"What happened after that?" Emperor Amon asked.
"We fought," Gregorio said. "I used some of my Spells, and she used her Abominable State."
The Emperors listened attentively.
The next part should be what caused all of this damage.
"Naturally, I couldn't win against Kali with my normal Spells," Gregorio said. "Which was why I was using something else."
SHING!
The black booklet from earlier appeared in front of Gregorio, and he took hold of it.
The Emperors noticed that the booklet was quite strange.
It was like the booklet didn't belong to this world.
"What is this?" Emperor Brutus asked.
"The reason why Lucius kept saying that I am the strongest among us."
Emperor Amon furrowed his brows.
"A couple of you guys used Abominations as references to further your own power," Gregorio said.
"I'm not like that."
"Instead of using Abominations as references, I used Lucius."
"I was Lucius' second-in-command because I learned part of his Anti Magic."
The eyes of the Emperors widened in shock.
Gregorio managed to partially learn Anti Magic?!
Anti Magic had been the very reason why Lucius had been so powerful!
Somehow, Lucius had managed to partially comprehend the power of the Abominations and transform it into a kind of Magic.
This kind of Magic could exhibit the power of the Abominations, but there was one key difference.
Using Anti Magic didn't destroy the Mana of the world.
Lucius could partially use the Abominations' power without having to destroy the world!
Yet, no one else could comprehend it.
The way the Magic worked was too alien and strange.
It didn't follow any sort of concept, and there was seemingly no logic behind it.
Because of that, Lucius was seen as special.
Some people believed that Lucius was the chosen one.
He would be the one that would finally rid the world of the Abominations!
Yet, even more people believed that Lucius had accessed forbidden powers and that he represented the end of the world.
No one was allowed to know how the Abominations worked!
The Abominations were the enemy, and their powers were forbidden!
No one other than Lucius managed to use Anti Magic.
Until today.
"Since when?" Jenny asked in shock.
"I managed to comprehend a bit of it in the True Mage Realm," Gregorio said. "Lucius saw that I could cast and learn Anti Magic, and when he did, he grew very worried for me."
"He saw how many people wanted to kill him for his Anti Magic, and he didn't want me to share his fate. That's why he wanted me to promise to never tell anyone and to keep this a secret."
"Whenever we have split apart and had to battle different enemies, I always took the most threatening target and acted like I've won due to sheer luck."
"In truth, I simply used Anti Magic," Gregorio said.
Then, Gregorio looked at the booklet. "Naturally, I'm not nearly as gifted in Anti Magic as Lucius. Because of that, I have to sacrifice Mana in order to use it."
"Like an Abomination," Gregorio added with a cold voice.
The other Emperors were silent.
Gregorio looked back at them. "That's why I only used it when absolutely necessary. Every time I use it, a part of Aterium gets destroyed."
"Like today."
"I used the Mana of the two dead Mage Kings as fuel for my Anti Magic to kill Kali."
The Emperors looked at Kali.
And then, they looked at the sphere in her hands.
They knew what this sphere represented.
"I had my powers under control," Gregorio said. "At most, the Judgment Palace and about 100,000 kilometers would have been destroyed by my attack."
Gregorio took a deep breath and sighed.
"But Adam intervened," he said, looking at the sphere. Gregorio didn't truly consider Adam his friend anymore after he had cut off basically all contact with him, but seeing Adam dead still made Gregorio feel sad and regretful.
Especially since Gregorio had killed him.
"Adam sacrificed part of his Mana to divert the attack and put the remainder of his Mana into the Inheritor Sphere. He knew that the Anti Magic would severely damage his soul, which would rob him of his power and his mind."
"Instead, he decided to sacrifice himself and countless beings to save his wife and give his son a chance to become a Mage Emperor."
"Kali was supposed to die, but instead, Adam and a big part of Aterium were destroyed."
"That's what happened," Gregorio said.
The Emperors had different reactions.
Yes, Gregorio had deleted several Mage Kings' worth of Mana from Aterium.
However, Gregorio originally only intended to kill Kali.
And Kali had most likely been the original aggressor since she had killed Gregorio's Mage King.
Adam was the reason why such a huge part of the world had been destroyed.
Kali was at fault for killing a Mage King.
Gregorio was at fault for killing two Mage Kings and using Anti Magic.
Adam was at fault for diverting the power to Aterium.
Everyone was at fault.
However, there were also degrees of severity.
Who was more at fault?
What should be done to stop something like this from happening again in the future?
In the end, the Emperors all looked at Gregorio.
Even though Kali might have killed a Mage King, Gregorio had killed two, had deleted their Mana, killed Adam, and had deleted even more Mana from Aterium.
By using Anti Magic, he had caused more damage than an Abomination King.
His guilt was the heaviest.
The death of a Mage Emperor hadn't happened since Lucius had still been in the world.
This was the worst thing that had happened in the last 300,000 years.
The different Emperors communicated with each other about how to handle the situation.
They decided to forgive Kali. Two of her Mage Kings and Adam had died.
That was punishment enough.
And then, they decided on what to do with Gregorio.
"Gregorio," Emperor Brutus Cesar said with an authoritative voice.
"We have come to a consensus on what will happen now."
Gregorio didn't react.
"One Emperor already died today, and we don't want there to be two."
"Kali will be forgiven since she has already paid enough for her misdeeds."
"Due to your actions of destroying a big part of Aterium permanently, you will be stripped of your tomes. You will be put in an isolated cell, but you will still be allowed to communicate with the outside and run your Empire."
"We don't want the public to fall into a panic or a war to break out. Everything will appear like nothing had happened."
"But for the remainder of your natural life, you are not allowed to antagonize others or leave your cell."
"One day, we might forgive you and lift the punishment."
"But for now, this is how it will be."
"Please hand over your tomes and your Focus if you have one. We don't want more of the world to be destroyed," Emperor Brutus Cesar spoke authoritatively.
Gregorio glanced at the other Emperors, who had subtly summoned their weapons.
Gregorio might be powerful, but he couldn't fight seven Emperors at the same time.
Surprisingly, Gregorio didn't seem to show any strong reactions.
He only spoke one word.
"No."
