of his existence was being sucked away.
“Kekekeke…”
Strangely, despite his weakened state, Marquis Reynard cackled, as if finding the situation amusing. “You’re one hell of a demon, Aengus. Even my soul attacks don’t work on you.”
Unknown to the crowd, Reynard had been attempting to invade Aengus’s mind with soul attacks, trying to take control. But thanks to Nullified Mental Attacks, Aengus’s impenetrable soul shield thwarted every effort, making such attacks useless.
“I will remember you,” Reynard rasped before turning his hollow gaze to Belial. “And Belial, start counting your days. I will kill you with my own hands.” He laughed coldly.
Belial shot up from his seat, attempting to catch Reynard’s soul before it could escape.
Bang!
But before Belial could reach him, Marquis Reynard detonated himself, both soul and body obliterated in a violent explosion.
In the aftermath, Duchess Ruliana exhaled a sigh of relief, but her reaction didn’t go unnoticed. Suspicious glances were cast in her direction, most notably from Vienna, whose eyes narrowed in growing suspicion.
Belial, towering over Aengus with his muscular frame and bat-like, feathery wings, stared down at him, but Aengus remained completely unfazed by the intimidating presence.
“When did you discover that Reynard was under a human’s control? Even I couldn’t sense it. And why didn’t inform it earlier?,” Belial asked, his voice tinged with curiosity.
Bella, along with several others, approached, sensing the tension in the air. She took her place beside Aengus, an action that momentarily left Belial speechless.
“Is my darling daughter really abandoning me for the sake of the man she’s known for only three weeks? Love truly makes people blind, just like I did in the past,” Belial thought inwardly, observing Bella’s overprotective stance towards Aengus.
Aengus responded calmly, “I possess an ability that makes me sensitive to the souls of others when they’re weakened. I can even attack their soul, which can severely damage them. That’s how I discovered the fragmented human soul controlling Reynard.”
The last part was a lie to make it more believable.
Belial raised a brow, impressed yet wary. “Oh, you’re more enigmatic than I thought,” he said with a faint smile, the hidden meaning in his words not lost on Aengus.
“So, can you check if anyone else here is under their control?” Belial asked, subtly changing the topic when he noticed Bella’s gaze hardening.
Aengus shook his head, intending to deny the request. But as he did, his Appraisal ability unknowingly caught sight of Duchess Ruliana, and his lips curled into a smirk. There was something there, something intriguing.
Belial noticed the shift in Aengus’s demeanor and followed his gaze, briefly catching Ruliana’s nervous expression. Suspicion flickered in his eyes, but for the moment, he said nothing, awaiting the next move in this unfolding drama.
