The throne room still smelled like ozone.
Black scorch marks ran up the pillars. The polished floor had been shattered and fused back together in places where lightning had struck too hard and too hot for stone to remain stone.
At the far end of the hall, the throne of Coleus stood untouched.
Everything around it had changed.
Loki stood in the center of the room with Ragnir resting against one shoulder, the giant black hammer crackling faintly with leftover black lightning. Beside him, a few steps back and trying very hard not to look as terrified as he felt, stood Rimuru.
King Tedron Coleus looked like a man who had already seen hell once and had just been informed it was his turn next.
His eyes kept moving.
To the empty places where Gustav and Karl had been.
To Loki.
To the hammer.
Then back again.
No part of him seemed willing to fully accept what had just happened.
Loki, unfortunately for him, had no such problem.
He looked around the throne room once.
Then at the throne.
Then at Tedron.
And smiled.
"Well," Loki said. "That solves that."
Tedron swallowed hard.
"Lord Loki…"
His voice shook despite his best efforts.
"If… if this is about the throne…"
Loki raised an eyebrow.
"It is about the throne."
Tedron's smile came back in a desperate, miserable shape.
"Then please."
He lifted his hands slightly, palms open.
"I will hand it over willingly."
Rimuru blinked.
That was fast.
Very fast.
Loki looked mildly pleased.
"See?"
He said it like a teacher whose student had finally answered correctly.
"That wasn't hard at all."
Tedron bowed his head slightly.
"No."
His voice was dry.
"It was not."
Loki stepped toward the throne.
Slowly.
Calmly.
Like he had always belonged here and the room had simply been waiting for him to notice.
He reached the steps, turned, and sat.
Just like that.
No ceremony.
No crowning.
No witnesses beyond a terrified king and one deeply overwhelmed slime.
And yet the moment Loki sat down, the entire throne room seemed to accept it.
The posture helped.
The fur mantle draped over the chair's arms.
The intertwined horns rising beneath the helm.
Ragnir planted beside him with enough weight to make the stone groan.
He did not look like a usurper.
He looked like the throne had been made for him.
Loki crossed one leg over the other and looked down at Tedron.
"You'll do one more thing for me."
Tedron nodded immediately.
"Anything."
Loki jerked his chin toward him.
"Rimuru."
Rimuru straightened on instinct.
"Yes, Loki-sama?"
"Kill him."
Silence.
Rimuru's brain simply stopped.
'What?'
He looked at Loki.
Then at Tedron.
Then back again.
Tedron had gone white.
Actually white.
Rimuru laughed weakly.
"…You're joking, right?"
Loki didn't laugh.
Rimuru's smile vanished.
"You're not joking."
"No."
The answer came cleanly.
Rimuru looked at Tedron again.
The king was shaking now.
Actually trembling.
Rimuru swallowed.
"…Is that really necessary?"
Loki's expression changed slightly.
Not into anger.
Into something colder.
"Yes."
Rimuru hesitated.
Tedron was clearly a coward. Slimy too. He could tell that much from the way the king had folded the instant power showed up.
But still—
Killing someone in cold blood?
Even after everything?
That wasn't something he could step into so casually.
Loki noticed the hesitation immediately.
So he explained.
"This man was planning to steal one of his own son's bodies so he could keep living longer."
Tedron flinched.
Rimuru's eyes widened.
Loki continued, voice flat now.
"He manipulated Sauzer and Aslan into tearing each other apart so he could choose whichever vessel survived. And he was prepared to sacrifice his daughter Zenobia as part of the arrangement with Gustav and Karl." Tedron's scheme was exactly that: to seize one of his sons as a vessel and cooperate in using Zenobia as a vessel for Violet, while pitting Sauzer and Aslan against each other.
Rimuru froze.
His face hardened.
"What?"
Tedron took a desperate half-step forward.
"It— it wasn't like that—"
Loki's eyes moved to him.
Tedron stopped speaking immediately.
"Scum like him don't deserve to live," Loki said.
Rimuru looked at Tedron again.
Really looked.
The fear.
The greed.
The selfishness still clinging to the old man like a smell.
And suddenly the disgust came easily.
Hot.
Sharp.
Immediate.
'He tried to use his own children?'
'His own daughter too?'
For a moment Rimuru actually wanted to do it.
Wanted to end it.
But when he raised his hand slightly—
He still couldn't move.
Tedron noticed.
Of course he did.
Hope flickered into his expression immediately.
Rimuru saw that too and hated it.
But still—
He couldn't.
"I…"
He lowered his hand.
"I can't."
The words came out quiet.
Ashamed.
Loki watched him for a second.
Then nodded once.
Just understanding.
"Fair enough."
He stood.
Lifted Ragnir.
Tedron's brief, desperate hope died instantly.
"No— wait—!"
Rimuru flinched.
Loki brought the hammer down.
KRAAAAA-BOOOOM.
Black lightning erupted again.
This time it hit like judgment.
Tedron did not even have time to scream properly before the lightning swallowed him whole. The throne room exploded with light. Pillars cracked. Windows shattered. The floor split wide beneath the force.
When the light faded—
Tedron was gone.
Gone in the same absolute way Gustav and Karl had been.
Rimuru stood rooted in place, the afterimage of the strike still burned into his mind.
The second wave of lightning did not stay in the throne room.
It shot upward.
Outward.
Across the palace and into the sky over the kingdom.
And this time—
Panic rose for real.
Outside, across the capital and beyond, people screamed as the heavens darkened.
Clouds rolled in where there had been none moments before. The sunlight vanished beneath a sudden mass of black stormclouds. Everyone instinctively looked up.
And there—
Suspended in the sky like the answer to a prayer gone terribly wrong—
Was Loki.
Rimuru stood a short distance behind him in the air, just low enough, just back enough, that the position read exactly as it was.
Subordinate.
The kingdom saw it.
And trembled.
Loki looked down over the capital.
Thousands stared back.
Terrified.
Expectant.
Confused.
He smiled.
"People of Coleus," he said, voice carrying effortlessly over the city, "you may rejoice, for I have descended to rule over you."
The city went even quieter.
Rimuru blinked.
'Why would you start with that?'
Loki continued, clearly trying, honestly trying to sound benevolent.
"I, Demon Lord Loki, have liberated your throne from unworthy hands and shall now guide this nation into a glorious new era beneath my overwhelming protection."
Rimuru's internal voice immediately started dying.
'That sounds evil.'
'That sounds incredibly evil.'
He hesitated.
Then decided somebody had to make this less terrifying.
He stepped forward half a pace and raised his voice.
"Th-this is Demon Lord Loki-sama!"
There was a beat.
Then Rimuru internally cringed.
'That was not better.'
Below them, the citizens looked more frightened than before.
Loki nodded approvingly, as if Rimuru had done exactly the right thing.
Then he spread one arm dramatically toward the city.
"Know this also."
His smile sharpened.
"King Tedron was scum."
The capital recoiled.
"He ruled through rot, deceit, and cowardice, and so I crushed him."
Rimuru closed his eyes for a second.
'Why would you say it like that?!'
Loki, meanwhile, pressed on with all the confidence of a man who genuinely believed he was giving a reassuring speech.
"You are fortunate," he said, "for I do not intend to slaughter you pointlessly."
Rimuru's soul left his body again.
'POINTLESSLY?!'
'Why would you include that word?!'
The people below were now visibly panicking.
Some were crying.
Some had already fallen to their knees.
Some looked like they were considering whether playing dead from this distance might still somehow work.
Loki nodded as if the fear in their faces meant the message was landing well.
"Serve well," he said, "and your lives may yet become useful and prosperous under my reign."
Rimuru stared.
'Useful and prosperous?'
'No, no. Prosperous has been poisoned by useful.'
Then Loki smiled wider.
"And if there are those among you who wish to resist…"
He paused.
Almost invitingly.
"…I welcome it."
The entire city froze.
"In fact," he continued, sounding almost pleased, "I would appreciate it."
Rimuru's eyes widened.
'No!'
'No one appreciates rebellion in a public speech!'
Loki lifted one hand slightly.
"It would save me so much time."
Rimuru nearly collapsed.
The sky remained black.
The pressure remained suffocating.
And then, just like that, Loki turned.
The storm light behind him made the silhouette of his horns and mantle look even more monstrous than before.
A black circle opened beneath him and Rimuru.
They vanished.
At once.
The sky cleared.
The clouds broke.
Sunlight poured back down over the kingdom.
And for several long seconds, nobody in Coleus moved.
Then the panic truly began.
Inside a military courtyard not far from the palace, Prince Aslan was already in motion.
He had seen the sky.
Felt the pressure.
Heard enough of that speech to understand the important part.
His father was dead.
A Demon Lord had taken the throne.
And that Demon Lord was still in the kingdom.
Aslan's eyes were burning by the time he reached the barracks.
"We move now."
Soldiers stiffened around him.
He reached for his weapon.
"We gather the guard and strike the palace immediately."
"Aslan."
The voice stopped him.
Sauzer stepped into the courtyard from the opposite side, still pale from the lightning in the sky but composed enough to think clearly.
Aslan turned sharply.
For a moment, the old tension between them returned in full.
It was still there.
It had never fully gone away.
But Sauzer did not let it rule his face.
"I know," Sauzer said, "that our relationship is not exactly at its best right now."
Aslan's jaw tightened.
"This isn't the time."
"I know."
Sauzer stepped closer.
"But charging a Demon Lord right now with no plan is reckless."
Aslan glared at him.
"That thing killed Father."
Sauzer's expression didn't change.
"Yes."
He held Aslan's gaze.
"And if you rush in now, it will kill you too."
The courtyard went still.
Even the soldiers nearby did not move.
Aslan's hands curled into fists.
Every part of him wanted to reject it.
To move.
To attack.
To do something.
But he knew Sauzer was right.
Sauzer continued.
"We unite the military."
"We gather everything we have."
"And then we strike in one full move."
His voice hardened.
"If we're going to avenge him…"
He paused.
"…then we do it properly."
Aslan stared at him.
For a long second—
Two.
Three.
Then finally he looked away and ground his teeth.
"…Fine."
The word came out bitter.
Reluctant.
Sauzer nodded once.
That was enough.
The kingdom had lost its king.
A Demon Lord had taken its throne.
And now, for the first time in a long while, the princes of Coleus would have to stand on the same side.
Whether they wanted to or not.
---
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