Lakshman was in his king’s chamber and he was signing a pair of papers on his desk while his staff were not there. After putting in a lot of effort into the abolishment of slavery within Floria Kingdom, they have taken a week of break. During their absence, it was silent without the usual bustling noise, which initially surprised Lakshman because he had gotten accustomed to the noise.
“It really makes a difference when you work alone,” he muttered as he signed the documents.
He doors to the room opened and Felix walked in while looking around. It had been three days since the staff went on leave and the almost empty room always surprised him whenever he came.
“You called for me?” asked Felix once he arrived and stopped behind his desk.
“I did,” Lakshman said and he patted the signed documents at the side table. “I called you here to give the final approval to this before making them public.”
Felix picked up the documents and asked, “Is it about the Weapon Ranks?”
Lakshman nodded and said, “That’s right. It’s about time I get these rolling out.”
“Hmm…” Felix made a small sound with his mouth as he went through the documents. “Weapon Types: Spear, Bow and Hammer. You’re adding these to the types of weapons someone can master other than the usual Water Sword Style and North Sword Style?”
“Dominic is very good at both spear and bow, which he demonstrated not too long ago. It made me realise that, just because people are bad at them, doesn’t mean I should just ignore their potential. That’s why, I want to add their ranks to the existing weapons ranks as well.”
“I see. It’s good that you’re seeing a wider picture,” Felix said and he sounded impressed.
“Yes, but it makes me wonder why the previous kings never bothered to implement this before me,” Lakshman said while looking perplexed.
“It’s simple…! They didn’t have the kind of power you have to make it possible until now!” Felix said before letting out a small laugh. “They may have had authority, but they lacked the powers of a powerful warrior to make these things possible. Also, don’t forget than more than 4000 years went by with people only caring about comfort than actually fulfilling their roles as leaders.”
‘I know, I know…” Lakshman said wearily. “Anyway, how goes the handling of taking down the Shambasa Religion and all their associates?”
“It was quite easy once you sent that threatening message to all the three kingdoms,” Felix said with a small smile on his face. “Seriously…! I never thought the day would come when you’d threaten a neighbouring kingdom.”
“What choice did I have?” Lakshman asked irritably. “They wouldn’t move if I didn’t force them to! If they had showed their correct behaviour in the past, I would’ve spoken to them nicely. However, their history has been nothing good and that’s why, I threatened them if they didn’t act properly.”
Felix smiled and nodded in understanding when, all of a sudden, both of them became alert. They sensed a strange disturbance taking place outside and as they looked towards the door when a sudden explosion suddenly rang somewhere in the castle.
“What the? Are we under attack, but how?” Felix asked and Lakshman shook his head.
He rose to his feet and moved to the front with Felix when he heard screams of people being attacked. Fearing something bad, he and Felix quickly walked forward when, all of a sudden, several people appeared at the entrance of the door.
“There he is!” the leading man, who appeared to be from the Deigra Beast Clan.
Lakshman watched him in shock and saw his claws were bloody as if they had cut through many bodies. Surrounding him were several more warriors from the same clan as him with claws and mouths red with blood. They had obviously hurt or killed the guards to barge into the castle and their target was Lakshman.
“Die!” the front beast man shouted and he leaped into the air with his sharp claws at the ready to cut Lakshman up.
Lakshman stood there for a moment and watched him soar towards him when Felix suddenly got in front of him. Annoyed, Lakshman used his left hand to grab Felix by the collar and pull him aside as the beast man suddenly increased his speed to rocket towards Lakshman. The moment the beast man reached him, Lakshman moved at incredible speed and he ducked to avoid the lethal claws.
He lunged his right hand out and grabbed the beast man by the face and held him firmly there. The beast man yelped in surprise and before he could do anything, Lakshman turned him around before slamming him hard into the floor, causing the ground to shake momentarily. He lay there unmoving, knocked out from the powerful slam against the floor. Lakshman turned and saw the rest of them leap towards him like wild animals.
“Ugh!”
Lakshman became annoyed and he quickly brought his hands in front of him and released a strong wave of energy towards them, blasting them out of the room in the process. Once they were out, he followed them while ignoring Felix’s shouts of concern.
“Lucky! Wait!” Felix shouted, but he quickly gave up knowing Lakshman would not listen.
Lakshman chased after the nine beast men and arrived at the courtyard where the soldiers had trained earlier. Right now, it was deserted because they were on lunch break and as Lakshman arrived there, he was suddenly surrounded by
“Why are you attacking me? Who sent you to kill me?” Lakshman demanded angrily, but the beast men simply growled in anger. As they transformed into their beast forms, Lakshman sighed and said, “Fine…! I guess I’m just going to have to beat the answers out of you! Energy Blades!”
Two shimmering energy swords appeared at his side and he grabbed them as he looked at the beasts surrounding him. The first to make their move was the beasts and the one behind Lakshman leaped at him in an attempted to bite his head off, but Lakshman quickly reacted. He swung around and dodged the attack while, at the same time, he used his energy blades to cut off the beast’s sharp claws and teeth. Then, they all began attacking him quickly and he moved around chopping of and trimming their sharp claws and fang like teeth with ease while dodging their every attack.
“I could just kill them since they are attempting to kill me, but I have this strange feeling again…” he thought while he continued to dodge around their attacks. “It’s back again five years ago when I was travelled with Darian, Rumble and Marilia. Those wild Triaboros attacked a caravan of people along with a Fribaboros. It turned out the Fribaboros was a mother just searching for its baby those people had kidnapped. Maybe the same thing is happening here…? Maybe they’re attacking me for completely different reason?”
“Hey! Why are you so desperate? Answer me!” Lakshman shouted at them and only received their growling in response. He sighed and muttered, “Seriously…! I’ll have to use Transcendent Talk.”
Just then, he heard a familiar voice shout, “Paralysing Blades!”
In an instant, several materialised out of nowhere and they flew towards the beasts. Six swords in total lodged themselves into each of the beast to paralyse them from making any sort of move. Lakshman turned around to see Dominic holding his Destiny Sword out while looking furious at the beasts that were attacking his friend.
“I heard a commotion earlier and when I came to check, the guards came running to me and said something about a monster attack. At first, I was confused, but then I sensed your power suddenly rising and I realised you were engaged with these monsters. So, I quickly came here to assist,” Dominic explained as he walked over to Lakshman.
“Makes sense,” Lakshman said before waving at him to stop where he was. “Now, stop right there. I’m going to use a technique that could hurt you.”
“O-Okay…” Dominic said and he looked puzzled.
The beasts had fallen all around him, but they still had plenty of energy in them to growl at him. He looked around at them one last time before closing his eyes and clapped his hands together.
“Transcendent Talk!”
In an instant, his body began to glow in a bright glow of light and the light quickly spread everywhere within the courtyard. A moment later, he opened his eyes to find himself standing in a white space with clouds flying in all directions. Lying down around him were nine Deigra Beast Clan warriors in their beast form as they radiated red aura of rage.
As he stood there, he heard small voices from them as they made their way towards him.
“We have to kill him! We have no choice!”
“That’s right! Our families are in danger if we don’t bring his head back!”
“We have to succeed or our wives… our children… they’ll be killed…!”
Lakshman heard them and his eyes narrowed as he was glad his hunch was correct in thinking they attacked him for a completely different reason. He closed his eyes and clapped his hands together and in an instant, he felt his reality change once more. Reopening his eyes, he found himself standing at the courtyard with the beasts lying down with the paralysing swords stuck in their bodies.
“You’re attacking me because your families are in danger, huh?” Lakshman asked curiously and the beasts suddenly stopped growling. They yelped in surprise and he smiled as he continued to say, “It seems whoever sent you here want my head as their gift and failure would be the end of your families.”
The beasts remained silent and looked at him through wide eyes in surprise and he shrugged his shoulders. He used his summoning magic to conjure up a comfortable looking chair and he sat down on it with the beasts still lying down around him.
“Come on, you lot! Answer me already!” he shouted at them and startled them. “Turn back into your forms, otherwise I will seriously shock the hell out of you with my lightning attacks!”
In order to carry out his threat, he activated Lightning Burster magic spell and the lightning began to burst out of the right hand he had held out. Seeing this, the beasts immediately let out a low moan before transforming back into their humanoid forms and that was when he realised that they could not appear like any human like Cantia or the beast man that works for the Slavemancer.
As Dominic appeared to stand and watch from the side lines, the humanoid beast dogs knelt down and said, “W-We humbly apologise for attacking you Phoenix Titan! Please, forgive our murderous actions, but we had no choice! Our families are being held hostage my one of our own kin, who evolved to become stronger than the rest of us.”
“On of your own?” Lakshman asked curiously and he wondered if it was the one he was thinking about.
They nodded their heads at him while one of them said, “Yes! He’s the guy who works for the Slavemancer.”
“Ah…! So… It was him…!” Lakshman thought and he inwardly smiled. Outwardly, he appeared to be serious as he said, “Mind telling me everything from the beginning, but before that… Dom! Tell Felix to tend to the guy who I knocked to the floor in my chamber.”
“O-Okay, but—!” Dominic began and he looked around at the humanoid beasts.
“Go already!” Lakshman said irritably and Dominic hurried away to the king’s chamber. Once he was gone, Lakshman turned around and was surprised to see they had all gathered in front of him while looking worried. He sighed and asked, “Tell me from the beginning of what happened.”
They retold the events of the past few days, which took several minutes to explain. According to what they said, the beast man that worked for Slavemancer apparently arrived at their homes and attacked his own kin before beating down all the men. Then, he took the women and children as hostages and said he would see to that they receive a proper funeral if they did not successfully return with the head of Lakshman Reddy. After that, they travelled here using their exceptionally built beast bodies, but used their humanoid forms to enter the capital of the kingdom.
Hearing this, Lakshman clapped a hand over his head in annoyance and thought, “Damn…! Make a mental note to see Wolfenstine to see if he’s done with that Barrier Generator!”
“You’re our target, so we didn’t hurt your guards by that much.”
“Yes! We simply scratched them to make sure they wouldn’t come after us.”
“I see,” Lakshman said and he nodded in understanding. “At least, I’m glad there wasn’t any needless death, otherwise I would’ve had to punish you lot! However, didn’t you think it was a bad idea to attack the king of a kingdom like that?”
“We… thought about that, but our priority is to protect our families,” one of them said and all of them appeared to be sad.
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Lakshman looked at them and sighed heavily before saying, “Fine! I understand you didn’t attack me because you wanted to, but your circumstances forced you to and I will accept those circumstances. However, if that man learns of your failure, he will ruthlessly murder your families without a second thought. That’s why, I will lend you my assistance in handling this matter.”
“Y-You will?!” they asked quickly and Lakshman nodded firmly.
“Of course because I have a bone to pick with that guy as well, plus the guy he is working for. Both of them need to go down and this just gives me that opportunity to do just that,” Lakshman said and he smiled at them, causing the beasts to smile in happiness.
Later, when he told Felix the same time, Felix clapped his hand over his head in disbelief. He could not believe those people attempted to kill the Phoenix Titan over something like that, but Lakshman quickly stated how their families are important to him.
“I’m sure you’d be pretty serious if Rasha and Sasha were kidnapped by a fellow family member, right?”
Felix looked at him coldly and said, “In my case, I would’ve blown the guy to bits before I let that happen.”
Lakshman looked a little taken aback at how firmly Felix said those words.
“Uh… A-Anyway…! We need to help these guy out and taking that down at the same time is the way to go,” Lakshman told him as he quickly recovered his firmness. “Go alert members of the Phintex Rajas to prepare for an assault on the Enslavement Department in Rodfox Kingdom! In the meantime, call for the meeting with the other kingdoms! It’s time to take slavery down once and for all.”
Felix nodded and said, “Understood, but that will take a few days of time to contact each of the kingdoms. By the way, how should I go about handling the Rodfox Kingdom? Isn’t their king worried about their relationship with the Slavemancer?”
“Even if it takes forceful means to bring him back, do it!” Lakshman said firmly.
Felix nodded in agreement and he set his plans in calling for the Four Kingdom Meeting, which he sent a Phintex Raja to each kingdom to call them to it. Each of the kingdom’s kings were surprised when they received the message for the meeting, but they knew they must go since it was the Phoenix Titan calling the meeting.
Several days after the attack of the beasts, it was finally decided the meeting was going to be held in Floria Kingdom inside the castle. Each of the kings would be arriving with the assistance of the Phintex Raja using their Warp magic to travel long distances in a short amount of time. While they were preparing for the meeting, Felix met with Rasha and explained what was going to happen, which she was slightly apprehensive about.
“I heard the Slavemancer controls people through eye contact or something. How will you counter his eyes?” she had said to her husband while looking worried.
Felix shrugged his shoulders and said, “I am worried about the same thing, but Lucky said not to worry and told us to meet him before leaving for Rodfox Kingdom with those ten Deigra Beast Clan members.”
“I see…” she said slowly and she nodded in understanding. “I can’t believe one of their own kin used them to assassinate a king. That’s so sad, but it makes matters worse that he has hostages! You better make sure the hostages are fine and safe, otherwise Lakshman will be really angry at us and the clan!”
“I know. I’m well aware of the risks involved here, but this isn’t my first time handling a tough job. So, don’t worry because I am confident that failure is only twenty-percent with us having higher chances of us achieving victory!” Felix told her confidently.
A few days after that, which was 34th of Beitec, the Four Kingdom Meeting was going to held around ten, going by the times stated clearly on the Crystal Clocks. Early in the morning, Felix and a small group of Phoenix Clan members arrived at the castle before departing for Rodfox Kingdom on their mission. They arrived at the courtyard where the soldiers usually trained, but they were not training that day. The arrival of kings from the three other kingdoms put their top priority into defending them.
Lakshman was waiting for them along with a fully armoured Dominic, the Sword Titan. It seemed that he was also going along with them, which relieved Felix because his power of swords and skills would certainly come in handy to be used against the Slavemancer. Also standing beside Lakshman was none other than the Scientific King, Wolfenstine. His presence with Lakshman surprised Felix because he thought the guy would be
“I’m glad you came before leaving because I was worried you might leave with talking to me,” Lakshman said as he smiled at them.
“We’re not that impatient to go,” Felix said and the rest of them nodded in agreement.
“Right. Anyway, Wolfenstine. Give them the stuff I ordered you to make a while ago,” Lakshman said to him.
“Of course,” Wolfenstine said and he grinned before extending his hand out.
There was a bright glow of light and in an instant, a plate full of strange looking glasses materialised. Felix and the warriors looked at them and thought they looked bizarre with the way they were strangely shaped. As he took the plate to each of them, the warriors took one each and put them on. There was nothing different about them, except it made them looked really weird.
“What are these?” Felix asked as he examined the glasses.
“I call them the Resonance Glasses!” Wolfenstine declared proudly. “A while back, Lakshman came to see me after coming back from that party at the Slavemancer’s mansion and told me to make him glasses that had the power to protect the user from demon eyes. I was immediately excited at the prospect of making protective glasses for such things and thus, Resonance Glasses are born!”
“Oh…!” the Phoenix Clan warriors let out their voices in amazement.
“What exactly do they do?” Felix asked curiously.
Wolfenstine clicked his finger and said, “They work by simply absorbing the energy from the Demon Eyes: Controller and release it into nature. So far, there have been no side effects of the sort that could affect you all in battle, so don’t lose them and make sure to keep them on at all times!”
Felix raised an eyebrow and asked, “You made these without testing them out? What if they fail?”
“What? You’re doubting me?” Wolfenstine asked indignantly and he looked hurt. “I’ve always been good at the demon stuff since they are fascination to learn about and I did once meet the great Immortal Demon Empress Kaizukamra and got the chance to ask her about those demon eyes that she possess and can grant to others.”
“You met her? I never knew about that!” Lakshman asked and everyone stared at him in amazement.
Wolfenstine shrugged his shoulders and said, “That was over a hundred years ago when I was moving from continent to continent to understand the different properties of the land, the nature and the elements. During those travels, I met Kaizukamra and her husband, the Immortal Demon King, Baldrick Driagad.”
“That’s amazing!” Dominic said as he looked at him with an impressed look on his face.
“Thank you!” Wolfenstine and he inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement.
Lakshman nodded approvingly before turning to face Felix and the rest of the Phoenix Clan warriors that gathered in front of him. These are the warriors that would be attacking the stronghold of the Slavemancer while, in the meantime, he waged his own battle against the kings of the other kingdoms. He looked at each of them and saw determination on their faces as they were prepared to carry out the order given to them by him, the Phoenix Titan.
“Alright! It’s time you better go because the kings will be arriving shortly,” Lakshman told them and Felix nodded.
“I agree,” Felix said and he turned around to address his men. “Right! I’ve already had a Phintex Raja show me the location that is pretty safe for us to arrive at near the Slavemancer’s stronghold. We arrive silently, but when we attack, we fight them with all we got! Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir!” the men replied in a loud firm voice.
“Good!” Felix said approvingly and he nodded once. Then, he looked around and asked, “By the way, where are the beast men?”
“Over here!” said a voice and he turned to the side to see them arrive walking towards them surrounded by guards with spears.
“Huh? You’re only coming now?” he asked them while looking puzzled.
“Sorry, but I was knocked out pretty badly from being slammed hard into the floor by the Phoenix Titan,” said the beast man at the front, who seemed to be the leader of his group. “Unfortunately, the doctor wanted to check me through thoroughly before I was finally released.”
“I see,” Felix said and he nodded in understanding. He turned around to face Lakshman and said, “We’ll be leaving you for a while and we will return with victory in hand.”
Lakshman nodded and said, “Yes and I too shall be victorious in my battle of words with the other kings. Now, depart before the other kings get here.”
“Understood. Phoenix Portal!” Felix said with his hand held out in front of him.
A black hole appeared in front of him and widened to a large size to allow for a full grown human to walk through it. He nodded one last time at Lakshman before walking first into the Phoenix Portal and he was soon followed by his men and the two beast warriors from the Deigra Beast Clan.
As Dominic walked towards it, Lakshman gave him a thumps up and said, “Give them hell!”
“I plan to!” Dominic replied firmly with a small smile before stepping into the portal.
The Phoenix Portal remained open for a few more seconds before closing and vanishing into thin air. Lakshman stood there for a moment longer before turning to face Wolfenstine as he had something to say to him.
“Wolfenstine, I want you to immediately go and prepare the Barrier Generators to activate it over the entire kingdom. I suspect the Slavemancer will try to unleash some sort of lethal power against us once things start moving in my favour.”
“That’s no problem,” Wolfenstine said and Lakshman nodded at him.
“Now, time to go and meet the kings to win this battle of mine,” he said quietly and Wolfenstine patted him gently on the shoulder.
With that, Lakshman began walking towards the room where he would be meeting with the kings while being escorted by the guards. Meanwhile, Felix, the Phoenix Clan warriors, the beast warriors and Dominic arrived at a secluded area within the forest. They continued walking through it and found themselves to be very close the mansion where the Slavemancer lived in. It was quiet for the moment as both Felix and Dominic assessed the situation.
“From within that mansion, I can detect a lot of life signals similar to the Deigra Beast Clan warriors!” Felix said and Dominic nodded in agreement as he sensed them as well.
“So, they are alive?” one of them asked quietly and Felix nodded.
“It seems they are injured, but they seemed to be doing fine for the moment. However, it seems there are a lot of strong warriors inside. I suspect they are wearing the Amplification Rods to be strong. Damn the nobles for making such a crude equipment to boost one’s power,” Felix said in a low frustrated voice.
“It can’t be helped,” Dominic told him calmingly. “Anyway, everyone…! Prepare yourselves. The enemy appears to be strong and let’s move in quickly to take them down. Prolonged battle will only drain us of our energy while he summons reinforcements to take care of us. Let’s take him down before that happens!”
They all nodded at him in understanding with serious expressions on their faces. Dominic turned to face Felix and was surprised to see him looking at him with through narrowed eyes.
“Nice of you to steal my lines,” Felix said to him indignantly.
Dominic shrugged his shoulders and said, “It doesn’t matter who says it as long as the message gets conveyed.”
“You’re right,” Felix said as he conceded the point. Then, in a louder voice, he said, “Let’s go!”
Together, they all quickly moved forward and with the element of surprise by their side, they attacked the mansion with great force.
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Author's Note
Finally! Time for the counterattack! I'm going to do like a split chapter or something to include the meeting between the kings and attack on the mansion. How does that sound? Please comment and share your thoughts so I can adjust how I write the next battle and meeting chapters.