Chapter 172: [172] No Mercy

Immediately Eliron stared up at the ceiling, the dozens of lights atop them began to spin, slowly.

The room followed the rhythm, the walls creaking and the floor trembling as things began to move.

Marcus was trying to escape.

’Like I’ll let you slip away again!’

Since Marcus had burned out most of his mana on creating the room, it was going to take longer for him to once again rearrange the space.

Time that no one was going to give him.

Eliron raced towards the nearest statue. Unlike before, now, all that remained of it was a pile of rocks that piled up to a reasonable height.

He sprinted atop this pile, then he catapulted himself to the nearby wall, his feet digging into it as he raced straight horizontally.

When he had gotten high enough, Eliron used his hands into the stone, getting a good grip of it.

Then using both his arms and legs, he forcefully leaped right at the ceiling, unsheathing his sword as he approached it.

The wind blew past his ears, Eliron’s entire body pulsing with the incessant flow of adrenaline as his eyes were lit up by the lights.

And then one by one, the crystal lights dislodged, flying right at him like bullets.

Swish!

He slashed the first one that was racing towards his head, deflected the next, then grabbed another one, launching it at the group flying towards him, taking them all out.

Drawing his sword back, Eliron summoned his strength, just before delivering over a dozen strikes at what was left of the lamps.

He sliced through the lamps and stone with ease, sending broken fragments falling down as he burst into the room above.

The moment he got in, he saw Marcus scrambling to adjust the space. There was one guard with him who had his sword drawn, taking a protective stance in front of him.

Already a wall had burst out, about to separate them—

Clang!

The wall sealed the two rooms apart. But not allowing himself to lose his momentum, Eliron charged at it, delivering a heavy kick to the stone.

The wall burst open, rocks flying into the new room and slamming into Marcus and his guard, who stared at him in shock.

“Arghhhh!” The man let out a battle cry as he charged towards Eliron, swinging his sword widely.

His movements were wonky, his sword lacking direction. Whether it was fear that made him so lousy, or he was a terrible swordsman from the get go, Eliron had no idea.

The moment he got close enough to Eliron, he drove his sword right through his chest, the black blade bursting out of the other side.

Marcus stiffened as he watched his guard crumble to the floor.

’H-how is he this strong??’ Marcus thought, his mind racing.

After their confrontation, he had known the elf was powerful, but he never knew it would be to this extent.

Marcus was in an environment that greatly boosted his attack capabilities. It was because of the countless man-made structures that he was even able to put up a fight.

Out in the open, he would not be able to do half of what he had done here.

And yet…

’I’m losing?’

“STAY BACK!!!”

Marcus screamed, eyes wide as he raised a hand to defend himself. He walked back, his back bumping the wall.

Eliron took a step forward…

“I said stay back!!!!”

Vwooosh!

Stone tentacles burst out of the wall, cutting right towards Eliron. Eliron shattered the first one with his elbow, held the second one, crumbling it with his hands and using his sword, he cleaved through all that was left, leaving Marcus bare.

“Look at you…” Eliron said with disgust.

Just a few minutes ago, he was sitting still, no care in the world while his poorly trained daughter tortured someone to the brink of death.

He was ready to chop up an innocent woman’s arms just for the sake of his greedy ambition.

But now…

“Please, I beg you! I’ll change, I’ll let go of all my plans—!”

Splurt—!

Marcus’ eyes widened as he stared down, blood slipping down his lips, his shaky, blood-slicked fingers gracing the sword that had gone through him.

He fell to his knees, coughing up more blood as life began to flee his body.

Heroes would have listened to him, maybe offer him support. Heal him and integrate him back into society…

A futile attempt.

Eliron knew how it would eventually end. With a sword sticking out of the baron’s back.

There were villains who were redeemable, but being a leader also had to do with knowing when it was time to give up.

Eliron sighed as he stared at him, then he slowly shook his head.

“I guess this is considered a win.” He smirked.

He glanced around the room. The entire catacombs had been converted into something it was not, the blocks had been mixed into something unusual, and the caves had been transformed into a large hall.

It would take hours to find Duke in the mess, and Marcus who had ruined the space was taking his dying breath.

But since Eliron had already won the fight—

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, taking a short breath just before he snapped his fingers.

Click!

The walls began to shift, the broken lamps levitated from the floor, the room they were in began to descend.

Little by little, the room was transformed. Everything went back to place, returning to their usual position.

Although there were areas that could not be fixed, like the floor that had been burned to ash… the catacombs were back to normal.

Eliron slowly opened his eyes and smiled.

[SSS- Rank Skill. Overseer’s Hand]

It was a skill that was even a step above Marcus’s skill, more like an SSS variant so it was able to easily override all of his modifications.

During the rearrangement, Eliron had brought everybody back into the room just in front of the baroness’ room.

Meaning there were now a ton of corpses littering the floors. Duke was sitting quietly by the side, and Doris was still unconscious, encased in the same block her father had put her in.

Cough! Cough!

“H-how, how did you do it?” Came a weak voice from Eliron’s side.

He turned to see Marcus struggling to sit upright.

Eliron blinked. “You’re still alive?”

He was quite resilient, Eliron would give him that.

“It’s simple. I could always do it.”

One of the reasons Eliron knew so much about the skill was because it was a skill he already had in his possession.

Marcus’ eyes widened, then a solemn expression appeared on his face.

“S-so from the very beginning…” he coughed.

He had realised that Eliron could have simply overridden his spell, and slowly picked him and his crew apart.

So from the start…

It was never really a battle he could have hoped to win. His struggles at the end had been futile.

“You… why?” Marcus’ eyes showed his confusion.

Eliron shrugged. “I had a bet.”

“A bet… I see…”

Finally, he fell back, darkness eroding his vision. Eliron stared at him for a second longer before walking away.

He walked over to one of the corpses laying on the floor and picked up his sword, unsheathing the blade.

Then without a word, he walked up to Duke and stared down at him.

The baron’s son had wrapped a rag around his eyes to stop the bleeding. It was good, it meant he still had the will to live.

Many people after being disgraced the way he had been, after being played like a fool would take their own life.

“Kill me…” Duke breathed out, staring at the floor as he hugged his feet. “I assisted them, I deserve to be punished.”

Eliron frowned.

Whoosh!

He grabbed Duke by the shoulder and roughly hoisted him to his feet, causing him to stare at Eliron in shock.

“What are you—”

“Shut up.” Eliron said firmly.

“Kill you? So after all the shit you’ve done you want to take the cowardly way out? You want to run and leave all your sins behind?!”

Duke’s face flashed with shock, his mood turning more damper.

“I am trying to atone—!”

Eliron interrupted him by shoving the sword right into his hands.

“If you want to atone, then start by being a better man, start by being a better heir.”

Duke stared at the sword, afraid of the next words Eliron was going to say.

“A-and how do I do that?”

The words hung heavy in his lips, his heart twisting with grief.

For many years, he had tried his own way, only to fail and fall to rock bottom.

How then could he be better? What did he need to do?

“How can I be better?!” Duke screamed with resolve, a passion burning in his eyes.

Eliron stared at him coldly and spoke, his voice mercilessly cold.

He pointed at the person behind him.

“Kill her.”

“Sever yourself from your disgusting past.”

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