To Love, Once Again

Chapter 59

"My King!"

Torches light the way as a group of townsmen, armed members of the Neighborhood Watch gallop towards Lucien on their horses.

They'd come as fast as they could after being alerted by one of the townspeople who'd witnessed the attack. It had taken some time to saddle their horses and change into their battle gear, when they'd become accustomed to the peace after the end of the Great War.

When they finally arrive on the scene, one of the men can't hold back his fearful gasp at the scene he sees before him.

The large figure of Lucien looks like a nightmarish entity as he breaks the last assassin's neck with an easy twist.

It was total carnage. Men bleeding out from wounds on the ground, some fallen against the brick wall, clearly dead with their throats crushed, while others laid bleeding out, missing a few body parts. Some of them had their arms or legs pinned to the wall, the dagger flying with enough force to pierce the flesh and still had the momentum to dig deep into the hard red brick wall. It was an inhuman feat of strength.

In the darkness not illuminated by the far off street lights, blood pooled like small puddles of black oil on the ground, turning crimson when the torch light drew closer.

Lucien's messy hair fell around and framed his bloodied face. Longer strands of hair laid mingled on the ground with the red blood of the fallen assassins. He'd cut large chunks of it off, when the chest-length hair started getting in his way before he'd alerted the attackers to his location.

The flame-red hair, grown long down his back during the time Sera had been gone. He'd been growing it out for her ever since he noticed her blushing while she first braided his hair that he'd let grow during the war. And he hadn't been willing to cut it at all when she left. Because if he cut it, it would feel as if his separation from Sera was final.

But there was no hesitation this time. If he'd grown it out for her, he could cut it for her too.

"Sire, we've alerted the Knight Order once we heard the news of the attack. They will be arriving here soon."

Dismounting his horse, a man prods one of the black clothed assassins with his foot. No doubt about it. They were dead.

"I left one alive. Take him to the Keep for questioning" Lucien orders, wiping his long dagger on the black clothes of one of the fallen men and sheathing it back in his boot. He pauses when he sees a mark on the back of the man's neck. There was a branded mark in the skin, of a scythe with its handle loosely wrapped in a black cloth.

It gave him a clue on who his attackers were.

With confused glances and shrugs, the other men pause their observations of the scene. They weren't sure which one Lucien was talking about. All the attackers looked quite dead to them.

"That one." He nods to a man fallen against a barrel with blood streaming down his nose, the black mask cracked and smaller shards of it piercing the areas of his face. His arm was gone, practically torn off with brute strength, bleeding heavily as he laid there, eyes closed.

One of the older men lean down to check the pulse. Yes, he was still alive, with the slightest of breaths within his chest.

Lucien ignores the men working as he quickly tries to calm his breathing and focus on his magic. He'd missed one. One of the attackers had slipped away, most likely to report back to the mastermind behind this whole ordeal.

Slow, even, breaths, and a heavy pressure flows out of Lucien, as bloody and dark as it's master.

The ring that Sera wore was tuned to Lucien's own mana signature. Though it looked like a plain silver ring with a red gem, it was much more than that. If it was ever appraised, it would be impossible to put a price on it, the ring inlaid with a crimson red gem, the center of which swirled like smoke when gazed at closely.