Lakshman’s Movement Zone technique had been disabled the moment he attacked the demon form of the one King of the Angel Race. The armless demon descended towards the ground slowly while screaming at the top of his lungs from the agony he felt after losing his limbs. Meanwhile, the Phoenix Titan descended down by keeping a few seconds delay between them with a cold expression on his face.

After landing on his knees, the demon stopped screaming and gritted his teeth in pain as Lakshman landed on his feet. The Phoenix Titan stared down at his weakened enemy with eyes that did not contain any traces of pity while the demon glared up fiercely up at him. With the Elemental Coated Armour still active, Lakshman held his blazing energy blades near the throat of his enemy.

“You brought this on yourself for walking the wrong path,” stated Lakshman in an expressionless voice that resounded with power in each word.

Seconds went by silently with the two of them staring at each other without making a single move or sound. After a while, Lakshman breathed a deep sigh before shaking his head as if he was rethinking his decision to kill his enemy.

“You know, there’s still one chance for you to make a change over,” said Lakshman with an expression that clearly stated that he did not like the very thought of it.

The demon looked menacingly at him for a moment before he opened his mouth wide to reveal a large black sphere of energy gathered there. Not allowing his enemy to make any sort of move in defence, the demon unleashed a massive black wave of destruction at the Phoenix Titan standing mere feet away.

The wave completely covered the entire area and became so large that the flash it created became visible for long distances that people on other continents managed to witness it. The wives of the Phoenix Titan, the people of Floria Kingdom and the nearest inhabited island people had to cover their eyes in a desperate move to save themselves from going blind.

A few seconds after it was released, a massive explosion occurred and it caused the entire world to shake. It soon passed and the shock waves died down with the wind calming down as the view from before returned to normal. The dust slowly cleared and brought the demon into view, who was breathing heavily as if her had run several kilometres at a fast speed.

“Enjoy my gift into the afterlife, fool!” the demon said as he slowly recovered his breathing in triumph.

He slowly smiled triumphantly, but he winced at the pain caused by his disconnected arm sockets. Still, he managed to form a smile in triumph at the seeming destruction he brought on the Phoenix Titan. That smile, however, did not last and it soon changed to that of shock when he saw the dust clear to reveal the Phoenix Titan still standing in front of him.

Lakshman was shielded from most of the blast by the Elemental Coated Armour that he had quickly used to cover himself. So, his body sustained minor damage and bled from several opened wounds while his pants were singed a bit. Despite all of this, Lakshman remained resolutely firm and cold as he stared at the demon with an expressionless look on his face.

A few seconds of silence later, Lakshman opened his mouth and said, “Don’t take me for a fool, idiot. I could’ve redirected the blast back at you and it would’ve been your end instead!” He took a deep breath and sighed to calm down before he spoke again by saying, “If it were me from the past, I would’ve killed you by now, but the me right now is hesitant because you are the only parent left to the girl I love.”

Hearing those words caused the demon to chuckle before he said, “Don’t expect me to beg for mercy anytime soon.”

He began to chuckle, but soon stopped when he saw Lakshman start to chuckle as well.

“What’s so funny?”

Lakshman stopped chuckling and he said, “Oh… Nothing really. I just found it funny that you expected me to expect that you’d beg me for mercy. The truth of the matter is; I expected you to not give a damn about your daughter and your goddamn life.”

As the demon looked shocked by those words, Lakshman grinned and said, “It takes more than one way to beat your enemy.”

Without warning, he formed a certain stance with his hands by holding out his forefinger, middle-finger, thump and pinkie-finger out while folding the remaining finger. In the next move, he brought them together and joined them together to form some sort of prayer-like hand stance. With that done, he activated a magic technique by saying its name out loud.

“Phoenix Sage Mode.”

In an instant, his eyes flashed wide with firm sharpness as they changed to that of bright hold while, on his forehead, three horizon large lines appeared with a bright golden-red letter “P” at the centre of his forehead. The Elemental Coated Armour changed shape and formed large golden-red wings of energy behind the back of the Phoenix Titan.

The demon was startled by this move and he was utterly taken by surprise when a blazing light erupted out of Lakshman’s eyes and they shot straight at the demon before connecting with his eyes. He attempted to break free of it, but he found himself unable to move and the pain caused him to scream out wildly.

“Mind Convergence.”

The moment he said those words was when a blinding flash of light occurred and connected their minds together in a space for only them. When they opened their eyes, they found themselves standing in a brightly lit area that seemed to have no walls or boundaries to limit the space.

Lakshman, inwardly, sighed and smiled as he thought, “Phew. It worked and after so many years of not using it. I thought it might fail and not work because of me being out of practice, but thank goodness it worked. Now to take care of this—!”

His thought process had halted from the shock he felt at that moment because of what he saw when he looked towards the demon. The evil being’s form had changed back to his original angel form of Zex, but his eyes looked blank and empty as if life was missing from them. That surprised Lakshman, but what really shocked him was the sinister swirling darkness skulking in Zex’s shadow.

The shadow, suddenly, rose out of the ground and grew to great height before solidifying into a solid swirling dark monster. Bright evil looking red eyes flashed out of the blackness near the spot where the head was supposed to belong at and the monster seemed to be grinning through whiteness that did not look like teeth.

“You brought me out. Ex-ceee-lll-eee-nt,” said the monster in a snake-like voice that would have caused chills to run throughout all listeners.

It did not affect Lakshman as he stared at it through determined eyes as he said, “I see. You’ve taken control of this man and are using him like a tool as a means to get what you want. Too bad. I’ll destroy you and set this man free of your mind control.”

Lakshman raised his hands into the air and in an instant, a powerful blazing white light erupted out of his hand and extended high into the air. The dazzling light emitted a powerful shock wave that was sent in all directions and caused the still wind to blow wildly everywhere.

The black swirling monster looked at the blade and looked back at Lakshman with its smile unchanged.

“I doubt you can destroy me and I also doubt that you can free him from my control.”

“We’ll see about that! URRRAAAGGGHHHH!!!!”

With a roaring shout, Lakshman swung his sword down and as it neared the monster, it extended the left side of its dark swirling body and grabbed the light blade. Lakshman was shocked and he began to surge with spiritual power while radiating golden-red aura that surrounded him as he put his might into swinging his sword down. Unfortunately, it would not budge and the monster began to laugh in its cold snake-like voice that would have drained the blood out of everyone.

“You. Cannot. Destroy. Me. With. The. Way. You. Are. Currently.”

The monster spoke each word in its own sentence and the blade of light made large cracks with each word it uttered before shattering into countless particles of light. Lakshman watched the particles of light disappear into thin air while blinking his eyes in disbelief.

“It got destroyed…?” Lakshman thought in disbelief with wide eyes filled with shock.

Looking towards his enemy, the monster laughed when it saw the look of disbelief being shown on Lakshman’s face before it spoke again.

“I’ll concede you victory,” said the monster and Lakshman stared at with eyes widened in shock. “The next time we meet, however, will be your destruction along with the rest of the world.”

With that, the monster began to laugh hysterically and released a powerful surging black wave that resonated for a moment before sweeping everything in all directions. Lakshman quickly brought his hands up in defence as the wave consumed him and hurled his mind back to the Physical Plane.

When he opened his eyes, Lakshman found himself standing on the destroyed a within the Human Continent. He looked towards Zex and saw that the Angel King had returned to his original form as black particles extracted from him before disappearing into thin air.

As the particles disappeared Zex collapsed slowly to his knees with his hands falling loosely to his sides. Briefly surprised, he quickly moved forward to check on him while ignoring the many wounds that were causing him slight discomfort.

“Zex. Hey. Angel King. Hello? Are you listening? Don’t ignore me…! Hey! Respond goddammit! Say something!”

Lakshman spoke to him gently and shouted at him firmly while shaking his body, but it was all for nothing. Zex remained motionless as he knelt on the ground with his arms slung loosely to his sides as the Phoenix Titan knelt before him.

Realising there was nothing else he could do help him, Lakshman sighed and thought, “It’s no use. All these years of being mind controlled has left him in a state of numb paralysis. Not even recovery magic, like Restoration, will have any affect when the mind is completely void of will. Simply put; he’s as useful as a vegetable.”

He sighed and rose to his feet to notice the destruction of the ground all around him. Realising the extensive amount of damage done to the land by their battle, he breathed a heavy sigh and dropped his shoulders in resignation.

“Time to clean up this mess. Dammit it all!” Lakshman said in annoyance as he clapped his hands together and activated Restoration to fix the damage caused by his and Zex’s battle.

Still, he could not help but think, “Just what sort of monster was it that managed to destroy one of my strongest techniques as if it were glass? I guess I’ll get my answer soon from the way it said we’ll meet again in the future.”

Lakshman thought for a bit before shaking his head and concentrating on restoring the land back to normal.

***

The restoration of the destroyed ground took several minutes and once it was complete, Lakshman grabbed the numb looking Angel King and flew into the sky. His destination was the Heaven Continent that floated high in the sky and he first arrived at the spot where his wives were all sitting around a wounded Sonia.

When he got near them, he noticed that Venezuela, Tetra and Silvera looked relieved while Sonia lay in Venezuela’s arms with her eyes closed. He looked around at them for a moment in puzzlement as they did not realise he was standing right near them, so he finally spoke up to make his presence known.

“How’s she?”

They jumped a little at suddenly hearing his voice and Venezuela smiled up at him as she replied, “She’s safe. She’s just tired from taking the wound, so I put her to sleep.”

Lakshman nodded approvingly and said, “Good thinking. Sleep is the best painkiller in her condition.”

Venezuela nodded as Tetra, who noticed the Angel King standing behind Lakshman with an expressionless look on his face.

“What happened to him…?” she asked hesitantly with a fearful thought in her mind.

Lakshman glazed at him briefly and turned back to her before he said, “Things… happened. I’ll explain them later.”

Tetra blinked in confusion when Silvera pointed towards a certain location and said, “Since she’s fine, why don’t you head over there and help that person desperately clinging to life?”

Lakshman looked towards the spot she was pointing at and realised the Godfather was there. He was shocked and he instantly used Elemental Sense to detect the life force of the Godfather, which was very low. Giving no time to wait and think, he kicked off the ground and flew towards him at high speed while leaving his wives in a state of puzzlement as they stared at the expressionless Angel King.

The Godfather was breathing a little quickly just as Lakshman reached him at top speed, causing dust to pick up as he dragged his feet to a stop.

The Phoenix Titan lifted the heavy breathing Godfather in his hand and asked quickly, “Hey! Godfather! Are you alright?”

The Godfather struggled to breathe for a moment before he asked weakly in a low voice, “Do I look alright to you?”

Lakshman smiled apologetically and said, “Hold on while I heal you. Restoration.”

It took him a few seconds and by the end of it, the Godfather managed to stand on his own while heaving a deep sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” said the Godfather with a smile on his face and Lakshman nodded his head in acceptance. “Now, why don’t you tell me what’s happened to the Angel King? What happened to Zex?”

“Uh…” began Lakshman and hesitated for a moment before he said, “Come and see for yourself.”

***

The damage caused to the capital of the angels was immense, but Lakshman repaired it all in a matter of minutes with the use of Restoration. A day later, everyone slowly woke up and found themselves in a state of confusion because they had no idea why they were there and what they were doing previously. It was then that the Godfather raised a platform high above them and explained the situation to them by amplifying his voice through magic. The Nine Commandments of Light were also present as they stood behind him in a row to back him up. They knew the full story beforehand after receiving an explanation from him and they all had their heads down as the Godfather explained the situation.

Lakshman was present at the gathering while Venezuela, Tetra and Silvera were treated for minor wounds at the Angel Castle. He, actually, did not want to be there and wanted to tend to Sonia, but the Godfather demanded him to be present because he was necessary as testimony to what actually happened.

The people were shocked and immediately did not believe what the Godfather had said to them. They, even, went as far as to calling the Godfather a liar and the Phoenix Titan an enemy before hurling rocks at them. Having had enough of their nonsense, the Godfather finally unsheathed the Legendary Sword Excalibur and displayed it high above his head as the crowd froze in shock.

“If you don’t believe my words, then maybe, you’ll believe the power of the Legendary Sword!”

While shouting that, he unleashed the sword’s power and created a large blade of energy that extended high into the air and cut through the clouds above. The blinding light was so glaring, it caused everyone to desperately close their eyes in fear of losing their vision. Once the light disappeared, they reopened their eyes and stared at him in suspended disbelief with their eyes wide open.

“I hold the Legendary Sword Excalibur and you will believe me because I speak the truth!”

The crowd were silent and still as they watched the gleaming sword in his hand with awe struck expressions on their faces. They knew, from historical writings and messages, that the legendary sword can only be held by those worthy of it and it meant that the Godfather is worthy of it. This meant that he spoke the truth and discovering it had everyone alarmed because they could not believe their Angel King was controlled by a demonic being.

The Godfather stated their king was great and he had struggled to keep the monster from controlling him, which was why he had become completed paralysed in the mind. He, also, went on to say that the king had gifted him the sword because the king believed that the Godfather would be a suitable next king than anyone else in their entire race.

The crowd were stunned into silence as Lakshman watched him with a surprised look on his face. With a decision made and their minds set, the people finally believed his words and fully heartedly accepted him as their new Angel King. With that, they bowed deeply and shouted in unison the same thing three times.

“All hail the new Angel King!”

The Godfather smiled as he looked at them all and waved his hand at them after sheathing his sword. Lakshman watched from behind and watched with a smile on his face as he felt that their deserved king has finally taken what should have been rightfully his.

Later, when they were headed back to the Angel Castle, Lakshman walked beside the Godfather while a long line of followers brought up their rear.

“I’m amazed that you managed to make Zex sound like a wonderful guy after all that he’s done to you,” said Lakshman in a low voice with a smile forming on his face.

The Godfather shrugged his shoulders and said, “The people believed because he did good to them and it was easy to convince them by using that to my advantage. Probably not the right thing to do, but I don’t want to reveal all the bad that he’s done because Sonia will take the blame.”

“Yes and you didn’t want that, so you made him out to be the good guy to settle matters for good,” stated Lakshman and the Godfather nodded in agreement. Lakshman chuckled for a moment before he asked, “I think it’s about time I stopped calling you Godfather and learn your true name. What is it?”

The Godfather looked at him with a surprised look on his face before he smiled and said, “Evander Megalos. That’s my name.”

The Angel King, Evander Megalos, extended his hand towards him and the Phoenix Titan shook it with his own as the two exchanged smiles at each other.

“It’s a pleasure making your acquaintance, Evander,” said Lakshman and they released hands to continue walking into the castle with a throng of followers behind them.

Author's Note

Hello everyone and thanks so much for reading this chapter. Sorry for the wait, but life just got busy for me this and last week. So, I got holed up in my work and finally managed to get this chapter done, which is why I'm positing it the moment it's done, otherwise, I'd have a lot of sad faces. Anyway, I hope that you'll like this chapter and will look forward to more as the story continues!