Paper throne

Seth’s speech gave him a flood of positive perception energy from everyone on the ship and caused the entire mood to make a 180-degree turn.

Smiling when he noticed that his perception source was trembling in excitement, he said to Hollie: “Land it outside the city. We’re walking in.”

Hollie nodded, herself influenced by Seth’s speech, as she began landing the ship at the city’s entrance. The closer they got to the ground, the more horrible the situation in the city appeared, but no one was dispirited, not anymore.

Most people, especially the younger ones, looked excited to make this place theirs and rebuild it into a perfect home, as Seth had said just before.

Once the ship finally touched the ground, Seth turned towards Maya and said: “My mother seems to still be unwilling to come out. Can - “

“I’ll stay here and keep everyone on the ship safe. Don’t worry.” Replied Maya with a smile.

“Thank you.”, said Seth and kissed her lips before making a portal that led down right to the city entrance.

Then, he addressed the crowd again: “Everyone who wants to come, you are free to do so. We’re marching straight to the king of Blood and taking the throne from him. His protection only consists of a third shell earth ascended and a few non-ascended, so there’s nothing for anyone to worry about.”

As his words ended, he began leading the way with Hollie. Right after them were Henrietta and Tiana, followed by his students and then the Valdez family in their knightly armor.

The appearance of the flying ship and the large portal attracted the attention of every citizen of the Blood Kingdom in the area, but most of them not daring to approach, knowing that whoever would show up with such great fanfare was up to no good.

Seth led the large group forward under the curious looks of the people. The citizens all moved away, retreating a fair distance from Seth’s group, but still watched the show, curious about what was happening.

One could see skinny and malnourished parents dragging their equally malnourished children away from blocking the way. Thugs with greedy eyes watching them, mostly eying the beautiful girls in Seth’s company and even some uninterested people going on about their business.

They barely entered the city when Seth’s nose twitched as a pungent odor assaulted his sense of smell. It was the smell of human waste combined with rotten flesh.

Feeling that even he was about to throw up, he looked at the frowning Hollie on the side and said: “Can you -“

Hollie didn’t wait for Seth to finish as a wave of air energy was released from her body, creating a fresh-smelling zone around their large group. Seth gave her a thankful nod and continued leading the group forward.

The system had already shown him the city’s state on the way, but seeing it in person felt a little disheartening. Worried the others might feel the same way, he took a peek back, but everyone was looking curiously around, their expressions not changing much yet.

Sighing silently, he brought his sight forward and continued walking.

Even the slums in the Oath kingdom’s capital looked like heaven compared to the Blood Capital, and the deeper they went inside the city, the more tragic the situation got.

Human skeletons littered the ground, and they even saw a few people ripping the meat off a recently deceased body, munching on it in the middle of the street.

Sounds of moaning women, pained screams, and crazed laughter came from behind the little huts littering the side of the road.

Once he saw that people were starting to keep in their urge to vomit and the morale he tried so hard to build was about to go away, he turned toward Rebecca and Alexa, who were walking not far behind him.

“Can you two create a water curtain? I think everyone has seen and heard enough. I can still tell the way, so just follow me forward.”

Once Alexa and Rebecca nodded and created the water curtain, Seth led the way, using the system guidance toward the city’s center. He would also use his destruction energy from time to time to remove any skeletons or dead bodies blocking their path forward.

They took two hours of continuous walking until they reached the ‘palace’ of the Blood capital. It was one of the few buildings that looked somewhat decent in the whole place, but that was by Blood kingdom’s standards and still looked worse than half of the buildings inside the middle ring of the Oath capital.

It was a tall and wide building, able to house over 200 people, even having a second floor, but it was still clumsily made out of large cut stones, placed on top of each other, and covered with wooden planks.

Seth stopped his march and took a look around the place. Noticing that there were no more instances of cannibalism, murder, or rape going on in clear sight, probably due to the proximity to the king’s palace, Seth had the girls remove the water curtain.

Seth also didn’t feel the need for any great speech after everything he had witnessed and said to the group: “Everyone, please wait here. Girls, make sure to keep everyone safe from any fool that might get any stupid ideas. My knights, you are also to remain here on protection duty.”

Sal looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he remained silent. He knew that there was likely no one who could threaten Seth in the entire kingdom, and he couldn’t even do anything about it even if there was, so he moved to create a perimeter around the rest of the group with his family.

Seth grabbed Hollie’s hand and started walking toward the ‘palace.’ Two guards were placed at the front entrance, but they both fell dead on the ground before they could reach for their weapons.

Seth turned to look at Hollie with a raised eyebrow, and she said nonchalantly: “What? I am angry as well. Your trick might work on the others, but I could clearly hear everything going on outside.”

Seth smiled and didn’t say anything else as they walked in.

Stepping inside, Hollie killed about a dozen more guards until they reached what looked like some sort of large dining room.

There they were greeted by a fat man sitting at the end of a long table full of food. It was surprising even for Seth to see so much food in such a poor place.

Around ten more men, all dressed in armor, were sitting straight around the table, and there was one more sturdy man by the side of the fat one on the chair.

Two passed-out women were tied to a corner of the room to the pillars, fully naked with bruises covering their entire bodies and a mix of blood and semen flowing out of their private areas and mouths.

The fat man laughed loudly once Seth walked in and moved his eyes to check Hollie’s body up and down.

“How kind of you. An ascended of the Oath kingdom walking all the way here to bring me some new whores to play with.” He licked his lips lasciviously and added: “I heard there’s even better merchandise outside. Why didn’t you bring it with you?”

Seth could feel Hollie about to kill the pig, and he strengthened his hold on her hand to stop her as he asked calmly: “You must be the king of Blood, am I right?”

The man laughed again before munching on a meaty leg and nodding. Once he swallowed the meat in his mouth, he said with a laugh: “Trevor, kill the man and bring me that bitch. My dick’s gone sore from fucking all these bags of bones.”

Trevor, the bulky man by the king’s side, had a terrified expression as his eyes stared at Hollie’s face. Even with the king’s order, he didn’t dare to move a single muscle.

Feeling that something was weird, the kind turned to the side and threw the half-eaten leg in the terrified Trevor’s face: “Are you deaf now, idiot? What do I feed you both meat and women for? Move and be done with it.”

Trevor’s face turned mechanically, a begging look in his eyes as tears started flowing down his cheeks.

“M-my king. W-we’re dead.”

The king’s face turned purple, and he was about to throw the cup he was holding in his other hand as well, when Hollie spoke from Seth’s side: “Trevor, I was wondering where you disappeared after Iris told me to kill you. So you deserted here to this dump.”

Trevor’s face got covered in sweat as he jumped from the chair and fell to his knees, surprising the king and the ten other men since they knew exactly what type of man he was.

“Teacher Hollie, please have mercy. Please spare my life, and I will be your slave. I can even kill this fat pig for you if you want. No need for you, teacher Hollie, to dirty your hands.”

Trevor’s words irked the king, but the phrase ‘teacher Hollie’ made his back also get drenched in sweat. He knew where Trevor’s origin lay and that for Trevor to act like that towards the woman, she must be a lot stronger than him.

Trevor was just a third shell earth ascended, as well as the reason for the king’s rise to the throne of Blood.

The king turned awkwardly towards Hollie and was about to open his mouth when Seth said: “Don’t bother. I’ve lost interest. Hollie, you do whatever you want since he insulted you.”

Hollie smiled grimly as air energy started revolving around her. The king tried to move backward, away from her, but he only managed to stumble back with his chair and fall on the ground. Before he could crawl away, slashes started appearing all over his body, one after another.

“Argh, Mercy, please. I beg you. Have mercy.” The king’s pleadings fell on deaf ears as Hollie took her sweet time slashing up the fat off the king’s body before slowly cutting parts of his body, starting with his tongue, since his constant pleading was annoying her, and continuing with his dick.

Ten minutes later, the king was left with just his head, torso, and one arm, and he finally drew his last breath, passing away under the terrified eyes of Trevor and the other armored knights.

Seth also sighed, Hollie’s display reminding him of his old habits, as he got ready to kill the others himself when Trevor said: “Please, I beg you. I’ll be a slave, and you can do with me whatever you want, but please spare my life.”

‘System, how is he?’

<Just as rotten as the king.>

Seth sighed, but he still had a use for a third shell earth ascended. Now willing to let him remain alive, Seth’s eyes suddenly changed color, one of them becoming pure black and the other golden, as a flux of perception energy left his source, flooding the kneeling Travis.

Travis’s face contorted in pain and terror, trying to fight off the numbness possessing his mind, but then Seth spoke: “If you don’t stop resisting, I’ll kill you.”

His words proved effective as Trevor stopped resisting, and eventually, even the struggle and despair disappeared from his eyes, all that remained being a dull and bland look.

Seth heaved a sigh of relief and looked at the other knights around the table.

One of them was about to speak, but Seth had already been informed by the system that they were just normal humans, so he sent a wave of destruction, killing them all on the spot.

Hollie looked into Trevor’s eyes and asked: “What happened to this idiot?”

“I broke him. My perception source gives me the ability to brainwash people. I’ll explain later.”

Hollie nodded and sat up, looking around the silent room as she said: “It would seem becoming King is a lot easier around these parts.”

Seth chuckled and moved to wrap his arm around her waist, ignoring all the blood and gore littering the room, as he kissed her lips.

“It was indeed easy, but the hard part only begins now.”