Free Web NovelChapter 25: The Blood Execution Decree
The dawn that broke over the Owen Duchy did not bring the peaceful warmth of summer, but a cold, heavy fog that rolled lazily off the northern mountains, blanketing the Bishop’s Mansion in an ominous grey shroud.
Inside the subterranean vaults, the silence was violently shattered.
BOOM!
The heavy stone walls of the central corridor fractured as a wave of oppressive, metallic-grey martial aura erupted from the high-security cell. The solid iron-reinforced door didn’t just swing open; it was blown entirely off its hinges, warping into a twisted piece of scrap metal as it slammed into the opposite wall.
Duke Owen stepped through the dust cloud, his massive, broad-shouldered frame trembling with a quiet, terrifying rage. His grey eyes, usually calculating and cold, were wide with a mixture of disbelief and pure fury. Behind him, a dozen elite guards knelt trembling on the stone floor, their armor rattling against the masonry from the sheer pressure of their master’s passive power.
The Duke stopped at the edge of the central basalt pillar. He didn’t look at the guards. He didn’t look at the broken door. His gaze was anchored entirely to the floor.
There, resting in a neat, undisturbed circle around the base of the pillar, was a mound of fine, powdery grey dust.
Owen slowly knelt, his thick, scarred fingers scooping up a handful of the powder. He let it sift through his fingers. It was black-iron. The ancient, indestructible, mana-dampening alloy that the imperial crown used to secure rogue dragons and high-tier catastrophic mages had been systematically reduced to basic molecular ash.
There were no signs of a struggle. No blood. No residual magical heat from an external explosive artifact. The prisoner had simply step out of the unyielding metal as if it were nothing more than wet sand.
"Report," Owen rumbled, his voice low, yet carrying a vibration that made the dust on the floor dance.
The captain of the guard, a seasoned silver-blooded knight who had survived three separate border wars, swallowed hard, his face pale beneath his visor. "Your... Your Grace... the wards underwent their standard four-hour shift recalibration at midnight. The guards on duty reported absolutely no anomalies. The life-sign arrays in the central tower remained completely stable until the morning shift went to deliver the standard suppression rations. We found the corridor guards unconscious in the side rooms. Their brains... their internal blood flow was systematically disrupted. They are alive, but completely unresponsive."
"And the boy?" Owen asked, his voice dangerously calm.
"Gone, Your Grace. The sensory arrays outside the estate gates did not trip. The perimeter wards show no breaches. He... he walked out like a ghost."
Duke Owen stood up, his massive fists clenching so tightly that the air around his knuckles audibly popped under the sudden kinetic pressure of his aura. His mind raced back to the psychological profile the imperial investigators had compiled on the ’no-talents’ A commoner without a single drop of continental mana, who could somehow bypass high-tier magic arrays and dismantle high-tier alloys with his bare hands.
"He is not a commoner upstart," Owen muttered to himself, a cold realization settling into his chest. "He is a threat to the foundation of the crown."
He turned on his heel, his crimson cloak snapping through the air. "Assemble the Dread Commanders. In the grand hall. Instantly."
---
High above the chaotic panic of the subterranean levels, the long, vaulted residential corridor was deceptively quiet.
Duchess Emily Owen stood perfectly still by the massive arched window, her hands clasped tightly over her emerald-green silk robe. Outside, the courtyard was a hornets’ nest. Hundreds of heavily armored soldiers were mounting armored drakes, sensory mages were drawing massive tracking arrays across the marble pavement, and the frantic barking of hunting hounds echoed through the foggy air.
Beside her, two of her personal handmaidens were trembling, whispering about the terrifying ’no-talent’ monster who had broken free from the deepest pit.
Emily didn’t hear them. Her focus was entirely turned inward.
Deep within her throat, nestled directly against her vocal cords, she could feel it—a faint, rhythmic, warm vibration. It didn’t hurt, but every time she even thought about opening her mouth to mention the dark silhouette that had stood inches from her face last night, her throat would tighten with an absolute, paralyzing numbness. She had tried to cast a minor, low-tier light spell in her room hours ago just to calm her nerves, but her internal mana pathways had refused to answer her call, entirely locked down by the lingering residual authority of that man’s touch.
" Look at the great conqueror snoring beside you," his voice echoed in her mind, smooth and mocking. "And live with the knowledge that a magicless street trash broke his strongest chains... all while he slept."
Emily looked down at the courtyard, watching her husband shout orders to his generals. For her entire life, Duke Owen had been an absolute, terrifying god—a man whose word was law and whose power was unyielding. But today, as she watched him pace with frantic, reactive anger, the illusion was gone.
The Duke was blind. He was hunting a ghost that had already danced in his own bedroom hallway. A strange, dangerous thrill ripple through her chest, mixing with her terror. She was his wife, his property, his trophy—yet she was now the keeper of a secret that could destroy his entire legacy.
She smiled a faint, entirely unreadable aristocratic smile, her hand rising to gently trace her chin. I am lying to a warlord, she thought. And he has absolutely no idea.
---
In the Grand Hall of the Bishop’s Mansion, three figures stood in the center of the polished obsidian floor, completely unaffected by the oppressive martial pressure radiating from Duke Owen’s throne.
The Dread Commanders. The absolute peak of House Owen’s military hidden might.
On the left stood Balthazar, a towering juggernaut of a man encased in thick, overlapping plates of dark meteoric iron. His massive, scarred arms were crossed over his chest, his twin heavy battleaxes resting against the throne steps. He radiated a raw, animalistic bloodlust that made the very air around him feel heavy.
In the center stood Rin, the Plague Mage. His frame was slender, draped in a tattered, ash-grey robe that smelled faintly of dried herbs and decay. His fingers were long and skeletal, idly spinning a glass vial filled with a swirling, neon-green liquid that hissed against the glass. His pale, sunken eyes were completely vacant, lacking any human warmth.
On the right, leaning casually against a stone pillar, was Vesper. The shadow assassin was completely shrouded in form-fitting dark leather, his twin curved daggers sheathed at his lower back. His hood was pulled low, showing only the faint glint of his sharp eyes.
Duke Owen tossed three heavy, blood-red iron tokens onto the stone table before them. The tokens clattered loudly, the crimson runes carved into their surfaces glowing with an ominous light.
The Blood-Execution Decree.
"The magicless upstart, Vince, has escaped," Owen declared, his voice cutting through the hall like a blade. "He bypassed the dampening shackles. He bypassed the manor’s primary security. He is running, and he is moving fast."
Balthazar let out a deep, rumbling laugh that shook the chandeliers. "A commoner rat slipped past your pampered guards, Your Grace? Let me take my vanguard. I’ll turn whatever village he’s hiding in into a bloody swamp."
"Silence," Owen snapped, his aura flaring, causing Balthazar’s laugh to die instantly. "This is not a standard hunt. The imperial archives are monitoring this boy. He cannot be allowed to leave the province. He cannot be captured. He must be erased."
He looked at the three commanders sequentially. "You will hunt him across the borders. Take whatever resources you require. Do not return to this mansion without his head. If you fail, do not bother returning at all."
Vesper reached forward, his gloved hand catching his red token out of the air before it even hit the table. "Hmmm," the assassin whispered.
Rin let out a low, raspy wheeze, his pale fingers gripping his token. "I sense a similar presence Northeast... the ancestral canopy. The home of the fairy folk. How delightful. I wonder how their ancient, pure blood reacts to my rot."
"Go," the Duke commanded, turning his back to them. "Bring me the no talent."
---
Thirty miles away, far past the heavily fortified outer walls of the Owen Duchy, the rugged, rocky terrain began to give way to a massive, sprawling wall of ancient emerald green. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
The Elven Wilds.
A prehistoric, deep forest where continental law held absolutely no weight, and human intruders were systematically shot on sight by the proud, xenophobic Moon Elves who guarded the ancestral ley lines.
Vince stood atop a jagged stone ridge overlooking the massive treeline, his stolen black cloak billowing violently in the cool northern breeze. He looked entirely refreshed, his pale skin clean and his posture completely relaxed. The suppression of the black-iron shackles was entirely gone; his internal pathways were humming with a clean, sharp vitality.
He waved his hand, and the translucent purple system interface manifested in the empty air before him, its soft glow reflecting in his deep violet eyes.
```
[System Status: Active]
[Current Balance: 500 System Tokens]
If I had stayed to face the Duke I’ll be a corpse by now ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"Hmm, is there a way to defeat the Duke?"
As if responding to his question the system chimed.
[Active World Quest: The Sovereign’s Transcendent Elixir]
[Quest Objective: To face a Tier 4 Continental Powerhouse, the Host must undergo racial and physical evolution. Collect the three primary genetic anchors from the strongest females of the ancient races.]
[Current Target: Princess Lyra Sol-Inverness (High Priestess of the Moon Elves)]
[Location: The Ancestral Core Canopy]
[Required Ingredient: Astral Dew Essence (Unlockable via 100% Phase-1 Subjugation/Taming)]
[Reward for Race Taming: Unlocks Unique Racial Trait: [Primal Ley-line Attunement]]
```
Vince’s lips curved into that trademark wicked, arrogant smirk. Five hundred tokens left. It was a dangerously low balance, especially with three elite Dread Commanders undoubtedly racing toward his position with execution orders. He knew the Duke wouldn’t hesitate; Owen would send everything he had to erase the humiliation of the prison break.
But Vince wasn’t afraid. He was stimulated.
He didn’t need thousands of tokens to win a war; he just needed a platform and a leverage point. The proud, human-hating Moon Elves thought their forest was an impenetrable sanctuary, and Duke Owen thought his hounds were unstoppable.
"Princess Lyra," Vince murmured, his voice smooth and dangerous as he closed the interface and pulled his hood over his glowing purple eyes. "Let’s see how long your ancient pride lasts when the Sovereign comes to claim his dew."
With a single, fluid stride, Vince dropped down from the stone ridge, his silhouette instantly melting into the deep, dark shadows of the ancient elven canopy below.
The hunt for the magicless had officially begun.
