“Everyone, halt!” the Architect shouted, causing all the bandits to stop their earth dragons and get off.
“What is it, sir?” One of the men bowed slightly after walking forward. He was clearly the leader of their little bandit group.
Silas and the Architect also got off their earth dragons, but while the Architect had a peaceful smile on his face, Silas felt a tinge of coldness emanating from the masked man before him.
“You guys were listening to our conversation, right?” The Architect asked with a tilt of his head.
“Of course not! We would never dare-“
“Don’t lie to me.” The cold distance became even more obvious.
“Si-“
“Yes… We were listening in. But you can’t blame us! You weren’t hiding-“
*Swoosh*
*Thud*
“…” Silas’ eyes widened in shock, looking at the head that fell to the ground.
‘What the f*ck.’
“What’s happening here?” Death’s drowsy voice echoed behind them as he slowly sat up on the earth dragon and rubbed his eyes.
“Johnny… NOOOOOOO!” One of the men shouted while taking out his blade.
“You killed Johnny!” Another roared while whipping out their bow and flinging an arrow toward the Architect.
Yet, an instant later, they all watched as the arrow was sliced into a hundred pieces before falling to the ground.
“Archie! What the f*ck-” Death tried to get off the earth dragon, but then he saw Silas pointing a fire bolt spell right toward his heart, ready to impale him at a second’s notice.
Death was strong and even quick, but from such a point-blank range, he would die before he could even speak the words “help.”
*Swoosh*
With a swipe of the Architect’s hand, the rest of them turned into a paste, destroying them and their armors instantly, flatting them to the ground and spreading the rest of their blood and gore throughout the trees for the animals to lick.
Except one…
The Architect’s toki flared as he pointed his hand toward the one that was running away. He was missing an arm, having dodged the attack at the last second due to being the one standing right at the back.
The Architect pressed his middle finger onto his thumb, ready to flick his fingers and create a pulse of toki that would instantly kill the man.
*Bang*
However, before he could shoot the pulse of toki, a water bullet shot through the air and pierced right through the man’s head, silently killing him without spraying his remains across the forest.
“Nice shot.” The Architect complimented.
“I’ve been practicing.”
‘In my past life.’ Silas inwardly added.
Though, he had to admit that practice was easy, especially when the enemy was a monstrous mutated human that had suddenly become 10 feet tall and morbidly wide.
“Why the f*ck…” Death’s voice had become scratchy and hoarse.
“They knew about Silas’ identity. I had to kill them, or they would have told our benefactors that Silas was alive and well, standing right in front of them the entire time.
Do you want to make enemies with those bastards? Because if you do, I am more than willing to tell them that you were the one that killed him and almost sabotaged the entire plan.
I wonder what they’d do with that information. Let me remind you that you have a daughter to take care of, and I do not want to be the man who has to have the conversation with the little girl.” The Architect took out wiped and began to clean his gloves.
‘At least he’s hygienic.’ Silas thought.
“They were the Skylark family’s men. What the hell do you expect me to say? You killed them for no reason, and they are bound to figure out. We’ll be lucky to even get paid.”
‘The f*ck?’
“We can just say they died in the battle.” The Architect shrugged.
“You killed them! You don’t get to decide whether they live or die! You’re not the commander!” Death roared out in anger while taking a step forth. However, Silad didn’t stop him this time.
This was between them, and he was far too preoccupied with his own crap to care about their bickering.
“I became the commander the moment that excuses for a leader died. I was his right-hand man and am the most intelligent and tactically experienced one here.
And before you go on about how you’re going to tell everyone, let me remind you that the only reason I am keeping you alive is that we don’t have a replacement Death in place to take your place. Now, I trust that you will keep that mouth of yours shut about this.” The Architect gave Death a side-long glance that sent a shiver down his spine before turning to Silas.
“We need to change your appearance a little.” He spoke while taking out a glass bottle filled with a murky bright pink substance.
“Drink this. It’ll change your hair color. I made it myself.”
Silas stared at him for a few seconds before sighing and taking the glass bottle.
“I expect an explanation after this sh*t is done and dusted.” Silas snarled before gulping down the drink.
He had a resistance to poison that has increased 3 times in the past year. If this was, for some reason, poison, he was certain that he would live for at least long enough for his body to evolve, consume and then repel its symptoms.
“Don’t worry. I’ll explain everything when we get to the camp.” The Architect smiled.
Silas quickly took Nymira in his arms while Death took the bag with the chief’s head before getting on their earth dragons and galloping away.
Silas couldn’t see any immediate changes in his hair color, but he assumed that the change occurred at his roots first before expanding to the rest of his hair.
They were all moving at a triangle formation, with Death in the middle, Silas on the left, and the Architect on the right.
“Quick question. Why did you wait until this point to kill them all? We’ve only got a mile or two left, yet you just chose to kill them right here?” Silas asked, causing Death to look toward “Archie” too.
“It’s hard to steer the earth dragons when they are away from home when they don’t have riders.” He explained with a nonchalant tone that made Death’s jaw drop.
“I see. Very clever.” Silas complimented with a nod that left Death flabbergasted and horrified simultaneously.
“What was that?” The Architect smiled.
“N-Nothing!”
The rest of the ride was mostly peaceful.
On the way, Silas killed one or two beasts that could have been a threat toward the herd of earth dragons running behind them, but for the most part, it was really peaceful since they avoided going deeper into the forest, remaining on the outskirts the entire time.
And eventually, the reached the temporary camp, where Silas could see a group of individuals waiting for them at them by some trees.
“So… This is Darkless.”
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