Chapter 54

Robbed of Heaven

Location: The Royal Palace of Kim Sungta

The remaining Royal guards led by Baek Hyeon walk into the throne room and then kneel before the king.

-my king we have failed you-

Baek announces with a look of shame.

Old King Haneul observes the Royal guards noting their decrease in number and that Baek is the one leading them.

-give me a detailed report-

-yes, sir-

Baek starts telling the king about everything that happened from the moment the royal guard split into two groups until the arrival of the invaders and their forced teleportation.

The old king strokes his long white beard with a troubled expression.

He quickly scans the eyes of his vassals and advisors their increasing anger and frustration as Baek recalls the details of the fight.

‘This was supposed to be a peaceful mission, what went wrong? Did I misjudge the intruders?’

The old king thinks to himself about his next move.

He is certain his advisors would want to avenge the fallen Royal Guards and he can’t blame them, especially when the chief advisor was against treating them as humans.

‘but that’s a child who was burdened by the same fate as Lavie, hasn’t she suffered enough’

-haaa-

The old king lets out a long tired sigh.

‘then again, what do I know? I am just a hypocrite who is trying to help one tormented child while inflicting the same torment on a different child’

The old king raises his head up.

‘God All-mighty, is there really no other way?’

-but then, Your Majesty, a portal opened in the sky, and the invaders came out of it-

Baek’s words pull King Haneul out of his thoughts.

-the invaders?-

-yes, Your Majesty they stopped the explosions and teleported us away-

Gasp!

Gasps and murmurs erupt among the vassals and advisors.

The old king strokes his beard while taking note of their reactions.

-my king, perhaps the water mage never escaped and is instead working for the invaders, this might have been a trap all along-

The military advisor suggests.

-hmm, that’s unlikely, if this was a trap, then the invaders would have killed the remaining Royal guards not teleported them away, however, I am more concerned about how invaders knew of the fight and how they managed to teleport in, we are not part of the global aether port network so long-distance teleportation to Kim sungta should be impossible which means they must have teleported from somewhere inside our border –

-what?-

-have we been infiltered already?-

-we must do something about this-

Murmurs erupt once more among the vassals.

-Royal father, I request you grant me the privilege of commanding the Chollima knight order and let me hunt down the intruders-

-your majesty, we should deploy the four divine knight orders to hunt down the invaders hiding within our borders-

Suddenly the door to the throne room opens and a knight rushes in.

-your majesty, the surveillance unit sent an urgent report, the Bulgasari’s mountain has vanished and we lost contact with the group of Royal guards led by Sir Eun Woo-

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King Haneul squints his eyes at the knight.

-explain-

-we don’t know what happened my king, there was a wave of darkness then the mountain and everything on it simply vanished-

The old king looks down from his throne at his son and his chief advisor.

He pauses for a moment to consider their suggestions then shakes his head.

-hmm, both of your requests are denied-

-then my king, what are we going to do?-

-we are going to wait-

the murmurs all quiet down and the vassals look at the king with stunned looks.

The chief advisor bows his head and opens his mouth.

-my king, I dare not question your judgment but there is no way Your Majesty is suggesting we do nothing in the face of intruders and possible infiltration by the invaders-

-haaa-

The old king lets out a tired sigh and then looks at his chief advisor.

- Ji-u, waiting is not nothing, it’s an equally valid option and more often than not it’s the correct one, we don’t have enough information about what happened to Sir Eun Woo’s group nor how the invaders are evading our surveillance unit, rash decisions would only lead to more of our men losing their lives in vain, we will wait for the seer unit’s report before making our decision-

The chief advisor bows his head more.

-Your Majesty, your wisdom is as always enlightening to me-

-Haaa, Ji-u, you are my chief advisor, the wisdom you are praising should be bestowed upon me by you-

the chief advisor flinches from the king’s words.

-how could my insignificant wisdom be compared to the wisdom of the king of humanity, Your Majesty? –

-you lot think too highly of me, the king of humanity is also just a human-

-that is not true, Your Majesty has always exceeded all expectations-

-your majesty may be human but you are the pinnacle of humanity –

-your majesty is the example of what a human should be-

The chief advisor starts then the rest of the advisors and vassals join him in showering the king with praise.

Old King Haneul watches his vassals excitedly singing his praise and visibly gets more tired the more they praise him.

The prince smiles as he watches his old father look more and more tired and flustered the more he is praised.

-I agree with them Royal Father, be it wisdom or moral code Royal Father has always outclassed everyone-

Old King Haneul looks at his son and sighs.

-haaa, my son, wisdom is not a skill that one could raise but rather a matter of one’s age, it is not a competition in which one is high and one is low, the truly wise is one who listens for by listening he adds the wisdom of others’ age onto his own-

All vassals go silent and stare at the king with sparkling eyes.

The prince looks at his father stunned for a moment then laughs a little.

-pfft, truly the sun cannot be covered, Royal Father even when trying to deny your superiority you ended up proving it-

-haaaa-

The old king lets out a long tired sigh deciding to give up.

-my king-

Old King Haneul turns his head to look at his chief advisor who called him.

-although I now understand why we must wait, I am afraid the intruders will reach Lavie while we are waiting-

-that’s fine let them do that-

-huh?-

The Old King sits upright on his chair.

-little Lavie is not so weak that she can’t protect herself, if they make it close to the lab simply order the court scientists to stop injecting Lavie with REM drugs and then evacuate the lab-

The chief advisor looks at the king with a confused expression for a moment but soon his eyes sparkle and he bows deeply to the king once he understands his plan.

- truly the king of humanity is wise –

Shshshshshhshhshsh

ShshshsSHSHSHSHSH

SHSHSHSHHSHSHSH

-huh? Was it supposed to rain today?-

-aren’t we in summer?-

The vassals look out the window of the throne and watch and rain that suddenly started and quickly grew in strength.

*************************************

Blink

Blink

Saiko blinks her eyes repeatedly questioning what she is seeing in front of her.

She looks down at her own body to find that it’s made of a dark black liquid substance that has a faint red glow.

The black substance reminds her of Argus but she can tell it’s different.

Argus is viscous and slime like meanwhile, this substance flowed smoothly like water.

Looking at it is like staring at an endless dark abyss with no end to it, one where all light is swallowed and none of it survives.

She takes her eyes off her body and observes her surroundings.

The only problem is there is nothing to observe.

Her surroundings are the same as her body, an endless dark abyss that extends in all directions with no end in sight.

For a moment she can’t help but wonder if she somehow swallowed herself with her own decay but she knows that’s not how decay works.

Decay doesn’t swallow nor transport anything, it simply destroys.

It leaves nothing behind it, nothing, no traces, no remains, no evidence, it’s simply nonexistence.

Although powerful, decay is a simple magic, she doesn’t quite understand how it works but she knows it breaks down anything and everything before erasing it leaving nothing but frozen particles of dust behind.

This simplicity is why she is confused by the sight before her.

Saiko raises her head and takes in the sight before her once again.

TwentyTwo.

Twenty Two Royal guards each riding on their respective Girins stand before her.

Ten of which she had killed with her own decay, no magic or medical treatment could ever bring them back she knows that for a fact.

As for the remaining twelve, they were killed by the Bulgasari, although not as definitive as decay, she knows she devoured their souls so they are definitely dead.

_Ah, I see, I must be dreaming, is this perhaps because of my feeling of guilt? _

She concludes.

After all, it being a dream is the only possible explanation for the sight before her.

-pffft-

She notices the captain of the Royal Guards, Eun Woo, laughing at her and raises her eyebrow at him.

- well, you are sleeping that part is correct, however, I sense that you are using that word to say this is not real, but I promise you it’s very real-

Saiko crosses her arms and looks at the captain of the Royal Guards.

_ Right, what is this then? _

Eun Woo shrugs his shoulder.

-how would I know? I think we died but for some reason instead of seeing the infamous light that you are supposed to go to, for us it was nothing but endless darkness, well that is until you randomly showed up here-

_and where is here?_

-I don’t know, but if I had to guess it’s something or somewhere inside you, perhaps your soul or perhaps something else, we didn’t exactly receive an instruction manual-

Eun Woo looks up at the endless void with a sorrowful look.

-I was really looking forward to going to heaven you know, now I am stuck inside my own murderer, I never imagined there would be a fate worse than death –

Saiko rubs the back of her head while avoiding Eun Woo’s gaze.