I regressed and became the Sword Ice King - Chapter 482

Capítulo 482: Chapter 482- The Arcanus Revenge

The future had never looked more uncertain than it did now.

The threads of time had begun to weave themselves into the firmament of the Mortal Realm.

With groups in the shadows forging ahead, the rest of the world would be forced to follow, or suffer the grave consequences of being left behind.

But even those who took the steps to the future they desired knew not all would make it.

Still, they persisted and they marched.

Reeling from the uncertainty ahead, rather than revelling in the certainty of today.

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The Leaders of the day, the present– the Certainty, were now cut off from the main world.

Swallowed by an absolute crimson that spread across the horizon.

Nothing was in their control on this horizon– this place of violet clouds and fiery, red ash.

Only their minds and their bodies.

The sky, similar to any other, was a twisted manifestation of an evil, hidden for centuries within its own doorsteps.

There was no sun, and no moon, but simply the existence of light.

The ground was ash. Hot and burning.

A scalding soil that would whisk to flames when brushed even by the smallest of human contact.

And the air… it was the worst.

With scalding smoke and dry sand dancing in the atmosphere like it was home, it took the very definition of death and corrosion and brought it to life as breathing air.

The nature of this world was as inexplicable as it was real.

Why? Because at the moment, the Current Heads of the Great Families, the generation of the old who had led for years and should have continued to do so, had been trapped within this space like birds in a cage.

Amongst them, Chun Kang Lin stood and the rest of the Household Heads who had taken in their environment with a single breath of the air.

It didn’t take the wise men to figure this out, but the location presented before them was not the Mortal Realm.

The man groaned slightly.

A flash of annoyance lingered on his face as a recap of a few moments ago played in his head.

At that moment, the others had begun to stir.

“It seems we have been fooled.”

Derrick began with a strained expression.

He stood with the others.

Flipping through the grimoire while he covered his nostrils with his arm.

‘I had questioned my decision to cease the Grimoire from Darrell.’

He thought, as he found a page.

‘But thank the gods, I did.’

He dropped his arm and lifted the grimoire slightly.

“Chapter 27; Spirit’s Guidance.”

His mana swirled within before it ignited in an array of green light.

The light hummed around them as it spread.

Covering the people present in its ethereal embrace of purity.

The toxicity in the air was being cleansed, and their breathing began to return to its normal state.

Soon, the Dome came to a halt after surrounding all members before staying in place.

Derrick nodded in satisfaction before covering his book and turning to the others.

“We had a viper amongst us…”

He began.

And slowly, the others turned to him.

“Did no one know of her true nature?”

He asked with curiosity etched in his tone, though his question was more rhetorical.

It was an obvious response.

No one had expected the Arcanus to strike at them… not this obviously, and certainly not when they were together.

After all, they were the family Heads and each was the pinnacle of their Household.

Fighting all at the same time would be akin to suicide, if not worse.

But somehow, not only had the Arcanus Household deceived them, but they had also trapped them.

Inside a space… one that sent wave after wave of puzzlement in their skulls.

They had questions… but more than questions, they wanted relief.

Relieved from the rage, embarrassment and untold annoyance within them at the whole situation.

A simple trial had been spurred into an attack against the King and the Great Families.

Speaking of which–

“YOU FOOLS!”

The expressions of the Heads shifted and clear annoyance was written all over their faces.

Glancing back, Gloria could only frown deeper.

“Your Highness, it seems today has not fared well for you.”

She said with a solemn smile.

The King, with his arms clasped behind his back and a deep, enraged expression, whipped his head to her.

“And wouldn’t that be because you failed in keeping me, your King, safe?”

Gloria chuckled slightly before turning away.

Shifting her gaze to the environment instead, while the King continued his rant with the other Heads who cared to listen.

‘It has been a while… where is she?’

The woman who captured them and locked them within this place…

Her gaze drifted forward.

A few feet away where Kira Merlin had been meditating.

The Witch had been trapped with them, though, her posture and focus had not broken by a bit.

Gloria tilted her head at the thought.

‘She’s still… somehow trying to fix the crack in the Castle? Even when we’ve been captured?’

Her hands curled into tight knuckles as her thoughts spanned out.

‘Where did we transfer to another location? Are we perhaps… in the same place, but a different form of it? A reality swap, perhaps?’

Gloria had dabbled in Magic Theoretics with her sister every once in a while.

Just for the knowledge, and she was aware of most Mage class information despite being a Knight at core.

Situations like that were possible… but for her to get the full gist of the matter, she would need to know more.

And to do that, she had a single option.

Luckily or unluckily for her, that single option had revealed itself. Finally,

The Heads of the Households turned to her immediately.

Their expressions hardened as it locked onto the Petite Lilac-haired.

High in the clouds painted with red, a woman appeared.

Hovering over them like a demi-god.

Her expression was as it had always been.

A gentle smile with an alluring spark of something dark hiding behind it.

She held onto a scythe with a firm grasp while shards of glass hovered on her other side.

The black mirror was now broken and fractured.

Its cause was unknown to the Heads who saw it, and its cause was ambiguous to their deep, thinking minds.

Nevertheless, they now focused on the woman of the hour.

Willingly or not, the Arcanus Household, twelfth of the Rankings had pulled the rug under their feet.

And as Heads, they couldn’t let that go by.

“Do we flank her?”

Bryan’s voice projected into Gloria’s ears and her ears lit up with expectations.

“It would have been easy to do so… but this is something that she most likely planned.”

Derrick explained.

“I agree.” Tonrook La Teuer, Head of the Notorious Assassin’s family spoke for the first time.

And this caused some to turn their heads.

“There is a saying in the Creed of the Assassin’s.”

The others paid attention while they fostered their vigilance towards Cressida.

“War is only acceptable when all plans for victory have been set in place.”

The Assassins were a shady bunch, and their Heads for many generations had embodied that selfishness and corruptness that truly represented them.

Tonrook, who had witnessed the lives of the current and past Heads, was one of such.

Though, he was never the kind to draw attention to himself unless necessary.

Tonrook had a stern face as he always did.

But even that was ambiguous with their predicament.

He had failed in his attempt to escape when he realised what was taking place– and now, he could only blame himself for not seeing it sooner.

Now, he could only watch… and act with the rest of the Heads.

Something he was neither capable nor willing to do.

His time of waiting wasn’t long though, as Cressida descended with purpose.

And her lips parted for words to form.

“I apologise for keeping you waiting.”

Her smile was venomous, and her eyes were charming in a way that led to hell.

Her entire demeanour had changed moments ago.

Withering the flower that represented her, and leaving the stalk to spoil and rot.

“It had taken me years of planning– No, No, not years, perhaps centuries?”

Gloria’s gaze widened softly.

‘Centuries?’

It was a generational Hatred.

Revenge passed through the blood from parent to child.

And Cressida Arcanus embodied the wills of the past Heads and members of her family, who had longed for this day.

“How much I have hoped this day would come.”

Her voice was longing. Pleading almost. Alluring as it is for a petite mother.

A sigh escaped her lips as a smile formed.

She held the scythe firmer and pointed it at the Family Heads and the King who watched in silence.

“Finally… I can repay you all in kind for the years you have gifted us.”

The scythe’s blade hummed with life.

An enriched flow of dark mana surges from all around her towards the blade of the scythe.

Her action displayed the finality of her mind.

Negotiation would be useless.

Though, none of them wanted that.

“Hmm…” The King hummed slightly. “I always thought your kind should have been whipped out during the time of my ancestors… such absurdity that I must suffer the consequences.”

Gloria rolled her eyes.

‘Like you weren’t focused on another family for you to realise the real problem.’

No matter.

If push comes to shove, the Juns would do the same.

Derrick stepped forward from the group.

A smirk on his face as always.

“There are twelve of us, and one of you. Trapping us within here might have been your gravest mistake.”

He said as he folded his hands.

“This place might just be your Funeral Home.”

Cressida didn’t change a shade.

“Hah, that’s right… They were in another part of the mirror, weren’t they?”

Derrick’s smile faltered instantly.

‘They?’

And many others asked that same question within themselves.

Cressida glanced up at the red sky.

Her smile widened as she stared at what seemed like nothing.

She opened her palm slowly and the broken shards of mirror began to glow with a malevolent shade of black.

At the same time, the entire space shook.

And a terrible quake spread like wildfire.

Derrick froze, and so did the others as the once stilled world was slapt into a frenzy of calamity.

But the sudden earth-shattering rumble was the last of their worries.

Glancing to the sky, their bodies instinctively kicked into the fight or flight mode.

An abnormality that sent their heads spiralling for answers, but were those answers what they truly required?

Some, though, were already aware of what it was. The source of the commotion.

The harbinger of the calamity that had ensued in the space.

And in the next second, it– no, they made their presence known.

*RAAAAWWWW!!!*

A guttural, ancient scream broke the heavens and shattered the earth like glass.

Waves of tremendous energy blasted against the skies as black holes boomed to life across the expanse of the horizon.

But this was no normal energy– this was the source of Hades, the breathing chaos– Miasma.

And it poured in large amounts from the multiple black holes that spawned like a broken fountain.

Cressida’s smile widened. A sickening grin that would make even the Devil’s stomach churn.

“Hah…. They’re finally here, my babies.”

Gloria shifted her gaze from the sky to the woman, and back to the sky.

‘That’s absurd.’

How could it not?

When the creatures that descended were Grand Demons of the 7th tier.

Beasts that could wipe out Kingdoms, singlehandedly.

And right now… a flood of them descended.