Green had returned.
The man everyone assumed had perished under Antonio’s hand—his body reduced to ash—had made a miraculous return. More than that, he brought with him staggering news.
“Tsk, as expected of the pinnacle of magi-tech. It took quite an effort to analyze the entire structure, calculate the parameters, and build the blueprint.”
Green stretched lazily, comfortably grabbing a bottle from the desk and taking a long swig.
“Your Highness, I believe that as long as we have sufficient resources, we can assemble our own floating battleship.”
Teresa’s eyes shimmered with shifting light. She didn’t seem to care about the “startling news” or the monumental task of “building a floating battleship.” Instead, she simply glared at him with an intensely resentful, brooding gaze for a long time.
“You… you nearly scared me to death just now.”
Despite the Princess’s complaints, anyone who saw the curve of her brow and her irrepressible smile could tell she was leaping with joy.
A floating battleship? Hmph. Compared to the fact that Green was still alive, what did that matter?
“No… Impossible!” Antonio finally snapped out of his shock. His initial fury was instantly replaced by a deep, hollow panic.
Since the day he stepped into the Legendary rank, this was the first time in Antonio’s life that he could not sense the magi-conductive core of his floating battleship.
As a family heir, Antonio was destined from birth to be the master of a sky vessel. From childhood, between studying traditional spells under his mentor, he had spent his life in magi-tech labs, undergoing countless transplants and modifications. Only after all that did he become a glorious “Pilot,” qualified to command a battleship.
This was Antonio’s greatest pride.
Among Legendary mages, his raw power wasn’t the most outstanding, but once paired with a floating battleship, he was nigh-omnipotent. Even against the Empire’s top-tier powerhouses, he held a winning chance. With such achievements, he even had the opportunity to join the Royal Knights and hold the honor of entering the palace at will.
Yet, Antonio had declined that offer for the sake of the First Prince. He knew that joining the Royal Knights meant losing his freedom and his research. When he met the First Prince and saw the magnificent blueprint for a new magi-industrial system, Antonio joined him without hesitation, hoping to realize his dream.
Only the First Prince could make that dream a reality!
“Therefore, for the sake of His Highness, I must…”
Eliminate this threat immediately!
Sizzle—
While Green was chatting happily with Teresa, and the others were laughing in the relief of their narrow escape, Antonio—now the object of their mockery—acted.
Whish! Whish! Whish!
Few knew that the magi-conductive core operated on a fusion-explosion reaction of the four basic elements. Among the experts who knew this, only a tiny fraction knew an even deeper secret: The birth of the material world originated from the collision of elements.
“Thus, every second, a magi-core is simulating the genesis of the world on an infinitely smaller scale.”
And if you reverse the process of “Creation,” what remains?
Destruction.
Realizing he had lost control of the core, Antonio understood that Green had completely stripped him of his authority over it in a matter of minutes. The “partner” built specifically for Antonio since birth was now nothing more than a “trophy” in Green’s hands, used to amuse Teresa.
“You’ve got to be joking!” Antonio couldn’t accept it. Rage scorched his sanity as he witnessed his most cherished possession being treated like a toy.
Antonio charged at Green like a madman.
“Hmph. Lord Envoy, weren’t you just looking down on commoners and despising the weak? Why are you in such a pathetic state now?”
Clang!
Green swung his longsword.
Psh—
Antonio watched the flash of the blade, unable to even track its movement. Before he could utter half an incantation, his wand—crafted from the bone and sinew of the Overlord Beast “Hell Dragon”—was sliced through like a vegetable.
Thump.
Green kicked out, instantly pinning the high-and-mighty Imperial Envoy under his boot, exactly as Antonio had treated the squad leader earlier.
“Antonio,” Green addressed him directly, “I believe this is how you evaluated the fallen soldiers—that they were ‘worthless’?”
“Yes! So what?” Even defeated, Antonio gritted his teeth with stubborn obsession, glaring at Green without a hint of remorse.
“Why act so hypocritical with me?” Antonio took a deep breath and snarled, “Hmph. A peak Legendary powerhouse like you willing to follow a ‘vase’ princess who has nothing but a royal title? I don’t believe it! You must… you must have some unspeakable motive!”
“Indeed I do.” To Antonio’s surprise, he wasn’t met with a denial, but a cheerful agreement.
“I do have an agenda,” Green admitted openly. “And in my goal, Envoy Antonio, the role you play… is just that of a boring villain. Like you said? A worthless side-villain. Nothing more.”
Whump.
Green grabbed him by the collar and dragged him across the floor to the panting, pained squad leader.
“Your Highness, what happens when one loses a Trial by Combat?” Green asked Teresa with a grin.
“They are stripped of all titles and honors and punished according to their crimes,” Teresa replied in perfect sync.
“Oho! So, Antonio, you are no longer a noble or an Envoy, but a mere commoner?” Green raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. “I recall that a commoner offending a soldier—a squad leader, no less—is subject to physical punishment? Tell you what, out of respect for your years of service to the Empire, I—yes, I am an officer too—won’t force you to undergo a public flogging.”
Green forced Antonio’s head down and used his foot to press the man onto his knees. “I don’t ask for much, Antonio. Just apologize. To this squad leader, and to everyone whose dignity you just insulted.”
Apologize? To these “pigs and dogs” who were mere fuel for the Empire’s true elites?
No, no, no!
Antonio shook his head frantically. He tried desperately to summon the core of the floating battleship within his body, but he found nothing. He realized with despair that as a Legend, his life and death were now entirely in Green’s hands.
“Still want to resist?” Green narrowed his eyes, beginning to exert more pressure.
Damn it! Damn it all!
Desperate, Antonio felt a massive weight from behind, draining his last remaining strength.
Thud!
The Imperial Envoy knelt—before a low-ranking officer who wasn’t even a Knight.
The hall fell into a dead silence. No one expected the long-awaited awards banquet to end like this. But then, cheers erupted.
Clap, clap, clap!
“Lord Green, you did the right thing!” “It’s time someone showed those capital lords what’s what!” “Worthless? Heh, I wonder what ‘worth’ he’ll have when he crawls back to the capital without his core?”
Listening to the piercing mockery, Antonio’s vision blurred. He had lost. Lost to an unknown bard. More importantly, having lost the core and his honor, he couldn’t complete the task given by the First Prince…
Value. Value?!
“A bug… you’re just a bug.” A cold, eerie voice echoed in his ear.
“No… I… I am not a bug!”
Sizzle!
Antonio gritted his teeth and began chanting an obscure, twisted incantation.
I will complete the mission! I will prove my value! Even if I die!
Bzzzzzz!
The sound of electrical discharge suddenly rang in Green’s ear.
“Wait, this is…” Green turned his head to see the magi-core Teresa was holding beginning to seep a pitch-black color.
The Reverse Formula? Self-destruction!
“You bastard… you’d go so far as to tear your own soul apart…”
“I AM NOT A BUG!!!”
BOOM!
An apocalyptic destructive force, accompanied by a blinding white light, swallowed the entire hall. Space collapsed; the ground shattered.
“There’s no time!” Seeing the situation spiral out of control, Green stomped his foot hard.
He had been careless. But how could a Legendary powerhouse have such a fragile ego? To go mad just from losing once?
It was like an immature child… Wait, immature?
Green’s mind raced through several connections—the once-normal Emperor suddenly becoming obsessed with immortality…
“A puppet?!”
The Imperial Capital, a dark corner of the slums.
A shivering man wrapped in a heavy cloak ducked into an alley, leaning against a weathered wall as he gasped for breath.
“Damn it, this is the last time, Magician!”
He pulled down his hood to reveal an emaciated, sickly face that looked just like any other malnourished drifter in the slums. He barked angrily, “Because of you, I’ve almost lost all my valuable puppets!”
“The Circus won’t forget you, Puppeteer.”
A seductive woman, who had been waiting in the alley, gave a throaty giggle. She held a tarot card and stared intently at a glowing white crystal ball.
“The Prophet?”
The Puppeteer noticed the crystal ball, and his face filled with awe.
Zzzzt!
Inside the crystal ball, a terrifying, raging power had consumed the entire image.
“That’s… elemental annihilation. And at the scale of an entire floating battleship?!” The Puppeteer gasped. “Where did you find a floating battleship to blow up?”
“Antonio. That annoying advisor next to the First Prince,” the female Magician replied nonchalantly.
“Antonio? The Pilot? How did you manage to make him self-destruct?!” The Puppeteer blinked in shock. “I tried to turn him into a puppet before and failed completely. You… you actually…”
“Pfft.” The woman laughed so hard she teared up. “Puppeteer, you’re too cute! Do you really think you need to turn someone into a full puppet to make them self-destruct?”
“Do you… not?”
Does self-destruction not equal suicide? Who would commit suicide—especially a Legend—unless they were a fully controlled puppet?
“You know, Puppeteer, third-rate magicians care about technique. A truly top-tier magician never relies on cheap tricks. They rely on…”
“On what?”
“A grasp of the human heart.” The woman tucked her tarot cards away.
Snap.
The card she pulled was an inverted Chariot.
“The Chariot reversed. The plan failed.” She rubbed her chin. “It seems I can’t blame you for your previous failures, Puppeteer. That bard you mentioned… he really is an Apostle. An Apostle of the God of Justice.”
“Now you believe me?” The Puppeteer rolled his eyes. “Wait… you just blew up a floating battleship core just to test his strength?”
Thinking about his own failure and the backlash he suffered trying to puppet Antonio, compared to the Magician’s casual “wastefulness,” the Puppeteer felt a surge of jealousy.
“Alright, the boring game is over. Time for business. The plan I had you arrange in the Orc Kingdom—there are no more ‘surprises,’ right?”
“……” The Puppeteer’s expression shifted several times before settling into a look of deep dread. “As you wish.”
“Excellent. If my divination is correct, Princess Teresa will be forced to speed up her mission to increase her leverage after the ‘accidental’ death of the Imperial Envoy. But they will never expect the trap we’ve set on the Orc Kingdom front. Hehehe.”
Gulp.
Thinking of the Magician’s “strategy,” even the Puppeteer—who considered himself a villain through and through—couldn’t help but feel a chill.
Thank goodness I’m not her enemy. Well… not yet.