I'm Trapped Inside a Prince as the Most Powerful Entity-Chapter 44: I believe you

The Baron stared in horror as his son, Lucas, collapsed to his knees, bleeding from dozens of shallow cuts inflicted by Adam’s blindingly fast sword movements.

"Lucas!" the Baron screamed, raw terror in his voice. He instinctively started to stumble forward down the ruined steps, wanting to reach his injured son.

But then, his gaze snapped back to Adam, who was now standing calmly beside the kneeling Lucas, the sword resting lightly on his shoulder again. Those empty white eyes fixed on the Baron, stopping him cold. The Baron froze mid-step, paralyzed by fear.

Adam began walking towards the Baron again, his footsteps slow and deliberate on the debris-covered marble. He stopped just a few feet away from the trembling nobleman. The sword remained on his shoulder, a casual but deadly threat.

"Tell me," Adam said, his voice low and quiet, yet carrying an immense weight that seemed to press down on everyone present.

"Where are this girl’s parents?" He didn’t need to gesture towards Alina; the Baron knew exactly who he meant.

Hearing the question, the Baron started shaking violently. His face was pale, slick with sweat despite the cool air.

"I... I told you," he stammered, his voice cracking, barely audible. "I already told you... I... I had them killed." He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the inevitable.

Adam continued his slow advance, closing the remaining distance until he stood directly in front of the terrified Baron.

He looked down at the nobleman, his empty white eyes seeming to pierce right through him. "I believed your words," Adam said softly, his voice almost gentle, which somehow made it even more terrifying.

And then, Adam vanished.

One moment he was standing right in front of the Baron, the next he was simply gone.

Before the Baron could even process the disappearance, Adam reappeared instantly, standing right beside him, almost close enough to touch.

Lucas, still kneeling on the ground nearby, saw Adam disappear from beside him and then reappear next to his father.

A surge of desperate, protective energy shot through him, overriding his pain and fear. "No," he muttered fiercely to himself, gritting his teeth. "No, I can’t let this happen!"

Ignoring the searing pain from his cuts and the throbbing agony in his soon-to-be-broken arm, Lucas pushed himself up from the ground. He didn’t have a weapon anymore, but that didn’t stop him.

With a desperate scream, he lunged towards Adam again. "Leave my father alone!" he yelled, throwing a wild punch with his good arm, aiming for Adam’s head.

Adam seemed to anticipate the desperate attack. He didn’t even turn his head fully. As Lucas’s fist flew towards him, Adam simply shifted his weight slightly to the side, easily avoiding the main force of the charge.

At the same time, he brought his own free hand (the one not holding the sword) up swiftly underneath Lucas’s attacking arm. With a sharp, upward thrust of his palm against Lucas’s elbow joint, Adam applied precise, overwhelming force.

CRACK!

A sickening snapping sound echoed in the sudden silence. Lucas let out a piercing scream of agony as his arm bent at an unnatural angle. The bone was cleanly broken. The force of the impact, combined with the blinding pain, sent Lucas stumbling backward again, clutching his shattered arm, his face contorted in agony.

The Baron saw his son brutally injured again. He saw his chance.

While the being possessing the Prince was momentarily dealing with Lucas, the Baron frantically signaled to the few remaining soldiers who hadn’t been killed or weren’t helping Lucas retreat earlier.

He gestured wildly, urging them to attack now, while their opponent was distracted.

The soldiers hesitated for only a fraction of a second, fear warring with their loyalty to the Baron. Then, steeling themselves, they drew their swords and charged towards Adam from multiple directions.

Adam, however, hadn’t been distracted at all. He still held the steel sword he had picked up earlier. As the soldiers rushed towards him, he simply swung the sword in a wide, seemingly casual arc around him. As the blade moved through the air, it suddenly erupted in a brilliant, blinding flash of pure white light.

Radiant Slash.

The luminous slash expanded outwards from the sword in a 360-degree wave of cutting light. It shot across the courtyard with incredible speed. The charging soldiers didn’t even have time to react. The wave of light passed cleanly through their bodies at waist height.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the top halves of all the attacking soldiers slid sideways off their bottom halves, falling to the ground with wet, slapping sounds. They were all cut cleanly in two. The wave of light dissipated, leaving only Adam standing untouched amidst the gruesome new carnage.

Adam still had Lucas by the collar of his tunic with his free hand, holding the young man up slightly despite his broken arm. Lucas screamed again, writhing weakly, tears of pain streaming down his face.

The Baron stared at the horrific scene – the bodies of his loyal soldiers sliced in half, his son screaming in agony, the mansion behind him destroyed.

The sheer, overwhelming power of the being in front of him finally crushed any remaining defiance, any shred of hope.

His arrogance, his ambition, his cruelty – it all melted away, replaced by raw, abject terror. He finally understood the catastrophic mistake he had made by targeting the Third Prince.

With a choked sob, the Baron dropped heavily to his knees on the debris-strewn marble. He bowed his head low, pressing his forehead against the cold stone, trembling uncontrollably.

"Forgive me, Third Prince! Your Highness!" the Baron begged, his voice cracking and hoarse with desperation and fear. Tears streamed down his face, mixing with the dust on the ground.

"Spare my son! Please, spare Lucas! This... this wasn’t his fault! It was all me! My greed! My foolishness! Punish me, but let him live! Please!" He groveled, completely broken.

Adam’s empty white eyes shifted from the screaming Lucas to the kneeling, begging Baron. He seemed to consider the plea for a moment.

Suddenly, from behind Adam, near the ruined mansion entrance where a few terrified servants might have been hiding, came the sharp twang of a bowstring. One last, incredibly foolish or perhaps incredibly loyal soldier, hidden from the initial Radiant Slash, had fired an arrow.

The arrow flew silently and swiftly through the air, aimed directly at the back of Adam’s head. It covered the distance in a heartbeat, only a few feet away from its target.

Just as the arrowhead was about to strike, Adam released his grip on Lucas’s collar, letting the injured young man slump to the ground.

Without even turning around, Adam casually reached back with his free hand and snatched the speeding arrow right out of the air, catching it effortlessly between his fingers inches from his face.

Alina, who had remained frozen in place near the gate, watched this entire sequence unfold with wide, terrified eyes. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. The fear radiating from the being inhabiting Eric’s body held her captive just as effectively as any chains.

Adam slowly rotated his body, turning to face the direction the arrow had come from. He saw the lone archer standing near the ruined doorway, bow still raised, face pale with terror now that his desperate shot had failed so spectacularly.

Adam held up the arrow he had caught. "You seem to have left something behind," Adam stated, his voice calm, almost conversational, which made it even more chilling. "Allow me to return it to you."

With a flick of his wrist, Adam threw the arrow back towards the archer. He didn’t throw it like a normal person; he threw it with impossible force and precision. The arrow tore through the air, creating a small sonic boom as it broke the sound barrier. It flew unerringly towards the archer.

THWACK!

The arrow struck the archer squarely in the center of his chest. The force of the impact was immense. It didn’t just pierce him; it lifted him off his feet and slammed him backward against the thick stone wall that separated the mansion grounds from the city beyond. The arrow pinned him there, embedded deep in his chest and the stone behind him.

Blood streamed from the archer’s mouth as his head lolled forward, dead before he even slumped against the wall.

Alina let out a small, choked gasp, her hand flying to her mouth. She felt sick. This being was unbelievably powerful and utterly ruthless.

Adam turned back around, his attention returning to the kneeling, sobbing Baron. Lucas was whimpering on the ground nearby, clutching his broken arm. Adam walked forward slowly until he stood directly over the Baron. He reached down and placed his free hand flat on the Baron’s forehead, gripping his head firmly.

The Baron flinched violently at the touch but didn’t dare move. Tears continued to pour down his face as he trembled under Adam’s grip. "Your Highness, please," he pleaded again, his voice barely a whisper now.

"Forgive me... I swear... My only task was to capture the girl... Alina... and hand her over to the men from the Spider Syndicate. That’s all! I truly don’t know where they are based! I don’t know where they took her family! They just... they arrive outside the mansion gates in unmarked carriages, usually at night. We give them the... the ’goods’," he choked on the word, "and they leave! We never follow them! We don’t know where they go! Please, believe me!"

Adam remained silent for several seconds, his hand still pressed firmly against the Baron’s forehead. The empty white eyes seemed to stare into the Baron’s soul. Then, Adam spoke again, his voice level and cold.

"Did I not tell you," Adam said softly, repeating his earlier words, "that I believed you?"

Hearing this, a tiny, confused flicker of something that might have been relief crossed the Baron’s tear-streaked face. Did this mean...? Was he going to be spared?

Adam held the Baron’s head steady with one hand. In his other hand, he still held the steel sword he had taken from the dead soldier. Slowly, deliberately, Adam raised the sword high.

Then, he brought the blade down in a swift, clean arc.

Swish.

Adam severed the Baron’s head cleanly from his body. The Baron’s wide, terrified eyes stared sightlessly for a moment before the head, still held by the forehead in Adam’s grip, went slack. The Baron’s headless body collapsed onto the marble path with a soft thud.

Nearby, Lucas witnessed the horrifying execution of his father. A gut-wrenching scream tore from his throat. "FATHER!" he cried out, tears of grief and agony streaming down his face.

Adam ignored the scream. He held the Baron’s severed head steady in his hand. He closed his eyes (though his eyelids didn’t cover the glowing white pinpricks within the void) and focused his intent.

[System]: Skill Activated: Memory Extraction.

[Processing Recent Memories of Subject: Baron Von Hess.]

Adam delved into the Baron’s final thoughts and recent memories. Images flashed through his awareness – conversations, faces, locations. He saw the Baron meeting with a cloaked man, the same man whose energy signature Adam had sensed earlier using Eric’s nascent abilities.

He heard the man instructing the Baron to capture Alina, confirming her teleportation ability was the prize. The man clearly stated that Syndicate members would come to collect her once she was secured.

Adam scanned further, searching for any clue about the Syndicate’s local base or the location where Alina’s family might have been taken before they were killed (if the Baron was even telling the truth about that).

As he suspected, the Baron truly seemed ignorant of the Syndicate’s deeper operations or hideouts. His dealings were always through intermediaries, like the cloaked man, and pickups were always arranged discreetly outside his territory. However, viewing the memory of the cloaked man was enough. Adam focused intently on that memory, locking onto the unique energy signature of the Syndicate agent.

[Target Energy Signature acquired from Memory Trace: Syndicate Agent ’Crow’.]

Adam released his mental grip on the Baron’s memories, letting the images fade. He returned his full awareness to the present.

[System]: Memory Extraction complete.

Adam opened his eyes. A faint, cold smile touched his lips. The Baron didn’t know the hideout, but the agent who visited him likely did, or at least knew how to get there. "I have another way," Adam murmured softly to himself.

He let go of the Baron’s severed head, tossing it carelessly aside. It rolled across the marble path and came to rest near the Baron’s headless body.

Lucas, his broken arm cradled against his chest, had started crawling painfully across the ground towards his father’s corpse, sobbing uncontrollably. Adam stepped back, positioning himself near the center of the ruined courtyard. He ignored Lucas’s grief.

He placed one hand flat on the cracked marble ground beneath his feet. He closed his eyes again and released a pulse of pure, searching energy from his palm, sending it flowing outwards through the earth, spreading like invisible ripples beneath the entire city and its surrounding areas.

[System]: Skill Activated: Energy Resonance Scan.

[Scanning Area: City-wide Radius. Targeting Acquired Energy Signature ’Crow’.]

The energy spread silently through the ground, mapping everything, searching for that specific resonance, that unique fingerprint of power belonging to the Syndicate agent from the Baron’s memory.

Moments later, Adam felt a response, a faint echo resonating back through the earth from a specific location within the city walls. He had found him.

Adam lifted his hand from the ground, the cold smile returning to his lips. "Found you," he whispered. freewebnσvel.cѳm

[System]: Target Location Identified via Energy Signature.