The door exploded in a thousand pieces. Jacob appeared amidst the splinters, wielding Kevin and driving his sword right through the first Triton’s legs. He cut off the monster’s legs at his knees, leaving the him flailing on the ground, horrified and screaming.

The second Triton was still holding the man and immediately threatened: “Move, Human, and I’ll kill him!”

The guy is clearly going to bleed to death anyway.

Jacob hadn’t met these enemies in quite a long time. After humanity had gone extinct, they had become less daring; Tritons and Sirens had started spending more time in their natural environment rather than hunt other species.

“Filthy mosters I’m going to ruin you,” Jacob spelled out each word pointedly while looking at the bloody scene in the apartment. Bodies were laying down in a circle where Blood Magic was slowly sucking out their life-force and feeding it to a Formation where the two Tritons would have cultivated once the ritual had run up its course.

“You can either start speaking right now, and I’ll give you a swift death, or I can carve the answers out of you. Pick your poison.”

The triton who had lost his legs suddenly tried to sneak attack Jacob with a Spell, Water Spear.

Jacob barely turned to cut both his hands. He disregarded the Triton with a hostage and and put one of his feet on the monster’s chest. He cut off the Triton’s limbs at the shoulder and hips. The creature laid on the ground, his screams muffled by Jacob’s foot that now rested on his neck.

“What kingdom do you belong to?” he stared at the other Triton. That guy was froze and clearly losing his shit.

“Who are you?!” the Triton shouted while ripping out the throat of the human.

Jacob didn’t flinch one bit. He saw the Triton eye the window. They were at the sixth floor, but he would probably survive the fall; the same couldn’t be said if the Triton remained in Jacob’s presence.

“You do that, I’m bisecting your body and torturing your soul, I swear on my goddamn Cultivation.”

The Triton was shocked.

He didn’t even know humans knew that much about cultivating.

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How could the human utter such words? Did he even know what he had just said? Did he know the weight that those words carried?

“So, which kingdom?”

“We follow the orders of The Eater, and you stupid humans will soon suffer the wrath of—”

Jacob’s ears started ringing.

The Eater?

He saw Helena enter the apartment and immediately get ready to fight. She was saying something to him, but he couldn’t hear.

Nerea?

Fuck.

“Helena, go back to St. Peter, tell Hektor I need him here. And I need him now. There’s an even bigger threat than the Plague Doctor. I don’t want to waste time. Just go!” Jacob felt his stomach drop to his feet.

“What?”

In the meantime, the Triton started slowly moving toward the window, hoping for an escape.

“You,” Jacob turned toward the seaperson with murder in his eyes. “Where is Nerea’s Empire? How far from our coast?”

The Triton started. How could the human know his Queen’s name? He realized just now how weird it had been for him to ask about his kingdom. But the adrenaline was still pumping in his body, and he couldn’t afford to waste time; he had to save his own life. Whoever this human was, the bastard had chopped up his comrade like it was nothing.

“Jacob, what’s happening? What are those?” Helena felt her stomach lurch at the sight of the limbless Triton. “Are those gills? Jacob!”

“Fuck! Helena, run! I need Hektor here! Get him! Tell him to fucking fly and to be as quick as possible. And tell him to send all his soldiers here! The Plague Doctor is not our main problem now!”

“What are you talking about—”

“Helena! FUCKING RUN!” Jacob shouted.

He flashed in front of the other Triton and dismembered him as well, leaving him with four bleeding stumps where his limbs had been.

“Ok, now, tell me where is that bitch and—wait a second.”

Jacob turned toward Helena, who was still standing behind him.

He went right up in her face.

“Helena, these two are soldiers of the most terrifying fucking Empire right after the monster that killed me. If The Eater comes here, we are dead. Everyone in this fucking city is dead. Every-fucking-person. Is that clear? Now, can you do me a favor and fucking go fetch Hektor?”

He got closer to her and whispered.

“Not even he might be enough if the bitch comes ashore. So, fucking run.”

Jacob had promised himself he would keep calm while looking for the Plague Doctor. But this was different. This was an apocalyptic scenario, even by apocalypse standards. Nerea was way beyond his current capabilities. To be honest, Jacob had no idea if even Hektor could kill the woman. Or even just fend her off.

“I’m going,” Helena seemed to understand at least part of the mess they had just uncovered.

He looked at her leave the room.

Then he looked back at the two Tritons.

They were close to death after the massive blood loss they had just suffered. Their cultivation wasn’t high enough to regenerate limbs.

“Let’s try once again,” Jacob took out a brush from Kevin’s dimensional space.

He crouched on the first Triton he had downed and started drawing some symbols over his body.

“What are you doing, human?!”

The words came in gurgles, mixed with foam.

“Blood Magic. I’m just giving you a taste of your own medicine. If you think you are the only ones who are good at this, you are sorely wrong.”