The people inside the Imperium Court were forced to look at the magic screen that popped out.
`What is this?`, Emperor Marcus panicked. Meanwhile, High Honor Adolf was rather interested in the development of the case.
`Is this this lad’s way out of his predicament?`, he thought about Zachariel’s luck.
If Elder Kent hadn’t arrived on time, Minister Lex and Emperor Marcus could have punished Zachariel under reasons of defamation and treason.
The spectators from the public broadcast were keen to know what did Elder Kent meant by the Royal Family’s secrets earlier.
…
The magic screen displayed the scene of Prince Kane rampaging in front of the Mage Guild. The dark mist, the wraiths, and the ethereal woman behind Prince Kane.
Elder Kent removed some part of it as he wanted to focus only on Prince Kane’s vicious secret power.
All of it was seen by everyone.
“What unholy power! His Imperial Majesty calls his son the Child of Destiny?! Is he destined to destroy everything in the path of power?!”, a mercenary cried out in horror.
“No, no, no, no, no. This cannot be! I don’t want someone like him to go into power! Otherwise, we might all die!”
The public panicked.
The realization that the so-called Child of Destiny had such an evil power stupefied those who saw it.
“If Prince Kane is like this, then isn’t the Royal Family also has unholy power as well?!”
“Right! Emperor Marcus might be hiding something too! I don’t believe they are as good as they look!”
They added.
`This cannot be!`, Emperor Marcus’s indignation welled up inside. He did not expect that Elder Kent would make a despicable move like this.
The political affairs in the Imperium had kept dark secrets like this from the public. Now that the public had seen this, the downfall of the Royal Family was in sight.
`You’re done, you old man!`, Emperor Marcus cursed inside.
He was going to teach the old man a lesson later, but for now, he had to do something to stop Elder Kent’s ploy.
`Damn the Elders! Where are the Imperium guards?`, Emperor Marcus wanted to strangle them for being incompetent at times when they were needed.
The security measures during a blackout were supposed to be heightened. Moreover, the Imperium Barracks and the Imperium Court were just a few hundred meters away.
The captains, who were diamond-level fighters, and any general should’ve sensed the peculiar activity in the Imperium Court.
`Did something happen in the Imperium Barracks?`
…
A nightmarish aura permeated inside the Imperium Barracks. Nobody outside was aware that the home of the Imperium Guards was being blasted by a group of intruders.
A black hooded small figure crouched and watched on as the Imperium guards ran around blindly, shouting names or calling for help. Their eyes were spouting dark clouds and bled. Many of them ripped out their eyes due to pain.
“Keke, aren’t they a little bit too weak?”, the figure jested in a playful and womanly voice.
She wore a doll-like mask with its eyes glowing in a golden hue.
“Adj-, Ardeannies, you should stop playing around and focus on the task at hand. Our client has deliberately ordered us to not f*** up this time.”, a rough male sound resounded beside her.
It was another black hooded huge figure, at least 3 meters tall and almost a meter wide. His domineering stature towered over the small figure right in front of him.
He wore a bull mask whose eyes glowed in scarlet red. Wisps of smoke would come out of the mask’s nose and ears occasionally.
“Lerkaroga, you’re such a pain in the ass to be associated with. Stop ruining my fun!”, she waved her hands towards the huge figure.
Waves of strings rapidly flew.
Lerkaroga did not flinch and stood there while receiving the attack. The strings broke into pieces after contacting his body.
“Hmph!”, he snorted.
‘Boom!’
Dust and rocks flew around.
“Well, well, well. Don’t we have an uninvited guest here?”, Ardeannies excitedly said.
They faced the newly arrived figure.
“Identify yourself, intruders! How dare you wreak havoc in the Imperium Capital City!”, a scarlet-armored woman pointed her spetum polearm at the two.
“Oh, aren’t you that Astrid-bitch? One of those…, eh what were you called again?!”, Ardeannies wondered, “Ah! Yeah, right! A general, an Imperium General!”
She jumped and clapped her hands in victory as if she had found the answer to a very difficult problem.
“How dare you call me a bitch, you brat!”, General Astrid propelled towards Ardeannies.
She jumped and then vertically swung her earth-layered spetum polearm towards Ardeannies.
‘Clang!’
Her polearm and Ardeannies’s strings clashed.
`What?! My layered attack was blocked?`, General Astrid was shocked.
“Nobody… calls me a brat!”, Ardeannies replied in anger. Her yellow eyes beneath the mask glowed intensely as it stared at General Astrid.
‘Kring!’
The latter felt a restricting sensation when their eyes met.
“Die!”, Ardeannies waved her hand, pulling the strings to General Astrid.
General Astrid was blown away, `What overwhelming power!`
“Die, die, die!”
Ardeannies repeatedly attacked until she thought she had killed the general, only to find out that she was attacking nothing but bare soil.
“You-!”, someone tapped her shoulder. It was Lerkaroga.
Ardeannies wanted to retort, but Lerkaroga told her, “Time to move out, and control your shitty childish behavior!”, warning her.
Ardeannies waved his hands away in annoyance and vanished from the area.
General Astrid re-appeared, kneeling on the ground with her injured body.
Her armor was cut in pieces and she bled all over.
`Damn it, that little brat! How strong!`
Her grandmaster power-level did not stand a chance against her opponent. Even her polyqepril armor was nothing in front of the girl’s strings.
`Who the hell were they anyway? How come such a strong force as this exists in Pandragea? Are they from the dark underground factions?`, she guessed, then looked at the direction of the Imperium Court.
`I wonder if they are okay over there?`
…
Elder Kent laughed.
With the restrictions being lifted, the Imperium guards immediately took action and closed in on Elder Kent.
He was currently being pointed at by numerous hands and weapons at several angles.
“You bastard, you’re still laughing even at death’s door?!”, Emperor Marcus bellowed.
“Even if I were to die today, your Imperial Majesty, I will drag everyone down with me!”, Elder Kent proclaimed.
“Kent McKenzie! Your barbaric and rebellious actions against his Imperial Majesty and to the whole of the Great Human Imperium is punishable by death penalty!”, Minister Lex shouted. Bits of his fat trembled due to the force of his voice.
“Then so be it! You think I’m afraid of death? At least I won’t live in this world together with the likes of you!”, Elder Kent pointed at them.
Tears suddenly formed in his eyes, “You dare killed my daughter before, I will take revenge today!”
Everyone was shocked about Elder Kent’s revelation.
`Daughter? I had an elder sister?`, Cody was dumbfounded. He did not expect his father to hide such a thing from him.
Before they could comprehend Elder Kent’s statement, he suddenly conjured numerous magical spells and launched them inside the Imperium Court.
‘Hazing Winds!’
A huge amount of extremely polluted air particles gathered,
‘Rain of Fire! Stormfire!’
The effects of the two spells were amplified due to his previous spell. The fireballs became larger and burned more intensely.
The fiery blue flames with lightning cracks also surged in power.
A series of consecutive spells were casted as well.
‘Boulder Toss! Immolation: Hellfire!’
Outside of the Imperium Court, hundreds of at least 10-meter sized boulders formed. With the combination of the immolation spells, they looked like meteors about to fall from the sky.
‘Crumbling Earth! Lava Expulsion!!’
The ground beneath the Imperium Court slowly deformed into a huge hole. His next spell generated a wave of devastating magma below.
“Impudent!”, Emperor Marcus took action. He gathered light mana essences, ‘Shield Projection!’. He then used his extense, ‘Imperial Shelter!’, covering everyone inside a transparent spherical barrier.
The student’s faces were drained of color as they observed the horror of a Lower Divine mage’s spells.
`Strong! Too strong!`, Helena could feel the heat coming from the lava and the immolated boulders outside the barrier.
Meanwhile, Zachariel calmly watched the entire fiasco without a damn.
He was rather interested in the spells casted by Elder Kent instead of him surviving the attack.
“Die, you bastards!”, Elder Kent finally launched his attacks.
“Father, no!”, Cody begged, but it fell on deaf ears.
The fireballs flew, the boulders fell, and the magma rapidly rose above the ground.
‘Boom!’
A huge explosion took off in the Imperium Court. It covered a diameter of 1 kilometer, destroying everything in its wake.
Elder Kent’s attacks were reflected, but the entirety of the Imperium Court was gone. It became rubble and dust.
The spectators all around the Imperium wanted to know what happened next. The revelation about Prince Kane’s evil power frightened many of them and was already starting to doubt the Royal Family.
“No wonder that the court hearing was scheduled today, and that His Imperial Majesty was there as well!”, one of the mercenaries exclaimed.
“Is it to hide the fact about Prince Kane’s power?”
“Yeah! Think about it, if the so-called perpetrators were already identified and put to justice, many people would then forget about the incident! That’s what they were trying to achieve!”, the same mercenary explained.
“The Royal Family is despicable! They wanted to accuse an innocent student when their descendant was the one who started it all!”
“That old man said that his daughter was killed by the Royal Family! Were they also the ones behind the mysterious deaths of those Prospects years ago?”
“Who else was but them? They only want the power for themselves, they only want to be the ones to be recognized! It’s time for things to change!”
The others nodded as well, discussing more on the issue. The mercenary smirked, `Things are going way better than expected. I wonder how the others fare.`
As busy as the tavern was, two people sat in a secluded area near them. One was an old man and the other was a thin hooded figure.
It was Raskael and the old man from before.
The old man was eating some demon meat while Raskael stared at him with cold eyes.
“Hmm… Raskael, tell me what you know more about that secret power.”, the old man asked.
The rest of the mercenaries seemed to have ignored them even though they were talking about a secretive topic.
“It is the curse of the Demon Death Witch, Supreme Elder.”, Raskael replied.
“Oh, so that thing was true! I thought it was just another fairy tale made for kids.”, the old man laughed.
Raskael was confused, “Supreme Elder, I do not follow.”
“Oh right, right. Sorry, pardon me for sounding like a madman out of nowhere.”, the old man patted his chest.
“Well, since you’ve been a good lad, I guess it wouldn’t do that much harm to let you in on some secrets.”
Raskael was intrigued. Gathering information was his favorite hobby and his main job.
“The Book of Erialden Orvehantea. It contains some of the most confusing and disturbing facts about the foundation of the Royal Elden Family.”
“Did you know? There were actually 12 families reigning over the entire Elden species but take a look here in Pandragea. Tell me, how many Royal Families are there?”, the old man inquired.
“3. The Valoris, Quelsades, and Gorforoni family.”, Raskael replied.
“Correct! And out of those 12 families, only 3 of them remain! What happened to the rest? The Zecfanto, which said to lead all the 12 of them was gone. The Sarrelon, who were known to be both martial and magic experts, also gone! Not even a single descendant remains!”, the old man shook his head.
If the twelve families were still intact, not even the Voids could compare to the power of the Elden Conglomerate.
“Bah, back to the topic. The book of Erialden Orvehantea not only talks about those families but about the history of the establishment of the Elden Conglomerate as well. This is where the Demon Death Witch starts relating itself to our history as a huge empire.”
“It was said that the founder of the Eldens and the father of magic, Arthur Zecfanto, once met a lady of darkness and death. The book stated that our great founder was almost on the brink of death but the lady helped him survived. The two fell in love but Arthur’s father betrayed him.”
“His father, Merturo, planned to use the lady against their enemies. However, the lady was proven to be too strong for the two sides to handle. That was when the lady earned her nickname as the Demon Death Witch. Millions of beings would die in one single swoop of her spells.”
Raskael was shocked. The Supreme Elders weren’t able to do such a thing. They would require additional spells just to imitate the same effect.
“The Witch also carried along with her the army of the Nether mist called the wraiths,”, the old man then glanced at the mercenaries, “…or ghosts as what these humans say. As such, the Elden Empire was almost on the brink of collapse when Arthur arrived on the scene and stopped witch’s rampage.”
The old man finished narrating.
Raskael was annoyed, `Shouldn’t there be a continuation about this?`
“Supreme Elder, don’t tell me the book’s contents were forgotten?”
“Well, that was all there is to it. Or what was left of the Book of Erialden Orvehantea.”, the old man laughed.
“You should know that the constant war and usurpation of power during the early stages of the Elden civilization has left the book uncared for many years. Only when peace was attained did the Eldens have the time to take care of it, though it was all too late.”, the old man’s voice saddened.
It was a big waste for a book to rot to non-existence when it contained the importance of the Eldens’ origins.
Their discussion was interrupted when someone shouted.
“Oh look! The broadcast is continuing!”
On the screen was a widely devastated Imperium Court. The screen was almost covered in the entirety of dust particles.
They saw a pale Emperor Marcus with a bent back, panting due to exhaustion.
“Your Imperial Majesty, you must retreat for now! We’ll deal with Kent McKenzie and evacuate the students out of here!”, Minister Lex suggested.
“That won’t be necessary.”, a loud and cold womanly voice resounded.
“Ah!”, Elder Kent shouted.
“Father!”, Cody ran towards his father. He knelt on the ground and found out that Elder Kent was unconscious.
`Thank the Elders, he’s okay!`, Cody breathed a sigh of relief.
Everyone was intrigued about who knocked Elder Kent out.
After the dust settled, they saw a fairy dressed in the most alluring way, floating in the air as her green wings flapped.
Behind her were three other figures, two of which were humans, and the other was Elder Rashomon.
Her beauty bewitched both males and females alike.
`Who is she? Why is she so beautiful?`, Luiz was charmed.
Zachariel wasn’t affected in any way.
“Are you the Higher Elders from the Tower?”, he asked.
Everyone was shocked when they heard his question, including Supreme Elder Wyngella and the three Higher Elders.
`He resisted Supreme Elder Wyngella’s charm? What strong mental fortitude!`, Elder Rashomon remarked.
Supreme Elder Wyngella’s body was continuously emitting a strong enchanting aura that could put anyone in a daze regardless of who or what they were.
Supreme Elder Wyngella narrowed her eyes, `Is being impotent a characteristic of a Primal being?`
“And if we are?”, she replied.
“Well, isn’t that insignia on your chest the evidence?”, Zachariel pointed.
Supreme Elder Wyngella was infuriated by this.
“How bold of you to address me like that, boy.”, she warned.
“I am not entitled to bow down to anyone except myself.”, Zachariel replied.
“Is that so?”, Supreme Elder Wyngella raised her hand. She was about to grasp the air when she suddenly arrived on a different dimension.
`Whe-where am I?`
She tried to move but something constrained her. She then realized that a figure looked at her with glowing green eyes. He had long black hair parting in the middle. His diamond-shaped face was pale, as white as the snow.
The beauty of the figure was upset by the runic marks embedded all over his body.
When both of their eyes met, Supreme Elder Wyngella felt an eternity of nightmares passing through her head, then returned at the present.
It was as if nothing had happened, but her mind was actually in a mess. Her heart was beating so fast that she almost lost her breath.
`What was that? I almost died there!`
She gulped in fear, wanting to run away far from Zachariel. However, she kept her composure and lowered her hands.
`What happened to Supreme Elder Wyngella? Why is she perspiring all of a sudden?`, Elder Rashomon wondered.
“I’ll… let you go for today, you brat.”, she ignored Zachariel and turned to look at Emperor Marcus.
