"Is that so?"
The Red King let out a mocking laugh and raised his head. A massive screen was projected inside the arena.
On it, Bant, now transformed into a Phantom Tribe member, stood facing Caiera.
But compared to Caiera, whose presence was maxed out with crackling lightning and full-on special effects, Bant looked downright plain.
"Then you can watch how he dies in Caiera's hands!" The Red King had completely run out of patience with Luma.
He had given this woman chance after chance, but now he'd made up his mind. The moment Caiera killed that brat, he would have Caiera join him and subdue Luma immediately.
"You're using such a despicable method and you still dare broadcast it to the whole world. Aren't you afraid your reputation will be ruined? Where's your dignity? Your honor?" Luma frowned.
To be honest, the Red King's behavior was unimaginable to her.
This man didn't have the slightest sense of honor.
Among the Tazdromans, something this vile would be carved onto a stone monument and spat on for ten thousand generations!
Yet not only was he shameless, he treated it like glory and showed it off to everyone.
"Despicable?" The Red King looked like he'd heard a joke and shook his head.
"This world is like this, Luma. I don't need anyone's respect. I only need everyone to fear me!"
He lifted his chin and raised his palm toward the sky, slowly curling his fingers as if he meant to squeeze all the power in the world into his grasp.
"Power is the truth of this world." He turned in place and swept his hand toward the arena. "Countless fighters have fought here. Do you know who dies the fastest, and who lives the longest?"
"Fairness and justice? Heh…"
"Tch. You really disgust me." Luma lost interest in talking to him.
For a moment, the arena fell quiet again.
Even with a crowd of royal guards at his side, the Red King had no confidence he could take Luma down. He was waiting for Caiera to return. And Luma was stalling him only to create an opening for Bill and the others.
So at this moment, both sides, each with their own agenda, fell into silence and watched Bant's battle together.
In the village.
Caiera was completely suppressing Bant.
But something felt strange. Even though her power was far above Bant's, every single strike she threw somehow missed by the narrowest margin, as if Bant always slipped away at the last instant.
Instead, her movements became clearer and clearer in Bant's eyes.
Every motion, every attack path, her breathing, the rise and fall of her chest, the shapes of lightning as it flickered… everything began to follow a pattern.
This was the trajectory of cosmic energy.
At this moment, the world itself seemed to change in Bant's eyes.
Caiera still hadn't noticed any of it, but her failure to finish Bant quickly was far from pleasant in the Red King's eyes.
In the arena, Luma couldn't help admiring that Bant had held on this long, but Caiera's behavior, almost like she was going easy on him, still annoyed her.
"What is Caiera doing?" Luma's four eyes narrowed together, her voice sour. "Don't tell me she's fallen for Xiao Ban too?"
The moment that possibility entered her head, Luma's mood turned bad, and her anger flared.
"No way!"
She clenched her fists and stomped her foot. On an ordinary girl it might look cute, but when she did it, the entire arena shook like an earthquake!
"Anmor A'shan!"
"Control your subordinate. She has no sense of rules!"
"Xiao Ban's fiancée is me!"
Luma snapped furiously.
In her view, Caiera was crossing the line. Even if she wanted to cut in, she'd need to beat Luma first before she was qualified to talk about it.
But those words made the Red King feel extremely displeased.
What kind of nonsense was this?
He'd treated Luma like an honored ancestor, and yet none of her four eyes had ever looked at him properly.
And that brat had only been here a week, and he was already her fiancé?
If that were all, fine.
But now even Caiera, the guard who had been at his side since she was thirteen, seemed to be wavering.
How could he endure that?
He immediately connected to Caiera's comms and barked, "Caiera, what are you doing?"
"Kill that brat right now, or you know the consequences!"
In the village.
Caiera had no choice.
Her pale eyes fixed on Bant as she said, "I can't disobey the Red King's orders." She lifted her palm. Lightning and killing intent intertwined, her gaze locking on Bant's heart. "If you truly are the Son of Sakaar, then maybe fate will let you live."
After that, Caiera stopped holding back.
She shot forward like a streak of lightning and an arc of electricity, closing dozens of meters in an instant. Like an arrow, she pierced the air and arrived right in front of Bant.
In the next moment, her lightning-wreathed arm became a thunder spear that stabbed out!
Boom!!
The ground shook, and the dust plume surged dozens of meters into the air.
For a moment, the image seemed frozen.
Far away in the capital, the Red King watched and looked both shocked and furious.
On the screen, Caiera's strike truly pointed at Bant's heart.
Yet just as her fingertip was about to pierce Bant's flesh, Bant caught her wrist and stopped her cold.
"This… impossible…"
Forget the Red King. Even Caiera herself wore a stunned expression. Her body trembled, and her full chest bounced with the motion.
"Why is it impossible?" Bant smiled and raised his head.
At that moment, his eyes also burst with the same blue-white lightning as Caiera's. The electricity trailed out in a curved arc like a serpent's tail.
Lightning cracked at his fingertips too.
"So this is Eternal Power?"
"Power from the cosmos really is strong!"
He could feel a vast force flowing through his body, an energy that boosted his strength, endurance, everything, to superhuman levels.
It turned an ordinary Phantom Tribe body into a terrifying warrior.
Bant tightened his right hand and slowly forced Caiera's wrist open.
This was the perfect moment to counterattack, but Bant didn't.
On one hand, the Eternal Power inside him still wasn't as strong as Caiera's. On the other hand, the Omnitrix shouldn't be treated as nothing but a weapon.
It should be a bridge.
"I don't know anything about this Son of Sakaar legend. But since you think I am the Son of Sakaar, I'm guessing other people on this planet will think the same."
Bant looked up at the drones still broadcasting live and spoke to the whole world.
"Whether I am the Son of Sakaar doesn't matter. What matters is whether you, who have been enslaved by Anmor A'shan, have the blood and backbone to trade your lives for dignity and freedom."
"Fearing Anmor A'shan's Obedience Discs, fearing his violence, fearing his invincible army, then having your spine broken, wagging your tail in front of him like a dog, even turning your blades on other victims…"
"Only thinking about reaping benefits, waiting for someone else to save you. Is that what Sakaarans are?"
"If Sakaarans are all this cowardly, then even if the legendary Son of Sakaar stood right in front of you, would you still have the courage to follow?"
Bant's voice spread across every corner of the planet.
Those numb Sakaarans hiding in the dark heard it and opened their eyes, staring up at the gray sky.
There, a silver-gray Sakaaran was fighting the Red King's subordinate…
He was the Son of Sakaar!
At that moment, the Son of Sakaar roared.
"Pick up weapons, Sakaarans!"
"Whether it's a hoe, a sickle, or the chains on your body! Even with bare hands, you should fight for your fate!"
In that instant, countless Sakaarans stepped out with weapons in hand.
Children and elders alike. Gray-skinned Sakaarans, red-skinned Sakaarans, even outsiders stranded on this planet. All of them carried the resolve to bleed out their last drop of blood to overthrow the Red King's rule!
"Die, traitor!"
A Phantom Tribe child burst out of an underground cave. She was only as tall as Caiera's calf, yet she held a weapon larger than her own body and charged straight at Caiera.
The sickle struck Caiera's skin and didn't even leave a white mark, yet it hit Caiera like a hammer.
In that child's eyes, Caiera saw her past self.
Taken away by the Red King amid slaughter and blood, the most talented Phantom Tribe survivor.
"Caiera!"
Bant's voice snapped her out of it.
"Are you still going to submit to the Red King?"
"I…"
Before Caiera could answer, a massive shadow blotted out the sky above them.
Both of them looked up at the same time, and Caiera's face turned pale with terror.
"What is that? An orbital weapon?" Bant's voice grew heavy.
It was an iron-black irregular pillar, dozens of meters wide and hundreds of meters tall, hanging above them like a Sword of Damocles.
"That is… the Deathflame Cannon!" Caiera's voice shook, and Bant could hear the anger in it too. "Deathflame is an energy beam of terrifying power. One shot is enough to turn everything within several kilometers into ash!"
Through the comms, Caiera demanded, "Your Majesty the Red King, are you going to destroy everything here?"
Her voice trembled. Beneath this ground was a Phantom Tribe village. Dozens of lives.
But what she received was the Red King's cold reply.
"Just my slaves. If they die, they die. And you, Caiera, you Phantom Tribe lowborn, you dare betray me?!"
"Then die with that rebel!"
In the capital, facing off against Luma, the Red King gave the order in a cold voice.
"Fire the Deathflame!"
/-\
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