*PAAM*
The door opened forcefully from the outside and three armed giants entered, two of them stood behind Richard quickly, and one went to examine the terrifying corpse lying on the ground.
Then, he raised his head and looked at Richard with raised eyebrows, "You did it again? This is Darkis Ibn Zalaf, the grandson of the Northern Star Tribe Chief and one of the most powerful geniuses of his generation, how exactly did you kill him?!"
"Just do what you have to do..." Richard spoke, still looking helplessly at his limbs
"Tsk~ take him to the stage and start the preparations." That guard waved to the other two, "And tell the patients that they will have to wait a few hours while we're done."
"Yes, commander!" The two giants grabbed Richard by both arms and left the palace before the eyes of hundreds of giants waiting their turn outside
"Ah not again!"
"Let him treat the hell with me first!!"
Everyone started shouting angrily when they saw Richard being led towards the usual stage, they had been standing for weeks or even months waiting for their turn, but now it has been postponed once more, some of the giants at the head of the line even saw this happen before!
"Shut up!" But the two guards shouted, two Dragon-level pressures silenced everyone again, then they continued as they wanted to do
First Richard was taken to a high platform where everyone could see him, then he was tied by his hair with a long rope and lifted up, the scene was as if Richard was being hanged but by his hair instead of his neck, then:
*shaaa*
*shaa* *shaa* *shaa*
*splash*
With light and quick blows, the two guards struck the top of Richard's shoulders and the top of his thighs with their long swords. They were cut off immediately.
"Ahh!!" But the strange thing is that the one who cried was not Richard, but the crowds of giants standing watching... Some of them screamed from the severity of the scene, and some of them screamed in disgust at the blood that covered their clothes.
*crack*
Then immediately the two guards took out two whips made of some kind of flexible metal and began to flog what was left of Richard's torso...
*crack* *crack*
With his eyes half open, Richard looked directly in front of him, not as much as a moan left his mouth since he stepped onto that stage
In front of him was a huge crowd of sympathetic people and people encouraging the guards to strike harder, but he didn't see any of them...
Before his eyes were nothing but the shadow of a skinny, blond-haired figure
Someone told him that he was waiting for a while until he came back for him
But after four years, he hadn't come back yet.
~~~~~~~
In one of the dark alleys not very far from the stage
A few people who seemed to merge with the darkness kept their eyes on the scene in front of them, as if they wanted to dig it into their memory.
With eyes filled with hatred and rage, each and every one of them looked as if they wanted to kill every single one of those giants by shredding their meat with their teeth!
Especially the person standing in front of them, with his red eyes filled with tears of hatred and helplessness, and the blood drooling from his mouth due to biting his own tongue and lip, he looked terrifying...
*drops*
*drop drop*
"...Your Highness Theo, we have to go back." One person came forward, bowed slightly, and spoke with much difficulty
He himself seemed to be consuming all of his energy to restrain himself from running toward that stage.
"Don't call me that, the one and only deserving of this title is in front of you right now on the stage, this is your real prince, I am nothing," Theo said a few words in a low voice, then moved his hands to wipe his eyes and mouth
*crack* *crack*
The rest of the Shadow swords gritted their teeth as they looked towards the stage with heart-burning rage, all the old Shadow swords that were entrusted with the Nihari Planet mission are members of the Burton family, they are all uncles and relatives of Richard, even if he is not the son of their leader who brought them to such extremes of glory he is still one of them, how could they bear watching this scene?
"...Go back and carry out the rest of the mission assigned to us, I will stay here." Theo finally spoke
"What?! Your Highness, this is very dangerous! We are here in passing to study the location of His Excellency's prison and the security around it, and to take advantage of the guards if they were weak and use the Shadow Mobility and Perfect Invisibility to sneak in to get His Highness out or at least hand him what we were entrusted with," one of the Shadow Swords spoke quickly, "But exactly as His Excellency Robin said, there are already people of Emperor realm near here, we can only approach the palace after they are gone, if you try to sneak in yourself now out of anger, we will lose you and it will only hurt His Highness Richard more."
While the Shadow Swords member was speaking, he was constantly looking at a metal tablet in his hand.
This tablet is one of Robin's innovations that he came up with during his stay in Jura City back then. The goal of that tablet was one thing... To identify the individuals with strong souls in the area!
There were three soul signs near them that flashed far more powerfully than the souls of someone in the Dragon Realm.
This is the method recommended by Robin personally for monitoring the locations of those at the Emperor Realm.
Soul strength, if not trained separately, is closely related to the energy cultivation technique one uses and the level one has reached using it, and although the energy system of the Divine Tattoos does not support Soul Strength as well as the Inner Energy Cultivation System, it is no exception to the rule.
For example, a saint who uses the internal energy cultivation system is normally for him to have a soul stronger than a Knight and weaker than a Sage, and in the same sense, a Shaman who uses the Divine Tattoo System is stronger than a Warrior and weaker than a Dragon...
In the same context, the saint has a soul that is stronger by a large margin than a Shaman thanks to the advantage of the internal energy cultivation system, and this rule is broken very rarely.
That's why Robin thought that the best way to determine the strength of a person on a Nihari planet and to locate him if he was in hiding, is by figuring out the strength of his soul...
This metallic tablet, which was randomly designed to find potential Rune Masters on the streets, was interpolated into something much larger!
Of course, this method is useless in Planet Jura, for example, due to the spread of The Soul Strengthening Technique.
Today I talented Knight can possess higher Soul Energy than a Level 1 Saint, for example, but here in Nihari Planet, without powerful Soul Cultivation techniques, the strength difference between Souls cannot be manipulated.
*crack crack*
Theo barely handled the sound of the whip that seemed to come down on his heart, then spoke in a voice filled with pain, "...We planted one of the Shadow Swords here months ago to monitor the situation, and since then none of the Emperors has moved a single step, It seems that they are simply in their homes, and the location of Richard's prison was chosen to be here because it is near them, and not the other way around. we have to assume they won't move out any time soon, and we cannot leave His Highness without even conveying those things to him."
Then he looked back with his red eyes and continued, "Don't waste time and go back to complete the task, As for me, I will stay here until I find an opportunity or a way to enter and meet him, I will not leave this damned city until I meet Richard... My brother."
"...As you wish, Your Highness."
*swoosh swoosh*