The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

Zaos and Aleni headed toward the throne room, and they didn't find any trouble along the way. While the number of guards around the castle was high, inside, the number was stupidly low. Still, he knew that the royal guards that would be inside were either newbies and the heads… Laiex and Drian. 

"Some messengers are bound to appear often throughout the night, while I talk with them, you should warn me if you sense anyone approaching," Zaos said.

"How do you plan to break the ice?" Aleni asked.

"I guess I will put everyone to sleep, and then wake up the king, depending on what he says and does, I might wake up or not the others," Zaos said. "Come to think of it, if I increase the power of Sleep, they might sleep up for two days, and it will take a while for anyone to notice that are under effects of magic, that should give us enough time to look for the royal library."

Aleni nodded… while she wanted to find Milliendra as soon as possible, what they were doing would help her in the future. As long as her family understands her situation and doesn't panic, things should be fine for Milliendra, even away from Zaos and Aleni.

Once Zaos and Aleni reached the throne room, he slightly opened it and then used Sleep toward the throne. After a few moments, he heard the sound of armor hitting the ground, and using Magic Perception, he also confirmed that those three had fallen asleep. After entering the room, Zaos found them completely unconscious… Laiex, Dalyor, and Drian were quite different from Zaos' memories. Dalyor looked a lot skinner, probably because he had health problems a few months ago. His head was also pretty grey… even though he wasn't in his fifties yet. As for the other two, they looked as strong as ever, but even some of their hair had turned grey.

Zaos wondered why he didn't get so annoyed after seeing them after so long… the problems of the past seemed so far away. While they did something unforgivable things, Zaos had also done things that he shouldn't have… was it because he could relate to them that he wasn't angry, or was it because he felt like they had paid for their deeds over the last decade? It was hard to know…

Zaos forgot about that when he noticed that his father and Drian had some weird swords with them. The format was of a simple longsword, but it looked like it was made of a weird light blue crystal. It was similar to the magic stone, but it emitted a light blue glow. Still, those words had a glow inside them… when Zaos touched one of the swords, he felt like his mana was going crazy. His body temperature increased… it seemed like an anti-magic sword… Regardless, Zaos took those away and gave them to Aleni for the time being. Still, that kind of weapon might be useful against demons since their strength comes from dark emotions that are transformed into mana. Once that was done, Zaos used Cleanse on Dalyor, and the king opened his eyes widely when he woke up and saw Zaos in front of him. He opened his mouth to shout, but Zaos stopped him with Evil Eyes, making him see a scene where Zaos grabbed his mouth to stop him from talking. In the next moment, Dalyor saw himself back to the throne-like nothing had happened. Now he didn't know what was real and what wasn't.

Zaos wondered if he could show his last conversation with Ameria with that spell… it was supposed to be possible, but would that be enough?

"It has been a long time, Dalyor," Zaos said. "We need to talk, so it would be helpful if you don't make a scene here. As you can see, I am unarmed, and I only put you guys to sleep. Do I need to do anything else to prove that I am just here to talk?"

"Damn you… damn you," Dalyor said and then got up from his throne. "I will make you pay for killing my daughter and for kidnapping my granddaughter, even if that is the last thing that I will do in this world… You will pay dearly for your crimes."

Thanks to that, Zaos began to have second thoughts about revealing what Ameria asked him to do… someone with a cool head would see where Ameria was coming from when she asked Zaos to kill her. Still, someone who was completely taken by hatred would?

"You should calm down… negative emotions probably were one of the things the demons need to take over one's body," Zaos said.

"Your words won't fool me, cursed beast…" Dalyor said. "As long as blood pulses inside me, you won't have a single moment of peace."

"That is fine by me. In any case, you need to start working because the demon god is planning to use Milliendra to return," Zaos said. "The demon god can't reincarnate or revive by itself, so he passed his powers down to the next generations in order to find the perfect vessel that could withstand his powers… using those same powers, the vessel can bring back the demon god from the world of the dead."

"... What kind of nonsense are you spouting now?" Dalyor asked. "No matter what you do, you won't kidnap Milliendra again."

"You heard of it, haven't you?" Zaos asked. "For the last ten years, I have been using Guardian's Heart… my mission was to protect Milliendra, and the sword found me the worth of the task… even after I killed Ameria. Can you understand what that means?"

"You assumed that…" Dalyor said while trembling. "You assumed that you killed my only daughter…"

"I won't hide anything anymore because, in one way or the other, I will create a world that Milliendra won't have to suffer…" Zaos said. "I killed Ameria because she asked me… she didn't want Milliendra to bear the burden of her mother's death."