20demayo Chapter 395: Chips
Chapter 395: Chips
“Wait!”
Evan’s shout had no effect. Loren’s blade had already fallen on Evan’s mother’s face, cutting off the protruding part cleanly.
“Master Mentor! Let’s finish the deal quickly! I’ll release Noah right now…”
At this point Evan had loosened the knife pressed to Noah’s neck, but Loren again fired without hesitation, forcing Evan to throw himself in front of Noah and take the shot for him.
The bullet entered Evan’s abdomen from the back, his voice trembling with pain.
This Evan was nothing like the defiant one he had been in prison.
“The agreement back then was to trade Noah for the Ember Radiance formula. Now my leverage includes your family. Choose—do you want Ember Radiance or your family?”
Hearing Loren’s demand, the two Robed Figures behind Evan finally couldn’t restrain themselves. They patted Evan’s shoulders, a clear intimidation.
“I want both Ember Radiance and my family!”
Evan gritted his teeth and shouted the words.“Then you still don’t understand the situation.”
Loren raised his hand and released magic. The next moment a bamboo stake pierced Noah, yet Noah kept laughing, looking at Evan like he was watching a clown.
“All right, Noah’s hurt again. According to our agreement…”
Anna understood and casually cut nearby wood into sticks, sharpened them, and stabbed them toward Evan’s family.
Loren even untied the vines over their mouths at that moment, just so Evan could clearly hear the screams.
“I…”
Evan reached out; his choice was already clear, but the Robed Figures kept pressing him down, preventing him from speaking.
Loren could guess Evan’s thought—if he couldn’t get Ember Radiance, his family would suffer.
Loren only smiled at that; Evan still didn’t grasp the full situation.
Those people could at most kill his family; Loren could make them live worse than death, and if they died Loren could control their souls with necromancy.
“Follow the choice in your heart.”
No sooner had the words left Loren’s mouth than two Blood Moon Condensed Light beams shot from his hand, precisely piercing the brains of the two Robed Figures.
Those two beams cost Loren five hundred mana, an ample gesture to spare them some dignity.
Only after the two Robed Figures collapsed did Evan wake from his stupor.
Now Evan realized the enormity of his predicament. He understood clearly that the two Robed Figures had been invisible; if they hadn’t patted his shoulder, he would not have known anyone was following him.
And now Loren had suddenly killed them. Evan felt ridiculous—Loren could have solved him long ago; Evan’s tricks were a joke before Loren.
The reason Loren hadn’t killed him outright yesterday was to capture his family.
Evan’s supposedly clever methods hadn’t even hidden his whereabouts, let alone his identity.
“I’ll save my family!”
Evan answered without hesitation. Loren couldn’t help feeling moved by their devotion.
“You two are very devoted… no wonder you’d use other people’s families.”
Loren stopped Anna from continuing to torment Evan’s family and began negotiating with Evan:
“Come on, you free them and I’ll free them.”
“You go first!”
After all that had happened, Evan’s perception of Loren had completely changed; he no longer believed Loren to be some righteous good guy.
“You have no right to bargain.”
With the Requiem falling, Evan lost another family member.
“No!”
Seeing his family member die before his eyes, Evan burst into tears. He fell to his knees, despair spreading.
One hand clung tightly to Noah—his only bargaining chip.
Noah still alive gave him a sliver of hope, so even in utter despair Evan had not given up completely.
“What if I free them and you break your promise?”
Evan clenched his fist and demanded, only to be answered by Loren’s blade falling again, another of Evan’s relatives exploding in blood on the spot:
“You have no right to question me.”
“You…”
“You look so unwilling, so I’ll add another condition. Now you strip off all your equipment.”
“I…”
“Still not convinced?”
Loren’s blade struck once more. Now only three of Evan’s family remained—his mother and two younger brothers, one the young man, the other the boy who had suggested threatening Loren’s family.
Their mouths were blocked; tears and mud smeared their faces.
“All right…”
Evan took off his robe, removed his mask, and threw his hidden potions and weapons to the ground.
He dared not resist Loren in any way now, not daring to gamble that Loren hadn’t discovered what he had hidden. All he had left were these family members.
Seeing Evan toss out potions, Loren guessed Evan had relied on those potions to temporarily boost his strength and capture Noah. Noah wasn’t weak, but not particularly strong either.
“Fine. Now free them.”
“All right…”
Evan released the magic on Noah. Soon Noah’s body began to self-heal and he walked over to Loren’s side.
“All right, now I’ll ask you a few questions. You answer truthfully.”
“Yes…”
Evan dared not oppose Loren’s temporary conditions and only agreed.
“Who is behind giving you orders?”
Loren’s guess didn’t surprise Evan. After a moment’s thought, Evan laid it all out:
“I don’t know their identities. When they contacted me they hid who they were, but I can guess they are nobles from the Nofica Theocracy. The items they gave me are only available to nobles.”
He said his family might die, but did not claim they would for certain.
“And the others?”
“I don’t know. They are very cautious and ready to abandon us at any time. Those acting with me have higher status than I do and know a bit more.”
“Why do they want Ember Radiance?”
“Probably to offer it to some elderly bigwig. Beyond that, I know nothing.”
By now Evan had said everything he could and had lost his value. He ground his teeth, not daring even to show anger.
“When you planned to move against me, you were prepared to accept the consequences, right?”
Loren deliberately acted relieved and began to carefully treat Noah’s wounds:
“Noah is a beloved friend and brother. I really went through a lot to make you think I didn’t care about him.”
It was a line from a movie; sadly nobody in this world could understand it, but if it made Evan regret his choices, that was enough.
“Now I’ll teach you one last lesson: never gamble your family’s life on someone else’s promise, and never hand over the power of life and death to others.”
Under Evan’s despairing gaze, Loren’s Requiem fell once more.