Chapter 186: The Oscar Winning Performance!

Chapter 186: The Oscar Winning Performance!

"Please don't kill me! I have a family! My six-year-old Kaelrian daughter is still in school! I've served this Kaelrian base with all my soul. My wife just put to bed... Please, spare me..."

Seria's desperate voice cracked under the weight of his pleas. Seria happens to be the name of the cobalt armored guard that Bandel Blue had asked for information, and after he had messed up and realized who Bandel Blue was, he couldn't hold back his rambling lips. His cobalt armor clinked faintly as he trembled, knees buckling before Bandel Blue.

The Kaelrian lesser god stood tall, his vibrant blue gaze colder than the distant stars. He studied Seria, unimpressed by the spectacle. All Bandel Blue needed was one piece of information: Where had Tessa been taken?

He could have effortlessly tracked her down using his powers, but exhaustion gnawed at him. Days of relentless pursuit had strained his abilities, leaving him craving a simpler solution—ask for directions and follow. Yet here he was, face-to-face with a rambling coward.

Bandel sighed, the sound low and exasperated. Without a word, he turned to another cobalt warrior nearby, one who looked marginally more composed. "Which way was she carried to?" His tone was sharp, leaving no room for hesitation.

"She is conscious now. They took her to the Sun Temple, east of here—"

Before the warrior could finish, Bandel Blue vanished in a blur, his speed leaving a faint gust in his wake.

Seria was still on his knees, oblivious to Bandel's absence. "My six-year-old daughter can draw. Please, spare me!"

A loud smack landed on the back of his head, jolting him to silence.

"Shut up, idiot. He's gone already," Hugo, one of his fellow warriors, spat in irritation. "You're spineless! And to think you were strutting around earlier like you owned the godamm city. What a joke."

"Ohoooo, burn!" another guard chimed in, barely suppressing his laughter.

"Seria's always been this way," a third added. "He only acts tough until trouble comes knocking. What a spineless chicken"

The guards laughed, their jeers bouncing off the cold stone walls.

But Seria didn't respond. He rose slowly, brushing off the dirt from his armor with surprising composure.

"Mock me if you will," he said quietly, his voice steadier than before. "But I'd rather be humiliated and alive than arrogant and dead."

The laughter ceased, leaving an awkward silence in its place. Without looking back, Seria walked away, his footsteps deliberate.

Somewhere deep inside, shame still simmered, but it was outweighed by a flicker of resolve. His cowardice had given him another chance at life, and he vowed to never waste it.

From now on, Seria would measure his words and actions, no longer a man who mocked strangers, especially ones who could crush him with a glance. He will make sure to know their identity first before he knows the approach to take.

————

The Sun Temple, a sprawling monument of golden spires and endless stairs, glimmered under the oppressive blaze of Solaris' gaze.

Within the sun temple, a Kaelrian sun temple representative, Temple Priest Dzek, stood before an oversized idol of the sun god, his crimson robe flowing as though stirred by divine winds (or perhaps just the temple's concealed air vents).

The six rings on his fingers caught the sunlight, momentarily blinding one unfortunate servant who yelped and dropped a smoking urn.

Dzek was dressed in a flowing red robe, with three beaded chains on his neck, six rings on his fingers, and different white incisions on his head and hands. He stood with his arms raised to the sky as incense rose.

The white ceremonial incisions on his head and hands gleamed like ancient runes, marking him as a man not to be trifled with—unless you wanted a curse to follow you home.

Incense coiled lazily upwards, creating an atmosphere of spiritual serenity, but all that shattered when a cacophony of clinking jewelry and squabbling voices signaled an unholy procession climbing the stairs. Dzek paused mid-chant, his arms still raised, and slowly turned his head like an owl on caffeine.

Marching into the sacred hall was none other than King Rhopgin, resplendent in his gaudy attire that screamed, "I have power and a questionable sense of fashion!" Flanking him were six sulking princes, a trail of whispering nobles, and palace attendants trying not to faint from the heat.

In their midst, unbothered and unimpressed, was Tessa—whose calm expression only made the nobles whisper louder. "Is that the killer?" one murmured. "Her? She looks like she's here to water her plants, not spill blood," another whispered back.

The sun temple rarely gets such a crowd unless it was twice in a year, when everyone has to make an appearance to honor Solaris, or on special occasions when a temple representative was to be selected.

Dzek, a man who had seen his fair share of dramatic entrances, immediately suspected nonsense.

"Lord Rhopgin," he greeted, his voice a mix of reverence and annoyance. "What brings you to the sacred grounds? And… with such a crowd?" His eyes briefly darted to Tessa, who was the only one not pretending to gasp for air like they'd just climbed Mount Solaris.

King Rhopgin strutted forward, chest puffed like a rooster who'd just scared off a fox. "Temple Priest Dzek," he began with a heavy sigh, the kind meant to make everyone feel sorry for him. "I deeply regret disturbing your sacred duties, but I have come in need of your help with a matter so grave that it chills my very soul."

As King Rhopgin spoke, Dzek, the sun temple representative, adjusted his stance as he got really curious.

What kind of help, would he need to render to such an highly ranked individual, who was not only a lesser god but the king of the entire base 137 no less. He wondered in his heart but kept listening, allowing King Rhopgin to continue speaking.

Rhopgin paused dramatically, looking around the temple as if he were about to drop the plot twist of the century. "A woman," he began, pointing a trembling finger at Tessa. "A vile, unholy creature appeared in my son's palace—and killed him!"

The temple erupted in gasps louder than a Kaelrian carnival. Even the incense seemed to recoil in shock.

King Rhopgin's opening line, kept the entire sun temple servants stunned. They all turned to look at Tessa, they didn't know that King Rhopgin had left out a few details, even the six princes behind him knew that this wasn't exactly the case.

"What a sly old bastard…" he muttered, just loud enough for his brothers to hear. They stifled smirks, knowing their father's penchant for spinning fiction into public spectacles.

Tessa, on the other hand, remained as still as a marble statue, her expression carved into a masterpiece of disinterest. The drama unfolding around her seemed as distant as a poorly staged play in an alien language. But beneath her calm exterior, her mind raced, calculating how to survive this circus and somehow return to Earth.

King Rhopgin, emboldened by the growing tension in the room, continued his theatrical performance. "When I arrived, after his death alarm sounded," he began, his voice quivering with feigned indignation, "I was furious! Naturally, I commanded the guards to apprehend her, but what did she do? She went on a killing spree! Slaughtered every single guard who dared to approach her!"

The murmurs in the temple reached a fever pitch. Nobles who had witnessed the incident firsthand struggled to maintain straight faces. Some stared at their feet, others into the flickering flames of the temple torches, their expressions screaming, He's at it again. One particularly bold noblewoman coughed, suspiciously resembling a stifled laugh.

Unfazed by the absurdity of his tale, King Rhopgin raised a dramatic hand. "And then—brace yourselves for this—she declared herself the daughter of Lord Solaris! She claimed she could obliterate every single soul in this temple if she so wished!" He paused for effect, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "And so, I have come to request the Sun Temple summon Lord Solaris, if it's not too much trouble, of course."

The room fell silent, save for the distant crackle of flames and Derek's deadpan comment: "Oscar-winning performance. Truly."

Even the high priest, a figure of stoic reverence, pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a prayer for patience. It wasn't every day the Sun Temple played host to a pathological liar with the ego of a collapsing star.

Meanwhile, Tessa's indifference was an art form. She stood unmoved, her mind far away from Rhopgin's circus of deceit. She didn't care about his lies, his theatrics, or his audience's gullibility. Her sole focus was on finding a way to reunite with her people back on Earth and make sense of how she had ended up entangled with a king whose moral compass spun like a broken clock.

As the echoes of Rhopgin's ridiculous claims settled, the high priest finally spoke, his voice cutting through the charged air. "King Rhopgin, your allegations are... ambitious, to say the least. Summoning Lord Solaris is no trivial matter. If your claims prove false, the consequences will be grave."

For the first time, a flicker of unease passed over Rhopgin's face, but he quickly masked it with another wave of self-righteous fury. Tessa's lips twitched—was that almost a smirk? She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of reacting, but she couldn't help but find a shred of amusement in the possibility of Rhopgin's lies unraveling in spectacular fashion.