After Lakshman, Erza, Tetra and Cantia left for the Heaven Continent, Venezuela and Ondine left for the castle. In the meantime, Dominic left the kingdom to try and locate each of the Nine Pillars of Power members like Lakshman had instructed him to do with the help of his Sacred Spirit; the Destiny Sword. Zen, who had obtained the Legendary Weapon, Sword of Justice from the Phoenix Sages, departed from the kingdom to speak of alliance with the other races, just like Lakshman had requested off him.

Venezuela was sitting in the king’s room, along with Ondine, while the other desks remained vacant. It seemed that no one felt like working that day, except for them two. Shalany returned to her home to take charge of her baby, whom she left in the capable hands of Mariana, the Reddy family’s maid. The Reddy twins, Indira and Priya were still sleeping and had Silvera and Emilia to keep them company.

Just then, the doors to the room opened and the mother of the Queen of Floria Kingdom entered. Venezuela, apparently, did not hear the door open due to the amount of concentration she was putting in the paperwork that Lakshman left for her to complete. Ondine, on the other hand, looked up and she immediately rose to her feet after seeing who it was.

“Welcome, Madam!” Ondine greeted Floria Sargold respectfully. “How are you doing today?”

Floria smiled at her as she said, “Quite fine.”

“Ah, then, what brings you here?”

“Oh… I was out for a walk and I happened to be nearby, so I came for a visit,” said Floria smoothly with a small smile on her face.

“Stop lying, mother. You came just to see how I’m doing,” said Venezuela without looking up.

Floria’s smile twitched before she asked, “Well, of course, I did come to see how my daughter is doing.”

“I see. Well, as you can see for yourself, I’m doing fine. So, if you please leave, I’ll concentrate on my work,” said Venezuela curtly, which caused Ondine to raise both of her eyebrows in surprise.

The smile on Floria’s face disappeared and she looked sad as she asked, “Vena, you need to stop and take a break. All this work will put a lot of stress on—!”

“I’m fine,” replied Venezuela briskly with her head staring fiercely at the papers held in her hand.

Floria looked disappointed as she slowly said, “Vena… You haven’t spent much time with me; your mother after you disappeared for ten years. Why don’t you spent some time with me or did I perhaps do something to hurt you?”

Venezuela stopped what she was doing and sighed heavily before looking up at her sad faced mother.

“I’m sorry, mother,” she said in an apologetic tone. “I’ve been busy at work, doing the paperwork that Lakshman left me so and I want to perform my duties. The people of my kingdom elected me with high hopes and I cannot disappoint them now after letting them down for ten years.”

Hearing such words come out of her mouth, Floria became upset before she said, “Vena. You are just like your father; always trying your best to satisfy the kingdom’s people. It is good what you’re doing, but you should also spend time with your family because they are also important to you.”

Venezuela smiled at her mother’s concerned face and said, “Don’t worry, mother. My bond with my family is not rupturing or distancing. I am just trying to complete my tasks I have right now so that I can spend more time with the people important to me.”

“Oh!” Ondine said sharply and they looked at her in surprise. “I’m glad you said that, otherwise, I’d have to tell Lucky that your focusing too much on work and less on your family!”

Venezuela looked at her with a raised eyebrow as she said, “Ondine… If that was a joke; I’m not laughing. I know you became nice after your personality change, but you still need to improve on your joke making skills.”

“That’s rude, Vena!”

Ondine said that, but she still laughed anyway as a smile appeared on Floria’s face while Venezuela chuckled heartily. The atmosphere in the room had been tense for the few minutes that Venezuela and Floria had been talking. That was why, Ondine attempted at a joke to lift the mood, which seemed to have worked somewhat. All that effort, however, was crushed by the sudden commotion happening outside the room doors.

***

“Let me through!” A voice shouted from behind the closed doors.

“No! You need permission to enter!” the voice of a guard, stationed outside, replied in a firm voice.

“Do you know who I am? I’m your future new king!”

“Yeah, right! Dream on, fool. Now, get lost before we force you out!”

“Stuff this! I don’t need permission! So, get out of my way!”

With a shout, there was an alarming bang that ran from right outside the door and the next moment, the doors were blasted away by a powerful energy blast. The two guards, stationed outside, were carried by the energy wave before slamming them against the wall. As they slumped unconscious to the floor, Venezuela jumped to her feet as she stared at the entrance.

The smoke from the explosion slowly dissipated as a shadowy figure walked through it. As it slowly vanished, it revealed the figure to be a tall man with a well-built body as he seemed to be wearing stylish clothes while he had black eyes and black hair that was lengthy around the ears.

The stranger was looking around the room with a bemused expression on his face before his eyes lit upon Venezuela. As he did, a smile crept onto his face and it gave him a creepy appearance.

“Ah. Just the person I wanted to see and, ah, she’s with someone that I also wanted to meet! Ah… The stars are siding with me,” said the man and he grinned happily, but it caused Ondine to shiver slightly. He noticed her and a puzzled expression formed on his face as he asked, “Hmm… An unknown stranger… Well, I don’t need to meet you, so leave us alone, woman.”

Venezuela glared at him fiercely as she said, “How dare you behave in such a manner after attacking my guards, blasting down the doors and calling my sister—!”

“Sister?!” the man exclaimed in a loud voice in surprise as he cut across her. “Oh…! I remember now… Yeah… The current king, the Phoenix Titan, married seven women and that included her. Ah… That guy is such a womaniser!”

Ondine and Venezuela instantly got angry by the words he uttered about their husband. Even, Floria was taken by surprise and she stared at him with a disapproving expression on her face.

“How dare you—?” Floria began when she was silenced with a casual wave of his hand.

“Yeah, yeah. Zip it, stupid woman,” said the man as he stopped her with a casual wave of his hand. “No one needs to hear anything from your aging mouth. Now, moving onto—!”

“Stop it!” Venezuela shouted and managed to silence him momentarily. She glared at him angrily as she demanded, “Who do you think you are to dare talk in such a way about my sister, husband and my mother?!”

The unknown man looked at her with a raised eyebrow in surprise before he slowly chuckled into laughing loudly. It took him several seconds to laugh and recover, which caused the three women to look at each other with puzzled expressions on their faces. As he finished laughing, he stared at her with a crazy smile on his face before jabbing at himself with his thump.

“If you know who I am, your entire history will change forever!” the unknown man said with an eerie grin on his face. He placed a hand on his chest and said, “I am Shenzen Sardeen, my mother is Flausina Sardeen and my father is, none other than, Bernard IV Sargold! Yes! I am the illegitimate son of your father!”

“What?!” Venezuela exclaimed in a shocked voice while Ondine’s eyes widened in shock. She stared at him in disbelief for a moment before she asked, “You’re my father’s… illegitimate son…? That’s ridiculous!”

Shenzen, suddenly, looked angry and said, “I don’t want to believe it, but it’s true! The dying words of my dear mother, the love shared between them two and the betrayal she felt upon learning that he got married! I didn’t want to believe it at first, but I was forced to when Felix Phoron threatened to kill me for questioning him about it!”

“F-Felix did that…?” Venezuela asked slowly with a look of disbelief on her face.

“You have no idea of what he did to me!” Shenzen said fiercely with an ugly look on his face as he slowly took a step forward. “I came to this kingdom in search of answers and received much more when he tried to silence me to hide the truth! After escaping with my life, I realised the truth of her words and I began hating your family for throwing my mother away as if she was expendable!”

Venezuela was rendered speechless as her head had gone into a terrible shock after learning of her father having an illegitimate son. Her legs, unable to support her in such a shocked state, collapsed and she sat down on her chair with widened eyes filled with shock.

“Since then, I trained in to surpass him and finally, after ten-long-years, I finally reached Emperor rank! Unfortunately, news of Felix’s death reached my ears and I was gripped with disappointment of not being able to take that man’s life with my own two hands! Still, I remembered my father having a wife and daughter, who are no longer under his protection and I felt my chance for revenge has come!”

As Shenzen finished speaking, he clenched his fists tightly with a murderous look on his face.

“Is what why you came when our husband is not around?!” Ondine demanded as she stepped in front of Venezuela to protect her from that crazed man.

At her words, Shenzen began to laugh hysterically and caused the three women to take a hasty step back in fright. It was a heartless laughter and he continued to laugh on when, all of a sudden, he stopped laughing to stare at them with a wicked expression on his face.

“To be honest, I wanted to have him around so that his wives, especially that woman over there, gets to taste the kind of hell that my mother faced when she was betrayed!” he said fiercely and caused Ondine’s eyes to widen with shock. “As ever, he had to go and I’m just left to exact my revenge on these two instead!”

Ondine glared at him fiercely as she said, “You... disgust me! I don’t know what you said is true or not, but trying to exact revenge on something like that is unacceptable!”

“Unacceptable?!” Shenzen bellowed at the top of his voice and Ondine winced in surprise.

He ripped open his shirt to reveal a powerfully chiselled body with abs and bilging muscles. Ondine was taken aback at seeing him suddenly rip his short off, but suddenly noticed a deep scar running diagonally across his chest to, all the way, down to his stomach.

“Look at this!” he said sharply and pointed at the scar. “This is what Felix gave me for questioning him about the past my father and mother shared! This is the scar that your, so called, righteous deceased Phoenix Emperor gave me for something like this! I will exact my revenge, along with this scar that he gave me; a reminder of the suffering my mother faced!”

As Ondine stared at his body with a shocked expression on her face, Floria stepped forward to try and speak to him.

“I don’t know what you’re saying is true or not, but my husband would not do such a thing as betraying someone that he dearly loved!” Floria said in a firm voice.

He rounded on her angrily and said, “Is that so, old woman?! Is that all you know about your husband?! Well, with a wife as stupid as you, I doubt he’d have a hard time keeping secrets from anyone!”

She, suddenly, glared at him fiercely and pointed a finger at him as she said, “Watch your mouth! You’re talking about my dear husband!”

“So, what if I am, woman?!” he bellowed and shocked her, causing her eyes to widen in shock. “I won’t forget what he did to my father and the fact that you were from the Phoenix Clan, just like Felix! I’ll kill you all appease the burning soul of my dead mother!”

Ondine stared at him with an angry look on her face as she thought, “This is bad…! His unknown past, whether true or not, has made him go crazy! On top of that, I don’t know if I can stop him if what he says is true about him being Emperor ranked!”

Just then, there were shouts of shocked voices and moments later, the Sword King, Darian Ronald and the Monkey King, Hanuman Monkaggy, who is also known as Rumble, appeared in the doorway.

“What’s going on?! Why are all the guards dead?!” Darian demanded in a sharp voice when his eyes fell on Shenzen’s back. He, instantly, sensed something strange emitting from that man and he sharply asked, “You! Who are you and what are you doing here?!”

Rumble looked at the man and sniffed a few times in the air before making an extremely serious expression on his face.

“Darian, this guy is bad!” Rumble said and he made a sharp expression on his face. “I smell a great level of blood and death emitting from this guy!”

Shenzen breathed a heavy sigh and turned around while saying, “Really…? More nonsenses? It seems that everyone has a death wish today.”

“What?!” Darian said sharply while Rumble growled at him while positioning himself to attack at will.

At that moment, several warriors with swords and spears in their hands, appeared from the other side after hearing the commotion. They looked at how seriously Darian and Rumble were looking towards the stranger standing before Floria Sargold, Ondine Reddy and their queen, Venezuela Reddy. Understanding the situation, they positioned themselves around the two to back them up from the rear.

“Oh…! More people that want to die!” Shenzen said cheerfully and he formed a wide creepy grin on his face. “Just what I wanted; the blood of the people that foolishly protect my enemies!”

In an instant, he began surging with power that caused the wind to blow rapidly in all direction at high speed. Floria instantly moved to protect her daughter while Ondine, quickly, activated a barrier spell and protected them from the powerful energy radiating from the man. Lightning began to burst from around him and got deflected off the barrier while the man radiated in deep-violet aura that surrounded him. Darian, Rumble and the several warriors standing at the rear, braced themselves for the powerful wave of wind and energy.

“I don’t know who this guy is, but be careful! I can sense that he’s really powerful!” Darian whispered to the warriors behind him.

“I sense a great amount of evil and twisted powerful radiating from him!”

Shenzen looked over his shoulders at the girls and casually said, “Wait for me, my little prey. I’ll see to you shortly after taking care of this bunch of weaklings.”

Darian’s eyes suddenly widened with shock and he shouted, “Here he comes!”

In a heartbeat, Shenzen moved and Rumble, who’s eyes widened with horror, instantly turned around to push Darian out of the way while moved in the position direction himself. It was a correct decision, because, Shenzen sliced past them and stopped a few meters away. They turned around and were shocked to see some of the warriors split into pieces and Shenzen covered by an ample amount of their blood.

“Ah…! The smell of blood and death is so reassuring; I can almost taste victory!” Shenzen said and he looked around to look at them with creepy smiled formed on his blood stained face.

“Thanks, Rumble,” said Darian and Rumble merely nodded his head. He turned to face the man and said, “This guy’s dangerous! You lot; protect the women while I and Monkey King handle this man!”

Without a pause or delay, the men quickly replied by saying, “Yes, sir!”

As the remaining warriors quickly moved towards the defence of the women, Shenzen whipped around and extended his left hand before he shouted, “Beast Blast!”

In an instant, a powerful wave of purple energy got released and it flew towards them at high speed. Darian stared at the incoming attack in shock when Rumble, quickly, stepped in front of it before raising both of his hands above his head in a pose.

“Warrior Wave!”

In an instant, his entire body began to glow before a large wave of energy was released and it soared away at high speed towards the incoming attack. The two travelled towards each other and slapped with shocking force, causing a great struggle to take place between the two forces.

A few seconds later, the clashing forces exploded and created a wild explosion that caused the wind to blow wildly around the area. The buildings, in the area, got great large cracks all over them and the glasses shattered into pieces in an instant. The ground shook from the violent explosion, but it all slowly settled down and the dust slowly cleared to bring the view back to normal.

Shenzen saw the remaining forces standing before him and his eyes gleamed with excitement at the thought of killing them all. In a wild rush of hysteria, he charged towards them at high speed when, all of a sudden, Rumble appeared to stand directly in his path.

“Fighting Fury! Fighting Frenzy!”

Rumble shouted aloud the techniques that used the Energy Force, within his body, to amplify his speed and power by a great margin. He began radiating with power while surrounded by a red aura that surrounded him as he faced his charging enemy.

Shenzen pulled back his left fist and launched it forward while Rumble unleashed his right fist outward. A moment later, the two clenched fists made contact and there was a powerful standoff between the two warriors with their fists pushing against one another. Rumble was trying his best to push forward, but he was losing ground against a stronger opponent.

At that moment, Darian came out of nowhere and attempted to cut Shenzen down with one powerful slash. Shenzen, who seemed to have anticipated the attack, quickly leaped away and landed a few meters away from them.

“Hurricane Slash Storm!” Darian shouted with his sword in his hand.

In an instant, he began slicing in the air with his sword and sent several cutting energy attacks towards his enemy. Shenzen, who saw them coming, simply grinned and raising his fist into the air, brought it down as if he was slicing something with his hands. As he did, a powerful slicing energy got released and it soared away from him while slicing the ground as it travelled.

Darian’s slicing attack was pushed aside very easily and continued to travel towards the intended target. Rumble, quickly, grabbed Darian and pushed him, saving themselves, but the ones caught in its path were sliced into pieces like onions, killing them instantly.

After that, they continued to fight it out for several minutes with energy attacks, close combat attacks and sword attacks. Their battle caused the area to become filled with craters while large cracks formed on the ground and on the walls they were surrounded by. Several more reinforcements arrived to support them, but they simply got cut down very easily by casualness of Shenzen’s attacks.

A while later, the two were breathing a little quickly, Shenzen began to roar with mirthless laughter.

Darian stared at him silently as he caught his breath while he thought, “This person is dangerous! We better do something quick, but what? He’s fast, strong and wild natured! It feels like we’re battling against a raging beast in the skin of a human!”

“Hey! What’s wrong?!” Shenzen asked them in a loud carrying voice once he stopped laughing. “So far, you impressed me since you’re still alive after fighting for a while! I hate to admit it, but you’re not bad for a couple of oldies!”

Once again, he began to roar with laughter that lacked any sense of humour. Only the madness and rage he felt got released by it and the people sensing it, suddenly got cold feet as they began to fear for their life. He was someone that both the Sword King and the Monkey King were unable to attack properly.

“He’s mocking us!” Darian thought and he sensed the great anger boiling within Rumble as he stared at his enemy. “He’s toying with us and with his great power, he could easily kill us at his leisure! Yet, why…? Why does he not do it? What reason does he…?”

As his thoughts faltered, his eyes widened as he realised something that he had completely missed earlier. He looked around and saw the women being defended by the remaining warriors with spears and swords held firmly in their hands.

“Them… He wants them!” Darian thought as he realised why their energy was toying with them.

Darian quietly whispered into Rumble’s ear, “He’s not after us; he’s after the women. We need to assure their safety first and only then do we worry about our lives.”

Rumble turned his head towards his long-time friend and only said one thing.

“Marilia will be upset if you don’t return home today.”

Darian suddenly felt a stab at his heart at the mention of his wife’s name. For a long time, they had loved each other and while they bickered sometimes, their love was strong and so was the bond they formed over the years. Despite not being able to conceive a baby, they were still happy to be together, so he knew it would destroy her utterly if he did not return home after working all day.

“Don’t worry; I will go home once this is over,” said Darian confidently with a small smile on his face. “It’s not a husband’s job to keep their wives waiting at home forever.”

Rumble looked at his friend for a moment before nodding in understanding.

Just then, Shenzen stopped laughing and glared at them fiercely as he sensed that they were up to something. Not wanting to give them the chance to act, he formed a wicked smile on his face as he shouted at them.

“Look! I have work to do and I’m sure you do the same and I know, for a fact, that you’re planning something. So, make it happen because here I come!”

Once he finished speaking, he roared like a raging wild animal on a frenzy before charging charged towards them at high speed with a murderous killing intent that emitting out of him.

***

As Sumara paused in her story telling, Lakshman stared at her incredulously with a look of concern filling his face.

“What? What happened?” he demanded fiercely.

She looked at him for a moment in silence before slowly saying, “Floria… Floria Sargold… Venezuela’s mother… was killed. That man killed her as she attempted to save her daughter from getting killed by him.”

Lakshman’s eyes widened in horror as he finally understood why Venezuela had been bawling like a cry baby.

Author's Note

Hello everyone and merry christmas! I, actually, didn't want to write this chapter today, but I my mind wanted to and I did what it told me to do. So, here it is and I hope that you enjoyed reading it. So, until next time, have a wonderful day and I hope to see you again as the story continues!