Damien flew directly through the window, instead of taking the stairs as most others would. He had already leaped out of the window, so he found no shame in doing the same to enter.
"It might take some time to get rid of the problem that had just been created," the Crown Prince said. "We might even have to postpone the matches."
The other nobles around him nodded as they saw no other choice. "We might indeed have to do that," they concurred.
The Emperor stared at the pillar and shook his head. "That will not do," he said. "The matches must end today."
"But father, the way things are, I don't know how they will—"
"The fight doesn't have to take place at the stage," the emperor said. "We have plenty of space behind us in this barren land, don't we? Have it take place there."
"Oh," the Crown prince's eyebrows perked up as that was indeed not a bad idea. "What about the audience? Do we just create multiple projections for them to watch the whole thing from here, or should we send them out there too?"
"Tell the committee to do whatever they feel convenient," the emperor said. "They can have some Earth Essence Expert to create a few elevated sitting platforms and call it an arena for now."
"I will let them know," the Crown prince said and walked through the door this time around, with a staff member following him to lead the way.
The Emperor looked at the giant pillar that was in front of him and sighed before sitting down on his seat.
Saburn Foreman stood where he was, completely stumped at what he was seeing. The size of the rock that had formed out of nowhere was not something that fit his understanding at all.
But one thing was obvious. His son was right, and he had missed the chance of obtaining the sword for himself.
Now, if he owned the sword, everyone would know where it can come from. It was a terrible thing to realize. He continued staring at the pillar, trying to come to a conclusion about what he could do now.
There was nothing he could do that wouldn't be blatantly obvious. He sighed.
'Dammit! What the hell even is that sword? How can it create something that massive in such a small time? How have I never heard of this before? Did that kid come from the Springwind continent perhaps? Or the Blueflame Continent? What is going on?' Saburn thought with maddening confusion.
The Emperor stayed seated as he closed his eyes, warding off all the noise and discussions around him. As he started feeling the quietness settle, he remembered the texts he read.
The archaic texts.
Every emperor was forced to read the texts once they were crowned as one. The texts had the history of the entire world and many important events written on them, all of which were only passed down through the emperors alone.
The texts were so ancient, that the Emperor was sure that only a handful of people would even remember this one event from over 500 years ago.
He himself found it hard to recall as it was a text that was written in passing, and what was written was nothing more than a legend to most people.
As the impossibility of such an event was simply apparent.
But, just because he knew something was impossible, didn't mean it was. For his knowledge could be lacking which made him think something was impossible.
He remained close-eyed for a while remembering the exact information on the texts he had read, making sure that he wasn't wrong. When he opened it, his son had already come back and was sitting next to him, waiting for him to open his eyes.
"I have spoken to the committee," he started delivering the information. "They have agreed to change the location of the remaining battles. After a brief meeting amongst themselves, they will go and create a temporary arena behind us."
"They claim that it will not take longer than 2 hours," the crown prince said. "We will have to wait until then for them to continue. Are you okay with this?"
"I am," the Emperor said. "But Damien, the competition no longer holds much importance to us."
The crown prince frowned a little. "What do you mean by that, Father?" he asked. "Don't you want to see Allen and Alena do well in the competition? Allen is guaranteed to go into the Top 4, and Alena will go there too. Then they shouldn't have much trouble moving onto the—"
"Allen and Alena have done well, but it matters not at the moment. Our priorities have changed. We much now consider how we are going to act."
The crown prince was very puzzled as his father was speaking only to him. "What is going on, Father?" he asked, looking at the pillar. "Is it the young man?"
"No, it is his sword," the Emperor said.
"His sword?" the crown prince asked. He could understand being interested in such a good sword, but… his father seemed more than just interested.
He seemed… hungry.
"What exactly is going on?" he asked.
"You will read of a legend when you become the Emperor," the Emperor spoke. "The legend speaks of the past, of the world over 500 years ago when there used to be 4 continents in this world, not three."
"Along with Glacien, Blueflame, and Springwind, there used to be another continent called the Stonefall continent."
"However, one day, the continent vanished and what was left behind was pieces of it, that came to be known as the Sunken Lands," the Emperor said. "Only a few people truly knew what had happened."
The crown prince got curious. "What happened?" he asked.
The Emperor looked at the pillar. "Conversion," he said. "They say the majority of the continent was converted, turned into a conduit. A conduit that had since been lost to the world."
"However, now it has surfaced, and we have to make it ours."
"We have to get the conduit that is dubbed the name the Continental Sword."
