"Darian?" the old man asked with a hint of surprise on his face. "How… why are you here?"
"To kill you, of course," Darian answered.
Jason was about to attack, but the old man stopped him. "Don't, he's too strong for you. I will deal with him. You deal with the emperor," he said.
Jason nodded and turned around.
"I should have expected you would come. You truly are desperate for my death, aren't you?" the old man frowned as he spoke.
"If you thought you could go on with this little world domination of yours without me intervening, then you must be quite stupid," Darian said.
"No, I knew you would do it. I was just prepared for your arrival," the old man said and immediately attacked Darian.
A wave of Aether flowed out of him and towards Darian, but before it could enter Darian's body, Darian himself flooded his body with his own Aether and enforced it at the same time.
"You really want to start something in the heart of the empire?" Darian asked with a cold smile.
"Very well, let us take this fight outside," the old man said and opened a portal.
Darian enforced the open portal and entered it. When he reappeared, he was in the same location just a long way up in the sky.
A second later, the old man walked through as well.
"We can start our fight now," the old man said. "Since you are my only enemy left, I can't wait to see you die."
* * * * *
Merasi slammed her gauntlet-covered fist onto Tristan's chest. Tristan tried to use any methods he could to pull the gauntlet aside, but Merasi's physical strength was just too strong and it ended up hitting him.
He felt his ribs crack with the force of the attack. As he flew backward, he immediately spun around and forced open 6 tiny portals all around Merasi that threatened to pull her.
Merasi didn't even look towards the portals as she closed them with a flick of her fingers.
"You might be a supreme Tristan, but the battle experience different between us is a chasm that you will never cross," Merasi said.
"Experience isn't everything," Tristan said. "You need intellect to be great at fighting too. That's something a muscle-brained idiot like you will never understand," Tristan said with slight strain to his voice.
He was already in pain and was even hurting just to speak.
"Are you calling me an idiot?" Merasi got angry and went for the next attack.
* * * * *
The tension between Emperor Kain's group and Merilyn Champer's group was continuously getting stronger and stronger.
Kain wouldn't be surprised if either side decided to attack each other at any moment.
Suddenly, a couple of footsteps rang from the hallway and two figures entered the room.
Princess Elizabeth and her husband Reever entered the hall.
"Father, what is going on?" Lisa asked the Emperor.
"Child, what are you doing here? Take your husband and go," he said.
"Sister, move away," Gilian shouted towards her, but Lisa didn't run away, instead she went toward his father.
"Are you really here to take over the empire?" Reever asked from the side as he eyed the group of people that were there.
"Go away kid, this is not a place for you to speak," one of the men there said.
"I had quite a bit of respect towards the tower and even wanted to join you guys," Reever said. "But it seemed that he was right. You are some of the most terrible people in this world."
"Shut up or we will shut you up ourselves," one of the men was irritated and spoke.
"Do it then, you bastard," Reever said.
Kain couldn't understand what Reever was trying to do. However, he could see the man from the tower's group preparing to attack.
'This is it,' the emperor thought.
"Attack!" he immediately ordered and people appeared out of nowhere and charged at the group with their spears.
At the same time, the irritated member of the tower attacked Reever. A gun appeared in his hand which he pointed at Reever.
Before he could shoot, however, Reever dashed forward. He appeared next to the man and punched him directly in the chest, sending him flying in the distance.
Out of nowhere, Fiona appeared in the middle of the room and shot another man at close range. However, he seemed to have enforced his body so the bullet didn't pierce entirely.
At that time, Jamie jumped down from the ceiling and slashed both of his two swords at the man. The swords clanged when they hit, but they clearly did some damage as the man started bleeding.
"Emperor Kain, stop your men or we will attack you!" Merilyn shouted even as she created a metal shield to protect herself. As an Invoker, she couldn't simply enforce her body even if she could flood it with Aether.
"We are way beyond that, tower head," Kain said with a dark expression. He didn't see any chances of victory, and even his life was on the line, but he would rather fight his way through this calamity just like his father did, and come out as a hero.
Kain himself was only an Aether Magister, so he couldn't survive if someone attacked him here. With all of his guards gone to fight, any stray attack could harm them.
"Gil, Liz, hide behind me," he ordered his two children.
Gilian hesitated for a few moments but he was clearly weaker than his father, so he agreed. But, Lisa stood her ground.
"Liz, come qui—"
Before he could finish his sentence, an expert from the tower jumped out toward them.
He held a metal staff in his hands and swung it at Lisa. However, just as the staff was about to hit her, it stopped mere inches away from her.
"—ckly!" the Emperor froze. In front of his daughter was a golden barrier that appeared out of nowhere and was protecting her.
Lisa stood next to her father to get a better vantage point as she said, "Don't worry, father. I won't let any of them hurt you."
