36. True Times

Inside the underground chamber of the castle. In a room with a round table. There gathered the 7 Kings that have yet to have either betrayed nor died.

And outside the round table lies a throne taller than a person.

The room was filled with silence as the 7 remaining Kings waited for the arrival of a certain someone.

After a few minutes of silence the room that was bleak and quiet was shaken by just the presence of one man.

The Emperor.

As he slowly walked to his throne all the 7 Kings stood up. They then all faced the Emperor. And when the emperor sat down on his chair they all bowed.

This entire ordeal was to show respect to the Emperor. But at that moment the 7 Kings had to realize that the Emperor was not in the right move to be playing such commodities.

All of the 7 Kings then immediately sat down on their chairs and then the Emperor talked.

"Hiral! How did you lose Iruka?"

Just the mere words spoken by the emperor gave shivers down everyone's spine. And slowly but surely the entire room was being filled with the Emperor's Aura heavier than carrying a castle for 5 years.

"My mistake, liege. The Cult halted any information to flow from my entire organization."

"...". The Emperor's eyes pierced the body of the 7th King even when he was still looking at the ground as he kneeled.

The Emperor was clearly not happy to hear apologies.

"The 9th King changes locations in for some quiet times and the Cult took advantage of it by blocking the information in where he was."

"...". The Emperor's gaze just got sharper. The 9th King was stretching this conversation for way too long.

He had to finish the entire conversation in the next line.

"But do not worry, we had tracked down the culprit and had already sent Marhatu."

The 7th King sat down on his chair.

"Who told you, we were done."

The 1st King immediately beheaded the 7th King no one in the room could even react before he was entirely dead.

"Kuruta!"

"Yes my liege." Kuruta immediately stood up and kneeled in front of the Emperor.

"Order Marhatu to come back. Go and kill him yourself. Now." The Emperor never jokes around nor uses such metaphors.

Kuruta knew that he had to go instantly. He went out of the room as fast as possible.

But that entire thing was obviously planned.

"Today, I will establish the 5 Kings. All of you that are left, settle the rankings yourself.". The Emperor showed dominance in his words, but it was obviously not something they could be assured at.

The Emperor always had a weird thing about hin after that. But it was probably nothing.

The meeting ended and the emperor left, leaving only the 5 Kings.

8th King Harmid

6th King Melevon

5th King Meryata

2nd King Shon

1st King Puppet

"Fuck shit that was fucking hard!" 3rd King, Meryata, The Blind Queen

"What the fuck did you expect, Iruka died! Iruka?!" 5th King, Harmid, The King of The Sword.

"Uwahhhh". She sighed. "Come one, is none of you even going to talk. Shon?"

"They will never talk, what do you expect from this fucking brainless fucks."

"Said by the one obsessed with a sword. I'm going." 4th King, Melevon, the King of Intelligence.

"Fine! Go! We will have a party here bitch!" Yelled by the 5th King.

Melevon stood from his chair and walked way towards the door. Then the 2nd King exited with him.

"Now we are stuck with a brain dead puppet." Claimed by Meryata.

On the seat of the first King lays the 1st King. An entire puppet that was actually a thrown garbage that has found its way to this ranking.

The puppet was white and looked like a real mannequin. It was not moving and looked more like it was just placed on the chair as a design.

But do not be fooled by its appearance. As it has literally killed the previous 7th King with no effort at all.

"Wanna drink?"

"Yeah fine, goodbye dead king."

The two other King's left the room leaving the only thing inside was the maequin which is placed as the 1st King of the 5 Kings. And the strongest being ever.

As light faded away from the room and even the last amount of frequency from the air. The room was left all closed and fully dark.

And all that was left was a creepy mannequin in the middle of the room.

***

[You Could Use The Guardian Voucher]

"Whoah what the fuck! Does this mean...?". Arthur has previously gained such a voucher from the gacha boxes he has previously acquired and opened.

It used to not work or even do anything. It didn't matter what you did to it, it never activated nor changed.

But now at the death of the 9th King and even on top of its dead body stood the voucher.

It could only mean one thing. The sole reason the voucher never worked in the first place was that a suitable vessel needed to be a "Guardian".

And the 9th King was certainly it.

Arthur didn't even hesitate nor had any thoughts like what he would do if the 9th King wouldn't actually be obedient. Or does the 9th King that will be turned into a guardian still have a soul.

Could he act on his own? Does he need any knowledge that Arthur needed to teach. Is it truly the right decision to use such a voucher on the 9th King.

But Arthur didn't think about any of this and just straight up did it.

[Iruka Is Now One Of Your Guardian]

A spul from the dead body came out and formed a particular and stabalized stracture.

It was like an entire shodow ninja that has it's own skin fading and holes through out it's body that you can see through. And actually just an entire transparent body.

When the soul took proper and final shape, it then kneeled in front of Arthur.

With a new subordinate, he really didn't know what to do. Nor what to even explain to Clari when he gets down.

But there was no need for such a thing.

The guardian took Arthur's intent seriously and went back inside him.

Now no one will even see such a horrifying creature walking around everyday.

Arthur spared the testing for later and wanted to go down first and talk with Clari. After that he shall go and try this new guardian he has gotten.

Though to be honest with you, the only reason he wanted to go down was because he wanted to hear Clari praise him.

"No..."

Arthur went down the waterfall by jumping down.

"You actually did it..."

"Told you..."

"...". Arthur stared at Clari with bright eyes.

Clari was just staring at Arthur and was starting to get confused as Arthur was just left their silent like he was waiting for Clari to do something.

Clari tilted her head hinting to answer why he was so quiet. But Arthur just stayed and looked at her. Staring with his eyes that was to feel weird.

Clari was starting to feel uncomfortable, but it wasn't truly uncomfortable feeling from his staring. But rather the feeling of missing out on something cause of her lack of knowledge.

Then there was only one thing that entered Clari's head... 'Does he want that... but I never do it first...'

It wasn't what Arthur wanted. But in the end that is what he got rather than a compliment.

After that entire ordeal Arthur went back with Clari to the underground hide out to report back to Kraul.

But their journey would not be easy...

"Yeah I'm not dealing with this right now."

It was totally an enemy not because he just remembered they were lost in the forest.

Arthur went back to the plains to test out this new guardian he got.

Arthur summoned back the guardian by just thinking about it. Well that is the principle for every skill he has ever gotten, just felt right to explain it now.

The guardian resembled the 9th King in 0 ways at all. The 9th king was thin but had a real perfect body proportions that you can even call him a frail doll. Unlike what he truly was.

But the guardian was not like that at all. It was just a shadow figure that was as tall as him. He was now starting to wonder if the soul of 9th King was what was really needed to activate the guardian voucher or was there any other actual reason.

But in reality there was no reason to think about it, all that was important was to test the guardians capabilities.

So then it is time to tell you about Arthur for a little bit. So give me your time. Arthur, despite winning a battle against one of 9 Kings. I think one thing should be revealed, Arthur wasn't stronger than the 9th King.

He just had his own persistence that allowed him to kill the 9th King.

In a real 1 try fight, Arthur would never ever win.

So now that you understand that, what do you think will happen when a guardian supposedly having the soul of the 9th King was to have a test fight with Arthur.

"Ok... that was humiliating."