CHAPTER 54- Purge

The people watching the broadcast from home were truly happy they weren't invited to the palace.

The scene inside was not pretty to look at.

As the surprise from Ray's magic outburst faded away and people understood the situation, all the nobles took out their weapons to fight back.

Kazuo kicked the ground with all his force and rushed forward with his claymore extended back.

There were a line of traitors in front of him and seeing him approaching with a fierce expression, they couldn't help but shake.

"Defend against him!"

"It's just a few people on their side, we can defend and escape!"

"Yes, just parry thi-"

However they could never finish what they were saying.

As they raised their swords in unison to guard the incoming attack from the Duke, Kazuo roared at the top of his voice.

"Traitors of the empire, die!"

And with a massive slash everything in his path was cleared away.

Swords broke and shattered to pieces, the people were cleaved apart smoothly into two as their bodies separated and fell down in a pool of blood.

This scene immediately scared people as the others in his path started backing away and some started running away altogether.

The Southern Duke couple of Barion and Tserina was a beautiful sight to look at.

Wearing black outfit, one with a sword in his right hand and the other with her left hand they moved in sync, pairing each other perfectly.

It was like watching a beautiful dance without the music.

When one blocked the other attacked, and when one dodged the other parried. A truly masterful way of battle showing their trust for each other completely and the amount of battle experience they must have had to become Dukes at such a young age.

"Fuck, fuck, kill these two, they're nothing much…"

"What is happening… they're not stronger than us but we're still getting backed away…"

Ignoring their calls, they kept pushing others back. One thing to note however was that this couple severely injured the traitors but never outright killed them.

As Ray watched this scene he sighed.

'One is too impulsive and the other two are too soft. Both will fall in battle if the enemy is cunning…'

And with that he observed the others who were fighting.

Dray Hadwyn had his hands extended as purple mist flew out and enveloped an area.

Everyone in the area suddenly got dazed and within a few seconds the traitors turned on each other and started attacking.

Their eyes appeared out of focus as they killed their own people without mercy.

Hadwyn who was controlling all this had a smile on his face but with his grey cloak that was completely stained with blood, he looked more creepy than kind to the people watching.

'And the old snake is at it again, never going to the frontlines.'

And when he looked at the rest of the people fighting, he was really impressed.

Some of them could almost be his match, and a complete powerhouse on their own.

Ambrosia was like a nuke by herself.

As the traitors from the mage guild aimed magic at her she snapped her fingers and more than hundred magic circles appeared behind her in the air.

Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Ice, Lightning and Metal… seven different colors of magic glowed in each circle.

Ambrosia Raia, the empire's only seven elemental mage and one of the most feared individuals had just snapped her fingers to instill fear into more people than imaginable.

The mages who had aimed their magic towards her felt like children.

Behind Ambrosia massive fireballs danced illuminating the scene, ice lances with sharp jagged ends rotated menacingly, and with so many magic activated at once, the people who dared to oppose her felt pitiful at this moment.

"Die."

*BAM*

No one in front of her knew what hit them.

As they died they felt they were burnt, pierced, frozen, torn apart and buried all at once. With unimaginable pain that almost maddened them moments before they died, all of them questioned the reason they decided to betray the empire.

'If only we didn't listen to that damn old man…'

But it was too late regrets.

As the mana storm passed by, not even ashes remained. All the magic casters had been taken out in one go.

Mages were too strong in a war with multiple people, but facing a warrior specializing in duels, Ambrosia would probably not fare this well.

However the same couldn't be said for another person that caught Ray's eyes.

The guard that had followed Ellaine.

Dressed in full armor, this person had taken out to swords and held in both hands.

'A dual wielder…'

But the next moment, without even leaving Ellaine's side, this guard slashed out into thin air.

Amazingly enough, the slash into thin air traveled through the space and killed someone a few meters away from her.

Ray was immediately interested.

'A dual wielder and a magic swordsman… how rare…'

'Appraisal.'

[System: Hero Growth System (Legendary)

Name: Jean Rivera

Age: 21

Species: Human

Bloodline: Corruption Dissolution (S)

Physique: Heaven's Compatible (S+)

Mind: God's Follower (S)

Disposition: Holy, Devoted

Titles: Divine Land's Chosen One, Hero, Justice Blade, Magic Dual Wielder of Order

Strength: (D)

Agility: (SS)

Intelligence: (D)

Charm: (A)

Dexterity: (SS)

Stamina: (S)

Mana Quantity: (F)

Mana Output: (E)

Mana Control: (E)

Mana Purity: (F)

Passive Skills: Growth (S), Limit Break (S), Extreme Speed (S), …

Active Skills: Sealing (SS), Karmic Bind (S), Moral Vanquish (S)…]

Ray looked at the status screen with amazement.

'So the Twilight Empire dispatched Jean to be her guard…'

He knew her. And by knowing her, it meant that she was one of the many heroes he had killed previously. The pawns of the Twilight Empire.

Still, looking at the status screen he tried his best to not make a weirded out expression.

'Why does every damn skill of these heroes sound so edgy and rare, and even that bloodline and physique is weird…not to mention those titles...'

The skills on her status window were all appealing and as obvious, he chose to steal a skill.

'Ultimate Sin.'

[Skill Sealing (SS) has been obtained]

'Nice, now I can seal undead and soul type enemies without having to rely on artifacts.'

But one again he looked back at her status window and thought of something.

'Actually… now that a hero has already appeared, I can use her in my plan too…'

And within a minute he decided what he would do with her.

But before he could smile at his genius, a powerful wave of pure destruction forced him to look somewhere specific.

Duchess Valindra Tiafel.

She didn't move a muscle, but a large black orb floated above her head.

It looked extremely threatening and no one ever wanted to touch it.

Not that anyone could. Anyone who came remotely close to her suddenly vanished.

No blood, no screams, nothing. They simply vanished.

No one knew where they went or how this happened, but Ray knew that the people who had vanished would have much preferred a simple death.

He really wanted to appraise her and steal all her skills, but if he did it now, she would immediately get alerted.

However Ray didn't understand one thing.

'Why is she making a move? This woman is not someone who does anything without ulterior motives…'

And finally on the right wing, Ray witnessed something amazing.

Old Man Wilfred was literally writing a book with people.

The glyphs on his book glowed; chains flew out of the book, grabbed a person and pulled him back into the book.

Immediately a whole page of writing would appear in his place and the person was nowhere to be seen anymore.

Ray could already see a lot of written pages in the book.

'Interesting…'

Ray had never really paid any attention to this old man before. He would soon die of old age anyway, but now he felt like he needed to talk to him.

However these people were not the only ones fighting.

Everyone was engaged in battle.

The guild leaders of the adventurer and mercenary guild were fighting with the directors of two academies while chatting with each other.

"Dang, you've gotten old."

"No you. Look at that sloppy spear skill, you call that a jab?"

"Imagine using a heavy weapon and still telling me how to jab."

"Let's see who can kill them first."

"Coming to the palace has been worthwhile."

Meanwhile the people they were fighting were cursing them.

'At least take us seriously!'

Rachel and Adrianna were near Old man Wilfred, so they were quite safe, but they were also not staying idle.

They were protecting the old man from hidden attacks and staying on the defensive.

And among the guards who were guarding the doors, some of their heads randomly went flying out of nowhere.

Ray saw the scene and was amused.

'The crown's hidden guards are starting to move…'

Weapons clashed, magic flew, skills were activated, there was a smell of blood in the air that appeared almost suffocating.

Some yelled and screamed while some laughed as they carried on their slaughter.

Looking at the scene Ray couldn't discern if they had suddenly become the real villains.

Everyone who had dared to rebel was getting slaughtered, and not a single person among the nobles or the innocent was injured.

Isis was immediately healing anyone who was heavily injured after all.

The people watching the scene shook in amazement and fear.

Amazement at the might of the people and fear at the cruelty of the scene.

Amidst all this, Ray felt someone move and he immediately fixed his eyes on him.

A grey haired man from the left wing was slowly trying to inch towards a magic circle that was isolated.

What was amazing was that he was escaping every attack nearby and not even a drop of blood stained him.

As Ray used appraisal on him he smiled as he found his target.

'Lothaine Reeves, the crown's instructor, hiding in plain sight with some sort of skill but couldn't escape my appraisal…'

As the old man was about to escape he suddenly found Ray smiling at him.

'…'

"…"