Chapter 80 Burn in hell

"Oh then what do you plan to do brat?" Erden asked confidently. 

Erden knew that no one would dare to lay a finger on him because it would mean bringing the wrath of the entire empire down on them, after all masters of any craft were just that valuable to an empire or kingdom. Unfortunately he had miscalculated when it came to Tommy.

After facing off against Eighth Tommy had figured one thing out. While magic might be powerful, strange and mysterious and in need of being researched and studied up on, it was also slow.

It took those who could use attack magic time for their spells to reach their intended target, time enough for Tommy to put a bullet in the head. The only exception of this so far seemed to be lightning magic which as mentioned before was the fastest of all magics, however so far Tommy had only seen it used during the alchemy experiments and not for attacking. He figured he should ask Tinen or Chelna to demonstrate a lightning attack spell to him later.

Tommy was aware that lightning magic was rare and not many people could cast it so in his opinion normal magic was less dangerous that guns from Earth, at least with the magic Eighth used Tommy could easily track it with his eyes unlike a bullet.

Now Tommy knew that just going by one example was a bad idea, however he had also noticed that whenever anyone cast a spell near him they seemed to have to gather their magic power first no matter the case and this took time.

Because of this Tommy did not fear the empire coming after him, especially since this world had nothing like CCTV. The wanted posters of him he had seen on the city streets were all a vague likeness, it was obvious it was an artist's impression that was drawn from a description they had received.

"This." Tommy said before he suddenly appeared in front of Erden as a silver light flashed over Each of Erden's wrists before the man let out a painful scream.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH" Erden screamed as he looked at the stumps on his arms of where his hands used to be that now lay bloodily on the floor beside him.

"A perfect punishment don't you think?" Tommy asked. "A master blacksmith like you makes his living out of using his hands to make weapons and armor, so what better punishment than to lose those very hands."

"Now I know what you're thinking, you can simply have your hands reattached by magic." Tommy said. "However I wonder if they will still operate as well as they did before you lost them, oh also if you do get them reattached and I find out about it I will come pay another visit and cut them off again, don't worry about wasting my time I am more than happy to do this for you."

Tommy turned and started walking towards the door, "Have a good day master Erden." He said before closing the door and leaving Erden sniveling and whimpering on the floor while blood leaked from his arm stumps into the plush carpet.

***

Glador stormed through the castle corridors towards his assistant's office.

The guards and events that saw the anger on his face quickly moved aside so as not to get in his way.

Once he reached his assistants office he kicked the door open without knocking and walked inside.

Glador's assistant jumped at the noise and was about to reprimand the one responsible when he saw it was Glador.

He quickly got up from the chair behind his desk and hurried around to stand in front of Glador before bowing.

"Sire to what do I owe this… gah." The assistant began but was soon cut off as Glador's hand wrapped around his throat.

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" Glador hissed angrily.

"Did you think I wouldn't learn the truth that you are a traitor?"

"Cough Sore cough."

"I know that you have been selling my secrets behind my back, you scum." Glador said angrily.

The assistants eyes widened in surprise and terror at hearing this. "Sire cough I cough."

"You fucking no good traitor, now I understand why that bitch always knew about my plans, what did she offer you as payment her slut pussy?" Glador asked angrily. "No, she is too proud and stuck up to let anyone touch her."

"Sire cough cough please cough."

"Just burn in hell fucking traitor." As Glador finished speaking fire appeared in the hand that clutched his assistant's throat before his assistant caught fire and started to scream in pain.

Glador released his assistant who collapsed to the ground and began to writhe in pain as Glador watched for a moment before he burned to death.

Glador turned and started to leave the room leaving the still smoking corpse on the floor when he heard an annoyingly familiar voice say, "Ugh, what's that smell, it smells like burnt flesh."

Tinen suddenly appeared in the doorway followed by Chelna and Tirma who both bowed slightly to Glador while Tinen looked into the room and said with slight surprise, "Oh it is burning flesh." 

Glador frowned when he saw Tinen and asked, "What the hell do you want?"

"Me?" Tinen asked innocently, "Nothing, we were simply returning from a lovely shopping trip down to the city."

"I thought I ordered the whole family to remain in the castle." Glador said with a scowl.

"Yes you did, however, because you didn't punish that bastard child of yours when he went for a stroll in the city before we figured you had rescinded that order." Tinen said with a smile. "Honestly shrivel dick if you want people to respect you then you have to set an example." Tinen looked back into the room before adding, "Though maybe you finally figured that out."

"I was disposing of this traitor." Glador replied.

"Traitor?" Tinen asked with interest.

"Oh don't play dumb bitch, I know this traitor was selling my secrets to not only you but many others as well." Glador growled.

"So you finally figured it out, it took you long enough. I mean he has been doing it for years behind your back." Tinen replied calmly.

"And I suppose you saw no reason to inform me." Glador responded.

"Why should I?" Tinen replied. "I don't care if that former assistant of yours betrays you or not as long as it doesn't affect me in any major way."

"Some supportive wife you turned out to be." Glador responded.

"Like your one to talk Mr fuck a different pussy each night and create bastard children." Tinen snapped back. "Perhaps if you were man enough to win my heart instead of forcing me to marry you I might have come to respect you and support you. However, you always took the easy way that offered you instant rewards instead of playing the long game that gave you greater rewards overall, as short sighted as your dick is small."

"Fucking…" Glador was about to respond when a guard came running shouting, "Assistant, lord assistant."

"The assistant is dead, what's the matter?" Glador asked angrily.

The guard was shocked to hear this and stared at the still smoking corpse of the assistant lying dead on the ground.

"WELL?" Glador shouted at the guard.

"Sorry sire, it's about master Erden." The guard replied.

"What about him? Glador asked in an annoyed tone.

"He has been injured." The guard replied.

"Injured? How? I was just there a few minutes ago." Glador replied with surprise as the three women looked at each other knowingly.

"His hands have been chopped off." The guard replied, surprising not only Glador but the three women also.

"What? How the fuck did that happen?" Glador asked in shock.

"Apparently the murderer who we have been hunting and master Erden was fleeing from, got into the castle and cut off master Erden's hands." The guard replied nervously.

"WHAT!" Glador shouted. "HOW THE FUCK DID HE SNEAK INTO MY CASTLE? THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MOST SECURE BUILDING IN THE KINGDOM."

"It…it seems he stole a guards uniform sire." The guard stammered.

"And none of you considered that it might be a good idea to start checking any guards entering the castle after I ordered this man hunt and put the city into lockdown." Glador asked.

"Oh I'm sure they considered it. However they probably thought it wasn't worth their time since they gained nothing from it." Tinen suddenly said before turning to the guard and asking "Have you summoned the healers to help reattach his hands with magic?

The guard began to sweat as he stammered for a reply, "I… I… I..."

"Spit it out idiot." Glador said angrily.

The guard swallowed before saying, "We tried however master Erden refuses to let us reattach his hands."

"What!" Glador said as all of them looked at the guard in surprise. "Why not?"

"Apparently the murderer threatened to return each time he had them reattached and cut them off again." The guard answered.