The Kind of Evil

Astrea kept pressing her hands on her ears, trying to ignore the scream and the agony of Cardinal Eros. Her knuckles went pale, her ears were dark red from getting pressed so tightly. She mumbled repeatedly, hoping that Rasmus would stop torturing Eros or whatever he was doing inside the storage room. Javi was standing in front of the door, witnessing her struggle, but chose to stay quiet and make sure nobody was around to hear what was happening.

After a while, Eros stopped screaming, and Rasmus unlocked the door. He came out of the storage room and saw Javi standing beside the door. He looked at Javi and nodded his head, signaling Javi to dispose of the body silently and stealthily. He then saw Astrea in her wheelchair, still with her hands covering her ears.

"Here are the letters that he mentioned..." Javi offered the pile of letters to Rasmus.

Rasmus looked at it for a moment before he took them from Javi's hands. As soon as Javi gave the letters, he went inside the storage room to clean up the mess. When Javi saw what Rasmus had done to Eros, his eyes narrowed slightly before he approached the body.

Rasmus slowly walked toward the window and noticed that the window could be opened. He slowly reached out to the handle and slowly opened the window in front of Astrea. The breeze entered the empty hallway, bringing fresh air with the sweet scent of roses.

Astrea smelled and felt the breeze, slowly lifting her head to look at Rasmus, who was covered in blood. She looked at his bloody hands and his stoic expression back and forth, realizing that he didn't even feel a thing, even with blood in his hands.

"The issue is worse than we thought, Lady Astrea. The Holy Nation is no longer a sacred place. It's not the place, it's the people that have been corrupted," Rasmus said as he leaned against the wall beside the window, staring at Astrea. "This has happened before your reign as a Saint, perhaps even before your late mother's reign," he continued as he watched Javi carry the dead body that had been covered with an old, dusty rug.

Astrea was still speechless, still believing that what had just happened was a nightmare. However, the more she stared at Rasmus and his stoic expression, reality slowly pulled her back by the slight stench of blood. She slowly closed her eyes, slowly putting her hands down from her red ears, and then took a deep and shaky breath.

"What happened during the Great Era of Neva, Lady Astrea? What was it that they discovered?" Rasmus asked with a serious expression.

"It's in the Angelis Palace... There are a few records that revealed the truth behind the Great Era of Neva," Astrea answered as she lowered her head. "You're not allowed to go in there, and I can't give it to you because my daughter is now the Saint, not me," she continued.

"Why should I waste my time when you could tell me what it was? Right here, right now," Rasmus responded as he pulled a handkerchief from his suit pocket and cleaned the blood on his hands. "Hearing that you waste your time saying that, it seems you're unwilling to tell me, Lady Astrea," he continued, his gaze becoming cold toward Astrea.

Astrea couldn't deny his suspicion because he wasn't wrong. There was a reason why she couldn't tell him, and it was because of the oath she took. The oath that powerful families took after the Great Era of Neva. She then slowly nodded her head, and she didn't need to tell him the reason behind it.

"Are you going to ask Aurelia about it, Count?" Astrea asked, afraid and anxious, if Rasmus would do something similar or less gruesome to Aurelia like how he did to Eros.

"If I had to make a guess, those dirty secrets you and those people kept away from the world, the people would turn their backs on you. I wonder if Aurelia could bear the sins or the incompetencies of her predecessors," Rasmus responded as he put the letters down in front of the window. "So, no. I'm not that heartless, letting her know the sins of you and your predecessors," he answered coldly.

Astrea once again closed her eyes, knowing to well that there was hypocrisy that she chose to keep. She knew that all too well, especially after she found out about it from her late mother. She didn't have a choice, she took an oath in front of her late mother before she could know what it was about.

"I may be ruthless, but I won't let anyone carry the sins of my actions. I carry all my sins, not pass it down like a hypocrite," Rasmus said as he put the bloody handkerchief back into his suit pocket. "I'll keep my promise to protect your daughter. And I just proved it to you," he continued and grabbed the letters before he walked away with the cane that supported his weight.

Rasmus was back in the parlor, reading about the letters that Javi found in Eros's chamber. He found out all the names, and Eros was indeed the mastermind behind those names, however, Eros was just one of the pawns. He found out from Eros himself that he met with Nemu, the emissary of Evil a month ago, exactly after the news spread that South Neva had defeated the demon forces.

Eros believed in Nemu that he wasn't the emissary of evil but rather someone else that was hiding in the shadow. Nemu showed his ability to use divine power, and he also hinted his accomplice, another emissary of evil to Eros. Eros was easily deceived because of his blind faith, and Nemu could easily persuade those with blind faith and those who questioned faith.

"Penemue, the most ambiguous fallen angel even in the book of Enoch..." Rasmus muttered as he stared at the scattered letters on the table. "He has spread his webs across Central Neva. Who knows how many people have fallen for his wisdom..." He sighed as he slowly leaned back, making himself comfortable on the couch, and stared at the ceiling.

While Rasmus was deep in thought, someone entered the parlor without knocking on the door. He already knew who it was without having to open his eyes. It wasn't because of the behavior, but rather he could smell it even though he lost his ability to smell. The smell of something that he couldn't describe but was somehow oddly familiar.

"The wyverns were corrupted by demonic energy?" Rasmus slowly opened his eyes and saw Aris standing next to him.

"If the wyverns are easily corrupted, they're not the descendants of the dragons," Aris answered as she sat beside him. "They were blinded by rage, hunger, and thirst for human flesh and blood. Their senses and emotions were enhanced, so it couldn't be called corruption. Wyverns don't even have a hundredth of dragons' wisdom and knowledge. They're close to brainless beasts, so I'm not surprised if they were being used that way," she continued as she looked at the letters on the table.

"You smell like blood..." Aris glanced at Rasmus's pocket to see where the smell of blood was coming from. "You found them?" She asked.

"Just one of them, but soon there will be many that will go missing," Rasmus nodded. "Why? You want to hunt them down?" He raised his brows as he looked at Aris.

"Yes, every single one of them..." Aris answered.

Rasmus noticed that Aris had been in a really bad mood ever since she found out about Arandil. He was quite surprised to see her lose control for the second time, and she was slowly showing more emotions ever since she joined him.

"If you really want to deal with that, Javi knows their locations and where they sleep. I'll tell him to guide you there tonight," Rasmus nodded with understanding as he sat straight and grabbed the letters, putting them neatly on the table.

"Tonight?" Aris raised her brows.

"Yes, we are going to cleanse this place tonight," Rasmus nodded and offered the letters to Aris.

"Okay, I'll make it clean," Aris answered as she took the letters and put them in the spatial ring since she was the one who wore it. Rasmus couldn't use Mana, so Aris was the one who had been wearing the ring ever since.

"There's no need to be clean, Aris," Rasmus said as he held the cane with both hands, staring at the window from across the room. "Make it as bloody as you can. We are going to send them a message. We are going to tell them that we are here and we are going to get rid of them fast if they choose to play nice," he continued.

"You want to be the bad guy now? Knowing that they're playing like Saints here?" Aris asked as she tilted her head.

"The bad guy? I believe everyone who knows me already knows that I'm a bad guy, and I never put myself in the light of goodness," Rasmus smirked as he glanced at Aris. "Just have fun tonight, and let the world know what's about to happen," he added.

"Then I will take my time to enjoy it..." Aris smiled coldly as she stared at Rasmus.