Chapter 148: Aftermath – Part 1

Chapter 148: Aftermath – Part 1

"SURRENDER, OR THE LEVIATHAN WILL SWALLOW YOU ALL!" Hana shouts threateningly.

Just to make it sink in, the summon lands heavily on the grass right next to them, sending a massive gust of wind at their faces, and then the weapons start to drop.

Ciel and Yunia [Fly] towards Brett and help him out of the mud. His armor has been ruined, and he seems dazed, which Ciel [Diagnose]s as a concussion, but he only needs a [Heal] to top off his HP, and then they start flying him back to us.

"You kept your own Gifted hidden, huh?" Urmeie remarks as she approaches me.

But before I can answer, an Imperial Officer marches out of the main group and shouts, "WHERE'S REINHOLD?!"

"DEAD!" Hana answers, and the Imperials gasp in shock.

"MURDERER!" Reinhold's wife shrieks and points at me, but I'm still too stunned to reply as the horrible feeling of impending doom continues to rise, making me think that I might be about to have a heart attack.

No, that'd mean that everyone is about to have a heart attack.

"OATHBREAKER!" Vanea shrieks back, then suddenly appears beside the distraught widow, the enraged not-princess wielding a sword wreathed in flames that she uses to decapitate the poor woman.

"STOP THIS MADNESS!" a priest shouts, and every one of them draws their blessed weapons, which begin glowing with a dangerous-looking holy light.

"OATHBREAKER!" Vanea repeats, mad with rage, and points at the woman's body with her sword.

"NOT YOUR PLACE!" the priest shouts back as he dashes towards her, and then the Imperial Army soldiers also become enraged, and they begin grabbing the weapons they just dropped.

"LEVIATHAN, ROAR!" I order the summon, and it obeys.

"UROOOOOO...!" a deep, long roar shakes us to our bones, and the men nearest to it even lose their balance.

"BOTH SIDES DISPERSE, NOW!" I bellow with [Godly Language], and it has a good effect on the shaken men.

Both sides promptly start to separate, with the priests helping herd them like shepherds, but the dread we're feeling continues to rise, and the sky darkens as stormy clouds cover the sun.

"That's a bad omen," Roxanne jokingly understates and smiles softly, trying to lift our spirits.

But then everyone, even the Princesses and the priests, is suddenly forced onto their knees by an overwhelming force that grips our bodies and squeezes our chests, making it feel like our clothes are made of steel.

I blink, then I notice that the Sun Man is right in front of me, glowing softly yet emitting so much heat that it feels searing, which is fitting considering his handsome face is warped in pure fury. He's wearing a light blue robe with a metallic sheen and his sun-like golden crown, making him look as ethereal as ever, but his piercing gaze and oppressive aura give him an overwhelmingly threatening air.

"What. Have. You. Done?" he slowly questions, each word like a slap to my face that fills me with guilt instead of pain, and his voice echoes in such a way that everyone hears him perfectly as if he were right before them.

But I'm confused about what's happening.

"Y-Your Radiance...?" I weakly question confusedly.

Alissa, Hana, and Aoi slowly manage to stand, fighting back against his oppressive aura.

"Tell them to stop," he quietly requests, his tone so strained that it's like he's barely controlling his rage.

"Y-you mean, resisting?" I hesitantly question.

His face twitches in anger, and suddenly something hits the three girls on the back of their heads, forcing their faces down against the mud, but Alissa almost passes out from the strike.

"DON'T DO ANYTHING!" I desperately order through [Bind], and I notice my breathing starting to speed up in fear.

The girls stop struggling and keep their faces in the mud, seething from the humiliation.

But the Emperor barely gives me time to process what's going on before he continues, "You've killed a Gifted, Wolf Ryder. Do you understand the gravity of your crime?"

I swallow heavily, starting to realize what he's getting at. "I don't believe I do, or else I wouldn't have done it," I cautiously reply.

And the heat of his glow increases further, hurting my skin and my eyes. "So you admit to being an ignorant savage?"

I start to regain control of my breathing as a bit of anger and defiance comes back to me. "Reinhold was an Oathbreaker who threatened my family's safety, so I couldn't hold myself back when dealing with him."

But that was clearly the wrong answer as the Emperor only grows angrier and his glow even hotter. "You insolent-...! Couldn't hold back? Who do you think you are? Who do you think Reinhold was?!" he shouts, yet his body remains unmoving, like a stalwart fortress.

"He was a dangerous Oathbreaker and blasphemer who cornered us! I did what I had to!" I shout back, defying his overwhelming pressure.

And he snaps back with scorn, "You could've just made him your slave, or even made his wife your slave and fucked her in front of him for all that I care. Anything would've been better than killing him!"

So I defend our actions, even though I'm sure Knowledge pushed me to kill Reinhold, "We couldn't! That was our last resort, and we couldn't risk him coming out of that attack with enough strength to still win against us! We didn't even know if someone could survive it!"

"So you admit to being an ignorant, irresponsible savage?" the Emperor questions with a sneer, and I realize that this was our real mistake.

We over-engineered a weapon, but if we had tested it on realistic targets, we'd have known that it was overkill and that we should've tried to develop something more reasonable.

I lower my head and apologize, "I... I admit I made a mistake, and I ask forgiveness."

"But do you even understand why you shouldn't have killed him?" the Emperor continues, completely ignoring my attempt to humble myself.

The girls give me some help, and I answer after a brief moment of hesitation as I raise my head again, "He... was a valuable weapon for the Empire."

It seems that this time, I've answered correctly, for the rage in his tone is pulled back, but now there's only a chilling coldness left in it. "Exactly, just like you are, except that you've overstepped your bounds and brought more damage than benefits to us. Is this aggression of yours a common thing in whatever 'distant land' you came from, or did the dragon inside you make you like this?"

I don't answer immediately as I ponder upon his words, but he intensifies his glare, pressing me to answer.

"Perhaps it was the dragon..." I'm forced to admit.

"And how do we make a dragon understand that he can't kill whoever he pleases?" he alludes, and a horrible chill goes up my spine. "Due to the fact that you're the one who's Gifted, I can't just kill you, yet, but the others..."

I immediately beg, "Please, no...!"

He suddenly disappears from before me, but before I can even react, I feel a blinding pain come from the base of my tail, making me scream in pain. Then my face hits the mud as my legs stop responding to me.

I immediately lift my upper body with my arms, and something fleshy and wet falls to my side, so I turn my head and see my severed tail beside me, bleeding copious amounts of blood because it was ripped right out along with the padding and scale armor that protected it.

A wave of relief washes over me, almost making me cry, then I let my body fall on my side as I stare up at the Emperor, helpless and obedient.

He only shows me a sneer of disgust and frustration, and his following words make me feel shame like nothing else ever has, "Unlike you... or Dame Vanea, I abhor killing innocents, but I won't let that stop me if it's necessary to teach you a lesson." Then he turns around and looks at Sa'Haa, who's far away, then at Urmeie, near his feet. "My daughters. Remember that you're also partially responsible for the actions of your allies."

But before they can answer, he disappears in the blink of an eye, and all of the pressure, the heat, and the brightness goes away with him.

The girls and a number of people immediately rush to me while Aoi picks up Alissa, who's still a bit dizzy from the blow to the back of her head.

"Wolf!" Ciel shouts, distraught.

"Your Highness!" Almaria shouts, panicked.

But I reassure them, "I'm fine. Just put it back in place and [Heal] it. We'll deal with any other problems later." And they both nod, then do as told.

I'm not angry. I'm just relieved that he showed us mercy, which also makes me ashamed of my own lack of it...

"Our lack..." Yunia whispers through gritted teeth.

In a flash, my tail is reattached to my body, allowing the feeling to return to my legs and, more importantly, to my cock. Shit feels really weird, though, so I think my spine is a bit fucked up.

But the thing that annoys me the most is that the Punishers stole the fucking desk! They didn't even ransack or destroy it, but just straight up stole the whole desk!

At least they left the armchair...

I sit down in it with a sigh, then I close my eyes and think.

But there's nothing left to think about. It's over. It's all over.

"Is this the end of your schemes? Are you resigning yourself to die?" A stern voice suddenly reaches my ears.

I open my eyes wide in surprise and see Theneus in front of me, and I have no idea when or how he got here. The beardless fuck was dad's personal cock sucker, not literally, but he's always been a passive follower, one of the weird "believers" in the "glory" of Katasko.

And I have no patience for getting my cock sucked by another man. "We all lost our nobility, Theneus, and now the cattle have turned on us. I just don't give a fuck about what happens anymore," I tiredly explain.

But he stares at me with his oddly intense stare, actually giving me chills. "It isn't over. You can come back from this," he states confidently.

"I failed at everything I tried to do!" I flippantly reply.

And he insists with an infuriating conviction. "Yet you still survived. You were going against the Gods, and you're still alive to spit at their feet. That's impressive."

He's so annoying that I facepalm as I shout, "But now I have nothing left!"

Then his voice becomes deadly serious, "But I do, and I want to help you get back on your feet so that you can try again."

I take my hands off my face and stare at him, but I don't see the Theneus I knew before. I see someone else, someone who... is also cursed by the sun.

And I'm not dumb. I know what this means.

"Fuck the Gods, let's do this," I answer with a sneer, and he grins like the freak he is.

Intermission end.

This heretical talk must be stopped!

Alissa and Yunia [Blink] into the room and dispel their [Invisibility] so that they can see, but they hesitate for a split second as they see something unexpected: a huge, muscular figure is between Alki and Theneus, a person with no presence nor Thread for Alissa and Yunia to detect. They see brown skin peeking out from under its gray robe, freakishly long arms, huge hands that it uses to grab Alki's and Theneus' shoulders, a hunched over upper body, a mouth covered with a leather breathing mask, and a pair of unremarkable brown eyes, eerily unremarkable.

Which are looking right at them, even though the girls were invisible a split second ago.

Alissa shoots an arrow at Alki's head and another at Theneus, but Yunia hesitates before using [Chain Life] on the huge thing as a horrible feeling of dread comes through [Precognition].

The masked thing lifts its huge hands and takes the arrows as if they were nothing, so Alissa casts [Mesmerizing Butterflies] while Yunia casts [Lightning Bolt], expecting a battle, but the thing also takes both of their spells without even flinching. Then it lands its hands on both of the men's shoulders again, and Alki's smug grin is the last thing we see before the three of them simply disappear.

That was neither a [Gate] nor a [Blink]. They just disappeared without even leaving a trace of mana.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Prince PreownedFIN.

Prince Owldente.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord Novgarod.

Lord Michale Erwin.

Lord Bakerdea.

Lord Maurice.

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Lord Mike Bartter.

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Lord William Clark.

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Noble Salty Panda.

Noble Mild Fracas.

Noble Aclys.

Noble Carl Baxter.

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Noble DND.