"That… that sword is made up of a continent?" the Crown prince couldn't help but ask his father. He whispered the words, but no one was paying any attention to them anyway.
"About three-fourths of it. The Sunken lands is a result of what is remaining," the Emperor said.
"What about the people that lived there?" the crown prince asked.
"I don't know. The text doesn't speak about them. It just mentions that after the continent disappeared, someone appeared with the sword and showed it off to multiple emperors. That was how the records were made. "
"As I said, the record was made in passing, but what is written describes the sword perfectly."
"A heavy sword made up of continent. It looks like a barren, crusted desert, but is instead the many pieces of broken lands that were used to create it," the Emperor said. "If we can get our hands on the sword, we will have to fear no other continents. We can take over the rest of the region and rule this continent without a single worry or threat."
The crown prince gulped. "But father, I asked the young man about the sword. He refuses to sell it," he said.
"Did you give him a price?" the Emperor asked. "No, but I think he knows what it is worth now. He told me directly that even if you were to ask it, he wouldn't sell it to you."
"Then we won't buy," the Emperor said. "We will just take it from him, whether he likes it or not."
"That won't work," the prince said. "Even if we take away the sword, he would still own it. In the end, it would be his sword. Besides, unless he gives up the sword, it is too heavy for us to take it away."
"Fine," the Emperor said. "Then we will kill him if it comes to that."
The crown prince frowned. "What about taking him in, father? Bringing him into the family. Maybe have Alena marry him to bring him into the family so we can use him. Even without the sword, he is someone that can fight Essence Soul realm fighters with the Essence Manifestation realm. It takes miracles for someone like him to be born."
"No," the Emperor said without even taking the words into consideration. "I must own the sword. If I can't have it, no one can."
The Crown prince frowned. He wanted to explain to his father how his way was better, but of course, he wouldn't listen. His father never truly listened to him when it came to making important decisions.
Even the last time he had done something impulsive, Damien had been there to give him another way to solve the problem.
He had told his father that he would marry Mroden's daughter to connect the houses, so he wouldn't have to worry about them. If he married the young girl when she came of age, the problem that his father was worried about would not remain anymore.
However, his father had instead decided to take the matter into his own hand and that very night he had burned Mroden's entire family down. Even the girl he loved back then had been burned alive by his own father.
He couldn't bring himself to hate his own father back then, but… he had decided after that to not marry anyone else. He had wanted to hand down the throne to his brother, but his father had remained headstrong in making him the emperor.
He was most likely going to force him to marry a woman but he was sure he would refuse him when he did. Since that day 30 years ago, he had started seeing that his father wasn't the man he once thought he was.
Even so, his father was the Emperor. If he gave the order, he would have to follow it, or he would lose his head. Even if he opposed his father, he knew he was a coward at heart. He would follow any order he gave him if his father got serious.
"If I'm not wrong," the Emperor continued. "That kid doesn't know just how great of a sword he has on him."
The crown prince looked back up and toward the window. Staring at the giant pillar that remained outside, he doubted his father's words.
"I'm sure he knows he has something good. If he still didn't know that after creating such a massive pillar, I would call him an idiot," the crown prince chuckled a bit.
"No," the Emperor said. "If he knew what the sword could do, he would have used it by now."
Damien was confused. "But he just did, didn't he?" he asked.
The Emperor finally turned his head toward the prince. "What do you think a continent is? Is it just a giant landmass with nothing but rocks?" he asked.
"That…" the crown prince puzzled at the words.
"No," the Emperor continued. "A continent is more than just the land that forms it. It is the cliffs and valleys. It's the lakes and waterfalls. It river that flows through the land and the sand at the banks of it."
"It is the crystals, the metals, the lava, the wind. It is the light that falls on it, and it is the shadow that it holds."
"A continent is more than just one element. It is an amalgamation of everything that it holds. Wind, Earth, Water, Fire, Magma, Light, Shadow, Ice, Sand, Mud, Lightning, Crystals. Everything."
"The Continental Sword is one that allows someone to access most of the Essence that is available in this world. Only a few abstract ones like Space isn't available, but they rarely are."
"If you can get a hold of the Continental Sword, you will be a master of almost all the Elements. A true monarch of Essence," the Emperor said. "The Kid might know his sword is special, but I guarantee you he does not know of this."
"If he had the slightest inkling of how strong his sword was, he would have never shown it to the public," the Emperor said. "So, before he figures out the rest of the powers in the sword, we must get a hold of the sword."
"Even if we have to kill the kid to get it."
