Chapter 316 Chapter 316 RUNNN!
Hogan's last wish reached Zach through the screen. Even Nelson was able to hear his father's last words. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't moved by how much his father truly cared about him. But he couldn't digest his father's words properly about him being a coward and a weakling who was unable to go against Zach.
Zach wasn't one to deny a dying man his last wish especially when it was completely within his power, but the fate of Nelson Hunter wasn't within his hands. He had already promised his end to someone else.
"What do you want to do? Do you want me to spare him or not?"
An internal struggle sprouted within Violet as soon as she heard Zach's question. She looked at the screen where a father was pleading for his son but all she could see was the man who tried to have her father killed pleading for the rapist who almost had his way with her.
The struggle was extremely evident on her face; as was the hatred she harbored for the father and son.
Obviously, Zach noticed her fluctuating mentality and tried to comfort her by saying, "You can decide without any judgement from me or anyone else's for that matter. I promised to give him to you once it was all over and I intend to keep my promise. No one will interfere with your choice."
With Zach's assurance the troubled expression on Violet's face eased a little.
But that didn't mean that it was easy for her to reach her final verdict about Nelson's life or death. She deliberated on the topic for a while as she didn't want to deny a dying man his wish just like Zach. Despite the anger bubbling inside her, she was still capable of rational thought.
Unfortunately for Hogan and Nelson Hunter, just when she tried to find it in herself to spare Nelson, Violet couldn't help but remember Nelson's lascivious actions in that cave. She remembered her helplessness in her tied-up state as she pleaded with him to let her go. She remembered how she hadn't received any mercy from him then. The monster had torn her clothes apart and had touched all the private parts of her body with his hateful claws. Her tears and her cries had fallen on deaf ears back then.
So why did she need to think so hard about whether or not to pardon the monster who had insulted her and had ravished her in such a brutal manner when she was weak and defenseless?
The answer was obvious to her. But her kindness interfered with her judgement.
Once again, she tried to put herself in Hogan's shoes but there was no forgiveness in her heart to offer to Hogan's monster of a son who would undoubtedly destroy even more women's lives, the longer he lived.
In a bout between vengeance and forgiveness, vengeance came out on top once again.
Though Violet was a composed woman, she wasn't a pushover. She couldn't let Nelson go just because the monster father had asked tearfully for his monster son to be spared.
Both father and son were monsters in their own right who had tried to destroy her family in the past.
Despite not being a cruel or bloodthirsty person, Violet didn't want to let Nelson get away without paying the price for his past actions. She couldn't bring herself to forget all that she had suffered because of the Hunter family.
"I don't think a monster like him deserves to be out in the open. Mad dogs like him need to be leashed and kept from disrupting society. So no, I won't let him go."
Zach received his answer and turned towards the screen where a crestfallen Hogan stared back at him with eyes devoid of all hope and life.
Hogan had received his answer so there was no need for Zach to reiterate Violet's words. His son's fate had already been decided and there was nothing Hogan could do to change the outcome set in stone.
The last ten seconds before impact was when the fear of the Hunter family forces was at its peak. Even death wasn't as scary as the time approaching that. It was the anticipation of death that destroyed their spirits even before the meteorites fell and wiped the life from their bodies.
Hogan could feel the heat from the falling heavenly bodies on his skin. The fiery heat was melting his skin even before the impact. The pain of his body melting in a furnace was enough for him to scream his lungs out.
"...five...four...three..." Zach continued to count the remaining five seconds as emotionlessly as possible. He couldn't allow himself to feel regret. After all, he was the architect of the fiery hell that the Hunter family had found themselves in.
Between laborious breaths and painful wails, Hogan stared intently towards the screen depicting the scenery of Greenland being consumed by hellfire. The deep breaths caused the burning sensation to invade his lungs as his body began to burn from the inside out.
The pain almost sent him to shock but he still had something left to do. He didn't allow himself to say goodbye to the world so easily. At the cost of increasing the pain he felt before death, Hogan screamed with the full force of his lungs, "Hah...Haaah...MY SON...you are my legacy...survive no matter wh-what...RUUUUN...RUN AWAY FROM THERE...RU..."
Hogan's screams were snuffed out of existence by the rumbling of the heavens and the intense fireworks that were witnessed by everyone in Byzantium city.
The earth shook from the impact of the fiery meteors on Greenland and tides high enough to drown mountains rose out from the point of impact.
The screen in front of Zach began to show static almost in sync with the earthquakes that followed. The drone on the island couldn't possibly have survived the apocalyptic scene.
Before the people beside Zach could die of curiosity, the screen came back to life, but the perspective had shifted.
The new view began to show the burning vestige of Greenland following the impact of meteorite shower from hell. The ripples in the sea had yet to calm down and the large waves continued to crash against the shores of Byzantium city drowning the shoreline completely as if it had always been a part of the sea. The waves that lashed on the shore were strong enough to break the rocks that had been tempered by the sea for decades.
Greenland was no longer visible. It was just a sea of fire burning away in the middle of the ocean like an immortal flame burning away with hatred even when enclosed by the opposite element.
It wasn't just Zach's party that was aware of the horrific scene.
The major forces had already figured out the landing spot of the meteors and were busy thinking about how to take advantage of the chaos that would undoubtedly ensue as a result of the fiery destruction.
With the dark mage gone, there was no one to threaten them from going against the Windsor family. Moreover, with the forces of the three families combined, it was more than a piece of cake to push the Windsor family out of the city with a little nudge.
However, no one knew that the power structure of the city had already changed and the ones to perish weren't the Smiths but the Hunters instead.
The entire Byzantium city was panicking. The common people were unaware of the exact location of the disaster that had just struck Greenland, but the intense rumbling and the terrifying explosion from earlier had broken their spirit.
Some of them were on their knees asking for forgiveness from whatever god they worshipped. They were trying their best to appease the wrath of the deity that was trying to smite the surface dwellers with its celestial punishment.
Even more shocked than the common populace of the city was Nelson who watched his father's last moments through the screen. He had yet to come out of the shock when the screen began to show the events after the terrifying collision. The scene that was probably a teaser of hell struck deep into Nelson's soul.
Nelson couldn't bring himself to believe that his father, who had just been talking to him, was no more.
His steps began to falter, and his escorts had to support him from both sides in order to keep him from falling down. Disoriented and disengaged from reality, Nelson stumbled on his own feet but didn't accept the support of the escorts around him. He pushed them away with all the force he could muster using his flailing body that had turned to jelly from shock and fear.
Nelson stared at the fiery hell being shown on screen and tried to locate the burning corpse of his father out of the many pieces of flesh being roasted on high flame.
Unable to find him, Nelson's fragile mind, in order to protect itself from crumbling, refused to acknowledge his father's death.
He staggered and flailed his arms around until his hands grasped the collar of one of his escorts who was standing nearby in order to keep Nelson from falling.
Nelson yelled right in his face as if afraid that the escort would be unable to hear him.
"He isn't dead. He can't be dead. YOU HEAR ME? MY FATHER...HE WON'T DIE SO EASILY."
The escort lowered his head in sadness.
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