In a mere ten seconds, the once formidable camp soldiers lay strewn across the ground, reduced to charred corpses and smoldering ashes. Knox stood amidst the dead, his fiery swords still blazing, their heat warping the air around him. The scent of burning flesh and the acrid smoke of destruction filled the atmosphere, a grim testament to his unstoppable wrath.
Only the council members, the camp leader, and Elara remained, their faces etched with horror and disbelief. The leader's defiant mask had shattered, replaced by a pallor of fear. The council members, who had once sat in judgment, now huddled together, their confidence eroded by Knox's brutal display of power.
Elara, standing at the forefront, felt her heart hammering in her chest. She had seen Knox’s anger before, but this was a new level of ferocity, a hurricane of rage and vengeance that seemed to consume everything in its path. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him, a mixture of fear, regret, and a fleeting sense of the man she once knew clashing within her.
Knox’s eyes, burning with a cold, lethal light, fixed on the remaining figures. “Is this all that’s left of your resistance?” His voice was a low, dangerous growl dripping with contempt. He took a step forward, his fiery swords flickering menacingly.
The leader, gathering the last shreds of his courage, stepped forward. “Knox, stop this madness! There’s no need for more bloodshed.”
Knox's grin widened to a feral, predatory expression. “No need for more bloodshed? You chained me, cut off my arms, and now you plead for mercy? Where was your mercy when I tried to explain myself?”
Elara took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Knox, please… this isn’t you. There’s still a chance to make things right.”
Knox’s gaze snapped to her, his expression hardening. “Right? You speak of making things right after everything you’ve done? After you betrayed me?”
Her eyes welled with tears, but she held his gaze. “I… I didn’t know, Knox. I didn’t know what you had been through. But we can still find another way. This path of destruction won’t bring you peace.”
“Peace?” he spat. “Peace is a lie they tell to keep us in chains. The only peace I’ll find is through their destruction.”
He raised his swords, the flames roaring to life with renewed intensity. The council members recoiled, and the leader braced himself, but it was Elara’s voice that cut through the tension. “Knox, I believe in you. I know you’re more than this rage.”
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Knox hesitated, his swords faltering for just a heartbeat. But at that moment, the leader lunged forward in a desperate attempt to seize the advantage. Knox, his instincts honed by countless battles, reacted in an instant. His sword swung down a fiery arc that cleaved through the leader with ruthless precision.
The leader fell, his face frozen in shock and pain. The council members screamed, their last remnants of courage dissolving into abject terror. Knox stood over the fallen leader, his breath heavy, his eyes flicking back to Elara.
“You see?” he said, his voice a harsh whisper. “This is what it takes to survive in their world. This is the price of peace.”
Elara’s tears fell freely now, her heart breaking for the man she had once hoped to save. She took a step back, her hands trembling. “Knox… what have you become?”
He looked at her, the fiery swords in his hands beginning to dim. For a moment, there was a flash of something in his eyes—regret, sorrow, a fleeting glimpse of the man he used to be. But it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by the complex, unyielding mask of vengeance.
As Knox moved with deadly precision, the council members found themselves frozen in horror, their bodies betraying them as if bound by invisible shackles. With a swift and merciless stroke, Knox's blades cut through the air, each strike like a scythe cleaving through ripe wheat.
The first council member felt a searing pain shoot through their body as Knox's blade sliced through them, the shock rendering them incapable of even gasping. Their upper body slid away from their lower half, the air filled with the sickening sound of tearing flesh and the metallic tang of blood.
One by one, the remaining council members met the same fate, their screams stifled by the swift brutality of Knox's onslaught. Their bodies split cleanly in half, crimson streams spilling onto the ground as their lifeless forms crumpled to the earth.
In mere moments, the council members were transformed into a scene of carnage. The once formidable leaders are now reduced to nothing more than broken corpses. Knox stood amidst the wreckage, his blades still glowing with the heat of battle, a grim reminder of the price of defiance.
Silence descended like a shroud over the chamber, broken only by the soft crackle of smoldering flames. Elara, her breath catching in her throat, could only watch in stunned horror as Knox's rampage came to its bloody conclusion. At that moment, the weight of his actions hung heavy in the air, a chilling reminder of the darkness that lurked within him.
Elara's heart pounded in her chest as she gazed into Knox's eyes, once filled with warmth and compassion but now cold and devoid of humanity. A flicker of fear danced in her eyes as she beheld the darkness that had consumed him, transforming him into a merciless harbinger of destruction.
In those empty, soulless orbs, she saw only the reflection of her worst nightmares made manifest. Gone was the man she once knew, replaced by a shadow of his former self, consumed by rage and driven by a thirst for vengeance.
As Knox turned to face her, his gaze bore into her with an intensity that sent shivers down her spine. It was as if she were staring into the abyss itself, a yawning chasm of despair and despair from which there was no escape.
Elara realized the true extent of the danger that stood before her. No longer was Knox the ally she had once trusted but a fearsome adversary, a force of nature unleashed upon the world with no regard for mercy or compassion.
With a heavy heart, Elara knew that she could no longer deny the truth that lay before her. The man she had once called friend was now her greatest enemy, a specter of death and destruction that haunted her every waking moment. And as she stared into those soulless eyes, she knew that she stood alone against the darkness that threatened to consume them all.