Rivers of the Night-Chapter 848: Nothing Personal

These weren’t things that Theron understood. But what he did know were three things in specific.

First, a disastrous change was happening to Ayame at this very moment.

Second, this was almost certainly caused by Demon Prince DiBarr. The timing would be too coincidental otherwise.

And third… the moment the Resistance Army got the chance, they would kill her on sight.

These three facts didn’t help him in the slightest in figuring out what he should do. Even when Alpha appeared by his side, and then Lyra soon after, he didn’t even react to their appearance.

He was at a loss.

What should he do? What could he do?

He didn’t even understand cultivation the way he should for someone of his power. He had made it here through his own genius and by only following the simplest forms of cultivation. While he had a deep understanding of the sciences and the rules of the world, it was hard for him to translate that into cultivation itself.

He wouldn’t even know where to start helping Ayame.

It was like he was watching his parents die to those bolts of lightning again, like he was helplessly watching his little sister shed tears in his mother’s arms, his father giving him a firm gaze that told him not to come… like he was watching Malaya fade away before him without even the chance to say goodbye, without even the hope of changing things.

Theron’s grip on his blade hilts tightened so much that blood stopped flowing to his hands entirely, turning them such a pale, lifeless shade of white that it felt like they were radiating death itself.

“Theron, you…” Lyra’s soft voice spoke out at his side, but Theron hardly heard it. The difference between her tone and a mosquito flying by might as well have been the same.

Suddenly, rage flashed in Theron’s eyes.

BANG!

Lyra hurriedly covered her eyes with both her forearms, squinting through the gaps between them to see Theron cut a line right through the air.

He descended from above, unsheathing his blade in a single motion and slashing down toward Kenton.

BOOM.

Kenton’s pupils constricted. He had moved in the darkness, and everyone was so distracted he didn’t think any of them would have noticed.

Granted, he was trying to sneak into the vortex of winding darkness, but it was precisely because no one thought anyone would be foolish enough to do this that he thought he was free to do exactly that.

He was wrong.

Theron was paying attention.

And once again, it was this guy acting. For what reason? Theron didn’t know, nor did he care.

The lines differentiating Theron’s pupils, his irises, and their whites seemed to vanish. A burning essence of dark energy replaced his eyes instead, flashing in whites and blacks as his fury spilled out.

BOOM.

Kenton hurried to block, his pupils constricting into pinholes the moment their blades met. Why was Theron’s attack so much heavier than before? Was it because he was attacking from above?

No, that wasn’t enough to account for it. They hadn’t fought more than half a day ago. No one would grow so much stronger in such a short time.

Kenton’s knees bent beneath the impact, his body nearly crumbling. But he roared, his Mana pulsing through his limbs. With a push, he managed to send Theron flying back.

Theron skidded to a stop, his heels just barely nicking against the swirling vortex.

He swung his sword.

A line cut across the land, leveling tents and earth just the same. It was perfectly straight, perfectly even, forming a black trench half a centimeter wide uniformly across hundreds of meters.

“I will kill anyone who comes close to this line.”

There was an abyssal edge to Theron’s voice, fumes of darkness radiating from his lips.

Sparks of fire danced in the air, embers twinkling on the edges of plumes of black.

Kenton frowned. This was a problem. He didn’t expect to be caught, and he wasn’t sure how to explain it. But when he heard Theron’s words, his eyes flashed.

“Bamby!” he roared, his voice carrying a biting edge. “Let’s cut him down. He’s trying to protect the Demon!”

Even in his furious state, Theron could clearly hear the underlying implication in Kenton’s words. He didn’t have the luxury of shutting off his brain like others did.

This implication wasn’t that Ayame was being treated as a Demon by those around them. The implication was that Kenton and Bamby had a relationship that ran deeper than the rivalry and hatred they seemed to hold on the surface.

And it seemed that both of them wanted Ayame for reasons Theron didn’t know.

Whatever the reason was… Theron had made his stance as clear as day.

His hair danced in the air, streams of Water and Dark Mana overlapping and forming currents of indigo with one another. The dark blues suppressed everything, his rage calling the currents to boil and churn with a mass of heat that raised the temperature of the city to smoldering degrees.

Steam rose from Theron’s mouth, and before Bamby could even hesitate and roll his eyes at Kenton for dragging him into something like this, Theron was already moving.

BANG.

Swords crossed, Kenton blocking with all his might. But it was clear he had yet to fully recover from his battle with Theron earlier. By comparison, Theron was not only at full health, he was already stronger than before.

And he wanted nothing more than Kenton’s head on a platter.

BOOM.

The skies exploded as Alpha intercepted a familiar snow fox before it could interfere.

“Fuck you, Kenton,” Bamby cursed. He knew exactly why Kenton was doing this, but couldn’t he have been more subtle?

He rushed in.

“Nothing personal, kid,” Bamby said with a laugh, a large hammer attached to a pole arm over two meters long appearing in his hands. Sparks formed on its end, and then it descended like a streaking meteor flaming through the atmosphere.

Theron was forced to change the trajectory of his dagger from slicing Kenton’s throat open to blocking the hammer blow coming from Bamby.

It felt like every bone in his body fractured beneath the power, his knees nearly collapsing.