The sharp edge pressed against his neck, letting a rivulet of blood trickle down the blade. Arthur was a single push away from having his neck severed, but he was far from worried. Instead, he stared at the Trinity Member with a smile.
“Are you one of the Imperial Hands?” asked Arthur, and the man stared at him with a squint. “I meant to take you down one by one, but I had no idea how to find you. I wonder why a person of your strength would serve an incompetent ruler,” said Arthur, making the man push the sword into his neck.
Arthur disappeared and reappeared behind the knight, letting the sword slash down the mansion’s law. The man’s attack ran through the estate, cutting it in half. Then, with wide eyes, Arthur watched the building tilt to the side and start crumbling down.
“A befitting strength of one of the strongest people in this empire,” said Arthur while touching the small cut on his neck. The blood dripped on his white shirt, which was luckily preserved by the astral being that the king mentioned. “However, my neck is still attached to my body.”
“Not for long,” said the Trinity Member as he turned around. “Although you can teleport inside the district, leaving it is impossible. And as long as you are in my district, I will find you.”
Lyle mentioned something like that, so Arthur wasn’t surprised that each district belonged to one Trinity Member. The Copper District was the jurisdiction of the Knights Commander, who used to be Zonas Mantra.
The Silver and Gold District were governed by two other Trinity Members: Executors Commander and Nobles Commander. Each member of the Trinity was influential, but their ranking and closeness to the emperor differed. The man in front of Arthur was the commander of executors, responsible for the internal affairs of all Ilios.
Since the Silver District is mainly inhabited by civil workers, minor nobles, and merchants, the Executors are the ones who take care of their matters. The three departments can work together but never interfere without the approval of others.
Therefore, Arthur needed to stall this knight until Gray reached the Copper District, where Lyle would be waiting to arrest him. However, the person in front of him gave Arthur an eerie feeling, as if he was a monster in human skin.
“There is no need to find me because I won’t run away,” said Arthur as he raised his hands. “I saw what you did earlier. You control the lights, making you swift. However, what if there is no light in the world?”
Arthur then slammed his hand on the ground, bringing darkness from within the earth. His rune, [Dark Realm-IV], activated and deterred the light away from them. Since it had no more than four runic lines, the range was not that extensive but enough.
“Do you think a little darkness scares me, outsider?” said the Executor while raising his light sword, making it pierce through the darkness. “I can store the light within me, so no darkness can coexist with me. I will eradicate anything but the light from this world!”
“Chatterbox is a better nickname for you than an executor. However, you must remember that your prince is also in this darkness, making you vulnerable to attacks.”
As he heard his warning, the executor paused before he rushed toward Erin. Arthur had no intention of attacking Erin since his death would simply escalate things without buying him time. However, he was unafraid of the Astra-ranker who slashed a mansion in half.
Arthur, on the other hand, was using a different rune. The rune he created would create a dark realm for ten minutes, so he could use another rune to see the situation below. As he expected, Gray and the captives were escaping from the mansion. All they needed was time.
“Prepare yourself,” said Arthur before his body turned to flames again, but the darkness cloaked him. He stomped on the ground and rushed toward the Astra-ranker, ready to strike.
“Light Domain!” shouted the Executor, and searing light exploded from his body. Arthur’s dark realm couldn’t handle this amount of light and broke down. Arthur’s whereabouts were revealed instantly, and the Astra-ranker slashed toward him.
Arthur jumped backward in the nick of time, but the light sword passed through his stomach. His flames burst from the wound, but Arthur still felt pain shoot through his body. Although he wasn’t bleeding, Arthur could tell he was injured.
“You think turning into flames makes you immune?” said the executor with a crazed grin beneath his helm. “I can turn to light too, and elements harm other elements!”
After looking into his sea of consciousness, Arthur realized this man wasn’t bluffing. Flames were standing in front of the Reality Gate, forming his body, but Arthur’s stomach was a part of the flames, and it was bleeding.
This forced him to retain the flames for now since bleeding in another dimension was better than bleeding here. At least he won’t feel the pain of moving around if his stomach was fire.
“There is something you fail to understand,” said the executor. “Our emperor is different from the rest. He understands that no outsider should be allowed for humankind to march forward. The other nations might have deterred from their ancestor’s teaching, but we have not.”
“I understood that when your emperor allied himself with Nameless to bring me down but still failed,” said Arthur while holding his stomach, face paling. “Are you going to do the same, knight of light?”
Arthur had no intention of chatting with this man, but as they spoke, Gray and the others were running away toward the Copper District. He needed to buy more time, even if it provoked this man.
“The Sun Emperor knows that for the light to exist, there needs to be darkness,” answered the man as he readied his sword. “However, there is no need for trash that hinders the flow of time.”
Several spears of light appeared around the executor, all directed at Arthur. The Light Domain filled the estate with searing light, making the man almost the master of this realm.
With such power, Arthur knew he wasn’t strong enough to challenge an Astra-ranker, not to mention the emperor himself. However, if they learn enough, it will be a calculated plan.
The spear of light shot toward Arthur, who raised his hand to create a spear of darkness for himself. The two spears of opposing natures clashed, and the darkness absorbed the light.
The dark spear cracked the more it negated the light, making it only a matter of time before Arthur lost. It took no more than five spears to break his rune and a sixth to strike his chest for Arthur to be sent flying.
His chest turned to flames before it struck him, but the impact still felt like a hammer hitting his heart. Furthermore, this hammer was burning, making his chest burn. Arthur remembered the Sun Emperor’s workshop as he landed on the grass.
During the Runes Apprentice Cup, the contestants from Ilios used light and fire to win against the others. One of them even used lasers to dominate the others, conjuring great amounts of light into one spot.
Arthur never assumed this was the ability of Ilios because of that, but he knew how advanced their runes were regarding light. The Sun Emperor painted an image of himself as the ruler of light, while he was the descendant of the God of Destruction.
‘Why would he do that?’ thought Arthur as he tried to rise from the ground. Questions filled his mind as blood leaked from his mouth: the emperor was lying about his image, but for what reason? But then, he remembered Grandma Mo’s words.
Everything was making sense, but Arthur almost failed to believe it. The Sun Emperor was nothing but a façade created to force the people into submission. Ancient people who lived between these four pillars were furious with the Transmutation Guardian for stealing their element, but what if that was a lie too?
“Haha,” laughed Arthur as he realized the secret behind the Sun Emperor and this Trinity Member. Furthermore, he realized what makes them lie about their origins. “I understand it now. All of this.”
“Are you finally realizing that you are going to die here?” asked the executor, raising his hand to create more spears of light. “Well then, farewell!”
The spears of light shot toward Arthur, who rose from the ground and spread his arms. Runes crawled over his skin before exploding with golden mana, and the spears of light were disabled, shattering like glass.
The mana wave continued to destroy the Light Domain, stripping the knight of his power. Arthur stood in the center with realization written on his face.
“There is no emperor of light,” muttered Arthur as he stared at the broken runes floating around the Light Domain. “That is a lie masked by the array encompassing this city.”
