Building A Carnal Empire In The Fantasy World-Chapter 35: Against The Run Of Play II

Velara collapsed face-first into the mud, completely spent. Creating the pit trap had used the absolute last of her magical reserves. She couldn’t even lift her head to see if it had worked much less cast another spell. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Madam Vex staggered toward the pit on unsteady legs. Her dagger felt impossibly heavy in her hand, but she managed to raise it as she reached the edge of the hole.

Cole looked up at her from between the stone spikes, his face twisted with pain and rage. Blood ran from his wounds, but his eyes still burned with murderous intent and something vile now, completely different from the righteous aura that the knights of the sacred flames were known for.

Now, he was determined to torment them physically, mentally, and spiritually, before killing them.

Madam Vex raised her enchanted dagger, preparing to end Sergeant Cole’s life with one final strike.

The blade trembled in her exhausted grip, but she forced her arm steady. One thrust between the eyes, just like before, and it would all be over.

But as she leaned forward over the pit’s edge, something changed.

The air itself seemed to thicken, becoming heavy and oppressive like the moments before a terrible storm. The temperature dropped so suddenly that her breath misted in the cold air. Even the moonlight seemed to dim, as if something was drinking the light itself.

And then Cole began to laugh.

It wasn’t the harsh, grinding sound from before. This laugh was soft, perfect, almost musical, filled with genuine amusement. But there was something wrong with it, something that made Madam Vex’s skin crawl and her teeth ache.

"Oh, my dear ladies," Cole said, his voice completely different now. Gone was the rough bark of a Church soldier. In its place was something smooth as silk and twice as dangerous. "Did you really think it would be that easy?"

The stone spikes holding him began to crack. Not from his cultivation power—that righteous energy was gone completely. Instead, something dark and hungry flowed out from his body like poisoned water.

Blood.

That’s what it smelled like. Aged blood, dried blood, blood that had been spilled in dark places for dark purposes.

Madam Vex stumbled backward from the pit’s edge, her previous intensions forgotten. Beside the lake, Velara struggled to lift her head from the mud, her face pale with more than just exhaustion.

"Impossible," Velara whispered. "The Church tests their soldiers. They screen for corruption."

"Do they?" Cole asked, still laughing softly. "Or do they simply test for the corruption they know how to find?"

The stone spikes shattered like glass. Cole rose from the pit not by climbing, but by floating upward on wings of shadow and crimson mist. His armor was still dented and bloodstained, but the wounds underneath had already begun to heal slowly.

As he emerged fully from the hole, both women got their first clear look at what he had become.

His eyes were no longer pale blue, but deep red like fresh blood. His teeth, visible behind his cold smile, were sharp as razors. And around him, the air itself seemed to pulse with dark energy that made their souls recoil in instinctive fear.

But it was the aura that truly terrified them. It was not the clean, burning power of Church cultivation, but something ancient and hungry. Something that gave a feeling of dark energy and decayed blood, of power stolen from the dying and lives consumed for strength.

"No," Madam Vex breathed, her voice barely a whisper. "It can’t be."

Velara’s reaction was more dramatic. Despite her injuries, she managed to roll away from Cole’s floating form, her eyes wide with terror. "You’re a member of the Sanguine Court!"

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

Cole’s smile widened, showing more of those razor teeth. "Very good. I was wondering if anyone in this backwater kingdom would recognize the signs."

He touched down on the muddy shore with cat-like grace, his boots making no sound despite the wet ground. The dark energy around him pulsed stronger, and both women felt an overwhelming urge to kneel, to submit, to offer their throats to his hungry teeth.

They fought the compulsion, but it was like trying to swim upstream against a raging river.

"The Sanguine Court," Madam Vex said, forcing the words past her fear. She was still unwilling to believe what was happening in front of her. "But you’re a Church soldier. A sergeant."

"I am whatever I need to be," Cole replied, beginning to circle them like a predator. "Lord. Merchant. Holy warrior. The roles are just masks we wear to hide among the cattle."

Velara struggled to sit up, one hand pressed to her wounded thigh. "How long? How long have you been..."

"Infiltrating the Church?" Cole finished. "Oh, decades now. It’s remarkably easy, actually. They’re so convinced of their own righteousness that they never look for corruption within their own ranks. A few forged documents, some carefully placed bribes, and suddenly I’m a trusted servant of the sacred flame."

He paused in his circling to look up at the distant mansion, where fires still burned from the battle. "Do you know how many of my kind serve in positions of power? How many nobles, merchants, Church officials have taken the oath of blood?"

The implications hit both women like physical blows. If the Sanguine Court had infiltrated the Church itself, then everything they thought they knew about the world was wrong. The righteous crusaders they’d been fighting might be the very monsters they claimed to oppose.

"But why?" Madam Vex asked, her voice hoarse. "Why reveal yourself now?"

Cole’s red eyes fixed on her with predatory intensity. "Because, my dear, you’ve given me the perfect opportunity. Three Church soldiers dead by your hand. When I return with your corpses, I’ll be hailed as a hero. The sole survivor of a terrible battle against dangerous criminals."

He gestured to the pit where he’d been impaled. Already, the evidence of Velara’s magic was fading as the stone spikes crumbled to dust. "Of course, I’ll have to inflict a few more wounds on myself. Make it look convincing. But that’s a small price to pay for such a perfect cover story."