“BOOM! BOOM!!!”
As the ceiling of the imperial palace shattered under overwhelming force, nine Eternal Night Knights crashed into the grand hall.
The majestic middle-aged figure who had long sat upon the resplendent throne, radiating boundless imperial dignity, finally opened his eyes slowly.
“Y-Your Majesty…”
“Quick, quick…”
Along with the Eternal Night Knights, the tattered remains of the Imperial Guard’s exclusive magitech knights fell onto the hall’s floor, destroyed by the invaders; they could not even finish their final words of loyalty.
————These were the empire’s sharpest swords and strongest shields, elite forces so formidable that five in formation could dominate any battlefield, yet before these foes they were utterly frail.
“Heh.”
Watching everything unfold, the emperor — Rusville Tianluo — curved his lips into a faint smile.
Clap, clap.
The emperor’s tall figure rose slowly, descending from the throne while applauding as he strode toward the Eternal Night Knights.
The knights, having just dispatched their final opponents and were still assessing the surroundings, frowned at the emperor’s actions and the atmosphere inside the hall.
For they realized that even though they had breached the imperial palace, this throne room showed no trace of tension befitting the presence of a mortal enemy.
Beautiful music filled the air, servants stood respectfully around the hall.
Most bewildering of all, directly beneath the throne was a banquet table.
At the banquet, ten figures sat on either side facing the throne, while the emperor leisurely descended and took the central seat at the head.
On the opposite side, nine seats remained empty, as though prepared especially for certain guests.
Those figures were all too familiar to them.
One was shrouded in a night-purple cloak, face completely hidden.
The other nine — six men and three women — were none other than the princes and princesses of the empire.
During the rebellion, they had clashed countless times with these very people.
Even they had to admit that the heirs of this corrupt and tyrannical empire were extraordinarily capable; even piloting the era-defining Eternal Night Knights, battles against the royal knight corps led by these princes and princesses had often proved difficult.
Yet now, these same people sat before them completely unguarded?
Without a doubt, confusion and bewilderment filled their hearts.
But clearly, they had no time to dwell on these anomalies.
“A banquet on the very day of war?”
“Heh…”
“The tyrannical and decadent imperial family,”
“Your end has come!”
The ash-grey machine with only its ocular monitors glowing an ominous purple — “Death Omen” — ghosted forward from the flank, reaching straight for the emperor, intent on completing the ultimate objective of this mission.
————“Capture the emperor alive, rescue the Young Master.”
Yet…
“HUM~~~”
In the next instant, a night-purple radiance suddenly descended, enveloping the 5.5-meter-tall frame of Death Omen, stopping its hand mere centimeters from the emperor, unable to advance another inch.
“W-What???”
A bewildered cry escaped David, pilot of Death Omen.
He could not comprehend how these damned royals — or rather, how this emperor — had managed to restrain both him and his machine.
No, that wasn’t right — did anything in this world truly possess the power to suppress an Eternal Night Knight infused with the might of the Night God Throne system???
“David!!!”
The moment the anomaly occurred, the remaining eight of the Nine Eternal Night Knights acted in unison amidst their shock, attempting to save their comrade.
Eight beams of multicolored light flared.
Yet in that very same instant…
“HUM~”
Just like before, the night-purple radiance flashed without warning, freezing all nine machines — hailed as “single-soldier strategic weapons” that had brought endless nightmares to the imperial nobility — in place.
“This… how is this possible???”
Navila, the most devout and loyal among them, the very first Eternal Night Knight, uttered a voice of disbelief.
She had piloted prototypes since the earliest days of the Eternal Night project, the first to swear eternal fealty to the Young Master, becoming the leader of the knights and commanding countless battles of resistance; she knew better than anyone how godlike these magitech knights truly were.
Gazing at “Butterfly,” her partner that had fought beside her through innumerable battles yet now stood motionless, boundless confusion and incomprehension welled up in Navila’s heart.
The next moment, she channeled her magic, attempting to commune with the unique magi-spirit residing within Butterfly’s core.
Then…
“???!!!”
She discovered that the partner who should have been closer than family, bound through life and death, was rejecting her???
Staring at the night-purple glow covering the machine, gradually realizing this restriction originated from the very source of the Eternal Night Knights — the Night God Throne system itself — Navila’s beautiful pinkish-purple eyes beneath the cockpit revealed shock and incredulity for the first time.
Pfft.
Before she could speak, at the banquet table, the tall, golden-haired, blue-eyed, breathtakingly handsome eldest imperial prince seated at the emperor’s right — Javen Tianluo — seemed to read the knights’ thoughts perfectly and stood up with a chuckle, still clapping.
“I have heard that the Eternal Night Knights are renowned throughout the world for their loyalty,”
“Yet it seems, in the end, that is all there is to it.”
His very first words ignited boundless rage in the knights’ hearts.
Their loyalty???
That was their pride, the creed by which they resisted imperial tyranny and fought to this day.
In the name of faith, swearing loyalty, offering their lives and souls to the Young Master, devoting themselves wholly to the great cause of rebellion — that was why they had bathed in blood until now.
And yet now, they were being mocked by this filthy royal…
“Eternal Night Knights.”
Before the knights’ furious roars could erupt, the eldest prince interrupted once more.
“Are you perhaps intending to slay your master?”
At those words, even deeper confusion and bewilderment flooded their minds.
“Master”???
Their one and only master was the leader who had guided the rebel army through every battle, the genius who created both the Night God Throne system and the era-defining Nine Eternal Night Knights.
Revered by the rebel army and the oppressed masses as the incarnation of the legendary Night God who walked in darkness to deliver judgment and salvation — the noble great young master of the rebellion, Ye Xu.
And now they were accused of trying to murder their own master?
Where, then, was their master?
“…”
“???!!!”
A sudden thought struck them like lightning from a clear sky.
The pupils of all nine knights contracted to pinpricks as they stared in disbelief toward the figure beside the emperor.
That petite silhouette completely enveloped in a night-purple cloak, overlooked until now in their haste to capture the emperor and rescue the Young Master.
Sigh.
As if to confirm their horrifying suspicion.
A voice as clear and cold as a nightingale’s song, yet achingly beautiful, rang through the deathly silent hall.
The next moment, as the knights’ pupils trembled violently, as though answering their dread.
The figure slowly shed its disguise, revealing its true appearance.
Hair that seemed like the pitch-black night sky yet shimmered with faint purple hues cascading to the waist.
Deep, beautiful pupils reminiscent of amethysts, skin so fair and flawless it seemed blessed by moonlight, smoother and more lustrous than the finest milk.
She wore a sleeveless black dress adorned with purple patterns; at her shoulders floated a magical mantle woven of purple-gold threads and studded with magnificent gems, held in place solely by magic — the mark of royalty; upon her feet were short night-purple heeled boots decorated with hollowed gemstone rings.
Upon her head rested a crown of deepest black centered with an enormous purple gem.
Between her brows was a mark composed of thirteen lines.
At its center, a sword-shaped sigil.
Encircling it, twelve more lines formed a perfect ring.
It symbolized the Thirteen Sages who, led by the founding emperor, had established the empire.
This was the emblem of the empire, the Royal Crest that only true royalty could bear directly upon their flesh.
At this moment, the crest pulsed with the flow of her magic, emitting a faint yet oppressively majestic night-purple glow.
Without question, from her attire alone, the person before them was an imperial princess.
Yet given the crown she wore — identical to the emperor’s, permitted only to the ruler — the title “Emperor’s Daughter” suited her far better.
————She was confirmed as the next emperor, or rather, empress.
Of course, what shocked the Eternal Night Knights was not the sudden appearance of this princess or Emperor’s Daughter, a figure unknown to either rumor or reality until this very invasion of the palace.
What shocked them was that face, those eyes.
Even if certain details had subtly changed, they would never in their lives forget this countenance.
There was reason their Young Master was revered as a divine savior sent to rescue humanity.
Unimaginable talent and overwhelming power, coupled with beauty so exquisite that even women grew envious.
Without doubt, the knights took pride in their perfect Young Master at every moment.
Even at only fifteen years of age, their Young Master was unquestionably the most flawless being in existence.
Yet no matter how perfect, no matter how beautiful their Young Master was, one fact remained unchangeable —
Their Young Master was male, whereas this Emperor’s Daughter before them, lacking an Adam’s apple and possessing a gently swelling chest, clearly did not share that trait.
“Good day,”
“My knights.”
“I am truly sorry… for disappearing without a word all this time.”
Walking around the banquet table, she came to stand directly before the immobilized knights.
Placing her right hand lightly over her heart, the young girl who bore at least ninety percent resemblance to their Young Master gracefully curtsied in perfect imperial fashion.
“Then, after so many years since we first met,”
“Allow me to reintroduce myself —”
“The empire’s tenth imperial princess, known as the ‘Night Princess’.”
“Now the designated heir, the Emperor’s Daughter,”
“Ye Lalar · Tianluo,”
“At your service.”