"Minos Stuart?" Each of those people repeated those words in shock, mouths open, completely surprised that this regional enemy was in this very place.
As far as they knew, despite his advantage against the regional leaders, the war on the Black Plain was not at all easy for Minos' side.
Because of this, each of them had been in shock that this person would appear right in front of them, inside their headquarters, thousands of kilometers away from that warring territory.
'What is this person doing here?' Wilfred wondered as he felt a shiver run down his back, seeing how Minos watched him.
Gulp!
On the other hand, the queen was a few thoughts ahead of the people in that place. 'How did he get in here? I know he has the power to destroy our defenses, but nothing like this could have happened!' She pondered this, nervously looking at Minos.
And while the other women and the royal guards had different concerns about Minos, Charles' mother was furious!
Upon noticing Minos' arrival, she immediately realized that her son's misfortune could only be young Stuart's responsibility. And upon noticing how arrogant such sovereign's words were, she could not help but tremble in anger.
However, that woman was smart enough not to act carelessly. So, she did not act against him immediately while looking for any opening in his defenses.
He had crippled her son, and this woman could not let Minos escape from this place unharmed!
Finally, as silence permeated that area of the king's residence, Minos began to make his new round of threats.
"Well, today, I am here to change the order of things in the Kingdom of the Waves. To begin..." He paused briefly and then looked at those two royal guards.
Infinite Dream!
Puff!
In the blink of an eye, two dead bodies fell to the ground as everyone there watched this in awe, feeling how surreal it all was.
Gulp!
'What the fuck is that?'
'He killed them?'
'Damn it!'
'We're dead!'
"Why did you do that? We didn't even do anything!" One of those widows said that in fear.
But Minos did not bother to answer that person. Instead, he merely continued with what he was doing here. He said. "Well, to begin with, I will eliminate the old command of House Walker so that the new generation will have the freedom to act and make the best decisions."
"With a few exceptions, I will eliminate all the Spiritual Kings of this family who are above level 56."
After saying that, he quickly disappeared from that place, leaving each of those people even more worried, not understanding what was happening and how he would act next.
If he was going to kill everyone, then why not just do it?
That is, these people wanted to live. But against someone like Minos, who they had no hope of beating, it was better that he simply did what he had in mind.
At least they would not have to suffer in anticipation.
But as he spoke, he had simply vanished out of thin air, leaving them even tenser than before.
"You, when he..." The queen was about to say something, but then young Stuart reappeared in that same spot, only this time with some unconscious bodies with him.
He then continued his presentation while raising the youngest of those individuals by the neck. "I gave this guy an ultimatum a few hours ago, and he accepted it..."
He then looked at Wilfred and said. "I am here to offer the same to you."
"I don't care how you guys do it, but the new king will have to get the troops of this state out of the Black Plain..."
"Just to be clear, this must happen immediately after King Walker's funeral!"
"Then you will become my subordinates for the next thousand years."
"What?" Charles' mother shouted in anger, sensing that Minos' conversation was going down a very troubling path.
"If you don't do this, I will do what I promised Blake..."
"I will kill every one of you and end the Walker family story right here and now!" He said coldly, looking mainly at Wilfred and that man's mother, who was the strongest person there.
And every single person in that place felt that this would happen if they refused to obey young Stuart.
Gulp!
"Do you think..." Wilfred was about to say something, but suddenly his mother stopped him.
"Wilfred, be silent for a moment!" She said aloud while cautiously watching Minos.
'It doesn't matter what we do later, but right now, we definitely can't stand against him!'
'Otherwise, we will all die!'
She then asked. "So, if we accept that, what will you do with the rest of us? You said you were going to kill all the high-level Spiritual Kings, but three of us are within that range of power... Will you kill us too?"
Wilfred then looked at Minos in awe, feeling that he might lose his old mother. "Minos, you..."
"Well, I can make some exceptions..." Minos replied calmly, already with his sword in his right hand.
Hearing that, Wilfred's mother felt better, thinking there might be a way out for them. 'Then I will just agree to this nonsense!'
'As for such absurdity, we will never do that!'
But the queen's relief did not last long. "But those I don't kill today will have to become my hostages until our agreement is formalized."
"What?" She said in shock, feeling her plans going down the drain.
As for the other women there, they already had their hands in their mouths as tears trickled down their eyes, fearing the cunning future they might have at the hands of this monster.
However, Charles' mother was not pleased with all this talk, feeling that Minos was not considering her son in these plans.
"If you wanted to make these demands, why did you do this to my Charles? Couldn't he eventually do the same thing that his brothers will be able to do for you?"
"Why did you cripple him?" She shouted at Minos, leaving Charles on the ground, and stood up to argue against that enemy.
"Charles will die by the Puller in a public execution in Dry City." He coldly said as he looked into that woman's eyes.
Minos knew it was cruel to tell a mother that her son would die. Even more so, considering that death by the Puller was simply terrible. But this young ruler had no compassion for his enemies.
That was particularly true to this woman, who was part of the Collins family, an organization that had entered the Black Plain's war of independence even before the rest of this state's organizations.
So, he did not care about this woman's suffering.
She was his enemy, the daughter of an organization that had been acting against him for years. That woman was a member of a royal family that was acting against the Black Plain and was the mother of the scoundrel who had tried to kill Abby.
Hell, he only had not acted against her yet because this woman's level was not high enough to affect him. But if she wanted to go to the afterlife along with Charles, he would not mind.
Consequently, he had said that while looking deep into her eyes without feeling any pity.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
And while those people looked at Charles' mother in pity and this young man felt hopeless, that woman screamed in anger and jumped toward Minos, ready to attack him with everything.
'Do you think I will allow you to kill my son?' She thought about it red with rage, maddened by everything Minos had just said.
She was weak. She knew that. But what else could she do? Accept the enemy taking her only son to kill him? For what? Just so she could live in peace?
No, that was unacceptable!
If the enemy wanted to kill Charles, she would do everything she could to increase, even minimally, her son's chances of survival!
And as such, she had jumped against Minos, trying to reach the young man's neck, hoping that a miracle would happen.
Swooish!
Puff!
However, there is no such thing as too little misfortune!
If she thought the current situation was dire, everything had gotten worse when the dark red blade of Minos' sword sliced through the air. At that moment, such a sword passed through something soft and then became stained with a red liquid, which was a little darker than the blade itself.
At that instant, while crying like a child, Charles saw his mother beheaded by young Stuart's sword!
Such a thing had happened so fast that no one there had seen his movement, only a red-flesh passing at the height of that woman's neck.
After that, that widow's head separated from the rest of her body, spinning a few times in the air, finally falling to the ground, rolling until it stopped right in front of Charles.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
...