( Ben's POV, present moment )
Ben felt his vision become blurry and his consciousness fading fast, as although he had already vomited the poison he had consumed, a small amount of poison seemed to have already been absorbed into his bloodstream.
*Thud*
For some inexplicable reason, Ben felt his body falling flat on the floor, as he felt something light being over his back.
'What?' Ben wondered, his survival instincts screaming, however, with his vision blurry and every other sense dulled, he could not figure out what exactly was going on in his surroundings.
"My Lord…. My Lord, are you okay?" screamed a Virex Corps operative, as it was Julien who seemed to have collapsed over Ben, causing him to lose his balance.
Just like Ben, although Julien had also vomited the poison, a small amount seemed to have already been absorbed into his bloodstream, causing him to lose all senses and collapse like a helpless doll.
"HEALER! SOMEONE GET THE HEALER–" Jake, the new leader of the Virex Corps shouted, as his underlings immediately scrambled to search for the royal doctor residing within the palace.
By this point, Julien's body started to spasm violently, his mouth foaming up, as unlike Ben who was a master level warrior, Julien was a common man with an overall resistance to poisons being much lesser than that of Ben.
He was dying, and he was dying fast, and without receiving immediate attention, Julien faced the risk of losing his life.
On the other hand, Ben began circulating the mana within his body to counterattack the effects of the poison, as slowly but surely he started to detoxify his bloodstream just as his father had taught him to years ago.
With a calm mind and controlled breathing, Ben played dead while healing his body, as he bided his time patiently.
*******
"The server! He's trying to escape!" Alaric said, pointing towards the server who was trying to sneak off amongst the chaos, as since the plan was going south, Alaric came-up with a strategy on the fly to salvage the situation.
Upon hearing Alaric's shout everyone turned to look towards the server who was trying to sneak away, however, before he could do so, a sword-slash cleaved his body in half, as Thalion the Royal Commander got rid of that weak link.
"Who dares poison the Emperor of Unity Empire?" Thalion said domineeringly, as he confidently walked beside the king and took a guard stance, eyeing everyone around him with suspicion.
"Why did you kill him? Commander Thalion? We needed to interrogate him to find out the real culprit behind this event.
I believe you acted too easily" Alaric said, scolding Thalion, as Thalion only snorted in response.
"The man was trying to escape, he was clearly guilty of trying to assassinate our Emperor, so I passed the judgment on his life myself–" Thalion said, as at that moment nobody could fault his logic.
For a few moments, Alaric and Thalion had an intense stare off, which others interpreted as a war of nerves, however, in reality it was a silent communication between the two men, as they tacitly decided to throw Prince Nathan under the bus.
"Prince Nathan, your father is dying. Why don't you seem bothered?" Alaric asked all of a sudden, as all eyes turned towards Nathan who was shocked to hear the sudden accusation.
"M-me? W-w-what? Alaric? I, I, I, I thought we were friends!" Nathan said, as his nervous demeanor did not help his case at all.
"Yeah! He's wayy too calm!"
"Did Prince Nathan plan this? Is he trying to usurp the throne?"
"Shut-up everyone, the prince is clearly too shocked to process his emotions properly"
"I find the young prince's behavior suspicious, someone should detain him for now–"
Everyone suddenly began to focus on Nathan and the poor kid turned into a pool of nerves under all the attention.
He did not have the political spine to endure such a crisis and it showed immediately in his actions, as he started to cry.
"I didn't do anything! What are you guys accusing me of? Alaric you're a snake. Bohoo–" Nathan said, crying like a little kid, as at that moment, he destroyed his reputation forever.
Guilty or not, he was forever going to be remembered as a cry baby from this moment onwards, sure to never have the respect of the nobles under him.
"MOVE AWAY…. MOVE AWAY! THE HEALER IS HERE–"
Just as everyone started to focus on Nathan, the royal healer finally made his way to the gala hall, panting heavily as he kneeled beside the Emperor.
By this point the Emperor had already entered the epileptic shock phase, as his body had turned purple and started to twitch relentlessly.
The healer immediately began treating him, trying to dispel the poison from his veins, however, it was already too late.
The poison had spread to Julien's brain already and the healer was a minute too late to save him.
Aged 55, Julien no longer had the vitality to survive such poisoning, as one after another his organs started to undergo multiple organ failure.
"The king's dying— he's losing bodily functions fast" the healer said in panic, as he intensified his efforts to save Julien, however, he was fighting a losing battle.
The most that he could manage, was to keep Julien alive for 5 painful minutes before his heart eventually gave out and his pulse flattened, putting an end to his suffering.
"The Emperor is no more …" The healer declared regretfully, as thorough silence enveloped the room at that moment.
Julien D Evanus, the third Emperor of Unity Empire, who had ruled with an iron first for the last 25 years and was well loved by his people had just met the most horrific of deaths.
One moment he was celebrating with the most prominent people in the Empire and the next he was dead…..
However, the worst part was, that nobody even knew who was really behind this assassination attempt of the Emperor?