Current Language: English
Read this chapter in:
The Tyranny of the Fire Kingdom
The Grand Hall of the Fire Kingdom Palace stood majestic yet intimidating, as if the belly of an active volcano had been forcibly carved into a palace of death. Colossal pillars of pitch-black obsidian supported the vaulted ceiling, which was bathed in the blazing crimson luminescence of eternal torches. The air within the chamber felt oppressively thick, saturated with blistering heat and the pungent stench of sulfur.
At the elevated end of the hall, a throne forged from molten gold and magma loomed with towering arrogance, adorned with carvings of a two-headed dragon coiling around its backrest, appearing ready to devour anyone who dared to approach. Upon that very throne sat King Adjong—The Sovereign of Tyranny. His posture was as unyielding as a mountain, his broad shoulders draped in black silk robes embroidered with golden threads forming the motif of roaring flames. His eyes were akin to eternally burning coals, blazing with a dense wrath merely waiting for the exact second to detonate. Beneath the steps of the throne, several high-ranking military officials knelt, facing the King.
”Your Majesty, over the past few days we have deployed our entire armada to track the traces of that fleeing flock of Star Monsters. However… we have found absolutely zero sign of them,” General Gayus reported with his head bowed deeply, cold sweat drenching his neck.
”If you pack of idiots cannot locate them, then simply capture other wild Star Monsters as substitute specimens!” King Adjong answered with a thunderous tone that reflected absolute annoyance. He shifted his murderous gaze to another general beside him. “Banu! Step in and assist Gayus in resolving this chaos. I do not wish for this humiliating incident to be sniffed out and discovered by the other Dragon Chiefs.”
”As you command, Your Majesty!” General Banu replied with a resolute voice.
Wasting no time, the two generals immediately withdrew, walking backward before finally turning around to execute the dark edict. As they strode out through the pillared corridor of the Grand Hall, a line of other officials stood tensely, awaiting their turn to seek an audience. Banu and Gayus walked right past them, their hardened expressions blatantly indicating that the King’s mood had plummeted to its absolute nadir.
General Banu! Have they returned from the borders? thought one of the ruthless-looking generals who crossed paths with them. Without overthinking, he and several other officials stepped forward, piercing the blistering heat of the Grand Hall.
”We seek an audience, Your Majesty. We bear several crucial intelligence reports,” one of them spoke as he dropped to his knees.
”Yes… get straight to the point, Darnok,” King Adjong decreed, resting his chin upon his fist.
”The first report, Your Majesty. The palace’s Grand Healers have successfully and completely healed Prince Fredy’s injuries,” General Darnok reported.
”Excellent,” the King replied curtly, exhibiting no shift in his expression.
”The second report… The forced laborers and commoner slaves who managed to escape our dungeons have now been observed converging and seeking sanctuary with the Siama rebel faction within the Sky Kingdom’s border territory, Your Majesty,” Darnok continued, his tone lowering slightly.
”Hah! That faction of insects again?” King Adjong clicked his tongue, his jaw clenching to suppress his irritation.
”Indeed, Your Majesty. And unfortunately… the squads of assassins and spies we dispatched to incinerate that faction never returned. They vanished without a trace,” Darnok explained.
”Then what of the cowardly stance of the Sky Kingdom?!” the King demanded.
”They have completely washed their hands of the matter and are incapable of doing anything, Your Majesty. Since the incident of their vanguard’s final clash at the gates against that faction’s leader, the Sky Kingdom issued an official edict to no longer disturb the sovereignty of the Siama Alliance,” Darnok answered, delivering the bitter truth.
”What about their Supreme Leader? Have our spies procured any intelligence regarding who he truly is?” the King asked again, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
”We possess no detailed identity yet, Your Majesty. However, the latest intelligence indicates that the youth is currently residing within the capital of the Ice Kingdom. The Siama faction is presently being heavily guarded from the shadows by the figure of his Master. According to the energy fluctuation measurements from our agents… that Master’s power is estimated to have breached the realm of a 4-Star God King.”
A 4-Star God King? Dammit, that sits one tier above my current absolute limit… It seems I must restrain myself and await the return of Fredy’s uncles from their expedition before settling this blood debt with that faction, King Adjong mused, his brain rapidly calculating the continent’s power map.
”Then what of that youth? What is his primary objective roaming around the Ice Kingdom?” the King probed.
”The youth’s name is Ken, Your Majesty. He is reported to have forged a clandestine pact with King Bawigan to cure the cursed affliction of his youngest son. Furthermore, based on reports from our infiltrated agents… this youth is the mastermind who thwarted General Lamarr’s coup d’état within the ice palace,” Darnok explained, laying bare their allies’ failure.
”Ken…” King Adjong spelled the name slowly, carving it into his ledger of death.
”Indeed, Your Majesty. He is the young monster who humiliated and defeated Prince Fredy. Not only that, during the opening ceremony of the Pandhega Trial a few days ago, he simultaneously butchered General Lamarr and General Bonar in the epicenter of the arena,” Darnok added, his voice trembling slightly as he visualized the horrific report. “According to eyewitnesses, he was capable of detonating a Giant Gold power that breached up to the Twelfth Tier.”
”Enough. I comprehend the situation.” King Adjong fell silent, drawing a heavy breath that superheated the ambient air. “Very well. I shall discuss this threat behind closed doors with the other Dragon Chiefs upon their return.”
King Adjong rose from his throne. His aura detonated, crushing every general in the chamber until they struggled to draw breath. “Heed my absolute edict! Starting today…” King Adjong’s voice echoed, heavy and vibrating against the obsidian walls. “…Hermetically seal all borders. Not a single soul is permitted to exit the territory of the Fire Kingdom. It matters not what their status is—high nobility, elite soldiers, or mere commoners. If anyone dares to attempt even a single step to flee… sever their heads on the spot.”
The generals lowered their heads even deeper. That edict was no mere military order; it was the iron law of the apocalypse.
”Seal every main gate and hidden rat-path. Station squads of fire-archer executioners atop every city watchtower. And as for you—” The King’s blazing eyes swooped down sharply, locking onto Darnok and the generals beside him, “—I demand you work exponentially harder to handle this leak. I do not wish to hear of another ridiculous failure like this prisoner escape repeating itself. Understand?!”
”As you command, Your Majesty!” they answered in perfect unison, shaking the hall.
The heavy thuds of the generals’ steel boots echoed as they rushed out of the Grand Hall, carrying a terror that would soon be disseminated to every corner of the nation.
Shortly after the edict fell, war drums forged from monster hide were beaten relentlessly from the central tower. DUM! DUM! DUM! The intimidating rhythm caused flocks of crows to take flight in panic, abandoning their nests.
The city’s denizens, engrossed in their daily activities, instantly froze, looking up at the sky with visages as pale as parchment. Panic crawled slowly; some frantically ran and locked themselves behind the fragile wooden doors of their homes.
”What… what is happening at the palace?” whispered a middle-aged woman with trembling lips, tightly embracing her toddler on a street corner.
”I do not know… but if the rhythm of those death drums sounds three consecutive times, it means the Kingdom is declaring martial law and enacting an absolute border lockdown,” answered an old man beside her, his voice hoarse, overshadowed by despair.
True enough, in a mere matter of minutes, thousands of soldiers clad in crimson steel armor flooded and blockaded every single street of the city. In their grasps, long spears with bladed tips sheathed in roaring flames glinted horrifyingly beneath the sunlight. The heavy baritones of the vanguard commanders boomed across every sector, delivering an announcement that murdered all space for hope of survival.
”By the absolute edict of His Majesty! From this exact second, all access in and out of the Fire Kingdom’s gates is CLOSED! Whosoever dares to step beyond the border lines shall be branded a traitor to the state and executed on the spot!”
In another sector of the kingdom’s territory, far from the grandeur of the palace, sprawled the Kingdom’s Golden Vein Mine. The sky above this mining valley was perpetually painted a dense, ashen gray, permanently obscured by the thick, toxic smoke billowing from hundreds of smelting furnace chimneys that were never extinguished.
Deep within the bowels of the earth below, thousands of innocent men, women, and even children were forced to crawl like rats through the dark, suffocating mining tunnels. The air down there was saturated with stone dust that choked the lungs. Their lives were accompanied only by the resonating rhythm of iron hammers striking solid rock, and the agonizing shrieks that occasionally erupted whenever the tip of a barbed whip landed, tearing into exhausted backs.
A colossally built overseer paced back and forth at the end of the mine shaft. His skin was charred black by the scorching heat of the furnaces, his muscles bulging terrifyingly. The long steel whip in his grasp was already blackened by layers upon layers of dried blood stains.
”Faster! Keep swinging your hammers! Dig deeper into that gold vein, you lazy slaves!” his voice boomed, drowning out the deafening noise of the excavation.
Directly in front of the cruel overseer, a frail old man named Samra suddenly staggered and collapsed face-first onto the jagged rocks. His breaths were ragged as he desperately gasped for oxygen; his thin, calloused hands trembled violently, no longer possessing the strength to grip his wooden crowbar. “M-mercy… I… I can no longer draw breath…” he whimpered, his voice barely audible, swallowed by the mine’s clamor.
Devoid of even a microscopic sliver of pity, the overseer swung his arm. The steel whip soared, slicing through the dusty air.
CRACK! The tip of the whip shredded Samra’s back. Fresh blood spurted, staining the rocks. Samra let out a stifled shriek, his frail mortal shell convulsing violently as he endured the torture incinerating his flesh.
Witnessing his father being tortured, a scrawny, twelve-year-old boy named Rian discarded his basket and sprinted over, weeping hysterically. He spread his tiny arms to shield his father. “I beg of you, Sir! Please do not strike my father anymore! I will take over his work quota! I will dig those rocks for Father!” he screamed, his tear-filled eyes brimming with supplication.
The overseer halted the swing of his whip. He looked down at the child, and a cold, sadistic laugh echoed, bouncing off the cavern walls. “You? A scrawny, skin-and-bones little rat like you wishes to take over a grown man’s quota? Hahaha! Very well, feel free to dig into those solid rocks. But remember the penalty… if your gold harvest today falls short of the target, I will personally toss and burn the two of you alive inside the smelting furnace!”
With violently trembling hands, Rian picked up his father’s heavy crowbar. He stole a fleeting glance at his father’s blood-soaked visage. Within those ancient eyes, there was no longer a single spark of light—only a bottomless abyss of despair.
Those colossal mine shafts frequently collapsed abruptly due to being excavated brutally without regard for structural pillars. However, to the overseers of the Fire Kingdom, a slave’s life was cheaper than dust. If a tunnel caved in and buried dozens of laborers, they would merely spit on the ground and instruct, “Let that pile of rocks serve as their mass grave. Keep digging another route! We don’t have a single second to waste managing and digging out corpses.”
The muffled cries for help trapped behind the rubble could often be heard whimpering through the crevices of the rocks, but those agonizing voices would slowly fade, drowned out seamlessly by the ceaseless clinking of hammers and the cracking of whips.
Within those pitch-black corridors resembling the bowels of the earth, only uniformly dull visages could be seen; faces whose souls had been utterly numbed, profoundly thirsting for a single drop of freedom, and starving for a glimmer of miraculous hope.
Far above the grounds of that mine, a colossal watchtower loomed arrogantly. From the peak of that tower, a red banner bearing the crest of roaring flames fluttered, challenging the ashen sky. King Adjong had named this mining complex the Kingdom’s Golden Vein—the absolute source of power, raw materials for Star Weapons, and limitless wealth that he intended to utilize to conquer the entire continent.
Yet to the millions of lowly commoners down below, this place was the most tangible manifestation of a torture pit leading straight to the abyss of hell.
Several days later, within one of the courtyards of the Fire Kingdom Palace.
Prince Fredy, who had fully recovered from the catastrophic injuries inflicted by Ken’s bombardment, strode into his father’s private pavilion. His eyes still blazed with the flashes of fury and unavenged vengeance.
”Royal Father, I truly cannot accept this humiliation! To be shamed to the brink of death by that backgroundless youth before the eyes of thousands!” Fredy growled while clenching his fists tightly. “Please, grant me a legion of elite troops! Help me enact my vengeance and rip out his heart!”
King Adjong stared at his son, who was incinerated by emotion. His gaze softened momentarily as a father, yet immediately hardened back into that of an absolute sovereign.
”Reign in your idiotic emotions, Fredy. Did you not read the reports with your own two eyes? That youth was capable of toying with and butchering two god-tier generals who had touched the limits of a 4-Star God King simultaneously!” King Adjong’s voice deepened, delivering a harsh warning regarding the abyssal chasm of their current reality of power. “Do not act foolishly and deliver your own life to his doorstep. Smother your vengeance and await the perfect moment. Be patient… until your uncles return bearing new armaments from their expedition.”
Fredy lowered his head for a moment, clenching his jaw tightly to swallow the bitter wrath in his throat. He was acutely aware that defying his father’s edict was tantamount to suicide. “Y-yes… Very well, Royal Father. I shall await that moment,” he answered softly, a lethal glint of vengeance flickering in his eyes.
Outside the palace walls, from every corner of the smoke-choked city to the arid, remote villages, the populace lived under the suffocating shadow of absolute terror and oppression. Their hopes of witnessing the dawn of peace slowly faded, crushed beneath the heartless gears of absolute power.
However, deep beneath the despair blanketing the continent, tiny whispers covertly circulated from mouth to mouth in narrow alleyways—a profound yearning for the silhouette of a hero and the dawn of freedom that might, one day, cleave through this tyranny, even if, for the time being, it appeared to be a phenomenally distant impossibility.