As several members that were present in the castle went to check on their emperor, the speaker from before walked over to address the four Dragon Kings. He wore an extremely angry expression as he was disappointed by their performance in not acting to defend their emperor from the Phoenix Titan’s assault.

“You Dragon Kings are useless!” he shouted at them in an angry voice. “You four stood around like statues and watched our emperor being attacked by the Phoenix Titan! Do you not have any shame?!”

The Water Dragon King, Earth Dragon King and Air Dragon King did not respond, but the Fire Dragon King did. Fizard had been staring towards the door through which the Phoenix Titan had left when he, slowly, turned to face the speaker with an angry expression on his face.

Without warning, he swung his hand down and slapped it hard against the side of the speaker’s face, startling the man and throwing him on the ground. He lay there groaning while clutching the side of his face as the onlookers watched with shocked expressions on their faces.

Fizard glared at him fiercely and asked, “Are you such a fool to not understand what just happened?” He angrily pointed a finger at the destroyed wall and said sharply, “He destroyed the castle wall and mowed down a large amount of the forest in his path with a single punch and he did that without even powering up! Just imagine what would’ve happened to us if he had fought seriously!”

His thundering voice echoed in the room and stunned the observers with his words. They had no idea that the Phoenix Titan had such power hidden within him because of the lack of power he demonstrated in their presence.

“Fizard is quite correct,” stated Waddit with a grim expression on his face. “If Aidek didn’t bring his friend over at the time he did, I don’t think we would’ve appreciate what would’ve happened. You did well bringing him here on time, Aidek.”

He turned to his side and complemented the Air Dragon King, who simply nodded his head in appreciation.

“It wasn’t much since I had an inclining that something problematic would occur if we didn’t hand his friend over to him quickly,” said Aidek with a serious express on his face. “The Spirits of the Wind informed me that I follow what this man says, otherwise, face his wrath.”

“You’re correct in listening to them,” said Fizard as he nodded approvingly at Aidek. “As much as I hate to admit it, we don’t stand a chance against the Phoenix Titan as he currently is.”

“The boy has grown since the last time we fought him,” said Gurret telepathically. “He was young and soft hearted, but it seems he has grown into a battle hardened powerful warrior.”

With those words, the four of them turned to stare out at the great hole that Lakshman made in their castle wall.

***

Lakshman and Zen were walking away from the castle as Zen supported Dominic along while Lakshman held onto the Destiny Blade. Zen checked that they were, indeed, alone before he turned to speak seriously to Lakshman.

“Lakshman, was it necessary to go to such an extent to develop fear in their hearts? I mean, I know our clan has been in odds with them since the ancient times, but was that really necessary? I thought that making allies for the upcoming great war was important than past grudges.”

“He angered me by speaking rubbish about war, so I just showed him a piece of my power,” said Lakshman with a shrug of his shoulders. “Besides, I’m more interested in enlisting the Dragon Titan than the Dragon Clan because they are very egoistic and will only get in our way. That’s like bringing headache along and putting it on top of our heads.”

“Ah,” said Zen in understanding and he smiled cheerfully. “Still, you scared the daylights out of them.”

Lakshman nodded in agreement and said while smiling, “That was just a fraction of my power and if they want to see more, I doubt they’d have the guts to ever challenge me ever again in life.”

Zen blinked at him in surprise at the surety in which Lakshman spoke those words. It reminded him of the time he had spent together with his father-in-law, Felix Phoron, the previous Phoenix Emperor. During one of his sessions with the aging Phoenix Emperor, Felix had spoken to Zen about Lakshman with a sad look on his face.

“It’s sad that that young boy was cut down in the prime of his life. If he was allowed to live for a few more years, he would’ve reached an unprecedented level of power and it would be impossible for anyone to be on an equal ground with him!”

Those were the words Felix had said to Zen with a sad expression on his face. Now, seeing that those words had come true, Zen was feeling proud of being the new Phoenix Emperor and the one to assist the all mighty Phoenix Titan.

“I’m glad to be working with you, Lakshman,” said Zen with a smiling face and Lakshman turned to smile back at him without saying a word.

They neared the Spirit Dragon, who was lying on the ground and was allowing the Dragon Clan’s children to rub him and jump on him. Lakshman was amazed to see such a prideful and an arrogant dragon have such a soft spot for children, even allowing them to play around with its wings and tail.

All of a sudden, Lakshman’s smile changed to that of frown as an intense pain coursed through his body. He, instantly, clutched his chest with his right hand as he staggered because of losing balance as the pain surged through his body.

“What the?!” he exclaimed in shock as his chest stung with great intensity. “This pain… What is it…?”

“Lakshman!” Zen exclaimed with a concerned look on his face. “What’s wrong? Why are you clutching your chest? Did something happen back there when someone performed a sneak attack on you?”

“No… It’s not that…” said Lakshman through gritted teeth as the pain intensified. “It’s something… more… Ah!”

At that moment, he exclaimed as his vision changed from being with Zen and showed him of events occurring elsewhere. His changed vision took him to where his home was and he was alarmed to see that his wives, including his twin sisters, appeared to frozen where they stood with no apparent attack locking their movement. Then, his vision lifted upward and he was alarmed to see a gigantic wave of energy descending from the sky and aiming directly where his house and everyone stood frozen.

“Ah!” Lakshman exclaimed against as his vision returned to the present and he gasped for breath from the shock of what he saw in his vision. After a moment, he clenched his fists tightly and said, “My family is in danger and they need me!”

Zeb blinked in surprise and asked, “What did you say? Your family’s in danger? How do you know that?”

“I don’t have time to explain!” Lakshman said and he instantly strengthened up as he stood firmly on his feet. He ordered the Phoenix Emperor by saying, “Zen. Ride the dragon and bring Dominic along with the Destiny Blade while I go ahead to my house.”

“Huh? What—?” Zen began to ask, but was silenced when Lakshman stared at him with a serious expression on his face.

“Just do it!” Lakshman said firmly and made Zen jump in surprise.

“Ah… Okay!” Zen said firmly as he realised that asking questions was not the right time at that point.

Nodding once at him, Zen sheathed the Destiny Blade in the empty sword holder that Dominic had at his waist. Lakshman spared them a look for a few seconds before turning back to face in the direction that he believed was towards where his house was located.

He raised his right hand up and extended it in front of him before he said, “Transverse Portal!”

In an instant, a black swirling hole appeared in front of him that was being showered with black lightning. With a serious expression on his face, Lakshman stepped into the portal and disappeared before the portal slowly closed behind him.

A moment later, Lakshman stepped out of the other end of the portal near his home and he was shocked to see a massive wave of destruction descending towards his home. Quickly looking towards his wives and sisters, he realised that they were frozen like statues and were unable to move.

He understood with a single glance up at the massive wave of destruction that his magic counter spell, Maga Distrab, would not have any effect on it because of it being protected by an outer anti-magic counter spell as well. At the same time, he realised that it would be very difficult to move them to a safe location in the time he had left. Thus, he decided to fight the wave of destruction headed down to destroy them.

With a determined expression on his face, he began to surge with power while radiating golden-red aura that surrounded him. The power he unleashed caused the ground to quake with great intensity and sent a wild blowing wind and shock waves in all directions. His wives were buffeted by it, but were unable to move from the place they were frozen at, but their happiness could be seen from their visibly live eyes.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”

Screaming, Lakshman kicked off the ground at high speed and caused it to sink deeply as he roared into the sky at high speed. Flying as high as possible to put himself and his house as far away as possible, he came to a stop and brought his hands together to gather energy for his attack. It took him a few seconds to gather while the incoming wave continued to descend without hesitation.

“Pho-nik-ala-cha-la-ra!”

With each phrase he uttered, his gathered energy grew stronger and stronger until he reached the end. He screamed the last word as he brought his hands forward and unleashed his mighty wave of destruction up at the descending massive wave of destruction.

The two attacks soared through the air at high speed and a few seconds later, collided in mid-air. An intense struggle of beam battle occurred between as Lakshman fought hard to push against the wave with his own attack.

As the struggle stretched into multiple seconds, Lakshman angrily thought, “This is going to slay forever if I don’t stop it! Mmm… Fine!” Then, out loud, he shouted, “Full Power!”

Out of the open palms of his hands, a huge surge of power got released and was added onto the wave of destruction that he was firing. It soared up and dramatically increased the output of his wave before dwarfing the incoming wave of destruction.

All of a sudden, an explosion occurred when the two clashing forces were strained to the limit. The result created earth shacking shock waves and wind blowing wings, which were sent in all directions. It caught Lakshman in its tracks and hurled him towards the ground at high speed, but he quickly used his energy barrier to stop himself in the middle of falling.

Several seconds later, the smoke cleared and the danger posed towards his home and family was gone. Instead, the large object of an island continued to float high above in the sky, which he glared up at fiercely.

Turning his attention towards his wife, he smiled at them and said, “Hold on. I’ll release you now.”

Lakshman clapped his hands together and said, “Maga Distrab: Chain Destruction!”

In an instant, wind blew around him and his wives a little quicker as a sound of shattering glass was heard. The next moment, his wives and twin sisters were freed from their restraints and slowly fell forward as they slowly closed their eyes.

“Doppler!” Lakshman shouted the moment he saw them falling forward.

In an instant, ten copies of Lakshman separated from the real Lakshman and immediately went to catch each of them. Nine out of ten of them made it just in time to catch a woman, but the tenth was lost because he could not find his wife anywhere.

“Are they alright?” the real Lakshman demanded anxiously.

“Yes, but exhausted,” replied one of the copies and the others nodded in agreement.

“Good,” said Lakshman and he sighed in relief.

He thought everything was fine, but things began to get complicated when he heard the voice of one of his copies shouting out one of his wife’s name.

“Vena! Venezuela!” he was shouting and the real Lakshman looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face. “Answer me, Vena!”

“Hey! Where’s Vena?” the real Lakshman asked with a look of concern on his face.

The copy Lakshman shrugged his shoulders and said, “No idea. She’s not here and I don’t sense her anywhere within the vicinity.”

“What?!” Lakshman exclaimed in shock.

He, immediately, started sensing for her presence and realised that what his copy said was true. So, he used World Sense to try and figure out where in the world she was at and to his shock, he sensed that she was high above in the sky.

Looking up, Lakshman was horrified as realisation dawned on him that his wife was captured by the angels. It meant that they had come to pay his family a visit in his absence to carry out this kidnapping. He also came to the realisation that Sonia, Natasha and Atem were also on the Heaven Continent.

Unable to contain his anger, Lakshman began to surge with wild power and radiated in golden-red aura as he screamed, “Damn you, bastards!!!”

His voice echoed in the surroundings and reached high into the sky where the Heaven Continent was floating. Inside it, Sonia’s godfather and their escort had arrived with Sonia walking beside her godfather with lifeless eyes. Many of the armours were destroyed and the angles were sporting multiple wounds on their exposed parts of the bodies.

They had quietly arrived into the continent and arrived in a solitary room and the man there to greet them was none other than Sonia’s father, Zex Angloid. The Angle King had his arms folding behind him and he stood with a firm expression on his face, but a smile creeped onto his face upon laying his eyes on his daughter.

Upon stopping in front of him, the angels lifted their helmets off their heads and bowed to him. It was courteous of them to show great respect towards their king, regardless of the fact that the Nine Commandments of Light’s authority that trumps his.

“We’ve returned,” her godfather said to him and Zex nodded appreciatively.

“Good job,” replied Zex with a happy smile on his face. He looked around at them and said, “It seems that you sustained no casualties, but I do notice the injuries from the battle you must’ve waged. Well done to you all. Expect special rewards to you all for your hard work.”

The gathered angels all smiled happily and looked at each other as they were excited at the thought of receiving special rewards for their hard effort. Zex was smiling at them when he noticed that there were three bodies being held up by the angels gathered in front of him.

Her godfather noticed where he was looking at him and gestured for them to come forward with the three captures people. As it turned out, the tree people were Natasha, Atem and Lakshman’s wife, Venezuela. All three of them were unconscious as their limp bodies were held firmly by the angels who brought them back.

“Natasha and… him…” Zex said and he eyed Atem with a cold expression on his face. He turned his attention away and looked curiously at Venezuela. “Is she the only hostage you managed to acquire?”

Sonia’s godfather nodded his head once and said, “Yes. The time you gave us before firing the Angel Drive Cannon wasn’t much, so we only managed to capture only her. As for who she is—?”

“I’m not interested to know,” said Zex with a wave of his hand. “So long as she functions like a hostage, my plans will work out perfectly.” He turned his attention back to his daughter and upon noticing her lifeless eyes, he eyed her godfather with a stern expression as he asked, “Were you forced to activate ‘that’?”

Her godfather nodded and he looked sad as he said, “Yes. I was forced to use Soul Control to control her mind, will and body, which none of her allies expected. They dropped their guard to her and it made it easier for her to freeze their movement so that they get destroyed by the blast that you ordered.”

“Yes, but unfortunately, the blast failed to destroyed anyone,” said Zex unhappily and her godfather blinked in surprise. “It seemed that the Phoenix Titan had arrived just in time to save them from the blast. He, somehow, knew of the danger they were in and quickly arrived to save them.”

As Zex looked curiously at him, Sonia’s godfather stared firmly back and said, “I know what you’re thinking and no! My men would never dare sabotage a mission given to me directly by the Angel King!”

“Yes because your men have high regard for you. After all, you were the closets to becoming the Angel King before you handed it over to me because I was more fitting of it than you,” said the Angel King proudly and his daughter’s godfather looked momentarily sad at those words. After chuckling for a bit, Zex looked happily at him as he said, “Anyway, prepare my daughter for the marriage. The entire continent will go up in a blaze of celebrations as the Angel Princess marries the Commandment of Justice, Ford!”

Sonia’s godfather looked up with a demur expression on his face as he asked, “So, you’ve decided to marry her off to him?”

“Yes!” Zex said proudly as he spread his arms out with great happiness. “They would make an excellent couple and the people would love them! He accepted my request and even generously offered to completely conduct the cost of the wedding from his savings. Isn’t he so kind, despite people calling him an arrogant loser for being defeated at the hands of the Phoenix Titan.”

Sonia’s godfather grunted and thought, “Most likely, he’s doing that so as to regain his popular standings among the people of our race.”

“You and your men help out with its arrangements and I will grant you special privileges for your services,” said Zex and the gathered angels in the room began to mutter with excitement.

Her godfather, inwardly, sighed and nodded his head once before he said, “Understood.” He gestured towards the three they had captured and asked, “What about them?”

Zex took one glance at them before he said, “Throw in jail and make sure to not give them the normal treatment, especially that guy.”

He spoke the last word with great animosity as he stared at Atem’s unconscious face, making Sonia’s godfather looked hurt.

“Wait, Zex. He’s your—,” he began, but Zex instantly glared at him and stopped him in mid-sentence.

“I don’t give a damn about him! Do I make myself clear?” Zex asked with a hint of finality in his voice.

Realising he would not go anything with this, Sonia’s godfather nodded and said, “Okay.”

He ordered his men to take the three away and throw them into a tight security jail cell. Once they were taken away, he turned around and left with everyone else as several maids arrived to lead the princess away. Once everyone was gone, Zex was left all alone and he smiled smugly with satisfaction.

“Excellent. Everything is going according to plan,” he said and his smile widened.

At that moment, a shady figure materialised behind the Angel King with a shadowy form. It was menacing as it glared through fierce red eyes and emanated an extensive power of twisted darkness that threatened to switch the lights off in that room.

Creating a sinister smile on its shadowy face, it said in a deep rough voice, “Yes. Everything is going according to ‘my’ plan!”

It, then, laughed in a sinister manner before vanishing into thin air and leaving no trace of its existence behind.

Author's Note

Hello everyone and thank you for reading this chapter. Surprised that I'm releasing a chapter every single day now? I'm surprised as well, but I think people shouldn't get their hopes up just yet because this might not last long. You see, I'm sick and my work had lessened because of it, so I'm managing to write a chapter per day. Sadly, I doubt I can continue that streak once I get back in shape and work starts pouring in. Oh well. Anyway, I hope that you liked this chapter and will look forward to the next one as the story continues!