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Return of the Fallen Volume 1 Chapter 74

Author: Blue_Rat

ch74

Soldiers had been scrambling throughout the city of Tresta for a while now. The Palace was in chaos and their local commanders had no clue what to do. Every military action that had to do with the palace required orders from at least one of the three top military leaders before soldiers could be allowed to head into the palace. This was a strict rule that King David had implemented himself but because of that no one really knew what to do.

The top three leaders of the military went as follows, King David, Master Garn, and Commander Rust. This, however, was the cause of the problem. Garn had attacked the palace, Rust was a fugitive and no one could get in contact with King David since he had locked himself away in the Throne Room. If the soldiers and small commanders were to disobey the rules which their King himself set there was no doubt that their heads would roll.

Clearly, though the palace was under attack. However, because of the previous situation earlier, where these small commanders saw their King framing Master Garn, were any of them to break the rules now and storm the palace, even if they were completely in the right doing so, it could still end up with King David just deciding to kill them anyway.

There were others though that saw this as an opportunity. The hero, in which they wholeheartedly believed in had been set up by their despicable King. Many thought about Master Garn, his character and the power he wielded. He was out for blood, and if he did what most of them thought he was going to do, well, in their hearts it would not be terrible to serve Garn instead. This is how many felt about King David.

Seeing the recordings in the throne room, which proved Garn was telling the truth and that Rust and the King had been involved and set him up. Also seeing Garn’s memories when the King had used a Mind Frey upon Garn, which only showed his absolute loyalty. This had turned their stomachs to know what their King did and only painted Garn with a favorable light. These soldiers had minds of their own and loyalty was quite fickle when the leader of your country could make up any excuse and have you killed.

To them, one person was beyond courageous and had sacrificed everything while the other was cowardly and beyond redemption. So, many of these commanders simply told their men to patrol about the city, with no particular objective. This was a delaying tactic, so even if King David somehow could send them orders, carrying out said orders would be bogged down, ankles deep in the mud slow.

In the end though, none of it would matter.

The night sky lit up as though it were day. Every soldier and many residents that had been rudely awoken by the commotion earlier had peered up and saw this strange phenomenon. Everyone stopped moving and just looked at the odd sight which lasted for no more than a few seconds but what followed alarmed them and sent the whole city into a panic.

*BOOM!*

A large explosion followed right after the strange light and rocked the entire city of Tresta. The source of the explosion came from the palace. Any window that was within a 20-mile radius shattered to pieces. Citizens left and right thought they were under attack and panic set in everywhere. And when the people saw a fire that stretched for miles in the distance, all-out hysteria consumed them and the city became a nightmare.

Theft, attacks, rape, and even murder. Fear had taken many but a minority found this opportunistic and took advantage.

Now the small commanders could no longer ignore what was happening at the palace and rushed over post-haste. Traveling to the palace revealed the terrific force of the blast as many streets these soldiers past were simply gone. Not buildings destroyed and fallen over, not debris and rubble scattered here and there, no, it was completely and simply gone. As though words, written in sand and a wave of the ocean erased its existence like it had never been.

The closer they got to the palace the more and more they felt that something was not right. An explosion alone should not have the capability of removing things from existence. However the closer they got to the palace, the more they were left dumbfounded. Soon they came within 5 miles of the palace and many soldiers found that it became more and more difficult to breathe.

Then that’s when people began to collapse on the ground left and right. Their eyes rolled back into their heads and their mouths foamed, their bodies shook for a moment and they were dead just like that. Those that weren’t quite in range but had witnessed this from a distance stopped dead in their tracks and retreated as far away as they could. A few brave Mage’s though ignored the rules about flying over the capitol and ascended high into the air but what they saw before them breathless.

Part of the palace and extending a few miles into the city was…gone. Left behind in that area, was sunken ground, similar to someone taking a shovel and scooping out a hole in the ground, except this hole, was several miles big. Staring at the point where the explosion had spread outward, the Mages that had taken flight, spotted a single man who sat quietly in the meditative position. Seeing this man, the Mages descended before him and one shouted out.

“Master Garn!”

Garn’s breathing was heavy as large beads of cold sweat poured from his face. His eyes were shut and a large barrier encompassed his whole body, nothing could get in, which was exactly how he wanted it. Garn could feel his bones being set, which caused terrible pain in his body. Not only that, several of his organs, blood, muscle, nerves, tissue and much more were regenerating at a rapid rate. In his hands, he held King David’s scepter. With these Mages landing around him and calling out to him, Garn’s eyes flashed with power.

With a wave of the scepter a heavy pressure wrapped around their bodies and forced them to kneel. Garn slowly stood up and pointed the scepter at the Mages before him. His words calm, yet filled with authority.

“King David is dead, you will follow me from now on, understood?”

The pressure weighing down on them was already unfathomable and took their breath away but hearing Garn say that King David was no more and that they were to follow him, left them more than feeling overwhelmed, to say the least. Garn though was in no mood for hesitance and tripled the pressure. You could hear bones creaking from the Mages which woke them from their stupor. They knew he was serious and replied before the pressure was increased once more and their lives were no more.

“Yes!”
“Yes, Master!”
“Master!”

The Mages collectively answered at once and with another wave from Garn, the pressure disappeared and the Mages gasped for air.

Garn was somber and ordered the men and women in front of him to inform all of the commanders and nobles to come and pay fealty to him within the next 2 hours, otherwise, they would be considered an enemy of Triea and they would be hunted down and killed.

The Mages stared wide-eyed at Garn but with a stamp from his scepter, the Mages felt a wave of power sweep at them and they knew that Garn meant every word. The Mages took to the skies once more and flew at their top speed to fulfill their mission. Though in their haste two of them flew over the area that was now gone and felt something attack at them from the inside of their bodies.

They felt an immense source of power fill every fiber of their being, which at first excited them but only a few seconds over that disastrous zone and they fell from the sky and died. One of them burst into flames while the other exploded into an icy mist. Their bodies had taken in too much energy and their Mage cores were destroyed. However, that was not all. With their mage cores destroyed, the overwhelming energy within had no place to go, so their bodies instinctually tried to use that energy up so they wouldn’t die.

One of them had the main element of fire. His body, without his control, tried desperately to expend that energy which lit himself aflame. With no mage core, he could not use his magic tool and that power was no longer under his control and he died. The same for the woman who flew over the disaster area. Her main element was water. Maybe if she was lucky, her body would have just poured with water but instead, her body had used ice and expanded at a rapid rate inside of her, causing her to explode into an icy mist.

The two had no clue what the disaster area was but the other Mages that witnessed this all had learned from their mistake and something naturally came to mind.

(Magic Beast Core.)

Realizing what it was, the other Mages steered clear of that area. Seeing the danger they all found the information about Magic Beast Cores to be 100% correct. It destroys the land, poisons the water and pollutes the air above. The two Mages had only flown in it for a few seconds before it killed them. That oversaturation of energy was definitely no joke. The Mages distanced themselves greatly and went about fulfilling their mission.

With the Mages gone, Garn sat back down and examined his body.

(Damn, the energy was too much and my body has been poisoned.)

Deep down Garn could feel a terrible poison in his body. Using the last bit of his energy, he had released a few inscriptions on the tier 1 Magic Beast core he had gotten from Itsu. This, in turn, caused it to explode.

King David’s scepter, of course, began to devour all that energy instantly but its power was too much for the scepter to handle and was on the verge of exploding. The scepter and the throne itself were connected to one another and the inscriptions on the throne lit up and sucked the energy toward it. King David was between his scepter and the throne so all that energy was sent through him and into the throne. His Mage core was destroyed before the energy was even done flowing through him.

King David’s main element was light and so his body sent rays of light energy bursting out of his body. Like a dying sun, his body exploded which lit the sky up, turning night into day for a brief moment. With all that energy headed toward the throne, Garn knew what would happen next. Although the throne could handle more power than the scepter, still it would not last.

Garn grabbed King David’s scepter from the ground and with his body no longer being suppressed, Garn’s energy returned in full and his might was back. When the throne as well became overloaded only a second or two later, Garn had prepared himself and redirected all that energy away from him.

The power within a tier 1 magic beast core, although it was several times less than a tier 3 Beast core and should have only destroyed a few blocks of the city. Because the throne had absorbed hundreds of Mages energy, combined with the tier 1 Beast core, the explosion was amplified dozens of times over and was unleashed onto the city. When everything was said and done, Garn could only sigh.

(This was all I could do.)

Garn thought about the destruction that he had caused and deep down within himself for a brief moment he prayed for the souls which he wronged on this night. A moment later, he sat down in meditation and started to heal himself, the guilt…gone, as though it had never been. The only thing on his mind now was the future.