Chapter 656: Heart of Eternity (I) (2/2)
“At first, His Majesty had no interest in enticing me to join the Glorious Church. But Pelo insisted, using countless means to seduce Fulo. Though, Fulo being so materialistic, due to his flowery speed and the appeal of the numerous martial techniques and pills at the disposal of the Glorious Church, she finally gave in to his continuous offenses. Pero mentioned to her that the Scion of Light would be a threat to the Glorious Church, hence the Church needed absolutely to get rid of me, to make sure of their eternal rule at the time he would become the pope and Fulo would be his empress… Originally, Fulo still had some apprehensions, but Pelo expressed to his Highness the will of the Glorious Church to support their empire in vanquishing the other empires and in uniting the continent. Moreover, he promised Fulo to give her all the martial techniques from me for her to learn. Both the royal family and Fulo were finally ensnared by the benefits that way, while I became the sacrifice for all these benefits to be obtained.
“This was supposed to be a perfect plan: by taking advantage of the trip I took with Fulo to ambush me, they wanted to deplete my strength, and then on the way back, Fulo would take advantage of my lowered guard and exhaustion to move against me, making it hardly possibly for me to escape. At that time, they would only need to kill me and report me as a betrayer to the Empire and the Church, so that even despite my reputation as the pride of the empire, the truth behind this conspiracy would rapidly be drowned.
“I hated them bitterly; I never expected my homeland, my lover, and my convictions to actually betray me together. At that time, my brain went blank, and as Fulo and Pero were in the midst of making out, I suddenly rushed in and launched fatal attacks against them.
“My appearance was just too sudden for them. Although they were top figures of the younger generation, there was a significant gap in our strengths, and this was moreover a situation of ambush. I very rapidly took the advantage, wounding Pelo seriously while suppressing Fulo with my attacks. Although a large amount of powerhouses from the palace immediately gathered as a result, they did not dare act rashly as I held Fulo and Pelo as hostages at that time.
“Then I questioned Fulo, ‘Why did you have to do this to me? What in me dissatisfied you?’ She only kept begging me for her survival then, but I had already heard all their previous conversation! How could I still trust in her words after that? At that time, my only thought was take to them down with myself. The former me was incredibly proud. At that time, I had been reduced to the position of traitor to the nation, completely unable to accept such a huge downfall. Having no more attachment to my own life, I only wanted to take down this cheating couple with me.
“But that Pelo was, after all, the son of the pope, having many survival means at his disposal. Right when I was prepared to take them down with myself, he used extraordinary means to summon the pope’s attack, causing me to get seriously wounded. And, in the end, as I couldn’t bear to move against Fulo, I could only choose to escape the encirclement. After I finally made it out, I went into hiding in the capital, covered in bruises after a narrow escape.
“Immediately, the Empire initiated a manhunt in the whole city, looking for traces of me. It was through the help of a beggar that I formerly saved that I luckily escaped their chase. But as I was just done healing my wounds came thunderous news. They had caught my family.”
Elux gritted his teeth and declared, “They knew that I was concealed in the Empire, which is why they released an announcement about executing the traitor’s family. I still remember that day clearly: the sky seemed to get blood-red colored as His Highness passed down the execution order in front of the masses. When I saw Pelo and Fulo clad in armor and cutting off my relatives’ heads, I lost the last ounces of hope and light in me, which all faded away.
“Can you imagine? Someone who witnessed all his kin getting killed. My father, mother, older sister, younger sister, and the rest of my family; even the young children were not spared: my whole family was executed with no exception.
“I knew that they were waiting for me to show up at that time. Waiting for me with a perfect bait, they just understood my character far too well. But at that time, a black tile I had formerly gained in the previous training trip got affected by my dark emotions, turning my whole body cold and unable to move a single step. It was because of this that I had to stare blankly at the scene of my family getting slaughtered one by one.
“At that time, I was furious, having entered a frantic state. My kins’ blood dyed the ground of the public square of the empire’s capital: not a single one of my three hundred sixty-seven family members escaped this fate. They all met with violent deaths under their butchers’ knives. At the time I recovered from that cold state, the rest of my family was already extinguished. I seemed to catch sight of their specters, pacing back and forth irresolutely in the sky, utterly unreconciled.
“I didn’t step in as my family was already all dead, and I left that place with an overwhelming rancor. As I did not appear from beginning to end in this slaughter, they believed that I already had left the Pombo Empire, hence the hunt came to a provisional end. Instead, they went on to search for my traces over the whole continent.”