“Alestor…! What have you done?!” The king exclaimed in an alarmed voice, glaring angrily at the man before him. “How dare you kill my Royal Guards?!”

His friend, named Alestor, raised an eyebrow in amusement and asked, “Them? Royal Guards? Are you serious?”

“What do you mean? Have your eyes gone blind?! Can’t you see them for who they are with their armour?!”

“And I ask: have you gone blind because of old age?!” Alestor retorted, putting heavy emphasis on the word “you.”

There was a collective intake of breath from all around at the daring this man was doing in insulting their king, the ultimate authority and the ruler of their world.

“Watch what you’re saying to your king, Alestor!” The king said warningly, a dangerous look forming on his face.

“And you realise what kind of situation you were about to be in!” Alestor retorted in a furious voice. He pointed at the dead bodies and said, “They are imposters, assassins that infiltrated the Royal Guards and positioned themselves in order to eliminate you. Too bad, I got wind of their schemes and hurried over to stop it. However, the silly guards tried to bar my way and found out the hard way to not get in my way.”

The king blinked in surprise, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously for a moment when he asked, “Are you serious?”

“Do I look like I’m making a joke?” Alestor said, quite annoyed.

The king took it seriously and said, “Guards! Remove their visors and check them.”

The remaining Royal Guards, quickly reached the spot of the dead bodies and removed their helmets, looking quite amazed. The faces were quite distorted and misshapen, indicating the roughly organised assassin organisation that runs in behind the society.

When they informed their king of their findings, he was thoroughly taken aback with shock and turned to stare, in disbelief, at his saviour. Indeed, had he not arrived in time, then the assassins would have moved in to take his life without him ever knowing how it had happened. Although he was grateful, he was also annoyed that Alestor would speak to him in such a rough manner, even if his personality had always been that way. Still, he knew he must keep his face and act his position as king.

“Very well. It seems that I stand corrected. Well done, Alestor. You saved my life.”

Alestor merely shrugged his shoulders and wore a smug smile on his face when he said, “Well then, since his plan has failed, I’m sure the real assailant will be sweating in his pants right about now.”

The king, including everyone else, was surprised to hear the confidence in which he spoke, and the king asked, “The way you say it as if you know who the one that put this attack on me? Do you know who it is?”

“Yes! I got wind of their plan, and who it was behind the scenes. A little prodding in the right way can make the other person want to spill everything they know. After all, I’m good at it.” Then, he turned to face in a direction with a smug smile and said, “Isn’t that right, Minister Ken?”

At the mention of his name, a man from the audience jumped in fright and took a hasty step backward. This motion was not missed by the others, who all quickly moved away from him as all attention fell on him. The Royal Guards walked over and forcefully removed his mask, revealing the man to be of average height, a well-trimmed black moustache and an angry look on his face.

“Unhand me, I say! Unhand me! I’m innocent!” He claimed furiously, but the Royal Guards would not let him go.

The king raised a hand as a gesture, causing the Royal Guards to let go of the man, who began straightening his clothes. He looked furiously towards Alestor first before turning his attention back to his king, putting on an air of concern.

“Your highness! Please, believe me! I am innocent! I have absolutely no idea why such an attack would have been placed against you, and I certainly don’t have anything against you or the royal family. Honest! I even served you well for the past few years, dutifully fulfilling my tasks and finally been giving the privilege of a nobleman. I wouldn’t, in any way, cause you any kind of harm, your highness. I swear it!”

The king gave him a piercing look that seemed to bore into him, then looked at Alestor and said, “He’s right, Alestor. I doubt Ken would’ve gone against me after all the work he and his family put into being where they are right now.”

“Your highness, surely you don’t believe in that man?” Alestor asked, looking annoyed once more. “He’s clearly lying through his teeth!”

“No, your highness!” Ken protested with all his might and pointed towards Alestor. “That man’s trying to put all the blame on me so that I take the fall, but his plan is plain and obvious, your highness. He’s the one responsible for planning the attack, then he came as if acting the hero to get in your good books and cause my downfall! He dislikes me, your highness, so I wouldn’t put it past him to come up with this dirty scheme to attack me.”

“Oh? So, I’d sink to your level of playing dirty and acting behind things to get your way?” Alestor retorted, flaring up in an instant.

“Enough, Alestor,” the king said, silencing him with a powerful voice of authority. “I will decide who’s speaking the truth here, not you! Do you understand?”

“As you wish,” Alestor replied and sighed in exasperation, folding his arms in the process.

While this was proceeding, Lakshman had been listening silently to their conversation and finally decided to speak to Asura about his thoughts on this matter, which was quite obvious to him.

“That Ken guy… he’s lying.”

“Yes, and it’s so painfully obvious with the use of Elemental Sense,” remarked Asura in an exasperated voice. “Still, I never thought it was possible to detect truths and lies with Elemental Sense.”

“I didn’t either until I started sensing it when my training reached its peak,” replied Lakshman confidently.

“Good, but what will you do now? How’ll you inform the king? At this rate, that Alestor guy’s going to get all the blame at the end,” stated Asura in a concerned voice.

Lakshman nodded silently in agreement, thinking on the strategy he wanted to use in clearing Alestor. He was already surprised that the assassins were capable of hiding their killing intent until it was too late to do anything. It made him remember the ancient days when the Phintex Rajas were originally a separate clan called the Assassin Clan. They were skilled warriors that were capable of erasing their presence completely, but they lost to Asura and finally joined his regime in dominating the world under the Phoenix Clan label.

While he was thinking, he suddenly sensed killing intent coming from Ken and turned to see Ken nervously inch his hand towards the device attached to his right wrist. He appeared to be planning to perform some kind of action to bring harm to either Alestor or the king. Either way, he got the opening he was looking for, and Lakshman raised his voice to point it out.

“What are you doing, Mister Ken?”

He asked in such a loud voice that it momentarily startled Ken, making him freeze in his motion to move his hand towards his device. At the same time, everyone turned and caught sight of his hand’s movement before he hastily moved it away, a nervous smile appeared while small sweat beads formed on his face. He proceeded to wipe the sweat away and addressed him in a polite manner.

“What I’m doing? Nothing. See?”

Lakshman shook his head and said, “No. You were clearly trying to reach out to that device attacked to your wrist. Isn’t that right, everyone?”

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“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s right.”

“He was moving his hand to it like the hero pointed out.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Ken exclaimed in a sharp voice. “I was just going to place my hand there. That’s all. I had no ill intentions behind it. Please, believe me.”

“Oh? Then, why did you suddenly take it back and act as if nothing happened? Because you were nervous? Or… was it because you’re planning to harm his highness or Mister Alestor?”

Ken was so shocked that he was rendered speechless, thoroughly bewildered by Lakshman’s deduction skills. The king also caught up with Lakshman’s statement and turned his attention to Ken, repeating Lakshman’s question in the process.

“Answer the question, Ken. You can’t lie to me, otherwise, I’ll have you slain here and now,” he said, a deadly glare that seemed so frightening that the hall became tense with nervousness.

Ken remained motionless, fidgeting on the spot, before giving in and saying, “Yes. I planned to kill you.”

This came as a surprise to the king, who was ready to clear his name if the truth was something else. Startled, he asked, “Why? What have I done wrong to you in order for you to take such a drastic decision?”

The master mind behind the assassination attempt remained silent for a moment before saying, “For my father.”

“What?” The king asked, looking surprised. “Your father? Who—?”

“Martin Gridlock,” stated Ken, causing the king to become alarmed. “He’s my father.”

“You’re his son? But… I thought his son disappeared.”

“I went into hiding, changed my name and slowly worked myself all the way up to this point just to kill you, the man whom you executed for failing his mission.”

“Yes,” the king replied, wearing a serious look on his face. “He failed to fight to the best of his abilities, protect his comrades and allowed an entire city’s populace to get wiped out. Execution was the right decision for such an irreversible deed!”

“It’s unfair!” Ken shouted, angrily glaring at them. “He fought his tooth and nail as hard as he could and failed. For such a reason, you had him killed! It’s just so that you can coverup that you didn’t send adequate reinforcements to back him up against the aliens!”

“This and that are two different matters completely, and he failed the mission he was tasked with. As a result of his failure and the loss of countless lives, his execution was a decided matter. Now, as for what to do with you—!”

“You won’t do anything to anyone when you’re dead!” Ken exclaimed, and he pulled his wrist sleeve back and clicked several buttons on his device before aiming his hand at the king.

There was a collective look of shock on everyone’s faces as particles of light gathered around as he prepared to fire a deadly shot at the king. In the next moment, however, he howled in pain and clutched his side, where he was missing a limb. It fell at his feet and blood gushed out rapidly, which Ken attempted to stop with his hand while a great deal of pain stung him.

The one responsible for severing his arm was none other than Gram, who was wielding his hero weapon with one hand. He was still wearing his mask and it gave him an intimidating air that caused the onlookers to become fearful of him and back away as far as they can go. The Tempest Hero had acted immediately by materializing his hero weapon, the Silvert Sword and moved at super speed to cut his enemy’s arm off.

Gram turned around and eyed the injured assailant with a loathing look on his face that no one could see. In the next moment, he raised his sword and slammed the flat side down on top of Ken’s head, causing his knees to buckle and made him collapse on the floor. Everyone winced at the sound of impact and made disgruntled expressions upon seeing the brutal action.

With Ken bowing his head down, Gram walked around to face his front and aimed his sword next to his neck. Then, in a deadly voice void of any shred of mercy, he asked, “You question the absolute authority of your king, the ruler of your world? You must be insane. A traitor to your own kind.”

Ken clutched his severed limb area and looked up to glare mincingly at Gram while saying, “My father died in an unfair judgement!”

“Unfair? What’s unfair here is your cowardly tactics,” said Gram, causing Ken to widen his eyes in shock. “You hide in the shadows, sneak around our backs, slowly gaining strength through deceit and treachery, but always act nice, polite and humble in front of us. It makes me sick. You make me sick. You’re worse than the trash that you call as your father responsible for the deaths of many innocent lives.”

This made Ken to widen his eyes in shock, and he began to shout, “You bas—!”

Before he could complete his statement, he was cut off by his head flying off his neck, arching through the air and falling a few meters away. Gram had dealt a fatal blow to their enemy without waiting for his enemy to finish his dialogue. He made it clear as he said in a voice full of disgust.

“Silencing a disgusting creature, like you, is the only justifiable action to take,” he said, and swung his sword down to cause blood to splatter the floor.

Many women let out shrill screams in fright at the sudden decapitation of one of the nobles they had come to know and like. Seeing the still look of shock on his dead face frightened many and, in turn, it frightened them off the Tempest Hero, who was eying the headless body with cold merciless eyes, which they all could see out of the mask hiding his face.

“Damn… Was that necessary?” Vikram muttered, eying the scene with a disgruntled look on his face.

“Pity, Ken. He should’ve realized revenge would get him killed,” commented Maxwell, closing his eyes for a moment to pray for Ken’s passing.

“Sad,” said Martin shortly, looking away from the unsightly scene.

Fred and Natsu averted their gaze from the sight as they felt it was too much to see. Ward continued to face in that direction with his eyes closed, feeling a little confused as he did not see or sense what just happened. William, on the other hand, was looking at Gram with a new respect for his decisiveness and brutality. Only Lakshman was feeling sorry for Ken, but from another perspective.

“You know, Ken isn’t wrong. It was unfair to execute his father for something like that and then killing his son like this. It’s awfully wrong,” thought Lakshman, his eyes cast down in sadness.

“You’re right. This doesn’t feel right,” said Asura in his mind in agreement, “however, keep in mind that we don’t have the authority or the chance to challenge the ways the law works in this world. Let’s stick to our own businesses without interfering in other’s matters. It’s safer for us right now.”

“Point taken,” thought Lakshman quietly.

Suddenly, he sensed something and the level of power alarmed him so much that he automatically widened his eyes in shock. At the same time, as Gram made to leave, the still kneeling headless body of Ken started emitting particles of light. A moment later, several layers of magic circles formed beneath the body, gathering lethal energy in the process and threatening the great hall, with all inhabitants in place.

“Self-destruction?!” Alestor exclaimed, widening his eyes in shock at the recognition of the magic formula.

“Deactivate that spell!” The king ordered all the people present.

“Too late!” Alestor exclaimed in alarm. “Everyone! Get away!”

While everyone attempted to get away as far as they possibly could, Asura gave Lakshman specific instructions by saying, “Ignore everyone and protect only Erza! We need to show her that we’re capable of protecting her no matter the trouble.”

“Ignore the people when they’re in dire trouble? Are you serious?!” Lakshman exclaimed in his mind. “I can’t do it, Asura! I can’t let these people face such danger!”

“Don’t be stupid, Lakshman!” Asura yelled angrily. “They summoned us into this world, they got us involved in this mess, so it’s their fault that this is happening and they are solely responsible for it. Since our woman will be affected, it’s best that we focus only in saving Erza so that she falls in love with us for the future!”

Lakshman felt the weight of such a decision, to ignore the people for the sake of one person, or focus on everyone and show his true powers. He wanted to not reveal that he was far more capable than he let on, but he soon came to the realization that standing by and watching was not like him. At the same time, Asura’s opinion clashed strongly with him and, one part of him wants to follow it because it will get him closer to Erza.

“But, is it worth it after ignoring the people in danger?”

“We helped them out on that alien problem because it would’ve made our life difficult as well, but this is different. This is their problem and it’s their responsibility to clean up their own mess,” replied Asura firmly.

Lakshman was still torn between, but a decision had to be made because the energy suddenly pulsated, causing the great hall to shake violently. Coming to a quick and drastic decision to protect Erza while ignoring everyone else, he made to head over to where she was, struggling to get to her feet.

“Please wait, hero!” His dance partner called, and she grabbed the hem of his clothes tightly. “Please, save everyone!”

The other heroes were proceeding to quickly get the people to leave, but they also knew how dangerous this was getting. Yet, this girl came back to request something off of him, something that he was willing to do but is conflicted act upon. The time to think was no more as the magic pulsated once more, sending a powerful shock wave in all directions. Then, a violent flash of light occurred at the center, incinerating the body of the deceased Ken and spreading everywhere at high speed.

As the girl gasped in horror and clutched his robes tightly, Lakshman turned to face the oncoming wave of light and thought, “Sorry, Asura, but it’s not like me to ignore people when they cry out for help!” Before Asura could say anything and, as the wave reached him, Lakshman clapped his hands together and shouted, “Thousand Army!”

There was a violent flash from his side, causing the lady to get buffeted by the strong wind and fall to the floor. She slowly rose to a sitting position and watched in horror as the flash of white light soared towards her. Losing all hope, she closed her eyes and waited for her inevitable demise, but felt nothing. Opening her eyes for a fraction, she caught something that made her eyes fully open in disbelief.

Lakshman was standing there, using his right arm in a defensive position to shield him and her from the enormous energy from decimating them. He had his teeth gritted tightly and the pain he felt from his burning skin was fierce, but he ignored it all as he stood his ground as firm as he possibly could while withstanding the wave. His female dance partner watched in awe from where she couched behind him at the incredible display of strength he showed.

Suddenly, the blinding wave of light intensified and engulfed them, and she cried out one word before everything went white.

“Hero!”