Eros

Crowned in Crimson - 43

The representatives of the Divine Church of Light arrived at Ogoni's mansion in Anerock to find its gate opened and unmanned. Peter Marrow ordered the four-horse carriage to halt and the guards to attention, then slid off his horse and walked through the gate.

He circled the garden and found the trees at its side deformed. Unproportionally sized branches swelled out of the barks, their weight forcing them to the ground. Roots of the same unnatural proportions jutted out of the bloodstained grass.

He wasn't surprised to find the mansion's huge, ornamented doors ajar. A dead guard greeted hi

m inside. It laid on its stomach, but the head faced the ceiling, peering up at him with a frozen, horrified expression.

Peter knelt down and examined the corpse's neck. It was twisted so far around that the throat stretched above the nape, and the skin was blackened by ruptured blood vessels. The High Executioner was most intrigued. He had never seen a neck broken so violently.

Down the hall, he saw another couple of bodies, then heard the echo of booming voices and rolling laughter. Following the sound, he crossed the hall and took a turn into a large chamber. The dining chamber.

Five men wearing half-striped uniforms of Ogoni's guard sat around the long table. Both the table and the floor around it was littered with dirty or shattered plates, leftovers of rich food, and empty bottles of liquor. Holding tankards, they all laughed and spoke with the loudness and vulgarity of drunks.

"Guards," Peter raised his voice to gain their attention. "Tell me what happened here."

"What's it to you, priest-boy?" One man said.

"Get the fuck off here, it's our mansion now." Added another.

Peter strode towards that man.

"Are you fucking deaf?" The guard glared at Peter, set down the tankard, and began to rise. "Get the fuck o-"

Peter closed the final step, wires of white light flashing, stretching and merging in his grip. His hand shot up, and just as the light solidified into a blade, he jammed it in the guard's eye. It slashed through his eyeball and brain until the hilt struck the cracked eye socket and the point split the back of his skull. He didn't even scream, just slacked back into his seat.

"Fucking hell!"

"Mad fucking priest!"

"Velsair's cock!"

The guards shouted around the table and jumped from their chairs. Peter turned half way and swung his empty hand. Hot white light lanced out of it, materializing into another sword of steel whiter than snow, etched with golden scrollwork. Blurring, it sliced open the neck of the guard beside him, sprinkling blood in the air.

A guard at the other side of the table leapt atop the table and stepped, roaring and raising a club in his fist. Peter kicked the table, unbalancing the guard in his charge. He spun out of the way as he fell towards him, and stabbed through the guard's back as his body hit the floor.

Meanwhile, the fourth guard tried to run out of the hall. Peter whirled around and threw his sword with a whip of his arm. The blade slit a white streak in the air, and the guard tumbled forward as it embedded in his back.

Peter stepped to the fifth guard, white clothes spattered with blood, grey eyes cold and empty as a lizard's. The guard, who was more a boy than a man, trembled and dropped his weapon. He felt that terror again, nipping through his flesh, sinking to the very marrow of his bones, paralyzing his body. The same terror he felt when he saw that man eviscerating Lord Ogoni with his bare hands.