"Your Highness, please leave this place quickly!" Daynsvi, the captain of the royal guard, said while looking at Souta with a wary expression. "Orlan, Gin, Farlon, escort Your Highness and the rest."

The three nodded respectfully and they turned towards the emperor and his family.

At this time, Souta opened his mouth and said, "It's no use. I've already locked down the entire palace. No one would be able to leave this place without my permission. Well, if you have the strength to defeat me then you could shatter the gravity field that I set up but from what I could see nothing among you have that kind of power."

The emperor looked at Souta and asked, "Why are you doing this?"

Souta shrugged his shoulder and said, "Nothing personal here. Someone just asked me to help her destroy the empire. You could say that I'm a mercenary that will accept any job as long as you provided me a quest."

"T-Then... How about I double the price that they paid to you? Anything, I will give you anything." The emperor tried to negotiate with Souta.

"I think that you have misunderstood me. The things I could get from the quest aren't material and you can't provide it to me." Souta said as he stepped forward once again.

As soon as he stepped forward, the rest of the royal guards charged at him without hesitation. Their mana burst out of their body as the parasitic essence eater boosted their physical abilities.

Boom!!

Souta collided with Daynsvi. Their figure flashed as they repeatedly threw powerful blows against each other. Even the other royal guards tried to help their leader in fighting Souta.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shockwaves erupted everywhere and crack formed on the ceiling, walls, and floor of the palace. It couldn't handle the power from a third evolution monster and a powerful A-rank with a parasitic essence eater along with several ordinary B-rank experts.

Torkez glanced at the battle then he turned his attention towards the royal family.

"I'll handle this..."

He was about to come forward when the rest of the royal guards blocked his way. He knew that it wouldn't be easy and he already expected that he will fight here. So he had no choice about it as fighting was inevitable in their mission.

Both of his hands turned into blades and he launched himself forward.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The emperor and his family looked at the battles with a pale expression. They didn't expect that the enemies would come here to kidnap them.

Fear. Fear started to appear in their hearts. This was the first time that they've experienced something this terrible.

"I need to activate it..."

The emperor muttered as he looked at the triangular device on his hand. He turned around and sat down on the emperor's seat.

After he sat down, he leaned his back on the back support of his seat. He then looked at the triangular device in his hand and pressed the button on its back.

Ohm!

The chair emitted a dim light. Several needles appeared on the back support and it pierced his spinal cord.

*Connecting to the Guardian Fortress!*

*Activating the Guardian Fortress!*

The emperor frowned as he felt pain all over his body. He was establishing his connection to the warheads that were sleeping around the capital.

Activating this means that their empire was at its limit. It needed the protection from the guardians that their ancestors left. Also, activating it means that the ancestor will know that their empire was in peril.

The ancestor that was sleeping beneath the empire will wake up.

One thing was for sure. After this problem was settled, he won't become an emperor anymore. The ancestor will change the emperor of the Great Astley Empire.

Just by thinking about his ancestor, he couldn't help but shiver in fear. That man was terrifying and was nearly immortal. No one could kill his ancestor.

"Start!"

...

Souta was feeling the pressure coming from the A-rank experts. The captain of the royal guard was just an ordinary A-rank yet the power of the parasite boosted his strength to the peak of A-rank.

Bang! Bang!

From their clash, he could understand that his base strength already reached the mid-tier of A-rank. Nothing much it was just his base strength, he didn't even include the added power of his equipment.

Souta moved his body from side to side as he avoided all the attacks from the royal guards. He moved his eyes and counted the people that were attacking him.

Hmm...? Twelve people in total. Okay, fine.

[Night Overlord's Aura]!

[Shadow Cloak]!

[Strength Boost]!

[Agility Boost]!

[Cat's Speed]!

[Triple Muscle Strengthening]!

A huge amount of energy erupted inside his body. The aura swept out and it pushed everything away from him.

Daynsvi and his comrades gritted their teeth as they looked at Souta who released an enormous amount of dragon's energy. Although they read the report about Souta, they still couldn't believe that a man could harness this terrible power that could defeat anyone.

"This is the reason why everyone called him The Strongest... They are right. I don't know anyone that could defeat this man in a one-on-one battle."

Daynsvi felt something bubbling in his heart. He felt bitter because of how powerful the enemy is. The only way to defeat this guy was to work together.

Layers of flesh covered his body before he charged towards Souta.

Swoosh!

When the royal guards arrived close to Souta, Souta didn't hesitate to slash his sword.

[Crimson Moon]!

Boom! Boom!

The palace was receiving the aftershocks from the battle. It was slowly crumbling down and anytime it could fell.

The royal guards attacked Souta. Their flesh turned into a weapon that they used to fight. Souta simply parried their attacks and would swing his sword when he has an opportunity. Every time he swung his sword, one of the arms or legs of the royal guards would fly away.

'One A-rank, three peak B-rank, four early-B-rank, and four peak C-rank experts. Souta, you should eliminate them. If you have a question to ask them then forget about it. Just simply ask the emperor. I'm sure that the emperor knows more than the royal guards.' Saya's voice sounded in his mind.

'Okay...' Souta nodded and his figure flashed forward.

The royal guards felt their bodies being restricted. The four C-rank experts couldn't move as they felt the gravity was trying to crush them in every direction. Then, they saw Souta appeared in front of them and slashed his sword which was coated with red energy.

Putchi!

The heads of the four royal guards rolled in the mid-air spewing blood in any direction.

They were already at the peak C-rank so they could handle Souta's pressure. The only problem was Souta's ability to control gravity. Under this power, those C-rank would be weak as a child in front of him.

"Wha-"

Daynsvi gasped as his eyes constricted. His four subordinates easily died when Souta started to attack seriously.

Boom!

The whole ground shook heavily and it gathered everyone's attention because none of them was the cause of it.

Souta turned his head and saw four areas in the capital were moving upward. It was separating from the ground and it looked like a fortress armed with powerful weapons.

Hmm...? So what's the cause of it?

He wondered as he glanced at the emperor. Judging from the mana signature, it was coming from the emperor. It means that there's a high probability that the emperor was the one controlling those things.

"So the royal family still had a weapon to fight back...?"

Souta muttered as he saw Daynsvi charging at him with the rest of the royal guards. A magic circle appeared below his feet and seven shadows flashed towards the rest of the royal guards while Souta collided with Daynsvi.

[Doppelganger]!

Spikes burst out of Daynsvi's body and Souta simply blocked it. Now that his shadows were handling the B-rank royal guards, he would have a time to deal with their captain.

After blocking the spikes, Souta flew in front of the captain. He thrust his sword forward but then another wave of spikes burst out of Daynsvi's body.

Swoosh!

Souta shattered all the spikes with his sword and he kicked his opponent. Daynsvi couldn't avoid his kick so he was blasted away and crushed on the ground.

Bang!

Ugh! He felt pain all over his body but he could handle it. His wounds were healing faster thanks to his parasite. He looked up only to found that a red blade flying in his direction.

"Shit!"

He was going to move to the side to avoid the attack but then he found that his body was bound by a sticky web.

The red energy blade landed on his body and it caused a huge cut on his chest to his stomach.

"Argh!!"

He groaned in pain as he spat a mouthful of blood on the ground. It saw then that he noticed that the ground turned black and several black tentacles emerged from it.

The tentacles strangled his four limbs.

"Nothing personal here. You just block my way so I'm going to kill you."

A voice sounded beside his ear.