Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power Chapter 436: Honor

Keisha's lips were stiffening from the overly forced and insincere smile she wore.

She occupied a seat by a modest wooden table, its edge decorated with scales, while the red wine she'd carried sat upon it.

Cole occupied the spot opposite her, gazing at her with an odd expression.

Keisha fought back a spasm and forced her smile wider.

Merely moments had elapsed since their conversation started—if it could be termed that—yet to Keisha, it seemed like an eternity had dragged on. Cole remained utterly unresponsive, offering mere nods or grunts in reply to her words.

A chilling dread started to seep into her thoughts. Still, Keisha pushed it aside, striving to quell the foreboding whisper nagging at her.

'This is bad.'

"This is so good!" She chirped, taking a sip from her glass of red wine. A drink that Cole hadn't yet sampled.

Keisha now furrowed her brow, ensuring Cole noticed her look before she pressed on, her tone laced with uncertainty,

"Why are you not drinking?" She tilted her head, "I got you your favorite wine, yet you didn’t even look at it since the beginning."

"I am just thinking." Cole finally spoke, his voice resembling that of an aged man on his deathbed, though he was still so youthful.

'See what fear made you, Cole. It has eaten everything of you. You are nothing but a husk of your former self.'

Keisha held back a scornful sneer from crossing her features, instead smiling to encourage Cole to elaborate.

He did.

"Since that day, Keisha," he started, his faded eyes fixed unwaveringly on hers, "everything changed for me."

"You are not the only one." She shot back, perhaps a bit too sharply, "We found it together, and we hid it together for our sake. You saw what The Fat did to Lyra. We were right!"

"But nothing remains a secret forever." Cole chuckled in a peculiar manner, lifting a shaky hand to cover his face, "You know that, Keisha. You know that well. Secrets are only secrets for a time. And it’s the same for us."

Keisha’s heart quivered, "W-What are you implying, Cole?"

Her voice caught in her throat, trembling, as her frame grew rigid, muscles coiling quietly while her awareness sharpened to its peak.

The earlier unease swelled to an entirely new level.

"The Fat has lost his son, Keisha. You know him. He will do everything to find and kill the culprit." He stated, peering at Keisha through gaps between his fingers, "He has begun searching everything from the beginning to the end. And that means he will—!"

"It doesn’t matter." Keisha interrupted his words, her gaze flicking discreetly across the chamber. "Even if he knows we were on duty, it doesn’t matter. He could not link us with the death of his son. Mother Dragons, Cole, we didn’t even kill him."

"The Fat would not care about it."

"What did you do?" Keisha demanded outright, rising gradually. Her gray eyes locked onto Cole with icy resolve, "What did you do, Cole?"

"I know you, Keisha." He finally smiled.

But it was a grin that chilled Keisha to her core, as right then, her senses picked up numerous figures surrounding the room.

She leaped to her feet in a rush, shoving the chair backward with a sharp scrape across the floor, her form snapping into a combat ready pose.

"I know how you think." Cole went on, sliding the red wine aside, "I know you will come sooner or later to kill me to ensure my silence."

Keisha’s draconic eyes gleamed with a silver glow, "You betrayed me." She snarled, as scales burst forth across her features.

Cole smiled, "I saved myself."

Those were the last words Keisha caught before the room's ceiling crumbled to dust, with scores of eyes glaring down at her, filled with murderous intent.

All donned the purple draconic robes of The Fat, their stares as merciless as their lord's.

Keisha’s heart turned to ice. Yet her instincts took over completely.

Her form shifted to draconian just as a mighty blow, which shook the entire chamber, slammed into her left cheek.

Her neck twisted and snapped. She screamed, blood and scales spraying from the strike's spot as she hurtled through the air like a projectile.

Her left eye lay utterly destroyed, the force bursting her eyeball free.

Mid-flight, amid agony that nearly blacked out her vision, Keisha glimpsed two draconians descending upon her, claws extended to tear her apart.

Her life replayed in her mind as death's hold seemed to clench her spirit. She parted her jaws wide and roared, unleashing a torrent of silver flames.

It proved futile, the blaze solidifying into ice before shattering like brittle glass under their assault.

In an instant, the assailants were mere inches from—!

BOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

Keisha's world lurched as her foes were hurled back by a tremendous blast that rocked the entire Order.

She crashed to the floor, tumbling wildly, her back grinding against shattered debris. She grimaced, her pulse thundering in her ears.

Keisha was gripped by terror, on the verge of collapse.

She lifted her head just high enough to spot her attackers sprawled on the ground, obviously stunned, retreating unsteadily on shaky limbs.

Cole fared no better.

He lifted his gaze to meet hers, their stares clashing in a brief, charged exchange.

He parted his lips to yell something, but Keisha was already on her feet, bolting through the wrecked doorway, her form battered, blood streaming in rivulets.

She wouldn't endure much longer, Keisha realized with a shiver, yet fortune favored her as another tremor soon quaked the Order, buying her vital seconds.

This strike arrived alongside an eerie melody. A tune that stirred her furious instincts to the surface.

But Keisha's focus stayed locked on escape. Thus, she fled.

And on this occasion, she burst beyond the Order's bounds.

"Cole! Fat! Cole! Fat!" She whispered, her left eye oozing blood.

"COLE!! FAT!!!!!"

She bellowed in fury as she vanished, sight reduced to one eye, into the rising shroud of dust and cinders that cloaked the entire Order.

...

At the same moment, Uncle Azad positioned himself at the heart of Order Draco.

Steam rose from his hands—white and swirling—as though they'd just escaped flames, his muscles swelling massively, veins snaking across his skin.

He held an aggressive posture, with seven guards lying lifeless below him, their skulls burst into gory sprays.

Azad kept his eyes shut, channeling all his might; every ounce of his strength.

He understood his power fell short against the Order. It was a reckless pursuit, but Azad had no interest in the Order itself.

He sought only The Fat. Him alone.

And though he remained outmatched for now, that wouldn't hold true once he made his offering.

"My Origin, my bloodline, my everything..." he snarled, his eyes blazing red with volatile force,

"Take everything of me, Kuru, High King of Vikings, and give me the strength to uphold my Honor."

The ground trembled, and an ancient war cry from forgotten eras resounded everywhere.

He lifted both hands, summoning a gigantic battleaxe forged from bizarre yellow energy that materialized from thin air into his hold.

An unimaginable surge coursed through his entire being.

Azad bared his teeth in a fierce grin, eyeing the dragons closing in from every direction. His gaze swiftly settled on The Fat Amethyst Dragon, whose striking form stood out unmistakably.

"I have come..." Azad declared, "...for you."

No further speech was required.

Azad swung with the might of the original Vikings, and the realm once again recalled the dread of this vanished people.

—End of Chapter 436—