Chapter 215: The Emperor(3)

"Jean? What're you doing over here?" Captain Jeremiah's hoarse voice called out from the darkness, as he desperately looked for his soldiers in the darkness.

There was a scraping sound as Captain Jemriah drew his sword, the voice he had heard sounded just like Jean, but something about it had unsettled him, it had sounded almost too calm. 

"I'm right here." Simon called out, mimicking Jean's voice once again, then dashing off to one side, his feet gliding across the floor without making a sound.

Simon silently pulled another pair of blades from his belt, channelling his mana for a moment before throwing them.

The two blades curved through the air, heading right for Captain Jeremiah's exposed eyes, one curving to the right, while the other curved to the left.

Even as the blades flew at Captain Jeremiah, Simon ran quickly toward him, unsheathing his curved blade.

'Clang!" Captain Jeremiah, feeling the mana within the blades, raised his swords and blocked the blades that were flying toward him.

"Intru-" He began to yell, ready to raise the alarm, but it was far too late. Simon's blade had already slid through the side of his breastplate, finding his heart. 

There was a soft gurgle as his lung filled with blood, and it pooled out of his mouth, and Simon caught him under his arms, softly placing his limp body to the ground. 

Now, Simon would have to move fast. More often than not, people as powerful as the Emperor would be sensitive enough that they could detect intruders nearby.

Simon paused for a moment at the entrance of the tunnel, gathering his courage. Even he had seen the Emperor battle in the skies above Anzur, and he knew what fate awaited him if he failed.

Simon practically fell through the tunnel, his feet barely touching the ground, as he ran toward where the Emperor would be sleeping.

A small lamp lit the room in a dim orange glow, and as Simon sped through the room, his eyes locked onto the sleeping figure in the bed set into the wall.

There lay the Emperor himself. His long, silky black hair pooled around his head, and he seemed completely at peace.

Simon came to a halt next to his bed, and the curved blade, completely covered in the deadly yellow poison, was raised high above his head, ready to slice down.

If it hadn't been for the numerous wounds that the Emperor had sustained, as well as the long ride from Aznur to the cache, the outcome might have been different.

But as it was, the Emperor was in a deep, deep sleep, that it would have taken the sound of an entire herd of galloping horses to wake him.

And so, the Emperor fell. Simon's blade found his neck, slicing clean through, and his eyes opened suddenly, staring at Simon, looking him right in the eyes, his hands sweeping up towards him immediately.

But the damage had been done, Simon's blade has sliced his neck open, and his blood poured out onto the bed, and his hands fell back down, as choking noises emanated from the dying Emperor.

The Emperor stared at the figure in black, in the last moments of his life, trying to gather his mana, or the strength to fight back, his brain had yet to process the fact that his neck had been split wide open.

And then, everything went black.

Simon gave an enormous sigh of relief as the light left the Emperor's eyes, wiping his blade on the bedroll beneath the Emperor's corpse, and then sheathing it.

Now, it was time to flee. Simon crept out of the tunnel, heading back towards the tunnel he had left the rest of his gear in.,

He quickly gathered it up, not taking too much care to cover his tracks, for Scholar Piatt would cease to exist today.

With the Emperor finally dead, and the capital held by the Ursten forces, there was no longer nay need for Simon to infiltrate the Imperial Court again, for it would cease to exist.

Simon crept back through the tunnels, saddling up one of the horses and stowing his gear. He whispered to the horse to keep it calm, a soft jingling noise coming from the saddle and stirrups. 

The entrance to the cache pushed open smoothly, and then Simon led the horse out the cave and into the open air, hopping into the saddle and riding off into the distance. His mission done.

-----

The air shimmered with the intense heat of the giant red sun that hung in the sky, its light illuminating the shining, multicolored sands of the sweeping deserts below. The plane was dotted with spires of stone, their insides hollow, filled with a network of caves.

A small creature with shiny metallic fur stood up on its hind legs, staring around with its enormous eyes, sweeping the desert for threats. 

It settled down, the desert was safe, for now.

A thunderous distorted noise boomed out from the sky itself, the countless grains of sand vibrating as the sound spread out over the desert. 

The tiny creature fled into the sands, diving for its burrow.

A great portal had opened in the sky above, splitting the space itself, and from it, the enormous shape of the Aemos  emerged, the great flagship of its namesake, the Aemos.

It passed through the portal at a speed that was shocking given its enormous size, casting a huge shadow onto the sands below.

After it, hundreds of smaller ships followed, speeding out over the sands, in search of anything, anything at all to plunder.

For the Aemos did not leave even a single stone unturned, they were completely and totally driven by an insatiable hunger, for more and more, and so, in their great journey across the myriad planes, they had left countless planes picked clean of anything that could be used to power their devices, and anything that could feed their ever growing population.