The moment he laid eyes on Aditya, who was also known as the Dragon Monarch, Alex felt as though the world around him had abruptly morphed into a nightmarish hellscape. Although Aditya was smiling, to Alex it felt like the devil himself was grinning back at him. His entire body shook uncontrollably, his legs threatening to give way beneath him at any moment.
"Wha--How did you get here?" Alex managed to stutter, trying desperately to muster some semblance of courage, though his shaky voice betrayed him.
Aditya slowly moved his hand to rest on the right armrest of the throne. With a casual air, he tapped the armrest rhythmically as he looked at Alex with a gaze that seemed to pierce through him. "Have you forgotten who I am?" His words, simple as they were, sent a shiver down Alex's spine, as if someone had just walked over his grave.
It was then that the reality of the situation dawned on Alex. He realized how insanely arrogant and foolish he and the church had been to think that the mighty Istarin Empire would simply swallow their humiliation and do nothing in return.
Aditya continued, "Did you really think that a man who can dismantle an entire Empire in a single night and bring it under his rule would find it hard to step into your castle?"
Those words weighed heavily on Alex, and it was as if the scales fell from his eyes. He thought about the rumors and stories he had heard about the Dragon Monarch--how he could sneak into an enemy's land in the dead of night, eliminate their ruler, and escape without anyone being the wiser. How could he, how could any of them at the church, have been so naive to think they could outwit or escape the Dragon Monarch?
Stricken with this newfound understanding, Alex felt his insides turn to liquid. His bravado had evaporated, replaced by a visceral dread that gripped him in its icy claws.
"Captain, you've amassed quite a fortune," Aditya began, his smile widening ever so slightly. "You know me, I have a fondness for seizing wealth. So, I decided to help myself to your treasure vault before anyone else got the idea. Don't bother thanking me."
Alex felt like he had been struck by lightning upon hearing Aditya's words. "You—what did you do?" he stammered, his voice barely more than a hoarse whisper. The thought of losing his treasure—a stash of nearly half a billion gold coins that he had painstakingly accumulated over a century—felt like a physical blow to his gut.
At this moment, even as he stood before Aditya, one of the most powerful and fearsome individuals in the world, his mind was consumed by the devastating loss of his fortune. He felt an overwhelming, gut-wrenching sense of emptiness. Even the open threat of losing his life seemed secondary to the vanishing of his hard-earned wealth.
"You can't be serious," Alex said, almost pleading, his eyes widened in disbelief and desperation. "That was my life's work, my life's saving. Are you telling me it's gone? Just like that?"
Aditya leaned back, the corners of his mouth curling into a grin that seemed all the more chilling for its casualness. "I find it amusing how much you're agonizing over gold when you're standing before someone who could end your life in the blink of an eye."
Alex's face flushed with a mix of dread and indignation. Here he was, in the presence of the Dragon Monarch, a man who could extinguish his life as effortlessly as snuffing out a candle, and yet all he could think about was his lost treasure. His love for gold had always outweighed even his concern for his own family; now, faced with his own mortality, he still couldn't shake his mind off his immense fortune that had vanished into thin air.
"Don't you want to know what happened to your family?" Aditya asked in a curiosity tone as he studied Alex's expression. He had a hunch that the captain might be more obsessed with his riches than concerned for his own flesh and blood.
Alex's eyes flicked up, meeting Aditya's gaze. "What did you do to them?" he muttered, his voice carrying a tone of resignation more than apprehension or dread.
Aditya took note of Alex's lackluster response and felt a wave of boredom wash over him. It was as if this man's avarice had hollowed him out, leaving him a shell devoid of any familial attachments. "I'm done here," Aditya declared, unimpressed and no longer entertained by the man's one-dimensional greed.
With a swift snap of his fingers, a tide of crimson flames erupted from the ground beneath them. The fire surged upward, completely engulfing Alex and his soldiers who had been standing like statues behind him. Within seconds, the entire throne hall was consumed by an inferno. As the flames danced wildly, licking the air and shooting toward the vaulted ceiling, they left nothing behind. When they eventually dissipated, there was no trace of Alex, his soldiers, or even the ashes that should have remained.
Aditya looked around the now empty and scorched hall. His face wore an expression of faint dissatisfaction, as if the day's events had been but a minor distraction, hardly worth his full attention. "Let this be a lesson to those who underestimate the Istarin Empire," he mumbled to himself.
"But things are not over yet." With that he vanished from the throne hall. A moment after he stepped outside the castle, the whole castle was engulfed in Crimson flames. Eventually the whole castle was burned down.
Scene change_____
Just like Alex, the Holy Knight Captain, other high-ranking members of the church, including the Holy Nun, the Holy Son, and the Holy Priest, had hastily retreated to their respective hometowns. Their ultimate aim wasn't hard to decipher: they wanted to secure their ill-gotten wealth and make a quick escape. Not just them, but even other elite members who had attended the ill-fated meeting were doing the same. They scurried to the places where their families resided or where they had stashed their considerable fortunes.
"No time to waste, gather everything!" the Holy Son yelled as he stormed into his lavish estate, his voice tinged with panic.
"Yeah, pack up all the gold, all the valuables! Don't forget the important documents!" loudly barked the Holy Priest, frantically directing his servants in his own opulent residence.
Everyone was in a very hurry and was really desperate right now. The calm and gentle facade on their faces had long disappeared. They were desperate to gather their wealth, their loved ones, and their blindly loyal subordinates—the ones who had followed their every command, no matter how wicked or morally reprehensible those orders had been.
Now that the veil of their evil deeds across the Northern Frost Dragon Empire had been lifted and the whole Empire's population knew about it, they knew that if they remained in this Empire, the anger crowd would march into their homes and kill them or the enemies of the Church will definitely use this chance to hunt them down. Staying in this empire would be the same as letting themselves get killed like Dogs As for what happened to the church or any other members or the Holy Pope, none of the cared. What mattered was their own life. They were all scheming to flee, to disappear from the empire with their loot, families, and unquestioning followers.
However, what they didn't anticipate was the grim welcome that awaited them. Just as Aditya had been waiting for Alex, the members of the Shadow Guardian—led by Nathan and Amber—had spread out, lurking in the shadows of their estates and hiding places.
The Holy Nun opened the door to her underground vault, only to be met by Amber's cold eyes. "I think it's time for some divine justice, don't you?" Amber whispered, drawing her blade. The next second, the Holy Nun's head fell to the ground. Her eyes were full of shock. The last thing that she saw was her subordinates falling to the ground one by one.
Nathan appeared before the Holy Priest just as he was about to unlock a safe filled with gold and jewels. "It's unfortunate, but your wealth can't buy you a reprieve from the punishment you so richly deserve," Nathan stated, unsheathing his sword.
The Holy Priest didn't even had a second to escape. He tried to turn around and run away but he found his legs to be binded with shadow hands that rose from his own shadow. Nathan was using Shadow Manipulation at this moment. When he looked up to find Nathan, he was already gone. In the blink of an eye, the Priest felt a cold sword on his neck. Before he could utter a single word, the sharp sword slashed his throat. A large amount of blood gushed out of his throat. The holy priest fell to the ground and then lost his life.
One by one, each of these corrupt leaders met their fate at the hands of the Shadow Guardians and Nathan and Amber. The guardians and the Generals didn't flinch or hesitate; they delivered what they considered to be well-deserved punishment under the order of the Dragon Monarch: a swift, unceremonious death.
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