THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 343: 343. THE NEW SUPREME CHIEF

For the first time since the city had knelt, the Supreme Chief moved. Still on her knees, she slowly raised her head and looked toward the figure suspended above the square. There was anger in her eyes now, pushing against the fear.

"You... you cannot simply declare yourself Supreme Chief," she said. Her voice was steady despite the thousands of blades hanging above the city.

A murmur swept through the crowd.

"The South has laws... Traditions... Councils." Sagiri looked down at her without expression.

"And yet those same laws allowed a chief to sit beyond his term. Allowed assassins to hunt the City Lord. Allowed my companions to be dragged to an execution platform while I was absent." The Supreme Chief’s jaw tightened.

"That does not make you a ruler."

"No?" Sagiri tilted his head. "The relics disagree." A faint ripple moved through the council.

"Power does not grant legitimacy." The Supreme Chief pointed toward him. She was indeed something, and the more Sagiri talked to her, the more he got an odd feeling. Something was off about the woman that he could not quite put a finger on

"Then legitimacy should have stopped me." His answer was immediate. "It did not." The woman’s face darkened. Around her, not a single council member rose to support her. Not one. Everyone remained kneeling. Watching. Waiting. Sagiri slowly lowered Nokai to his side.

"You speak of laws, yet you concealed the truth of the relics from your own council." His crimson eyes narrowed.

"The South is not ruled by strength alone. It is ruled by law. Tradition. Consensus." Her gaze locked onto Sagiri. "You threaten an entire city with blades hanging over their heads and call it legitimacy?" Above the square, Sagiri remained motionless.

"Oh...?"

"The South chose me." She spat. It seemed like she was stupid and careless, and perhaps loved power too much. A faint smile touched Sagiri’s lips. It carried no warmth.

"Did it?" The question caused her expression to flicker. "Because from where I stand, the South seems to have spent the day trying to execute the man who saved its City Lord while the woman responsible hid behind a council unable even to call me to prove my innocence. If I knew better, I could say you are the one who wanted me dead the most." The crowd shifted uneasily. The Supreme Chief’s face darkened.

"Be careful, Sagiri." The warning echoed across the square.

"Or what?" Sagiri asked. The words were soft. Dangerous. His crimson eyes settled fully upon her.

She swallowed, and her hands curled into fists, but she did not say a thing.

"You failed to protect your people. Failed to control your council. Failed to stop assassins from targeting your own City Lord. Failed to prevent an unlawful execution." His voice never rose. "Tell me, Supreme Chief..." The title sounded almost insulting now. "...Which part of your rule would you like me to respect?" The square fell silent once more as every eye turned toward the woman standing alone before a city that was no longer certain whose side it was on.

Sagiri’s gaze shifted from the Supreme Chief to the Archivist.

"Tell them," he said. "Tell them what the records say." The old man remained kneeling for a moment before lowering his head.

"It is true." His voice carried clearly across the square. "The relics are older than the councils. Older than the office of the Supreme Chief itself. The records state that the one acknowledged by all five relics possesses the strongest claim to rule the South. Besides, Lord Sagiri also commands the ancient beast. The last of its kind. The relics have chosen him. Yet we can’t have two supreme chiefs. One has to step down. One has to respect what our ancestors say unless you wish to go against all this dear supreme Kun." A ripple of unease spread through the kneeling crowd.

The Supreme Chief’s expression hardened, but she did not interrupt. The Archivist continued.

"In all surviving records, no ruler had ever wielded all five relics without the approval of the ancestors and the tribes. Only one last ruler could wield them after centuries. Even I thought it was a myth." Silence followed. Sagiri nodded once. Then he looked down upon the city.

"Good." He slowly raised a hand. Above Thazir, the countless blades shifted ever so slightly. The sound of steel moving through the air sent a visible shiver through the crowd. "Then let us make this simple." His crimson eyes swept across the kneeling council, the warriors, and the people below.

"Anyone who recognizes me as the Supreme Chief of the South gets to and live." He paused. "Anyone who does not..." His gaze drifted briefly toward the storm of blades suspended above the city. He did not finish the sentence. He didn’t need to. The meaning settled over the square like a shadow.

"Choose."

The silence lasted only a heartbeat. Then Azir moved. The young City Lord dropped fully to the ground, pressing his forehead against the stone without hesitation. He was happy that Sagiri had given the people of Thazir a chance to choose and even happier that his big brother would get to be the supreme ruler.

"I recognize Lord Sagiri and my big brother as the Supreme Chief of the South," he declared without hesitation.

His voice echoed through the square. Behind him, Banga was the next to kneel. Then Kaka. Then the rest of Sagiri’s squad followed one after another, lowering their heads without the slightest doubt. The Kai exhaled softly before placing a fist over his chest and bowing deeply. The warriors saw it. Their commander had made his choice. One by one, soldiers throughout the square began lowering their heads. The entire ranks followed.

Soon, thousands of warriors were kneeling and declaring their pledges.

Elder Maresha was next. The old man bowed until his forehead touched the platform.

"The Wandering Members recognize Lord Sagiri as Supreme Chief of the South." Every wandering elder behind him immediately followed suit. The sight broke the final resistance within the crowd.

People began dropping to their knees throughout the city. Entire streets lowered their heads as one. The declaration spread like wildfire through the inner city and beyond the walls into the outer districts. Everywhere, people bowed. Everywhere, voices rose.

"We recognize Lord Sagiri as Supreme Chief of the South." The council held out the longest. Faces pale, pride battling survival. But one after another, they finally bowed. The Chiefs lowered their heads. Soon, the entire council platform knelt before him. Only one figure remained upright on her knees.

The Supreme Chief.

The city watched. The council watched. Even Sagiri waited. Not that he cared about her opinion anyway. If she refused, he would just kill her.

At last, her shoulders sagged. Slowly, reluctantly, she lowered her head. It was clearly not graceful. It was not willing. But she did it. And the moment her forehead touched the stone, there was no one left in the South still refusing to acknowledge Sagiri.

The chants continued for a long while, rolling through Thazir in endless waves until even the outer city had joined them. Sagiri listened in silence. Then, finally, he nodded once.

"Very well." The words were simple, yet relief swept through the city. Before anyone could react further, Sagiri spread his arms and stepped backward into empty air. He shot upward into the rain of blades. The movement was so sudden that gasps erupted from the crowd.

High above the city, the thousands of blades responded instantly. They rose with him. Rivers of black steel climbed into the skies from every corner of Thazir, forming vast spirals around his ascending figure.

This time, Zaira remained where she was, her colossal head lifted toward the sky as though watching a familiar performance. The blades continued gathering. Hundreds became thousands. Thousands became a storm. The storm became a vortex. Sagiri stood at its center, cloak whipping violently around him as Nokai drew the entire sea of steel inward.

It was art.

The blades twisted around one another in elegant patterns, weaving through the darkening sky like streams of black light before converging into a single point above him. The entire city watched in silence.

Then, with a final motion, every blade collapsed into one. A single enormous black blade hung in the heavens for the briefest moment before shrinking rapidly and flowing into Nokai’s waiting form. The sky cleared, and the stars returned.

Without the rain of death hanging over them, everyone was now able to take a deep breath.

Sagiri slowly descended from above and landed effortlessly upon Zaira’s head. His cloak settled behind him. Nokai rested casually at his side. For several heartbeats, nobody spoke. The city simply stared. Warriors, elders, chiefs, children, everyone of them looking upon the man standing atop the beast. Not in fear this time but in wonder.

For a few moments, neither Sagiri nor Zaira moved. The city remained kneeling beneath them, thousands of eyes fixed upon the pair. Then Zaira stirred suddenly.

The colossal beast slowly rose to its full height, scales grinding softly against stone as its immense body uncoiled from around the execution grounds. Buildings disappeared beneath its shadow. Its crimson eyes swept across the city one final time before turning toward the distant desert.

Sagiri remained standing upon its head, silent and unreadable. Without a word, Zaira began to move. Not with the violent speed it had displayed earlier, but with the calm confidence of a creature that knew nothing in the South could stop it. The beast flowed through the streets like a living river of darkness. Warriors instinctively moved aside. Crowds parted before it. No one dared stand in its path. It crossed the inner city, passed through the inner gates, and descended into the canyon beyond.

The desert welcomed its return, sands shifting beneath its passage while the wind carried away the echoes of the day. From the walls of Thazir, people watched until the colossal silhouette became smaller and smaller against the endless sea of gold. Eventually, only two crimson lights remained visible in the distance. Then those too vanished beyond the dunes, leaving behind a silent city filled with people still struggling to believe what it had witnessed.