Alicia banged the glass between her and Ghost. She poured energy into the rune on her hand to open the cage. However, the glass didn't even budge. Inside the cage, Peter squirmed in Michael's hand. Dante and his team waited for Mutrad's order. The only way to open the cage was through the rune on Alicia's hand. It was a fail-safe to prevent someone from opening the cage to aid the Dark Lord. At that moment, this fail-safe failed. Michael slowly grabbed Peter's right hand.

"NO!" Alicia shouted from outside.

"ARGGHH!" Peter screamed as Michael twisted his arm. The bones broke with a sickening cracking noise. Blood spurted out of Peter's hand. Some broken bone pieces were sticking out of his hand. Peter's scream echoed through the hall. Finally, Dante and his team realized why the entire world feared the Dark Lord. The illuminating orbs around the hall flickered. Slowly, everything grew darker. His long hair fluttered in the wind, giving him an eerie devilish look.

Michael did not stop with breaking Peter's hand. He grabbed the broken shoulder and slowly applied pressure. Peter's body trembled in pain.

"Before you brought me here, I had no intention to hurt your brother, not at all," Michael said, looking at Alicia.

"In fact, I forgot about him. But you couldn't let it go,"

Norvin noticed Peter's muscles around his shoulder tearing apart. They could do nothing but watch the Dark Lord rip Peter's hand off his shoulder. Blood sprayed out of Peter's shoulder, painting the glass red. It was a sickening sight to see. Alicia banged the glass, hoping it would break the cage.

"Ghost, stop," Norvin shouted. He tried to stop the Dark Lord using words even though everyone knew it wouldn't work.

"We are beyond negotiation," Michael simply said. He grabbed Peter's other arm. Seeing this, Alicia roared like a wounded lion.

"Break this cage!" she shouted. However, Dante and his team felt reluctant to follow her order. The cage was designed to fall down once anyone tried to break the cage from the outside. Unfortunately, the only way to open the cage was through the rune on Alicia's arm.

No one expected the Dark Lord to turn the tables on them. He made them powerless.

"Your brother's death is on her head. Don't you agree with me, Norvin?" Michael asked Norvin. Norvin couldn't answer Michael. But to be honest, Norvin blamed Alicia for this. From the moment the Skyhall elders approached Alicia behind Noah's back, Norving advised her against taking this mission. Naturally, she didn't listen and jumped the gun when they told her they could capture the Dark Lord.

The only reason why Norvin was with her was that she asked him to. Alicia had never asked him for anything in her life. Thus when she asked, he couldn't refuse her. Besides, he felt he could safeguard Alicia if he was with her. But Norvin never thought their plan would horribly go wrong.

"At this point, you should know better than to mess with me," Michael's voice turned cold. He ripped off Peter's other arm and threw it at Alicia. Peter's face turned pale due to the heavy blood loss. Every inch of the cage was painted red with Peter's blood. His body slowly stopped squirming.

"PETER!" Alicia screamed. Blood trickled down her nose in anger and pain.contemporary romance

"I wonder what the Belefort family would think when they hear their precious Alicia Belefort just made an enemy out of the Dark Lord," said Michael. He slowly turned Peter's body upside down. He held him by his left leg. Michael intentionally did everything slowly. He wanted these moments to get carved into her brain.

"I will kill you!" Alicia roared. Her eyes turned blood red in anger. She screeched and punched the glass till her hands went numb. Yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't save her brother. She was just as helpless and weak as she was in the tournament.

"If you think you can do that, you are stupider than I think," As soon as these words escaped Michael's mouth, he twisted Peter's leg and ripped it off his ankle. At this point, Peter didn't even move. He seemed dead to everyone. Seeing her brother's horrifying death, Alicia's legs turned to jelly. She collapsed to the ground.

"Take it down," Mutrad said to Dante. He saw no option but to send the cage right into the volcano. He hoped it would stop the Dark Lord from killing them all.

"As you wish," Dante did not argue with Mutrad. He conjured a ball of bright energy. The energy beam shot out of Danbte's hand, hitting the chains attached to the ceiling. Upon the beam hitting the chains, they exploded into pieces. However, the cage did not fall down as they expected. Instead, the cage hovered in the air without even moving an inch.

"Did you think it's that simple to get rid of me?" Michael devilishly grinned at Dante and Mutrad. Michael dropped Peter's body down and stepped onto his waist. He grabbed the last limb before turning his gaze back at Alicia.

"I told you this would happen. You brought this on you all by yourself," Finally, Michael ripped off Peter's last limb. Michael heard the system's notification of Peter's death. Compared to the experience points he received from killing Half Immortals and Fusion stage cultivators, the amount he received from killing Peter was negligible at best.

"Now, every single one of you is going to die. If I were you, I wouldn't put up a fight. It will only make your death more painful," said Michael. He glanced at Dante and his men.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Michael snickered.

"Guys," Dante raised his voice.

"Surround the cage and prepare for a fight," Dante ordered his men.

Everyone, including Mila, was poised to attack the Dark Lord. They surrounded the Dark Lord. Ignoring Dante and his men, Michael grabbed Peter by his neck and lifted him. He walked toward Alicia. Norvin was speechless. After witnessing Peter's death, Norvin regretted accepting Alicia's request. He blamed himself for not talking Alicia out of this mission. At the very least, he knew he should have talked to Noah. He feared what Noah would say to all this after knowing what happened to Peter. Norvin doubted the guardians and Belefort guards would still be alive. The Dark Lord liked to leave something behind for everyone to see and fear him. He ruled the world through fear.

"Hey," Michael called Alicia. She couldn't look at the cage covered in her brother's blood. His words made her look up as Michael placed Peter's face against the glass.

"Look at your brother's face," Michael said. Everyone around Michael trembled in fear. He ripped Peter limb by limb in front of his sister. Alicia saw her brother's face with widened eyes. They contained immense pain more than anger. His face was almost unrecognizable.

Michael conjured the dark flames, slowly burning Peter's body. Even from outside, Dante and his men felt the temperature rising. The dark flames reduced Peter to a pile of hot ash. Dante and his men saw smoke fumes coming out of the ashes. Even now, they had no idea how the Dark Lord teleported Peter into the cage. An eerie silence enveloped the hall.

Michael squatted down to see Alicia in her eyes. He waited for Alicia to look up. He wanted to see the pain and grief in her eyes.  Usually, Michael preferred not to torture his enemies, but Alicia was different. She showed him no mercy. She took pleasure in torturing him. So why shouldn't he give a taste of her own medicine?

"Whatever you give me, I will give it back a hundred folds. Do you think Noah can save your ass every time, don't you? Well, think again,"

"This is between you and us. Don't bring her family into this," Norvin snarled. They felt a chill when Michael burst into cold laughter.

"You should have thought that before you decided to bring me here. As long as she is a Belefort, they will suffer untimely deaths," Michael threatened Alicia and Norvin. They waited for him to come out of the cage. Because there was no way for them to get inside.

Suddenly, Michael's eyes turned pitch black. A black beam shot out of his each eye. The glass cracked. The number of cracks in the glass gradually increased. They knew it was only a matter of time before the glass shattered completely.

"Get out of here," Dante stepped in front of Mutrad. He directed his words at Norvin, Alicia, and Mutrad.

"No," Alicia shook her head. She rose up from the ground.

"This ends here and now," Alicia's eyes glimmered with absolute resolve. She wanted to end the enmity between her and Ghost then and there. Because of her, Peter lost his life. The Dark Lord didn't even spare his body. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she couldn't avenge him or die trying.

"Don't be stupid. Get her out of here," Dante growled. She was just a Soul Refining stage warrior.  The Dark Lord could kill her without batting an eye. Fighting him at her current level was nothing but suicide. After seeing what he did to Peter, Dante could only imagine what he would do to Alicia. As the strongest among them, it was Dante's duty to protect the weak.

As much as Michael liked to kill Alicia, he chose not to. Not because he wanted to spare her but because he wanted her to suffer more. Killing her would be a mercy to her. Besides, as long as she was with Noah, she would bring new types of problems to him every day. While Noah was busy cleaning up Alicia's mess, Michael could focus on growing stronger. In other words, keeping Alicia alive was more beneficial to him in the long run than killing her.

Norivn did not linger around any longer. He immediately took out a teleportation scroll from his space ring. He grabbed Alicia's shoulder and tore the scroll to activate the scroll. Soon, a bright light enveloped Alicia and Norvin.

"Let me go!" Alicia's voice echoed through the hall after she disappeared with Norvin. Dante and his men prepared themselves for a fight. Every light orb around them started to flicker more and more.

done.co

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