CHAPTER 3: Allies turn out to be enemies

As the attacker lifted the arm that was holding the dagger getting ready to strike what he thought to be the asleep Damian a lighting bolt lighted up the room projecting his silhouette on the opposite wall. Oliver instantly reacted and jumped off his bed, grabbing his sword that was hung to the wall opposite to the window.

While the attacker was disturbed and surprised by the student jump of his victim, Oliver turned around and leaped forward, landing on the balcony with his sword back in it's sheath while the attacker's head fell to the floor without letting him the time to react.

Oliver had just used a *quick draw* technique composed of 3 motions that are executed in a millisecond, first he unsheathed the sword, second he jumped forward the enemy wielding a kill strike in one motion, thirdly and lastly he had sheathed his sword back.

He then proceeded to an examination of the corps... the corps had nothing that could help identify it, the assailant was simply wearing a full black set with a hood and his pockets were empty.

That would only be true if Damian wasn't an imperial army expert as he always had the dream to join it. The knife of the attacker was a model that was created for the imperial knights it was one of their emblems as it was made of *pure silver*, one of the two only efficient against demons. This knife being used against him could only mean one thing, he had been discovered.

His mind was racing to find how he had given himself away, but was stopped by a burning arrow being fired directly at him. Oliver dogged it at the last moment, and it went flying into his room, putting his bed on fire.

Oliver ran out of the room and noticed smoke coming from under almost all the rooms' doors, meaning he wasn't the only one targeted. If all they wanted was to kill him, they wouldn't have put the mansion on fire, and they wouldn't have carelessly attacked an Infernos.They must have taken him for a dark mage or a demonic follower, in this case sending a few 4-star imperial knights to kill him to kill him would be enough.

'Their true goal must be the destruction of the Salvatore noble clan, but why would they do something like that? The Salvatore noble clan members had all dedicated their lives to protect the empire from demons.'

The answer was simple, the emperor was scared of the Salvatore clan as they had a private army of 1 million soldiers, that were not some simple foot soldiers but veterans that had fought countless battles against demons and were all at list 2-star aura users having the strength of 64 men.

The Emperor had just waited for a reason to start a total annihilation of the clan head, the minor branch heads and the different heir to make sure no one could try to rightfully reclaim the position of head of the Salvatore noble clan.

The reason the emperor was waiting for was given by Arthur the older sibling of the main branch of the Salvatore noble house, pushed by greed he revealed events that happened three years before during the first vampire subjugation of Damian.

Arthur had witnessed his brother struggling against a demonic beast and had chosen not to intervene as his brother dying removed a potential opponent for the heir position. He had then seen how his brother had saved himself by touching the monster with his bare hands that had hid under gloves for two years.

Arthur had chosen to keep it secret from everyone and succeeded in learning that his brother had made gloves with the inside covered in silver. He had instantly made the link with the Infernos power of corruption that could only be stopped by silver.

He had then suspected his brother of being a demon and started adding silver to his brother's every meal but with no result, his brother was not getting weaker with each passing day but even stronger as he was doing a hellish training daily.

Arthur had then stopped his investigation as he had reached a dead end. The different information he had collected didn't make sense with each over, two pointed in one direction while the last refuted them completely.

After years had passed, Arthur's position was even more endangered as his brother was now referred to as one of the prodigies of the continent without even being an aura user.

It is then that he decided to contact the emperor using his rank as the stile most likely future heir and revealed the information he had one Damian, he made a deal with the emperor that stipulated that he's brother would be exposed as a demon in front of all family members and that he would have the emperor's full support for the heir position after this event.

The emperor had indeed made all the heads and heir of the minor family branches come, but it wasn't to expose Damian for being a demon but to kill them all including Arthur himself, he had been blinded by greed and it had cost not only his downfall but also those of the whole clan.

Oliver didn't know why, but instead of running away and saving his life, he felt like he absolutely should save Damian's sister, Amelia. He couldn't resist the unknown force that was making him run in the direction of Damian's sister's room. For an unknown reason his heart was filled with worry to the brim even if he had just met her and didn't have any special interaction with her apart from the lunch argument.

Oliver took a turn at an intersection to find himself in front of two assassins that were looking for potential survivors that were trying to flee. Oliver didn't let them time to get into a defensive stance as he speeded even more and jumped while doing a downward two-handed heavy swing, cutting his first opponent's head open. He then swung his sword to the left before the opponent could change his stance, cutting through him till the middle of the chest.

As he continued running, a question came to his mind, how did those small-time assassins succeed in killing the minor branch clan heads that were all at least 3 stars aura users or 3 circles magicians?...

The drinks! He was now sure that the only thing that he didn't eat or drink during the dinner was wine, every other man present at the table had drank wine between the meals to ease their digestion.

The imperial army generals had indeed placed one of their spies in the kitchens to add a very powerful drug that made people fall in a deep sleep where they can't sense the presence of an attacker until he gets one meter close to them whether they are 6-stars and below aura user or a 5 and below circle magician. One meter being a distance at which the victim doesn't have the time to react as they get stabbed.

There was only one problem left, the family head. Damian's father was an 8-stars aura user, he couldn't be drudged, the only way to defeat him was for 5 of the 7-stars imperial generals to attack him at the same time.

Oliver had been running for 15 minutes but still had not reached Damian's sister as he had to change path multiple times because of the hallways being broken down or on fire. While doing so, he had killed 7 assassins that he had come across.

While searching for a path that could lead him to Amelia, he came across Damian's father's room. What he witnessed was a vision of our destruction, the walls were cut open in different directions and in the middle of the room stranded Damian's father with 4 javelins traversing him in all kinds of directions.

There was a bearably recognizable general that had been embedded in one of the walls while there was what seemed to be another general that had been cut in half at the same time of the wall behind him, another had been pushed under the floor with only his broken in half head exposed the last two had been impaled together to the ceiling with one of their one javelin.

Oliver didn't feel sorry for Damian's father but proud of having the honor of being his son for one day, even after dying he was still standing proudly and had even defeated all his 7-stars aura user enemies while being an 8-stars aura user. In reality0 the power of people is multiplied times 4 each time a star is obtained and 5 times when a circle is obtained, Damian's father had the strength of 275275 while the generals had a combined strength of 327680 men.

Oliver took his father's sword as it was better than his own and continued to search for Damian's sister, he found a safe path and after struggling in the stairs that were mostly covered in flames. He got into the women's wing of the mansion, he was now on the second floor.

Oliver opened Damian's sister's room door and found it empty, it looked like she had been kidnapped by an assailant by looking at the room, Oliver looked in all the over rooms only to find dead maids. The more he kept going down, the more corps of the mansion personnel were piled up.

Oliver arrived at the ground floor and heard voices coming from the dining hall, he cautiously walked to the hall and peeked through the doors, in the hall was one of the last two generals still alive. He was talking to a man that was lying on the floor. This man was none-other than Arthur, who had beaten to death's door after unwittingly helping the emperor in his plan to exterminate the Salvatore house.

He then saw a young girl that was gagged and had her hands tied behind her back, it was Amelia, Oliver unsheathed his two swords and dashed using a footwork technique called 'light walk'. In reference to the fact it allows you to walk as fast as light travels if you master it perfectly, with Damian level of the technique he could move at forty-five kilometers per hour.

Oliver knew it would be impossible with his current level to fight in any way against the enemy, so planned to use his swords to create wind currents as he speeded and release them at the enemies face, so he could take Amelia and run.

Unfortunately, things went haywire the moment Oliver entered the hall, the door closed itself and Oliver was immobilized halfway to Damian's sister. What he didn't know was that the general was the master in the art of predicting and controlling the action of the enemies, and that was exactly what he had done to Oliver.

He had tricked him using his sister and had left her non-attended while he was supposedly distracted by Arthur, and as Oliver entered he activated a door binding spell and walked over an immobilizing formation.

"Hello boy, I was waiting for you. You see, I was very curious when I heard about you, I wanted to meet you to confirm a few of my suppositions. You're surely not a high demon, or you would have already transformed and killed me, but I heard you can use their specific magic." The general told himself in a pensive tone as he got closer to Oliver.

"What are you talking about, is my power the only reason behind the attack?" Questioned Oliver as he felt responsible for the destruction of the Salvatore clan, he also tried gaining more information from his enemy and at the same time he was searching for a way to escape the formation.

"You are a funny one, your existence doesn't need the intervention of 8 generals, you think too highly of yourself. Well, I came well-prepared, I brought along two 'test subjects' for you to test your ability on as I am very curious about your ability." He said with an evil voice.

Oliver was shocked by the situation and the news he had just received, the dispatch of 8 generals meant that it was a direct order from the emperor, no one but him could deploy such forces.

More importantly at the moment, the general said would experiment on his siblings using his power, but that meant their deaths, a three second touch was enough to kill them taking in consideration their strength. When being corrupted some cells will start dying while overs multiply like cancer cells ultimately killing the living being, but all of that would've happened thousands of times faster in this case.

The first 'test subject' was Arthur, Oliver still couldn't move, but the general moved freely inside the spell's active zone, bringing Damian's oldest brother along with him. The general removed Oliver's gloves and took his hand, placing it on Arthur's forehead. Oliver tried resisting with all his might, but it was as if he had become a mindless puppet, all his efforts were in vain.

Arthur started convulsing after one second, meaning the corruption had started to attack his Cerebellum, a part of the brain located at the back that tunes movement.

Oliver was horrified by the cruelty of the general, he had made him kill his one brother for his 'experiments'. But what stressed him the most was Damian's sister, he had an outburst of adrenaline, by combining all his strength and his unmovable will to save her he succeeded in raising his foot and making one step forward.

As the general was slowly walking away from Oliver, in the direction of Amelia, Oliver executed 5 more steps and was finally out of the area of effect of the spell. Oliver had instantly run forward, catching his sister and running in the opposite direction to the door.

His action would have looked dumb for any person watching the scene, as the door was the only way out, but Oliver didn't know if he could succeed to doge the immobilization spell or break the seal that was placed near the door.

He ran straight to the wall and executed a double 'quick draw' creating a way out of the room, the general had not imagined that Oliver could come out of his spell, so he had not taken in consideration that he could create a new opening to facilitate his escape and had not put spells to reinforce the walls.

Oliver jumped through the opening he had created while holding his sister under his arm, he arrived in front of the principal staircase of the mansion and ran up using 'light walk' but as he set foot on the first floor he was blocked by a wall of fire, All the 4 floors were now completely on fire, and could fall apart at any time.

Oliver put down Amelia, removed her gag and untied her hands and placed her behind him.

"Brother will protect you, don't worry." Said Oliver in a determined voice.

They were now trapped in both directions, as Oliver turned his head he saw a flying dagger heading for his heart, but his reaction time had lowered compared to the time he had dodged a fire arrow. Oliver had been running here and there for the last thirty minutes and had fought multiple assailants, all the fatigue he had built during his training and by running around was now falling back on him.

His reaction time was so slow that Damian's sister, who wasn't a fighter, was faster than him. She jumped in front of him, seeing that he wasn't moving fast enough to dodge the incoming attack and used her body as a shield. The danger entered her chest and she started bleeding.

"No, Amelia, why did you do that?" Shouted Oliver in an anger he still couldn't explain as he caught her falling body.

"Brother, you are the only one that plays with me and that takes care of me, so I can't let you die, can I. Leave a good life for me, ok brother." She said while choking on her own blood in a low voice. Smiling to her brother before giving out her last breath.

The person that had thrown the knife was none-other than the general that had conducted an 'experiment' using Arthur as 'test subject'. After Amelia had taken the hit for her brother, he was going to finish the work by killing Damian but was stopped by the last general that sent him a message telepathically, the building had started collapsing on itself.

"It's too bad that we couldn't play more, I have to go now, take care of your sister." The general said as he quickly exited the burning building while laughing in a perverted way.

The grieving Damain was left in an ocean of fire while holding his sister who was still smiling even after her death. As the building collapsed a cry of rage could be heard in the 1-kilometer radius zone around the mansion, it was a rage so powerful that Damian produced a killing intent similar to an 8-star user for a nanosecond that the generals felt a chill running down their bodies.

Oliver instantly fainted in a kneeling position and the 4 floors broke apart and the ceiling came crashing on him. The destruction of the Salvatore noble house that had started at midnight, the hour of the crime, had been concluded at 12:30 pm.

[[Author note: The name of the novel will be explained in the next chapter, 'The devil contract'.]]

TO BE CONTINUED…