The entire hall was silent after Kingston yelled. Everyone looked at the people around them who had stood up and brandished their swords. “Now, Kingston, there's no need to get worked up,” the man from earlier said with a smile.

Instead of responding Kingston gazed around the room at the many enemies before him, his eyes piercing. “Is this all of you?” he asked with a sneer, if this was all they had brought to fight him they were in for a rude awakening...

“Of course, it’s not, we have the entire temple surrounded by the whole of bloodless organization not to mention some of the other forces that we convinced to join us in taking you down.”

The head’s expression remained unfazed at the man’s words seemingly not bothered by his temple being surrounded. “So what do you want then, what is your goal? Surely you are not doing this just to get me out of the picture. With that in mind I assume you are after… that.”

“Ah as astute as ever I see, yes other than killing you and taking over your temple we are also after that object. Regardless though I think it’s time we get this over with, now do you want to surrender and make this easy? Or do you want us to kill every member of your temple including yourself?”

All the members of Bloodless looked at Kingston ready to act should he not choose to lay down his life, without a word he raised his hand forward and closed his eyes seemingly in wait for something.

Seeing his actions the man who had been speaking raised one of his eyebrows, whatever he was doing made a bad feeling appear in his gut. Trusting his instincts he went to tell his men to attack.

“Att-” Before he could finish his words Kingston's eyes flashed open with golden light, “Too late.” suddenly the temple started to shake violently and the head slowly started to float upwards into the air.

Watching him float up the man seemed to realize something as his expression changed rapidly, shock, anger, annoyance, all of these could be seen easily upon his face. “Tell me you did not,” he said with gritted teeth, glaring fiercely at the head.

“Unfortunately, I did. This is the price of your actions, a price I am more than willing to pay if it means the potential survival of some of my temple members and bloodline. You left me with no choice, you only have yourselves to blame.”

Finishing his words he glanced down at Soaki (Damien), “Take my son and leave, do not return until you both have the strength to do so.” Turning his attention to his only child who was trying his best not to cry as he was well aware of the consequences of his father’s actions.

“Live well.” with that, he turned his attention back to the members of Bloodless, his body now entirely covered in golden light. Looking down at all of them he displayed a look of disgust. “For your actions of colluding with those not of our planet and for betraying humanity, I Kingstone, head of the Forsaken temple will lay down my life to make sure you all die here today.”

With those final words he began to glow even more brightly, so bright that even looking at him began to make others wince their eyes and be forced to look away.

Damien watching all of this decided it was time to take action, while he was not sure what the objective of this trial was he was sure of one thing. Taking this child off the planet was not the answer, if it was the temple would have been rebuilt long ago. Suddenly upon having that train of thought he heard the old spirit speak inside his mind.

“You are on the right track, do not go to the location the head gave you.” After saying those words the spirit went quiet and said no more refusing to elaborate or explain anything to Damien.

In response, Damien sighed a bit annoyed but also reassured as now he knew for a fact that not only were his thoughts correct but he was also within another trial of sorts, shaking his head he focused himself once more.

Springing into action Damien grabbed the boy who at this point was sobbing violently for his father to stop he quickly made his way over to the hall he previously talked to the head in earlier that day. Walking up behind the throne he approached the vault door.

He was going to try and repeat the old spirit’s actions and open it up before putting the boy inside, at least in there he should be safe and allow Damien to act without worrying about his safety.

Luckily for him, he was a shade and a trait of theirs was their ability never to forget things. Quickly repeating the old spirit’s actions he mumbled the weird incantation just like the spirit had done with mimicking the hand movements.

Upon finishing it the door started to open slowly prompting Damien to once more grab Arthur, this time however the boy fiercely struggled against him and started yelling.

“LET ME GO SOKAI.” after a few more moments of struggling Damien got annoyed and chopped the back of Arthuer’s neck knocking him out. Looking down at him Damien shook his head feeling somewhat sorry for him as had it been him in this situation he would probably act the same.

Picking him up and carrying him inside, Damien took a short glance around. The room looked pretty much the same as it did when he had previously seen it, minus the dust all over the place.

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Laying Artuher down he quickly turned around and made his way back outside, as he went to close the door he realized he did not know how. The old spirit never closed it originally, Damien tried to push it closed but that didn’t work.

Tapping his finger on his chin he tried the incantation once more and fortunately, the door started to move and eventually shut tightly once more sealing the head's son within. Sighing with relief Damien turned around and started to sprint back to the coronation room, hopefully, he could make it within time.

Having heard the other's words and seen the reactions of Kingston’s son he was sure that whatever the head was doing would have dire consequences, as for what those were Damien had no idea as it was not in the information he had gotten earlier by looking at the head.

After a few minutes of running, he was about to walk into the room when suddenly three bloodless members jumped out at him each brandishing different weapons.

Damien’s eyes instantly narrowed and he took a defensive position, the three had attacked in sync that way their attacks would land at the same time. Unfortunately for them had Damien faced a synced attack like this a few months ago he would have suffered serious injuries, without using his bloodline of course.

Seeing a gap in their three-way attack Damien swiftly dodged out of the way with a calm look, “Not bad coordination. You must have trained well, unlucky for you however I had a crazy teacher.” Upon thinking of Ruby teaching he felt himself get chills. ‘Crazy woman…’

Looking at Damiens's unbothered look and words the three bloodless members felt like they were being looked down upon inciting anger within all of them.

“You dare to look down on us for a simple attack?” one of them said with a sneer on his face.

Saying nothing further the three resumed their positions once more surrounding Damien on three sides, having spent so many years fighting together the three said nothing.

All of a sudden flames started to come out of their weapons forming a circle around him, the flames connected to each other causing the flame to change color with each connection. With the first connection, the flames went from orange to red, with the second red to blue, and the third blue to purple.

Damien watching all of this had a look of interest on his face as he was genuinely intrigued by their actions and wanted to know what the flames could do but unfortunately, he did not have the time to entertain them, with that thought he sighed and disappeared having used his lighting movement leaving flashes of electricity in his wake.

Surprise colored the three men's faces before one of them spoke, “Be on guard, who knows what this cocky bastard is up to.”

As one of the other men was about to respond he glanced over at the man who just spoke, blood leaving his face he yelled out.

“Behind!-” *Slick* the sound of metal cutting through flesh could be heard before the man's head fell to the ground with a thud, and looks of horror appeared on the other's faces as they just watched someone they had spent their whole life with have his head cut off.

On the other hand, Damien was staring at the head with a blank expression, for some reason killing had never bothered him the way he felt it should. Even if this was not a real person and was an elaborate illusion or something like that, he still had just cut a man's head off… he had tried to think of reasons for this in the past but could find no explanation other than it was just the way he is.

Maybe it was because he had been trapped in simulations for hundreds of years, In a lot of them he killed ten times the amount he had in the real world, so he could just be desensitized. Regardless of the reasons though it just made him feel empty upon feeling nothing after ending someone's life.

Before he could get to lost in his thoughts one of the other bloodless members let out a guttural scream before launching himself at Damien, a look of intense hatred on his face.

The man swung his sword laterally in an attempt to bisect Damien who in response calmly raised his katana, effortlessly blocking the attack before swiftly turning around and raising it above blocking the other man who attempted to sneak attack him.

Flashing forward at one of the men Damien quickly threw a feint causing the man to attempt to block with his sword. Seeing the man fall for it so easily Damien knew it was likely because he was overcome with emotions, something that would cause you to easily make mistakes.

Without a second thought, Damien swung his sword diagonally, slicing the man from his right shoulder to his lower left abdomen. Watching the man fall to the floor Damien looked at the final expression on his face.

He had died with a look of intense hate, after staring at the floor for a few moments he turned around with a heavy expression and stared at his final opponent who surprisingly was not rushing at him like the other man did in anger.

“I'm surprised.” Damien said pausing for a second before continuing, “You managed to control your emotions.”

The man let out a scoff in response, “Oh no Im pissed, had I not been I wouldn't have let my second brother die so easily and lose himself to his emotions.”

Damien nodded his head respecting the man for admitting his mistake, “I can let you go you know? Honestly, I’d rather not fight you I just want to get in there and see the situation of the head.”

“The fact that you dare to say that is astounding… Do you think I am going to just walk away after you killed both of my brothers?! The people I spent my entire life training with?!”

Damien laughed dryly in response, “Alright stupid question.” he said before taking an offensive position.

“Prepare yourself” Damien warned the man before dashing forwards and clashing his sword against the man’s.

A series of metal clashing against each other began to ring throughout the temple halls, taking a step forward Damien quickly used lighting movement and appeared behind the man.

Surprisingly however the man was prepared and turned around and blocked the attack parried the attack by sliding Damien's sword along his own before stabbing forward his blade aimed at Damien’s heart.

Barley managed to dodge to the side Damien looked at his opponent with seriousness for the first time, up to this point he had been toying with them but it looks like he needed more training from Ruby as she had told him in the past to never let his guard down or to get cocky.

Even if the woman was crazy he had almost lost his life because he did not listen to her words and looked down on his opponent. Wiping the cold sweat that had formed from almost losing his life Damien spoke.

“What’s your name and the name of your brothers?” he asked with respect in his eyes.

“My name is Tanyu, my second brother was named Heti, and my last brother's name was Noel.”

Hearing the man's words Damien smiled, “I shall remember all of you, even if this is not real.” With that, he dashed forward and swiftly cut the Tanyu’s head off his shoulders without even giving him a chance to react.

Sheathing his sword he quickly walked over to the coronation room door, not a pause in his steps, and opened the door.

Upon looking inside shock could be seen on his face. “What the fuck happened?”