There were so few in the world who would have believed this sight.

Raidis seemed troubled.

His eyes darted around the room as if he were already searching for an exit.

"I’m very curious. Which one are you exactly? You had to be one of the important ones to have survived this long."

Kinslayer stepped around the room like he was admiring the carnage that had ensued before he arrived. Raidis watched him move about carefully.

"I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who are you-"

"Oh, don’t give me that. I’m old, not blind." Kinslayer sat down on the bloodstained sofa, kicking up his feet on the table. "If you were going to try and play that little game, then you probably should have just kept those murder mitts better concealed. It really does ruin the secrecy of it all."

Raidis barely blinked, and suddenly Kinslayer was in front of him.

"So, how did you survive? I really am dying to know."

Raidis swiped his claws in the air with a roar.

Five deep gashes were carved in the marble floor of the room. The chandelier on the ceiling was completely obliterated, causing flecks of gold and glimmering stone to rain down.

Raidis knew that his effort meant nothing. He hadn’t even grazed his opponent.

"You seem to have acquired quite a high position in this world. These garments of yours are rather fine."

Raidis whirled around, finding Kinslayer holding his cape to inspect.

"I still don’t understand why mortals wear these things. Any chance you’ve figured it out after living here a few more millennia?"

Raidis didn’t get a moment to answer before a metal fist backhanded him across the jaw and sent him flying.

The walls of the palace crumbled like tin when his body punched through them. Kinslayer casually dusted off his knuckle and prepared to follow when he felt someone grab his leg.

Duke Deucalion looked up at Raidis like he was his holiest savior. Tears and snot ran down his face in uncontrolled amounts.

"T-Thank you... Thank you! That madman- he just came in here and started killing everyone! Please help me, I’ll give you whatever you-"

"Griever! Come down here and deal with this!" Kinslayer whined.

Suddenly, the pieces of a nearby broken mirror began to rattle on the ground.

A clear, white mist rose from the shards and formed a man in silver armor.

Griever folded his arms across his chest, glancing at his brother and the sniveling man holding onto his leg.

"...You must be joking. You truly summoned me here for this? Just kill him."

Duke Deucalion finally fainted.

"I don’t feel like staining my blades or my armor with the blood of that whelp. Besides, I’ve got greater prey to chase at the moment." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Griever glanced around the room without a change in expression. "I’m assuming that it is what is responsible for..."

His eyes settled on the gashes in the wall and ceiling, causing his brows to furrow.

"...You cannot be serious. You and Gorgon were supposed to destroy them all."

"It seems that we missed one. No matter." Kinslayer shrugged.

"It is a very large matter! Find it and destroy it, now!"

"Do you think I summoned you here to bark orders at me?? I called you here so that you could manipulate that one’s memories so that he would think he killed his family!"

"I will do my duty without fail! You just make sure that you do the same, or May’Afar will hear of your blunder. Do not forget how foul his mood has been as of late."

Griever didn’t even see his brother draw his blades. All he saw was him pointing the four silver swords at his neck and chest.

"Careful. I can make your eternal existence very excruciating, you guileless little fart."

Griever barely paid his brother’s words any attention, rather, he jerked his head toward the back of the palace.

"You’re dawdling. The prey is fleeing."

Kinslayer growled.

The position of his blades wavered for a moment before he stalked off in a clear rage. He even went as far as to childishly kick over one of the support pillars as he walked past it.

The deathless made his way outside, following the trail of inhuman footprints before they suddenly stopped.

He glanced at the clouds, finding that they had been unnaturally pushed apart.

Kinslayer whistled casually as he drew his swords once more. He pointed them up and out, toward the broken clouds.

The blades became superheated, glowing like miniature suns.

With a single thought from Kinsalyer, the blades shot forth beams of superheated aura.

The attack was magnificently deadly. The grass underneath the deathless’ feet wilted near instantly.

Roughly two miles away, a large, black figure fell out of the sky, a trail of smoke and blood leaving its back.

The creature crash-landed into an empty lake nearby. All of the displaced water fell from the sky like rain.

With his hands at his sides, Kinslayer floated toward the fallen creature, the droplets of water produced small clinking sounds as he cornered his prey.

"Stupid brother of mine... the nerve of you to act as if you are so superior to me. Make one mistake in 50,000 years and it gets held over your head until the end of time."

A large glob of some foul-smelling substance was spat at the deathless as he drew closer.

Kinslayer didn’t even bother to avoid it. To the untrained eye, it would look like he took the mound of fluid straight on, but it was just the opposite.

Some sort of ultra-thin barrier seemed to protect him from being soiled. He continued his advance while clicking his teeth.

"What a disgusting little tactic. Evidently, your old masters thought so too. I seem to recall your masters weren’t fond of the trick either. It is no wonder they replaced you with those... what were they called... Blast, I forgot. All of you scaled creatures look the same to me."

The beast before Kinslayer was nearly quadruple his size. Lined with black scales and a serpentine body, it looked like some kind of mythological sea monster.

It turned to glare at Kinslayer with a ferocity great enough to turn man to stone.

Unfortunately for the creature, Kinslayer was the type of man to glare right back. Especially when he was confronted with new hurdles.

"Answer me now, basilisk. Where is your real body?"