Chapter 320
"Kami-sama..."
Once one person fell to their knees, a second followed.
Then a third.
Before long, the vast majority of ordinary citizens throughout the Imperial Capital had dropped to the ground, bowing and praying toward that colossal godlike figure.
Even many of the wealthy and powerful elites found their knees refusing to stay straight.
"..."
Yet before they could worship for long, the crimson-gold giant suddenly began flickering like an animation skipping frames.
Its form became increasingly unstable until it finally dissolved into countless golden motes of light and vanished.
At the same time, whether it was merely their imagination or not, some people thought they heard a faint muffled groan in the distance.
It sounded painful.
The more simple-minded citizens had no idea what that meant.
Those with sharper minds, however, immediately began imagining possibilities.
"Could that... be backlash?"
"Very likely. There’s no way someone could unleash power comparable to a god without paying any price."
"So the person who destroyed Shikoutazer is currently weaker than ever?"
"This is our chance."
Throughout the Imperial Capital, members of the Empire’s privileged ruling class began thinking furiously.
Possibilities raced through their minds.
Eventually, many of them reached the same conclusion—the rebel who had killed the Emperor was now in a weakened state.
They had to seize this opportunity and capture him before he recovered.
In an era where the Emperor stood above everything, there was no greater achievement than saving the sovereign.
And now that the Emperor had already been killed, the greatest possible merit was avenging him.
If they succeeded, they would immediately gain enormous political prestige.
And once they possessed prestige, followers would naturally gather around them.
Manpower.
Influence.
Wealth.
Authority.
Everything else would follow.
At that point, they could imitate Prime Minister Honest and place a new Emperor on the throne while becoming regent themselves.
Or perhaps they could simply break away, establish their own regime, and found an entirely new empire.
Either path would begin from an incomparably strong foundation.
The mere thought that they might recreate the achievements of the Empire’s founding Emperor made some of the more ambitious men tremble with excitement.
They immediately summoned their private forces and began marching toward the Imperial Palace.
First come, first served.
That principle had never changed throughout history.
They had to claim the head of the Emperor-slayer before anyone else did.
Of course, not everyone rushing toward the palace was an ambitious opportunist trying to seize power.
A considerable number were genuine loyalists of the Imperial Family.
Their families had received Imperial favor for generations, and in a catastrophe like this, they felt compelled to act.
To do nothing would betray everything they had believed in their entire lives.
And so—scheming opportunists, loyal ministers bent on revenge, scavengers hoping to profit from the chaos, and every other kind of person lit torches and gathered their forces.
Long rivers of fire began converging toward the Imperial Palace from every direction.
"The rebels have fled the palace!"
During their advance, scouts at the front brought back fresh intelligence.
The so-called loyalists immediately erupted with excitement.
Clearly, the enemy really was weakened.
Otherwise, with that godlike power they had just witnessed, why would such a monster ever avoid ordinary humans like them?
’There’s a chance.’
’I can turn this around!’
That was the thought filling most of their minds.
They whipped their horses harder and shouted at their troops to move at full speed.
Naturally, where there were impulsive fanatics, there were also calm and rational people.
The latter found the whole situation disturbingly familiar.
It reminded them of hunters deliberately placing fragrant bait to lure out an Ultra-Class Danger Beast.
But the momentum of the crowd was already overwhelming.
A handful of cautious voices could not wake a mob drunk on ambition and excitement.
All they could do was get swept along as the army continued charging toward its target.
"Boss, what do we do?"
Lubbock stared at the countless serpents of torchlight winding through the night and looked toward Najenda in confusion.
Najenda was equally uncertain.
Originally, she had intended to stop the Emperor from massacring innocent civilians.
But before she could even act, the Emperor had already been killed.
By conventional thinking—and by everything she had believed until tonight—she should now be burning with grief and rage, preparing to avenge him.
But...
Standing atop a building, Najenda looked down at the panicked crowds and districts once again descending into violence and chaos.
Her expression shifted repeatedly.
She could not simply ignore this.
"Boss?"
Lubbock and the others called to her again.
Najenda closed her eyes.
Her chest rose and fell heavily as she went through an intense internal struggle.
Eventually, she released a long breath.
"We’re not going to the palace."
Her voice had become firm.
"Gather whoever we can and restore order in the city."
"Yes!"
Lubbock and the others nodded hard and immediately began shouting orders to the soldiers below.
Najenda glanced once more toward the Imperial Palace.
That place had already become the center of the storm.
No—calling it a meat grinder would be more accurate.
Even if the rebels responsible for killing the Emperor were eventually eliminated, the Emperor was dead and the Empire now lacked a clear leader.
All the different factions gathering there would inevitably tear one another apart before any new balance of power could be established.
Rather than becoming involved in such a meaningless bloodbath, Najenda would rather do what she genuinely wanted to do right now.
Besides...
She had serious doubts about the idea of chasing Kiriya.
She had personally witnessed his ability to teleport instantly.
If he truly wanted to leave, how could any of those people possibly keep up with him?
So rather than believing Kiriya had become weak, Najenda found another explanation much more plausible.
He was pretending to be weakened.
He wanted to lure every ambitious schemer and dangerous opportunist out into the open, gather them in one place—and wipe them all out at once.
Then he could take control of the Empire himself.
The moment that possibility occurred to Najenda, a chill ran through her entire body.
Her fear of Kiriya deepened considerably.
This man did not merely possess absurd military power.
If her guess was correct, his political scheming was equally terrifying.
Najenda immediately summoned several trusted subordinates.
She wrote her suspicions down and instructed them to deliver the messages to a handful of civil officials and military officers she respected or maintained good relations with, hoping to keep them from throwing their lives away in a meaningless battle.
Then she threw herself wholeheartedly into restoring order throughout the streets.
"I am General Najenda of the Empire!"
Her voice carried across the district.
"Imperial Capital Guard and all Imperial soldiers, obey my command and return to formation immediately!"
"The Imperial Capital is now under martial law!"
"All civilians are to remain inside their homes!"
"Anyone wandering the streets without authorization is to be detained immediately!"
"Anyone caught stealing, looting, or murdering..."
Her expression turned cold.
"Execute them on the spot!"
As order after order was issued, her people immediately sprang into action.
...
Meanwhile—while running alongside Kiriya, Esdeath glanced toward him.
"Why are we running?"
Her tone was completely casual.
"That rabble back there isn’t worth avoiding. I could handle them by myself."
She had every reason to be confident.
After more than half a year of brutal training, even without relying on Demon’s Extract, Esdeath could charge through an army of tens of thousands, slaughter her way through them, and leave whenever she pleased.
She was confident that ordinary soldiers could not threaten her at all.
And now that she had obtained Demon God Manifestation: Demon’s Extract, she had become even more terrifying.
A few tens of thousands of troops?
If she really wanted to, she could probably wipe them all out.
And that was without considering Ryuu and Jeanne, both of whom were fully developed first-class fighters in their own right.
Even if Kiriya did nothing, the three women alone could crush those forces.
"Well..."
Kiriya sighed with exaggerated weariness.
"I did use up quite a bit."
He looked genuinely troubled.
"I’ve already burned through almost twenty percent of my energy reserves."
Kiriya shook his head solemnly.
"That makes me a little nervous."
𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
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