Shifting his cold gaze toward the Chamberlain Household's 2nd Eldest Young Master, Cassius's legs crackled with electricity. "Do you have any last words?" he asked. "If so, say them now or forever hold your peace."
"What was that, you stupid peasant—!?"
Before Charles could finish his haughty remark, Cassius had already flashed forward, leaving a trail of crackling electricity in his wake. He reappeared in front of Charles, grabbed him by the face, and threw him upwards. Charles crashed through the basement's roof, then through the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors before shooting out of the manor's attic.
"Young Master!!!" Platoon 49's Captain looked up in shocked alarm before turning toward the aggressor. Explosive anger flooded his heart as he leaned back and pressed forward with all his strength.
The Captain unleashed the full might of the 2nd Class Slayer Rank—
A lightning-quick kick swung up into the Captain's gut, sending him shooting into the basement wall mid power-up. Cassius phased once more, landed an uppercut into his jaw, and sent him barreling through the manor. The Captain's flailing body destroyed several of the building's support beams before joining his Young Master outside the attic, gradually sliding down the roof's shingles.
"You really can't take a hit, can you?" Cassius asked, flash-stepping atop the manor. "I expected the weaker weakling to pass out, but you—someone in the 2nd Class Slayer Rank—I expected more from. I hadn't even hit you that hard…"
He tiredly gazed down at the two bodies with their tongues sticking out goofily. A hand of his was raised and then swung down. Platoon 49's Captain lost his head. Another hand was raised and swung down, followed by the loss of another head—Charles Chamberlain's head.
Oddly enough, after the young man died and his memories were absorbed, no ancient projection appeared. No old master threatened his life or told him to stay his hand from killing his grandson.
There wasn't even a life-saving treasure. Or, if there was, it had been too insignificant for Cassius to notice.
"Well, whatever," he said with a shrug. "With their memories, I now know where to locate the idiot's older brother and their father. And although the father is back in the Land of the Beginnings, the brother is within the Nightmarescape—and close by as well."
Having already obtained everything he wanted to know, Cassius sucked out the blood of the two idiots and split it between him and his two Growth Weapons. The blood wasn't worth more than a speck to them, but something was better than nothing.
After finishing the draining session, Cassius stole their most valuable belongings, chucked them into his inventory, and then took off into the skies. However, he quickly looped back around, crashed into the manor, killed a couple of Slayers, then looped back around and killed a few more. He repeated the process numerous times at insanely fast speeds.
"I don't want to die!!"
The agonizing screams of the Nightmare Slayers of Platoon 49 echoed out, but Cassius could hardly find a f*ck to give. Less than a second later, they had all been blown up Omni-Man style—their blood drained, and their belongings stolen.
What happened to them had been a violation.
Yet, did Cassius care? Not a single f*cking bit.
He dipped into the crumbling manor, crashed through the swiss cheese-like basement roof, and appeared before the bewildered Opal. He calmly walked over to her, his approach as friendly as humanly possible.
"What say we make our escape?" he asked, smiling. "And don't worry, I avenged your friend. Those men did not die easily either."
None of them were innocent, after all. The number of evil deeds they committed had been no small number. The group r*pe of Opal's Head Guard and friend had been one of the many crimes attached to their names.
Opal paused, then slowly nodded and took Cassius's outstretched hand.
A barrier that shielded them from the collapsing manor's debris appeared around them. The barrier also moved as they moved, allowing for leisurely travel out of the basement. Once out in the 1st floor's large living room, Opal was terrified to find Slayers crawling around with only the upper half of their torsos intact.
"A lot of them are still alive," Cassius said.
While emotionlessly glancing at all the zombie-like bodies in the crumbling and burning manor, he coldly uttered, "As I said, none of them will have died easily."
Although Opal's pupils dilated in fear, she steeled her stomach and soaked in the sight displayed before her. 'My friend… Sanya… You can rest in peace… I'm glad… So very glad…'
Tears started trickling down her cheeks yet again. But this time, she wiped away the tears and revealed a resolute gleam in her gaze that wasn't there before.
Cassius smiled at this occurrence before guiding the troubled cat-girl out of the burning building. It completely collapsed once they were a few dozen meters away, adding a certain cinematic element to the scene.
A couple of seconds later, the pair vanished into thin air, already soaring through the skies by Cassius's lead.
When they reappeared, they were thousands of meters away, though still in the Shallow Crater. But considering that dangers lay everywhere in this accursed place, Cassius teleported into the air, then shot forward a couple of times, creating many air donuts in his wake.
He did, however, eventually come to a stop.
Looking down, he saw a scene that could only be described as nightmare fuel. Nightwalkers—those tall, lanky creatures—were everywhere. And worst of all, every single one of them was at least Rank 3. In the far distance, there were even the powerful aura signatures of Rank 4 Nightwalkers, every single one being multiple times taller than the already enormous Rank 3 Nightwalkers.
'Their strength,' Cassius thought grimly. 'Each one is at least equivalent to the SS+++ Rank, with some seemingly only a few blinks away from the Half-step SSS Rank.'
In simpler terms, the Rank 4 Nightwalkers that eerily walked over the clouds were nearly as powerful as the three Demon Kings Cassius had marked for death. Powerful. Extremely powerful.