The Duke's Passion

[ Spade Kingdom: Royal Palace ]

"Damn it…" Samael breathed out as he tried to catch up to his breath. His eyes were initially fixed on the flesh disintegrating in tendrils of smoke rising up in the air. "He is really starting to annoy me."

Samael slowly gazed up at where the dark mist was ascending to. A shallow breath slipped past his lips, swinging his heavy sword to the side to get rid of unnecessary blood on the blade. His opponent, Zero, was already nowhere in sight. However, Samael knew that didn't mean Zero was dead. Samael was able the slay Zero's clone which was now instigating from the ground near his feet. Still, this was still far from over.

"Lilou," came out a whisper, thinking that Lilou would have a hard time searching for the original body. "Knowing her, she was probably held by the people outside the castle walls."

His wife, although, could be a little scheming and vicious, Lilou always had a soft spot for people. It had always been his wife's habit to make sure no innocent people would get hurt every time she would plan her next movement. Back then, their main enemy, Stefan, although he was a scumbag, he at least let the innocent people off. All their problems centered on royalties and their complicated relationships, and the situation would turn upside down within the royal palace of the Heart's Kingdom. There might be times their explosive resentment against each other would implicate the capital, but all people would always be evacuated. Stefan wouldn't order the evacuation, but he had a valid reason for it. Most of the people in the capital of the Heart's Kingdom were capable people. They would flee to safety if they sensed danger. But this place… this kingdom and their mad king… there was no way Lilou would turn a blind eye to them. "I did what I can," whispered Samael once again, thinking he had been donating his blood and adding it to people's teas. Theodore, a member of the seance, was the person in charge of distributing it. But two months wasn't enough. Compare to Samael who only started donating his blood two months ago, Zero had done this for years. If not for the Grimsbanne blood (his mother's blood) running in Samael's veins, there was no way he would even gain the slightest control over the people who drank his blood from the tea. "Quentin…" Samael blinked ever so slowly, breathing out through his mouth. Above him were bigger and darker threads wiggling like tentacles. Slaying the clone didn't affect these dark threads combined. No matter how many times Samael cut them, they would not only regenerate but also grew stronger, faster, and heavier.

Samael already inspected where these black threads came from, and after some time, he found himself back in the royal palace of the land. Much to his dismay, the source of this was rooted in the ground. He glanced at his back to see where the black threads were coming from. The floor where the black threads were coming from looked darker than ink. It also smelled terribly bad like rotting flesh. The strangest thing was that the darkness on the ground remained where they were. It looked like tree roots at this point that stemmed underground. But the only question was… how deep underground?

"I will hurt my head thinking about this disgusting being," he murmured, peeling his eyes from the back to the dark threads above him. "No matter how big you grow… I will continue to cut you down until you can no longer regenerate. It seems that is the only way, after all."

His deep crimson eyes shone with determination, leaving the rest to his wife and the people who came in here. Because one thing was for sure. If not for Samael, this black thing would wreak havoc outside the royal palace. With how monstrous and destructive its every movement was, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the entire Spade Kingdom would be nothing but rubble once this was all over. Just what was Zero thinking? That question hovered over Samael's mind but instantly got enlightenment. Zero didn't plan to continue ruling the Spade Kingdom. He simply used this land and his position to take a better role and power. The reason he didn't mind sacrificing everything including the beauty of this land and the innocent lives all for the sake of satisfying his own greed. If this wasn't evil, then Samael had to reeducate himself about the meaning of it. "Hah." A deep breath escaped Samael's mouth again, swinging his sword to make a clean cut on the tentacle-like that was charging towards his head. It fell on the ground and made a sound like a lump of meat, making him quick a brow. "That's interesting." He gazed down in interest, noticing some blood leak from the severed flesh. "It used to just disintegrate like before… hah!"

Samael slowly gazed up again with his lips stretched until his teeth were showing, but no sign of happiness or amusement laced on his expression. If anything, this sudden theory that crossed his mind was enough to nurture the growing repugnance he had for Zero and these black threads. "You piece of unforgivable trash…" he muttered through his gritted teeth. "So, that's how it is, huh?"

Anger shone in Samael's eyes, assuming his conclusion was correct, then there was nothing to save Zero. Right now, the entire land of Spade was covered by thick darkness. People would only notice the one in the sky, missing the entire point of hell's gate. Hell.

Even children knew what hell meant and what sort of place it was. That being said, Hell's gate not only covered the sky but also the ground. If all the people in Spade were now dying one after another, the blood they would spill would naturally flood the ground. "It's like a tree…" Samael watched as multiple flexible limbs charged in his direction. "To grow trees, you have to water them. And that thing… not only sucks their life but also their blood."

"Hah…" Despite the limbs attacking him all at once, Samael leisurely closed his eyes and stretched his neck from one side to the other. When he reopened his eyes, he swiftly took a leap to meet them halfway. In one swift movement, he swung his sword, Catharsis, and cut all the limbs he could cut.

"Do you know what thing Fabian hates about me?" he breathed out while still midair, talking to this lump of meat which he knew was starting to grow consciousness. "It was how I always uproot his dearest plants whenever he pisses me off. Doing it quite more often recently earned me the talent of uprooting weeds perfectly." The corner of his lips hooked up, spinning the sword in his hand, only to throw it on the ground. "Let's see how deep you are underground."