A terrible foreboding feeling jolted Konrad's heart as the eunuch announced Olrich's arrival.
With the killing intent bloating the sky, anyone could see that he came with malicious purpose, and his presence heralded a disaster.
Konrad activated his Invisibility Skill, vanishing from the people's sight and staying out of reach of even a Saint's senses.
It was almost as if he'd vanished from the world, standing in a parallel dimension from which he could safely observe the events unfold.
Hands crossed beneath his back, Olrich stepped in.
Wherever he went, eunuchs and maids would fall on their knees, greetings him as "your majesty."
He relished in that feeling. In that title seized on the corpse of his relatives. The billions of lives of the Holy Flame Empire all belonged to him!
The only frustrating thing was the presence of all those eunuchs that swirled around his possession. And among them, there even was someone who had the nerves to frolic with her?
How dared he?! How dare they?! Death, death, death!
"Gather all the eunuchs in the central courtyard. Do not miss a single one."
"Yes, your majesty!"
The two imperial eunuchs by Olrich's side bowed and shot toward the various corners of Yvonne's palace, seizing one eunuch after the other. With their Semi-Saint cultivation level, capturing eunuchs that were not higher than the True Knight Rank was simplicity itself.
The eunuchs were terrified, not knowing why the emperor's imperial eunuchs were specifically targeting them.
However, they couldn't resist, and one after the other fell within the central courtyard.
Dozens of eunuchs knelt on the ground, awed by the emperor's might.
"Your majesty, all of the eunuchs have been brought to you."
"Is anyone missing?"
"We've doubled checked, not a single one."
"Good. Very good!"
Olrich examined the eunuchs with rapt attention, trying to find something special in any of them. However, he couldn't find anything.
"Tss, tss, tss, just a bunch of waste, are any of you qualified to serve by my Yvonne's side? Even dare have presumptuous thoughts. Kill!"
Olrich waved, his hands, motioning for his imperial eunuchs to carry out the execution.
Without hesitation, they turned toward the kneeling eunuchs, ready to execute them.
"Impudence!"
Vast pressure erupted from Yvonne's chambers, shocking the two imperial eunuchs and sending them spiraling into the air with blood spurting from their lips.
Like a whirlwind, Yvonne shot into the courtyard, descending before Olrich with overflowing wrath.
"Olrich, what is the meaning of this?!"
"Aargh, Yvonne, long time no see. I just received news that your personnel has recently been very lax and no longer knows the boundaries between master and servants, even taking a lot of your…personal time?"
Olrich began while strutting back and forth.
"Such a thing is naturally intolerable. Therefore, I decided to personally bring discipline back into the house!"
Yvonne bit her lower lips. She realized that one of Olrich's spies must have escaped her grasp and observed her strange behavior in recent days.
As for Konrad who unbeknown to them stood on the side, he realized he was the cause of today's events.
"Those are my people, if they're wrong, I shall punish. Sentencing them is not up to you!"
"What? You want to protect them? But, the more you want to protect…the more I want to kill!"
Olrich waved his sleeves, releasing a terrible conflagration that swallowed the dozens of eunuchs, and turned them into charred corpses.
"No…"
It was too fast. With the proximity between Olrich and them, Yvonne didn't have the time to make a move, that they'd already been roasted to death, their lingering screams and charred corpses being the sole reminders that they once were of the living.
"Aaargh!"
Without considerations, Yvonne released the full might of her cultivation, flying toward Olrich with her sword summoned.
"Tss, tss, tss. Bad, bad, Yvonne."
Olrich rotated his hands, causing red light to swirl around them.
As soon as the red light appeared, Yvonne tumbled onto the ground. With her entire body trembling and her tribulation poison flaring up.
"How could this be?"
She wondered in stupor. Olrich was controlling her poison with a wave of his hand!
Since when did he obtain such a skill?
"My blood is the nexus, and I'm myself at the threshold of the tribulation stage. It took some time, but I devised a way to trigger your poison at will.
Now, whenever I want, I can make you wail."
Olrich raised his hand, allowing Yvonne's tribulation poison to fully erupt.
"AAAAAAARGH!"
Dark veins pulsated all across her body as she writhed on the ground.
"Yvonne, don't you remember? I'm your friend, your only friend. Why do you need others? Why do you grieve at their loss? I don't like it, I don't understand it, I hate it!"
Olrich roared in a maddened frenzy.
"You belong to me. Don't worry, when I break through the Divine Rank, I will claim your body, and consummate our wedding. But until then, you can only have eyes for me!"
Due to the overbearing energies of her Supreme Overlord Physique, dual cultivating with Yvonne was impossible for anyone beneath the Divine Rank in terms of cultivation or physiques.
Konrad's Holy Primal Physique was one of the rare few exceptions.
Olrich knelt by her side, his demented glare peering into her wailing eyes.
"Unfortunately, I cannot love you. If I love you, I must kill you. If you love me, I must still kill you. Since we cannot have love, we should have hatred! Hate me, despise me, loathe me!
At the same time, I want you to remember that my blood is both the remedy and source of your plight.
That just like I can bring you misery, I can bring you delight! I want you to grovel, and worship me in hatred, unable to escape my grasp.
And when the time is ripe, I shall claim you, making you the sole witness of my road to supremacy!
My eternal partner!"
Olrich's hands trembled as he held Yvonne's face and roared like an unrestrained lunatic.
"You…are insane."
Yvonne spat with eyes full of contempt. Olrich was too far gone, there was nothing left to do, and no way to save him from himself.
He burst into laughter.
"No, my mind is clear. My objectives defined. Today you look at me with contempt, but who kneels? Who stands?
Of those who looked down on me, how many still breath?
Father, dead!
Brothers, dead!
You, half-crippled!
Soon enough, we shall add your father to the list."
Yvonne's eyes now shone with killing intent.
As for Konrad, who silently observed by the side, he'd already prepared himself to purchase a mid-level Holy Talisman, and bomb Olrich on the spot should he cross his bottom line.
Olrich seized Yvonne by the neck, hauling her up in the air.
"System, exchange…"
But before Konrad could finish, someone else rushed into the scene.
"Father, mercy!"
Wenzel rushed toward Olrich, stumbling and falling on his knees by Olrich's side.
"Father, if mother offended you, it must not have been of her own volition. On behalf of our father and son bound, I ask you to please show leniency."
"Get lost."
"Please show mercy!"
"Get lost."
"Mercy, father!"
Olrich's crazed eyes slowly descended onto Wenzel who repeatedly kowtowed on the ground, unwilling to leave.
"If you don't get lost now, you will never be able to again."
Hearing those words, Wenzel trembled. However, he still kept his now bleeding forehead onto the ground and asked for mercy.
"Wen…zel, stop fooling around, and leave at once!
I already said…I didn't have a son like you!"
Yvonne struggled to say through her lips. However, those words kindled Olrich's wrath. He could feel that behind her harsh words, clear concern remained. Intolerable!
He dropped Yvonne onto one side, and turned toward Wenzel, grabbing him by the shoulders.
"Tell me, why does she care about you? It's not allowed, it's forbidden, I forbid it!"
"Father I…"
There was grief in Olrich's eyes as he stared into Wenzel's with soaring dementia and crushed his shoulders.
"…I"
"Shush."
Olrich freed Wenzel's shoulders to now hold his cheeks.
"Little Wen, you must forgive father, father doesn't want to kill you. But who told her to love you? Father cannot tolerate it. Sorry! Please, forgive me!"
With a yank, Olrich tore off Wenzel's head, separating it from his neck in a gruesome eruption of blood.
"No…Nooooooo!"
Yvonne wailed but to no avail. It was far too late.
"Father didn't want to harm you. Blame yourself, blame her!"
Olrich whispered into Wenzel's lifeless head with tears falling from his left eye, then tossed it onto the ground.
He then turned heels and left.
