Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 395: Chapter 395: A Budding Killer

Chapter 395 – A Budding Killer

After the guardian was named, the Elders of the Council stood completely stunned.

Cassius kept blindsiding them, over and over, with things they never saw coming. Now, on a random day, they were being summoned to the Deathless Prison, under the watch of a Knight Seat, to face off against the Queen of the Kingdom, and do what, exactly?

Explain, in whatever way they could manage, how they’d ever believed four students might be responsible for stealing their own artifacts?

Just thinking it through sounded utterly absurd. Yet there was no way out of it now.

The Call of Justice had been accepted. The guardian had been named. All that remained was informing the Deathless Prison and the Knight Seat currently stationed there of the situation, and heading over themselves.

No further words were exchanged.

The Council of Elders vanished from the room, taking the strange creature with them, preparing themselves for what promised to be an absurd ordeal. In their hearts, a deep, simmering resentment towards Cassius Desdemona took root.

Once they’d left, Meadow, William, and Diaila were finally allowed out of their rooms to rejoin Cassius.

The four teammates reunited, the other three staring at Cassius with disbelief written across their faces.

"You must have lost your mind, Cass," Meadow whispered, shaking her head, hair swaying with the motion. "Do you realize what you just did?"

"Truly," William added, surprised despite his usual composure. "A Call of Justice is exceedingly rare in this kingdom. Invoking one makes the entire kingdom take notice."

"Which means," Diaila said, her tone strange, slurred and cold, like someone drunk, eyes still tinged with red, "the Deathless Prison will be packed. Even the Church of Death will attend as a secondary judge. The High Priestess herself will be summoned."

"So?" Cassius tilted his head, arms crossed the way his master always did. "You’re saying you hate this outcome?"

"Hate?" Meadow smiled, something dangerous flickering in her eyes too: a shift the recent events had left behind. "I outright threatened the Museum, Cass. Do you really think I’m against any of this, after that? Of course not."

"I don’t mind either," William added. "I was about to sever their heads myself."

"Do you actually want my opinion?" Diaila said, her smile slurred.

That was when the others finally noticed the drastic shift in her, all three turning to study her with a sharp look.

Diaila met their stares, then shrugged. "What? You don’t seem to like me much. So I doubt my opinion counts for anything here."

"And I hope you’re not actually wondering why we don’t like you," Meadow said, harsh.

"You can’t really blame me," Diaila replied, glancing between them before settling on Cassius, whose gaze sent her heart racing.

It felt dangerous.

His eyes carried the weight of someone who could end her with a single breath and feel nothing about it. Cold, indifferent, deadly.

Diaila felt fear, but also a strange thrill running beneath it. Imagining tearing his face apart—!

BAAAAMMM!!!

Diaila’s back slammed into the wall with brutal force, her body rebounding, the bones in her spine cracking. Her eyes bulged in agony, blood streaming down.

William and Meadow stood completely stunned. They turned and found Cassius, holding Diaila by the throat, pinned high against the wall.

The young woman wept blood.

"...What?" Meadow whispered, dazed.

William was more preoccupied by the fact he’d only registered a blur when Cassius moved. Nothing more.

’If he’d attacked me instead, I’d already be dead,’ his eyes narrowed, heart hammering. ’How strong is he? This is unbelievable.’

Cassius, meanwhile, regarded Diaila with exasperation.

"I forgave you once, Diaila," he said. "I don’t usually offer a second chance. And I don’t know what’s going through your head, but you need to work on hiding your killing intent better."

Diaila’s eyes widened. Killing intent? She hadn’t even noticed her thoughts drifting towards torturing Cassius.

Her mind had gone somewhere dark. Since killing Mr. Green, the only thing on her mind had been murder, murder, and more murder.

She craved it, wanted to sink into it fully.

But in that moment, staring into Cassius’s eyes, Diaila understood something vital.

There were prey. Those were people she could hunt, could kill.

There were hunters. People she might kill too, with enough preparation.

And then there was Cassius Desdemona. The man whose mere gaze made her want to curl in on herself in terror.

"I... I’m sorry," Diaila managed to choke out, weeping blood. "I’m sorry."

"What happened to you?" Cassius asked, not loosening his grip. If anything, he tightened it, forcing more blood from her face and neck.

Meadow and William watched in silence, the room slowly filling with the smell of iron.

"I don’t know," Diaila answered, coughing blood. "I don’t know what happened. I just... know I want to kill."

"Kill who?"

"It doesn’t matter. Anyone," Diaila said, hunger twisting through her words. "Anyone but you. Anyone but Julaibib. I just... want to kill."

That was when Meadow, William, and Cassius all realized just how far gone this woman had become.

[This is what happens when someone absorbs too much, for too long, without an outlet,] Ananke said, sighing, indifferent. [Look at her, and you’ll understand that whatever she went through in that battle wasn’t really the cause. It was simply the last thing added onto everything she was already carrying... and, unfortunately, the one thing she couldn’t hold anymore.]

[So she broke,] Marvela added. [Common enough, among gods. We go through so much across our long, near-immortal lives. Without release, without some way to settle the mind, madness follows. I hope you never cross paths with one of them.]

’One of them?’

[The Mad Gods,] Ananke said, grave. [Powerful, but insane gods. They corrupt whatever they touch, mind and existence both.]

’That’s exactly why we need a Hobby.’

[Exactly.]

Cassius sighed to himself, looking back at Diaila. Truly broken, he could see that now.

But that wasn’t all he saw.

There was something about her, in this current bloodthirsty state, that pulled at something inside him.

This woman...

’...has real potential to make a good villainess,’ he thought, and a ridiculous idea took shape.

[Cassius, no!] Ananke refused instantly.

[Hm, could be fun, though. Hahah.] Marvela cackled.

"If you can’t control her, you’ll regret it," Scarlet added, still bitter about failing to kill that Dragon Hunter.

’Oh, it’ll be fine,’ Cassius said, his eyes beginning to glow like a sun, unsettling Diaila even further. ’I’ll make sure she fears me more than anything else.’

Slowly, Cassius released her. Diaila slumped to the floor, coughing hard, gasping for breath.

So much had changed, and Cassius was watching a character with zero influence over the original story slowly become someone genuinely worth keeping an eye on.

He glanced at William, then back to Diaila, and smiled, walking over to the bed and sitting down, studying them both with sharp, calculating eyes.

Watching him, Meadow already knew exactly what he was thinking. She frowned, glanced at Diaila, and wondered,

’Is he actually trying to recruit this unhinged, unreliable woman?’

"You can kill whoever you want," Cassius said to Diaila, catching all three of them off guard. "I just hope you know how to pick your targets."

He pointed to himself. "Target me, and I’ll kill you and your entire family."

Diaila shuddered.

"Target Meadow," Cassius continued, "and you’ll learn her family isn’t just for show. Target William, and you’ll find out exactly what swordsmanship means. Target my friends, and they’ll teach you why they’re my friends."

"Then who?" Diaila nearly shouted, frustration flaring at all these restrictions, especially concerning William.

She pointed at him. "I want to kill this motherfucker! He literally threatened to kill me with his intent, once!"

William stayed unbothered, ignoring her entirely.

"Who, indeed?" Cassius replied. "We’re a team, Diaila. You wronged us once, and we let it go. But it’s time you actually pull your weight. Kill whoever you want, as long as it’s not one of your own teammates, or anyone close to us."

"Are we seriously letting this woman do whatever she wants?" Meadow asked.

"You have a better idea?" Cassius asked.

"Kill her," William proposed.

"Other than that?"

Neither of them answered, and Cassius gave them a look that said, ’see? I told you.’

Diaila watched them, then slowly stood, massaging her throat. Her back ached badly, and her eyes were still faintly red. But it was fine.

She was getting used to pain, anyway.

She wiped the bloody tears from her cheeks and lips, appearing perfectly composed once more.

"So those are the limits?" Diaila asked.

"Yes," Cassius replied.

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Because it’s the only way you get to do what you actually want."

"Why?"

"I won’t leave someone as unstable as you running loose, knowing you could threaten my interests."

"What if I do something and you never find out?"

"I’m Blessed by Fate and Secrecy," Cassius gave her a look, as though she were being deliberately stupid. "Do you really think you could pull something off without me knowing?"

Diaila fell silent, unable to answer that. She glanced at Meadow, who sighed in resignation.

Then at William, whose expression made it clear he still thought her worthless.

She turned back to Cassius, watching him wait patiently, pulling out his phone.

For some reason, in that moment, Diaila felt this was one of those pivotal crossroads that could decide the rest of her life. A decision she probably should’ve discussed with Julaibib first.

But she didn’t.

Julaibib had been the center of her whole world since the Academy began. For once, she wanted to prove William, and herself, wrong.

She wanted to prove she could stand as her own person. As for exactly what kind of person that would be...

"I accept."

...Diaila had already tasted a glimpse of that person. She was frightened by it, yes, but undeniably drawn to it, too.

Cassius looked at her and smiled. "Alright."

’Let’s watch her a bit longer before deciding anything permanent. I wouldn’t mind a true killer in the sect.’

Meadow, William, and Diaila exchanged glances, all having witnessed something none of them, save Meadow, had expected from Cassius.

If he was genuinely willing to let Diaila kill anyone she pleased, short of those close to him, then he was probably more Desdemona than any of them had realized.

They stood in silence, feeling their dynamic shift beneath them. Something darker had settled between them now. And yet, strangely, that darkness only seemed to draw them closer together.

Diaila drank a healing potion, wounds closing. She sighed, glanced at William, who was already watching her, and flipped him off.

He ignored her.

"Now," Cassius spoke up, tone deceptively casual, phone raised to his ear, "if everyone could please stay quiet, I have a Call of Justice to attend to. Which means I have a guardian to inform."

"You mean...?" Meadow started, before all of them fell silent as a voice crackled through Cassius’s phone,

"Oh my, my angel," Morenna Hood said, warm and affectionate, yet laced with reproach, "are you finally remembering you have a grandmother?"

—End of Chapter 395—