The absolute horror of the scene momentarily paralyzed the group.
Matthew, the proud and dignified Vice Leader of Ashburg, had been completely reduced to a mutilated, bleeding beggar sitting in the filth. His legs had been violently, cleanly severed just below the upper thighs.
The amputated stumps were a horrific, festering mess of charred flesh, completely shattered bone, and thick, coagulated black profound blood.
After seeing Matthew completely butchered, a terrifying, demonic rage instantly flared in Rayn's crimson eyes. The surrounding air violently dropped to absolute zero.
But Rayn forcefully bit his tongue, instantly calming his chaotic killing intent. Panicking wouldn't save a dying man.
"Vespera!" Rayn ordered, his voice cold and commanding. "Come here and fucking heal him right now!"
Vespera stepped forward, her golden eyes scanning the horrific damage with an absolutely emotionless, clinical gaze. She slowly shook her head.
"I cannot, Rayn. I completely lack the ability. I can only cast my healing Dao on cultivators who still have their original bodily components somewhat intact."
"What the actual fuck are you talking about?!" Rayn barked, completely losing his patience. "You forcefully healed my entire fucking body when I was literally bleeding out with a sword through my chest in that glacier!"
Vespera didn't flinch. "The absolute truth is, Rayn, even when you got violently destroyed your internal organs into absolute meat paste, those paste-like remnants were still physically inside your body. The biological DNA and the Gnosis signatures of your original organs were still completely attached to your spiritual vessel. That is why I was able to forcefully accelerate the cellular regeneration and knit them back together."
She pointed a delicate, trembling finger at Matthew's rotting stumps.
"But Matthew's legs were entirely, violently taken off. They didn't even leave a single, pathetic scrap of flesh or a viable nerve cluster attached to his body for me to violently reconstruct. Without the original biological anchor, my healing Dao is completely useless."
Rayn tightly clenched his jaw, the harsh reality of Aetheleon's absolute laws settling over him. "Okay. Even if we can't regenerate his missing legs... can we actually save his life?"
Vespera slowly nodded her head negatively, a rare flash of absolute sadness in her eyes. "No, Rayn. His profound core is completely shattered, and his life essence is violently bleeding into the void. Matthew has incredibly low time left. I heavily advise you to stop shouting and make absolutely sure you listen to whatever he wants to tell us. If he dies before speaking, the apocalyptic massacre of this town will remain an entire fucking mystery."
Rayn immediately dropped to his knees in the bloody dirt, entirely ignoring the gore soaking into his clothes. He grabbed Matthew's trembling, soot-stained hands.
"Matthew," Rayn said softly, forcing the absolute demonic edge out of his voice. "Look at me. What the fuck happened here?"
Matthew slowly lifted his head. His eyes were completely glazed over, violently struggling to maintain a final thread of consciousness.
"When... when I first returned to the Palace," Matthew weakly rasped, his voice bubbling with internal bleeding. "I was drinking a cup of coffee in the high tower. Then, suddenly, I saw an absolute horde of cultivators wearing those fucking yellow bandit robes. They violently breached the gates and immediately started systematically slaughtering every civilian in the streets."
Matthew violently coughed up a thick glob of black blood. "By the absolute time I noticed the invasion, the catastrophic damage was already done. But the worst part... our two remaining Division Captains completely betrayed us. The absolute bastards shook hands with the bandit leaders! They completely opened the inner armories and systematically butchered our remaining loyal forces from the inside out."
Matthew's grip on Rayn's hands violently tightened. "I... I only managed to save one person. I violently fought my way into the residential district and managed to hide Veora... the daughter of Novara."
Hearing the name Novara, Rayn completely froze.
In his fractured, deeply damaged psyche, Novara was not just a civilian. She was the absolute spitting image of "Valerie"—the only maternal figure he had ever deeply loved in earth.
Hearing that Novara's daughter had barely survived—and implicitly understanding that Novara herself had likely been brutally slaughtered—caused something fundamental inside Rayn to violently, catastrophically snap.
BOOOOOOM!
The absolute, terrifying aura of the Conqueror violently erupted from Rayn's body without a single warning. The kinetic spiritual pressure was so insanely heavy that the cobblestone street instantly shattered beneath his knees.
Everyone in the group—Victus, Chandler, and Freddy—was instantly, violently crushed face-first into the bloody dirt by the sheer gravity of the killing intent. Only Vespera, protected by her supreme bloodline, and Dawinton, standing invisibly beside her, managed to remain standing.
Even Dawinton, an Phase 5 powerhouse, was completely terrified.
How unbelievably strong is this fucking kid?! Dawinton thought, his invisible form violently trembling. He completely forced Phase 6 cultivators into the dirt without even physically touching them! How the absolute fuck does he possess this much raw, apocalyptic energy just from awakening that pathetic Void Scribe?!
"Continue," Rayn whispered. His voice was no longer human. It sounded exactly like a terrifying demon speaking directly from the deepest, darkest pits of the abyss. "Exactly what did you do next, Matthew?"
Matthew, completely unfazed by the terrifying pressure since his soul was already fading, continued his grim report.
"When I finally came down from the tower and desperately tried to fight the leader of the pack... a terrifying, powerhouse completely intercepted me." Matthew slowly lifted a trembling, bloody finger and pointed directly at the prone Freddy. "Freddy... your division also desperately tried to save the people... but it was of absolutely no use. They brought more than five thousand heavily armed elite troops. They completely destroyed our defenses and reduced the town to absolute ashes."
As Matthew struggled to draw another agonizing breath, Rayn slowly reached out and completely silenced him.
"That is enough, Matthew," Rayn said softly, his crimson eyes completely devoid of warmth. "I know exactly how much physical agony you are in right now. I am going to mercifully end your suffering myself."
Victus, still violently struggling against the gravity of Rayn's aura, managed to lift his head from the dirt.
"What the absolute fuck are you saying, Rayn?!" Victus screamed in horror. "Are you actually trying to execute Matthew?!"
Rayn completely ignored the outburst. He slowly reached toward the back of Matthew's soot-covered neck. With a precise, violent pinch, he pulled a disgusting, glowing, metallic bug from beneath Matthew's skin. The grotesque insect looked exactly like a demonic beetle, and it was violently writhing, actively trying to dig itself back into Matthew's spinal cord.
Rayn held the struggling insect up to Victus's terrified face. "Do you remember exactly what this pathetic artifact is, Victus?"
Victus's eyes went completely wide with absolute, sickening realization.
"Yes, Rayn..." Victus whispered, his face completely draining of color. "It is a parasitic torture artifact... It is specifically used by assassins to ensure that a cultivator on the absolute brink of death doesn't die immediately. It violently forces their nervous system to stay awake, making every single minute of their dying process feel exactly like a living, agonizing hell."
"Exactly," Rayn said, completely crushing the demonic beetle in his fist until it popped into a spray of acidic green blood. "I saw this disgusting insect actively burrowing into his spine the absolute second you guys noticed his amputated legs. The bandits purposely kept him alive just to make him violently suffer. I want to entirely end this pathetic misery and allow Matthew to leave his ruined body in absolute peace."
A heavy, suffocating silence violently fell over the group.
Everyone slowly nodded. Hot, heavy tears of absolute sorrow slowly traced down their dirt-covered cheeks, falling heavily onto the bloody, ruined cobblestones.
Rayn slowly closed his eyes. The ambient moisture in the air instantly froze, violently condensing into his terrifying, razor-sharp Ice Sword.
He leaned forward, looking directly into Matthew's glazed eyes. "I am going to end this misery completely without pain, my friend."
With a single, blindingly fast, completely flawless horizontal strike, Rayn violently slit Matthew's throat.
Matthew's eyes widened for a fraction of a microsecond, a look of profound relief washing over his soot-stained face, before his head completely slumped forward. The Vice Leader of Ashburg had violently died.
Rayn didn't speak a single fucking word. He slowly stood up, entirely consumed by absolute, demonic anger. The brutal death of Novara and the torturous execution of Matthew had completely cemented his resolve to commit an absolute, apocalyptic genocide.
Rayn turned to the kneeling men. "Listen to me, you pathetic fucks. We are going to completely butcher those yellow-robed bastards. We are going to entirely end this violent torture, and we will violently rebuild Ashburg into a peaceful, sovereign town upon their rotting corpses."
He violently reached down, grabbing Victus by the heavy collar of his armor, and aggressively shook his trembling body.
"Victus!" Rayn roared. "Stop crying like a pathetic, weak bitch! Are you seriously going to let the people who violently manipulated you to assassinate your father, the people who brutally executed your mentor Matthew, and the people who butchered your entire fucking division, just walk away?! Are you going to be a victim, or are you going to be a fucking killer?!"
Beside him, Chandler and Freddy both violently dropped to their knees in the bloody dirt. The traumatic, overwhelming memories of their entire divisions being brutally slaughtered flooded their minds like a violent, inescapable river.
Rayn let go of Victus and placed his heavy, blood-soaked hands firmly onto the trembling shoulders of Chandler and Freddy.
"Guys," Rayn said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly calm. "I absolutely cannot bring your murdered brothers back to life. But I promise you, on my absolute soul... we are going to extract an apocalyptic revenge for every single drop of blood they spilled."
Rayn stood up, completely dismissing the sentimental moment.
"Vespera and I require some absolute time to process this strategic nightmare," Rayn ordered. "Please immediately evacuate this immediate area. Return here in exactly one hour, and I will thoroughly explain our next, violent course of action."
He turned his cold gaze to the First Division Leader. "Chandler. You personally bury that child's headless body. Make absolutely sure the grieving mother knows exactly where her child is resting. And take Matthew's body. Secure it somewhere completely safe. We are going to hold a grand, honorable funeral for him... immediately after I personally, violently destroy that entire Bandit coalition."
Without waiting for their replies, Rayn turned his head. Vespera immediately activated her spatial Gnosis, elegantly floating into the air.
Rayn subtly grabbed the collar of the invisible Dawinton. He firmly grabbed Vespera's delicate hand. In an absolute, terrifying flash of spatial displacement, Vespera completely teleported all three of them directly into the heavily fortified living room of Rayn's private estate.
The moment they violently materialized inside the house, Rayn's calm facade entirely shattered.
He aggressively grabbed the invisible Dawinton by his throat, violently lifting the ancient Phase 5 powerhouse entirely off the ground and slamming him brutally against the stone wall.
"What the actual, ever-loving fuck is this absolute bullshit, Dawinton?!" Rayn roared, his crimson eyes blazing with unadulterated killing intent. "You explicitly fucking told me that your overpowered, absolute monster of an older child was secretly protecting this town from the shadows! Well, where the fuck was he?! He didn't even show his goddamn face when this town needed him the absolute most!"
Dawinton, completely overwhelmed by the fresh grief of violently losing his lifelong best friend, didn't even attempt to defend himself. He just hung there in Rayn's brutal grip.
He slowly looked down. He saw that Rayn's right hand was completely coated in the thick, wet blood of Matthew.
Dawinton violently reached up, grabbing Rayn's blood-soaked hand. The ancient Town Leader completely broke down, openly, hysterically crying as the absolute reality of the massacre finally crushed him.
"I am so fucking sorry, Matthew..." Dawinton sobbed, his voice cracking with absolute despair. "I couldn't protect you, my friend. I am not a true leader. I am not a true friend. I never even knew that you had to suffer and die completely alone..."
SMACK!
Rayn didn't hesitate. He violently slapped the weeping old man directly across his cheek, snapping his head to the side.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Rayn barked, his voice laced with pure, demonic disgust. "Stop crying like a pathetic, weak fucking wimp! I didn't save your miserable life and bring you here to sob into my hand like a pathetic child!"
Rayn aggressively threw Dawinton onto the floor. He violently reached into his robes and pulled out a highly advanced, profound communication artifact. He threw the heavy device directly at the sobbing old man's chest.
"I want you to make an absolute contact right fucking now," Rayn ordered coldly, his eyes promising absolute death. "I want you to contact the one person who can actually help us butcher these bastards."