A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 350: Scpetre of ’Destructive Flames’

Chapter 350: Scpetre of ’Destructive Flames’

I crouched down in front of the leader of this rather puny invasion force of theirs.

Opening my mouth, I used my magic to grab the souls of those already dead and drag them inside, making sure that their leader could see and hear everything.

He saw as I slurped up their souls like noodles and swallowed them without any remorse. Their screams echoing throughout the room as they were forced into my stomachs where I would’ve began digesting them, but I still had the Orc digesting inside of me, so I put that on hold for now.

Either way, this served to instil terror into the leader, who screamed in both pain from his hand being torn asunder from gripping the sceptre, and also from seeing what happened to his fellow cultists.

That was the only noise coming from both inside and outside the palace nearby. Everyone else was silent and aghast at what they were witnessing me do.

I took a deep breath, swallowing down the final souls as I calmed myself, lessening the pressure I was putting on the cultists, allowing them to speak, but still enough to keep them down and struggling. _{fr\eewebno vel .c(o)m}

"Wh-Who a-ar-r-re, y-y-you-u-u..." The man struggled to ask as he tried to ignore the pain of his hand being torn apart.

"I told you," I reached out and grabbed the sides of his head with both hands, and in an unnervingly calm yet also dead tone said, "Your doom."

Pure white ethereal flames burst from my hands and began to burn away at his soul, his shrieks growing louder every second as his very being, the very core of his existence that made him, him, was burning away in my hands.

His screams of agony were cathartic. Like an orchestra in perfect synchrony, or a choir in perfect harmony.

And on top of that, I was peering into his very soul with [Divine Eyes] through my [Soul Flames], hoping to scour his memories by any chance and gleam any information from him.

I don’t know how I did this before, but I can tap into that feeling of when I did it before and be able to somewhat replicate it, even if it’s in a rather crude manner. But that just makes the process more painful, which makes the screams louder.

Unbeknownst to me though, I began to laugh rather creepily, but nobody heard as they weren’t that loud and were drowned out by this man’s wails of agony.

Soon though, I had burned his soul away completely and his body fell limp. I stopped using my [Soul Flame]’s since now they didn’t do anything and got back up, my crazed appearance shifting into one of a calm water surface with a hidden turmoil visible beneath it.

[Ding!]

[You have learned the Skill [Soul Scouring: LvL. 1]!]

’Huh, neat. Guess I can do this to about anyone now.’

I turned to Trayzara and told her, "You can take the one’s still alive and interrogate them and we can validate if what I’ve just learned is true or just lies and deception meant to throw us off. As for this thing."

My attention was then drawn towards the Sceptre of ’Destructive Flames’ and picked it up.

I heard everyone around me grimace slightly as I picked it up, probably worried that I would suddenly turn on them or something like that.

’Ridiculous.’ I thought to myself as I inspected the orb further.

As I did so, Trayzara got a hold of herself and ordered her guards to pick up the remaining cultists that were still alive and lock them up for later interrogation and likely torture. She also ordered them to help dispel any civil unrest this little even may have caused.

Once that was done, she came up to me and asked how I was feeling.

"Hmm? Oh, I’m fine. For some reason, knowing all this is making me a lot more level-headed and calmer in my approach."

"I see..." Was all she had to say to that.

She observed me inspecting the sceptre for a short minute before she spoke up, "Do you know the origins of this sceptre by any chance?"

"Nope. Not the faintest idea. You?" I returned the question.

"Unfortunately, we know not how it was created. My ancestors found it in some ruins turned into a dungeon one day and brought it back. It was then stolen by a shady organisation, whom I suspect are in the same league as these perpetrators."

"Right... I don’t think this was naturally formed by the creation of a dungeon. Not the sceptre bit anyways."

"What do you mean by that."

"From what I can gleam, this sceptre is just a means to control and concentrate the power of this elemental crystalised Mana Core. Meaning that this orb is made of pure crystalised destruction alone."

"Wh-What?" The Futaris staggered back slightly upon hearing what I said. "Y-You really think that?" She asked, still unsure if that was true or not.

"Of course, see for yourself." I then proceeded to rip the sceptre to pieces and pry the orb away from it.

It crumbled to dust the moment I snapped it.

"... I thought it would be stronger than that..."

"Wh-What? W-Why did it break so easily?" Trayzara asked in complete befuddlement. And I thought the answer would be obvious but apparently not.

So, I answered her question, "Probably because this is an orb of pure Destruction. Meaning that prolonged use would’ve caused it to crumble into nothing eventually anyways."

"Oh... I see..."

It would appear that her mind is overloaded with all these sudden events happening all at once and having no time to properly process any of it.

Not exactly what you’d want from the ruler of a kingdom if I’m being honest. Then again, it’s not like I know what she’s going through her head right now so...

*Cough*

"Huh? Oh right. Sceptre."

She spaced out...

"What do you plan on doing with that now?" She pointed to the Destruction Mana Core with some worry and intrigue.

I looked down at said orb, which was now in my hands, and had this very strange desire wash over me.

"I wanna eat it."

...

There was an awkward pause before the Futaris suddenly yelled at me with incredible fury.

"NO!" And right in my ear too. "You are NOT eating that!"

I turned to look at her with a deadpan expression and a raised eyebrow and said, "And what are you gonna do to stop me if I do huh?"

She was taken aback by that statement and stumbled over her words momentarily before she regained her composure.

"Never mind that. Right now, we should prioritise the current situation and this cult. You said you learned more information? What is it."

I was about to tell her when she suddenly raised her hand and stopped me. "Actually no, we’ll gather this trustworthy of this information and then we can better coordinate from there. I’ll gather those I can trust and meet up with you in the Sect’s palace later, understood?"

Now I was the one a little taken aback, since this is how I expected her to act just now. Either way, it was a good plan so I agreed to it.

She called for some of the palace guards to take me to the Sect’s palace, which is weird, why would they have their own palace? While she dealt with the imprisonment of those who were just detained.