Chapter 328: Chapter 327 - The air of seriousness.
Raven and his group never attacked the noble houses on the demons’ side earnestly—that was until today.
Why, though?
That was because of two main reasons.
One, they knew that if they did attack seriously, then the war would start, and with both Crisaius and Argon still absent, things could turn bad for the human side.
The second reason was that they still didn’t know how many noble houses were forced to the demons’ side and how many had willingly gone there.
Raven didn’t want to end up killing people who didn’t even wish to side with demons in the first place.
Even the first batch of nobles who were assassinated were a bunch Raven could recall as evil from the plot.
However, with the attack from the demons’ side coming with full intensity, Raven didn’t think he should hold back anymore—especially with Alex raring to kill every demon in the human realm.
That was when Mistress, the demoness who had rarely contacted them since a certain point in the past, contacted them, offering them help as if she knew exactly what they were stuck with.
"You guys want to know which nobles you should punish and which you should show mercy to, am I right?"
This was her first question, and soon after, when she gave them the names, Raven realized how big a help she was.
Thanks to her, Raven knew who to attack first and what to do with them.
So, while he and Selena stayed back at the capital, both for defense and for keeping an eye on Jake, things were put into action.
Across Velmoria, the evening sun went down, giving way to the night, as the moonlight sharpened the jagged edges of rooftops and gilded spires.
Where laughter and banquet fires once spilled from the noble estates, silence now reigned—an ominous, suffocating silence.
People were still recovering from the last attack, and the nobles were recuperating.
Raven was sure that the demons thought the same, so the demons would move now, trying to come up with a new plan.
So, that meant this was the perfect time for a counterattack.
Their orders were given to them in the afternoon, and since then, they had prepared for the fight.
’Subdue them. Don’t kill. Not yet.’
Yes, Raven had asked them not to kill anyone, as he could still remember how the demons made use of death.
Last time, they had summoned a monstrosity—the gatekeeper of the first hell—so there was no guarantee they wouldn’t do the same again.
Raven was sure that the only reason the demons wanted the war was so that they could gather enough death energy to summon someone so strong that they could change this whole place into something similar to the demon realm.
And he, for one, was never going to let that happen.
For now, while sitting in the room with Jake, Selena, and Velric, Raven wondered how others were doing.
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Siris & Lia—House Dervane.
Blood sprayed in the courtyard as Siris leapt from the shadows, daggers flashing like shards of moonlight.
Every strike left another armored knight writhing, frozen to the bone by her Cryovoid.
She grinned, eyes glittering crimson in the torchlight, humming happily as she pinned one man to the wall with her blade through his shoulder.
Beside her, Lia’s vines lashed like whips, thorned and merciless.
Roots cracked stone, binding entire squads at the ankles, dragging them screaming into the earth.
Yet her voice was soft and motherly as she soothed the struggling knights, "Rest. Stop fighting. You’ll live."
The clash of savagery and compassion left the Dervane estate buried in silence—every knight frozen or bound, unable to move.
However, some demon tore free of its disguise, hulking and horned; Siris skewered it through the throat, smiling as its black blood hissed against her skin.
"I was waiting for someone to do it," she muttered as she wished that at least one demon would transform and let her kill them.
After all, while Raven did say that they shouldn’t kill anyone, he didn’t say the same for demons.
Once a demon revealed its true form, they had to kill it.
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Rufus & Jessy—House Merrond.
The Merrond estate blazed with light as Rufus slammed into the gates, his nano-suit expanding, shoulders glowing red and black with runic circuits of light.
Blasts of radiant cannons hurled knights sprawling, their weapons melting under the searing heat.
Jessy floated lazily above the battlefield, hands raised as every sword, spear, and shield ripped itself from its owner’s grip, twisting mid-air.
A flick of her fingers, and the weapons formed a storm of spinning metal, corralling the panicked household guards until Rufus struck them down with precision blasts.
"Too easy," Jessy yawned, though her eyes narrowed when a horned fiend burst from the manor doors.
Metal walls snapped into place around it, crushing tighter and tighter until Rufus’s light beam drilled clean through its skull.
When the dust cleared, every knight groaned on the ground, limbs bound by Jessy’s iron chains.
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Graye & Clara—House Talvine.
The Talvine estate roared with purple fire.
Graye was a whirlwind, her greatsword wreathed in violet flames that burned hotter with every swing.
Each down-slash shattered the marble floors, knocking entire squads of soldiers sprawling. Her laughter rang wild, reckless, alive.
Beside her, Clara’s voice slipped through the chaos like a thread of silk. Her sound magic warped reality itself, shrouding the knights in visions—phantoms of fire and steel that left them stumbling, swinging at shadows. One by one, her illusions drove them into Graye’s waiting blade.
The Talvine guards collapsed in heaps, their minds shattered by Clara’s whispers and their bodies broken by Graye’s gleeful violence.
When a grotesque demon tore its way out of a disguised captain, Graye cleaved it in two, her flames reducing the corpse to ash.
Clara didn’t flinch—her illusions dissolved, leaving silence in their wake.
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Alex & Nibbles—House Ferrowind.
Alex’s fists dripped lava as he tore through the Ferrowind guards, his eyes wild with grief and fury.
Blargh’s black tendrils slithered from his skin, lashing out to smash knights against walls.
"WHY do you people keep siding with demons?!" He roared, his voice cracked and raw, every punch melting steel armor like wax.
Nibbles, perched on his shoulder, was calm in contrast—his telekinesis flared, yanking entire squads into the air and snapping them down into the marble like dolls.
When Alex’s rage threatened to burn the whole manor, Nibbles thwacked him on the head with a telekinetic smack, holding up a sign that said, "FOCUS, DUMMY. SUBDUE, NOT KILL."
Alex huffed, teeth gritted, but obeyed.
Together, man and squirrel brought the Ferrowind estate to silence—every guard broken, bound, yet alive.
When a hulking demon tried to flee, Alex and Blargh ripped it apart mid-air, lava and tendrils leaving nothing behind but cinders.
However, defeating them wasn’t the only thing they had to do.
Each group was followed by a company of soldiers from different households—some Royal, some Vaise, and some from other supporting households.
Every knight, every servant, and every noble that had sided with the demons was bound in chains, sealed in cages.
None of them were killed, but none were free either.
Because Raven had commanded that they should all be dragged back to the capital.
Because soon, Nibbles would point his tiny paw and reveal which were human... and which were demons hiding in skin.
For now, however, each group would move from one noble house to another until all of them were out of the war and in the royal prison.
However, that was for the time everyone returned.
For now, Raven, who had made Jake a slave and given him the only order he would ever give him, thought it was now time for Raven to reveal something else to Jake.
It wasn’t something one would advise telling a guy who had just regained consciousness after almost losing his life—or more like, being revived after death—but Raven knew that keeping it from Jake would be worse.
After all, Jake was the type who wanted nothing kept from him.
Jake never showed it, but he was the type of guy who valued a nothing-kept-hidden policy.
Raven leaned back in his chair, crimson eyes flickering in the dim light of the chamber.
The muffled sounds of the city seeped in through the stone walls—distant, almost unreal compared to the weight of what he was about to say.
Jake sat across from him, still pale, still breathing like every inhale reminded him of his brush with death. His fists clenched and unclenched, his body trembling not from weakness but from waiting—for answers.
Raven studied him for a moment longer, then spoke, voice low and steady, stripped of its usual humor.
"Jake... there’s something you need to hear. And I won’t dress it up or hide it."
Jake’s gaze snapped to him, sharp despite the exhaustion in his eyes.
"Faron is dead," Raven said simply. The words fell like stones into the silence. "He didn’t fall for a scheme. He chose to fight them alone, and he paid the price."
Jake didn’t flinch at first. His jaw tightened, his shoulders stiffened, but his eyes burned—a storm barely held back.
Raven leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. "I won’t insult you by saying he went peacefully. He didn’t. He fought until the very end."
The silence that followed was heavier than any battlefield.
Jake merely stared at Raven, or at least that’s what it seemed even though he was lost in his own thoughts.
He was recalling his moments with his master.
Without him realizing it, his knuckles were whitening as his nails dug into his palms. A single tear traced down, but his voice was steel. "Then I’ll carry his fight... and finish it."