Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 401: Chapter 401: Inside the Deathless Prison

Chapter 401 – Inside the Deathless Prison

Meadow, William, Diaila, and every Elder and guard from the Museum of Legends had gathered. And finally, the Deathless Prison’s gates opened.

The structure itself looked strange. It looked like a sealed tower with no windows, no entrance apart from its main gate.

Entirely black, built not from stone but something eerily resembling ancient beast scales. Its aura felt subtle, yet piercing.

Even before setting foot inside, Cassius felt his skin prickle, as though ants crawled beneath it.

Something was watching him.

Who, and how, those were questions he had no answer to yet.

’This is going to be extremely annoying,’ Cassius thought, as the prison doors swung wide open.

Behind them stood a woman in a dark, gothic dress. Impossible to guess her age, her face hidden beneath a black veil, rings dangling from its edges, her aura carrying an atmosphere of perpetual mourning.

She looked exactly like a widow who’d just lost her husband. Then it clicked in Cassius’s mind.

"I am Widow of the Goddess, Knight Seat on duty," she spoke, voice so low it barely rose above a whisper, yet it echoed deep inside Cassius, as though the woman spoke from within him.

The Widow continued, "I’ve been informed a Call of Justice was invoked by..."

Her head turned slowly, fixing on Cassius, who stood still, watching her with a carefully neutral expression.

"...Cassius Desdemona. Against the Museum of Legends," she finished. "Correct?"

"Yes," Cassius said. Morenna nodded, as did the elders of the Council.

Around them, curious onlookers watched from a distance, the crowd buzzing with excitement, whispers rippling through about what was about to unfold.

Under the kingdom’s law, if a Call was made and justice truly favored the caller, that person could either claim their justice, or forgive the offense outright.

Claiming justice could take nearly any form, and as long as both the Knight Seat and High Priestess accepted it, the accused side had no choice but to comply.

But the reverse held true too: if the caller was ultimately found guilty, consequences fell far harder on them. The law had been designed, after all, to punish privileged pricks more severely than anyone else, to keep public trust intact.

In plain terms, if Cassius Desdemona lost this Call of Justice, his fate would rest entirely at the Museum of Legends’ mercy.

A risky gamble. Possibly fatal one, even.

Which was exactly why the entire kingdom watched with such rapt attention. Watching someone like Cassius Desdemona lose would delight no small number of people across the kingdom.

So, after the Widow of the Goddess’s brief introduction, Cassius and the others entered the Deathless Prison without incident, led by her.

To everyone else, this was simply about witnessing the Call and heading home afterward. But for Cassius, stepping into the Deathless Prison meant stepping into the exact place Lady Luck had ordered him to kill a Blessed.

His heart began racing, faster still once he noticed the prison’s labyrinthine layout.

Numerous guards were stationed throughout, so seamlessly blended into the prison itself they were nearly invisible.

’Genuine question: does Lady Luck actually want me to fail here?’ Cassius couldn’t help but wonder, the deeper he walked, following the Widow through what felt like an actual bloody maze.

Countless twists and turns, but not a single door in sight. Cassius couldn’t even begin guessing where the prisoners were actually held.

He could probably locate the target, guided by Lady Luck’s help, but these guards...far too many. And thanks to his training under his master, he could sense other things too around him.

Traps.

’Bloody hell.’

And none of these traps had triggered, entirely thanks to the Widow’s essence quietly, imperceptibly moving all around them.

Her back stayed turned to Cassius throughout, yet he could feel her tracking his every movement closely.

He could probably guess why. He’d once asked Cassandra for an invitation into the Deathless Prison. And now here he was, walking into it under his own Call of Justice.

The Widow had to be suspicious of something.

’Meaning if anything happens here, I’m likely the first suspect,’ Cassius deduced, cursing inwardly.

He hadn’t known, back then, that he’d get the chance to invoke a Call of Justice. Had he known, he’d never have used up his favor this way.

Now it seemed like no matter what he did, his mere presence in the Deathless Prison — right when something happened here — would draw immediate suspicion.

[The mission is genuinely difficult,] Ananke acknowledged, clicking her tongue slightly. [But she wanted to make sure you wouldn’t get yourself killed and take her down with you. Gods care deeply about their own survival, Cassius.]

’Not you, apparently.’

[I’m different from most of them. There’s something I care about more than my own life.]

’I wonder what that could be,’ Cassius said, using conversation to mask his nerves.

Ananke offered no reply, and his grandmother noticed his tension anyway.

"Don’t worry, angel," Morenna whispered into his ear. "I’m right here with you, aren’t I? I won’t let them touch you. Just don’t say or do anything reckless. The Crusaders don’t exactly hold much love for our two families, you know."

’Well, that’s precisely the issue, Grandma. I need to do something reckless because of a goddess.’

He kept that to himself. He only smiled, nodded gratefully, and eventually, after passing through directions he could no longer track, they arrived in a wide, circular, fully white room.

A high platform floated at its center, and two sealed seats were mounted on the wall facing it.

One seat already held Helene, High Priestess of Death. The Widow stepped forward, her body dissolving into crow feathers, reappearing an instant later in the second seat beside Helene.

The two women exchanged a glance, a nod, then turned their focus on the gathered crowd.

Beside the platform sat rows of additional chairs, neatly arranged into two sides: left and right.

Morenna, Meadow, William, and Diaila took the left side, expressions varying across each face.

The Museum of Legends’ elders and subordinates took the right, sitting stiffly, tense and irritated.

The whole ordeal felt, to them, like some cruel joke.

Cassius and the First Elder ascended the floating platform, standing side by side, facing the two judges.

"As with any Call of Justice, family, friends, or close associates may witness," the Widow said. "We’ll wait 10 minutes before formally beginning."

Those 10 minutes crawled by slower than any 10 minutes Cassius had ever endured. It was agonizing. All he wanted was for this to be over, so he could get back to planning his wedding.

There was still no new message from Isolde, but he clung to the hope she was fine.

During those 10 minutes, though, he watched the crowd swell, and found his own family within.

He spotted Morgan, eyeing him with narrowed, thoroughly dissatisfied eyes. Cassius smiled wryly at her.

Then Dorian arrived, Esmeray close beside him. That was odd to him, given how poorly Dorian and Esmeray had always gotten along before. But the situation left little for him room to dwell on that.

The rest were simply curious onlookers, though seeing so many familiar faces gathered under one roof gave Cassius an unexpected comfort.

And that comfort sparked an idea, one that could potentially give him a real chance to actually pull off his mission.

’...why not?’ Cassius thought, and Ananke smiled wryly, catching wind of the plan forming.

Even Scarlet had nothing further to add. Marvela had already dozed off, her curse acting up at the worst possible moment. She hated that about herself.

Cassius refocused just as Helene, eyes locked on him, spoke in a flat, even tone:

"The Call of Justice begins now!"

The whole room fell dead silent, courtroom-still. Which, in a way, it practically was.

"Judgment will be based on the evidence and arguments both parties present," the Widow said. "So let’s confirm the matter at hand: the Museum suspects Cassius and his teammates of stealing, or participating in the theft of, artifacts meant for the Deathless Crusaders, one of them being among MasterofPaths’s Seven Legendary Artifacts?"

A ripple of shock and surprise swept through the onlookers at that. The Desdemonas, in particular, looked utterly baffled by the accusation.

The First Elder hesitated, but knew there was no getting around it now. He sighed and nodded. "Yes."

"Then let’s begin there," Helene picked up. "How did you arrive at that conclusion, and what evidence supports it?"

The room fell silent again, everyone listening to the First Elder’s response.

Everyone but Cassius Desdemona. His attention had drifted entirely elsewhere.

Towards...

’Sarah, hurry.’

...towards his dear friend and sect member, Sarah of Secrecy.

...

Sarah still couldn’t quite believe what Cassius had asked of her. Even now, standing tucked in a corner of the Church of Death, out of sight of any Sisters or guards, she struggled to process it.

After saving her and leaving her on her own, he’d given her a precise set of instructions.

First: contact Helene, and infiltrate the Church of Death unnoticed even by Vorn.

Done.

Second: locate a deserted section of the church.

Also done.

And finally, third...

’Take the last Tier Four bomb and blow up the entire bloody Church of Death. Why? Because I need a distraction, Sarah. I need real chaos. And if the Church of Death goes up...’

Sarah smiled behind her moon mask, countless fire spirits swirling around her with cold excitement.

’...then the Deathless Prison falls into chaos too.’

She looked down at the Tier Four bomb resting in her hand.

Then turned to face the Sister of Death she’d already captured and whose memories she’d already altered.

Sarah set the timer: 20 seconds. Just enough time to get out of the church before the actual blast.

She placed the bomb into the Sister’s hands, hugging the woman with something close to affection.

"May your soul rest peacefully within your god’s Kingdom of Death," Sarah whispered. "And if the Lord of Death asks who did this..."

Her smile widened beneath the mask.

"...tell him the Fallen send their regards."

Sarah of Secrecy vanished shortly after, slipping out through the hidden route Helene herself had shown her.

The instant she stepped clear of the Church of Death, moving through the dense crowd, moon mask already pocketed...

KAAABOOOMMMMM!!!

...the Church of Death erupted.

—End of Chapter 401—