Doomed to Die in 3 Minutes

Countdown to Comeuppance

Alisa took slow and heavy steps. The ground where her feet graced crack and the sound of the earth snapping as she advances were like storming thunder and lightning. The drums of the world above raging wildly in preparation for the impending end of a villain. Everyone could only watch in awe as she enjoyed the screams and curses falling out of the lips of the man stuck in a carriage that would soon become his coffin.

“Wait! If you kill me the nobility will not let it stand! They’ll come down on this city and destroy it completely! No one will be spared! You might make it out but every building will be dust and everyone will be just corpses!” A desperate truth. 

“So what? I was dead a few minutes ago and I’m back. That type of threat won’t work on me. I’ll just crush everyone who comes after me anyway.” Dashed instantly.

Her next two steps were filled with far more power. They are meant to send a message. The world rumbles twice in fear. Phonom wracks his brain for something, anything that he can do to stave off death. A gamble. If it works he will live. If he fails… he’ll take everything with him. 

“...I’ll blow up the whole city! I can do it! You’ll live but everyone else will die! If that assassin dies in the blast he won’t be able to bring anyone back! I cast a reactive spell long ago, just in case some justice filled i***t ever came after me! If anything so much as grazes me we’ll all go up in smoke!” He cackles like the devil. 

Alisa curses and sprints towards the carriage hoping he’s bluffing. She leaps and lifts her right leg to perform an axe kick, hopefully with enough speed and force to kill Phonom instantly. She brings the hammer down… and it misses completely. She diverts it at the last second and spins her body to dispel the momentum outwards. She grits her teeth and begins to shake with unmatchable fury. She was able to tell. He wasn’t lying, he was completely serious. If she had followed through with that attack of hers then the city would have been covered in an enormous blast.

“H-he’s got to be bluffing right!? He’s only a B-Rank, there’s no way he can blow up the whole city just like that!” Corai got up and stood. His body broke out in a cold sweat, with the knowledge he had Phonom’s last-ditch effort didn’t make any feasible sense. Vis also stood up by his side in response to his panic. “Unfortunately, it’s quite possible. He’s a noble and this is his home base, remember? His bloodline is linked to the leylines here. He can output and control a lot more power if he really wants to. As he said though, it’s not enough to do much to Alisa but for just wiping most if not all of us out… it’s quite possible as long as he set it up beforehand..” 

Despair began to find its way back to the people who had just shortly been filled with hope. If Phonom has them all in this deadlock, then it’d just be a repeat of the last time. Alisa could not defy him. She would die and things would go back to the way they were. Sure, he was down many subordinates but with a threat like this, he could merely tighten the noose around their necks whenever he wanted. Even if someone tried to stop him… it was clear he’d rather take everyone with him than simply accept defiance.

“See! This is what happens when you challenge me! Know your place you filth! Aren’t you mad? I’ve taken everything from you! You can’t do s**t to me, you pathetic peasants! Not even a hero can stop me! I am unmatched! C’mon! Try and kill me! Take revenge for everyone I’ve robbed from you! Oh wait, you f*****g can’t! If you really loved them, you’d kill me, right? Just let everyone else go with you! You’re all just a bunch of sentimental idiots and limp cowards! Aahahaha! Nobility is truly divine! I can do whatever the hell I want! You! Assassin! You dare move and I’ll blow us all to kingdom come! Alisa. You’ll kill him! Do it!” 

Every single person began to break down yet again. It was too cruel. To be given a real chance to change their lives only for it to be so quickly taken from them. Vis bit his lip. Alisa shook in indignation. Corai moved up towards the carriage without a care in the world.

“W-who the hell are you!? Didn’t you hear me? Harm a hair on my head and you’ll all be ashes! So back off! So much as the lightest touch by an outside force and you’ll kill everyone!”

Corai stretched out his perfectly fine right arm and stared right at the carriage. 

“Supreme Spell: Doom.” A wave of dark energy swam through the air.

3:00

The usual markings appeared on his right hand. Yarul was a special case. He knew that abilities or rituals that can divert death itself were rare. He was right that Phonom had no such protection. 

There’s complete dead silence from the carriage for the second time today. 

Corai stares at the numbers on his arm slowly but surely go down by the second.

“No. No. This can’t be happening! A Supreme Spell!? Doom!? Three… minutes…? I can’t… stop! Stop! Stop it! You can have anything you want! I’ll give your riches beyond your dreams! Authority to do anything to anyone you want! I’ve got three new job vacancies! You can take their place! C’mon! We’re fellow mages, aren’t we? Don’t do this. You gain nothing! You’ll get worse than nothing! People will come after you for this! Killing a noble is a crime that never goes unpunished! One minute or hundreds of years, it doesn’t matter, they’ll chase you to the ends of the world and beyond to make sure you know the penalty for daring to harm one of our kind! So, just stop it! Ride the dream with me! You’ll be my right-hand man! It’s a good deal!”

Corai watched the numbers tick as Phonom began to bargain more and more, extravagant and unreasonable offers. “You’ll die soon enough and everyone will be safe. That’s all I want.” 

Phonom froths at the mouth hearing this and goes even deeper.

“Don’t you want riches? Power? Authority! Who doesn’t!? You’re not even from this city! You don’t have any personal stake in this! Be reasonable here and just take my offer! You have everything to lose if you kill me and everything to gain if you join my side! Just… don’t do this!” 

Corai didn’t blink. He just looks at the numbers on his palm dance and change… then opens his mouth to speak. Names, followed by ages, followed by family members, their hobbies, their ways of life, and finally their bloody and cruel demises. Every single victim he memorised. He recited their stories one by one as he waited for the reaper to do its work. 

“It seems that while I’m not the lead today, I’ve still got a critical role.”