Crimson Core

A few days later, King Sullivan was standing on his balcony looking over the kingdom and such.

It was rumoured that the king could see the entire kingdom from that high balcony.

The imperial palace was at the centre of the kingdom. The whole kingdom had a circular topography; the central continent was surrounded by the four other centuries, and the imperial palace was in the centre of the central continent. The rumours might not be entirely false or true.

—Whizz—

A weird whistling sound from behind King Sullivan attracted his attention; he turned around and saw a black door.

‘That is weird.’

King Sullivan didn’t want to act as he wasn’t sure if it was Amal... He always visited with a new method. If it was Amal and he attacked it, the thought of what he would do to him was scary.

The door opened and two heads pooped out of the little opening; one had white hair and the other had blue hair.

“Is this the place?” The white-haired head asked.

“it seems to be... " That’s King Sullivan.”

The way the blue-haired head said the word Sullivan had a lot of disgust. The skill Void’s door could only take Kai to wherever he had been before or to where he had seen... If he imagined hard enough.

Kai and Lord Marshall had been travelling through space, opening doors that led to everywhere but the imperial palace. In actuality, Lord Marshall used paintings of the imperial palace to try and aid Kai.

Finally, after almost half a day of opening doors, the two had bonded. Kai didn’t see Lord Marshall with stranger eyes, and Lord Marshall seemed to get closer to Kai.

Lord Marshall and Kai walked out of the door, both their eyes glued to the king Sullivan; the atmosphere was tense. The three men knew each other; if it were a month ago, King Sullivan would have mopped the floor with Lord Marshall but now something felt off about the Lord Marshall in front of him.

“Hey… I am here to kill you.”

King Sullivan II

Element: lightning

Rank: peak layer king rank (king Rank)

Kai had the most unrealistic expression you could ever see on his face… He was smiling. Or so it seemed.

Even without activating the gauntlets, his killing intent had already soared.

“What do you mean?”

King Sullivan was taken aback by the direct approach of Kai; he was visibly shocked. But as a result of being a king, King Sullivan easily retracted his shocked expression and regained his composure. He had learnt that after a few thousand years of being king, it was already close to perfection.

“Ha-ha, please don’t play with me, you? Want to kill me? The king? Are you a comedian?” King Sullivan knew that this was not going to be easy; he didn’t know why, but he felt a bit of unease within his gut.

“And you... Marshall, I don’t know what you did but don’t even think of getting revenge.” Although Lord Marshall was strong for a noble at this time, there was still a great gap between the king rank and the noble rank among mages.

“We didn’t come here to kill you; although I would love to, we just want you to answer some questions.”

Lord Marshall was surprisingly calm for a man who was looking at the killer of his beloved Irene and also had a hand in the death of his daughter.

“I don’t care; please leave my palace; I don’t have time for you.” Sullivan wanted them to leave; it was better to watch your enemy from afar, then prepare and make some arrangements to finish him off with the least effort. If they fought here, they would cause a scene.

While all this banter was going on between Lord Marshall and King Sullivan, Kai was busy looking at the floating figures of light beside King Sullivan. There was something wrong. There was an addition to his name; II, this was confusing to him.

“It seemed we would have to take the hard way then.” Lord Marshall said this as he looked at Kai, who seemed to be lost in thoughts.

“What’s wrong?” Lord Marshall asked as he tugged Kai, totally oblivious to the other being in front of them.

“How many king Sullivans are there?” Kai asked with a deep-in-thought-expression on his face.

“Only one, I think. What’s the problem?” This was all so confusing for him.

King Sullivan was already fuming. ‘How dare they ignore me?’ “What are you trying to say? That I am not the king? That I am a counterfeit?” the king was pissed.

“I never said that... Your words, not mine,” Kai said with a smile—no, a grin, a sinister one, the kind of smile a predator has when face-to-face with its prey.

“what do you want to know?” King Sullivan asked. He was a smart man, and he had a lot of enemies and adding to the list a mysterious foe was not wise.

But he knew he had to do it in style; he was king. Of course he had an image to uphold.

“That was easy,” Kai thought out loud. It was too easy, simply suspicious.

King Sullivan walked in between the two men; Kai could almost see a grin on his face.

“Come, let’s talk about it over tea.”

“I will be having cinnamon tea!” Kai said in an excited tone that recently he had been having a strange addiction to cinnamon tea. Chelsea’s breath had a trace of cinnamon the last time he kissed her. Or so he remembered.

Lord Marshall simply stood there dumbstruck. ‘He is seriously going in for tea?!’

Lord Marshall was against this, but he understood that if they didn’t play along, the whole kingdom would go against him for treason against the throne. Sullivan was almost gaining the upper hand “Sire!”

“Sire!”

“…”

The entire way to the king’s lounge, all the hallways were encrusted with soldiers clad in purple armour. They were the finest in the entire kingdom of Klinestra.

He was purposefully intimidating them, but if it worked? Was a question the next paragraph would tell.

“Smile… Please.”

Kai was poking one of the soldier’s faces with his fingers. The look on the face of the other soldiers say, ‘Is that guy insane? This is crazy!’

The other soldiers were in shock; Kai was teasing their commander, Earth mage, Vinx. He already had a menacing build, topped with the scar that ran across his head to his face. He looked like a nightmare even to most strong men.

But he was being tested by a teenager or so he thought.

‘I am itching to kill someone, he isn’t even budging, am I not trying hard enough?’ Kai wanted to test this guy’s prowess. He had seen his stats but you know you can’t trust what you see. His fighting experience must be top-notch.

“Kai… Come on, we don’t have time for this.” Kai was about to push harder when he heard Lord Marshall call him over.

“Haa,” Kai exhaled. “We will continue another time. I am coming.” Kai walked away from the almost frowning Vinx.

“You are really against fun... no wonder Chelsea wanted to see the world.” Kai said under his breath.

“What did you say?” Lord Marshall asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh…nothing.” Kai waved his hands to assure Lord Marshall that he said nothing.

Actually, Kai didn’t want to bring Chelsea up any more…well not yet; he was still grieving.

It didn’t take long for Kai, Lord Marshall and King Sullivan to get seated. King Sullivan signalled for a servant to bring tea. After the tea arrived, he dismissed the maid.

“So how did you see it, soldiers? They are the best in all of Klinestra; they could lay down their lives for me.”

King Sullivan was still trying to intimidate them, but it didn’t seem to work because Kai was simply all smiles and nods. It was simply infuriating.

‘I wonder what he is thinking? He is nothing like the reports say; he is supposed to be grim and glum Why is he grinning?’ King Sullivan was confused.

—Slurp—

Kai slurped the cinnamon tea in a very cultured way... So unlike him.

“Nice tea…mmhhhn.” Kai adjusted in his seat and cleared his throat before he started speaking. “Ahem… Your soldiers are quite the spec, nice and everything. Now that’s out of the way, What do you know about the God realm?”

Kai spoke as though he had rehearsed those lines all his life. King Sullivan was taken aback by the question, but he still tried to comport himself before the two men in front of him noticed the change in his conduct.

“—sip. What you are talking about, god realm? What is that?” King Sullivan faked ignorance, but Kai wasn’t having it.

“I thought you had agreed on taking the easy way.” Kai said, still with his one-in-a-million grin plastered on his face.

“Are you threatening me? Do you know where you are? You could die if my breathing pattern changes!”

King Sullivan really didn’t want to tell them; most probably he was under oath to never disclose the whereabouts of the entrance to the God realm.

"Sullivan, please let’s be civil about this... You tell us what we want to know and you don’t die; how about that?” Lord Marshall said then he brought up the cup to his mouth and took a sip of its contents.

“And who would kill me? You seem to not know who you are talking to.” King Sullivan was pissed; this lowlife was threatening him... The King.

"No, no, not me, him,” Lord Marshall pointed towards King Sullivan.

Suddenly a menacing aura and a grave killing intent erupted from behind King Sullivan. A black hand held his neck before he could react to it.

“Why so serious?”

Those words drove shivers down King Sullivan’s spine... This was bad.

“What are you—”

“Shh… I’ll be asking the questions now.” Kai placed his now-clawfinger on Sullivan’s lips.

King Sullivan wanted to scream to call his soldiers, but he felt fear. Weirdly enough, it was the fear of Kai; the gauntlets were working... But they were working too well.

Kai was losing blood essence fast to match Sullivan’s profoundness of mind. Kai had to do something or else, at this rate, his essence would be exhausted before they got an answer. He had to risk it; he had a plan, but it was not going to be easy.

“What do you know about the God realm?”

Kai whispered those words, passively activating God’s whisper, but this was draining him badly.

“I said I knew nothing of that place you call!” King Sullivan was still playing the hard game. He was a king; he had experienced a lot of pressure before; this was normal to him.

Besides the pressure on Kai’s essence, well was! Already too much; any more and it would run dry in seconds. “Sigh… I really wish it couldn’t come to this.”

Kai said in a sad tone. It looked as though Kai was about to let him go. He traced his black claw along King Sullivan’s face. “Don’t take it the wrong way.”

Kai drove his index finger into Sullivan’s neck.

“what—what are you doing? Do you think an impalement would stop me from killing you? Or make me answer your question?” Sullivan scoffed but Kai was still smiling. Weird.

“Oh… No, no. I just got tired of standing behind you.” Kai walked towards his seat and took a sip of his cinnamon tea. “This is what would make you talk.”

Kai snapped his fingers. ‘I hope this works!’

It didn’t take long for Sullivan to feel something; there was a suction force coming from the new hole in his neck. The next moment, an excruciating pain hit him as he saw his blood float in the air, towards Kai; the blood appeared to vanish into Kai’s gauntlets.

This was not necessary, as a small amount of blood essence was located in the blood that was coming out of Sullivan, but the pain was simply unbearable, Kai was having fun.

Lord Marshall simply looked at what was going on in front of him without saying much, but he had one thought in his mind.

‘Kai is ruthless. Very good.’

—slap…splat—

King Sullivan tried using his hands to push, stop, and prevent the blood from flowing, but it seemed like it would not stop. He looked over at Kai and saw him simply sipping his cinnamon tea. Kai could not get enough of this tea.

“OK! Stop… I will tell you everything I know!” King Sullivan had yielded. He looked awful; from his full stature, he was almost a skeleton.

“…” Kai looked at him without saying anything. Kai was getting addicted to this blood essence meal; it had been long since he had such quality blood... A few weeks ago, to be precise.

“Kai stop!” Lord Marshall called out to Kai to stop.

“I wanted to keep going.” Kai knew what was at stake and knew that if he kept going, all their efforts would become counterproductive.

Lord Marshall took it upon himself to get answers from King Sullivan; Kai was already bored of Sullivan.

“…”

“…”

Kai didn’t put much thought into what they were saying because he knew he would eventually get the gist from Marshall.

Kai decided to pass the time, and he tried to practice another skill... blood forge.

He wasn’t a weapons guy, nor was he proficient in long-distance fights. He was more of a melee fighter, a rip-off-your-limbs type of mage.

Kai concentrated solely on trying to force the blood he had just absorbed. It didn’t take long for blood to start leaking upwards into the space above Kai's palm. After some time the flow stopped and a ball of red fluid was floating above Kai’s palm; it wasn’t a perfect sphere. It kept moving and distorting its shape.

Kai had never actually seen a real fight; he had killed people...mages, but still hadn’t seen a real fight, except for the fight between Whistler and the smasher.

He kind of liked the scythe the whistler used, so he tried forming it—at least a replica of it.

—Clang—

The sound of metal hitting the marble floor attracted the attention of the other men in the room as well as some soldiers stationed outside the room.

“Carry on, don’t mind me.”

Kai urged them to continue as he picked up something that looked like a scythe, but it looked weird; it was red…blood red. It was made of blood, but still, it gave off a sharpness that seemed to pierce the soul.

It didn’t take long for the two men to snap out of their state of awe and continue the interrogation.

Meanwhile, outside the room...

“Did you hear that?” One of the soldiers stationed outside the door asked his partner.

“Most definitely, but everything is quiet now. It must be nothing… By the way, our shift is almost over. Let’s just look the other way.” The second soldier replied.

“You are making sense... We didn’t hear anything.”

“We didn’t hear anything,” the second soldier confirmed.

Kai had noticed a few things from this weapon in his hands when he looked at it.

Blood Thunder scythe

King rank

Durability: 99%

The weapon carries the same attributes of the person it was forged from: their rank and element.

He noticed something else. This weapon could not be forged into another one. He had tried. But it could shrink to a tiny size and be worn as an amulet or wristband.

But the problem was if this perk was only for him or for anyone who wielded it, he had one way to find out.