“Very well.” The man who was referred to as Demon Lord turned silent briefly before nodding. “You all have done well. Fifteen Night Hag-tier dark elven warriors and a protective magic array which has protected the Tower of Imprisonment for over ten thousand years, yet the thing still gets stolen! You all have done well indeed!”
He, or was it “It” instead? It was beside the point anyways. He emphasised the words “ten thousand years”, seemingly trying to ingrain into the dark elven warriors’ minds what those words truly meant.
The dark elves stuck their heads to the ground, none of them daring to move apart from the involuntary trembling.
“But my lord… It was an overwhelming spell…”
“I don’t care!” the Demon Lord yelled.
The dark elf who spoke stiffened as terror filled his eyes. Blood seeped from his orifices and he slumped to the ground as a corpse. His dark bluish blood spread across the floor, reflecting the terrorised faces of the other dark elves.
“Do you know what was lost?” The Demon Lord sighed. “Forget it. All of you, end your own lives and I will keep your corpses intact. Your families, I will take good care of them.”
The remaining dark elves were all grief-stricken, but they stood up nonetheless.
“Thank you, my lord.”
Leaving behind such words, they all sent one another one final glance before blue smoke exuded from their eyes. Vitality no longer existed within them, and soon another ten or so corpses dropped to the ground, leaving behind the Demon Lord who stood alone silently in the centre.
“Sigh, was that really necessary?” An arrogant and frivolous voice came from nowhere.
The Demon Lord, however, wasn’t shocked at all; he didn’t even seem bothered by it at all.
“You know it, rules are rules. Nothing can be accomplished if rules aren’t upheld. When something is lost from the Tower of Imprisonment, they who guard over it have to take responsibility.”
The owner of the arrogant voice clicked his tongue and said, “Rules, rules… Tired of it all. The spell just now was unbelievably powerful. When the spell struck, I witnessed it. Such force… Even you can’t withstand it.”
The Demon Lord made a hmph and said, “Do you know what was lost?”
“Yeah I do, just that piece of armour.”
“Do not speak of that… armour so lightly!” The Demon Lord was gradually losing his temper. “That armour is dyed in the blood of tens of thousands of our brethren! We paid a massive price back then in order to seize and seal it!”
“Alright, alright. Let’s stop with all the history stuff, I already know all that. Right now, it’s nothing but a piece of nearly broken armour. After the great war back then and being sealed for so long, it’s really just a piece of junk.”
The Demon Lord suddenly turned his head up to look above him and fired off two purple beams from his eyes.
A flickering shadow flashed across the purple beams as they struck the spire’s peak. Waves after waves of mana reverberated and dispersed the purple beams.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Phantasma Violet! Can’t you just care more about our tribe? Apart from its powers, the armour also holds symbolic meaning beyond your comprehension! Also, who’s to say a way to fix the armour doesn’t exist?”
Not really caring about it anyways, Phantasma Violet shrugged and slumped onto a chair and appeared to fall asleep.
“Hm? You’re hurt?” The Demon Lord’s sharp sights picked up the somewhat chaotic mix of energies without Violet Phantasma’s body simply by looking at him.
“Nothing serious, it’s none of your concern anyways.”
“How is it none of my concern! I’m your big brother!” A tint of gentleness could be seen in the Demon Lord’s eyes even though he was yelling. “You went to challenge the Dominator again, right?”
Phantasma Violet shrugged and replied, “Came across some interesting toys.”
The Demon Lord heaved a big sigh; even he was at his wit’s end when it came to his brother. “A great turmoil is approaching, try to settle down a little. The tribe can’t just rely on me, I need your help.”
Phantasma Violet ignored his brother’s words and kept his eyes shut.
“Nevermind… Just take care of yourself.”
The Demon Lord turned on his heels and headed for the tower’s entrance, his silhouette giving off an exhausted vibe. Phantasma Violet, after the Demon Lord turned around, opened his eyes to look at his brother’s back and was lost in thought.
----------------------------------------
In the Third Eastern City, there stood a tower that pierced the skies.
In an era where technology was advancing rapidly, buildings exceeding 200 storeys were commonplace. This tower, however, was over 300 storeys tall and was the tallest pillar in the Third Eastern City—Ki Industries.
In this day and age, companies that named themselves with surnames were far and few. After that incident years ago, most of those old-fashioned companies had already closed down and silently vanished into the books of history, but Ki Industries was an exception.
Their business revolved around their surname—wood.
[Note: “Ki” is the pronunciation of “Wood” in Japanese.]
The wood products they sold, however, weren’t made of ordinary wood. Well, they sold products made of ordinary wood as well, but it wasn’t their main trade— high-end products. A seemingly ordinary chair produced by Ki Industries could sell for millions of dollars because it was made of agarwood, an exceedingly scarce wood.
With all sorts of high-tech metals emerging, it was almost a miracle that wood products hadn’t been phased out yet. There was a reason for it: people from all ten Eastern Cities knew how to admire and appreciate products that contained life within them.
Right now, there were only two people in the office on the highest floor of the tower. For the Ki Industries chairman’s office, it was surprisingly plain and unadorned. There wasn’t any luxurious equipment laying around. Instead, everything was wooden; wooden office table, wooden chairs… If anyone from the wood product manufacturing industry saw the office, they would certainly drool all over the ground. The furniture were invaluable art pieces in the eyes of artists as well.
Keeping a low profile while being luxurious—that was a good way of describing Ki Industries.
Sitting in front of the office desk was a middle-aged man with gleaming eyes. Though he was technically middle-aged, the gradually increasing blend of white in his hair was a sign that he was already advancing in years.
On the other side of the desk was a young man who was in his twenties. He was in sportswear, which was a stark contrast to the middle-aged man who wore a tidy suit.
Seeing the young man in sportswear, the middle-aged man frowned and said, “What is the meaning of this? What will people think when they see you in such clothing?”
The young man shook his head and didn’t reply; it was a surprising response from him.
The middle-aged man was naturally the owner of Ki Industries, Ki Sai Wing. Standing in front of him was his son, the successor of Ki Industries, Ki Shing Chi.
Ki Sai Wing lightly tapped the invaluable wooden desk; the tapping sound of wood soothed his mind.
“I heard that you haven’t been coming back to the company lately. You’re still addicted to… that game?”
Ki Shing Chi nodded and made no attempt to deny it.
Ki Sai Wing didn’t yell at him and instead said, “I’ve entered the game as well. It looks very real indeed, and some companies even hold their companies in the game. But… you can distinguish the two, right? The real world and the virtual world.”
“I can tell them apart very clearly. I am Ki Shing Chi, the heir to the Ki family. But at the same time, I am also Ki Shing Chi, simply me.”