Chapter 848: Poison of Divinity

Chapter 848: Chapter 848: Poison of Divinity

Ethan lowered his head, hushing the nightmare’s rumble behind him as the amethyst embedded in his skin dimmed its glow.

"What do you suggest then, Crul?" asked Ethan in a low tone. "Should I let them murder my family?"

[No, Master, I didn’t say you shouldn’t do what you are planning], answered Crul, adjusting its display metrics. [I merely said no innocents. Didn’t you notice how your realm advanced during this campaign? You just have to devour them all. If we march toward the Capital, there will be far more to devour without touching the civilian population.]

Ethan formed a smirk, tightening his grip on the hilt of the Black Chaos Sword.

"You’re right, let’s go," said Ethan, locking his gaze onto the horizon. "Since everything has reached this point... I don’t need to hold back anymore, right?"

[As long as no witnesses remain... I suppose not], the synthetic voice concluded.

While Ethan plotted his armada’s advance toward the heart of the enemy empire, chaos reigned within the Capital of the Divine Wind Empire.

Inside the royal chamber of the citadel, the Divine Wind Emperor lay upon a jade bed, thrashing in convulsions. The rare healing potions and restoration spells did nothing to ease his agony. The chest wounds, inflicted by the Golden Dragon Emperor during their border clash, continued to erode his flesh and meridians, leaving him at the precipice of death.

"Useless! You incompetent pieces of trash!" roared the crown prince.

Beside the bed, the lifeless bodies of two healers lay sprawled across the marble floor, decapitated in a fit of the prince’s rage. Now, the head of the imperial healers trembled on his knees before the heir’s blood-stained blade.

"Your Highness... please...", pleaded the old man in a shaking voice. "We can do nothing for your father..."

The prince stepped forward, seized the old man by the throat, and hoisted him off the floor, screaming inches from his face:

"How dare you say that?! My father has maintained you like kings for decades, and now that he needs you, that is all you have to say?! You had better do something, or you will not leave this room alive!"

"Your Highness may execute me if you wish...", wheezed the old man, his face turning red from suffocation. "That will not alter the fact that your father is beyond saving. You should locate whoever wounded him and demand they withdraw their energy..."

"Do you know who wounded him?!" hissed the prince, tightening his grip.

"No, Your Highness..."

"The Golden Dragon Emperor!" bellowed the prince, slamming the old man against the marble floor. "How do you expect me to ask him that?!"

The head healer coughed, clutching his bruised throat before responding in desperation:

"In that case... only someone possessing power comparable to his could assist His Majesty. Your father’s body is neither poisoned nor corroded by a curse; it is being destroyed by the trace of a superior entity. The Golden Dragon Emperor’s cultivation energy is clashing with His Majesty’s own. Being a higher and vastly purer realm, it is destroying him from within. If we do not find someone with an equivalent cultivation base capable of expelling that energy... there is nothing left for us to do."

The prince stood in the center of the chamber, shattered.

They had crafted a strategy over years. A spy embedded within the highest ranks, a secret alliance signed between the three neighboring empires... and yet that monster of the Golden Dragon had possessed the power to crush his father in seconds.

And now, with their army at the Pass of the Two Gorges wiped out by an unknown force and the Capital stripped of reinforcements, the empire was collapsing.

The Divine Wind Emperor opened his eyes, his gaze devoid of life. His skin, ash-gray and withered like dry bark, revealed collapsed veins beneath a sheen of sweat. Every breath was a whistle that made his ribs groan, while the enemy’s residual golden energy devoured the final spark of his spiritual core.

Suddenly, a spasm wracked his frame. The monarch coughed, vomiting a dark gush of blood across the silk sheets. With a hand cold as a corpse, he reached for his son’s sleeve, gripping it with what little strength remained in his body.

"My son...", whispered the emperor in a voice that was barely a rasping thread of air, so faint the prince had to bend low over his face to hear it. "There is... no time left. You need... to flee..."

"Father! Don’t say that, I’ll find someone, I’ll summon the secluded elders...", pleaded the prince, squeezing his father’s dying hand as tears streamed down his cheeks.

"There is... no one...", the emperor continued, pausing at every word as his eyelids grew heavy as lead. "The Golden Dragon Emperor... will hunt us down... unto death across all three empires... The bastard... survived the tribulation... Nothing... can... stop him..."

A death rattle shuddered through the monarch’s chest. His grip on the prince’s sleeve went slack, his head slumped to the side, and the spark of life within his eyes extinguished.

The prince broke into tears, weeping over his father’s body as his tears fell onto the jade bed. However, there was no time to grieve.

BOOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOOM!

A series of explosions shook the foundations of the citadel. Golden chandeliers detached from the ceiling, the marble floor cracked, and the capital’s runic alarms resonated with a shriek through every corner of the fortress.

The heavy doors of the royal chamber burst open, and a squad of guards clad in golden robes rushed into the room with faces covered in soot and blood.

"Your Highness, it is urgent!" shouted the guard captain, dropping to one knee in panic. "The Capital is being bombarded by an unknown enemy!"

The prince rose slowly, disoriented, his eyes bloodshot and his voice trembling.

"What are you saying?" stammered the prince, clenching his fists. "The Capital’s barrier is activated at maximum capacity... Why such a commotion?"

"Your Highness!" responded the guard, his voice cracking with terror. "The barrier... the barrier has fallen. It was shattered in a split second before we could even react!"

In that moment, the world collapsed upon the prince’s shoulders. His vision blurred, his pulse stopped, and all strength abandoned his legs. He fell to his knees onto the marble floor, staring into nothingness, his soul shattered as the explosions rocking the city announced the arrival of the nightmare.