Hundreds of runes sprung up around Great Lord Taple’s body and they were all golden in color. It was a radiant gold that, when shone on people, seemed to reveal their flaws and sinister side. It revealed all truths that made it so that nothing could hide from it. It was a righteous aura that emanated from the golden runes.
Akata had called back his incarnation and his true body became conscious once again. He was staring wide-eyed at the golden runes and the righteousness that emitted out of them. Tabet, on the other hand, wasn’t astonished because of the scene of the runes, rather he was astonished because of a certain someone.
“Grandpa.” Tabet barely squeezed out as his eyes started to tear up. At this moment he totally forgot about Akata and turned his full attention toward his Grandpa Taple. He just couldn’t believe that his Grandpa Taple was finally going to recover fully.
All of a sudden Great Lord Taple’s eyes snapped open and his pent up energy burst forth with an amazing splendor! The burst of energy instantly broke apart the chamber that he was in. Soon the beautiful starry sky could be seen. The golden light around Great Lord Taple showed brightly in the night sky looking like a beacon of light.
The light illuminated the night sky and brought a sense of holiness to it. The blast of energy swept passed everything but for some reason didn’t affect any of the Scarlet Tigers or Akata. It simply felt like a breeze when the energy swept passed them.
Great Lord Taple eye’s showed with a golden luster as he stood up, causing a massive wind to blow out around him. He then looked down at Tabet and his face turned to one of endless kindness and affection. “How I’ve missed you, Tabet.” He uttered.
He then turned his head toward Akata and nodded his head. “I have to thank you. Tell me what it is that you want and I will try my best to complete it for you. However, that will have to wait as I will have to solve this matter concerning my tribe first.” With that, Great Lord Taple looked up into the starry sky and vanished.
He reappeared in the sky where he took a deep breath. The natural energy of the world seemed to be influenced by his breathing. At his cultivation base level, he could use the energy of earth to replenish his own energy and cultivation base. It didn’t take long before he had regained a quarter of his strength. It would take a lot longer to completely heal himself.
After a little while Great Lord Taple took a step forward and was right beside Lord Tafei. He looked deeply at his son and waved his hand. The wave of his hand caused his son to be drawn to his hand. He circulated some of his energy into Lord Tafei’s body and almost instantly, his son came to.
Lord Tafei slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Great Lord Taple looking into his eyes. “Father.” He barely managed to utter. At first his mind was clouded but after a breath of time he became clear headed and steadied himself. He stood up on his own and circulated his own energy to recover his strength.
He looked deeply at his father but didn’t know what to say. It had been a long time since he had seen his father looking healthy. It took all he had to not tear up. Emotions ran over his mind and he couldn’t find the words to speak.
“I haven’t been much of a father to you son, due to this illness that plagued our whole tribe. And it seems that I wasn’t much of a leader either.” As he spoke he turned his head to view underground at all of his tribe members. “Things surely have changed since then and not for the better unfortunately. How will we set things right?”
Great Lord Taple turned to Lord Tafei and asked. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to handle things himself, but he wanted to get closer to his own son. It had truly been a long while since he was able to stand and talk to his son in a normal manner. He wanted this time to be precious and he wanted to cherish this moment.
“I can’t slaughter my own tribe. So instead I planned to banish them from here. Since they chose to stand on the side of Priest Bambe, then they must have a way to live for themselves and had prepared for the punishment.” Of course Lord Tafei wasn’t a child and spoke like a genuine leader as he stated how he had planned to deal with the rebels of the tribe.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Great Lord Taple simply nodded his head in agreement. He too didn’t want to slaughter members of his tribe. They had all suffered for hundreds of years and stood together for the whole time. Just because they wanted to follow a different leader wasn’t much of a big deal. What was the problem was that they had acted against their own members with intent to harm or even kill. This was what made the situation so bad.
After Great Lord Taple nodded his head he once more turned his head to toward the underground cave that the tribesmen were located. “I hereby announce that all rebels are to be banished from this island at once.” He didn’t speak loudly at all, but when he did speak, his voice sounded throughout the whole island and pierced through the ground into the ears of everyone.
All of the fighting ceased once they heard the voice. The elder generation had looks of shock on their faces and the younger generation looked confused as to who’s voice it was that just ordered them around. Of course the younger generation wouldn’t argue because they could clearly feel the power behind that voice, a power that they couldn’t possibly comprehend yet.
“Gr… Great Lord Taple? That was Great Lord Taple’s voice!”
“Has he recovered? That’s simply wonderful!”
“Our Great Lord has made a full recovery. He doesn’t sound the least bit ill.”
Most of the various elders were speaking their joyous thoughts at the moment with utter excitement and veneration. The only ones who were silent were the rebel elders. Their faces were clearly darker and looks of hopelessness could be seen.
At once, as if in practiced unison, all of the elder generation reverted back to their Scarlet Tiger form and kneeled down with their heads low. Even the rebel elders bowed down out of respect. Clearly they still viewed power with respect. The younger generation also knelt down out of respect for the powerful figure, they didn’t even need encouragement from the older generation.
Great Lord Taple looked out at the kneeling tigers below him, his face blank. “Leave.” He spoke one word, and even though it was soft, it held a deep pressure that weighed down on all of the rebels. Be they part of the elder generation or the the younger generation, they all felt the pressure from that one word. Simultaneously, all of them stood up reluctantly and made their way toward the exit of the cave.
One person. It only took one person to change the whole outcome of this battle. It only took one person to end a whole rebellion. One person, with absolute power and authority. That was what this person represented. The fact that nobody could challenge him, made it so that no one went against him. That was what his cultivation level represented.
At this moment, Akata was in a daze. With the hole in the ceiling, Akata could clearly see and hear Great Lord Taple. He was amazed at what overwhelming power could do in the face of a catastrophe. As Akata gazed at Great Lord Taple he heard a voice within his mind.
“Pffft, Ahaha! What a way to display one’s power. Even I would feel a bit of pressure from his display of power if I was in their position. It’s too bad he won’t be able to make it to the level of immortality. He would truly be a great figure if he could become immortal.” The voice was loud and obnoxious and clearly was quite intrigued.
Akata’s eyes opened wide as shock immediately spread throughout his body. He looked around the room he was in but couldn’t find the owner of the voice. ‘That was Plantist Noluck! But where is he?’ Alata thought to himself.
“Where are you?” Akata said aloud. His voice filled the room and caught the attention of Tabet. Tabet looked over at Akata who he still had in his grasp and asked, “Who are you talking about?” It was at this moment that he remembered the green mist that had entered Akata. “Ah! There was some green mist that entered your body, are you okay?!”
“Green mist? Entered my body?” Akata said softly his face full of confusion. “Ah!” Akata immediately had his consciousness enter his dantion region. As soon as Tabet had said ‘body’, Akata rotated his red rune and searched his body, instantly finding something weird within his dantion region.
As soon as he got there he was greeted by a green mist. “Yoo! How you doing?! Man, that guy over there is truly fit to rule. Even though he is being so lenient right now, the pressure he is displaying causes the people to feel fear and awe at the same time. Truly wonderful! It’s too bad I’m not able to be housed within him. So, you’ll have to do right now.” As he spoke, his words turned to a feeling of sadness.
“What are you doing inside of my body?!” Akata had one thing on his mind as soon as he entered his body. He didn’t care at all of what Plantist Noluck was saying at the moment.
Plantist Noluck gave Akata a long look and said while sighing, “We went over this already. I’m staying within your body until you are able to revive me and create a body that I can house. Until then, I’ll be right here to guide you to immortality. It seems your memory is as bad as mine.” Even though it didn’t look like it, the Plantist Noluck shook his head.
Akata’s eyes twitched as he heard Plantist Noluck. It was true that he had agreed to this but he didn’t expect it to be like this. In truth, he didn’t know what to expect. Out of helplessness, Akata just shook his head and sent his consciousness back out.
“I’m fine.” Akata spoke as soon as his consciousness returned to his true body. He looked at Tabet and smiled cheerfully. “That green mist was actually what was suppressing your grandfather. I just happened to be able to absorb it and use it for my plant cultivation base. I just had to check and see if everything was going well with it.” Akata said with a look of joy.
“Oh. So that’s how it is.” Tabet let out a long sigh of relief as he heard Akata give his explanation. He was truly worried for Akata. Given that he knew about Akata’s plant cultivation base, and saw the happy look on Akata’s face, he simply accepted Akata’s words. “Well that’s -”
Boom!