Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel

Chapter 194: The Crimson Night [22]

The War for The North [81]

Chapter 194: The Crimson Night [22]

"TRAITOR!"

That scream, thick with the scent of blood and despair, echoed through the ruins. Its owner was a Primal Angel, their golden armor shattered, their wings stained with soot and blood.

The divine faith in their eyes had been replaced by pure disgust at the vile sin committed by their leader.

Archangel Solariel wiped the blood seeping from the heart he had torn out and devoured from his own kin, brushing it from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. His body was already beginning to heal.

His torn flesh was mending through a cannibalistic method. There was no trace of regret on his face. Instead, he tried to hide behind a thick armor woven from arrogance and faith.

"Traitor?" Solariel hissed, his voice carrying both a sacred echo and a demonic snarl. "I told you, Uriel... everything we do is for our god! A life sacrificed for the will of Yavres is not betrayal, it is a sacred blessing!"

Watching this tragic collapse unfold within them, I could not hold myself back any longer.

A laugh burst out from the depths of my lungs. I was laughing... yet I could not fully understand why I was laughing, or how such a sick sound was coming from me.

Because of the pressure from the massive explosion earlier, my ears could barely process sound. Everything was muffled, as if I were underwater.

My vision was blurred by my own blood seeping into my eyes and the ashes drifting through the air.

There was unbearable pain in the center of my chest. I could not direct my mana. My body was on the verge of collapse, and yet I could not stop the laughter spilling from my lips.

Still laughing, I began walking toward them. The tip of the sword in my right hand dragged across the ground.

A sharp, grating sound rose as the blade scraped against stone, accompanying my laughter. With every step, black sparks scattered around me.

"Solatus..." I said, my voice like a mocking melody. "Didn’t your mother ever tell you that lying is a bad thing? ’For our god,’ was it... what a pitiful lie."

The Archangel’s eyes widened with fury, the veins on his face standing out.

"SOLARIEL!" he shouted his own name.

I cracked my neck slightly and looked at him without losing the grin on my face. "Who gives a damn about your name, freak?" I hissed. "Look around you. You’re completely alone right now."

Solariel’s face went rigid. "I am not alone!" he snapped, stubborn desperation in his voice.

He cast a hopeful glance toward the remaining Primal Angels behind him. But the pure hatred and disgust in their eyes struck his loneliness back into his face. They did not think the same. To them, their leader was now a monster.

I shifted my gaze to the angels. My eyes landed on the one who had screamed earlier, the one who seemed too pure, too honorable compared to the others.

She seemed free of the disgusting disease called arrogance. If I was not mistaken, Solariel had called her Uriel.

"Hey, you," I called out. "You said your mission here was over, didn’t you?"

Uriel looked at me, trying to stand tall despite her injuries, but she did not answer.

"Then you can go back," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "I’ll let you leave."

Then I turned my gaze to the other Primal Angel standing beside him, wings spread, ready to attack or flee at any moment. "You too. Go and tell your god how pathetic you are."

Seeing his authority and battle slipping away, Solariel lost his mind. "Don’t listen to him!" he shouted, his voice more like a plea than a command. "He is an anomaly! A demon that must be destroyed!"

Before his jaw could fully close, the hand holding my sword moved faster than the eye could see.

"Absolute Severance."

A dark line tore through the air as if ripping the fabric of the universe itself. The moment the attack reached Solariel, his magnificent golden wings were cleanly severed from the roots, torn away from the bones of his back.

The wings fell to the ground among the ashes, scattering golden blood. Solariel collapsed to his knees with a scream of agony.

"Be quiet for a bit, Solatus," I said, pointing my sword at him. "You’re ruining the fun."

I turned back to the two angels. "So, what’s your answer?"

The two angels looked at each other amid the destruction. Their eyes were filled with deep doubt and confusion. In the end, it was Uriel who spoke. Clenching her bleeding fists, she raised her broken yet still honorable voice.

"Why should we accept your offer?" she said, locking her eyes onto mine. "The weaker we make you here, the less of a threat you will be to our god in the future. That is our duty. And... after everything you’ve done, why would you let us go?"

I rolled my eyes. Humans, angels, gods... all the same. All searching for some complicated meaning beneath everything.

"No questions allowed," I said coldly. "If you ask one more question, I’ll only let one of you leav—"

What cut me off was the violent tremor beneath my feet. Massive thorned roots burst from deep underground, lunging at me like a nest of serpents, trying to wrap around me and tear me apart.

I let out a tired sigh. I lowered my left hand slightly and released a pitch black wave of chaos from my body.

The massive roots turned to ash before they could even reach me. At the same time, I felt a massive gust of wind approaching from my blind spot, slicing through the air like a blade.

Without even raising my sword, I simply swung my right hand and created a wave of chaotic wind. When the two winds collided, the force of the storm sent even heavy debris flying.

"The fact that you’re still alive is honestly impressive..."

My gaze shifted to a group of silhouettes standing atop the rubble of a collapsed tower in the capital.

Elves, vampires, or the last filth of the Obsidian Dawn cult...

Most had been reduced to ash in my explosion, yet this group had somehow survived.

Among them were two demigods and one nine star warrior. They had escaped the center of the blast and protected themselves.

Solariel, writhing on the ground without his wings, saw them and the fanatic light returned to his eyes. He knew his own angels had abandoned him, but perhaps he could pull these newcomers to his side.

"What are you waiting for!" Solariel shouted, blood spilling from his mouth. "Attack! He’s weakened! We must destroy him now!"

I let out another tired sigh.

It was not my intention to humiliate him or make him look helpless, but honestly... right now, Solariel was too slow for me. Too pathetic.

Because of my curse, he was already rotting from the inside and growing weaker.

From the moment my blood had touched him, the curse had been growing stronger with every passing second.

On top of that, all the physical wounds I had inflicted were still there. His sacred body could not heal them.

The archangel he had devoured had done nothing more than delay the inevitable.

My body began to hum with black lightning. I clenched my right fist. Before Solariel could even say another word...

I vanished.

And in less than a tenth of a second, I appeared right in front of him.

My fist drove straight into the center of his face.

A cracking sound echoed across the battlefield as his skull, nose, and cheekbones shattered at the same time.

Solariel’s body flew backward like a rag and slammed into the ground, dragging across it for meters and leaving behind a thick trail of golden blood.

I shook my hand in disgust, as if something filthy had touched it, then slowly turned my gaze toward the group on the rubble.

When the bottomless darkness in my eyes locked onto them, none of them dared to approach, not even to breathe. Even the two demigods were frozen in place.

I walked forward with slow, rhythmic steps and reached Solariel, who lay there drifting in and out of consciousness. I placed my heavy armored boot directly on his shattered, bloodied head and pressed down slightly.

But... I did not feel satisfied at all.

There was something buried so deep inside me, something that could not be suppressed, that this level of violence was nowhere near enough.

Physical pain... it was too light, too ordinary for them. Cutting their flesh, breaking their bones only brought momentary agony.

But spiritually? How could I shatter their souls? How could I hurt them the most?

My eyes drifted toward Uriel. She was too honorable, too pure. Letting her live, forcing her to question the god she believed in so deeply... that would be a perfect punishment. Watching her faith crumble would be entertaining.

And Solariel? This man beneath my foot, who had nothing left but arrogance... what did he truly value?

Power? Or his place in Yavres’s eyes? His perfection?

I did not know exactly, but I knew one thing. I would never allow him the mercy of an easy death. Death would be a blessing for him. He deserved to live and watch his own collapse every second.

Solariel struggled desperately beneath my foot. His eyes were filled with blood, his vision gone.

He stretched a trembling hand toward the other invaders in the distance.

"H help... me..." he stammered. His voice was so pitiful it was impossible to believe it once belonged to an Archangel. Having lost hope in his own kind, he now begged for help from mortals he once saw as insects.

My grin darkened further. I swung my sword.

His arm was cleanly severed just above the elbow and fell to the ground. Solariel let out a muffled scream of agony.

I did not stop. I raised my black sword and drove it through his back into the ground.

As Solariel choked on his own blood, I clasped my hands behind my back and turned away from him, facing the last remaining group of the invading army standing on the rubble.

"As for you..." I said calmly, my voice a terrifying contrast to the destruction around us. I put on a thoughtful expression. "What should I do with you, I wonder?"

One of the demigods immediately raised both hands the moment I turned to them.

This man had snake like vertical pupils. His skin was pale and scaled. He forced a smile onto his face, one that was clearly insincere yet desperately trying to appear friendly.

"I surrender!" the snake eyed man shouted. "So... how about letting me go? After all, we both come from the bloodline of the White Serpent! I can feel the noble blood of my ancestor in your veins as well."

The man smiled as if he had found his ticket to survival. "You could say we are broth—"

I did not let him finish.

The moment I fixed my gaze on him, I pointed my index finger slightly in his direction and released chaos energy.

His head vanished instantly, leaving not even a drop of blood or a fragment of bone behind.

His body remained standing for a few seconds before collapsing to its knees and falling to the ground.

"I only have one brother, reptile," I whispered coldly. "And he is nothing like a parasite like you."

The remaining two looked at each other in horror after witnessing the snake eyed man’s instant demise.

The weaker looking Elf froze completely, as if turned into a statue of ice. Cold sweat streamed down his face. He could not even breathe.

The other, a nine star warrior, crossed the boundary of fear and fell into pure survival driven madness.

Gripping his massive sword with both hands, he launched himself at me in a final suicidal attack. As he descended with a roar, his blade glowed with a red aura.

My hands were still clasped behind my back. I did not even move.

"Absolute Severance."

A dark line passed through the center of his body. Before he could reach me, while still suspended in the air, his body split cleanly in half from head to groin.

The two halves fell to either side of me, accompanied by a rain of blood and organs.

I took a deep breath. Only the frozen Elf, the angels, and the groaning Solariel remained.

Just as I thought it was over...

A slow clapping sound broke the deadly silence.

"My brother, you are truly powerful."

My eyes shifted in surprise.

The man from the White Serpent bloodline, whose head I had erased moments ago, was standing again, blood still gushing from his neck.

His missing head had already begun to reconstruct itself within a mass of black, disgusting smoke, reforming like a regrowing limb.

As my gaze locked onto him, the smile on his face instantly vanished.

He stepped back in panic and once again raised both hands as if surrendering.

"Hey, hey, don’t be so angry!" he said, waving his hands defensively. "I swear, I’m not trying to provoke you!"

His narrow snake like eyes shifted toward the Elf frozen beside him.

The Elf did not even understand why he was being looked at.

With a single smooth motion, the snake eyed man flicked his hand.

An invisible blade of wind sliced cleanly through the Elf’s neck, separating his head from his body. Even as it fell, the Elf’s face remained frozen in terror.

The snake eyed man shook the blood from his hand and turned back to me, placing that sickening fake smile on his face again.

"In fact... I want to join you, brother. Isn’t that what family does? Supporting each other, watching each other’s backs."

Even in my current state, his words were enough to disgust me.

I could tell from every cell in his body that he was lying.

This filth, who discarded his comrade in a second to save himself... and who was part of the army that slaughtered everyone I cared about, the ones tying me to this cursed world... speaking of family and support...

It was pure blasphemy.

I narrowed my eyes at him. The flames of chaos within me were eager to burn him slowly, piece by piece.

Killing him in a single move would be a waste, I thought. A creature this vile deserved the slowest, most humiliating death possible.

With my hands still clasped behind my back, I began walking toward him with slow steps.

As my mind wandered through dark and creative ways to punish him...

I suddenly froze.

My step remained suspended mid air. My muscles were not locked, I was not frozen by magic. I could move. I could twitch my fingers, draw my sword.

But I did not move.

Because from the deepest, most primal corner of my soul, a pure, animalistic instinct screamed a single truth at me.

If I move... if I move even a millimeter, I will die.

This was not a physical pressure or an overwhelming aura.

The warmth of the air vanished. Sound disappeared. It felt as if all oxygen had been drained from the atmosphere.

When I looked around, no one was moving. As if they all felt the same thing, they were frozen just like me.

The groans of Solariel had stopped. Even the snake eyed man, who had been smiling and lying just moments ago, now had his narrow eyes widened in pure panic and terror. He had even stopped breathing.

My gaze was fixed on the blood stained, ash covered ground beneath my boots. I hesitated to look up, to face the source of this pressure.

Cowering like this, submitting without even understanding what I feared... it was humiliating.

I clenched my teeth so hard that I tasted blood.

Forcing my will against that deadly instinct, I slowly lifted my gaze upward.

There was someone there.

Right in the middle of the ruins, where nothing had been just moments ago.

At first glance... he looked completely ordinary.

A young man, perhaps seventeen, maybe eighteen. His dull black hair fell to his shoulders.

There was no white in his eyes. They were nothing but darkness.

His skin was as pale as a corpse. He wore simple, patched clothes that looked like they belonged to an ordinary villager, completely out of place in this apocalyptic scene. He was not very tall, just over one hundred seventy centimeters, and he looked rather frail.

But that ordinary appearance was shattered by the two protrusions on his head.

Two horns, emerging from within his black hair, curving backward, one slightly shorter than the other.

My breath caught in my throat.

It did not take long for me to recognize him.

The First Demon Lord.

The strongest, most absolute being that had ever existed, that exists, and that will continue to exist in this world.

"Vorloth..."