Intis Palace, thousands of kilometers away from Ashbourne County.
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Puchi!
A man withdrew a dagger from an old man lying peacefully on the bed. This man standing in one of the most guarded rooms in the northern high plains was none other than Reuel Zaur.
And the man he just killed was none other than King Zaur. The king of the Intis kingdom had been assassinated by none other than his own firstborn!
Casually cleaning off the blood with the bedsheets, Reuel sighed. “Rest well in the spirit world.”
He leaned forward. “Before I dominate it.” He scowled with a smirk.
Suddenly, a crimson light appeared in his father’s chest, causing him to frown.
“What is this—!”
Boom!
It blasted out of the room, exploding in the night sky. The moment nobles and high officials saw it, they trembled.
“The king!”
Reuel clenched his fist tightly, his arm trembling without stopping. “This old, shrewd man!”
Bam!
The door slammed open, revealing two soldiers armed with long, golden-colored spears.
Upon seeing the dagger in Reuel’s hand, their pupils shook.
“Your Highness, we apologize for our rudeness, but you will have to explain yourself to the court.” A soldier said as he brandished his spear toward Reuel.
“I see.”
Reuel looked at his hands for a short while before tilting his head. “On another thought, I don’t need to stand before a bunch of inferiors.”
The soldiers frowned. Right before their eyes, Reuel’s eyes transformed into crimson with strange symbols.
“Especially inferiors like you.”
“You—!” The soldier at the right was about to approach Reuel only for him to hear growling. Turning, he saw that his partner was now a hulking, furry beast man!
“W… what, Jamie, how did you?!”
Roar!
Forced to defend himself, the soldier thrust his sword through the beast man only to discover that he was also undergoing transformation.
“What is this? Stop it!”
An arm came out and strangled him. He had to let go of his spear and attacked the strange arm, which did not naturally belong to his body.
“You killed me!” A shriek came from below. Looking down, the soldier saw it was his partner that he thought transformed into a beast man.
Seeing the wound caused by his spear, his eyes shook.
“W… what?”
The man’s eyes watered.
With great effort, he turned his eyes toward Reuel, who stood there, chuckling softly.
“Please…”
Reuel smiled. “You killed your own partner. I guess we’re not any different.”
He burst into laughter as the man kept struggling with himself. In reality, the soldier could be seen fighting and struggling against thin air while his partner lay dead, killed by a spear!
Eventually, the soldier killed himself. With a soft thud, he fell to the ground. Like this, two saintly knights, men of outstanding power and terrors on a battlefield, died.
These were men who protected the king from all that wanted to bring him hurt, but they couldn’t even stand a chance against the king’s own son.
“I guess keeping my talent a secret paid off after all. It’s time for this weak crown prince to grace the stage of Tenaria.”
Reuel proudly walked out of the room and easily annihilated the soldiers until he reached the ground floor and discovered 50 royal guards, equipped with spears and shields.
Their golden armor shone like the sun as all of them unleashed the blazing sun battle force art meant for the king’s guards.
Before this elite unit was a 7-foot-tall armored man with a huge sword.
Titled Knight: Sword of Intis; Samuel!
Ranked 94th out of the 120 continental Titled Knights in Tenaria!
This was an imperial-ranked knight, one of the few in the Intis kingdom.
“Your Highness. You have lost this battle. It’s a pity you had to go to such lengths for the throne. In the end you lack patience.”
Samuel grunted. His massive sword, bigger than the 7-foot-tall man, was plunged into the ground right beside him.
Despite its size, it was an imperial relic that weighed as much as a feather to the wielder!
“It’s fascinating that one of the kingdom’s greatest knights appeared so quickly. General, it would be best if you paid your respects to the new king.”
Reuel spread out his hands, looking down at them from the staircase with superiority.
“Begone, you mad prince!” Samuel bellowed, pulling out his sword and swinging it upward. A massive golden beam cleaved the staircase into two, causing it to collapse.
Dust rose in the wake of the destruction, but a silhouette appeared in the dust fog.
‘This brat. He hid his strength all this time!’
Samuel ground his teeth.
“King’s guard!”
“At your orders!”
Instead of the voice of 50 men, Reuel heard the voice of 1000!
950 were outside the main hall! The entire palace was crowded by sacred knights!
Reuel chuckled. ‘I never knew boundless would be this fun, especially when I was granted a talent of such power. You can’t blame me for seeking a position befitting my strength. Besides, that man was old, weak, and dull.”
Reuel’s venomous words made Samuel’s arms tremble as his anger rose.
“You brat! Your father loved you!”
“That man is not my father.” Reuel scowled as he walked out of the dust fog.
“Die!”
Samuel shot forth. He was so fast that he appeared before Reuel almost instantly, slashing at Reuel’s neck.
His sword cut through Reuel’s afterimage, causing his eyes to widen.
“He can outmatch the speed of an imperial being! What sort of monster is this?!”
Samuel’s eyes shook. He was 84 years of age, but Reuel was in his early forties. How could he possess this much strength?!
Boom!
A man fell from the shattered ceiling and landed with a great thud. Large stones fell here and there, but the figure remained the subject of focus.
His whitish gold shield, bigger than most humans, was the first thing they saw before the armored man behind rose to his feet.
Titled Knight: Shield Of Intis, Seth! Intis protector.
“Your Highness, leave; I’ll hold them back!”