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For the first time in a long while, Tethrine was ashamed of his family. Their performance had been abysmal. It was clear they had played right into the hands of Mount Celestis and had been outsmarted. His uncle Eldrazor had thought his little ploy with Princess Ynnead so clever, but it had been turned against them quite easily. In retrospect, it was easy to see the mistake they had made in defining the terms. Normally it wouldn't have mattered as no true member of the family would've agreed to fight for the other team. Unless their participation was forced. And the loss wasn't even Ynnead's fault. The rest of the family had fared just as badly. Only Eldrazor, Hoeth, Vaul, and Kurnous had managed to do well, although Aunt Drakira had been close to victory. Her opponent had simply been stronger. Even Vaul had barely managed, and Hoeth had fared only moderately well.

“Ah, little prince, don’t look so sad.” A familiar voice could be heard behind him. He turned around to see the hateful face of one of his worst rivals. Of course, Kheldiras wouldn’t miss the chance to taunt him. Tethrine had only recently returned home, and he was immediately being forced to deal with this shit.

“This doesn’t concern the House of Dragons.” He stated coldly. He wouldn’t give this wyrm the satisfaction of showing any weakness.

“Oh, but it does. Your incompetence has cost us all. Now it will be much harder to rally support against this inane plan by the angels. You didn’t just embarrass yourself. You embarrassed the entire Assembly.” The dragon spat out in a much more venomous tone. In the case of this particular dragon, that saying might become actual venom.

Tethrine was about to argue further when he spotted something he really didn't want to see. The participants were already starting to trickle out of the arena, but the broadcast was still going as if anticipating further trouble. And further trouble was on the horizon. He could see his mother whispering to his father in a familiar way. He'd seen it before. It was a bad habit of hers. When she felt humiliated, as she no doubt felt now, she tended to take it out on others. Only, it was not her way to do it directly. She used others for her venting. Usually, father was too smart to fall for it, but this time they were looking towards Ynnead in a way that promised trouble. The warning he'd gotten from The Seer rang in his ears. This could be big trouble.

“Cat took your tongue?” His rival asked, not used to such easy victories, which no doubt confused the dragon.

"I just feel like I'm watching a disaster happen in slow motion," Tethrine muttered, not caring about the dragon overhearing. He could see Kurnous marching towards Ynnead, antagonizing her. He seemed to be pushing the blame for the loss on the girl, calling her out publicly, though it was difficult to hear the details as sound was not being transmitted clearly enough at the moment.

“Oh dear. It seems your father is about to commit suicide by stupidity." Kheldiras chuckled, noticing where he was looking.

"What do you know?" Tethrine turned towards him, suspicion clear in his eyes, while his father screamed about teaching Ynnead a lesson and challenging her to a duel. Such one-sided challenges were usually ignored, and many people seemed prepared to interfere when Ynnead surprisingly agreed.

“Unlike your family, the House of Dragons doesn’t underestimate her.” The dragon was clearly hiding something. “Look, it’s about to start!”

He was right. As they were already in the arena, setting up a new challenge was quick. Kurnous didn't waste any time and threw his divine might at her as a beam of golden light slammed down on her from the skies. However, the beam never reached her as she had lifted a large hammer above her head, and the hammer seemed to be somehow absorbing the power from the attack.

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Karna couldn’t help smirking a bit. Her greatest creation came in handy again. The sheath combined the powers of all the artifacts she fed to it, and one of the artifacts had been the gauntlets that could consume divine attacks. The gauntlets had not been powerful enough to take a direct full-power attack from a rank 13 god, but her current weapon was. After all, the weapon was a sacred artifact at a level few had seen even in the Divine Planes, so of course the ability gained from the gauntlets had become much stronger as well. She wouldn’t be able to take a limitless number of such attacks, but she didn’t need to. She wasn’t planning on allowing this fight to last very long.

“I was going to take it easy on you, but it seems you have chosen the hard way.” Kurnous taunted her in an attempt at mental warfare. He wasn’t a weak god. He was a reincarnator and a powerful True God of the Royal House. By most standards, he was very powerful. But his power was no longer something she had to worry about. She had already moved beyond ordinary standards and to the extraordinary.

The god suddenly started to transform into his Divine Regalia, a wild-looking hunting attire that could often be seen among the elves, along with a black spear made of dark wood. He also lifted a horn and blew into it, sending a booming voice across the battlefield, activating his Domain, which started to manifest as a Reality Marble. As the God of the Hunt, his Domain was no doubt tied to his Divinity, but she didn't care. With a snort she allowed the power of her own Domain to flare into life for a moment, the power of her new Totem crushing the Reality Marble in the middle of manifesting.

The feedback from his power suddenly being broken lashed back at him and caused Kurnous to stagger, though he never took his eyes off her. He had suspected she was powerful, but he had still been confident. This was beyond what he had imagined. “You want a hunt? Then I’ll give you one.” The girl in front of him declared before her form shifted. Now in her place stood an enormous wolf with pair of golden wings.

The wings were not familiar, but the wolf was. Nearly every universe that had wolves had a legend about a creature like the one in front of him, and most of them were not happy legends. They were tales that ended in the destruction of the world. “The Dread Wolf.” He growled. This was a direct slap to his Divinity, as hunting such beasts was what his Divinity was all about. But this wasn’t just a normal wolf. He didn’t have time to hesitate though, as his arm lashed out almost by instinct, throwing his black spear towards the heart of the beast. The unerring throw of the God of the Hunt was an almost certain kill technique.

The beast snorted and moved with blinding speed, easily moving out of the trajectory of the spear, but his weapon was not so easily avoided as it corrected its path. Before reaching the beast though, it suddenly seemed to slow down for some reason and seemed to shudder, as if struggling against something. By the time it reached its target, the power behind the throw didn’t even manage to ruffle the hairs on the beast’s chest. What was this odd defense?

The beast moved again, this time to attack, and the speed involved was just as unbelievable. Only the fact that he too had the speed of a phoenix allowed him to somehow manage to keep up. The black spear reappeared in his hand to block the beast’s claws, but to his horror, the spear only managed to stop the claws for a fraction of a second before it was shredded to pieces. A piece of his Divine Regalia destroyed so easily?

His body was thrown aside by the power behind the attack. “You seem confused.” He could swear the wolf was grinning. “Were you not familiar with the legends of the Dread Wolf after all?”

He understood immediately. That was the danger of the wolf. Its claws and fangs could not be stopped by anything. Even something like Divine Regalia, which was basically his Divinity made manifest, couldn’t stand against an unstoppable force. He rematerialized the weapon, though this time a large chunk of his power was consumed in the process as the weapon had just been destroyed. “Don’t think this is enough to save you.” He threatened, mostly to regain his balance.

“On the contrary. I think this is over.” The wings of the wolf suddenly changed color, and the beast vanished. He tried to move instinctively to dodge, but it was too late. The power he’d lost had made him slower. He could feel the enormous jaws of the beast close around him, and the fangs penetrated straight through all his divine protections. His last thought was to curse his wife for getting him involved, as the jaws crunched.

Karna could feel the life in the god vanish. Immortals and Gods were not easy to kill, and in most cases the god could rematerialize inside his Divine Realm, weakened but alive. However, there were exceptions and the jaws of a Beast of the Apocalypse were one of those exceptions. These beasts existed to slay gods and heroes and did so in most legends. And legends often followed reality. Or in this case, reality followed the legends. Concepts were important, and the very concept of the Beasts of the Apocalypse was to slay gods. That’s why the gods were inherently vulnerable to them. That’s what made them the beasts of dread and legends that they were. Most of the legends surrounding them ended in sorrow after all.

Killing Kurnous was going to create issues. It would also clear some of them. He had been the one to issue the challenge, and these kinds of challenges sometimes ended in the death of at least one participant. The earlier team challenge was actually rare in that no one had perished. Now that she had slain a True God of rank in a very public duel, her power would also have to be acknowledged. After this, she would be spared the annoyance of dealing with weaker enemies, but those that were determined to get at her would become only more so after this. At least she didn't have to worry about Kurnous' plots anymore. He had been one of the main driving forces in the Royal Family that sought her out in the past.

As she too was ejected from the arena, Hoeth was there waiting and pointed an accusing finger at her. “You’ve chosen to declare a war on the Royal House with this act! I will see you cast out!”

Karna had expected this and wasn’t unprepared. It was one of the issues she was expecting. She sent a sweeping glance over the gathered Assembly. “I appeal to the fair-mindedness of the Grand Assembly. Did Kurnous not issue the challenge himself?”

Her words got an approving murmur from the gathered gods and power players. They also liked where this was headed. She continued. “Those of you capable of following the fight can also attest to the fact that his first attack, with the beast slaying spear of a God of the Hunt no less, was directly aimed at my heart. It even changed trajectory after I dodged. He certainly had no qualms about killing me. So I believe it is only fair to respond in kind. Or is the esteemed member of the Royal House suggesting that in duels the members of your house are allowed to kill the opponent, while the same does not apply to you?”

This time the mere suggestion gathered jeers and mocking from the crowd, directed at Hoeth. The god noticed the tide turning against him, knowing she had a point. “We will remember this.” He threatened.

“On that note, I was under the impression that duels in front of the entire Grand Assembly are sacred, and the results are not allowed to be questioned. House Asuryan has broken this rule now twice, thrice if you count the threat just now. I allowed the first one to slide as Kurnous was part of the team in the first duel, but I believe punishment is in order for such flagrant and repeated breaking of the rules." Karna grinned inside her helmet. She knew the rules better than anyone as they had not changed in eons.

The sound of a throat being cleared could be heard and a member of the Golden Order stood up to speak. “I believe Princess Ynnead is correct. Punishment shall be decided later and levied against House Asuryan.” He promised.

“Finally,” Karna wasn’t finished and turned towards Hoeth. “You really shouldn’t try to act like this is some great slight against your house. As Prince Eldrazor pointed out earlier, I’m also a member of the House in at least name, and I just eliminated one of your main rivals for the throne. It takes some gall to act all offended while dancing from joy inside.”

This was a direct attack on Hoeth’s reputation, but he was forced to swallow it as everyone knew she was right. He also realized that airing the laundry of the House in such a public setting would only make things worse. On the other hand, many others in the audience realized something else. “It seems there’s now another serious contender for the throne.” The dragon Kheldiras taunted Prince Tethrine.

Tethrine realized the wyrm was right. Although Princess Ynnead could become the new empress, in theory, no one would've taken a claim seriously before now. Just like Tethrine had a claim but no one actually expected him to compete. However, Kurnous had been one of the three serious contenders, even if he'd been the least likely of the three, and Ynnead had just slain him in a duel, thus proving her martial might at the very least. That turned her into a serious contender, even if one that was starting from behind. And with her mother in the mix, there were now four serious contenders, even though one had just perished.

Tethrine also understood why The Seer had told him that challenging Ynnead was not going to end well. With his father’s protection now gone, it was time to make himself scarce.