Chapter 103 – The Holy Kingdom

As the words fell, the central square fell into silence, the tense atmosphere ready to explode at any moment.

Both commoners and nobles turned their gaze to the Emperor. Their eyes, which had once been filled with the reverence of subjects looking up to their ruler, now resembled those of dying people clutching at a glimmer of hope.

Their emotions were all guided by Bolan—Emperor, you are the Emperor. In your oath, you said that supreme power comes with immense responsibility, and you must protect your people with your life.

Their trust in the Imperial Family had reached an unprecedented height. It turned out that since the Founding Emperor, there had been such a noble mission, passed down to each new Emperor before their coronation: protecting the Empire with one’s life was not an empty phrase.

Unfortunately, at this moment, what they revered and were grateful for was the entire Imperial Family, the emblem of the Flaming Rose, not the recently crowned Emperor.

Noon was approaching, and the sunlight was blinding. It should have been a scorching day. But even if some were sweating under the intense sun, their anxiety turned it into cold sweat—including Sars Angel.

The nobles of Gregory’s faction opened their mouths but could not say anything.

They tried to absolve Gregory of this responsibility—the bloodline of Yucarius was not limited to him alone. The Second Prince also had the ability to activate the scroll.

Sars stood up and said, “I request that after the ceremony, the Senate and the Aristocratic Council discuss this matter together. Making a decision now is too rash. We cannot yet confirm the accuracy of the information provided by Prince Bolan.”

People’s eyes shifted back and forth between Gregory and Bolan.

They saw Prince Bolan silently looking up at the high platform. Under the scorching sun, his deep green eyes were filled with determination.

Suddenly, he knelt down.

—This single kneel carried the weight of a thousand pounds.

His figure was slender, but in people’s eyes, it was unshakable.

“But we don’t have time, Your Majesty.”

In the brief silence, two more people fainted—perhaps they had died. The Elemental Storm had already reached its peak of fury, and such deaths had likely occurred countless times across the vast expanse of the Empire.

“If you find it difficult to make a choice,” he said word by word, “then I am willing to activate ‘The Holy Kingdom’ in your place—the blood of the Flaming Rose flows through my veins as well.”

Sars’s eyes darkened.

Prince Bolan, you truly… truly are brilliant.

It was only at this moment that he fully realized how adeptly one could manipulate justice and the hearts of people with just a few words.

He said he was “willing to take your place,” but in reality, he was step by step forcing Gregory to make a choice.

With power comes responsibility. The Holy Kingdom was granted to the Emperor along with the scepter and the sword—this was witnessed by everyone during the coronation ceremony, a testament to the Founding Emperor’s expectations for his descendants. If this task were handed to Bolan, not only would the Emperor’s image among the commoners deteriorate to an unimaginable extent, but the old-fashioned members of the Senate, who clung to tradition and often quoted “Yucarius I said…,” would certainly be the first to oppose it—especially after Bolan’s statement.

Gregory on the high platform naturally understood all of this.

Haitie looked at him.

She knew Gregory was hesitating.

Why are you still hesitating at a time like this?—she thought of the three people on the viewing platform whose lives hung in the balance.

She saw the look exchanged between Gregory and Sars—it was definitely not the look of someone ready to face death.

She had finally understood something this morning—listening to the solemn oath and seeing the gazes of the commoners and nobles, she belatedly realized that she had been naive. The throne was not just a position; the Emperor was vastly different from the head of the Magic Association. He was not just the master of a palace but the ruler of the living people of this vast, boundless continent.

She also finally understood that the struggle between the Duke, Lin Wei, Bolan, and Gregory was not some elegant game of chess but a bloody battle.

This realization sent chills down her spine.

Daniel surveyed the crowd and finally understood everything.

“Bolan has done an excellent job. I should apologize for calling him a coward in my heart when I ordered the Duke to withdraw his troops,” he thought. “As for Gregory—ha, I’ve never seen anyone more deserving of their own downfall. Originally, it was supposed to be the old Emperor who sacrificed himself. Listening to Lin Wei’s account of what happened in the Death Swamp, the old Emperor had already guessed it when he received the news. After all, his life was nearing its end, and he wouldn’t mind activating The Holy Kingdom one last time. However, the Crown Prince was in a hurry to ascend to the throne smoothly and, by some means, ended his father’s life prematurely—perhaps with the involvement of the Goddess of Light. But he never expected it to come to this!”

He couldn’t help but glance at the sky, toward the direction of the Floating Sky Capital. He wondered if that woman knew what was happening now—or if she had been delayed.

His gaze suddenly froze, his pupils constricting.

At the very edge of the sky within his sight, an extremely bright point of light suddenly burst forth, stinging his eyes.

At first glance, the light was as small as the tip of a needle, but it gradually grew larger and brighter, like a second sun.

At first, he thought it was a large-scale spell—perhaps even a Forbidden-level one.

But after a moment, he realized a terrifying truth.

It wasn’t growing larger—it was falling.

A few others had also noticed the sky, and when they saw the movement, they too looked up. In an instant, everyone was staring at the sky.

“The sun is falling!” someone exclaimed, but upon turning to look, the bright sun was still hanging in the sky, just about to reach its zenith.

“That’s…” Daniel murmured.

“The Floating Sky Capital!” the female Mage beside him gasped.

There was no doubt—the approaching presence was unmistakably the Floating Sky Capital, familiar to all Mages.

The Floating Sky Capital was falling?

But how could it fall?

And after it fell—

The Floating Sky Capital was directly above the Imperial Capital.

Its descent grew faster, and people could already hear the sound of the wind.

Haitie was surrounded by nobles and officials from the Crown Prince’s faction. Sars Angel began whispering instructions to Igor of the Mage Corps.

“Although we don’t know what those Mages are up to, this is an excellent opportunity—a few years ago, we had the wisest scholars estimate that if Kalaway were to crash, it would land in the southern commoner district and wouldn’t endanger this area. When chaos inevitably ensues, His Majesty will need to command the Knight Order and issue orders, unable to activate The Holy Kingdom immediately. Take the chance to seize that damned scroll and destroy it. If you can’t destroy it, hide it and claim that the Mages from the Magic World stole it—they covet the scroll’s immense power.”

Igor hesitated. “But if the scroll is activated, it could protect everyone. The commoner district is the most densely populated area.”

“We don’t need everyone,” Sars said in an extremely low voice, his tone almost scolding. “That would only play into Bolan’s hands. What we need is—for His Majesty to secure the throne. He must have thought of it too. Before that city falls, His Majesty won’t activate the scroll.”

He thought his words were known only to Gregory’s close associates around him.

He didn’t know that Elemental Mages had extremely acute senses.

Every word of this conversation echoed in Haitie’s ears.

She had never seen such a venomous heart. At this moment, she should have been so shocked that she clutched her skirt, so angry that her entire body trembled—but a strange, blank calmness came over her. Her hands only trembled slightly as she forcefully suppressed all movement.

I can’t, I can’t let them notice.

She simply stared at Gregory, not wanting to miss even the slightest change.

If he made even the slightest move to activate “The Holy Kingdom,” she would immediately feel at ease—Gregory was still the Gregory from Siren Island, an elegant, charming gentleman.

But he didn’t. When he saw the falling Floating Sky Capital, he even seemed to relax.

Haitie felt a chill run through her body. The scenes from last night replayed rapidly in her mind, and Lin Wei’s warning was crystal clear.

Miss Haitie—you seem to have some misunderstanding about me.

The charming colors sometimes come from bright flowers, but sometimes they come from the skin of a venomous snake.

The truth tore through the layers of obscurity, revealing its mocking face, looking down on the young girl who had been forced to understand so many things in a single day.

She struggled to control her breathing. A few Mages seemed to remember that she also had acute senses and glanced in her direction. Seeing that she appeared normal, they relaxed and exchanged amused glances: Hey, this clueless girl, either she didn’t hear, or she’s already completely in love with His Majesty.

The light was blinding, and people could almost hear the sound of the massive wind.

Everything happened so violently. In an instant, the crisis they faced had changed from a slow death to an immediate one.

“Why hasn’t that Emperor activated the scroll yet?”

Shui Lan’s sister stomped her foot anxiously. “Is he choosing to save himself instead—how can there be such a person in this world?”

Suddenly, an intense surge of magical energy erupted from her body—a precursor to burning. She turned to the Mages beside her and said, “Let’s go—maybe we can divert the city’s direction a bit. I remember there’s a lot of open land outside this city!”

No one objected.

Magical energy fluctuations began to appear one after another. Sensing this, the Empire’s Mages glanced in their direction with confusion.

Daniel suddenly spoke up, “Stop!”

“What’s wrong—there’s no time! Even if it doesn’t fall on us, there are still so many people… Why does their capital have so many people living in it?”

Daniel sneered inwardly—we are willing to sacrifice our lives for your people.

“Stop,” the Alchemist’s tone brooked no argument. “It’s not time to burn yet.”

But he wasn’t looking at Gregory. Instead, he was looking at Haitie across the way.

Haitie was staring at Gregory, her expression oddly focused yet vacant—he remembered this look from a stormy voyage on a magical wheel.

Gregory’s expression, however, suddenly changed. His face was filled with disbelief.

With his right hand, he opened the scroll of “The Holy Kingdom,” then picked up the sharp sword he had just been granted during the coronation ceremony. He extended his left hand in front of him, palm up.

Only the Mages could see that his hands were trembling slightly, as if resisting something.

But he couldn’t resist—the sword in his right hand slashed across his left wrist, and the first drop of crimson blood fell onto the ancient scroll, causing the patterns to glow faintly.

Everything else became uncontrollable. His left hand suddenly dropped, pressing firmly onto the scroll as blood quickly spread across it.

Sars couldn’t believe it. “How could he…?”

Haitie suddenly slumped back in her chair, breathing heavily.

She closed her eyes. She felt like she should be crying, but no tears came.

In the end, she had listened to Lin Wei’s words. Back on Siren Island, she had only told Gregory the most basic knowledge of the Magic World.

So he only knew that Elemental Mages had exceptional offensive power, that Summoners could communicate with souls, and that Alchemists were full of ingenious ideas.

He didn’t know there were far more profound and unimaginable powers.

—Like the Great Prophecy, from the most mysterious and ancient place in the Magic World.

Even if Gregory’s Mage Corps knew its name, they would only think of it as a vague prophecy.

Those who had never truly lived in the Magic World could never imagine that even the rules could be created.

Seeing that the activation of The Holy Kingdom on the high platform was irreversible, she no longer cared about the coronation ceremony or the people around her. She stood up, left her seat, and walked toward her friends.

Daniel touched her cold forehead. “Don’t be afraid, it’s over—you did well.”

“But I killed him—I personally killed someone, and he was still…” Her face was pale.

“But it was the right choice. You saved many people, not just in the Imperial Capital, but across the entire continent.”

She didn’t say it out loud—that was the man who had promised to make her Empress, the man she had already decided to accept after graduating from the Magic Academy, and the man who had been a perfect, cold-blooded liar.

Fate had cruelly allowed her to glimpse the truth, then forced her to make a choice—from that moment on, she was no longer the girl who had grown up in a fairytale.

The roses blooming in the Imperial Palace and the Nightingales singing were never meant for her.

She closed her eyes, nodded, and when she opened them again, only a trace of lingering sorrow remained. She was much calmer now.

It was only then that Daniel let out a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on his face. “We all forgot you had this trick up your sleeve. If he had stubbornly refused to activate it, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. Everyone was prepared to burn themselves to alter the trajectory.”

The scroll’s light grew brighter, a soft blue, carrying a gentle yet firm power.

People stood up, loudly praising the Emperor’s greatness, expressing their deepest gratitude—he had given his life to save them.

Prince Bolan was no less impressive. He had first found a solution to the crisis, then pleaded with the Emperor on their behalf, even willing to sacrifice his own life in the Emperor’s place—the Flaming Rose was truly the Empire’s eternal protector, and they willingly accepted the Imperial Family’s rule.

The Emperor’s life force rapidly drained from his body into the scroll. The blue light grew stronger and stronger until, finally, a faint, ethereal figure emerged from the light.

The figure was tall and slender, wearing the luxurious robes of an Emperor from centuries past, his crown gleaming. His long hair reached his shoulders, and the angles of his eyes and lips were sharp, but his gaze was tender, as if he wanted to embrace the entire city.

Someone shouted, “Emperor Nylan! Yucarius I!”

The crowd erupted into cheers, and the Knight Order and the army all knelt before the figure.

The figure took the scroll and tossed it into the air.

The radiant blue light spread across the sky like ripples, wind, or tides.

Throughout the Imperial Capital, ancient buildings and the ground itself began to glow with the same light, rising from every corner of the city toward the sky.

The storm was blocked outside, and people felt as if they were immersed in a gentle ocean. The falling object collided with the barrier, causing turbulence, but it ultimately failed to break through, slowly sliding to the side.

The blue light quickly spread across the continent’s sky, and The Holy Kingdom rose majestically from the earth.

“I really didn’t expect Gregory to sacrifice himself—he’s such a ruthless man. How could he easily give up his life?” the Duke mused, though his tone was tinged with relief.

“What if he hadn’t activated The Holy Kingdom?” Shui Lan’s sister asked curiously.

“If the Emperor had abandoned his people, my army would have joined all the commoners present in overthrowing him, and Bolan would have become the new Emperor,” the Duke replied with a hint of slyness. “But the Empire only has two Princes. One is no longer fit to sit on the throne, and the other would have to sacrifice his life. At that point, the people wouldn’t insist. They might even demand that Gregory pay with his life, forcing him to activate the scroll instead of the beloved Prince Bolan.”

At that moment, the central square was filled with cheers. People were so moved that they even shed tears, wetting the flowers they held in their hands.

History would, of course, record this glorious and touching moment with the most beautiful and sincere praise. But the true story remained hidden in the blue eyes of the red-haired Mage and the Duke’s knowing smile, forever unknown to the world.

The Mages exchanged glances, and Daniel turned to the Duke. “Duke, we must bid you farewell.”

The Duke, still beaming with joy, was surprised. “You’re leaving already? The celebrations will go on for a long time. Won’t you stay to see Bolan’s coronation?”

“The city that fell was our home. The fate of our world is uncertain.”

Hearing this, the Duke nodded solemnly. “My apologies—I wish you the best of luck.”

Daniel grinned. “We’ve always been lucky.”

He turned to his companions. “Now it’s our turn to burn—Blue Flame, you’re the strongest, so you’ll have to carry me.”

Shui Lan’s sister nodded. The group of Mages rose into the air, passing through the powerful blue barrier, erecting their own magical shields, and ascending through the storm until they disappeared into the sunlight and clouds.

Sandra’s figure appeared instantly, catching Lin Wei as he fell from the sky. She pulled Adrishig up, and the two of them steadied themselves on the dragon’s back—even the Tower Master, who wasn’t an Elemental Mage, couldn’t fly, and his power from the Great Prophecy was almost depleted.

“What’s going on?!” Lin Wei exclaimed, nearly grabbing Adrishig by the collar. “Why did it fall?”

“She destroyed the Magic Array that bound her, and the Floating Sky Capital has been suspended in the air all these years by the power of that array,” Adrishig explained, wiping the blood from his lips with the back of his hand and looking up at the still-floating statue of the Goddess. “But it’s fine. The Guild Master has already moved all the items from the Trade House. Who knows how many spatial artifacts he got from Sylvester over the years—he actually managed to fit everything!”

Blue Flame tossed Daniel onto the dragon’s back. “How are you all? Where’s my brother?”

Lin Wei retracted the Raber Vine, which was wrapped around several people, pulling them back onto the dragon’s back. They were all unconscious, with Shui Lan among them.

“Too bad you missed the part where Shui Lan turned into the Fire God and tried to burn us all,” Lin Wei said with a shrug. “Luckily, I made a Soul Contract with him and protected his soul. The Fire God is dead now, and when he wakes up, he’ll still be your brother.”

“Are the other Gods dead too?”

“Only the most troublesome one remains.” Lin Wei looked at the white statue of the Goddess, now covered in cracks and slowly disintegrating, fragments falling into the sky as light began to emanate from it.

“She’s about to emerge,” Lin Wei said, looking at Adrishig. “Your Great Prophecy is exhausted, the old man is done for, and most of us are dead—what are you going to use to deal with her?”

Adrishig didn’t respond, and Lin Wei suddenly noticed that his expression was eerily calm.