Magic Life in the Empire Chapter 46: Viper

In response, the mage only whined while holding his stomach.

Hearing no answer, Myra grabbed him by the collar and punched him in the head. "Tell ! Or I'll do sothing worse to you than you did to those humans!" She said through gritted teeth.

Mage was getting more and more scared. He tried to say sothing, but it was gibberish, which only angered Myra further.

At this mont Cyril stepped in and put his hand on her shoulder. "Calm down. He is not running anywhere." He saw no reason to be this angry.

Myra almost shouted at him, "I knew the people from that cell! They were from Shamrock! Why is this happening?!" She wasn't herself at the mont.

He was about to say sothing when Myra suddenly stumbled and fell to the floor unconscious. Selene stood behind her with an outstretched hand.

"She should sleep for now." She said with a convinced expression.

"A good solution."

Cyril carried her body and placed it in front of the wall. Maybe this was for the better.

While he did that, Jack moved towards the mage with a smiling face and wiped his bloody nose with a tissue. "Sorry about that, friend. So can you tell us what happened here?" His voice was comforting to hear.

"Promise you won't hurt first." The mage manages to squeeze out these words.

"Of course I won't! Don't worry, friend, you are safe," replied Jack.

After calming down for a mont, the mage finally said sothing cohesive: "We—We are supposed to combine a human and a demon into one being."

"We guessed that part, but why? Who would want that?" Jack talked to him like one would with a friend.

"I don't know really. The Viper said we have a rich client who wants us to do this. The only specification they gave was to make a human-demon hybrid that is capable of growing and reproducing." The mage said this in one breath.

"Viper is your boss, right? Where is he?" Said Jack.

"He left for so business—we don't know what, as he never tells us. He is bold and has green eyes. He was in the Red Snakes gang in the past, or so I've heard." The mage was no longer panicking. "Honestly, I don't know anything more. If you want to hear about our research progress, I can tell you, though we weren't very successful."

Jack smiled wider and patted the mage's shoulder. "That's enough, friend, thank you."

"This guy..."

He got up and nodded to the others. "I am done here. What's next?" While he was saying that, the mage suddenly fell to the ground, unmoving.

Cyril almost missed it, but he felt the use of mana when Jack patted the mage on the shoulder.

"Don't look at like that, I am doing him a favor. This way he'll have plausible deniability when his boss cos back." Jack said with a peaceful smile.

No one replied to his words.

Cyril went towards the desk and searched through it in an attempt to find sothing of interest, but there was only money there.

He looked around the room one last ti. "Let's go back." There was nothing else here.

Cyril went to wake up Myra, but even after trying for so ti, she still was unresponsive. "At least she is still breathing."

He shot Selene nearby a questioning look.

To this she said with a straight face, "She will wake up in a few hours."

"Great," Cyril sighed, slinging Myra over his shoulder. He would not spend the next few hours here.

They left the unconscious mages here and moved out of the room.

"How about we lay an ambush for Viper when he cos back? We still need more information." On the way, Jack proposed an idea.

"And why do you care so much?" Cyril asked.

"It's our duty to make the world a better place, I would say." Jack said while wearing a heroic expression.

"I don't believe him."Yeah... No one did.

They returned to the spacious room from before, where they encountered a slight problem.

"Looks like we don't have the ti to do that," Jack said with a voice full of pity.

The man who fitted the Viper's description was standing near the Cyclops's corpse, observing them with a frown.

Behind him was a group of bandits from the surface.

"You are strong; unfortunately, you've t...!" The man was about to continue, but then he opened his mouth in shock.

"Miss...?" He said with a dumbfounded expression while staring at Selene. The man sounded respectful, even a bit fearful.

"That's not good."

With his words, Cyril and Jack cautiously distanced themselves from Selene.

"Morpho, hide! Now!" Rhamn with worry sends the butterfly away.

Selene shook her head in disappointnt. "Why did you have to say that, Viper?"

"Why didn't you stop the intruders?" The man asked.

"I am not here to babysit you," Selene said with a frown.

The Viper looked ridiculous; he didn't know what to say.

Cyril and Jack remained silent. Jack observed the surroundings for an opportunity, while Cyril carefully placed Myra near the wall.

In the end, Viper grumbled and replied, "No matter. I'll deal with this." He massaged his temples.

The Viper switched his attention to the others. "That's enough, you lot. Ti to die..." He pulled out a dagger.

"If you kill the young man, then you will not see the end of this day, Viper," Selene said in a severe tone. "He will be my disciple."

The corner of Viper's mouth twitched. He looked like he had a lot to say. "Fine, I'll just cripple that one. I am sure he won't miss an arm or a leg."

Selene didn't reply, silently agreeing to his decision.

Cyril didn't like how they'd talked as if he was definitely going to lose. His fighting spirit was rising up, and he gripped the spear stronger.

At this mont Jack suddenly cast a spell, destroying the lights and plunging the place into darkness.

Using this, he sprinted past the bandits closer to the exit, bypassing them with ease.

In no ti at all he was already gone from the room without saying a word during the process.

"What a slimy coward!"

"After him, now!" After a second, the Viper shouted at full volu towards the bandits, sending them all in pursuit.

There was only Viper left now. He cast a spell, and his eyes started to shine, enabling him to see in the dark.

The man looked at Selene with a questioning look, probably wanting to ask why she didn't stop Jack from escaping, but in the end he didn't say anything.

Selene stood away from everyone with her hands behind her back, observing what Cyril was doing with interest. She wanted to see how he fought.

Sohow her presence was becoming weaker; it was easier to ignore her.

The problem right now for Cyril was that he didn't know a spell to see in the dark.

Can you do sothing? Thankfully, he had other ways.

"Yes. You'll have a cat's night vision!" Rhamn replied with pride.

Soon light returned to Cyril's eyes, and the first thing that greeted him was Viper silently approaching him.

Cyril imdiately thrust with his spear, but he failed to reach his target.

Viper jumped back in ti. "How the hell did you do that?" He said sowhat unnerved.

From his perspective, Cyril's eyes suddenly started morphing into sothing else. The sight was not for the lighthearted.

Cyril didn't reply in any way and slowly approached his opponent.

Once he got close enough, Cyril thrust his spear again, followed by a quick swing.

The Viper dodged the first attack and tried to block the swing with his dagger.

He did manage to block the spear, but the force behind the strike still moved him away a few steps.

The Viper gained so distance and held his shoulder in pain.

"Tsk... What a freak," the Viper said in provocation and readied himself again.

When Cyril next attacked, he refused to et his spear head-on, dodging or parrying every strike.

Cyril was struggling to hit him properly. He was just too fast.

At so point, Viper cast a spell with his free hand, sending out a shrapnel of ice shards.

Cyril made a magic barrier in front of him, catching all of the ice.

Next, he blocked the incoming strike from the Viper with his spear.

The dagger was blocked, but with his other hand, the Viper suddenly hit Cyril in the face, activating another spell on contact.

Cyril felt like a small explosion just happened on his face; his head was flung back, forcing him a few steps back.

Using this chance, the Viper continued his assault; he didn't aim for the vital parts, but he did a few consecutive slashes at Cyril's torso and arms followed by a kick.

Cyril was forced back again before finally swinging his spear in defense, making his opponent retreat and giving himself so ti to breathe.

"Just give up before you get hurt more, you lucky amateur." Viper mocked while caressing his blade.

Shit... Cyril was bleeding quite heavily. The feeling that he would be dead if not for Selene's warning wasn't good either.

Viper was fast, and his blades were hard to follow. His strength was nothing to scoff at either.

Cyril wanted to cast a healing spell, but Viper threw an ice bolt of his own, interrupting the magic circle.

"Don't even try it." He seed sure of his victory already.

"Allow ." With her words, the bleeding on Cyril's body stopped on its own.

Looking at this, Viper frowned and prepared himself again. His blade was now coated in so kind of liquid.

Poison? Good. Cyril saw an opportunity here. "It will work," Rhamn agreed.

Gathering his strength, Cyril dashed with his spear at the ready, lunging in what looked like desperation.

Viper calmly dodged it and swung his dagger at Cyril's shoulder.

But at this mont, Cyril let go of his spear and hit him hard on the chest, activating a spell at the sa ti.

It was a familiar attack, but Cyril didn't hold back. A proper explosion appeared, sending Viper into the wall.

His body gave off smoke as it slowly slid down to the ground.

Still, Cyril was hit with the dagger. Enduring the pain, he took it out from his shoulder. The bleeding soon stopped on its own.

He knelt on the ground from exhaustion, observing the state of his opponent.

At this mont, Viper slowly got up.

Despite being hit with an explosion at such close distance, he didn't look that hard. There was blood coming from his mouth, but that's it.

"You fucking asshole!" He wasn't in the best mood. "To think that so kid would force like this!"

He spit out so blood before continuing, "But that was a stupid move. You are now poisoned. In a few seconds you won't be able to move at all."

Viper looked at Selene nearby with an annoyed look. "There! It's done!"

But she didn't say anything, her face devoid of emotion. This made him furrow his brows.

He switched his attention back to Cyril with a doubtful look. He had his eyes closed.

At this mont a beautiful red butterfly has entered Viper's field of vision.

Before he had the ti to think where it could have co from, the butterfly suddenly made a magic circle in front of it.

A flash of light lit up the dark room for a second; Morpho was getting better and better.

Viper recoiled in pain. Because of the spell, his eyes had suffered more than usual.

During this perfect opportunity, Cyril dashed in close with a dagger in his hand.

Without any resistance, he plunged it into Viper's body and hit his head with his other hand for good asure.

The blow send Viper to the ground.

He tried to move his limbs a few tis, but the poison coupled with the loss of blood caused Viper to lose consciousness after a few monts.

The fight was over.