Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1586  Show No Mercy

The words hit the link and Quinlan took them at face value because he couldn't afford to do otherwise. His vision was three smeared images of a battlefield that was trying to kill him.

The [Warp Gate] collapsed. The portal frayed and dissolved as the last of his mana gave out.

All that remained was Quinlan, Blossom, Rosie, and Morgana against a continent's worth of enemies.

"YOU LET THEM LEAVE!"

Ragnar's voice shattered across the field. He was fighting Alexios and four of his own elites were fighting beside him, trying to create an opening for their king to disengage, and the dwarven king was screaming past the golden longsword swinging for his vitals.

"If the Primordial Villain escapes too, every last one of you will be beheaded by me! Converge!"

Alexios laughed. The Warrior King batted aside a dwarven elite with the flat of his blade and pressed forward, grinning with blood running down his face, treating the four-on-one like the most fun he'd had in ages - which was true.

Ever since Quinlan began his rise, ever since his daughter eloped with the enemy of the nation, Alexios had been burdened greatly in trying to deal with an enemy who was too slippery, too alien for him to do much about.

Those months of careful strategies leading to nowhere besides mounting headaches had culminated in a stress so extreme that he tipped over the edge, going from the regal Warrior King who ruled with an iron fist to what he was now, a man who'd shed all that weight and decided to focus on what was in front of him: a glorious war, one for the history books.

"Damned senile geezer!" Ragnar shouted.

Chuckling and brutal blows aimed for his vital spots were the only response the dwarven king received.

Aelindra's command came cold and precise across her elven ranks.

"Archers, concentrate fire. Rogues, close in on the Villain's position. He cannot be allowed to open another portal."

Elven arrows rained down and Rosie's roots caught them. Mana-laced shafts tore through tendrils by the dozen, each arrow punching through three or four before stopping, and the network that had been holding Quinlan upright and controlling the battlefield was being shredded faster than the little dryad could manage.

Rosie flinched on his shoulder. Then again. Each severed tendril was a nerve being cut.

Dwarves and elves flooded every opening. They came from the west, the north, the east, blacksteel and silver-green plate pressing inward on a man who had nothing left.

Quinlan's mana was gone. Morgana's reserves were gone. The puppet queen stood beside him with caved ribs and empty hands, her body upright only because his will said so.

[Soul Reaper] was still drinking. Quinlan killed a dwarf. The pale flames fed. He killed another and the saber burned brighter, but his arms were failing, his stone hands breaking apart, the blacksteel closing from all sides.

He needed seconds of mana regeneration for a [Warp Gate]. He wasn't given a single one.

A hammer hit his back. An axe found the crack in [Synchra]'s hip plating, the armor silent for a while now. A gauntleted fist grabbed Rosie. The dryad screamed, a root severing the hand from below, but two more hands reached. Blossom killed one, phased past another. There were too many.

'Cast. Just cast. One more gate. That's all you need.'

He reached for his mana and found nothing. The regeneration stuttered, gave him a flicker, and a dwarven shield slammed into his chest and the flicker died.

"Father. Blossom." Rosie's voice was strained, cracking. "Hold on to my roots."

The earth split beneath them.

Rosie drove them downward, creating a channel that swallowed Quinlan, Blossom, and Morgana's broken body, attempting to pull them below the surface where the axes and arrows couldn't reach. Deep enough for one final [Warp Gate] to be cast.

Aelindra was there in three strides.

Her twin blades carved through the tendrils sealing the opening, the white-blazing edges severing them faster than Rosie could weave shut. Dwarven axes joined her from both sides, hacking at the network, and the gap that Rosie was trying to close was being torn apart faster than she could grow it.

"He's burrowing! Cut the roots! Don't let the earth close!"

Tendrils surged upward to block Aelindra's blades. She slashed them down. More rose. She slashed those too. Dwarves stamped on them, hacked with axes. The hole stayed open, enemies pressing down into it. The sanctuary Rosie had created was no sanctuary at all.

Below, Quinlan tried to cast.

"[Warp Gate]."

Nothing. His channels were dry, the spell formula dissolving into noise the instant he reached for it. He tried again, unsuccessful.

A dwarf dropped into the tunnel. Rosie swatted him back with a root and a fierce shout. A second followed and Blossom killed him, but her one working gauntlet was shattering apart and her movements were slower than they'd been a minute ago.

An elven arrow screamed down the tunnel and hit the wall beside his head.

Then the pressure above them changed.

The hacking slowed. Bodies crashed to the ground on the surface, one after another, and Aelindra's voice rose in a curse. "Damn you!"

Through the fractured mess of his vision, a purple haze moved across the opening above, violet and wrong, cutting through shapes that might have been dwarves.

The pressure eased. For the first time in minutes, nothing was trying to kill him, and his mana regeneration caught. A trickle. Barely anything. But enough.

"[Warp Gate]…"

The portal ripped open beneath them at the bottom of the tunnel. But Quinlan barely registered it. His eyes were on the purple haze above.

"Father, I can't do any more." Rosie's amber eyes were wet. "We must go now."

Her tendrils surged around him, around Blossom, around Morgana, and pulled them toward the portal.

Quinlan's hands grabbed the dirt.

His fingers dug into the earth and broke apart on contact, far too brittle now. Not caring, he used the stumps of his arms to resist the pull, grinding into soil and rock, and he held on because through the gap above him the purple haze was still moving, still fighting.

'Everyone left. Ayame said everyone was through.'

His stomach dropped.

<Ayame! Black Fang is still->

Silence. Then, quiet and tight.

<...I'm sorry, Quinlan.>

"Don't you dare, Rosie! Do not leave her!"

"Father, you stay and die, or we go." The words broke in her mouth.

"Take Blossom and go, I'm not-"

"Father..." The tendrils tightened around him. "This is the first time I won't listen to you."

Rosie pulled. Blossom grabbed him. His fingerless limbs ground against the dirt, gouging furrows as they dragged him down, and through the narrowing gap of earth and roots above him he saw her.

Black Fang stood on the surface with thousands closing from every direction. Her katana rose with venom dripping from the edge, the Endless Hunger still burning violet in her veins, and her purple eyes found his through the closing dark.

Her lips moved.

"Show no mercy."

The earth sealed above them as Rosie's roots and Blossom's arms pulled him through the portal, leaving the battlefield behind.