Chapter 103 Their base was trembling
Raymond struggled to catch his breath, his chest heaving as he remained on one knee. The cold efficiency he usually carried had been replaced by a raw, visible panic.
"My King..." he gasped, the words barely leaving his throat.
King Wayne stood up abruptly, his chair scraping harshly against the stone floor. He had never seen Raymond his most composed troop in such a state of disarray. The sight sent a chill through him that the castle’s hearth could not warm.
"What happened? What is happening here?" Wayne demanded, his voice echoing with a mixture of authority and growing dread.
Raymond looked up, his eyes wide and haunted. "We need to take this account solemnly,"
Wayne stood flabbergasted, his hands gripping the edge of his heavy oak table until his knuckles turned white. He had spent decades calculating every move.
They went to the secret place under the room. And the place was secluded their all enemies.
"Speak plainly, Raymond!" Wayne roared, though his heart hammered against his ribs
The air in the secret cavern was thick with the scent of ozone and ancient dust as the silver light of the Obsidian began to dim. Raymond stood at the base of the stone stairs, his face pale, watching Wayne descend with the slow, predatory grace of a man who finally held the world in his palm.
"He is gone, Wayne," Raymond blurted out, the words tumbling over each other. "The shackles... they didn't hold."
Wayne stopped mid-step. He didn't turn around, but the air around him seemed to drop ten degrees. "Explain."
"It was Ezra," Raymond said, his voice trembling with a mix of disbelief and fear. "Your son. He went to the chamber. He saw the agony Orion was in the way the floor was heaving and he couldn't stand the sight of Esperanza’s tears."
Wayne turned slowly, his face a mask of cold, sharp angles. "He released the Psychic Demon? My own blood allowed that monster to walk free?"
Wayne’s eyes shimmered with a dangerous light. He walked toward the Obsidian altar, his fingers twitching. "And Esperanza?"
It's her wish to release him، Raymond said۔
Wayne slammed his fist onto the stone dais, though his face remained eerily calm.
Thst monster can devour her, how could she do that to herself...., Wayne growled.
"Then the cycle begins. Ezra, in his pusillanimous need to be loved, has handed our greatest enemy the key to his own destruction.
Wayne looked up at the jagged ceiling, as if he could see through the miles of rock to where his son stood.
"My son is a fool, Raymond. He has played the part of the savior, but he has only ensured that when the Golden Dragon finally rises, there will be no chains left to hold it back. He hasn't won her trust, she has planned him into her yearnings,"
Raymond swallowed hard, looking at the door. "What do we do now? Orion is loose in the castle, and he knows we were the ones who shackled him."
The air in the room turned ice-cold. King Wayne’s face went from pale to a deathly, ashen grey. The words Raymond uttered were a death knell to their decades of careful plotting.
"Everything is destroyed," Raymond choked out, his voice cracking. "He was with his father.
Wayne staggered back,
Wayne let out a sound that was half-gasp, half-sob.
"And Ezra?" Wayne whispered, his voice trembling. "Does my son know his father is a traitor?"
"He was standing right there," Raymond replied, a tear finally hitting the stone floor.
Wayne let out a shuddering breath, his chest tightening as the gravity of the situation sank in. "Ezra doesn't know anything," he repeated, almost to convince himself. "He protected Esperanza... he only released the creature because she begged him to."
Wayne gasped, the sound echoing sharply against the stone walls. The thought of his son the boy who looked at him with such unwavering pride finding out the truth was more terrifying than any dragon’s fire.
"I cannot portray myself as evil in front of my son," Wayne choked out, his voice cracking with a rare moment of genuine vulnerability. "Not Ezra. He is the only thing I have left that is pure."
"He knows you as the greatest hero of all time, Sire," Raymond said, his voice dropping to a low, manipulative hum. "In his eyes, you are the shield that protects this kingdom from the darkness. If he finds out you created that darkness, he will be the first one to draw a sword against you."
Wayne’s eyes flared up, a sudden, violent spark of resolve igniting in his gaze. The fear was still there, but it was being rapidly replaced by a cold, desperate rage. He could not lose his son's respect.
He would burn the entire kingdom to the ground before he let Ezra see the monster beneath the crown.
"I cannot let this happen," Wayne growled, fisting his hand so tightly his rings bit into his skin. "If Orion won't speak in front of Ezra, then we must ensure he never speaks again. We must play the part of the heroes one last time."
"But my King, you must understand—that creature is nothing like the beasts we’ve faced before. He isn't just a man in scales; he is a living nightmare."
"With one breath of his power or one surge of that psychic rot, he could turn this entire kingdom into nothing but ash and silence. If he loses control for even a second, there won't be a crown left for King Ezra to wear or a throne left to sit upon."
"What kind of creature is this? He is nothing like the Psychic Dragons we’ve slaughtered in the past!" Wayne shouted, his voice cracking with a rare, jagged edge of panic.
He stood there, frozen in shock, his body trembling as he glared at Raymond. His brows were knit together in a deep, heavy frown that made his eyes look like dark pits of shadow.
For the first time in decades, the cold, calculating King looked truly small. The memories of the dragons they had successfully hunted creatures of blood and bone that could be pierced by a well-aimed spear offered him no comfort now.