Chapter 4212: Golden Opportunity (Part 1)

Fury and outrage came just like Theseus had predicted.

Akthon’s eyes went wide and then narrowed into fiery slits of mana as his bright violet aura erupted from his body like a storm. Humans, tables, and chairs were sent flying or tumbling on the floor like autumn leaves.

"You are the Red Carnival?" The Bastet-Upyr roared, his teeth turning into fangs and sand-colored fur covering his skin. "You are the insane bastard who made mother shed countless tears?

"The failure who couldn’t even die properly and turned into an Abomination? Are you that Theseus?"

"I am." The Bastet-Meneos could have explained that he was a clone. That he had played no part in the old Theseus’ decisions and had been born barely two years back.

Yet he preferred to remain silent and carry the burden of his original self’s crimes along with the powers and knowledge that Theseus had inherited from him.

"How could you do that?" Akhton growled, shedding his human disguise one limb at a time. "How could you doom our homeland to ruin? Verendi was never perfect, but there was still hope.

"Its people carried the seeds of greatness, and you have withered them all! Everything fell apart after you and your new friends slaughtered the Council. All these new wars that ravage this continent broke out because you destroyed the balance.

"Every single person who dies out there in a pointless conflict is because of you and that grinning wench of yours!" He pointed at Xenagrosh, who had never stopped smiling, and had gracefully bowed to every accusation as if it were a compliment.

"That’s not what happened." Theseus countered with the detached tone one would use to discuss the weather. "The Council tried to turn me into a weapon, and I just defended myself.

"Yet I’m not here to have a debate with you. I’m here to give you the opportunity to do the right thing. What’s left of the Verendi Council won’t dare cross the Organization, but our family won’t miss the opportunity to kill me and avenge our mother’s defeat.

"Come on, sound the alarm and have everyone come here. Surely hundreds of Bastets can kill a couple of hybrids."

Akhton’s blood ran cold at those words. All his righteous fury and indignation crashed against his pragmatism like a fly on a windshield.

’If I call our clan to arms, these two are dead. Yet if the Eldritches attack me and during the fight I expose my powers as an Upyr, my siblings will kill me as soon as they are done with Theseus.’ He thought. ’They’ll see my Upyr form just as another Abomination.’

"You overestimate yourself, traitor!" Akhton grew to his full size, reaching 30 meters (100’) of height and turning the Roaring Lion tavern and all the nearby buildings into rubble. "For someone like you, I’m more than enough!"

The Bastet-Upyr charged at his hated brother while conjuring both the golden armor of Mana Body and the searing fire of the Origin Flames.

"Really?" Theseus shapeshifted into his true form as well, becoming 35 meters (117’) tall and countering both Akthon’s bloodline abilities with his own. "Are you sure about that?"

The charge of the shorter Bastet came to an abrupt halt, the Meneos Eldritch was rooted in the ground like a mountain, and no amount of Akthon’s effort could move Theseus from his spot.

Theseus blocked Akhton’s clawed hands, trapping them in his own and squeezing them until the bones popped. The Upyr-Bastet hurled a river of bright-violet Origin Flames at Theseus’ face, and the Meneos-Bastet did the same.

The mystical flames clashed midway and exploded with the violence of several tier five spells. When the smoke dissipated, the mana body of both Bastets was gone, but only Akhton carried burn marks.

"Have you changed your mind yet?" Theseus executed a perfect headbutt that crushed Akthon’s nose, filling it with blood and flooding his eyes with involuntary pain tears. "What about now?"

Another headbutt brought the Upyr-Bastet to his knees, and a knee strike to the chin sent him sprawling on the ground. Akthon’s ruinous fall demolished an entire city block and produced a small quake.

"Everything you can do, I can do it better, brother." For some reason, those words infuriated Akhton more than the current state of Verendi ever had. "You can’t beat me alone. You are too weak. Set aside your foolish pride and-"

"You are not better than me!" Akhton spoke with Orpal’s voice, but he didn’t care. "You have never been and never will be. I’m more than enough to kill hundreds like you!"

The Bastet jumped to his feet as he shapeshifted into his Upyr form. Black, needle-like bristles replaced the soft, sandy fur, and fangs grew beyond what his leonine snout could contain.

Akthon’s jaws elongated and deformed into a drooling, brutish maw devoid of the grace and noble bearing of a Bastet. Membranous wings formed between his hands and hips, and bone spikes oozing poison erupted along his spine.

The thick mane around Akhton’s neck turned into mangy fur that reminded Theseus of a collar, and his claws became almost as long as his fingers. The creature that had replaced the Bastet had four flames orbiting above his head, and the red light of undeath shone brightly in his eyes.

"Great Mother almighty!" Theseus had suffered no blow, yet he took a step back. "What have you done to yourself, brother? How could you stoop so low?"

"You made me do this!" Akhton’s voice was the angry wail of a mad beast. "This is all your fault!"

The yellow flame burned brighter as he activated Thunder Soul. Akhton punched, kicked, and slashed with his claws in a frenzy, blowing Theseus’ guard away.

The Meneos-Bastet was still faster than the Upyr, but now every blow he blocked released a sickly jolt of Corrupted lightning that tore his flesh apart and fractured his bones in multiple points. Mana Body weakened the Thunder Soul, but it was helpless to stop it.

***

"Good gods!" The bar counter was the only thing still standing in the Roaring Lion tavern, and Erion kept leaning against it with an expression of pure shock on his face. "That’s really an Upyr. The bastard lied to my face all this time.

"Who of you idiots recruited him without performing a proper background check?" The Jormungandr pretended not to know Akhton and to be an innocent bystander.

The other Upyrs were so flabbergasted by his sudden outburst that they stuttered apologies in genuine confusion.

’I’ve heard plenty of stories about the Master’s Eldritches killing Upyrs like flies during our attack on the Griffon Kingdom.’ Erion thought. ’I’m not as strong as Jorl, nor am I an immortal like the Dead King.

’If we fight without Life Maelstrom and this woman is even half as powerful as Jorl described her, she’ll slaughter us. I volunteered to take part in a recon mission of secondary importance only to look good on paper and gain Orpal’s trust.

’There’s no way in the nine hells that I put my life on the line for a fungus folk that might or might not be in Verendi or to save that moron of Akhton.’

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