“Phoenix Titan…?” the beast man asked in disbelief. When Lakshman nodded, the beast man sighed and said, “Damn… If I had known it was you, I wouldn’t have fought…!”
Lakshman shrugged his shoulders and said, “You never bothered to find out who I was. Your arrogance in your power was your downfall and that includes your stupid henchmen.”
The beast man grunted as he slowly climbed out of the hole in the ground. When he straightened up, the family in debt became fearful. He looked at the fear gripping them and he snorted disdainfully.
“You may have beat me and my men up, but their debt will not go away. They will still need to sell themselves into slavery if they want to avoid the worst case scenario possible!” the beast man said roughly.
Lakshman narrowed his eyes and said, “I am aware it means death, but I do not approve of it!”
The beast man chuckled and said, “Who are you to approve it or not? The Slavemancer has more authority in the area of politics than you. Even the empress of this kingdom couldn’t challenge his authority and power.”
Lakshman raised an eyebrow and asked, “Empress? The new ruler is a female?”
Just then, someone from the crowd said, “That’s right, Phoenix Titan sir. Venezuela Sargold is now the empress of Floria Kingdom.”
The information instantly caused both of his eyebrows to rise up in surprise and he said, “Wow… Vena’s a ruler now…?”
“Doesn’t surprise me, master. After all, she was loved by the people and the passing of her father, a great king, also added support, which would naturally trump over the other nobles,” Tetra told him casually.
“Yeah, but still… She’s a ruler, but what would that make me if I marry her? Will I become king? En emperor? I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Let’s deal with it when the times comes, master.”
“You’re right.”
At that moment, a black hole opened a few meters away from them. Lakshman looked at it and smiled as he knew who was about to come through it. A moment later, Felix Phoron stepped out and he was looking bad tempered as the portal closed behind him.
“What the heck is going on here?!” he demanded angrily. “Why am I sensing battle all the way from the castle?!”
“Oh…! He looks angry,” Lakshman thought cheerfully.
“Master! There’s nothing funny about him being angry,” Tetra told him sternly.
“Yeah, but it still make me want to smile each time I see him looking so angry,” Lakshman thought happily.
Felix walked forward and looked at the unconscious bodies of the fifteen henchmen of the beast man, lying on the ground. Then, he noticed the family of four standing a few meters away as they fearfully looked at him.
He sighed and asked, “Would someone please explain to me what the heck happened here?”
Lakshman grinned and as he raised his right hand into the air, he said, “I think I can explain if you’re in the mood to listen.”
“What?” Felix said in a surprised voice and he looked towards him and the beast man.
“Yo!” Lakshman said and he waved his right hand at Felix in a greeting gesture.
Felix narrowed his eyes for a moment when he looked at Lakshman. Obviously, the clothes and the slight change in Lakshman’s appearance did not immediately register him to be who he was. Then, when Felix walked closer to get a better look, he realised who he was looking at and his eyes widened in surprise.
“Luc-I mean, Lakshman? Is that you?” Felix asked in a surprised voice.
“Can’t you tell just by looking or my voice at the least?” Lakshman asked and he sounded hurt.
“Well… There’s a slight change in your voice, but the most change is in your appearance. The last I remember, you were about my height, but now you’re really tall! What are you, 180 centimetres?”
“184 to be exact.”
Felix whistled and said, “184 centimetres! You certainly grew tall, surpassing both your dad and mum’s height.” After chuckling, he became serious and asked, “Now, tell me what happened.”
Lakshman explained to Felix about him being there coincidentally when he sensed danger. After inspecting what was going on, he discovered the beast man and his henchmen emptying the house of the family of four. Not willing to stand by and watch this horrible actions going by, he stepped in and intervened.
“Then, I just delivered a few blows and knocked them all out,” Lakshman said with a small smile.
Felix shook his head and said, “Slavery is normal everywhere and it’s a common practice that’s conducted to punish those that don’t do the right thing.
Lakshman became extremely serious as he said, “To hell with slavery! Living beings are not slaves to each other and they will never be! I don’t approve it!”
Felix sighed and asked, “Lakshman… Do you know who you’re messing with?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care!” Lakshman said flatly.
Felix and the beast man looked surprised by his firm words. Lakshman then proceed to point a finger at the beast man as he spoke seriously to him.
“You! Go back and tell your leader that I, Phoenix Titan, do not approve of slavery! It’s about time that ridiculous law gets abolished throughout the world!”
There was a collective gasp of surprise from the crowd of listeners. They could not believe what he just said and they immediately became fearful.
The beast man’s eyes became sharp as he said, “You… You dare to speak about the Slavemancer like—!”
“I dare and I will always dare!” Lakshman said in a powerful voice. “This Phoenix Titan bows down to no one!”
There was a stunned silence following his pronouncement and everyone simply stared at him with open mouths. They felt fear of retribution from the Slavemancer, but they also felt happy that the current Phoenix Titan was planning on doing well for them and the world. The family of four breathed a sigh of relief when he flashed them a glance and caused them to stiffen up in alarm.
“However, not paying one’s debt is still a crime…” Lakshman said slowly. “If you don’t pay your debt, you will be jailed! I hope that’s enough incentive for you to pay off your debt in the next two months?”
When Lakshman asked him with a glint in his eyes, the man of the family quickly nodded and said, “Yes, sir! Thank you for this chance!”
Felix folded his arms and nodded his approval at the conclusion of the argument. The beast man’s henchmen also slowly came to as the crowd began moving about while minding their own business.
“I will delay your message to the Slavemancer, but don’t expect leniency,” the beast man told Lakshman roughly. “He will come to hunt you down like the fiery bird that you are!”
Lakshman snorted and said, “I’m not a caged bird, you fool. I’m a phoenix bird that’ll burn anything down! It’ll be most likely be me who goes to pay him or her a visit.”
As his henchmen began to gather around him while massing their wounds, the beast man narrowed his eyes and said, “Sure… That is, if you’re truly… unlucky…!”
With that, he and his henchmen began running at high speed and they quickly disappeared. Lakshman thought the men
“Right. Let’s get out of here,” Felix said as he opened another portal.
The two of them stepped through the portal and arrived Felix’s office. Lakshman was instantly surprised to see paper lying everywhere on the ground. On closer inspection, he realised these were old data sheets on the finances of the kingdom that need to be trashed, but Felix had been really busy to clean them up.
“I can’t believe you were involved in a fight right after coming back!” Felix said indignantly as he sat on the chair behind his desk
“Yeah… Sorry about that,” Lakshman said apologetically as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and he sat down on a seat in front of the desk.
“Really because I’ve been feeling that you’ve been pretty attracted to battle everywhere!” Felix said as he eyed him shrewdly. “It’s like, you were meant to fight and do nothing else!”
“Oh, come on. I don’t fight for the fun of it,” Lakshman said indignantly. “I just happened to be there when all that happened. I told you that already.”
“Yeah, but fate seems to conspire to constantly put you in a situation where you have to fight to become strong. It makes me wonder what the God of Fate has in store for you.”
Lakshman shrugged his shoulders and said, “What will be shall be. All we can do is live our lives the way we want till we reach the end of the road. By the way, what are Sevedat and Wolfenstine doing right now?”
Felix told him that Wolfenstine made himself home in Floria and opened his science laboratory two years ago. Apparently, he went and destroyed the data along with the building of his previous laboratory in Mardana Kingdom. After which, he returned to Floria Kingdom and immediately began his experiments on the inferior Dragon Armours he collected after the war.
“He’s been trying to improve their quality and give it to common soldiers, but it’s been no use. It’s proved to be a really difficult task to replicate the same type of armours like the Phoenix Armour of the Phoenix Clan and Dragon Armour of the Dragon Clan,” Felix said with a sigh. “Still, he hasn’t given up on hope that he’ll one day get it right and who can stop him? I mean, he’ll live for the next thousand years without problems being a hybrid and all.”
Lakshman chuckled and asked, “And Sevedent? What happened to him?”
Felix told him that the Death Titan had gone to the Demon Continent and went through the Demon Portal into the Demon World, Demagrad. His decision to leave for Demagrad was to prepare the Demon Titan to become allies with the Phoenix Titan in the future.
“Eh? He went over to train the Demon Titan to become my ally?” Lakshman asked in a surprised voice. “Why? I thought the Demon Titan would already be trained by now or are you telling me he wasn’t born two years ago?”
Felix shook his head and said, “He was alive, but he lived an existence of seclusion that was well away from the other demon communities in Demagrad.
The previous Demon Emperor, the guy you easily destroyed five years ago, hated the Nine Pillars of Power and especially the Demon Titan who would eventually grow to be stronger than him. Fearing this, he made sure to kill off the Demon Titan’s family, but they disparately saved him by creating a powerful barrier to save his life.
The Demon Emperor couldn’t touch him while the titan stayed inside the barrier. Ever since then, he practically had no contact from the outside world except when he hunted for food.”
Lakshman became angry and said, “Damn… Lucky that bastard’s dead, otherwise I’d have killed him again!” Then, Lakshman thought of something and he asked, “But then… Wouldn’t it have been easier to go and meet the Demon Titan five years ago when I killed the past Demon Emperor?”
Felix nodded and said, “It would’ve been, but no one bothered and Sevedant was busy concentrating his powers on capturing his sworn enemy, Razzel. Now, he’s finally gone over and I’m sure they will be training as we speak. The Demon Titan and Death Titan are similar in their ways of darkness and they are fourth and fifth ranked within the Nine Pillars of Power.”
Lakshman nodded in understanding and said, “Yes. That makes sense and I hope the Demon Titan will be friends with me.”
Felix chuckled and said, “Speaking of being friends, the Sword Titan’s been constantly contacting us to find out about you.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“About me?” Lakshman asked and he looked surprised.
Felix nodded and told him how the Sword Titan, Dominic Rutherford, kept asking them what had happened to Lakshman in these two years. This act of friendship made Lakshman realise how lonely Dominic had been before meeting Lakshman. It appeared that being part of highly ranked warrior with immense power made Dominic feel more connected to Lakshman than to ordinary people of society.
“I’ll to him later,” Lakshman said and Felix sighed in relief.
“Thanks because he kept bombarding us with questions and even at one said he’d come here!” Felix said unhappily. “To make matters worse, their new king also said he wanted to meet you in person.”
Lakshman chuckled and asked, “So, who’s the new king of Mardana Kingdom?”
“His name is Temba Trigard. He was once a soldier, but the people elected him to be their leader because his great wisdom and the kind of qualities that you seemed to have preached them while you were there. What are they talking about exactly?”
Felix narrowed his eyes and looked quizzically at Lakshman, causing him to chuckle embarrassedly.
“W-Well… At least, they are doing fine now. That’s what matters right now,” Lakshman said while smiling sheepishly.
Felix looked at him for a moment before straightening up and saying, “Mmm… Well, I won’t ask what you did since it’s doing them good…”
Lakshman sighed in relief and Felix chuckled when he saw that reaction.
“So then, mind telling me why you are dressed like that?” Felix asked him as he eyed the cloak he was wearing. “Also, why did you grow your hair so long?”
“About that…” Lakshman said slowly as he looked down at his cloak. “I didn’t think I would grow so much in the Phoenix Training Sanctuary, so I didn’t have much of change of clothes. Most of my clothes were pretty much destroyed anyway by my training and I’ll have to get new ones later.”
“So, you just wore a ragged old cloak over yourself that makes you look very poor!” Felix said and he shook his head in disbelief. “Even so, that didn’t mean you should grow your hair so long.”
Lakshman put his arm back and caressed his hair while looking pleased with it.
“Well… This long hair is the proof of my training, although I did try to cut it. I tried using Flash Blaze to cut it off, but it only set my hair on fire.”
“Huh?!” Felix exclaimed in disbelief. “You idiot! Who the hell would use such a technique to cut their hair? Can’t you do it in a more normal way?”
Lakshman chuckled and said, “After that, I stopped and decided I’ll just go to a salon to get it done. However, I believe the hair will just grow back with my transformations.”
Felix looked surprised and said, “Transformations? What do you mean?”
Lakshman made a smile as he said, “You see… All this time, I had been concentrating on getting strong that I never considered focusing my energy. Well…! That’s exactly what I did during my training and body did I realise how much energy I was wasting it by my reckless use of techniques. So, I spent almost four months just focusing my energy until I finally succeeded in not wasting any of it.
That was when I sensed a huge depth to my powers. I think you are aware that currently, I only have fifty-percent of my true power unlocked along with the Decisive Player’s sacrificial ten-precent power bonus?”
Felix nodded at him while making a curious expression on his face. Seeing this, Lakshman nodded back and continued explaining.
“Within that fifty-percent power, I realised that I can do more transformations as a Phoenix Titan!” Lakshman said excitedly. “I am able to transform two more times after transforming into the Phoenix Titan! I call them my Phoenix Titan: Burst Form and Phoenix Titan: Final Form.”
“Oh wow…” Felix said in a surprised voice. Then, he looked puzzled and asked, “Um… Would you give me an example of how powerful you are in these forms?”
“Okay…” Lakshman said with a simple nod. “Currently, I’m in my base form and I can clearly sense that you’re still stronger than me.”
Hearing this, Felix nodded proudly and said, “Naturally I would be, but that’s probably because you’re power’s sealed.”
Lakshman chuckled and said, “That’s true, but I become really strong when I transform into the Phoenix Titan form now that I’ve focused my energy.” When Felix looked puzzled, Lakshman said, “Mmm… I think I would be a little bit stronger with you in the Phoenix Mode and me in the Phoenix Titan form.”
Felix‘s eyes widened in surprise and he said, “Wow…! Doesn’t that mean… you’re stronger in your burst form and final form?”
Lakshman nodded and hesitated for a moment before he said, “Actually… I haven’t been able to transform into the Phoenix Titan: Final Form.”
“What? Why not? I thought you could!” Felix said sharply.
Lakshman shook his head and said, “I tried really hard to transform into the final form and my hair grew really long and all, but I was exhausted. I went for it several more times with no good end result with the transformation failing. It seems I couldn’t draw any more power because of the restricted amount of energy I currently have.”
“I see… That is a pity…” Felix said unhappily before blighting up and saying, “Still…! To be able to push yourself into transforming and reach a higher stage with more power and strength is amazing! I wish I can do that.”
“I’m certain everyone wants to go through transformations to become stronger,” Lakshman said with a chuckle. “Most people keep forgetting that I’m a complete normal person in appearance without my Phoenix Titan transformation.”
Felix laughed and asked, “How about the other skills? What rank are you at now?”
“Emperor,” Lakshman said firmly with a confident smile on his face. “I gave up on my transformation efforts after realising I will never get any further than that. That’s when I focused all my concentration on training my mind, my strength and my energy into mastering all the skills from the great amount of knowledge I possess.”
Felix smiled and said, “Good! Now, will you put those skills to good use or than the battlefield?”
Lakshman nodded as he said, “Yes. First, I intend to settle the matter regarding the slavery and then, I will handle the matter regarding the marriage of me and the ladies.”
“I see. You were serious about it,” Felix said quietly.
“I dislike slavery because living beings are not slaves of this world, they are part of this world! We can’t do what we’re not supposed to do!” Lakshman said sharply. “That’s why, I’ve decided to abolish that law as soon as possible!”
Felix remained quiet and listening to Lakshman’s’ fierce speech. Once the speech was done, he nodded and said, “I understand, but to do that, you will need a lot of authority and power.”
“I have power—!” Lakshman began, but he was quickly cut off by Felix.
“You have power, but you don’t have authority! You can’t move the masses or the other kingdoms by force! That becomes a dictatorship and it is a bad direction to head in!”
“So… What’re you saying…?” Lakshman asked suspiciously.
Felix sighed and said, “You and Venezuela love each other and so do the other girls. The people are aware of this and your future wives don’t seem to mind you marrying multiple of them. That’s why, I was thinking that you marry Venezuela first and become kind of Floria Kingdom.”
At those words, Lakshman’s eyes widened in shock and he shouted, “You’re suggesting a political marriage?!”
He banged the desk hard and glared at Felix angrily. Felix out his hands together and stared at back, unflinchingly.
“Damn you, Felix! I love Venezuela and the other girls and I wanted to marry them through love! Now, you’re telling me to marry her for the sake of obtaining political power?! That’s wrong! I can’t do it!”
“Lucky, listen to me,” Felix said seriously. “You want to abolish the slavery law and that would require a vast amount of political power. Now, if you become a king, you will have the sufficient authority to bring the other kingdoms together and get them to understand your thoughts. I know you will force the matter, but you will be treated an enemy of the world if you dare to take that step, Lucky!”
Lakshman was making an uneasy expression on his face and Felix sighed heavily. He thought Lakshman retained the firm stubbornness from his father and thought it will end badly for him.
At that moment, Lakshman looked at Felix and firmly said, “I understand.” As Felix looked eagerly at him, he continued saying, “I’m cure the ladies will also understand the situation and will do their best to help me.”
Felix grinned and said, “That’s great! I’m glad we resolved this matter a lot quicker than I thought.”
Lakshman sighed and said, “I just didn’t want to needlessly put up excuses to avoid what has to be done.” He hesitated for a moment before shrewdly asking, “Or… Were you thinking I was being as stubborn as my father…?”
Felix laughed hastily and said, “Well then, we should go and get you fixed up. There is no way I can let you go meet your lovely ladies looking like a vagabond.”
In an instant, Lakshman moved and he pointed his finger at Felix’s forehead. He had a serious expression on his face that somehow were cold and heartless, which cased Felix to shiver. It was an unnatural expression that made Felix fear for his life at that moment.
“Felix, I’ve just been called that twice now. Anymore times and I will seriously beat the crap out of them!” Lakshman said fiercely.
“S-S-Sorry!” Felix said quickly. “That’s why, we better go get your new clothes and get you a haircut since you need one!”
Lakshman released Felix and leaned back as he said, “Okay. That’s fine by me.”
Felix inwardly sighed and thought, “Phew, but dang… He’s become really firm in his way of handling people.”
“Calm down, master. He was only joking,” Tetra told Lakshman in his mind.
“That’s the second time in one hour! Seriously… I don’t that sort of crap within the hour that I came back!” Lakshman thought unhappily, making her chuckle.
Felix rose to his feet and said, “Let’s go.”
Lakshman stood up and walked out after opening it. Felix walked over to it, but paused at the exit to look at the paper on the floor.
“Phintex Rajas, please clear up and trash the needless items,” he said casually.
“As you commands, master,” said a voice from within the room.
Felix nodded and he closed the door shut as he and Lakshman went out for clothes and a haircut.
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Author's Note
I get the feeling this story needs a wiki or something. That'll probably depend on the readers interest anyway.
Power StatsCharacter Name (s)Power Counter (s)Rank (s)Felix Phoron3,955,770,000 [Base form]
20,570,004,000 [Phoenix Mode]EmperorLakshman Reddy1,398,278,700 [Base form]
20,974,180,500 [Phoenix Titan form]
120,251,968,200 [Phoenix Titan: Burst form]Emperor