Chapter 569: ESCAPE
Chapter 569: ESCAPE
"Hmm? What’s that?" Aqua thought, narrowing his mystic eyes.
He peered through every veil and layer of illusion surrounding the flame demon.
On Logan’s head, he could see an illusionary chess piece hovering faintly, shaped exactly like a bishop.
"You. It’s time to go," Logan said, turning his full attention toward Aqua.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Aqua replied calmly, declining the demand without hesitation.
Tiny droplets of water began forming all around him, floating gently in the air like shimmering, crystalline orbs.
"And what can those common little droplets possibly do—"
Before Logan could finish his mocking sentence, he had to twist his body desperately to avoid one of the droplets hurtling straight at him.
Aqua had launched it with deadly precision.
Fear flashed across Logan’s face as he narrowly escaped the sphere of water.
The ground where the droplet finally struck was completely crushed and pulverized under its impossible, infinite density.
"Just as I thought," Logan said with a growing smile.
"The person I was sent to retrieve definitely isn’t weak."
He cracked his knuckles.
"But you surely overestimate yourself if you think you’re a match for me."
Before Aqua could even react, Logan had already vanished and reappeared directly behind him.
Aqua could track Logan’s movements with his eyes, but his body was far too slow to keep up with the demon’s blinding speed.
In a desperate struggle to protect himself, Aqua tried to release a powerful blast of energy.
It proved completely useless.
Logan’s overwhelming entropy scattered every bit of energy within a five-meter radius around him, making it too unstable and randomized to function at all.
"Do not fight the inevitable," Logan growled. "You are coming with me!"
He stretched his hand out to seize Aqua.
"Urgh!" Logan suddenly roared in pain, clutching the stump where his hand had been cleanly severed.
"I told you, you won’t be taking him anywhere," Reina declared, appearing between them in an instant.
A blazing sword made entirely of flames glowed fiercely in her grip.
"Tch. What an annoying fellow you are," Logan spat, anger flashing hot across his face.
His severed hand began regenerating rapidly as he stepped backward, creating some distance.
"What do you even want with him?" Reina demanded.
"That’s not for you to know," Logan replied coldly.
Just as Logan prepared to attack again, he suddenly froze in place.
His entire body went rigid for the most absurd reason, pure, overwhelming fear.
"Logan. What’s taking you so long to complete such a simple task?" a cold, commanding voice rang out behind him.
Logan turned slowly, desperately hoping that the voice was only in his head and not reality.
"Marquis...?" he whispered, dread heavy in his tone.
Standing just behind Logan was a flame elemental spirit.
His mere presence thickened the very air with crushing pressure, making the atmosphere feel heavy and suffocating.
Reina stared at the elemental spirit with a deadly serious expression etched on her face.
An elemental king.
He was certainly a major player—someone powerful enough that his appearance alone filled Reina with a deep, instinctive dread.
With his mystic eyes active, the entire scene unfolded before Aqua like a vivid, slow-motion cinema reel — every brutal detail crystal clear and impossible to ignore.
He watched the elemental king stroll forward with leisurely confidence, closing the distance to Reina in a single heartbeat.
Without warning, the king reached out and held her neck tightly. Reina never even had time to react.
"Escape, stranger. As quickly as you can," Reina began urgently.
"If you return to the entity you came from, you should be temporarily safe. I don’t think we can defeat—"
"A nobody dares talk in my presence?" the elemental king cut her off sharply.
Reina never finished her warning. The king had already appeared directly torn her jaw away in one merciless motion.
Aqua stared at the horrifying scene, frozen in complete shock.
Reina clutched desperately at the gaping wound where her jaw had been, waves of excruciating pain flooding her mind. Blood poured between her fingers as she staggered.
Her two loyal drake pets, enraged by the sight of their master’s suffering, charged straight at the elemental king.
Both opened their mouths wide, ready to unleash torrents of flames.
"Combust," the elemental king said coldly, his voice flat and emotionless.
The two drakes burst into flames mid-leap, igniting like gasoline-soaked torches.
They screamed in agony as they burned alive before they could even reach him.
The elemental king then grabbed Reina by the throat, lifting her effortlessly off the ground.
"Please don’t hurt her. She is mine," Logan pleaded, his voice cracking with desperation.
His words caused a slight frown to crease the elemental king’s face.
"You dare make demands of me?" the king asked, his tone icy and dangerous.
Logan’s eyes widened in terror at the king’s words.
He tried to explain himself, but the elemental king gave him no chance.
With a casual flick of power, Logan crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.
His lower body had been completely severed, leaving him writhing in shock.
"Consider yourself lucky that I’m sparing you," the elemental king said coldly to the fallen demon.
Aqua felt his blood run ice-cold. The elemental king was far beyond anything he could handle, completely out of his league.
Even through his mystic eyes, Aqua noticed the same illusionary chess piece he had seen on Logan.
This time, however, it was shaped like a rook, glowing faintly inside the king’s head.
With no further use for Reina, the elemental king ended her life without hesitation.
Then he turned his full, commanding attention toward Aqua.
"You are coming with me," the elemental king declared in a voice that left no room for argument.
"What if I don’t want to?" Aqua asked stubbornly, refusing to back down.
"You don’t have a choice in this matter," the king replied.
Before Aqua could even flinch, the king’s hand was already clamped tightly around his neck.
"Do not let me force you into submission," the elemental king warned.
"I don’t want to make you," Aqua shot back defiantly.
"Good," the elemental king said with a satisfied nod, already turning to leave.
"But I didn’t say I would follow you," Aqua added quietly.
Before the elemental king could react to the bold words, Aqua triggered his self-destruction. In a blinding flash of energy, he killed himself instantly.
"Damn it!" the elemental king roared in pure fury at being so thoroughly played.
Meanwhile, Aqua resurrected smoothly from a single droplet of water in Adrian’s bathroom. The transition felt instant and disorienting.
"Damn. That was crazy," Aqua muttered, still catching his breath. "I never want to be placed in that position again."
He felt a heavy pang of guilt for Reina. There was nothing he could have done to save her. They had simply been completely outmatched by an opponent on another level entirely.
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