Despite not having the Light attribute capable of instantly healing injuries, Lilith could heal Lucien’s injuries to some extent by sending origin through his body.
After Lilith finished moved her gaze toward Katherina and Stella. “Don’t worry; he’ll be fine. He needs a few days of rest.”
The girls sighed in relief and shot her a grateful look. They then looked at the remaining unconscious people and looked at Lilith again. Lilith instantly understood what they wanted.
However, she shook her head firmly.
“I can’t. Healing them is not easy. Like you saw with your brother. What I did can’t be called real healing either, and I don’t have the energy to do that for others.”
The girls fell silent hearing my answer. Aileen opened her mouth hesitantly, but in the end, she did not insist.
“I understand.” Katherina sighed before turning in Stella’s direction.
“Stella, go with Lass and take some of the injured away. You will send men to carry the rest.”
“Yes, sister.” Stella nodded and carried two men away. Lass followed after her with another two men, leaving the remaining behind.
Once they were gone, Katherina walked toward Rufus and grabbed his hair. “Scum! What do you have to say in your defense?!”
Rufus woke up due to the pain. He looked at Katherina with a groggy and terrified expression and tried to answer.
However, she did not allow him to answer. Next instant, she slammed his head against the ground with great strength.
“Speak!”
“Ugh… Miss Katherina, I-I am… from the Vermilion-…”
“Hahahaha! What? Do you think that being part of the Vermilion Gang gives you the right to hurt my brother?! Today, I’m going to kill you!”
Hearing Katherina’s words filled with killing intent, Rufus paled. He tried to talk again, but how could Katherina let him do that? She ruthlessly crushed his teeth with a punch and threw his body against the ground.
Bang!
Rufus’s body was ruthlessly slammed into the ground, causing a minor tremor.
Orpheus and Lilith watched everything with cool faces while Amber tried to close her eyes as it was her first time seeing someone get tortured. She was uncomfortable with this, but Orpheus’s cold voice stopped her.
”Don’t close your eyes; you better watch because things like this will happen often, and you will also perform torture. This is not real torture; it’s just a furious woman venting her anger.”
Amber nodded and decided to keep watching.
Meanwhile, Katherina acted as though she didn’t hear Orpheus’s words; she walked toward him and stepped on his spine.
“Argggggggggggg!” Rufus screamed in pain.
With an expression filled with fear, he looked at Katherina and pleaded her with his eyes. However, she ignored him completely.
No, she became even crueler after that.
The torture lasted less than five minutes. Those five minutes felt like hell to Rufus; he wished he would be dead instead. When Katherina was about to give him the last blow, Orpheus stopped her.
“What do you think you’re doing?.” He asked with a cold voice.
“He almost killed my brother.”
Orpheus looked at her and sighed. “Yeah, and due to it, I allowed you to vent. But I need him alive, or perhaps you thought I let him so you could kill him?”
He stared right into her eyes when he spoke. Katherina confronted his gaze fearlessly. Despite the dread she felt towards Orpheus, her hatred and rage towards Rufus, the man that had almost killed her brother, were even greater.
However, after a few seconds, she relented. She knew nothing would change if she were to throw a tantrum here. Fist speak louder than words; unfortunately, she possessed the weakest punch here; forget beating Orpheus; she couldn’t even beat Lilith, so even though she was not happy about letting this scum live, she could only give up and follow Orpheus’s wish.
“I understand.” She said, trying to control her emotions.
“Don’t worry. With his current condition, his life will be very miserable even if he survives.”
To Orpheus’s words, Katherina nodded.
“What about the others?” She asked and looked at the remaining unconscious Vermilion gang members.
“Do what you want,” Orpheus replied. He did not need them anyway, so at least he should let Katherina vent the frustration she couldn’t vent on Rufus on them.
Katherina’s lips curved up in a bloodthirsty smile.
“Good.”
She was delighted that he let her kill them. She would do it in the most bloodthirsty way.
After Katherina went to deal with the other enemies, Orpheus crouched down in front of Rufus and lifted his face.
“Rufus, right? I was hoping you could give a message to your leader. Tell him that if he does not surrender in one week, I’ll kill him.”
Rufus opened his eyes wide. He then nodded fearfully.
Orpheus nodded and let go of his face; he walked toward Katherina.
“Done?” He asked.
“Done.” She responded while shaking away the blood on her sword.
“Then let’s go back. It’s almost dawn, and we need to return soon.”
Katherina nodded and carried her brother on her shoulder. At the same time, the gang members that had just arrived took the remaining injured with them.
Orpheus took the lead, followed by Lilith and Amber, and Katherina and her subordinates followed closely behind.
•••••
A few minutes later, a group of men appeared in the place where the massacre happened.
A burly man led the group. The man was powerful, a strong level 4 origin master, and carried a long spear on his back.
“… What happened here?” The burly man’s expression stiffened when he saw the scene of carnage. Headless corpses, some were cut in half, some had their limbs detached from their bodies; it was indeed a carnage.
Unfortunately, none of the burly’s men was able to answer. They were too surprised and frightened to speak.
“Men!” Shouted the burly man. “Search between the bodies; I want to find what happened here!”
The men behind him nodded quickly and rushed to the scene. Soon, one of them found Rufus barely breathing.
“Leader, captain Rufus is alive, but he will need treatment immediately!”
“Bring him here and have the Healer treat his injuries!”
A healing origin master immediately went to treat Rufus. But in seconds, his expression turned ugly.
“Leader, I can’t save him. His injuries are too serious.”
The burly man’s expression sank but soon turned resolute.
“… Can you wake him up?”
“I can try….”
“Then hurry up!”
The healer nodded in a hurry and sent his white origin into Rufus’s body. A few seconds later, the latter opened his eyes.
“Aghhhhhh!” The first thing he did was scream. His eyes were filled with terror and fear, as though he had gone through a nightmare.
The healer quickly tried to calm him down, but it was useless. His mind had collapsed due to fear.
He repeated the same words aga6 and again as though telling a curse.
“The monster… He will come… To destroy us… sux days, one week deadline…”
The leader furrowed his brows and fell silent. He could not comprehend why Rufus was so frightened.
‘Is it something related to the Black Snake gang? I remember I asked him to provoke them a little. For him to become like this was not something that woman could do? So, what going on here? Did the Black Snake gang go under someone? That’s unlikely, so what happened here? I don’t understand.’
The burly man was confused, trying to understand what had happened but couldn’t find an answer.
Soon, one of his subordinates spoke.
“Leader, what are we going to do?”
The leader thought for a moment and replied. “It’s almost morning, and the imperial guards will not allow a commotion during the day. Moreover, this case is too strange. I’m afraid we are not able to deal with this.”
“Then…”
“Wait a few days; I need to see young master to know what we will do.” The leader replied before leaving after taking care of the bodies. His face was cold as ice; if it weren’t because he was working under a noble, he would have immediately sought an explanation from the Black Snake Gang. Blood must be paid with the blood but not today.
‘Let’s see how long you will stay cocky for, Katherina. One-week deadline? What a joke.’
•••••
Orpheus and the girls returned to their villa after accompanying Katherina to the gang’s base. He left some simple instructions; he asked her to take care of the gang and show him the remaining data tomorrow. He also instructed her to keep a low profile while he was not here and try not to provoke the Vermilion Gang. They probably would not dare to take action in the middle of the day, but it was good to be careful.
The essential order he left behind was for her to find a group of loyal people with good talent. Katherina and her siblings were indeed pretty strong, but they were not enough if they wanted to make the Black Snake Gang the strongest of the capital.
”This is going to be fun,” Orpheus mumbled. He could have taken all the gangs overnight, but it would not be fun, and he must not first find a solution for his injuries.
”Hopefully, the answer is inside the Ruins. I don’t have too much time.”