Fire Mage-Chapter 694: Despair

Chapter 694: Despair

By the time Elder Luna awoke, she found herself lying naked in a smooth, luxurious bedroom. Through the glass window, the crimson moon bathed the room in an eerie red glow, making her skin crawl with unease.

Beside her lay a muscular man in his forties with deep blue hair, a round face, and sharp eyebrows—Leo Nightwind, her husband.

On the other side of him, two women lay cuddled together. One appeared to be in her forties, the other in her thirties. Leo’s first and second wives.

’H-How did I get here?’ she wondered in alarm.

Heart pounding, she reached out and pressed her hand to Leo’s chest, checking for a heartbeat. Then she hurriedly leaned over to inspect the other women. All three were breathing.

’But... didn’t Charles knock me out?’

Quietly, she slipped out of bed, grabbed a white robe from a nearby table, and began tiptoeing toward the door.

"A-Argh!"

A sudden scream behind her made her freeze.

She turned, slowly, and saw Leo thrashing violently, as though something unseen bound him in place. A crimson slash split open across his throat. Blood gushed out like a fountain.

"W-What’s going on?" one of the women shouted, jolted awake by the noise.

The other stirred and rushed to Leo’s side in panic.

Elder Luna stood frozen, watching the chaos unfold. Her husband writhed in pain, blood spurting from the fresh wound. The women tried frantically to hold him down and stop the bleeding.

She rushed back, panic flaring in her eyes. "Leo?!"

Gasping for breath, Leo managed a final whisper. "It... it was a ghost..."

His neck was cleaved clean in two.

"C-Charles!" Elder Luna gasped, her eyes going wide.

As Leo’s blood floated upward, it began to twist into the shape of a number.

’8’

"What the hell..." the older woman murmured, pale and trembling.

Before Luna could respond, another scream echoed from the next room.

Her blood turned to ice.

She dashed out, bolting through the long corridor, heart pounding in her ears. The room just ahead belonged to her first son and his wife.

"Thiago!" she cried out, but only the muffled sobs of a woman responded.

She flung the door open.

Thiago lay sprawled on the bed, his lifeless eyes staring into nothing. His body bore signs of a brutal struggle. On the floor, his young wife cradled their child, her face streaked with tears, her cries piercing.

"No... no... Thiago!" Luna rushed to him, trembling hands reaching for any sign of life. But he was cold.

A number formed from blood droplets floated in the air above him.

’7’

Shock gripped her so tightly she could barely breathe. Charles wasn’t simply killing—he was turning each death into a nightmare etched into memory.

"Charles... you monster," she growled, her voice low, trembling with rage and grief.

Then a voice echoed through the room, colder than death.

"Elder Luna, move faster if you want to save the rest."

She turned. Charles stood in the doorway, his eyes void of warmth. Before she could even speak, he vanished in a flash of crimson flame.

Her heart dropped.

"Oh no! Enzo and Milo! They’re in danger!"

Grief turned to urgency. She pushed herself up and ran again, leaving behind her son’s corpse and the anguished cries of her daughter-in-law.

She sprinted down the corridor toward the next room. Enzo and Milo—her other two sons—were staying there with their families.

Her hands trembled as she reached for the doorknob. Her instincts screamed that the horror wasn’t over.

She summoned what little strength she had and shoved the door open.

Inside, Enzo and his wife stood alert, swords in hand. The earlier scream had already put them on edge.

"Mom, what’s going on?" Enzo asked, voice tight with worry.

"H-He’s killing us... we need to leave. Now." Her chest heaved as she spoke.

"Who?" he demanded.

Before she could answer, two more screams rang out from the guest houses.

"Mom! Dad!! F*ck!" Luna turned ghostly white.

"Milo and his family are staying with them!" she cried.

Realizing the urgency, Enzo grabbed his wife’s hand. Together with Luna, they bolted from the room. Panic was spreading across the mansion as more family members woke up to the nightmare.

At the entrance to the guest houses, a grisly sight awaited them.

Two severed heads—her elderly parents—lay at the doorstep, eyes wide open in frozen terror.

"MOM!!! DAD!!!" Elder Luna collapsed to her knees, screaming.

Painted beside the heads in blood were two chilling numbers:

’6’ and ’5’

"Where’s Milo? And his family?" she whispered, scanning the blood-smeared rooms with rising dread.

"M-Mom!" Enzo pointed upward, his voice cracking.

Luna looked up—and nearly fainted.

Milo hung in mid-air, no rope, nothing holding him. His head was twisted completely around, his eyes bulging, tongue lolling out grotesquely. On his forehead, the number ’4’ was scrawled in blood.

"B-But... who are the other three?" Enzo asked, horror creeping into his voice.

Suddenly, he reached for his neck.

"M-Mom! I think... my time has come!" he cried, as blood burst from a thin, invisible gash across his throat.

"No!" Luna activated her wisdom power, scanning for the unseen force—but there was nothing.

Before she could blink, the invisible thread sliced clean through his neck.

His head hit the floor with a sickening thud.

"F*ck..." Luna whispered, despair flooding her.

’My other two children... they’re not even twenty yet!’

She dropped to her knees on the blood-soaked floor and screamed. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Don’t kill them, Charles! They’re just children! They’ve done nothing wrong! Take me instead!"

Silence fell, eerie and heavy.

Then came a slicing sound.

Luna’s arms suddenly flew off her shoulders, landing with a wet slap before her parents’ heads.

A second later, they were shredded into minced meat.

The pain hadn’t even registered when a shadow flashed before her. Something brushed against her legs—and then her lower body crumpled.

Her legs had been chopped into pieces.

"I accept your plea. But let others know... this is only the beginning."

Charles’s voice echoed like a death knell before vanishing.

Now maimed and alone amidst the mutilated remains of her family, Elder Luna collapsed under the weight of despair. The air reeked of blood and vengeance.

She had offered herself to spare her children—and lost everything in return.

’I’ve lost nearly everyone... and now I’m a cripple,’ she thought numbly. The only one who could restore her limbs was the Pope of the Life Church—and he was entirely beyond her reach.

...

"You’ve made quite a mess," said a brown-haired, middle-aged man as he stood on the mansion’s terrace, gazing toward the chaos unfolding at one of the guest houses.

"But... was it really necessary to kill family members?" Runeth asked, just as a crimson humanoid flame flickered beside him and slowly morphed into a deep blue-haired man.

"This is the lightest punishment I’m giving for their mistake," Charles replied coldly. "If they’d killed royalty instead of my father, what do you think would’ve happened to the Nightwind Family, old man?"

Runeth fell silent for a moment, then answered in a solemn tone.

"The entire Nightwind Family—elders, women, children, even the servants—would’ve been dragged out and executed on the spot."

"Exactly. So, there’s no issue here. I won’t touch the innocent. Only those involved in the murders and tied to the Truelords will die," Charles said, raising his hand. Invisible threads danced through the air, and the massacre began—swift and silent.

Screams and cries rang out from the Nightwind mansion as members of the Main Family dropped one after another, strangled by unseen forces. Panic spread like wildfire.

The whole mansion plunged into turmoil.

"W-What the hell is happening?" Patriarch Diego stood at the mansion’s entrance, eyes wide in disbelief as he watched the massacre unfold.

"I can’t even sense the enemy... Who could it be?" A sudden image flashed in his mind—Runeth.

"Could it be him?" His gaze shifted toward the guest houses. Runeth was missing, but what truly stunned him was that Elder Michael, who had been assigned to monitor Runeth, was still lounging in the guest house’s living room, relaxed on the sofa.

"That bastard... He’s still lazing around even with all this noise? No, something’s wrong."

In an instant, Diego flew to the guest house, kicked open the door, and stormed in.

"What’s wrong, Patriarch?" Elder Michael asked, genuinely confused.

That’s when Diego noticed something strange. The living room was eerily quiet. The screams from outside were completely muffled.

"There’s a massacre happening outside, Michael. Where is Charles’s teacher?" Diego asked, voice tight with urgency.

"He’s in the bedroom. I’ve been watching him the whole time," Michael replied, pointing toward the open doorway.