Bloody Odyssey

Chapter 99 99: Domain.

"Hm!"

The Fifth Apostle cleared his throat with theatrical flair, his voice cutting across the blood-soaked battlefield like a rusted blade.

"You maggots truly lack any sense of ethics," he sneered, the vile words dripping with mockery and ancient malice.

Slowly, he rose into the air, his tattered robes fluttering as if stirred by an unseen wind. A cruel smile stretched across his blood-stained face. His gaze pierced the far distance, traveling thousands of miles in an instant.

"Oh… I sense my brother's presence." His eyes gleamed with dark delight. "Our Divine has truly brought us back."

He drew in a deep, satisfied breath, as though savoring the scent of carnage and despair that blanketed the City of Roses.

"It's good to be alive."

Power radiated from him in thick, oppressive waves. The very air seemed to grow heavier, heavier with the stench of rot and iron.

"I am the First Apostle of Blood," he declared, voice booming across the ruins like divine judgment twisted into something profane, "vessel of Menya—the angel who once flooded the waters of Damascus with a bowl of innocent blood."

His smile turned vile, predatory. He stretched out his hand, looking down at the gathered warriors as if they were nothing more than insects crawling at his feet.

His gaze finally settled on Kakarai. For a long moment, the Apostle studied him with something almost like fondness — the way a master regards a favorite, albeit broken, tool.

"Kakarai…" His voice softened into something deceptively warm and welcoming. "Why don't you come back to us? Come home to your master."

A gentle, almost fatherly aura washed over Kakarai — thick with promises of belonging, power, and release from the torment that constantly gnawed at his fractured mind.

For a heartbeat, Kakarai froze.

His empty, bottomless eyes flickered with conflict. The writhing shadows that made up his hair stilled. Then, slowly, almost mechanically, he began walking forward. Step by step, he moved toward the floating Apostle, drawn by the poisonous pull of old memories and darker conditioning.

Like a benevolent savior descending from heaven, the Apostle lowered himself gracefully to the ground. His smile widened with every step Kakarai took closer, satisfaction gleaming in his cruel eyes.

Alfonzo's face twisted in shock and betrayal. His hand shot up, energy already gathering at his fingertip, ready to fire a lethal shot.

But Nadia grabbed his wrist in an iron grip.

"Don't," she hissed urgently, eyes locked on Kakarai's back. "Be ready… but not yet. Something is wrong."

Alfonzo's jaw clenched hard. His arm trembled with restrained fury, finger still pointed directly at the Apostle's head. He didn't lower it. One wrong move and he would blast the monster into oblivion.

"Good… Good boy," the Apostle chuckled, the sound low and dripping with evil satisfaction. "You've always been my best student."

He reached out as if to pat Kakarai's shoulder, his fingers stained with the blood of countless innocents.

Kakarai stopped a few paces away. His lips moved, whispering words that were barely audible at first.

"Des…"

The whisper grew sharper.

"Des! Des!"

His body twitched violently. Once. Twice. The shadows around him writhed and lashed like living whips. His head jerked to the side at an unnatural angle.

The Apostle's smile faltered for a fraction of a second. Surprise flickered across his face.

Don't tell me he's even more broken than before, he thought, studying Kakarai carefully. Still… the power I feel radiating from him is undeniable. That unnatural teleportation, that hunger, that beautiful madness…

His expression darkened.

If he won't join me willingly, I'll simply kill him and take what I need. No loose ends.

But outwardly, the Apostle kept his mask of warm benevolence intact. He spread his arms wider, voice smooth and coaxing. "Come now, Kakarai. Remember the nights we trained together? The screams. The blood. The beautiful purpose I gave you. Your master is here. There is no need to fight anymore. Come back to where you belong."

Kakarai's twitching grew worse. His empty eyes flickered between confusion, rage, and a haunting flicker of recognition. The word kept spilling from his lips like a broken chant.

"Des… Des… Des!"

Each repetition grew louder, more desperate, more unhinged. The air around him began to distort. Space itself seemed to fracture as his no-clipping ability fluctuated wildly with his unstable emotions.

Nadia's grip on Alfonzo's wrist tightened. Her broken blade hummed in her other hand, golden light flickering along its fractured edge. She could feel the tension reaching a breaking point. One spark and the entire battlefield would erupt again.

Alfonzo's eyes burned with killing intent. "If he makes one wrong move toward the boy…" he growled under his breath.

The Apostle took one confident step closer to Kakarai, still smiling that same gentle, poisonous smile. Yet behind his eyes lurked pure calculation and bottomless cruelty. He was ready — ready to embrace his wayward student or rip him apart and consume whatever power remained.

The night wind howled through the ruins, carrying the distant screams of the dying and the heavy scent of fresh blood. Everyone present could feel it:

The fragile moment of peace was about to shatter.

And when it did, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Whisper crawled out from inside his body — hundreds of overlapping, distorted voices slithering through his flesh like parasites. "Des… Des… Des!"

His chest bulged outward grotesquely. The skin stretched and rippled as something monstrous stirred beneath.

Squelch!

A long, blade-like limb identical to his sword arm exploded from the center of his chest and stabbed straight into the Apostle's abdomen with terrifying speed. The Fifth Apostle's eyes widened in pure disbelief, his arrogant smile freezing on his face.

Before he could even scream, more limbs tore out from Kakarai's body — sharp, hungry, and wrong. They clawed violently into the Apostle's flesh, ripping and burrowing deeper with savage glee.

A thick, ancient tome materialized in Kakarai's outstretched hand. The Book of the Rooms. Its pages fluttered wildly, glowing with ominous runes.

Kakarai's smile stretched into something inhuman — a vicious lash of pure madness and delight.

The blade-limb embedded in the Apostle suddenly surged with power, leaping through the elder's entire body like a parasitic curse. Veins bulged under the Apostle's skin as the invasion spread.

"This… this was just one of the many mimics inside me," Kakarai whispered, voice layered with countless others.

In the next heartbeat, Kakarai vanished. He no-clipped out of existence completely, leaving the Apostle impaled and roaring in fury.

"YOU TREACHEROUS LITTLE MONSTER!" the Apostle bellowed, clutching the gaping wound in his torso. Blood — both his and something far darker — poured freely from multiple puncture holes. His face twisted into absolute demonic rage. "I gave you purpose! I made you!"

Enraged beyond measure, he slammed his foot down. Crimson energy erupted around him as he began chanting in a guttural, ancient tongue, drawing power directly from the blood flow in the City.

"Blood dew." The ground trembled. A terrifying domain started to manifest.

But he was too slow.

Nadia had already acted.

Golden light exploded from her body as she burned through nearly half of her total mana reserves in one terrifying surge. Sweat beaded on her forehead, but her stance remained flawless — elegant and deadly. Her broken blade glowed with radiant power as she raised it high.

"Calligraphy of the Unwritten Sun!"

The night sky ignited.

Brilliant golden runes and calligraphy, beautiful yet apocalyptic, burned themselves into existence above the battlefield. The sheer holy radiance forced many to shield their eyes.

The Apostle staggered, genuinely surprised for the second time that night. "A Rank Nine Light Mage? Why is the Church interfering here?" His eyes narrowed, scanning her. "Judging from your realm, you should be one of their Saints. Yet… I don't recall ever seeing your face among those self-righteous dogs."

His shock quickly curdled back into mocking arrogance. "Well… you can die here with the rest."

He laughed cruelly at the expanding golden domain. "An incomplete domain? What do you think that pesky little light show can do to me? You might squeeze out two or three decent attacks at best. Then your mana will run completely dry, leaving you nothing more than an empty, useless corpse."

The Apostle spread his arms wide, blood dripping from his fingers. "Don't worry, girl. I'll personally escort you down the path of death."

Their domains clashed with cataclysmic force.

The Apostle's bloody domain tried to spread like a plague, but Nadia's golden light pushed back fiercely. The collision sent violent shockwaves rippling outward. The wave that burst from the Apostle's body instantly drew blood from every living thing within a hundred-meter radius. Trees wept red sap. Stone cracked and bled. Guards and civilians alike screamed as blood leaked from their eyes, noses, and ears.

The entire City of Roses reacted in terror.

The night sky flashed with blinding golden light, visible across the whole city. In the distant alleyways, the Godfall guards froze mid-step.

"My God…" The Sacred Wolf stared up at the blazing sky, face pale. "This is bad. Move faster! Hurry the hell up!" he roared, urging his men forward at full speed.

This situation more than qualified to use tgat item right? Scared wolf moved nimbly questioning himself.

—-

One by one, elite warriors and mages formed a tight circle. Each ripped apart a special teleportation talisman in unison. Bright flashes of light lit up the ruins as they vanished, rushing to reinforce the front line.

The Apostle wiped fresh blood from his lips, his wound slowly closing while his eyes burned with murderous glee and bottomless hatred. The humiliation of being stabbed by his former student still stung deeply.

Kakarai had vanished into the shadows.

While Nadia stood ready with her ultimate spell burning in the sky.

And high above them all, unseen eyes continued watching with growing interest.

The fragile ceasefire had been completely shattered.

Now, the true slaughter could begin.