“Ifrid!”
Lucius’s voice jolted his sister out of her reverie. She looked up in the direction of his voice and trembled at the sight of her brother being bound by chains and subdued roughly by the members of the Inquisition.
“Brother…”
Even though she was the valiant and invincible War Goddess before others, her brother was her Achilles heel. Seeing the mighty marquis being detained due to her made her eyes misty. But Ifrid clenched her jaws and tightened her facial muscles to prevent the tears from spilling out.
She hardened herself and looked at Lucius with a stalwart gaze befitting a warrior.
Looking at the unfazed eyes, instead of being comforted or finding support, Lucius felt his heart beat fast and became restless. Being from a military-oriented household, he knew those eyes too well. They were the eyes of the warrior who was going to give her all for the safety of her fellow soldiers.
And the discomfort felt by him only heightened when he saw the members who were present in the panel of judges. Most of them were members of the House of Dennis.
……….
……….
The session of the Inquisition started with the allegations of Ifrid mingling with the witches and having obtained the power of witchcraft. And that the House of Vance was planning to use the increased military under them to stage a rebellion against the Emperor.
The accusations were severe, and many pieces of evidence were provided, of which almost all were fabricated. And the rest were verbal manipulations, making the minor blunders which were already rectified, the acts of treason.
Although the House of Vance was able to refute many of the claims with their own proof and oratory skills, they were on the losing side.
Still, there was no sufficient evidence to prove the allegations of witchcraft and rebellion. Although there was still a nagging feeling of discomfort, Lucas believed that the House of Vance could defend this attack without much loss.
But the last evidence brought against them shattered his resistance.
They brought a few ornaments that Lucius used to wear regularly. They were his ring and necklace. These were gifted to him by his wife, Alessa, and he cherished them greatly.
But they became the incriminating evidence of being involved in witchcraft. Lucius knew that there was no truth behind the existence of witches, and it was just a scheme by the ones in higher positions to remove their enemies and to command authority from the masses through fear.
A member of the clergy from the Palace of Valour brought a pail of water and submerged the ornaments in it. The water was termed as the ‘water of purity’, which was used to check for any traces of witchcraft in items.
But it was nothing more than an acidic liquid that corroded the upper layer of metals. His ring and necklace were submerged for a few minutes before they were pulled out. The clergy then scrubbed Lucius’s ring and necklace, removing the corroded layer.
After scrubbing the crust off, he passed them on to the jury members for verification. But in the short lapse in which he handed them over, Lucius was able to see the hidden engravings in the ring and necklace, which were now visible after ‘removing’ the outer layers.
They were illustrations of demons attacking humans and showed a cruel bloody battlefield. It was a depiction of a being opposite to the god, an act of blasphemy.
The murmurings in the hall skyrocketed as everyone was able to see the engravings. Lucius's heart sank at the thought of betrayal from the one with whom he shared his bed for many years. He was so distraught that he couldn’t even refute the claims by pushing them on to Alessa.
And to sever all the remaining hope was an official document of funding the victims of the witch hunts and an envelope from the Syalnic Kingdom. The letter inside the envelope asked for the indoctrination of these victims in the Syalnic army and was given approval by the House of Vance through their family seal.
It was all over for them. Although these pieces of evidence were schemed, they had definite weight. All in all, it was a result of neglect and lack of security that resulted in the evidence. And worst of all, this evidence was collected and framed with the help of one of Lucius's closest family members.
Lucius had lost all his strength and looked lifelessly at his sister. Their whole family was doomed because of his wife. Instead of giving his sister a jubilious welcome after her victorious war campaign, he implicated the entire family, including her.
And all that was because of his trust and love towards Alessa. With just the thought of her betrayal, his heart turned cold and lifeless. Instead of love, Lucius felt disgust and hatred towards Alessa.
Even though he was an aristocratic official as a scholar instead of militaristic merits, he exuded a terrifying bloodlust for Alessa. All his previous love for Alessa was now an overwhelming desire to kill her for her betrayal.
The Inquisition officials present, and even his sister were alarmed by the pressure exuded by him. Lucius wrestled to free himself and had a confrontation with Alessa.
Seeing him, Ifrid also tried to jostle free and support him, but they were immediately subdued. They were powerless without any weapons and the chains binding them.
With the ruling of being found guilty of witchcraft and rebellion, the whole House of Vance was sentenced to capital punishment and was carried out immediately.
Lucius, being the head of the family, was postponed to be executed the last after witnessing the death of every member of his family, from the servants to the older generation.
They were tortured and killed ruthlessly. And Lucius was forced to witness that firsthand while being bound. Every death and torture increased his agony and hatred towards the executioners. But the executioners, mostly comprised of the House of Dennis, were enjoying the execution as a form of entertainment.
Everyone was executed except him and his sister. Ifrid, having ‘committed’ the crime of witchcraft, was sentenced to be nailed to a stake while having her body poked and burnt by red-hot steel.
The famous War Goddess was punished by the executioners with her molten skin being peeled out by the hot metal layer by layer. Her body was punctured by the hot rods, and blood flowed out through them.
Even with all this pain, she didn’t scream. She gritted her teeth and continued to look in the direction of Lucius with a forced smile. Her face, which had been besmirched of its beauty due to the burns, looked ghastly with the smile.
On the other hand, looked at his sister being tortured without showing any emotion. Every hit on Ifrid hurt his conscience and his heart. But he watched her with cold indifference, with only anger rising in his pits.
Due to not finding any amusing expression in Lucius, the executioners didn’t continue to play with Ifrid much longer as they got bored. Her throat was cut open to let her get the final release from the continuous torture.
Finally, it was time for Lucius to get his execution.
It was much more brutal than any other punishment. Lucius was dropped in a glass container with all his limbs bound through chains. And then, a large number of carnivorous rats were dropped in the container.
As Lucas had already suffered from some cuts and injuries, blood was flowing out from his body. And this small amount of blood instigated the predatory instincts of the rats as they started gnawing at his flesh.
Lucius's punishment was to get devoured by these rodents alive. The pain was much more excruciating as the little critters also gnawed at his nerves. Although he tried to grit and bear the pain, he couldn’t, and his roars of anguish spread through a large area of the execution ground.
The executioners laughed wildly at his demise, enjoying every howl of Lucius. Lucius, in his flickering consciousness, stared hatefully at them to remember the grudge in his next life and pay back tenfold.
But in the raucous crowd, he found a hooded woman looking in his direction coweringly. Even with her trying to cover her face, Lucius was able to recognise that woman.
Anger and disgust overtook his body, and he emitted a thick killing intent towards her at that moment. He forgot about the pain of being gnawed upon and was solely focused on the woman who betrayed him.
The rats completely devoured Lucius within a couple of hours, and all the while, he was glaring at Alessa.
