«You've failed again, Sullivan.»
The deep, icy voice echoed through the throne room like a final verdict.
Seated on an imposing golden throne encrusted with gleaming rubies and sapphires, the Supreme Lord gazed down at the young man kneeling before him with utter disdain.
Jay Sullivan looked like little more than a ghost: emaciated, dressed in rags torn by countless sword cuts, fresh blood still dripping from several open wounds.
He trembled visibly, exhausted, on the verge of collapse.Beside him, two of his companions also remained on their knees.
The burly knight, his silver armor dented and stained with dried blood, kept his head bowed. Next to him, the slender mage wore a tattered purple dress, her pale face marked by exhaustion and fear.
"You know exactly what that means," the Supreme Lord continued, leaning slightly forward. He frowned, and a look of profound disgust twisted his lips.
"I gave you too many chances, Jay Sullivan.
Far too many. And you couldn't even clear a simple mid-rank portal."The young man swallowed hard but didn't raise his gaze.
"My lord…" the knight intervened, his voice shaky and almost pleading. "If I may speak… that portal wasn't mid-rank. It was actually a high-rank black portal.
It looked normal at first, but its difficulty increased inexplicably once we entered.
Jay did everything he could to guide us.
Without him, none of us would have made it out alive.
"The mage nodded firmly, though her eyes remained fixed on the polished marble floor.
The silence that followed was oppressive, heavy with judgment.
The Supreme Lord leaned back on his throne once more, drumming his fingers on one of the jeweled armrests.
His eyes, cold as steel, never left the kneeling young man.
"And yet you still failed spectacularly," he continued, his voice dripping with contempt.
"Now I'm the laughingstock of my brothers."
The silence was shattered by an authoritative shout:"Raise your heads!"The imposing man rose from his throne and slowly descended the golden steps, each footstep ringing with absolute authority.
His presence seemed to fill the entire hall.Jay Sullivan swallowed with difficulty.
He tried to speak several times, but the words caught in his throat.
Every time he opened his mouth, he quickly closed it again, ashamed and terrified.Until finally, he gathered what little courage he had left."
I… have failed you, my lord Quang," he said in a broken voice, not daring to meet his gaze.
"Therefore, I will accept my punishment with dignity.
"The Supreme Lord let out a loud, almost cruel laugh that reverberated off the walls of the chamber."Dignity?" he repeated sarcastically.
"And what about the consequences?
Are you willing to accept those as well?"
"Yes," Jay answered without hesitation, though his voice trembled."Good," said Quang with a cold smile.
"Let it be clear that you asked for this."Suddenly, the Supreme Lord's hands glowed with an intense golden light.
In an instant, two curved swords of pure energy materialized in his fists. A golden aura enveloped his entire body, shining with overwhelming power before concentrating and vanishing completely, leaving only a subtle halo around his figure.
Jay remained motionless, head bowed, resigned to his fate.Then it happened.
A wet, nauseating sound sliced through the air.
Thick, hot blood splattered across the golden floor, and several drops landed on Jay's face.
«Huh!?»
His mind hadn't yet processed what had just occurred when something round rolled slowly toward him, stopping just inches from his knees.Jay looked down."Chad…?" he murmured, confused.
"Chad!!!!" Jay and the mage screamed in unison.
Horror struck them fully.
The mage and Jay lunged forward, crying and shouting desperately.
They tried healing magic, resurrection spells—anything—but nothing worked.
The decapitated body of the sturdy knight lay motionless in a rapidly spreading pool of blood across the golden floor.
Chad was dead. In a single instant.
Without mercy."Well, you're next, darling," Quang said with a sadistic smile that twisted his face.
"Wait! Wait! Stop, please! Please, stop!"
Jay screamed desperately, dragging himself forward on his knees.But his pleas fell on deaf ears.In less than a second, the mage Paulin was torn into a thousand pieces.
There was no time for a scream, nor for a final spell. Her body simply exploded in a rain of blood, flesh, and fragments of purple fabric that splattered the walls and golden floor.
The silence that followed was deafening.Quang calmly approached the kneeling young man. The golden light surrounding his body slowly dissipated, along with the two curved swords.
His expression was serene, as if he had just crushed a bothersome insect.
"Tell me, Jay… who am I?"Jay remained frozen, his face pale and a look of pure terror etched into his features. His eyes, glassy with tears and shock, were fixed on the pool of blood that had once been his companion."You… are a God," he answered in a broken, trembling voice.
"The God of Chaos, Quang Korsus… my lord."
Quang stared down at him for what felt like an eternity. A slow, satisfied smile spread across his lips.
"Exactly, inferior mortal."
Quang clapped his hands twice, slowly.In an instant, the bloody remains of Chad and Paulin vanished completely, as if they had never existed. The golden floor was left spotless, without a single trace of the massacre."Ah, I almost forgot…" the God said casually, as if he had just remembered a minor detail.He snapped the fingers of his right hand.
A tiny golden bolt shot out with blinding speed.
It cleanly severed Jay's left arm at the shoulder and, at the same time, opened a shallow but painful cut on his left cheek.The young man let out a heart-wrenching scream:"Aaaaaahhhhh!"
The pain was immediate and unbearable.
Jay writhed on the floor, pressing the bleeding stump where his arm had been with his remaining hand. Hot blood gushed out, once again staining the golden floor red.
His face, now marked with a thin, profusely bleeding cut, twisted in agony.
Quang watched it all with a manic, almost childlike smile, savoring every second of the suffering.