Chapter 500: Bloodbath
Stab!
Edwin was tightly closing his eyes. He felt his sword piercing through something. But he was confused if he really did stab his mother or if he stabbed something else because he didn't even hear as much as a whimper from his mother.
He slowly opened his eyes fearing he wouldn't like what he would see.
He didn't like what he saw.
His heart ached to see his sword impaled in his mother's stomach.
Her ragged cloth was covered in blood. The blood was even overflowing and dripping down her body to make a pool beneath her. She was biting her finger to stop herself from making a sound. And tears were rolling down her closed eyes because of the pain.
Lillian had had much worse wounds than this. She had survived all those wounds and cuts. But for some reason, this particular stab hurt a lot to the point where she felt like simply giving in and accepting her death.
"I'm so sorry, mother," Without Edwin realizing it, those words escaped his mouth.
Lillian flung her eyes open with such a rage that Edwin stumbled on his back in fear. He could see the same coldness in her eyes that she had when she had massacred all of his soldiers.
Darkness surrounded the corrupted witch. Her eyes turned black again. The dark veins in her arms grew even further to reach her shoulders.
She pulled out Edwin's sword from her stomach and crushed it with her bare hands.
Edwin was dumbfounded even more when he saw his mother's wound heal in no time.
And now he was afraid to his core. Chill shivers ran down his backbone to his toes. His mother was displaying the kind of power that he had never witnessed.
Now, without his sword and with a witch who could heal after such a severe wound in a matter of a few seconds, he didn't think that he would live to see another day.
It didn't even take a minute for Lillian to prove him right.
She raised her palms furiously. Several swords of the dead soldiers hovered in the air. And she shot her palms while glaring at Edwin's stomach.
Slice! Stab! Stab! Slit!
Some of the swords grazed Edwin's armor or flew past him. But three of the swords thrust right in his stomach.
Blood spurted out of his mouth. He couldn't even scream because he was choking on his blood.
And before he could even press the wounds on his stomach, he fell on his back. He was taking his last breath.
Seeing her son in that state, Lillian felt a sting in her heart.
For a split second, she even thought of healing him. But she remembered how he had betrayed her by siding with Adeline. She remembered how she had spent the past few months in a hellish situation. Why? Because her so-called son was the one to lure her right into the trap.
So she turned her back on her dying blood and then made her way towards Edwin's quarter. She wanted to finish off his family first, before moving on to the others.
With the limited energy left in his body, Edwin turned his head to see Lillian. She was walking down the path that would lead her to his quarter.
He held out his hand and forced out a whisper, "No… ple…"
His stomach was burning from inside out and when he tried to speak, he felt as though his body was being slashed into a thousand pieces. His mind became fuzzy. His hand numbed and dropped to the ground. No further words came out of his mouth. He simply stared at his mother's back and shed warm tears.
All that he could do now was wish for some miracle to happen. He didn't really care if he would live or die. But he wished for someone to save his wife and daughter from the wrath of that cruel witch.
As Lillian walked further inside the Palace, a flock of soldiers ran towards Lillian to kill her. Some were wielding swords, some were aiming crossbows from afar, while some were even aiming spears at her.
"Touch me if you can," Lillian snidely murmured and simply flicked her palms.
And all the soldiers went flying away from her and crashed into buildings, trees, and rocky paths with great force. Some were dead from the impact, some were severely injured, and very few of them were unharmed.
The archers who were a little far away from her, and thus weren't affected by her attack quickly shot a barrage of arrows.
Lillian heard the swooshing sound coming from behind her and instantly raised a barrier. The arrows hit the invisible barrier and dropped down without even touching the witch.
Another round of arrows came at her again. Lillian was irritated by those pesky arrows. She turned around and stopped the arrows midair with just a stopping gesture of her palms. She pushed her palms while glaring at those archers in the distance. And their own arrows pierced through their heart, killing them.
She then casually strolled towards Edwin's quarter as though she hadn't murdered around a hundred soldiers already.
After killing another fifty or so soldiers, she finally stepped inside her son's quarter.
The maids and servants who dared to stop her without any weapons or fighting skills whatsoever also fell victim to Lillian. Whoever dared to come in her way, she killed them all mercilessly.
Juniper was hearing the commotion outside. She was walking towards the door of her room to go and check what had happened outside. But right then, she heard someone shouting from below, "It's the witch! Run!"
Her foot stopped midair, her eyes widened, and her heart started to hammer so badly that she thought it would jump out of her mouth.
"Oh no! Joyce!" She gulped and ran out of her room.
She had slept with her daughter for the whole night. But after that bell rang earlier, she came back to her room to get dressed properly, just in case they had to run.
"I should have grabbed Joyce and ran to Raphael's quarter the moment I heard that bell!" She cursed herself as she dashed towards her daughter's room.
Her knees started to shake when a very scary thought crossed her mind. She wiped the sweat beads on her forehead and thought, "I hope Edwin is okay."
She silently prayed for her husband's safety and jumped inside her daughter's room. She slammed the door and locked it.
"Mother? What happened?" Joyce yawned and got up while rubbing her eyes.
Juniper glanced at her daughter. And although she was trembling like a sunflower plant in the wind, she forced a smile on her face and said, "Nothing. We will be playing hide and seek with your grandmother for a while."
Juniper could hear the screaming of the maids getting closer and closer.
"But grandmother is a bad witch!" Joyce furrowed her brows and said innocently.
Juniper looked around and hastily pushed a cupboard in front of the door in order to better secure the door.
She then went to the bed and carried her daughter in her arms. And she whispered to her, "That's why we shouldn't let your grandmother seek us. We should do our best to hide, okay?"
Joyce grabbed her mother's gown and nodded. And she whispered to her mother, "Let's hide in the wardrobe then."