Cairen looked at the crown prince without averting his gaze.
His expression was not of hatred, pain, or sadness. No, he looked at the one who killed Mei Ran with the same expression he had at the moment he awaited his own execution.
It was cold.
Empty.
Loaded with something heavy, formless, something he could not explain.
In that moment, his mind reached a state of clarity. Something he had forgotten. No. Something he had pretended to forget.
In the end, no matter the place, humans were still fragile. Helpless, terrible, weak, sensitive, and sentimental. And he was still, unfortunately, human.
Without him realizing, a symbol appeared on his back, the same one from when his Fallen ability had awakened.
"How… how dare you look at me like that?" The crown prince's voice trembled, sharp, breaking.
"You forced me to kill her… Yes… it's your fault, all your fault! How could you!"
"You dared to catch the attention of Sister Ling… my love… my Ling. Unforgivable, unacceptable."
"My sister… my… MINE!"
The last word came out as a distorted scream before he suddenly vanished from the tree like a shadow.
And in an instant, without a sound, a dagger appeared just centimeters from Cairen's throat.
Far too fast for Cairen's body to dodge or even for his eyes to follow. But his mind was completely clear, and he knew what to do.
Instantly, instinctively, the chain shot out from the center of Cairen's hand like lightning, the sound of metal colliding ringing as the dagger shattered completely.
After shattering the dagger, the chain continued at high speed toward the prince's neck, but the shadow swallowed his body before impact, and he disappeared again without a sound.
'How? How could this weak trash with such low cultivation defend in time, and what the hell is this chain? Is it his bloodline?' Thought the crown prince, hidden in the shadows, before appearing again atop the same branch.
The hatred in his mind burned even stronger as his hands reached for his hair, pulling violently up and down until some gray strands were torn out.
"A commoner… a commoner with an awakened bloodline… and not me! This is unacceptable! You must die, yes, if not for that bloodline, Sister Ling would never look at you. DIE!"
He vanished suddenly, reappearing behind Cairen even faster. Another dagger was in his hand, but this time it was different. A dark glow covered the blade.
Hidden Blade Technique: Piercing Cut! The crown prince roared in his mind with rage.
In that moment of clarity, Cairen remembered. The face, the voice, the false smile, and the sincere smile before Mei Ran departed.
He was not in love with her or anything like that. No, he had barely known her. But she had treated him better than anyone else ever had. She did not deserve to die like that, and even indirectly, he bore some guilt.
The chain suddenly thickened, the black links expanding rapidly before shooting from the center of his hand. At that moment, a pain surged.
The black steel blocked the dagger completely. Cairen did not move a step, but as if the chain had life, it instantly shot toward the prince's rear, the blade at its tip becoming larger than before.
The crown prince tried to flee instantly when the attack failed. But he was far too late.
Instead of continuing the attack, the chain shrank again at the same instant, slamming into the ground two meters behind Cairen.
More precisely, the chain's blade struck directly at the tree's shadow.
"AAAAAAAHH, MY ARM! MY ARM!" An animalistic scream, like a dying pig, echoed from the shadow.
The chain returned into Cairen's hand as blood dripped to the ground.
The crown prince appeared on the branches, sobbing.
But something was missing from his body. His left arm was gone. Cairen looked beneath the tree, the rest of the prince's arm was disintegrating into dust.
When the chain's blade, bathed in Cairen's blood, the Serpent's Plague, struck the prince's hand hidden in the shadow, it immediately began to dissolve.
Without hesitation, the prince had cut it off, eyes wide, staring at Cairen in terror.
The Shackles of the False Genocider were soaked in his blood. Instead of letting the chains emerge harmlessly, Cairen had made them erupt from inside his hands, slicing his own flesh so the blood would soak into the steel.
"HOW, HOW THE HELL DID YOU HIT ME? IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR SOMEONE AT YOUR CULTIVATION LEVEL TO LOCATE ME." The prince spoke bitterly, teeth clenched and grinding in rage and pain.
Cairen did not answer, only looked at him, confirming his suspicion. The crown prince had an affinity with shadow. Even if it seemed he disappeared, he could only move through shadows.
Cairen advanced then, his speed not so fast, but enough to close within three meters of the prince. The chain's tip transformed into a round mass filled with spikes, instantly smashing the branch of the red tree where the prince hid.
But he was no faster than Cairen's chain. As soon as the branch exploded, his camouflage broke, and his body fell from the tree. He tried to retreat into another shadow. But the chain thinned again, flying toward the prince's leg.
He almost escaped, but the tip of Cairen's blade made an almost imperceptible cut on the prince's leg. A cut like that was nothing, but with the Serpent's Plague, it was lethal. Another miserable scream erupted.
The prince's Qi could not protect his body, neither from the chains nor from the blood. Fallen abilities made the prince's meager Qi useless and corroded it. He severed his leg instantly, crying out in pain.
The pain was unbearable.
'Monster, he's a fucking monster like Sister Ling. I have to escape, Sister Ling… yes, Sister Ling, only she can save me from this monster.'
Desperate, bleeding, and crying, he tried to flee with all his strength, but missing a leg, it was impossible to get out of Cairen's reach.
The prince thought he was escaping after not seeing Cairen pursue him.
But as soon as he looked back, he saw that on Cairen's empty face… suddenly, a faint smile appeared.
Cairen found it amusing, he had seemed so arrogant before. But now, he didn't even realize that the blood betrayed every shadow he tried to hide in.
Cairen made his move then, the chain shooting toward a tree branch, wrapping around it, pulling Cairen forward at high speed, propelling him ahead.
In moments, Cairen reached him.
And cut off his escape route.
"Show yourself. Why do you insist on hiding like a rat?" Cairen's emotionless voice echoed in the prince's ear as he remained in the tree's shadow. The blood from his hand and leg dripped to the ground beneath him, showing exactly where he was.
"Tell me. Why did you do this? Mei Ran, I met her recently. But she was one of the only acceptable humans I have ever met."
"Answer me!" Cairen said as the chain shot at high speed from his other hand, tearing off the prince's other arm. This time he did not use his blood, he did not want to kill him yet, he still had use for him.
"AAAAAAAAAH, YOU BASTARD! SHUT UP! YOU DESERVE EVERYTHING BAD, YES, EVERYTHING BAD. HOW DARE YOU TOUCH THE CROWN PRINCE? HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY LING, THE ROYAL FAMILY!"
"IF YOU TOUCH ME, MY SISTER WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY. NO, YOUR ENTIRE SECT, YOU BASTARD."
Cairen then knew for certain. Just for petty selfishness, he had killed Mei Ran. Someone who had done absolutely nothing against him.
He decided to end it then, approaching the prince, but suddenly stopped.
A flash of a blade suddenly descended toward his throat.
The chain rose again. The impact didn't leave even a scratch on the chain, instead, the sword's blade shattered.
Another person had arrived. He looked like the crown prince, but older, with darker hair.
He was panting, looking at Cairen cautiously beside the crown prince, then at his brother's broken form. Only one leg remained, his face completely pale, soon to die from blood loss.
He had heard his brother's call for help through the communication stone and, being the closest, arrived first and in time.
"Brother, call Sister Ling, quick. You are no match for him!" the crown prince whispered, his eyes unable to shed tears anymore, weakening by the second.
The older brother said nothing, but in the pocket of his robes, a thought was sent to a communication stone.
As soon as Cairen heard the princess's name, his brow furrowed. He had to finish this quickly.
Suddenly, a terrible headache surged in Cairen. The mark on his back was fading again, the emptiness in his expression slowly vanishing as anger, sadness, and all other feelings began returning.
'No. I have to finish this now!'
Cairen suddenly took a deep breath. His eyes closed for an instant. And then opened.
In that moment, the chain emerged with even greater speed than before, shifting to its final form.
Shackles of the False Genocider: JUDGMENT! Cairen intoned in his mind.
Suddenly, the end of the chain split into two shackles. Before either prince could react in time, the chain bound the crown prince's neck, lifting him off the ground. The metal gripped his neck and, in that moment…
The crown prince's vision went completely black, and he appeared elsewhere…
The older one tried to break the chain, but it was impossible, so he tried to attack Cairen again. But as soon as he got close, Cairen raised his other hand. Blood was flung toward him, making him retreat instantly, terrified. But a drop of blood landed on his clothes and, in less than a second, disintegrated them entirely, spreading to his arm and forcing him to do the same as his brother. He cut it off with another sword from his spatial ring.
He retreated in horror, then turned toward his brother. And then he saw.
The crown prince was frozen. Eyes wide, expression empty. His eyes were completely black and hopeless.
And on his forehead, a mark began to appear. If Cairen had seen the mark on his own back, he would immediately recognize the similarity. The only difference was that the mark on the prince was incomplete, half of a closed eye.
In that moment, the system's voice rang in Cairen's mind.
Ding!
[Shackles of the False Genocider have judged and transformed a being into a False-Fallen]
{Absorbing fallen energy}
Suddenly, all the crown prince's Qi, blood, soul, bones, and entire body seemed to wither instantly. After becoming a False-Fallen, the prince turned into pure fallen energy. The chains assimilated the fallen energy in seconds, making the crown prince's motionless body vanish from the face of the world, absorbed into the chains.
And then, at that moment, Cairen felt his body instantly strengthen. The fallen energy was finally tempering his body.