Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 178: The Crimson Night [6]

The War for The North [65]

Chapter 178: The Crimson Night [6]

"An idiot?"

Cassian did not even react to the blood spat onto his face. He simply raised his hand slightly. With that single simple motion, the air surrounding Luin and Cassian rippled, and suddenly hundreds of mirrors appeared in the empty void.

Each mirror reflected a different scene of horror. These were memories engraved into Cassian’s soul, granted to him by Zevstyle.

In every scene within the mirrors, Cassian was fighting. He was torn apart, bleeding, losing the people he loved one by one, and eventually dying in unimaginable agony. One ended, another began. An endless cycle of death.

For a moment, Luin forgot the pain of the thorns piercing his flesh and watched the brutal spectacle surrounding him with trembling eyes.

"What do you think these are, Luin?" Cassian asked.

There was neither anger nor sorrow in his voice. It was completely emotionless, disturbingly neutral.

Luin did not answer. He simply stared at the countless reflections of death and destruction.

Cassian straightened slightly on his throne made of roots.

"We fought hundreds of times, Luin. Every single one of them was a death loop where I lost. Every time... and every single time, you took everything I had with your own hands."

Cassian’s red eyes narrowed slightly.

"Do you know what that feels like? Actually, I doubt it. I do not even know exactly what you are feeling right now. I would have liked you to understand what I felt and die in regret and suffering down to your very bones."

He took a deep breath.

"But I more or less know that you are not someone like that."

After those words, the thorns surrounding Luin dug deeper into his flesh. Luin groaned in pain as Cassian tilted his head slightly.

"Would you like to tell me what you are feeling?"

The moment those words left Cassian’s mouth, the coffin behind them that pulsed with dark energy cracked loudly and exploded. Lyria had shattered her prison with her last hope.

Cassian did not even bother turning around. He simply sighed in annoyance.

"Don’t interrupt my conversation, insect."

Before Lyria could even open her eyes and understand where she was, an invisible force tore through the air. Her head separated from her neck and fell to the ground. The severed head that landed on the ground then floated gently through the air toward Cassian.

Cassian caught the bloody head with both hands and calmly placed it on his lap. His eyes remained fixed on Luin, whose final hope had just been destroyed before his eyes.

"Do not think she can rewind time or help you," Cassian said while gently stroking the hair of the severed head on his lap as if petting a cat.

"Even if the coffin is broken, it has already shattered a large portion of her mind while she was inside."

With his bloodied hand, he pointed toward Luin.

"So, Luin... do not keep me waiting any longer. Return to your true form and show me that you deserve my hatred."

Despite the blood pouring from his mouth, Luin laughed bitterly.

"You understand nothing," he growled between broken breaths.

"Your friends will soon become a pile of corpses, and you are still wasting time here with me."

Cassian simply tilted his head at those words.

"My friends are not weak enough to die just because I arrived at the battlefield a few minutes late." He shrugged. "If you mean ordinary people... I am not a hero, Luin."

"Whether they live or die does not matter much to me."

A mocking glint appeared in his red eyes.

"Do not misunderstand. Of course I have emotions. But my own life is far more valuable than theirs."

Luin’s eyes began to roll back as his consciousness started fading. The moment Cassian noticed this, he immediately pulled the thorns out of Luin’s flesh.

Golden holy mana gathered in his palms and flowed into Luin’s body, healing the torn flesh and shattered bones within seconds. Immediately afterward, Cassian snapped his fingers. A mass of icy cold water poured down from above Luin’s head.

Luin jolted back to awareness.

Cassian looked at him with irritation.

"Hey. Where did you get the idea that you could fall asleep while I’m talking to you?"

Yet no matter how much torture Luin endured, he stubbornly refused to return to his true form. The thorns tore him apart again and again, draining his chaos cells. Cassian would heal him with holy mana, and the cycle would begin all over again.

Cassian waited patiently on his throne, one hand resting against his cheek while the other gently stroked the severed head resting on his lap.

In truth, he could have returned to the castle even without Luin. The System allowed him to perform such a spatial leap, but the cost was heavy.

Four full years of his lifespan.

Interfering with the flow of fate in such a direct and intense way naturally carried a steep price. Paying such a cost could lead to regrets that would be difficult to fix in the future. That was precisely why Cassian needed Luin to open that portal.

Cassian had just withdrawn the thorns and healed Luin again, preparing for the next round of torture when the texture of the air suddenly changed.

A trembling purple portal appeared a few meters away.

Cassian paused. The thorns stopped moving. Out of the corner of his eye, he first glanced at the portal and then at Luin lying on the ground covered in blood.

Slowly, he raised his hand. The aggressive roots and trees of the forest rapidly retreated beneath the soil, returning to the darkness they had come from.

With the support gone, Luin staggered and collapsed heavily onto his knees.

Despite all his exhaustion and fatigue, his face carried a calm expression.

Cassian rose from his throne with complete composure. Without even sparing a single glance at the body on the ground, he began walking toward the purple portal.

Just as he was about to step inside, a tired voice came from behind him.

"Wait."

Cassian stopped and slightly turned his head over his shoulder.

Luin had strangely returned to the state he had been in before the battle began.

There was not a single scratch on his armor. His hair was neat, his body completely unharmed, and even his mana core was full.

Narrowing his eyes, Cassian asked,

"What is it?"

Luin brushed the dust from his clothes, raised his hand, and threw a white object toward Cassian.

Cassian easily caught the incoming object with one hand. He opened his palm and tilted his head slightly as he examined it.

It was a pure white, elegant comb.

No waves of mana or magical energy came from it. It looked completely ordinary, yet for some reason touching it gave a person an extremely soothing, pleasant, and peaceful feeling.

Cassian frowned.

"What is this?"

Luin raised his head and whispered with a faint smile,

"My last favor... to you, Cassian."

"You will need it."

As he whispered those final words, a strange, barely noticeable smile appeared on his face.

After staring at the white comb in his hand for a few seconds, Cassian turned his face back toward the portal.

"Understanding you Princes is truly impossible," he muttered to himself.

Then he stepped into the purple portal and disappeared completely into the darkness.