57 CHAPTER 57- Just the Beginning

A thirty feet metal giant.

Making such a thing took massive amount of mana and Lothain had used everything he had to make it.

However this magic also depended on the mana control and its purity.

The better his control was, the faster and more precisely the giant would move, and the more his purity was the harder and denser it would be.

This giant in front Ray raised his right leg and brought it down on his location.

As obvious, the huge figure moved very slowly and Ray could easily move out of its trajectory, however it wasn't that simple.

The figure was entirely made of metal mana, and not metal itself, so it would slowly dissipate in time or when the caster cancelled it.

As such, when Ray tried to move away, spikes of metal shot out of the leg and embedded them on the floor.

Ray who saw this immediately knew that he had to finish this thing soon.

'It will keep healing no matter how many times I destroy it…'

*Swish*

A metal spike passed by his position and he sidestepped and dodged it narrowly.

'The number of spikes will just keep increasing… I need to do it quick…'

'Weakness.'

Immediately red spots started glowing all around him and on the body of the metal giant.

Ray aimed the 9th hero's sword parallel to his chest and exhaled a breath.

'First form. Resistance Negation steps.'

As Lothain gasped for breath on the ground, with his hand rubbing his nose where blood was starting to flow, he watched dumbfounded as Ray activated his battle technique.

He had never seen something that fast precise and strong at the same time.

Every spike that approached him was either sliced apart in two, parried away, dodged or completely reversed its trajectory.

Not only that, while his movements were growing faster and faster, the spikes were easily dealt with and Ray was advancing towards him with great speed.

Lothain immediately knew this wouldn't work.

"Stop using the spikes and stomp him to death!"

And as commanded the spikes stopped coming Ray's way and the huge foot grew closer to him as he was quite a bit away and couldn't escape in time.

'This is really annoying…'

Ray peered into his mana core and saw the last strand of mana remaining.

After using this he could not use mana in this battle again.

But he didn't have a choice so he used all the mana to wrap around his feet and push forward with extreme speed.

*BAM*

Barely did Ray dash forward that he saw a massive foot implanted where he originally was.

It was probably a few tons in weight and he wouldn't have died if he failed to escape, but he would likely be injured.

But now that he was out of that, he looked at Lothaine who was unguarded and rushed towards him.

Lothaine knew that if he wanted to kill him he couldn't hold anything back.

'I'll die anyway…'

"You, kill both of us at once, don't hold back!"

Ray heard the command and instantly wanted to curse the fool in front of him.

'What is wrong with him? That will only kill him, I'll survive anyway!'

But Ray couldn't let this old man die so soon. He had to capture him, extract information, make him a slave and then complete his sloth quest.

But when Ray was quite close to Lothain, the metal giant changed directions and with its right hand curled in a fist threw it at them.

Lothaine who saw the massive metal fist coming towards them knew it would spell certain death for him.

But looking at the 'danger' Ray calculated something in his mind.

'A few muscles…'

Ray stopped moving and faced the metal fist that was almost as big as him.

He pulled back his right arm with the unbreakable sword and brought it back as much as he could.

As the fist was almost upon them, about to kill them, he swung his arm.

With a larger area of swing, and applying all his power on that one arm, the swing was terrifyingly powerful.

If Ray's sword had been the one that could cut through anything, he would not have to do all this, and he couldn't even access the proper artifact swords from the palace.

This was the only way to keep the old man alive.

*Tnnggggg*

With a massive impact that almost deafened Lothain's ears, he almost fainted from the scene in front of him.

The huge metal fist with immense weight and momentum was blocked by a tiny sword swung by the brat in front of him.

When Ray felt the sword connect to the fist, he felt an intense shock travel through his arms as he felt a few muscles tear and he slowly felt like he was losing strength in his arm.

But the job had been done, the impending doom of the old man had been prevented as the giant stumbled in the aftershock from the counter. Before he could give another command to the giant, Ray jumped forward and wrapped the fingers of his left hand against Lothain's throat while his self healing physique already started healing his right hand.

Second method of making someone unconscious.

Oxygen deprivation.

Hold someone's throat and choke it obstructing the breathing by blocking his wind pipe with just enough strength and every second the person was conscious would be utter pain and suffering.

Within thirty seconds to two minutes of being deprived of oxygen, a normal human loses consciousness, more than that, brain cells start dying and even beyond that neurons start taking damage causing permanent brain injury and finally death embraces the victim.

Due to Lothaine having a trained physique, he could last more than two minutes without oxygen, but that just meant it was even more painful for him.

As Ray held his throat and restricted his breathing, he pulled him up just by his throat and raised him in the air.

Unable to breathe, his thoughts started going out of control as he thrashed his body.

As he lost normal thinking capacity, the metal mana controlled by him dissipated and the giant figure behind him disappeared.

"Gahhh…"

Lothain thrashed his legs and pushed Ray's hand to escape but he couldn't.

Slowly the pain became unbearable as he felt his consciousness slipping.

Even as he solely felt his thoughts leave him and darkness embrace his eyesight, there was no repentance for what he had done.

Just anger directed to the boy in front of him.

Ray who saw the old man in his arms black out as strings of saliva started dropping from his lips felt no emotion but disgust.

He really wanted to just snap his neck in half and be done with it.

But he knew having patience would give better results.

Suddenly the world around them collapsed and sounds of screams and weapons clashing entered his ears.

The isolation skill had disappeared and Ray was back in the events hall.

As he made appearance, the sounds around him stopped.

From the moment he had disappeared until now only seven whole minutes had passed but these seven minutes were like the most chaos anyone could ever imagine.

The commoners who were watching the who show being broadcast almost lost their breaths when they had seen their new king make a move but instantly disappear.

And even more than that was the shock of the people within the venue.

Isis, Ambrosia, the Dukes, Adrianna, Rachel and even old man Wilfred, all were shocked to see their king disappear into thin air.

No one knew what had happened to him and this gave rise to frustration and anger which unfortunately for the traitors was too bad as they stated dying in groups.

The intense slaughter carried on for a few minutes straight until Ray came back magically just like he had disappeared.

Ray observed the surroundings and couldn't help but be satisfied.

There was blood everywhere, the floor, the walls, even the ceiling.

Mangled corpses and loose arms and heads rolled around as the remaining few traitors who could be counted within the tens shivered, the other people looked at him with respect and curiosity holding their bloodied weapons.

He could see the worry in some people's eyes and especially so in the few who knew him personally.

He would have to spend a few hours comforting them after all this was over.

But right now, he knew what he had to say.

*Thud*

Ray threw the unconscious body of Lothain in front of him as he looked around him slowly.

"This person was leading and instructing the people to go against the empire."

As his words fell, everyone looked at the body on the ground with all types of emotions, but not a single one among them was positive.

Since Lothaine's disguise was still on, no one could recognize him.

'Pride Aura. Suggestion.'

"Traitors, I hereby instruct you, take your own life if you don't want to suffer. If a single one of you remains, you would have wished for death instead."

The people who were shocked at the old man lying there defeated suddenly had something click within their brains as they heard the king speak.

'We can't escape, we can't win. We should really just die…'

To the utter shock of everyone present each and every traitor took their own life within a second of hearing Ray speak.

Some slashed their own throats, some stabbed their hearts and some even just snapped their own necks.

The scene of so many people killing themselves with just his instruction felt horrifying to everyone watching.

As Valindra watched this scene, her interest grew higher than ever before.

'He really is similar to him. Even this feels too familiar…'

As soon as the people dropped dead, Ray looked to his side at the few imperial guards remaining.

"Take him to the dungeon and seal him."

Without wasting any time, the guards who were already scared of the king's cold demeanor immediately complied and dragged the body out of the hall.

Looking at the golden throne in the center of the room, Ray started walking towards it.

In the complete silence of the room, Ray's footsteps made wet sounds in the blood as he walked forward.

As he reached the throne, he sat down, put one leg above the other in a comfortable position and once again rested the crown on his head.

As the crown and throne glowed, Ray once again brought out his pride aura and instructed everyone.

"Kneel."

After what had happened, no one wanted to be proven a traitor.

As everyone without exception kneeled, that including Ambrosia and Isis, Ray looked at the scene in front of him.

'The purge has been successful. Now all I need is to is develop a battle technique to fight against a single strong opponent, and rebuilt the empire completely loyal to me.'

To everyone watching the scene, it appeared bizarre yet meaningful, majestic yet horrifying.

A golden throne where the most handsome looking king was sitting with a golden crown on his head. As the throne glowed with a majestic and holy light, it contrasted the scene around it.

Bloody footsteps led the way from the throne to a pool of blood and corpses, and people kneeled in the blood without caring about their clothes or attire.

The whole scene seemed like a fantasy, something that didn't match the throne and the king at all but to everyone present, they knew otherwise.

This scene would later be hung up as a painting in every museum, and this event would be remembered in history forever.

For Ray today, compared to his past life, was weak. Just a single metal golem had made him slightly injure himself.

Ray had no qualms in agreeing that he was weak, but he knew he would only grow stronger with time.

As he became king, soon the Celestial Empire would no longer be just an Empire.

The journey of Ray as a king in this life was only just beginning.