Destruction and despair. Those were the two things that now dominated every corner of the Victoriaz Kingdom's throne room.
From where he stood, Arvin stared coldly at King Pratesias, who was now nothing more than a rat trapped in a snare of his own making. The supreme leader of the Victoriaz Kingdom, who just moments ago had laughed so arrogantly upon his throne, now wore a deathly pale face. He exerted all his strength just to anchor his body and avoid being swallowed by the two black holes Arvin had created.
"Truthfully, I would love nothing more than to make you suffer a while longer." Arvin said in an incredibly flat tone. His voice pierced through the suction of the two black holes in the room. "But, I must leave this place immediately to destroy the other two kingdoms that allied with you!"
Arvin raised his left hand, extending it straight ahead, pointing directly at Pratesias's immobilized body.
The King's already pale face seemed to lose whatever color of life it had left. Despair radiated fiercely from the King's eyes upon realizing that the Vedegra descendant was preparing to launch an attack at him.
"Repent for your sins in the afterlife, you greedy fool!"
Along with his declared verdict, the temperature around King Pratesias's body instantly plummeted past the freezing point. The layer of rocks encasing his feet, which served as the sole anchor preventing his body from being sucked into the black hole, slowly began to freeze.
The King's survival instincts instantly kicked in. Amidst his overwhelming panic, he attempted a counterattack using his earth magic.
A massive barrage of sharp rocks immediately hurtled toward Arvin at breakneck speed.
However, his efforts were entirely in vain. The suction force from the two black holes flanking the King was far too powerful. Before the lethal rocks could even cross a quarter of the distance, they were violently forced off course, sucked in and swallowed by the darkness without leaving a single trace.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOUR METHODS ARE COMPLETELY DISHONORABLE!" Pratesias's shout echoed throughout the throne room, desperately throwing accusations as he realized that not a single one of his attacks could penetrate his opponent's defense.
Arvin paid no heed whatsoever to the King's agonizing screams. He simply glared sharply at the man without a single spark of mercy in his heart.
"Dishonorable?"
Arvin then smiled cynically. In his eyes, the man screaming about 'honor' was nothing more than a sinner and the mastermind who had caused the people living in his territory to suffer.
Arvin cared nothing for honor. The only thing he cared about right now was the death of this sinner.
The ice creeping from the floor had now completely frozen Pratesias's legs, climbing upward at a terrifying speed.
Once the freezing reached King Pratesias's stomach, Arvin immediately clenched his left fist tightly.
Crash!
The lower half of the King's body, from his stomach down to the soles of his feet fused with the floor, shattered into pieces, turning into tiny shards of ice.
King Pratesias widened his eyes in horror upon realizing his lower body had been destroyed. His mouth opened wide, yet he felt no scream of agony when his body shattered. The extreme freezing from Arvin's magic had killed off all his nerve tissues before he could even feel the pain.
However, the loss of his lower body brought a fatal consequence for the King. He had lost the only anchor holding his body against the suction of the black hole above him.
The pulling force from the black hole above his head immediately took over. The remainder of the King's body was violently jerked into the air, floating helplessly toward the dark center.
"CURSE YOU, ARVIN VEDEGRAAAAAA!"
That final curse became the closing sentence of his life. In a matter of seconds, King Pratesias's body was entirely swallowed by the black hole, erased from reality without leaving anything behind.
Arvin slowly lowered his hand and dispelled his magic once King Pratesias was fully consumed by the black hole.
At the exact same time, the two black holes that had been tearing the throne room apart shrank and vanished without a trace. The deafening sound of the powerful suction faded, replaced by a chilling silence.
However, not long after that eerie silence fell, Arvin's ears caught something. The sound of hurried footsteps suddenly echoed as someone entered the throne room.
Calmly, Arvin turned his body and stared toward the source of the sound.
Lionias stepped into the throne room. He was not alone. He arrived with a man walking closely behind him.
Arvin's eyes observed the figure brought by Lionias. The man had gray hair, a pair of light green eyes, and distinct brown skin.
Seeing this figure, Arvin felt certain that this was the slave King Pratesias had spoken of earlier.
On the other side, Lionias's footsteps came to an abrupt halt. The Third Prince's body froze as his eyes swept across the empty throne room, realizing that Arvin was the only one left standing calmly in his position.
"WHERE ARE MY BROTHERS?!" the Third Prince demanded with a loud voice.
"You're asking where your two brothers are?" Arvin asked back in a remarkably cold tone. "They are both dead, and you will never find their corpses in this world."
Hearing the words that confirmed the demise of his brothers, Lionias looked entirely unable to accept their deaths. His gaze sharpened, filled with explosive fury.
"DIE, YOU BASTARD!"
Disregarding the vast gap in their power, the Third Prince cast his magic blindly. A massive barrage of sharp rocks instantly materialized in the air, then hurtled rapidly toward the blue-haired man.
Seeing the volley of sharp rocks launched at him, Arvin remained calm in his standing position.
Zap!
Just a fraction of a second before the rocks could touch his skin, when they were already within close range, Arvin used his blink magic and teleported. The blue-haired man's body vanished from the attack's trajectory.
Clack-clack!
The barrage of sharp rocks simply shot through thin air before ultimately crashing into the palace wall.
Lionias was utterly shocked to see Arvin's figure suddenly appearing right in front of him at point-blank range. Furthermore, the blue-haired man had already swung his sword without giving him any chance to react.
"You are the last one!"
Zrash!
Without a shred of hesitation, the sword pierced Lionias's left chest, ultimately tearing through and impaling his heart dead-on.
Due to the sword piercing his heart so flawlessly, the Third Prince died instantly.
Arvin withdrew his sword with a slow jerk, letting the lifeless body of the final descendant of the Victoriaz rulers drop with a heavy thud onto the frozen palace floor.
He stood tall right next to Lionias's corpse.
"You were all truly greedy scumbags."
With the death of the Third Prince, all core members of the Royal family, who controlled the government in the Victoriaz Kingdom, had been killed. His task of eliminating the masterminds who caused suffering to the people in his territory was finally complete.