All three archbishops froze in awe. The people who were near the Eldest Brother and Second Brother started pleading for their help.
“Guard the emperor!”
“Protect the emperor!”
“Archbishops! Please protect the emperor!”
The sudden appearance of a powerful entity was incredibly shocking, and to make things worse, he had the power to completely stop the Third Brother’s attack.
While the officials were pleading for the archbishops to protect the emperor, they were actually hiding behind the emperor, just to be included in his blanket of safety.
“It’s useless…” the fat one confessed as he sighed defeatedly.
“It’s over now…” said the eldest one. Even he, the strongest amongst the three archbishops, looked like he had given up.
Feeling the powerful protective force enveloping him, Jiang Fei looked up and immediately felt safe.
“Master!” he bellowed happily.
The man who came down from the sky, the same man who was responsible for the protective light, was none other than his master, Theon the Plunderer.
“Mhm,” Theon hummed, nodding.
He said and did nothing, only staring at everyone with eyes that looked through everything. To be precise, the mass of people gathered there, including the three archbishops, were nothing but dust to him.
Despite looking incredibly frightened, Emperor Alistair came forth and asked, “Archbishops, who is this man?”
At this point, when they could not even ensure their own safety, they could not find the courage to answer the emperor’s question.
“Master, why are you here?” asked Jiang Fei.
Theon rolled his eyes. “Hmph. You can stop pretending now. You knew that I was following you all along, didn’t you? That’s why you dared to pull this sort of stunt on your own!”
He was not happy with Jiang Fei’s little performance here. Even so, Jiang Fei was his disciple and he was going to be a responsible master, even if it meant cleaning up the mess he made.
“So that’s why…” 0541 thought to himself.
He now understood why Umbral Jiang Fei would dare to leave even during the climatic situation—he had known that Theon was present all along. Theon had been hiding himself, but he was not hiding all of his presence. No one should have been able to find him, but Umbral Jiang Fei was no ordinary man.
Having a combat level of 15 million, he was able to detect Theon’s presence, albeit not accurately. Still, knowing that Theon was following from behind was why Umbral Jiang Fei dared to breach the palace grounds and do what he did.
Theon was following Jiang Fei to find out what the black malice was. In order to see it in action, he had to stay close to Jiang Fei, as the black malice was hidden too well for him to detect.
When the black malice manifested as Umbral Jiang Fei, Theon jumped into action as fast as he could. He followed closely and did not bother to completely hide his presence, since he knew just how strong Jiang Fei was.
That was why Umbral Fei was able to detect Theon’s presence when Jiang Fei himself couldn’t. Even before boarding the shuttle, Umbral Jiang Fei had already known that Theon was following him.
Borrowing the halo of Theon, Umbral Jiang Fei went ahead with his plan to rescue Aurelia. He had not been planning on relying too much on Theon, but then the three archbishops appeared. They were too much for even him to handle.
Before leaving, Umbral Jiang Fei had left a message: “There is someone watching from above. Things will be alright now.”
Indeed, there was someone watching from above, and that someone would make things fine and dandy. Having promised to take care of Jiang Fei, naturally, he would appear to save his skin when the occasion called for it.
Despite each of them having combat levels of slightly under 20 million, Theon’s mere presence alone was enough to scare the three archbishops. The difference in their strength was so wide that numerically, it did not matter.
Every threshold serves a purpose, and that purpose is to weed out the weak. A person with a combat level of 10 million would be able to take down tens of fighters with combal levels of 9,999,999. Similarly, a person with 20 million combat level would face no trouble in defeating a few 19 million combat level fighters.
The fat one came forth and attempted to save the shorter one, saying, “O respected one, it is said that the Hidden Ones will not interfere with the qualms of the weak…”
The eldest one said nothing, taking two steps back. He did not want the great Hidden One to lump him together with the short one and the fat one. He clearly heard the young brat blatantly addressing the Hidden One as his master, so he decided to hide away.
As the most senior of the three, he knew that he must bear responsibility. Yet, if he chose to stand with the two other fools, he would be choosing certain death.
Theon scoffed. “Ahh… to think that even someone like you knows such a thing.”
The fat one shrunk back, lowering his head as much as his neck would allow. The Hidden Ones were entities who give new meaning to the word ‘strength’. Though they were rare in the entire universe, they had their own otherworldly pleasures to pursue, and had agreed to not interfere with the likes of the weak.
That being said, if this great one decided that everyone on this planet was unworthy of living, no one could stop him.
The emperor stepped out of the defensive formation and greeted Theon, “O great one, I am Emperor Alistair, the ruling emperor of the Alderaan Empire. Welcome to Alderaan.”
“Intriguing,” Theon hummed.
Theon had revealed his presence to kings and emperors, civilians and fighters alike, and none of them were neither brave nor stupid enough to step forth like this emperor. His actions spoke volumes of his gallant character, proving his true mettle.
“I bear no ill-will towards the Alderaan Empire. I am only here to fetch my misbehaving disciple. I will take it from here. I pray that the emperor will not take offence in this,” said Theon.
As the fatter archbishop mentioned earlier, Theon was indeed bound by the rules of the Hidden Ones—they were not to kill without purpose. And anyway, he was not the kind of person who found joy in ending lives. That was why he imposed such a rule on his own disciple.
“Peace be with us all then. I’m afraid I have to plead for forgiveness from the great one, as my own people have wronged your disciple,” said Emperor Alistair, clasping his fists together and bowing.
Despite the need to think of his own safety, the emperor was still able to help the archbishops. In that instant, the fatter one turned to him, overwhelmed with gratitude. He decided to devote his entire being to helping the emperor, for being as kind as he was.
“Peace be with us all then.”
Theon had to give it to this emperor. He stepped up in the face of danger and even remembered to think about his subjects. This was a quality rarely found in kings and emperors. Since the emperor himself had already lowered his head and begged for forgiveness, Theon found no reason to continue the farce and let the short one go free.
Jiang Fei whispered from behind, “Master, what are we going to do now?”
“What else do you want to do? Do you want me to start massacring the entire planet just because of you?” replied Theon, rolling his eyes as he mocked his disciple.
To be honest, Jiang Fei had completely forgotten about his master’s one rule about killing. There was blood on his hands, but Theon had never once sought to punish Jiang Fei for it. He knew that it was not Jiang Fei’s doing, but the black malice’s.
Even now, Theon had no idea what the true nature of the black malice was, and could not truly distinguish whether the Umbral Jiang Fei was Jiang Fei after all. He needed time to think about the matter, and figure out whether or not he should punish Jiang Fei for Umbral Jiang Fei’s wrongdoings.
