Snow understood what he meant.
All of them alive?
That wasn’t true at all.
One person was missing—someone who hadn’t returned with them, whose corpse had been left to rot on the Sacred Island even as they spoke.
In that weighty instant, they both arrived at the same question:
Why hadn’t anyone asked them about Aegon Valerion?
Coming back without the prince should have raised every alarm. It should have been the first thing Phoenix asked.
But he hadn’t. He’d been calm .. genuinely pleased to see them .. and he seemed to know far too much about their clash with the Church.
"Who exactly told you what happened?" The moment Frey asked the question...
time itself seemed to stop.
Drawing back the flap and revealing the inside of the Empire’s command tent,
Phoenix pointed to the truth, frowning at how astonished Frey and the others were.
"What are you getting at, Frey? The one who informed us was..."
The moment the door opened, faces Frey had already sensed came into view.
Seated in scattered places were all the Empire’s great names.
Sir Alon Valerion, and even Maekar Valerion had returned.
Ivar and his brother Luc, and Iris Sunlight as well.
They were all there. But one more person sat among them ..
and it was the man whose presence shocked Frey, Snow, and Uriel as if they’d seen a ghost.
Sitting with one leg crossed over the other, leaning calmly on an arm braced on the chair,
he smiled in greeting.
"Of course .. the prince is the one who told us what happened to you," Phoenix said, gesturing to Aegon.
The prince sat there, quiet, wearing his usual smile ..
as if he were savoring their reaction.
"We were genuinely surprised when the prince returned alone a few days ago," Phoenix said with a smile.
"But he informed us of your victory and what transpired, and thanks to that we understood the situation and could act accordingly." His smile faded quickly as murderous intent flooded the tent.
Most present tensed; the eyes of Sir Alon and Maekar flared with a dangerous light.
All of it in answer to the suffocating killing intent pouring from Frey Starlight.
"You...Why the hell are you here?!" Frey asked, face black with fury, cold sweat breaking across those S-rank and below.
The prince didn’t so much as flinch.
"Why am I here? Where else would I be?" he replied with confidence, reclining in his chair.
"I judged I no longer had a place among you there, so I returned ahead of you. I hope you don’t mind... Frey~"
At those words, a terrifying violet light flashed in Frey’s eyes as his thoughts raced.
How? When? Why is the damned prince still alive?
Was the one he killed before just a copy?
No—impossible.
Frey rejected the notion at once. The prince he’d slain with his own hands had been the real one who’d accompanied them the entire time.
Aegon couldn’t create such a perfect copy .. unless he possessed something like Zibar’s Soul of Reincarnation, which in Aegon’s case was impossible.
So how had the prince survived?
And was the man before him truly Aegon Valerion? Frey couldn’t sense him at all, even though he could feel the likes of Sir Alon and Maekar Valerion...
"Who are you?" Frey asked, voice leaden, tension flooding the room as everyone edged away from one another.
"You chose to play rough, Frey .. so don’t blame me when my hand slips and reveals horrors you’re not ready to endure."
"I see," Frey answered coolly, silence hanging for a heartbeat.
In the very next, a devastating Aura exploded from his body as he drew both his swords.
A colossal pressure shook the ground beneath him, and the prince sprang back at once.
Frey moved to pounce ..but halted when he was completely boxed in from both sides.
A terrifying fiery spear thrust in from his right, while a pure white blade flashed up from his left.
In the same instant, Sir Alon Valerion and Maekar Valerion hemmed him in, their weapons poised at his throat.
"Do not take another step, Frey Starlight," Sir Alon warned, his voice iron.
"What you’re attempting now is direct rebellion against the ruling house and its next emperor. In other words... you are raising your weapon against the entire Empire." His words rang through the tent, and Maekar affirmed his father’s decree.
"Stand down, Frey Starlight ..and sheathe your blades."
Steel at his neck, both men ready to strike, the pressure they exerted was no small thing.
Frey was unmoved.
"Do you truly believe you can stop me? I’m not the weak youth you could toy with anymore."
BOOOOM!!
With a single stroke, Frey knocked aside both Maekar’s and Sir Alon’s weapons, forcing them back.
In response, Ivar Valerion and Iris Sunlight closed in to flank him.
They didn’t want to kill him .. but they were certainly not on his side.
One glance told Frey that Aegon had done something during their absence.
"When are you going to stop hiding behind other people’s backs, Aegon? If these fools are the ones you’re relying on, you should know better than anyone that I can cut through them with ease."
At Frey’s threat, Aegon simply nodded.
"I’m perfectly aware. You’re the monster who stood against SSS-tier fighters, after all."
Whatever he said, Aegon didn’t seem rattled by being singled out.
"You’re strong, Frey ..but are you ready to make the entire Empire your enemy just to kill me?"
As he spoke, the command tent tore open, revealing a staggering number of troops encircling the place.
It could be said that every imperial soldier present had converged to pen them in, ready for battle.
Casting a look over their faces and letting his Aura spread, Frey finally understood.
Among those gathered, not a single person stood on Frey Starlight’s side.
All his allies and friends .. along with the soldiers who admired him and had sworn to fight for his sake ..had been driven off to join the ongoing battle outside while this meeting took place.
Surrounded on all sides, it felt like a carefully laid trap, prepared by Aegon Valerion from the very start, awaiting their return.
And it only cemented Frey’s certainty that the prince before him was not the human he knew .. but something far beyond.
"What now, Frey? Will you raise your sword and butcher the very people you’ve been fighting for?"
Aegon walked slowly, drawing close to his grandfather and father.
"You’re very strong. It’s possible you could kill everyone here... but what would be left to you afterward?
"The demons are your enemies. The Ultras are your enemies. The Church and its followers are your enemies... Will you make the Empire itself your enemy now?"
Aegon worked Frey’s nerves, laying out the board.
"You can kill those present—but you will never kill me, Frey. I’m like an idea living in every citizen of this Empire. Wherever you go, you’ll find people loyal to me, ready to fight for me. That is the result of what I’ve built for years while you floundered in your miserable life."
The message beneath his words was clear:
You cannot kill me.