There was a moment of stunned silence that followed the King of Mardana Kingdom’s orders. Everyone turned their heads to face in his direction, utterly dumbfounded by what he had done. Lakshman blinked a few times at him in surprise before letting out a loud laughter that startled everyone in the room.

“You think it’s funny to appear as the Phoenix Titan as you like?” Athurus demanded furiously.

“No. Not that,” said Lakshman as he recovered from his laughter. “You believe that I’m an imposter. That’s funny. I thought you’d be the last person to suspect that, but… you proved me wrong.”

“Don’t joke with me!” His opponent exclaimed in a furious voice. “It is clear that you are an imposter no matter how you think about it!”

“Really? What makes you think so?”

“The Phoenix Titan fell through the void portal!” Athurus thundered as if to make it clear of his point for everyone to believe in. “If one knows anything about the void, it’s a space where no one is thought to be able to breathe and use their powers properly! So, there’s no way the Phoenix Titan could have returned from such a place looking unharmed and unscathed like you! There’s just no way!”

His words echoed within the silence room for a moment before Lakshman smiled and replied, “And yet, here I am; safe and sound.”

“And I’m calling you a liar and an imposter for impersonating the Phoenix Titan and manipulating everyone into thinking that you are the real deal, but I am no fool! For your crimes, you will be punished by the highest degree of beheading in public!” Then he glanced at the guards around him and pointed at Lakshman before saying, “What are you waiting for?! Arrest him!”

The guards, who were stationed behind the King of Mardana Kingdom, nodded at their king in accepting his orders. They then glanced at each other and then leaped over the desk and stood ready to apprehend the proclaimed imposter, which was Lakshman.

“This is getting interesting,” remarked Asura with interest while Lakshman sighed wryly.

“Stop right there!” Venezuela cried out, causing the opposing guards to freeze in their tracks just as the guards of the Floria Kingdom came forward to protect their king. “What do you think you’re doing?!” She exclaimed, trying to stop them, but she was held back by the hand that Lakshman extended towards her.

“Relax. Let’s see what he’s got to prove that I am a fake when, in fact, I am the real deal,” said Lakshman, emphasising the last two words by turning back and facing the furious King of Mardana Kingdom.

Athurus gritted his teeth and ordered his guards, “Go! Capture that man! Now!”

Nodding in agreement, they rushed at Lakshman with clear ill intentions on their faces while bringing their spears forward in an attacking position.

“Not a chance!” Zen Phylon, the Phoenix Emperor, exclaimed as he pulled his sword out to stand in front of his king along with his guards.

However, no clash of weapons occurred when there was a sudden gust of wind that blew towards the incoming enemy guards. In an instant, the blast of wind smashed into them and seemingly hurled them backwards with incredible force. Athurus flinched as his men flew back and went past him to crash heavily against the back wall.

Everyone was startled by what had happened and looked towards the men that had crashed against the wall before turning to focus on where the wind had originated from. Lakshman stood at the centre of their attention, his eyes had changed from pure black to glow golden, sporting red winged crown shapes on their irises.

“You’ve been entertaining, but your acting is causing quite the situation, Athurus,” said Lakshman with a sigh.

“What?!” Athurus exclaimed, looking shocked. “What did you do?!”

Lakshman smiled and asked, “Are you stupid to not know what I did?”

“Huh?!” Athurus snarled, glaring fiercely at him, his anger peeked.

Zen stared at him in surprise and muttered, “No way…? He did that… by exerting his energy and staring at them?”

“Yes,” said Lakshman in agreement, which surprised Zen as he did not realise the Phoenix Titan heard his words. He turned and smiled at the inexperienced Phoenix Emperor and said, “When you’ve trained to control the Energy Force, you’ll find that you can fully utilise it much more than you might’ve imagined.”

“Yeah. I suppose so,” agreed Zen, clearly intrigued by his superior’s technique and was even wondering how to pull it off himself.

Lakshman nodded at him just as he heard Athurus say, “Ha! I’ve figured it out!” He turned to face him as the man went on saying, “you must’ve used some kind of illusion to distract everyone and then used wind magic to send my guards blasting back! You think I won’t figure out your trick?! You’re the fool for trying to fool me!”

His words actually stunned Lakshman while Asura burst into a hilarious laughter inside his mind. Even Stuart, who was watching with interest in complete silence, also began laughing at how funny he found the whole situation to be.

“Oh my god! This guy’s an idiot!” Stuart exclaimed while in the midst of laughter. “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe I’ve met such a stupid guy, and he’s supposed to be a king? Ha! Good joke!”

Lakshman had to admit that the last part of his childhood friend’s words was indeed funny. It made him smile, which made Athurus to misunderstand and begin gloating as if he had uncovered the truth.

“See? You’re smiling, which means that I am right, and you are an imposter!” He exclaimed triumphantly, and he looked towards Steve, the King of Ashtra Kingdom and asked, “Come on, Steve! This guy’s a fake! Help me apprehend him already!”

“I…” began Steven uncertainly, looking between him and Lakshman with a truly troubled look on his face.

Lakshman shook his head in disbelief and asked, “Honestly, Athurus, this is going too far for a joke.”

“You think I’m joking when clearly I’ve been serious from the get go?!” Athurus demanded furiously. Then he formed a cunning smile and asked, “In that case, why don’t you prove that you are the real Phoenix Titan!”

This caused a lot of people to take a deep breath in shock at the realisation of the kind of request the King of Mardana Kingdom had made. He had actually nailed a tough point about the identity of the Phoenix Titan because there was literally no clear information on Lakshman’s background, history and skills; only his appearance and the level of power he possesses. As such, it felt like a very unfair question to ask someone to name themselves when there was little known about them amongst the people there and the greater populace outside those walls.

“I see. I just have to prove myself,” said Lakshman, and he sighed. “How do you want me to prove myself?”

Athurus smiled and asked, “Simpley answer my question, and I’ll believe you.” Then his smile widened as he asked, “Is the Calamity Titan your brother?”

There was a moment of stunned silence upon him saying those words and them being digested by everyone there. Then they slowly turned their heads to look towards Lakshman, who did not make a move and remained standing there while looking towards Athurus.

The King of Mardana Kingdom actually knew that this was the Phoenix Titan from the start. It was made vividly clear when his guards were sent flying, and all of them were King Ranked Spearmen who were proficient in using both Energy Force and Magic Force. Especially seeing the red crowned winged shape on his enemy’s eyes gave him the belief that this was indeed the Phoenix Titan, and that was when he thought of a cunning plan of trapping him into putting himself in trouble.

“I’m a genius,” he thought to himself, feeling proud that he got the better of the Phoenix Titan.

He was bringing with high pride, so it made it all the more startling to see his enemy suddenly form a smile and admit, “Yes. I, the Phoenix Titan, am related to the Calamity Titan by a brotherly relationship.”

His open admission of such a bombshell information took Athurus by surprise because he was not expecting him to openly admit it. He was actually expecting to see Lakshman look troubled and become flustered, but instead, he saw him behave quite oppositely to how he expected him to respond.

Lakshman saw the surprised look on Athurus’s face and asked, “But that was many centuries ago, and our relationship had slipped, and we had become enemies and had come into conflict in each generation. The Dragon Clan didn’t know about it. The Beast Race did not know about it. Even the Phoenix Clan doesn’t know about this that happened so long ago and yet… yet, you somehow knew of it. How come, Athurus? How do you know what happened in the ancient times?”

His questioning look made everyone become surprised, and they turned, this time to focus all their attention on Athurus. For his part, Athurus appeared to look troubled, but he was actually panicking on the inside. The best weapon he had to use against the Phoenix Clan was rendered useless, and he ended up being on the receiving end. This made him feel very frustrated and furious at Lakshman for ruining his plans.

“What is it? Everyone is waiting for your answer, Athurus?” The Phoenix Titan asked with a smile.

Feeling the heat, Athurus decided to find some kind of excuse to get himself out of the jam he put himself in and said, “I have a very reliable source.”

“A very reliable source, is it?” Lakshman asked, looking surprised. “Who could it be? Would you mind enlightening me by revealing who they are as it seems they are the ones spreading false rumours about me to the public?”

In that instant, Athurus stared at him in disbelief and thought, “He knows!”

Athurus somehow could tell that his opponent was aware of the things he had been doing behind him. However, as he took a closer look at Lakshman, he realised that the Phoenix Titan had no idea whom Athurus was getting his information from. That actually made him feel a bit relieved because he realised that he would be in a dangerous position if the origin of his source was revealed.

Thus, he opted for a different strategy of getting himself out of the jam by diverting the topic with, “I have no reason to tell you about it, especially when you’ve made threatening demands for us to meet today, otherwise you’d consider us your enemies! I didn’t want to believe what my source had said, but judging by what’s happening, I couldn’t help but believe it to be true!”

Lakshman looked at him with a raised eyebrow and asked, “Since when did you become a good judge of who I am?” This caused Athurus to become very frustrated as his opponent went on to say, “Regardless, the reason that I had to force all of you to appear here today was to defuse the situation where it’s clear that something was going on behind the scenes with the intention of bringing my reputation down. So, I would like to apologise for my misconduct, but I hope you understand that I had to do it to make it perfectly clear about where I stand.”

Then he bowed to them, only a little though because he was actually not feeling sorry at all. Judging by Athurus’s reaction, he felt a sense of relief that his reckless actions turned out to be for the best.

“Ah. It’s okay, Lakshman. I understand from what point of view you’re coming for doing this, so it’s okay,” said Steve graciously before turning to Athurus. “I think we should be understanding of his situation, Athurus, since a lot had been happening, and he’s only just returned to find this mess. So, I think it’s only fair to accept his apology.”

He was smiling at Athurus, who was anything but smiling as he looked back at the King of Ashtra Kingdom with a furious look on his face. Then he shifted his gaze towards Lakshman, who was still in a slightly bowed position, before glancing around at everyone. It was clear that he was not in control of the situation anymore and could only curse inwardly at the predicament he found himself in.

“Alright. I’ll let it go this one time since you’re insisting, Steve,” he finally said grudgingly as there was nothing else for him to do but go with the flow.

Hearing his words, Lakshman straightened up and said with a smile, “I’m really happy by your words. I really am,” and he smiled especially towards Athurus, who grunted and looked away. Smiling with satisfaction, Lakshman moved to the chairs in front of the large round desk and sat down on it comfortably before facing everyone with a smile.

“I think it’s about time we officially get this meeting underway.”

Illustration of room layout and seating positions: