The loud booms and the zombies shrills sounded in the distance, which snapped the emperor, Ortharious, out of his trance.
"The great one is here...." Godred, who stood beside Ortharious, mumbled with an awed expression on his face.
'The great one? The same "great one" Godred always mumbles about?' Ortharious thought inwardly, intrigued.
Godred was "cursed" with the ability that gave him visions of the past and the future, and it was with that ability that Godred managed to get into the position where it is right now. Godred was a master when it came to matters concerning his ability; he could use it however he wanted, but only if he was able to face the consequences, consequences in which he would be forced to watch all the worst possible futures and pasts. Just by noticing his words and actions after he faced a consequence, one could tell that whatever past or future Godred was witnessing was absolutely horrifying.
"I'll finally get to meet the so-called great one. I'll see for myself how great the great one actually is." Ortharious commented in a playful manner, hinting at ulterior motives behind his words as he gazed at Godred in amusement.
Godred, who heard the emperor's words, flinched and froze in place before trembling uncontrollably. "N-no, no, no, your majesty, do not, DO NOT, do anything stupid that would garner us the great one's wrath." Godred said, stuttering profusely, though Ortharious didn't have any such plans to do anything silly. Hearing Godred's "order," he began to have second thoughts, but soon they too died down slightly when he saw Godred's condition. Godred was covered in cold sweat as he glared at Ortharious with a hateful gaze as he trembled violently, like a wet puppy in the rain.
"It would be better if you mind your language, Your. Majesty. Godred. If you get on my nerves, I may make you not hold on to your throne anymore." Ortharious warned in a glaring tone.
"F**k that goddamn throne and your bit*h a*s alliance; if you dare even have the thought of doing anything stupid, ignore the alliance and sh*t; I might just kill you this instance." Godred threatened fearfully, and Ortharious could tell from his fear-filled tone that Godred would really do as he said if Ortharious did anything he hinted at in his words earlier. Godred's kingly aura that surrounded him earlier had completely disappeared, and what remained in front of Ortharious was a scared kid throwing a tantrum.
Even though Ortharious was the emperor, it was due to his brains, not his strength, which was the reason he knew that he was no match for Godred, if Godred really put his mind into destroying the empire. And in the back of his mind, he already knew that if Godred hadn't stopped with becoming a king and doing "everything according to the will of the great one," the current emperor would have been Godred, not Ortharious.
But even if that really were the case,
"You. When did I allow you to speak so informally with me? Huh? It won't be you; it'll be me that kills you, and that too before you even make a move. I am a smart person, Godred; it would be better to not mess with me." Ortharious warned informally.
"..... F**k!" Godred cursed as he walked back. One could tell from the looks of it that Godred hadn't backed away in defeat but in fear, and his fear definitely wasn't about Ortharious.
'.... A 7-year-old alliance is going to be broken? With but a mere comment?' Ortharious thought, he could already tell that the alliance between him and Godred had been broken.
'It's all because of that great one! I swear to make you kowtow in front of me!' Ortharious swore inwardly, and for his plan to work out amazingly, he already had the very thing he needed in order to bring down the "great one" on to his knees and, if possible, even make him beg for forgiveness. From Godred's words from earlier, Ortharious could tell that someone called the great one was somewhere nearer to them; all Ortharious had to do now was meet him and "invite" him to "that" room in the palace, and the so-called great one would be in the palm of his hands.
"MARIONETTE!" A loud yell resounded throughout the entire empire, which forced the emperor and the others to snap their heads up in the direction where the hypnotising voice sounded.
And what they could see in the night sky was a figure whose clothes were in tatters, with an ominous, humongous pair of reddish-black-coloured hands manifested above the man's figure, with their strings attached to the limbs and a few more parts of his body.
"Pause." The hypnotic and softly soothing voice sounded from the figure as "everything" stopped except for the senses of the people.
With a flicker of the hands above the man, the man's arms rose sideways as his dazed gaze moved up. "Authority of the black ink: Dark Devourer." The hypnotic and authoritative voice resounded as the man's eyes blackened entirely and black ink began to stream out of his eyes.
With another flicker of the humongous fingers, the man's right hand moved forward with elegance, as pitch-black ink began to devour his right arm, starting from his index finger that was pointing out towards the undead dragons towering over the empire.
The ink spread stopped as it neared his forearm as pitch-black, hissing strings flitted on his right forearm before they were pulled towards the tip of his index finger as the string swirled, forming a fingertip-sized pitch-black ball right in front of it.
He then brought his index and thumb fingers close, seemingly ready to snap with the pitch-black ball in the middle, and snap he did.
SNAP-!
With a thunderous snap, the pitch-black ball in the middle of his fingers exploded and shot out towards the dragons in an ever-expanding, thin horizontal, triangle-like shape with razor-sharp shark fang-like ends, cutting through all the dragons in sight.
"Play." With another soft, hypnotic-voiced mumble, everything that was "paused" began to "play." Shuddering violently, the emperor and the others panicked at the abrupt predicament, where the undead dragons' bodies were falling towards the ground at a bottleneck speed, as they saw a red blur zoom towards them, carrying three women in his arms, as he deployed a powerful barrier to protect the royals.
WHOOOOSH-!!!
BOOOMMM-!!!
.....
....
With a series of loud booms, the cut undead dragons fell on top of the palace and its surroundings, destroying everything beneath and surrounding it.
A dense cloud of dust covered the sights of the royals, as the only figure they could see was Atman, who had gritted his teeth, which bled due to the humongous amount of physical and magical strain he was under as he protected the royals with his life on the line.
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