ZERO WALKED INTO THE PALACE’S CORRIDORS, knowing that it was very likely, if not certain, that at least one person within the halls of this noble structure would never leave it alive. Eventually, he reached the door to the throne room and knocked.

“Who is it?!” the emperor’s voice called out.

“It is your advisor,” Zero called back. “I have brought the royals as requested.”

“You may enter,” Satsujin continued.

Zero entered the king’s chamber and laid the two burlap sacks onto the floor. They were stained with blood.

“Where are my two men?” Satsujin asked his advisor. “And why are the bags covered in blood?”

“Unfortunately, Lanya and Musuko proved to propose quite a challenge,” Zero answered with great confidence. “After all, one of them wields the Fabled Swords you wish to eventually acquire. Their power is no doubt bountiful and will further improve your power and grasp over Crenon.”

“Excellent,” the highest-ranked maila in Crenon exclaimed as he heard of this new potential. “Well then, let me see the sacrifices before our battle.”

“Prepared like lambs to the slaughter,” Zero said as he opened the first sack.

As Satsujin peered inside, he noticed something odd. The body was already greatly mangled and bruised as if already killed.

“I thought I had told you that I wanted the two to arrive alive.”

“Oh, they have.”

Just as Satsujin realized that the person in the sack was not Lanya or Musuko, but rather one of the members of the Saisei Coalition, he felt a blunt strike of steel hit his head. As he turned around, to look, he saw Lanya grabbing the Omega Blade by the blade and bringing it back into a proper position after half-swording it. Before Satsujin could react once more, Zero drew the Blade of Kongeseki and brought it to Satsujin’s throat.

“You fucking lunatic!” Satsujin exclaimed as he threw Zero in front of him. “I knew you would betray me! And yet I gave you the benefit of the doubt!”

“You are only betraying yourself!” Zero yelled out.

Musuko took this opportunity to catch Satsujin in the back of the head with a magical attack. Channeling the power of Brildingjr, he sent three beams of energy into Satsujin. After the first one made contact, Satsujin was able to deflect the other two with his sword. He then took the rapier and charged toward Zero. He plunged the blade into Zero’s arm, causing great amounts of damage to the maila. He then struck once more at Musuko, attempting to drive his fist into the youngest Kenshi’s skull. Musuko’s adrenaline, however, allowed him to evade the attack and land a strike on him, creating a loud sound that disoriented the Emperor.

Satsujin responded by taking his sword and slashing at Musuko. The blade slashed Musuko’s face, causing him to stagger backward and tend to his wound. Meanwhile, Zero charged at Satsujin with the Blade of Kongeseki, preparing to make a lethal strike. On the first swing, Satsujin evaded the attack. Zero took this opportunity to make a second strike, which proved much more successful. This made way for Lanya, who slashed at Satsujin with the Fabled Swords, seeing an opening in the wound that Zero had made. Much like Zero, she missed the mark on the first attack but managed to plunge the greatsword into the wound on the second blow.

A wave of pain ran over Satsujin as the wound in his arm expanded. A peculiar type of blood began to emerge from his skin, with the crimson fluid’s hints of white proving it to be that of a maila. Musuko continued to fight against Satsujin, sending out a blast of lightning.

“Gotcha!” he yelled out as the electricity bolted from his hands. Unfortunately, this alerted Satsujin who expertly dodged the attack.

“Is that the best you can do, young mage?!” Satsujin jeered. Just as he said that Lanya charged in for another attack. Satsujin, too focused on Musuko, almost let his guard down too much, only barely avoiding each attack. Then came his turn to strike. He drove his sword toward Lanya, scratching her face. He then turned and charged at Musuko, once more nicking him with the blade. Musuko began to grow uneasy on his feet as his blood began to seep out in the same way that Satsujin’s had begun to.

Zero saw the two Kenshis struggling and decided to take matters into his own hands, making a desperate toss with the Blade of Kongeseki, trying to impale Satsujin. The blade lodged itself in Satsujin’s arm and Zero charged forward, removing it before making another slice with both hands. Satsujin bent forward as the blade sliced his abdomen. Even still, it was not deep enough to finish him off. Musuko took his opportunity, aiming for the open wound in Satsujin’s chest with a dagger he created with his magic. The dagger did not have enough force to impale Satsujin, but it shattered upon contact, dealing great damage to Zero and a smaller amount to Satsujin as the coldness erupted from the ice shard’s burst.

Despite this injury, Zero carried on, drawing his gun to blast it into one of Satsujin’s wounds. The bullets missed the open areas of the emperor’s skin, however, causing the bullets to be ineffective. Lanya charged in shortly afterward, desperately hacking at Satsujin, hoping to find an open wound. This was to no avail. Although Satsujin was wearing himself out, he was still largely impenetrable. Although this is what it had appeared to be on the outside, Satsujin knew that he had to act quickly or else he would die.

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Not giving it a second thought, he charged at Zero, his lifelong friend, and stabbed him multiple times with his blade. He did not care if he wasn’t hitting a vital spot. All that mattered was that he would take Zero down with him. Finally, Zero collapsed on the ground. He looked over to Lanya as Satsujin prepared to make the killing blow. He saw Lanya slowly disassociate from what was happening around her. As he lay there at the risk of death, he witnessed his greatest concern come true. Lanya was entering Deity Mode.

Clinging on to the adrenaline of this sight, Zero managed to force himself onto his feet and disrupt the transformation. Satsujin stabbed his rapier into the floor where Zero once was, failing to catch him. Seeing this, he acted quickly, taking his blade and attacking Zero where he stood as Lanya was shoved out of the way. Zero nearly failed to draw the Blade of Kongeseki and parry the attack. In one swift motion, he disarmed both himself and Satsujin. No longer having any weapon, the two stared one another down. During the battle, he had thought back to his time in the Great Trifecta War and a thought dawned on him. He had found another way to end the feuds.

“Oritsu,” Zero began. “You must know what will happen should I be slain on this night.”

“If you are slain,” Satsujin answered, “then I will have nothing stopping me from my conquest!”

“Why, then, do you hesitate to take your sword back up? Is it because you know that you will not make it out of here alive if you were to do so?”

“You always were quite the jokester, Kantoku.”

“I’m not making any jokes, Satsujin. I’m pleading with you to stop for your own safety.”

A silence swept over the room as Zero prepared to continue with what he was saying.

“When I first arrived in Crenon, I heard a prophecy. It detailed how the Kenshi and Mujihina bloodlines were to end up in a bitter rivalry due to their love for a woman from Medikai. At the end of that, she said that the maila would be the one to end the feuds forever. I thought she was referring to me, given that I was the only maila in that base, but I am only now realizing that this was not meant to be referring to a singular maila on their own. Rather, the maila would be a negotiator of peace.”

“You expect me to make a truce with these two?!”

“If you don't, there's the alternative. You kill me and Lanya enters Deity Mode. She grabs the Blade of Kongeseki and finishes you off. The strains of the form from two separate Fabled Swords at once will drive her insane and Akuni and Aotoshi will both suffer under her rule. So do you wish for the survival of yourself and Crenon or do you wish for the damnation of all that you knew during your time here? The choice is yours.”

Satsujin looked to his side at the fireplace. Its light was low, almost on the border of dying entirely. Perhaps there was some form of glory in its earlier days when the fire was first lit, but there is no way of telling now. All that it was by this point was a pile of charred wood and ash, only letting off the faintest of manageable glows. Finally, the embers wheezed their dying breath. The fire deteriorated pathetically, leaving only a trail of smoke to rise through the chimney. Even still, it was certain that even that smoke would die off at some point, the last trace of the fire’s existence. In that fireplace, he saw an omen of his own fate, his glory being the thing to suffocate him.

Satsujin cleared his throat after diverting his attention from the fireplace.

“My followers!” he beckoned. “Come into this room at once! I would like to provide a few words.”

Soon afterward, the entrance was swarmed with people from the Saisei Coalition as they poured into the room. After the flood subsided, Satsujin projected his voice above the crowd.

“I have called you in here, not as a way of bringing about further conflict, but to announce my resignation from this post.”

Hushed whispers began to sift through the crowd.

“Throughout my time in the continent of Crenon, I had abandoned the morals I once stood for. I once wished to bring prosperity to this continent and help it through its trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, I let myself become the very thing I wanted to prevent. Associating with the Saisei Coalition only made it worse. For you see, the fundamental cornerstone of this organization is based on a flawed belief, that being that the late King Yukan was acting out of malice toward Aotoshi. The Saisei Coalition was founded on the basis of the Kenshi Dynasty being created by a tyrant.

“Rest assured, however, I have looked upon Yukan’s actions throughout his time in power, and he was as righteous as a ruler can be. He did not wish to punish Aotoshi for the wrongdoings of its previous ruler. Rather, he wished to create a strong union between a foreign land and his own. Had those who had begun the Saisei Coalition known of this, they would not have been so naïve as to begin a tirade against a benevolent ruler like Yukan.

“With all of that in mind, not only will I be stepping down from my position as Emperor of the Joined Nations, not only will I be stepping down from my position as the leader of the Saisei Coalition, but I am also formally disbanding the Saisei Coalition. Now, let this be a turning point in your lives as well. Perhaps you too will one day learn what harm we have caused, and what good we can do to repair our mistakes.”

Slowly, but surely, the mob of people dispersed through the entrance and went their separate ways, leaving the palace deserted save Satsujin, Lanya, Musuko, and Zeronius.

“I can understand if you are upset,” Satsujin turned to Lanya. “I realize that I shouldn’t have done what I ended up doing. Yet, I foolishly chased personal glory instead of considering what was right for the people. I don’t expect forgiveness in any way. I’m already anticipating my permanent exile from Crenon for all that I’ve done. I just want to apologize.”

Satsujin started toward the throne room’s exit, setting what was once his crown onto a modest table at the side of the throne. Lanya looked at the crown and thought for a brief moment.

“You may stay in Crenon if you like,” she called out before he could walk through the door.

Satsujin stopped before looking back at Lanya, once again shown mercy by the Queen of the Joined Nations.

“Granted, you will need to have some form of punishment,” Lanya continued. “After all, we can’t just let people think that overthrowing a government doesn’t have a price. Perhaps we can arrange something that will get the message across to the people, but still allow you to stay here.”

Satsujin accepted this offer graciously. They discussed their plan for punishment the next day, with the conclusion being that Satsujin would receive a mock execution before hiding his identity by remaining in a shapeshifted form under the name of Kei Morimoto. During this period, he would then perform manual labor as atonement.