There’s fifty guards posted at the imperial palace front gate, it’s made of heavy and thick iron. Koronos stands with his sword held over his head, channeling his inner Everliving power, his bodyguards use shields to deflect and block the arrows being shot at him by the imperial guards from behind the gate. After about a minute of channeling his powers, he unleashes it all in one burst from a focused energy beam that blows the front gate open and clean off the hinges, causing dozens of the imperial guards to go flying backward ten paces or so, likely killing some in the process.
His men waste no time and rush in through the ruined gate and begin to dispatch the remaining guards, in a bloodbath of battle and carnage.
Koronos runs into the palace, his four personal bodyguards behind him, they riddle any guards in the path with arrows. Shelove wants to see what happens next, so she follows along with fifty of his men.
It’s most likely the emperor is holed-up in his throne room because it can hold a lot of his men to guard and protect him, so that is where Koronos heads straight to. He kicks the doors to the throne room clean open, and there he is, Octavius, sitting on his throne, surrounded by dozens of guards. Many of them are holding recurve bows with arrows already notched and the emperor says, “kill him!” They let loose but the four bodyguards of Koronos move in between the arrows and their warlord with shields, blocking the volley.
“Thank you, but hold back now, this is my fight, you are no match for him,” Koronos tells his bodyguards.
Then the Kazarian throws his sword, it whirls through the air, cleaving and mowing down the guards in an arc through the room, but the emperor ducks and is the only one it doesn’t hit. It continues its arc back to the hand of its master, Koronos.
“Incompetent fools!” The emperor shouts the words at the dead and dying men.
Koronos throws his sword again, but this time, straight at the emperor. The emperor is fast and strong, so he catches the weapon right out of the air with impossible agility and dexterity, and he shouts, “now it’s mine!” Behind him, are his advisors huddling behind the throne, and Cassi is there as well.
Now it’s a battle of wills, Koronos calls the weapon back to his hand as Octavius tries to resist, the mental battle rages on as the emperor strains, but he looks at his daughter and manages to shout to her, “kill him, Cassiopea, I command you!”
She lifts up her hard, aiming it at Koronos and a vortex of air and begins to swirl around her hand and arm, but then she lowers her arm, “no, father, you do it, if you can.”
In this moment, the emperor feels weaker, he loses his grip on the Sword of the First and it whirls through the air back to the hand of its rightful master.
“You will pay for this treachery, deceitful little whore!” Octavius growls those words at her and then fires his lightning attack, using his full power at Koronos. Using the sword, Koronos deflects the lightning away and it arcs towards the ceiling, blowing part of the roof away, causing the whole palace to tremble. Next, the emperor starts to levitate as electricity and energy swirls all around him and his eyes glow and crackly with electricity as well.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
With a portion of the roof blown off, Koronos calls to the birds of prey that are circling above the city to fly down and attack the emperor to throw his attention off balance, so he can close the distance between him and his enemy and swings his sword at the emperor, cutting him just below his rib cage, the cut would have been a mortal wound but the whirling lightning and energy is making a protective shield around him. In a fit of fury, the emperor yells, “I’ve had enough of you, nature-boy!” He then draws his own sword and drops to the ground, landing gracefully as a cat.
Everliving versus Everliving in a flurry of sword attacks, parries and feints, a sword fight that makes crowds roar with bloodlust in the coliseums of the world. The emperor is still engulfed in his energy shield, protecting him from the hard blows that Koronos manages to slip past the emperor's defenses. In a narrow moment of opportunity, the emperor manages to knock his opponent’s sword from his hand, so Koronos has no choice but move in closer so the emperor cannot swing his sword, they tumble to the ground. Fortune favors the emperor, and he positions himself on top of Koronos, trying to push the edge of his razor-sharp sword blade into his neck. Even with all his might, Koronos can barely hold back the emperor’s blade. Slowly, the emperor is overpowering Koronos and the blade moves bit by bit closer to its target.
As the blade starts to greet the flash of his neck, blood seeps out of the cut, suddenly, Shelove bites down hard on the emperor’s shoulder, tossing him through the air like a doll but he lands gracefully by tumbling and landing on his feet. She couldn’t stand by and watch her friend die.
Octavius shouts at the pantera with pure vitriol in his words, “how dare you intercede with my kill!?” Beyond angry, he lets loose a blast of lightning at full power at Shelove, but Koronos has already quickly grabbed his sword and places himself in between them and deflects the blast, but this time he manages to direct it straight back at the emperor, only amplified with his own power, causing the lightning to turn from a pale blue to a yellow color upon the return. The blast is so powerful it punches clean through the protective energy shield of Octavius and blows his chest open and blasting him into the stone wall with enough force to crack it and plant his smoldering, ruined body there against it, thus causing his instant death. Polaris the Seer didn’t foresee this, because the events of Everliving are shrouded in a metaphysical mist, as if the gods have made it so, and with a nexus event involving multiple Everliving, it was even moreso.
Koronos walks up the throne, stands there looking at it, everyone waiting to see what he will do. Moments pass in total silence until finally he grabs the wrist of Cassi and raises her arm over her head, “the old emperor is dead, hail the new empress!” She looks as shocked as everyone else but quickly regains her dignified, and haughty composure.”
The Kazarians in the group of warriors understand what just happened even though they don’t speak the language of men, they say together in the Old Tongue, “exeh torheem na smeh!” Translated, it means ‘so this shall be.’
He says quietly to the new empress, “and I expect a treaty drafted and your imperial seal on it by this evening, only then will my army leave the city and return home.
Arctaurus, terrified that Cassi is the new ruler, and how he crossed her, revealing her feelings to Octavias over Koronos, he throws himself prostrate at her feet, begging her forgiveness. She knows how valuable a powerful mindbender can be, so she accepts his apology.
Cavion looks equally terrified because it was his plan that set all of these events in motion, even though Koronos doesn’t know of this, he throws himself to the feet of the Kazarian nonetheless. “Lord Koronos, I always knew of your greatness, it would be my great honor to serve you as an adviser.” Koronos nods in approval as Calvion looks at Cassi, tears in his eyes, silently begging her to not reveal his treachery to Koronos. She remains silent, knowing she may be able to use this knowledge to her advantage in the future.
Word quickly spreads through the city of the fallen emperor as the day breaks over the seat of the empire, and a new day dawns.