You may notice that I have switched up the perspectives this time, I will be doing this more often, First person sometimes holds me back from conveying what I want to, anyhow, Enjoy!

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Chapter 21

Kuregg was sitting on his throne in the judgement room where they tried criminals, his 2.3 meter tall body was extremely large and intimidating, to the untrained eye Kuregg’s physique made him look like an extremely large fat man but one must know that all the weight on Kuregg’s body was all extremely solid muscle, he was a top S rank combatant, this meant he was an extremely powerful warrior.

Kuregg wore a long black mantle and black chainmail armour made of black iron, usually black iron wasn’t used for armour as it was extremely heavy but he wore it like it was part of his body.

On Kuregg’s head was his golden crown, the crown had an emblem of the Dragon Empire encrusted on it in red gems, it was luxurious and intimidating, his eyes were a dark brown colour and he had short hair with a long burly beard.

To the side of his throne was a large hammer, it was his most beloved weapon, ‘Fire Hammer’, it was enchanted with extremely high level fire magic and it’s weight was 5,000kg, a normal warrior wouldn’t even be able to lift it much less swing it around like a feather, as which Kuregg did.

In front of Kuregg’s throne were a few raised seating areas which were looking down at one spot on the room, the spot they all looked at was the lowest platform, the place where the criminal was judged by the people in the room, usually criminals were judged by court officials but sometimes King Kuregg himself would come to judge, this was one of those days.

“Bring out the accused!” said Kuregg in a loud, powerful voice, the servants instantly went to get the prosecuted out of his cell, they didn’t dare waste time.

The servants returned with tall young man, his hair was black and he had deep yellow eyes, he swore shaggy clothes and looked poor, his sleeve was loose and tattered and one could tell he had no left arm, In his one arm was a little wolf pup whose colour was blacker than the night, it also had deep yellow golden eyes and it’s eyes were incredibly deep like it’s masters.

Sitting on the throne above the floor Kuregg observed the young man closely,

‘His physique is lean like a leopard but you can see from his veins that those muscles contain incredible power’ Kuregg thought to himself as he observed the young man in front of him, then he took a look at the wolf pup.

“!”

Kuregg instantly shot up from his chair, grabbing his hammer unconsciously.

As Kuregg tried to look at the wolf pup the wolf’s eyes met his and he instantly felt a shiver run through his body, how long had it been since he felt fear? this little wolf that wasn’t even an adult made him actually break out in a cold sweat! him, a top rank S combatant and Heavenly General of the Dragon Empire!

“Guards! Get that wolf pup out of here and throw it in the cage!” Kuregg shouted, he wanted it gone, the wolf gave him an uneasy feeling and a pet of this caliber shouldn’t be left to a young man.

“Hey! get off of her!” the young man yelled out as the guards tried to pull Fen from his arms, they tried to forcefully take her from him.

“GRRRRR!” Fen growled as the guards tried to take her from her master, she didn’t attack them because Zepp was inconvenienced by her actions last time, she didn’t want to burden her master.

“I TOLD YOU TO GET OFF OF HER!” Zepp shouted in anger, his voice boomed across the hall, the guards who were trying to take Fen away were knocked flying by Zepp as he angrily shoulder barged them out the way.

“ENOUGH!” Kuregg stood up from his throne and released pressure into his voice, it shook the air in the room, everything went silent, including Zepp and Fen who were shocked at the power of his voice alone.

“Guards, restrain him with force, or I’ll come down there and do it myself.” Kuregg said with an arrogant attitude, he believed he was in complete control of the situation, who would dare go against a top S rank combatant?

Hundreds of guards rushed into the room and took formation around Zepp, they were elite guards of the palace and were all B to A rank.

‘This is bad’ Zepp thought, there was hundreds of elite dragon guards surrounding them, even he couldn’t act carelessly in this situation, he even said to Fen ‘Don’t struggle’, after all, if she did then Kuregg would restrain her himself and she may get hurt.

The guards cuffed Zepp’s hands and feet, they were cuffs made of enchanted black iron, even he couldn’t break them, they also bound Fen with them, she didn’t struggle as Zepp instructed her not to.

They were in a hopeless position, powerless and at the whims of this biased General King.

“Good. Now let’s begin your trial.” Kuregg said, his voice carrying authority.

“Officer Dar, list the crimes of this young man.”

“Yes your majesty, right away.

He is being tried for committing the act of two counts of murder within a city under the jurisdiction of the Dragon Empire, murdering is a sin punishable by execution.”

“Okay, thank you Officer, next I’d like the witness to come and recount the events.” Kuregg states.

A greedy looking man with a giant pot belly is brought into the chamber, he looks at Zepp and Fen with fear well displayed in his eyes, he coughs and begins to tell his story.

“Your majesty, I am the owner of the Dragon Hammer shop, it is a high quality goods seller and we have guards at the doors as to protect ourselves, yesterday, it was business like usual when this monster and his abomination of a ‘pet’ turned up at our store, they attacked the guards first and tried to rob our store, luckily someone came and they ended up running off, but the corpses of the two guards were eaten by the wolf!” the greedy shop owner said with his arms elaborating his story.

“He lies! we were trying to enter the store to shop when you're guards stopped us from entering and looked down on us because of the way I am dressed and eventually they attacked us! How vile, to not tell the truth!” Zepp yelled at the fat shop owner.

The greedy owner visibly flinched and one could tell he was afraid of Zepp, however, he continued to act out his lie that he had formulated to humiliate Zepp and his wolf, after all they had interrupted his business and taken the life of two guards who he had paid handsomely, this was revenge!

“Your majesty, do you believe I, the owner of a disguised store would let my guards act like that? of course not.” the greedy shop owner was now even more committed to seeking revenge against Zepp and Fen.

‘They killed my most trusted guards and disrupted my business, this serves them right! filthy commoners.’ the greedy merchant thought to himself.

“Hmmm, this information adds up, this does it then! the young man and his wolf pup are to be executed immediately, I will personally carry this out!” Kuregg said, his voice stern and echoing across the room, everyone in the room was shocked, after all, the king would be personally executing the convicted young man and to do it straight away? this was unprecedented.

‘I have to immediately kill this young man and the abominable wolf pup, they have the potential to threaten me if I let them live’ Kuregg thought to himself, in his mind he had decided once he saw Zepp and Fen that they were to be executed, his experience told him they were simply too dangerous to be aloud to let go, the witness statement and formalities were just there to make a legit reason to execute them, even Kuregg didn’t believe the greedy merchant, but decided to execute them anyway.

“YOU HAVE BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF TWO COUNTS OF MURDER WITHIN MY CITY, THE PUNISHMENT FOR THIS IS DEATH!” Kuregg boomed, he grabbed his large hammer and jumped from the platform onto the lower platform where Zepp and Fen were being held for judgement.

‘Fuck! this is bad!’ Zepp inwardly cursed, he had been set up, this greedy merchant definitely didn’t see anything, he was lying! yet the king decided to believe him.

[Master! what do we do!] Exo’s voice yelled in Zepp’s head, Zepp was in confusion, he didn’t know how to get out of this one, both him and Fen were bound and with Kuregg as their enemy they didn’t stand a chance, he was a peak rank S combatant!

[Exo! try and break Fen’s chains!] Zepp said to Exo, Exo immediately appeared next to Fen and he morphed his arm into a short sword, using all his power he slashed at the chains, the chains couldn’t withstand the impact dealt externally and shattered.

Success!

The surrounding Dragon guards and Kuregg who now landed in front of Zepp was stunned for a moment, a boy had appeared out of nowhere and smashed the chains!

‘No matter, I’ll end this in one strike!’ Kuregg lifted his hammer above his head and infused himself in a coat of Fire magic, this raised his abilities by an extra 15%, Fire cloak! a high ranking Fire magic spell!

Kuregg shot like a bullet towards Zepp, instantly he was directly above him, his hammer striking down from the heavens to end the young mans life in front of him.

“HOWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLL!’

Suddenly a ferocious howl sounded through the room, the wolf pup which was sitting next to the young man beforehand was right in front of Kuregg, it’s mouth wide open in attack, Kuregg was caught off caught and couldn’t block, Fen’s fangs sank into his arm, a large wound rendered his right arm useless, however, this couldn’t stop Kuregg, with swift movement he recovered and switched the hammer to his other hand and smashed it into Fen’s small body.

*BOOM*

An almighty crack appeared in the giant wall where Fen had been knocked into, a spec of blood stained the hammer, it now looked even more ominous as flames surrounded the hammer.

“FEN!!!” Zepp yelled, Fen had just taken a full power attack from a top S rank warrior, Zepp was terribly afraid for her life, Exo cut his chains beforehand but he still couldn’t move he was surrounded and Kuregg was coming in for another attack, this time nothing was to stop him.

“ENOUGH OF YOUR MEANINGLESS STRUGGLES! MEET YOUR DEATH!” Kuregg screamed, his hammer which pointed towards the heavens descended onto Zepp’s figure below, this was the end, there was no saving him.

‘Luu, Sena, Sina, Yamu, Omil, Exo, Fen! I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough!’ Zepp clenched his eyes and prepared for the end, he had called out his most beloved family and companions before he met his maker.

…

Zepp continued to clench his eyes tightly in anticipation but the hammer that would end his life never arrived, he continued to wait and wait.

‘What’s happening? Why hasn’t he ended it?’ Zepp thought, was Kuregg humiliating him? was that it? he had readied himself and was Kuregg going to ridicule him for this?

“Ah~ Zepp, what have you got yourself into hmmmm~” a carefree, familiar voice rang out, cautiously Zepp opened his eyes, the scene in front of him shocked him to the very core, there stood a young man wearing a robe coloured whiter than the clouds, his hair was golden and his eyes were matching his hair, the young man gave out a divine feeling, yes, this appearance was very familiar, it was Malus!

However, this wasn’t the most shocking scene which Zepp looked upon, the most shocking was that Kuregg lay collapsed on the floor, and everyone in the surrounding was also collapsed, but the strangest thing was, was that there was a pool of blood everywhere, blood dripped from the walls, the ceiling, it seeped out of the cracks in the floor, it was like the room was a swimming pool of blood, it was well and truly a horrifying sight, but in the middle of this pool of blood stood malus, not a speck of blood was on his attire, he was smiling and stood there carefree and nonchalantly, what a monster!

“Malus?” Zepp spoke up, a hint of caution still in his voice.

“Yepp~ it’s me, let’s not waste time in this filthy place, come.

I saved you for a reason, you are going to become the newest member of the Yuem, as well as my disciple, be happy!~ you are the first ever disciple that I have taken on, Hmm~ being a disciple of the strongest and oldest of the Yuem, I’m jealous! Fufufu~ ah, officially you are not a part of the Yuem yet, this will come when you are much stronger, I’ve been watching you since you were young, Zepp, I’ve been waiting for this moment.

Now come, let us go.” Malus said with a carefree voice, a hint of excitement was also evident.

“m-me a member? disciple of you? yes! I accept! Master! ah! um, before we go, can we retrieve Fen, she is injured and was knocked into the wall over there!” Zepp pointed towards the wall, he was incredibly worried about Fen, she had sacrificed herself for him.

“Ah, don’t worry about your strange little doggy, she’s fine.” Malus said as he pulled open his white robe, from beneath the fabric and in his arms was Fen, she looked to be sleeping and had no sign of any wound on her.

“Fen! she’s alright! Thank the heavens.” Zepp sighed with relief, Fen was okay!

With the only thing holding him back resolved he grabbed ahold of Malus’s slender hand, as soon as he did they appeared in a room of pure white, it was full of exotic flowers and had a beautiful smell lingering about.

“Starting from now you live here with me, Mr nether prince.

Fufufu this is going to be fun, I’m going to turn you into a monster~” Malus said with a devilish smile unsuited to his angelic face.

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