The Duke's Passion

Powerful explosions resonated in the air as the smoke in the air thickened into a fog. Samael leaped one after another attack, dodging all the gigantic black threads coming at him like dust devils. He had a plan and a simpleton like him first thought digging up the ground to uproot his current opponent would be easy.

However, with only his sword, Catharsis, to abuse, he quickly realized it wouldn't be as easy as he thought it would. Therefore, he had to improvise.

BOOGSH!

Samael jumped from the ground, flying up in the air. Gazing down, the side of his lips curled up into a smirk upon seeing the tentacle-like threads wiggling while its head was deep into the ground. "Let's dig together." His tone was arrogant, grinning as he looked back at the incoming threads. "Good. The faster and stronger, the better."

Samael didn't move in the air until the ends of the blackness were at arm's length. Instead of cutting it just as he initially planned, he made it do the job for him. When he dodged it, the threads instantly crash into the ground, creating these massive hollows.

"Oy!" he called, and not to his surprise, the rest of the black threads seemed to have turned their attention to him. "What a nasty little thing you are. I can't believe you'd really gain consciousness. Come! Let me kill you!" Nothing further was said as the multiple black threads attacked him without a second break. Not once, Samael wielded his sword, dodging all the attacks. The hollows on the ground slowly increased in number until the original tiled floor was full of holes. Still, that wasn't enough. And with that, Samael kept taunting it and dodging its attack, almost dancing in the thick fog until all he could see was the silhouette. After minutes of dodging the attacks, Samael landed on the railing of the second floor. Half of the floor was already ruined, but Samael didn't pay attention to it. "Oy." He called quietly, watching the threads who attacked him fiercely try to pull its parts from the ground. "You can understand me now, am I correct?"

Samael arched his brow, glancing in the direction where the root of this dark thing was coming from. Most of the concrete ground was shattered, even the surface of the root. However, now that he could see it clearly, he was certain the root was deeper than what he expected. Not to mention, some dark lines underneath the rubbles had appeared as well. "So if we dig for at least five inches more, the enter ground will be black, huh?" he mumbled, lifting his eyes at the black threads. Samael didn't even flinch when the dark threads pulled out of the ground, causing some debris to fly across the palace. His expression turned firm, letting out a deep exhale through his closed lips. "What a bother," he muttered, and in a blink of an eye, the dark threads were once against catapulting in his direction. This time, however, Samael didn't dodge them with the purpose of digging. Instead, he bent his knees and jumped. Unlike previously, he didn't land but leaped from anything he could to reach the broken roof. Samael went through the hole the black thread created previously. The moment he reached past the hole, he twisted his body to face the black threads coming at him. "Ah, fuck!" he cursed, too late to dodge an attack. All Samael could do was toughen his stomach and within a second, a black thread crashed into the roof where he was.

Samael winced at the pain that erupted in his stomach, yet he ignored it as he raised his sword to the side. With one swift movement, he swung his arm and cut the black threads, leaping into another debris as more and more threads smashed into the roof. Soon, Samael was surrounded by them as if he was a fish underwater surrounded by seaweed. Tak.

The moment he landed on the sturdy part of the roof, probably the only surface there was. He assessed the threads, and when a second had passed and it didn't attack, he already knew it was somehow taking a break. This wasn't the first time it paused from its attacks, but what he did notice was that its break was happening more frequently, the stronger its attacks. Using this time, Samael took a deep breath before shouting; "Tilly!!"

His voice echoed multiple times before silence followed. Samael huffed and screamed his lungs out, calling for Tilly as if she was there when he perfectly knew she wasn't around. "Damn it, Tilly." Samael ruffled his hair in irritation, snapping his eyes up. "Just who am I going to leave this thing with? I don't think it's productive to even fight this one."

At this point, Samael realized stopping this thing with brute force was useless. If he wanted to stop it completely, chopping it off wasn't the way. The more it bled and the more it needed to regenerate, more and more lives would be gone to waste. Samael might not be able to save them from dying as undead, but at least he had the morals of respecting their deaths. He didn't participate in Zero's twisted game and use even the deaths of the innocent to sustain this disgusting thing. "Ti —" Samael nearly bit his tongue as his eyes dilated. He swiftly used his sword, slashing his index and dripping a few of his blood on the black thread underneath him. "Oy, oy! Come, follow me, big guy!" He didn't idle, letting his finger bleed as he fled the scene like a bolt of lightning. The scent of his precious blood caught the attention of the black thread, coming at him at the same speed. The black threads continued to stretch out, destroying anyone on the way as they left the palace grounds in a particular direction. *

*

*

[ Colosseum ]

"Lucia and Dyrroth surely raised their kid with love. I too raised my son with all the love he could ask from a father. That is why he will offer his body to me if I asked nicely. What a simpleton."

Claude held his breath, hearing Zero's voice from behind him. His instinct immediately tried to save him by stopping time. The surrounding did, but not the blade about to slice through his spine. Boogsh!

A strong gust of wind blew past Claude, followed by a loud explosion that made the ground shake. The moment Claude couldn't feel the threat around him, a deep exhale slipped past his gaping mouth. He nearly died, and he was certain he just dodged death. "Ah… ouch… goodness. God damn it."

The voice that caressed Claude's ears brought him back to his trance, turning around in a hurry, only to see Samael pushing himself from the ground.

"Uncle Hell!"