Chapter 114: Marcella's Fear

"Let me warn you," Marcella continued.

"While this pill won't kill you, it will prevent you from harnessing even a shred of your true energy."

"If you don't get the antidote from me within three days, your cultivation will be utterly destroyed, and you'll be no different than an ordinary person."

"I hope you keep your word because until you have me under control, I still retain the power to take my own life," Blood Rose said, her formidable aura gradually diminishing.

Without a moment of hesitation, she swallowed the pill whole. Liam and his companions hadn't expected Blood Rose to act with such resolve, and their esteem for her rose a notch.

"True to the spirit of BR Hall's chairman, I must say, your nerves impress me," Marcella complimented, then set Ruby down gently. "There you go kiddo, did I scare you? Run along to your mom now!"

For Marcella, releasing Amelia and her sisters meant losing her grip on Liam, which was a calculated risk. On one hand, she worried that Blood Rose might take her own life, a most unfavorable outcome indeed. On the other hand, she was confident in her strength, with four generals and twenty high-ranking officers at her disposal, and there seemed to be no difficulty in handling Liam and his two allies.

"You're a meanie!" Ruby scampered away from Marcella's embrace and ran toward Amelia. "Mommy!"

"Ruby!" Amelia and her sisters quickly closed in, and after scooping up Ruby, they dashed to safety.

Seeing the trio break free of their captors, a hundred knights charged in, swiftly enveloping Amelia and her sisters at the center before whisking them away at breakneck speed.

Meanwhile, Marcella and the towering Generalissimo beside her lunged toward Blood Rose, intent on securing her without delay. Their plans were overly optimistic.

As they surged forward, Liam sprang into action. Taking two quick strides, he launched a palm strike so powerful that it stirred the air into a violent vortex, surging toward his opponents like a hurricane. "Back off!" Marcella bellowed, channeling all her might into a counterstrike as the clash sent a shockwave through the air.

The other man, equally unreserved, whirled his fists and launched a barrage of ferocious blows that howled through the air, his vigor unstoppable.

Boom!

A deafening blast echoed as an intense shockwave ripple sent shockwaves surging outward, reducing the nearby amusement park structures to rubble. Marcella and her ally were then hurled through the air like leaves in the wind, spewing blood before crashing into the ground and creating twin craters. They lay motionless, their energy drained to its absolute brink. This was Liam showing mercy. Without it, not even their bones might have remained.

A collective gasp rose from the onlookers. The horror on Blood Rose's face was palpable. She'd heard of Liam's formidable abilities, which she knew might exceed her wildest imaginings, but hearing was one thing, seeing was another. The shock was profound.

He was indeed immensely powerful.

As the three assailants made their move, Robert and Mike also sprang into action, launching themselves like human cannonballs toward the remaining two members of the Generalissimo faction. Their aura skyrocketed in intensity, a chilling murderous intent enveloping them.

In their hearts, a death sentence had already been passed on their adversaries, and they showed not a whisper of mercy as they struck. Several oncoming Blaze warriors attempted to block them but were caught off guard and sent flying into the air by the raging gusts of energy, only to crash to the ground, spewing blood and lifeless.

Meanwhile, the two Generalissimo-ranked men were already thoroughly rattled by Liam's prowess, their will to fight completely crushed. Exchanging a glance, they bolted in separate directions without a moment's hesitation.

"What terror," one of them thought, "a single move disabled two fourth-tier Generalissimos!"

The intelligence was flawed, fatally flawed, who had claimed their enemy was merely at the Generalissimo level was utterly wrong. Liam's power solidly placed him among the elite Storm Knights.

Even in the secretive world of the Dark Realm, a Storm Knight was a force to be reckoned with. Their president had only advanced to the first tier of Storm Knight three months ago.

"Think you can run after showing up here?" Liam's voice echoed in their ears not long after they started fleeing.

Before one could even beg for mercy, he was reduced to a mist of blood by Liam's palm strike. "Spare me, please! I beg you, don't!" the other screamed, powering up and sprinting desperately.

"The moment you stepped into Summer Country, your fate was sealed!" Liam's teleportation was immensely faster. In the blink of an eye, he was mere meters behind the man, unleashing a tornado-like surge of energy.

"No!" the man cried out in a hysterical plea, sensing the overpowering intent to kill behind him.

His plea was cut short, dissolving into silence and a burst of blood mist. Peace returned as Robert and Mike cleanly dispatched the remaining twenty Blaze warriors.

"How can this be? You're already of Storm Knight realm, just who are you?" Marcella struggled out of the pit, her voice trembling as she addressed Liam slowly walking toward her.

The other man lay motionless next to her, life extinguished from his wide, staring eyes, an embodiment of someone who died in disbelief and defiance.

Until his final breath, he couldn't fathom how his life had come to such an abrupt and unexpected end. He was, after all, a formidable force, a four-star general in his own right. How could he have been so easily neutralized in a single move? Since when had a man of his stature become so easily vanquished?

"Marcella, the BS Hall is in deep trouble!" At this moment, Blood Rose's face was ashen, her body devoid of any sign of vitality.

The pill had taken effect.

"What do you mean, who exactly is he?" Marcella swallowed hard, turning to Blood Rose with a growing sense of unease.

"Do you remember what happened a year ago in the Underworld?" Blood Rose took a deep breath before she spoke.

"What?" Hearing this, Marcella shuddered, her face etched with shock.

"Are you telling me he's Marshall Thompson from our Summer Country?"