The loud cheers continued to rain upon Kane's departure from the platform.

This made Zachariel suspicious.

He remembered Luiz saying the criticisms that Kane received from the past days.

`Unless all of these people are loyal to the Royal Family…`

Then his doubt should've been resolved. However, his mind was telling him that something didn't add up to the atmosphere inside the coliseum.

Zachariel, on several occurrences, spotted these 'audience' glancing at him with narrowed eyes.

They would then whisper something to each other's ears which he could not hear properly.

`Even I could hear Emperor Marcus's voice from far away that time.`

Moreso, if they were just ordinary people, there wasn't much need for secrecy.

Not unless these people were here to deal with him, or they planned something else to which he was a part, either a hindrance or assistance to whatever it was.

Zachariel ignored them and his eyes trailed to where Kane went.

He wouldn't be able to know the end of things this way. Guessing would only burden him and cloud his mind.

Ignorance was bliss, after all.

…

"Prince Kane, congratulations for your indisputable win against the elden princess.", a tall pony-tailed girl greeted him flirtatiously.

Kane snorted, "Priscilla, you don't have to state the obvious. The eldens were never a match to me in the first place. I only let them taste victory on my previous match against Thessalia."

"Oh, my prince! You're so vicious. Playing against your prey like that, wouldn't everyone dislike you for it?", Priscilla jumped on him with a sarcastic voice.

"Well, don't I have you, Priscilla?", Kane replied, gently caressing her beautiful face.

Both of their eyes looked at one another. It was a very romantic scene.

Priscilla smiled.

"Prince Kane, congratulations on your win.", Hagio bowed at him.

His large stature made it comical for everyone who saw it.

After all, nobody would expect this kind of behavior from burly men like Hagio whose body was plastered with ripped muscles all over.

"Hagio, it's unfortunate that you weren't able to participate in this event. Otherwise…", Kane glanced at Helena who was sulking on her seat, "We would've won this event already."

Victoria became wary of Kane. His words put Helena in a more depressive mood than before.

`He's right, I'm just a waste of space for this skirmish event…`

Kane ignored them and went back to his seat.

"Hmm? Where is Sir Matthias?", Kane asked.

He was longing for that instructor's praise to him.

"Sir Matthias said he wasn't feeling well and went to the restrooms.", Hagio respectfully answered.

"Is that so?", Kane wondered.

After all, a high-level cultivator wouldn't feel unwell unless they were poisoned or suffered mana exhaustion.

"Prince, when can you teach me about that spell you did before? That was awesome!", Priscilla tugged at him like she was his girlfriend.

"You mean my elemental clone? Priscilla, I'll teach you about it at a later date. That spell is very dangerous.", he warned.

"Oh, you're not so fun, my prince!", Priscilla put out her tongue.

…

The group of elden Prospects rushed down below.

Thessalia was carried by an Imperium guard while two healers followed them.

There was a room with a recovery bed on the side.

They entered it and put Thessalia on the bed.

"How is our princess?!", Veidora shouted.

"She's okay."

Veidora doubted them not until he saw that the burnt marks on Thessalia's body were gone.

He gulped in awe at how skillful these human healers were.

"Your princess is just unconscious. She will wake up in a while. You should leave some room for her to breathe. We'll be going now.", they left the room.

"Damn, that Kane sure is ruthless! Can't he be soft on her?", Veidora gripped his small hands.

His childish voice made his complaints sound like a joke.

Al'dous observed Thessalia, then noticed that Raffila was standing farther than the rest.

"Raffila, is something the matter?", his demonic voice startled Raffila.

"Uh, eh, nothing! Nothing!", she waved her hands in panic.

She hid the fact that a creepy aura took over Thessalia earlier. Otherwise, Veidora would march out of the room and protest in the face of Emperor Marcus for cheating.

That was how Veidora valued Thessalia so much.

And Raffila knew that it would create tension between the two empires. Although she held contempt against the humans, it wasn't something that would lead to an all-out war.

Rolling her mind on what to say next, Raffila jumped out of her panicky expression.

"Eh, have you seen Althea? She hasn't been with us for a while now. The next match should be about her and that Jeremias, right?"

"What care do I have about that disgusting angel? She might as well lead us to our defeat in the last match!", Veidora annoyingly blurted out.

"Veidora!", Al'dous let out an aura of suppression.

He didn't think of Althea as scum or trash, though not as an acquaintance either.

The only thing in his mind was that Althea was a potential rival in his eyes.

And someone like Al'dous abhors the idea of underestimating his rivals and letting others bad mouth them like what Veidora did.

Veidora snorted, not caring about Al'dous' suppression.

Amidst their conflict, cheers resounded in the coliseum again and they could hear the announcer's voice even this far inside the room.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"And to our last match, ladies and gentlemen! Are you all ready?!"

"Yes! Fucking start it already!"

"Win win win! We can do this, human Prospects!"

Hearing the lively atmosphere, the announcer grinned and continued.

"Then we will start it now!"

"We have Jeremias Pickler from the Great Human Imperium!"

"Go, Jeremy! Win this match for us!"

"Damn kid, you better not fuck this up!"

Jeremias's classmates from Class M1-A cheered for him. Much louder compared to Helena and Victoria.

`Hmph, look at how enthusiastic our classmates are when it's my time to shine! They can't even compare to this at all!`

He became smug about it and smirked while making his way to the platform.

…

"His opponent will be… Althea Quelsades from the Great Elden Conglomerate!"

Her last name sparked interest within the circle of the deans and instructors.

"Quelsades?"

"A member of those well-known family of angels?"

"Oh, then this will be a good match then!"

"Do you know who this Jeremias is?", Dean James asked around.

"Dean James, he is under my supervision.", Instructor Jaylen replied, "Jeremias is a hard-working student and has attained great progress in his cultivation during the past few months."

"If I reckon, he could battle against top silver-level fighters in the arena without much difficulty."

Instructor Jaylen was satisfied with Jeremias' improvement from being always beaten down to ranking up his wins in the arena.

Meanwhile, Victoria and Helena received contempt from Instructor Jaylen. He kept on berating them on how lazy the two girls were.

Although they were one of the top students in his class, the improvement in their power and skills was far too negligible compared to Jeremias.

"Then we will be expecting for him to win this match then, Instructor Jaylen!", James laughed in excitement.

Even though he said that only Kane's match mattered in this event, deep in his heart, he also wanted to win the event and show the eldens who was boss.

"You will not be disappointed, Dean James.", Instructor Jaylen said with strong conviction.

While the deans and instructors talked to themselves, Emperor Marcus received a small paper with cryptic words inscribed in them.

When he rolled the paper open, his eyes widened for a moment then returned to normal.

He rolled it back and crumbled it before burning the paper to ashes.

`Huh, it looks like the plan is going well. With the distraction of the demon beasts attacking the front lines, those rats aren't here.`

He sighed in relief and leaned further back on his high seat.

`We could preserve the worthy ones while killing the rest.`

A few days earlier, he received a report that a massive wave of demon beasts would be attacking several cities in the Great Human Imperium.

It lifted Emperor Marcus's mood.

Some Prospects started showing a behavior of going against his rule like Edward Ellington, son of Tyson Ellison, an Imperium Golden Guardian.

Moreover, the Golden Guardians themselves were suspicious too, especially when Lena 'adopted' Zachariel into the Summer Household.

As such, the incoming attack was an excellent opportunity in displacing these rats to somewhere far away from the Imperium Capital City.

`Even if they plan to stage a coup, they won't be.`, Emperor Marcus thought.

After all, the most capable fighters were now in the borders. That includes those who were harboring similar revolutionary thoughts of overthrowing Emperor Marcus in his rule.

What could the revolutionary faction possibly do?

Even if they had reserves in their ranks, the power of the Imperium guards was something that couldn't be overcome easily.

This would give him an almost certain possibility of finally disposing of Zachariel without the interference of other parties.

The fact that his enemies would soon perish delighted him.

…

Somewhere inside the Crossroad City, Great Human Imperium.

As a city that served as a converging point of various cities, and the only city directly linked to the Imperium Capital City, one could imagine how many people were here every day.

However, an oppressive aura seemed to have enveloped Crossroad city today.

Rows of Imperium guards marched the streets, ruthlessly barging inside public establishments while dragging people out of the buildings.

"Look! This one has a badge that is very similar to those who are part of the revolutionary faction! Beat him to death!", the captain guard pointed at a civilian.

The person was frightened. He took three steps backward, stuttering to reply against the accusations from the captain guard.

"No! What are you talking about? I'm just a… Ah!"

Two Imperium guards charged over and beat his body.

While they did the job, the captain guard walked over to the center and announced.

"Listen, you damn fucks! The Imperium guards are on a strict patrol today! Everyone who is part of the revolutionary faction should surrender now! If you don't…"

Soon, the man lay dead on the ground with his head bashed like a mashed potato. The captain guard went over and tapped the dead body using his scabbard.

"You will end up like this.", he said with a demonic smile plastered on his face.

"Anyone who reports a suspected person will be rewarded heftily! If they are proven to be one, then your rewards will be increased! Do your job as a civilian of the Great Human Imperium, and give us Imperium guards and your families a favor!"

Many people who watched the scene screamed in fear and ran away.

Then, the Imperium guards continued marching while sternly looking at the civilians on the sides.

"What are you looking at? You want to mess with us?"

The people backed off, hurrying to get out of the area quickly lest they be accused like the dead man.

`Hmph, these bunch of rebellious bastards! Good thing that His Imperial Majesty finally acted upon them! Let's see how long these people will last while they continue to go against His Imperial Majesty's will!`, the captain guard shouted in his mind.

Today was the day they were ordered to 'hunt suspicious people' who were part of the revolutionary faction and punish them in any way necessary.

Such operation spanned the entire Great Human Imperium.

Dead bodies piled on the ground while being trampled on by the Imperium guards with nothing but a look of indifference in their eyes.

They marched around, leaving no stone unturned.

The aura of death and oppression filled the once lively Crossroad City.

Today should be a merry day because of the skirmish event, however, the daunting mood put such happy thoughts away.

Little did they know that a surprise awaited them.

"Can't you see this, my dear brothers and sisters? Do you see how cruel Emperor Marcus has become?", a handsome young man narrated while they stood atop the rooftop of a small building.

For some reason, the passing Imperium guards didn't notice them whatsoever.

"If we haven't set up this illusion array formation and let them deal with everyone as they wished, you would've stayed dead like an animal on the ground that lay before you."

Behind him were groups of people standing in line and listening to his speech.

Fear was inscribed on their faces.

Some of them covered their mouths in shock while the others gripped their fists and gritted their teeth.

"Do you want such malevolent rulers to rule upon you while they treat you like trash with no remorse that they had done these unacceptable things?"

"Do you want to be continued to be oppressed by the aristocratic families, the noble households, the talented yet arrogant young masters, kicking you down until your integrity and your faith in yourself falls apart?!"

"Tell me!"

"No, I don't want any of that to happen anymore!"

"Yeah, fuck His Imperial Majesty and those noble people!"

"We aren't less than an animal or a demon beast! Why are we treated as such like them?!"

"My child! He was a genius but these fuckers labeled him as a rebel out of nowhere! Now he's dead! I will never forgive them for what happened that day!", a middle-aged man cried out.

The young man laughed loudly.

"Then rise, my brothers and sisters! We must fight for our rights as humans! We should be treated equally like everyone else!"

His words made everyone hold their breath in anticipation.

A newfound power started to come out from inside their bodies.

"Fight for our freedom! Fight for the people of the Great Human Republic!"

"If you don't want to experience those nightmares again, then rise! Never waver! Never let these arrogant fools trample upon you and your dignity!"

The rest followed and shouted the exact words as well.

"Fight for our freedom!"

"For the Great Human Republic!"

Seeing the energetic atmosphere, the young man was elated.

The Imperium nobles have always been at the top for a very long time. Few young commoners were able to contend against the powerful young masters of the noble households.

However, either they succumb to any of these households later on and join them, or are killed should they object.

Even fewer of these commoners made it out alive, though the ability to tell the tale of such tragedies and hardships they went through were… controlled.

Most notably, the arrogant young noble masters, backed with their even more arrogant parents, would sometimes commit harassments of various intensities and scale, ranging from sexual harassment of individuals to wiping out an entire small family of commoners, even including their neighbors and anybody that were related to them, should their mood be put up to it.

The most devastating of all was that even if the young noble masters were in the wrong, the Imperium Court would turn a blind eye to it and shift the reality to the other side.

That was why the young man was able to persuade these people otherwise.

He knew what these people in front of him had gone through. There was no longer any need for a detailed explanation.

What is needed for them was to stir their hidden emotions, and display the "truth" in front of their eyes.

After that… it was up to them what was after that.

`I don't know what tricks the higher-ups of the revolutionary faction did to fool these Imperium guards that Emperor Marcus ordered them to do this, but…`, he glanced at the people in front of him and the scene below, `Everything is working perfectly! It's like this day was fated to be exactly this!`

He extended his arms, proclaiming loudly in front of everyone.

"No more nobles! No more commoners! Everyone will be equal! Brothers and sisters, charge!"

The Imperium guards who were busy checking out each building suddenly found themselves surrounded by a large number of people charging at them with rage in their eyes.

"What's going on? Where did these people come from?!", the captain guard was shocked.

"Kill these fuckers!"

"How dare you call yourselves Imperium guards!"

"No more oppression! Freedom for everyone!"

The people became maddened with irrationality.

It was when the captain guard realized that they were intending to kill them all.

"Stop these unruly bastards! Defend yourselves, guards!"

…

Meanwhile, back in the coliseum.

"The last match is about to start! I want to watch Althea fighting! Are you two coming with me?", Raffila called them out.

Al'dous didn't say anything and went out of the room. He wasn't a babysitter, more so on Thessalia who was his rival.

"Go ahead, I'll stay here and watch!", Veidora rolled his eyes.

`Damn idiots! Can't they see Princess Thessalia is injured and unwell?! How inconsiderate!`

Raffila closed the door and followed behind Al'dous.