Home / Urban / Reborn As A Useless Mage, But I'm Already The Angel Of Death / 14

2026-10-08 23:55:11

Adrian walked for fifteen kilometers before the passage finally ended at another entrance. After the dragon skull gateway at the beginning, he had expected something just as dramatic this time. Instead it was a plain wooden door with a doorknob, so old and worn out that one kick would have knocked it off its hinges. He felt disappointed, and he almost kicked it anyway. But he stopped himself, because careless actions were exactly what got people killed inside Sera's Labyrinth. A door this simpl

Continue to read this book for free

Scan the code to download the app

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

45
How long had Crowe been standing there? Had he seen the Blade come through the trees, or only the end of the fight? Adrian couldn't tell, and he was in no shape to get up and find out. Jenna's hand was still on his shoulder, so at least she was looking at the same man he was.Crowe looked over the whole clearing before he looked at anyone in it. Eleven masked men were dead on the ground, and a dozen more were tangled in the snares or flattened under the deadfalls. A Blackwood heir was kneeling in the middle of it with a violet blade in his hand. A Holy Empire heir was standing right next to him, alive, with her sword still out. Adrian could see him adding it all up, and he didn't like any of the answers Crowe could come up with.The last masked man was still breathing, lying where he had stumbled back with his mask torn off. Crowe walked over and turned him onto his back with the toe of his boot. He checked the face against something in his notebook and said it belonged to one of the
44
The crystal was still in pieces under his boot when the first grey cloak stepped out from behind a tree.Nobody shouted or rushed at all. More of them came out from every side, slowly, with silver rings on their fingers and masks over their faces, and they closed the circle so evenly that it had to be planned. Adrian counted twenty-four and then stopped counting, because the number didn't help.Jenna drew her sword and pushed Holy Mana into the blade. The glow started and died halfway, and she looked down at it, confused."What's wrong with it?" Roland asked. His voice cracked on the last word."The rings." Adrian kept his eyes on the nearest man. "It's the same kind of spell as the one in the rainforest. Don't spend any more Holy Mana.""It's the only thing I have," Jenna retorted.Three of them reached her before she could argue. They didn't use blades at first, only their weight, and she went down on one knee in the leaves. Roland screamed something that wasn't a word and threw him
43
The path split around a big flat stone. The right fork was wide and well trampled, and the left was a thin deer track that looked like it ended in a few steps. Roland pointed at the right one before anyone asked him."Right. Every map says right.""The maps say the left one is a dead end," Jenna said. It was the first thing she had said all morning, and she stopped at the stone and looked both ways."Left," Adrian said."Why?""The right fork goes through the Hollow Bridge ward gate. In my experience, the gate has a bad temper.""Your experience." Jenna turned to look at him fully. "You're sixteen, and you're ranked three hundred and twelfth.""Then call it a guess."She looked at him a long time more, and then she turned left without another word. Roland made a noise like he was choking."A guess! We're following a guess!""You can go right, Vane," Adrian answered, and Roland followed Jenna.He felt annoyed at himself for saying "experience." It just slipped out. In his first life hi
42
Crowe had been gone for hours, and Adrian still hadn't slept. He sat in the parlor with the cold cup of tea the Inquisitor left behind until the windows began to turn gray, and then he took a lantern and went down to the cellar before he could change his mind. Thalia was on the top step where she had been all night. She stood up without a word and let him pass.Lucas was awake. He sat on the stone floor with his knees pulled up and his hands shaking where he thought nobody could see, a fourteen year old boy with no demon and no house. Sister stood in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs with her hair down over the little gold earring and her hands folded. She had been there since midnight, and she gave him a small nod and nothing else."Did my mother suffer?" Lucas asked, before Adrian had even put the lantern down.Adrian had expected cursing or begging, and he had a few answers ready for both. He had nothing ready for this. He stood holding the lantern much longer than he meant t
41
"I knew it." Adrian said to himself. Of course it had to be this courtyard. Adrian stopped under the arch. There was a dry fountain and one lantern, and he already knew the flagstones too well. In his first life, a sixteen year old boy stood right here and called a Holy Empire girl a mongrel and told her to go away. That boy was him, and he had been proud of it afterward, because the cold word worked and she left without arguing. He didn't think about it again for years. Right now he could hear his own voice saying it, every word.Jenna sat on top of the edge of the fountain with her back straight and her sword across her knees. She didn't look up when he walked in, and he understood that it was on purpose. This time around she was the one who picked the place, and he was the one who had to walk across it."You came," she said."You asked me to come I think.""I asked you to come alone." Her eyes moved past him to the dark under the arch. "Is anybody with you?""No. I wrote that on t
40
Why would she ask him that? Did she feel something when she walked past, or was it only the glove on his arm that caught her eye? And why did it have to be her, out of everybody in that whole courtyard, who asked?The Mark was burning under the bandage, and it got worse the longer she stood there. Jenna was waiting for an answer, and she did not look like a girl who liked waiting. Adrian knew he had to say something before the silence turned strange."No," he answered. "I don't think we have."She studied his face for another second. Her hand was still on her collarbone, on the bare skin, and she seemed to notice it only then and let it drop. "My mistake," she said. Then she nodded once and walked on toward the registrar's table.Her Paladin escort closed in behind her, and the crowd filled in the gap she left. Adrian did not move. He had been preparing speeches for her since the day he woke up in his old bed, and he had a lot of them. Every one was gone from his head now. The only th

You may also like

Secretly The Billionaire Boss

I Became A Billionaire Overnight

Marcus Hamilton Trillionaire In Disguise

The Rise of the Son-in-law After Divorce

The Husband They Bought To Die

The Sea Owes Me a Fortune

What You Owe Me

Reborn Apex: The City Is My Cage

Latest Chapter

45

44

43

42

41

40