Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 284: Chapter 284: Kill Cassius Desdemona

Chapter 284 – Kill Cassius Desdemona

"You have two seconds left."

Emrys stared at Anesthesia, flabbergasted, unable to believe he was actually being threatened by her.

His power stormed inside him even fiercer than before, and every window in the restaurant burst into fragments of glass that rained down on them, as if the sky itself were shattering.

Yet a second later, all his power vanished, as if it had never surged at all, plunging the restaurant into an unnatural silence, one that seemed to hide something dreadful beneath it.

The table and his chair having been destroyed in his outburst, Emrys created a chair made of black water and sat down.

His expression was dead cold, the blackness of his eyes slowly tainted by a white so pure and holy it hurt to look at for long.

But Anesthesia didn’t look away. She gathered every ounce of inner strength and hatred she had, forcing her body to stay still despite the pressure spilling off Emrys like a wave forcing itself through a narrow crack.

"You’ll regret this, Anesthesia." Emrys said, his voice rumbling like distant thunder, "I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but threatening me is the last thing you should have ever done."

"Spare me your threats." She said coldly, "If I were afraid of them, I wouldn’t be here."

"Then you’re more foolish than I thought." Emrys replied, and the restaurant trembled again, so violently Anesthesia thought the ground might crack open and swallow her whole. "I could kill you before you blink, Anesthesia. Before your next breath, even."

"But you don’t dare." Anesthesia said, "You’re afraid I’ve prepared something in case you do."

Emrys said nothing, proof enough that he knew exactly that.

Anesthesia laughed humorlessly, "And you’d be right. I set a timer, Emrys. Everything will be posted, not just across the kingdom’s social network, but on Gossip Girl too. And it happens in..."

She glanced at the watch on her wrist, her smile widening.

"...20 minutes, my dear."

Emrys’s body shook, and he exerted a great deal of effort just to stop himself from leveling the entire restaurant in his fury.

"What do you want?" He asked through gritted teeth, knowing full well he couldn’t afford to let the kingdom, or anyone at all, learn of his mother’s condition, let alone his role in it.

It was fair to say he’d done nothing wrong. He’d simply been born. He hadn’t chosen to take everything from his mother.

But the kingdom wouldn’t care whether it was willful or not. They’d talk. They’d whisper. They’d judge. And his reputation and glory would be ruined forever, over something he hadn’t even chosen to do.

That thought alone terrified Emrys beyond reason.

"I don’t know what you’re planning," Anesthesia said, using her own essence to shield herself from Emrys’s pressure, "but I don’t want to lose my second rank."

"I was never going to challenge you anyway." Emrys said with scorn, smiling thinly, "You know I don’t waste my time fighting weak opponents."

"But I enjoy ruining people’s lives when I’m annoyed." She replied, mirroring his smile, "and you’re managing to annoy me quite a bit right now. So if I were you, Emrys, I’d learn to watch what I say to someone capable of tearing down everything I’ve built."

Emrys clenched his jaw and said nothing, his pressure surging further, splintering the nearby tables and chairs.

"Now, I know you wouldn’t challenge me directly. But you’ll challenge Cassius. And if you challenge him and win," She shrugged, "he’ll challenge me and take my rank. And even if you happen to lose..."

Her smile widened.

"...again," she mocked him, "I’m sure you’re petty enough to still come after my spot yourself. So let’s just avoid all of that, and neither of us challenges the other."

Anesthesia paused, arching an eyebrow at him, "Understood?"

"You’re threatening me over a ranking?"

"I’ve threatened people for less."

"You think you’re the only one who can do this?" Emrys leaned forward, arcs of golden lightning crackling across his body, cold and merciless, "You seem to forget your family lives in my city, Anesthesia. You seem to forget the protection your little Tier Three family enjoys exists thanks to mine."

His voice dropped to a dreadful whisper.

"And you dare threaten me?"

Anesthesia’s face darkened, her lips pressing into a tight, bloodless line, "Aren’t your family supposed to be righteous?"

"We aren’t righteous toward those who aren’t with us." Emrys replied, "and know this...you’ve just ruined your family, Anesthesia. I told you, didn’t I? You’ll regret this."

"Then we’ll ruin each other." She said, "And you seem to be forgetting one important detail here, Emrys. My family doesn’t need you anymore, or even Storm City. If you’ve forgotten, let me remind you, manwhore..."

Her power crackled, her eyes deepening in purple, spite radiating from every word,

"...my sister, Isolde Amaris, is married to the Last Born of the Desdemona. We’re no longer just some simple Tier Three family. We’re in-laws of the Desdemona, deeply connected to the Hood Royal Family."

She rose slowly from her chair, looking down at Emrys, who lifted his head to stare back, his eyes growing more and more monstrous.

"I don’t need to remind you how much Cassius loves my sister. Touch her family, meaning mine, and he’ll come for you. And I don’t need to remind you how much the Hoods adore him, either. So they’ll come for you too. All of that to say: we, the Amaris, don’t need you anymore. But setting all of that aside..."

She stepped even closer, stopping just a couple of meters from him, crouching down to look him directly in the eye.

"...without relying on the Desdemona or the Hoods at all, I swear on everything on this Earth, if my mother or my sister are ever harmed by a Stormblessed..."

Her smile widened, her essence exploding outward, so deep and pure the world itself seemed to resonate with her.

In that fractured moment, Anesthesia became one with the world, a strength unlike anything she’d ever known flooding her body.

The resonance built further as she pushed her own soul to its limits, cracking her mind slightly under the strain.

But she’d achieved her goal.

In that window of time, Anesthesia was the beloved daughter of the World. She was the Queen of Earth...or at least, of that corner of it.

And so the world itself pressed down on the one threatening its beloved.

Emrys’s expression finally shifted. Anesthesia continued, her voice echoing all around them, as though it weren’t quite her own,

"...I will do everything in my power to ruin all of you. I will become your worst nightmare, and I will not rest until every last one of you is finished."

That display drained nearly everything she had, and her essence surged back into her.

"You’re no longer threatening just me at this point, but the entire Stormblessed line." Emrys said, his voice tight, "I thought you’d have known better than to do this, Anesthesia. How many times have you watched those who opposed us reduced to ashes?"

"None of them were me."

Emrys scoffed, "If you think the Desdemona are our equals, you’re a fool. If you think we fear the Hoods, you’re an even bigger fool. And if you think your family will walk away from this unscathed, then..." he laughed, not bothering to finish.

"I don’t have any more time to waste on you." She rose again and turned to leave, her steps a bit unsteady, "I’ve warned you, Emrys. And I never repeat myself twice."

There was a brief silence before Emrys spoke again, "Anesthesia," he called out, tossing something toward her.

Anesthesia turned just in time to catch it. She glanced down instinctively and saw it was a mission notice. She lifted her eyes from it to Emrys, whose smile was, for the first time she could recall, truly murderous.

"I look forward to working with you on this mission." He said, "And I’ll remember this day."

Anesthesia looked at the mission notice once more and threw it aside, "Go fuck yourself, and your whole lineage while you’re at it. Respectfully, of course."

She looked at him with disdain before walking out of the half-destroyed restaurant, never once looking back.

Once Anesthesia was gone, Emrys didn’t move for a long while, his eyes staring blankly at one spot, as though frozen in time.

Then noise began to filter in, followed by a voice.

"You should have killed her." Theophane said, standing behind him, her face unreadable.

"The consequences?"

"Your master and I could have destroyed every trace of it being us. We’d have killed the entire restaurant staff, torn the place down, and made it look like an attack from some unknown sect."

"And my mother’s condition?"

Theophane’s expression faltered. For a moment, she looked at Emrys with pure hatred and disdain, but she masked it quickly, knowing she needed to eliminate her greatest threat before anything else.

And only Emrys could do that.

"We might have avoided the worst of it."

"I see." He said, power still crackling around him.

"Emrys, listen to me." Theophane placed a hand on his shoulder, ignoring the lightning entirely, "you need to be more ruthless if we’re going to succeed. None of this would have gone half as badly as it has if you’d killed Anesthesia the instant she opened her mouth."

"Do I need to?"

"You need to. Show no mercy. If someone threatens you," She leaned in and whispered, "that’s your right to kill them. You’re the Chosen One. Your justice is Heaven’s justice. Your will is Heaven’s will."

Emrys said nothing, though his eyes burned with something utterly terrifying.

"Now let’s go." Theophane urged, helping him to his feet, "Anesthesia is your enemy now. The Amaris household is our enemy now. And do you know who they’re siding with?"

"The Desdemona." Emrys said, his tone cold.

"Exactly. Now do you understand?" Theophane smiled venomously, "We need to kill Cassius, nephew. He’s the root of all this. He’s the one who keeps opposing you at every turn. It’s him."

"He’s a threat to me."

"Yes."

"And when someone threatens me, I can kill them. So..."

Emrys took a deep breath, and instantly the entire restaurant exploded into raging golden thunder.

Theophane and he found themselves suddenly adrift in a sea of lightning, the former staring at the golden storm around her with fear creeping into her heart.

Then Emrys’s voice landed, cold, almost divine.

"...I have every right to kill Cassius Desdemona."

—End of Chapter 284—