Nightblade (Darkest night)

Chapter 251: Fury

The atmosphere had suddenly changed.

The mansion groaned violently as ancient runes embedded within its walls ignited in a flash of blinding silver light. Space itself became unbearably heavy.

One moment, Emily had been stuck in the room with the goofy youth and Victor.

And a heartbeat later, Merlin was there.

Emily couldn’t tell when he’d arrived, but he was there.

His silver eyes burned with an indescribable emotion.

The silver-haired youth immediately released Emily and jumped backward through multiple spatial fractures that bloomed around him simultaneously.

"WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!"

Merlin casually raised a hand.

"Let’s talk about this..."

Within an instant, every fracture collapsed in on itself.

The youth’s expression paled, even the small smile he’d had, vanishing completely.

"Impossible," he whispered.

"Why?"

Merlin’s voice echoed softly through the room.

Merlin turned his gaze to the silver-haired youth, staring at him.

A violent wave of energy invaded his mind, the force of the mental assault physically pushing him back several feet.

The youth groaned frantically, grabbing at his head.

"I see how it is," Merlin murmured.

"No, you don’t, " the youth growled.

Merlin raised an eyebrow in amusement.

" Interesting. Such a strong presence of mind. And in one so young. But it won’t be enough."

The silver-haired youth’s instincts screamed.

He moved instantly, but he was too late.

An invisible force slammed into him with terrific force.

For an instant, he seemed frozen in time. His body violently folded in on itself. Then time resumed its flow.

His body blasted through three walls consecutively before crashing outside into the frozen courtyard below.

That entire section of the mansion shook violently, a web of cracks spreading through the ground.

Merlin slowly walked forward, bearing down on the youth.

All around him, the air rippled and then violently fractured.

Silver lightning crawled across the air itself while space distorted uncontrollably from the sheer magnitude of power radiating from his body.

Outside, Clara’s face finally lost all composure.

"Monster..."

Merlin looked toward them then smiled murderously, his eyes gleaming with restrained fury.

Clara paled, subconsciously taking a step back, then she snarled.

A split second later, she took to the air.

Clara extended her hand from high above the battlefield.

The frozen ground beneath Emily erupted violently as enormous crystalline tendrils surged upward, wrapping around her body before dragging her screaming into the air.

A wall of white-hot flames exploded in front of Merlin’s path, barring him from interfering.

The temperature across the entire mountain range dropped catastrophically.

Clara pulled Emily toward her with cold indifference, a jagged spear of azure ice slowly forming beside the young girl’s throat.

"Now," Clara said evenly, "perhaps you’ll finally listen.

The world went silent.

For a time, everything went still, and then—Victor moved instantly.

BOOOOM!

The elegant butler vanished from the ground in a burst of speed utterly impossible for an ordinary servant. His pristine suit fluttered violently behind him as he shot through the air toward Emily.

Clara’s eyes narrowed.

"Klein."

A blazing inferno erupted upward from below.

Klein appeared directly in Victor’s path, molten flames roaring around his gigantic body as he swung a devastating fist toward the butler.

Victor’s expression remained calm.

Then his glasses glinted faintly.

The space around Klein distorted suddenly, and his horrendous punch missed by inches.

Victor twisted gracefully through the attack before reaching Emily in a blur of motion.

Time seemed to slow down as he punched through the barrier of ice with sheer strength and grabbed the girl within.

Clara screamed ger eyes burning with malevolent fury.

"No, you don’t!"

A frozen spear pierced straight through Victor’s side once more, adding to the tally of grievous wounds he’d already accumulated.

Emily’s eyes widened in horror.

"VICTOR!"

The butler’s body trembled violently from the impact, yet somehow, he still smiled.

"My apologies, young miss, "he murmured.

With a groan, he broke the shaft of the frozen spear, simultaneously distorting the space around himself and Emily.

Clara snarled, launching several frozen projectiles through the air, but they passed through the warped space, disappearing harmlessly.

The two fell violently through the sky, tumbling wildly through the air.

For a few moments, Emily desperately struggled to get he bearings right. Her abilities still refused to work.

A moment later, a powerful arm wrapped around her, and then the space around her fluid rippled.

A moment later, they appeared on the ground with Emily, falling to one knee with a pained gasp.

"Well, this was messier than anticipated," he murmured, surveying his damaged side.

Blood flowed, staining the dark coat he was wearing, slowly dripping down to the ground.

A short distance away from them, everything stopped.

Merlin stared silently at the trail of blood streaking through the frozen air.

The silver light within Merlin’s eyes slowly disappeared.

An explosion of power erupted from Merlin’s body so immense that space itself shattered around him.

The clouds above the mountain range disintegrated instantly.

Silver lightning flooded the sky in endless waves while the frozen plains below cracked apart for miles in every direction.

Clara’s expression finally changed.

"What...?"

Klein’s molten flames flickered violently.

For the first time in decades, his instincts told him to run. Merlin slowly lowered his head.

When he spoke again, his voice no longer sounded human.

"You harmed..."

The fabric of space fractured around him.

"...my people."

The next instant, he simply vanished.

Klein barely reacted in time.

BOOOOOOM.

A single punch slammed into the molten giant’s chest with catastrophic force.

Klein’s gigantic body folded instantly before being launched clean through the frozen ground, the plains exploding in succession with each impact.

He never even managed to scream.

Clara turned to flee.

But Merlin appeared before her immediately.

His silver eyes had become terrifying voids of raging light.

Clara unleashed everything she had.

Entire jagged glaciers erupted toward him. Storms of absolute frost froze the air itself, and even the space itself distorted beneath the pressure of her ability.

Merlin walked through all of it without being affected.

The ice touching him shattered instantly into drifting silver dust.

"No..." Clara whispered. Merlin reached forward calmly.

Then grabbed her by the throat.

Instantly, every ounce of Clara’s power vanished.

Her eyes widened in horror as she found herself completely unable to activate her abilities.

Merlin stared at her silently for several seconds.

The storm around them continued raging like the wrath of a furious god.

"You mistook my kindness for weakness," he said softly.

Clara struggled violently. But it meant nothing.

"You came into my home."

Lightning cracked across the heavens.

"You threatened my apprentice."

The pressure around them deepened catastrophically.

"And you hurt my people. This, I can’t forgive."

For the first time in centuries, Merlin Hale Crest allowed himself to feel anger.

Clara’s eyes tremble,d her mind churning from the overwhelming realization that the being holding her now was something far beyond the monsters and Talented, she had thought she understood.

Merlin slowly tightened his grip.

Emily’s voice echoed weakly across the shattered battlefield.

"Please, stop..."

Merlin paused.

Below them, Emily stared upward while supporting the heavily wounded Victor.

Her frightened eyes met Merlin’s directly.

"Please..." she whispered.

The raging storm gradually weakened.

Merlin stared at her for several long moments.

Then, slowly, he released Clara.

She collapsed through the sky, gasping violently, before Klein barely managed to catch her broken body amidst the burning wreckage below.