"What’s that?" Donk asked, pointing at the headless figure in the middle of the hall after two more arrows took down the guards at the door.
"He was supposed to be your target, buddy!" Gerard calmly explained, "That’s Lucien Duvont, the forr Lord of the Droskar Dominion. The one we trained you to kill for two decades!"
"Then ... then what Donk kills now?" Donk asked, sounding desperate.
"There are few other elental lords around, don’t worry!" Gerard said, "They are weak, like the one you just killed, but it’ll be fun!"
"Which one was the lord that I killed?" Donk asked, gawking at the bodies of the guards and Bastil.
"Seriously ..." Gerard could only shake his head.
His companion was incredibly talented archer, but dumb as a wood. And probably the only one who still used a bow after becoming an elental master.
"Donk, watch the door!" Gerard said, "If anyone cos in, shoot them dead!"
"What if it’s master Lamart?" Donk asked.
"Then you don’t shoot him." Gerard patiently said, swallowing a curse, "Call it – an exception."
"Alright! An exception!" Donk nodded and fully focused on the door, but the faint smile indicated he was happy he had learned sothing new today.
Gerard walked over to Duvont, looked at his body for a mont, and then kicked it to the side. It fell with a heavy boom, probably from all the artifacts it was packed with.
Then he looked at Lee’s miserable appearance and sighed, "Poor guy. Well, a small price to pay for killing the tyrant."
"Should we relieve him from suffering?" Donk asked, glancing over, "He would be thankful."
"No ... he ... would ... not." Lee hissed through clenched teeth, and slowly got on all fours. Then he took a couple of shallow breaths, and sat cross-legged.
After the attack the pain paralyzed his body and he couldn’t move a muscle, at least not consciously. He heard everything, though, and the mont the guy called Donk suggested to relieve him from his suffering, all of the sudden Lee found enough strength to prove he was still alive.
Gerard and Donk were taken aback with him suddenly coming back to life, but apparently knew he wasn’t the enemy.
"How about that!" Gerard said, "Turns out there are two monsters in the world! Donk, I thought you were the only one!"
"I’m not a monster, I’m Donk!" Donk grimaced in displeasure.
"Fine, fine!" Gerard said.
He was in a good mood now that not only Duvont, but Bastil was dead, but Lee was more practically minded.
"You’re the resistance guys, right?" He asked the obvious, "We should go free the artificers. They might be crippled, but they are elental lords nevertheless. If the hell breaks loose, the army can overrun us."
"Are you even capable of going anywhere?" Gerard skeptically looked at Lee’s bloodied appearance.
"Fuck!" Lee cursed, recognizing his own condition, "Give a mont!"
He got up, staggered towards the headless body Gerard kicked to the side, and checked Duvant’s hands. His spatial ring was stuck on the fat pinky, and after struggling to get it off, Lee pulled Stonerend from the sheath on Duvant’s back and chopped off the finger directly.
After inspecting the ring, he pretended to take out a gourd of water from it, while actually taking it from the glove, and emptied it directly on his head. From the looks of it, most of his wounds had closed, and, although he was still bleeding, his condition was fine for Lee to bandage himself.
"Looks like you’re not doing this for the first ti." Gerard joked.
"I don’t want to talk about it." Lee said, "Is there any support from outside? Is the resistance fighting on the streets?"
"No." Gerard said, "Only two of us."
Lee froze in shock, gawking back at the man who clearly was serious this ti.
"You haven’t been in Dominion for long, have you?" Gerard asked.
"A year in a prison is a long ti." Lee said.
"You know what I an." Gerard said, "There’s no need for an uprising of such scale. Simone will simply take over. He’s probably hunting the other rats and co as soon as he’s done."
"Who’s Simone?" Lee asked.
Gerard looked back at him, having exactly the sa expression Lee had earlier, but then patiently explained, "Simone Lamart, our leader. He’s the strongest elental lord in Dominion. Well, surely now after you killed Duvant."
"Duvant was mine!" Donk complained, "I want a do-over!"
Lee looked at Gerard who could only spread his hands apologetically and sigh.
"How about you kill every guard as we go free the artificers?" Lee asked, getting up. He had crudely bandaged himself all over and resembled a mummy, but it had to do for now.
"Alright!" Donk cheered, and kicked the door.
He instantly deflated seeing that the hallway was empty – there wasn’t a single soul on the other side of the door. Clearly the guards heard the lord of the castle was assassinated, and knew they had to lay low until things settled down.
At first Lee was surprised by such treacherous attitude, but then rembered the nightly streets of Freeheaven. These guys surely played for themselves.
The group of three inevitably did et so guards on the way to artificers, but none of them had the chance to display their allegiance. Donk’s arrows were so fast Lee barely saw him pulling them from the quiver. At the sa ti they were so destructive they tore round holes in the bodies of the victims.
Apparently Gerard didn’t expect anything else, and patiently gathered the arrows after each kill, and Lee was stunned again. Each of them was thicker than his thumb and made of solid tal. He wasn’t sure whether it was iron or sothing else, but he wouldn’t be surprised if those were, for example, made of Nullite. After all, at so point this guy was supposed to assassinate Duvant.
None of the imprisoned artificers said anything when Gerard began to kick in their doors one after another. Up until now he appeared to be calm, but Lee guessed the guy finally found a way to went.
Donk was tasked to carry two elderly n who had both their legs cut off, and Lee assisted two more who hopped on the remaining one while supporting themselves on spears they took from the bodies of the dead guards. There was one more, lying on the ground, barely breathing. Gerard inspected him, but then shook his head, and the group left.
They returned to the throne room where the artificers quickly stripped Duvant of his artifacts and spat on what was left of him. Afterwards, they sat off to the side, looking at each other, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Lee was inclined towards the latter.
These were incredible people, powerful elental lords, but were crippled and enslaved. Maybe they weren’t as brilliant as Xiao Lian or Qin Yujian, but no one deserved such fate.
As Lee observed them more closely, he noticed sothing peculiar about their features. Only one, Daniel, seed to be local. The other three had peculiar racial traits he recognized from his ti in Ashland. They clearly had been taken from other worlds, unfortunately, only to end up imprisoned here.
His thoughts were interrupted by a rift opening in the middle of the hall. From it stepped out a middle-aged man, dressed similar to Gerard. He had a different bearing, though, more dignified, even noble. There were blood splatters on his clothing, but clearly not his blood, and the mont he arrived, he looked around, searching for soone.
"Father!" Daniel got up on his only leg and hopped towards the man.
Lee gawked at the sight speechless. The old man, rushed to hug soone who could basically be his grandson, while calling him father.
"You did good, my boy! You did good!" The man heartily hugged Daniel, and Lee could swear he saw tears sparkle in his eyes.
He never had children, and had no clue how it felt to reunite with them. But no matter how he judged the embrace, it seed completely counterintuitive, but at the sa ti full of love, warm and comforting.
"Dad!" Daniel interrupted the intimate mont, "I’d like you to et Lee! He’s the one behind all of this!"
Daniel’s father looked at Lee sitting nearby, faintly smiling at them, nodded, and said, "I’m Simone Lamart! Thank you for taking care of my son!"
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