Chapter 176: Reasons for Betrayal
Yale appeared beside Shirk, and just after that, Sebe and Wyba also appeared there.
Just before the attack hit them, Yale put Wyba and Sebe in the Storage Space and then he used teleportation to reach Shirk’s side.
Shirk and Sebe didn’t understand what just happened and had puzzled looks on their faces.
“We are still too near; we can talk later.”
Yale said that using his Spiritual Sense, although that was safer than speaking, someone at the Grandmaster Rank could easily detect that someone was using the Spiritual Sense.
Fortunately, that guard wasn’t using his Spiritual Sense to scan the area, or they would have been found and caught in seconds.
“They were too weak. They were reduced to ashes by a single attack. Maybe it is just that I am too strong. Since I already started this, I must provoke the panic in the city to compensate for the lack of Sebe’s corpse.”
The guard started to laugh madly before leaving while casting balls of fire to the nearby houses.
The shoots of the guard were too random; he would have needed heaven-defying luck to hit Yale’s group directly in that situation. There were still residual flames near the group, but as those were already normal flames and not an attack from someone at the Grandmaster Rank, Sebe could defend the group easily.
There was a huge difference between an attack and the after effects left in the area by the attack, as long the attack itself didn’t hit, there was no danger to Sebe.
Although Sebe protected the other, there was no need; Yale and Wyba could easily neutralize the hot with ice, such remnant flames wouldn’t be able to melt the ice of a Frost Winged Wolf.
Sebe knew that probably Yale and Wyba didn’t need it due to their bloodline, but Shirk seemed vulnerable in his eyes. Sebe didn’t understand well the huge improvement on Shirk’s strength; after the modification on his body, those flames could at most felt a bit warm to Shirk because he had obtained an incredible resistance to hot and cold.
“He is gone. We can’t lose time; a huge battle will start in the palace at any moment.”
Usually, anyone who said that would be considered a fool, but in the current situation, a fool would be the one who didn’t think that there was some complot related with the eldest prince.
“How did you save us?”
Sebe knew that the situation wasn’t for a chitchat, but he was able to remain calm and wanted to understand well their strength. He thought that if Yale were able to do the same without restrictions, it would be a great trump card in their current situation when they were clearly lacking in power.
“I teleported us to Shirk’s side. I had put a mark on his token earlier, but I can only do it within a short range.”
Yale didn’t plan to hide the teleportation from Sebe; there were items for teleportation, so Yale thought that Sebe would think he was using something like that and not his own power.
“I see. Then, did Shirk also knew about this from the start?”
Sebe knew that Shirk wasn’t near them with a mark to help them to escape by coincidence, it was obvious that Yale and Shirk had planned it together to save him.
“He knew it. Don’t feel bad, but because we didn’t have enough proofs, we couldn’t tell you.”
Sebe felt a bit excluded, but he knew that Yale was telling the truth, there was no way he would have believed that his eldest brother would betray the kingdom and one of his men would try to kill him.
“Alright, I understand your reasons for not telling me. After this problem ended, you two will need to explain to me everything with details. Now follow me, we need to reach the temple’s entrance as soon as possible.”
They were considered dead, so they advanced like Shirk had done before instead of walking openly by the street; they didn’t understand why the eldest prince’s guards weren’t using their Spiritual Sense to scan the whole area, but that was perfect for Yale’s group.
There wasn’t any guard near them, Yale had confirmed it with his Mapping, but he decided to be careful as the opponents were far stronger than them and without Origin Link, their group would be doomed in a frontal battle.
Yale didn’t dare to summon Tar, summoning him to solve an internal matter of the Anpaes Kingdom would provoke a war, that would just help the eldest prince’s interests.
***
“Father, are you telling the truth?”
In the Anpaes Temple, the eldest prince and the king were in front of a huge statue of Anpaes.
“As I said you a lot of times in the past, I can’t choose my successor. The next king of our kingdom, the crown prince, can only be chosen by my the remnant will of my father. No matter how you begged me or how much strength you obtain, you can’t succeed me without his approval.”
The king had led the eldest prince to the Anpaes Temple to give him the chance to try to communicate with the will of Anpaes, but until that day no one had managed to communicate with that will. Until that they there hadn’t been anyone who the will of Anpaes had chosen to succeed the king.
That wasn’t a secret as all the princes could obtain such information if they asked the king, but the eldest prince never liked that, he thought that the strongest should be the successor, there shouldn’t be any more conditions.
“If I am not chosen I don’t know who can be chosen. The other princes aren’t as half good as me to inherit the kingdom.”
The king didn’t like the words from his eldest son, but the decision for choosing was from the will of Anpaes, so he didn’t forbid him to try to turn into the successor of the throne, but he didn’t plan to help him either.
The time passed, but the eldest prince was unable to contact the will of Anpaes. It was the same as every time he had tried it in the past nothing happened.
“Why? I am perfect. I am strong. I am obviously the best, why grandfather doesn’t choose me.”
The eldest prince was burning in rage, he was going to become the king anyway after his plan succeeded, but he wanted the approval and the legacy of Anpaes, that way he would be able to justify his actions as something ordered by the will of Anpaes to convince the masses.
“Son. You haven’t been rejected; it is just it should be too early for choosing a successor right now. If you have patience, you can still obtain your grandfather’s approval in the future.”
Although the king said that to calm the eldest prince, he obtained the opposite effect because the eldest prince didn’t have time.
“You are lying! There isn’t any will of Anpaes here; you just don’t want me to become the next king.”
The king was going to reply when the eldest prince stabbed him in the heart. That would have been easy to avoid, but the king was caught off guard; the eldest prince always complained like that after failing, but he had never attacked the king before.
“You…”
The king fell to the ground; just a stab in the heart wouldn’t kill him, but the dagger that pierced his heart was poisoned.
“Surprised? This poison is special; Light Healing will only worsen it instead of healing it. Of course, using natural healing is useless. You will die slowly here while I eradicate all the people who oppose me. I am the only one worthy of being the king, and everyone else shall just serve me!”
To the king, the betrayal of his son was worse than any other poison.
“Why?”
The eldest prince smiled smugly.
“Because I know that you would never allow me to inherit this kingdom, there is no will of Anpaes; you just are making up things to avoid losing your position as the king. I knew this from long ago because it was impossible that grandfather doesn’t recognize my talent. Thus, I went to the forbidden ruins while saying that I discovered some ancient ruins, and in that place, I finally obtained the power to claim the throne for myself and control everyone else.”
The king couldn’t believe that his son had done such thing because the forbidden ruins were a place sealed by Anpaes himself and entering there was punished with death without exceptions.
“So, you sold your own soul in exchange of power. It is impossible that my father recognizes someone like you as my successor.”
The eldest prince was enraged by the fact the king continued implying that there was a will to chose the successor, so he stomped his foot into the king’s wound.
“I obtained supreme power after fusing my soul with the great being sealed in the forbidden ruins. I even turned able to turn all my guards into my soul-slaves and increase their power. I can turn them stronger or killing them with just a thought. This is true power, the power of the Death Law the great being had understood! I still in the midst of merging with the great being, but after I finish, I will surpass the Rank 9 and turn into the supreme ruler of this continent.”