Zeke's single remark made King Notales and the nobles swallow hard.
Normally, they would have erupted in fury at such an insulting remark and immediately ordered the executioners to drag Zeke away. But the overwhelming pressure emanating from him left them too crushed to even open their mouths.
In particular, King Notales, who had locked eyes with Zeke, trembled so violently that he seemed on the verge of collapsing right then and there.
He stared in disbelief at the vivid blood eye glowing on Zeke's forehead.
"No way... a blood eye? How on earth...?"
No sacred blood in Tantra possessed a blood eye as clear and sharp as the one Zeke had.
Moreover, Zeke's blood eye radiated a power so intense it could be felt from a distance.
With King Notales and the nobles frozen in place, unable to act, Saruhan, standing beside him, shouted.
"The rightful heir of Shambhala! The one who inherits the name of the blood king! Our true master commands you to kneel!"
He glared menacingly at King Notales and the nobles, bellowing his words.
"The great blood king has arrived in the kingdom! Kneel at once!"
At Saruhan's cry, a few young nobles awkwardly dropped to their knees.
But King Notales quickly steadied himself, furrowing his brow as he glared at Saruhan.
"Saruhan, as captain of the royal guard, what do you think you're doing?"
In response, Saruhan twisted his face into a fierce scowl.
"False king. Tantra now welcomes its true master. Lay down your crown at once and beg the blood king for mercy."
Notales's face contorted at being called a false king.
Ignoring the power he sensed from Zeke as best he could, he shouted.
"You dare bring in some pretender and spout nonsense! You will pay dearly for insulting the great king of Tantra!"
Tssst—
In that instant, a blood eye began to manifest on King Notales's forehead as well.
As the authority of the third eye activated from his blood eye, not only the low-ranking dancers and servants but even the high nobles trembled and knelt before him.
The authority of the third eye could dominate not just the mind but the very soul of anyone it beheld, making escape from its will impossible once caught in its gaze.
Yet Zeke's expression remained utterly unchanged as he stared at King Notales.
"This can't be...?"
He tried to delve deeper into Zeke's mind with even greater authority.
Tssst—
Then, the red blood eye on Zeke's forehead glowed even more intensely, firing a crimson surge straight at King Notales's blood eye.
Sizzle—
The blood eye of King Notales, struck head-on by the crimson energy from Zeke's, began to burn. "Argh, aaack!"
Overwhelmed by agony as if his brain were aflame, King Notales collapsed, writhing on the ground.
At the same time, he felt his mind being dissected piece by piece.
Zeke's blood eye peered into everything he had.
"No, no! Get away! Get away!"
King Notales was utterly subjugated by Zeke's blood eye, his mind and soul conquered.
"Uuugh...."
Moments later, with a blood eye-shaped scar etched on his forehead, King Notales became a complete imbecile, his eyes unfocused as drool trickled from his mouth.
Saruhan, standing behind Zeke, broke into a cold sweat upon seeing how King Notales had been overwhelmed without even mustering his full strength.
"To suppress the king's blood eye in an instant..."
The reason Notales had become king of Tantra was that his authority surpassed anyone else's in the kingdom.
No one from the third-eye clan could escape the range of his blood eye.
Yet Zeke had crushed that authority in a single blow.
Zeke slowly walked toward the throne room and sat upon the empty throne.
Seated on the throne, gazing down at the hall below, Zeke embodied the title of sovereign more fittingly than anyone.
Zeke looked at Saruhan and said.
"Summon all the kingdom's key high-ranking nobles right now." His eyes cold, he continued.
"Inform them that a new king has arrived here."
*
Thud thud thud thud!
Armed soldiers and shamans flooded toward the Tantra palace.
They were the prominent high nobles of the kingdom and their private troops.
The sacred blood nobles had come, leading their forces to execute the one who had seized the palace and declared himself the "new king."
In moments, thousands of troops had gathered before the palace.
The sacred blood nobles directed their forces from the rear as they advanced into the palace.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
The nobles had expected the usurper to bar the palace gates and force a siege.
But unexpectedly, all the palace gates stood wide open.
Tosabid, head of the Arakjimum family—the most powerful among the sacred blood nobles—furrowed his brow and led his troops into the palace.
"A usurper who suppressed King Notales and crowned himself the new king."
The method by which he had killed King Notales and seized the throne remained unknown. It was clearly a situation demanding caution, but Tosabid saw it as an opportunity.
King Notales hailed from a rival family, putting Tosabid at a disadvantage in the power struggle.
With this usurper eliminating Notales, Tosabid could exploit the situation to install a new king of his own.
"The mystery is how he ambushed the king. Perhaps he struck while the king was drugged and vulnerable. Either way, with this many troops, we can suppress him no matter what tricks he used."
He envisioned the new future unfolding before him.
"If the Arakjimum family crowns the new king... I can hold Tantra in the palm of my hand."
Tantra was a secret kingdom hidden within the Everwinter Mountain Range, monopolizing its rare resources and enslaving other races in the mountains. This allowed the nobles to live in great luxury.
While the lower castes risked their lives daily battling magical beasts, for the upper nobles, it was paradise, and they sought to preserve the status quo at all costs.
At the pinnacle of that hierarchy stood the king.
Mounted on an elephant, Tosabid lifted his head and gazed at the palace.
It already felt like the palace was his.
But then.
"What is that?"
A black shape hovered in the air.
The dark form slowly descended toward where Tosabid and the other noble families' troops were gathered.
Thud!
What landed in the plaza before the palace was a grotesque entity with four arms.
"What in the world...?"
As Tantra's forces panicked at the sight of Caligula and hesitated to advance, his three eyes began to glow red.
Tssst—
Though now a shadow guardian spirit, Caligula had once been the blood king who ruled the third-eye clan.
As he unleashed the power of his blood eye, blood eyes manifested on the foreheads of not just the nobles but the soldiers as well.
"Arghhh!"
Those with stronger blood eyes reacted even more intensely to Caligula's power.
As a sacred blood, Tosabid could only scream in agony as if his brain were burning.
"Ughhh!"
Unable to endure the pain, Tosabid writhed and slipped from his perch on the elephant's back.
Thump!
Though his shoulder struck the ground and his arm dislocated, it paled in comparison to the searing torment in his mind.
Tosabid was not the only one losing his senses.
The other sacred blood who had led their troops writhed in pain as well.
The lower-ranking soldiers suffered less, but in the chaos without orders from their lords, they could not move forward.
The nobles and their forces, who had come to assault the palace, were neutralized in an instant by the power of Caligula's blood eye.
At that moment, someone slowly emerged from the palace.
Rumble—
The absolute sovereign, cloaked in shadow armor, stepped along a path of shadows rising from the earth.
It was Zeke revealing himself.
Even Caligula, radiating immense blood eye power, adopted a deferential posture as Zeke approached and stepped aside.
Zeke looked down at the gathered nobles of Tantra and their private troops in the plaza.
He raised his hand, and Caligula closed his blood eye.
Tssst—
The red eye motifs etched on their foreheads faded.
At the same time, the burning pain in their minds subsided.
"Huff, huff."
Only then could the sacred blood nobles regain their senses.
They finally faced Zeke, who stood before Caligula, looking down upon them.
And upon seeing the vivid blood eye glowing on Zeke's forehead, they realized.
How gravely they had erred.
"Not some usurper. This one is..."
"The true king."
"The heir of Shambhala."
Without a word, the immense authority of the blood king emanating from Zeke was enough to subjugate them instantly.
The sacred blood nobles all knelt before Zeke, bowing their heads.
"We pay our respects to the great blood king!"
"True master!"
"Forgive our rudeness!"
Zeke gazed at the nobles of Tantra with sunken eyes.
Merely by looking upon them, all the sacred blood nobles pledged their loyalty to him.
Seeing this, Zeke once again marveled at the formidable power of the blood king Caligula.
"Even after thousands of years, it influences his descendants to this extent." He could sense how deeply the authority of the third eye was ingrained.
Zeke selected the highest-ranking sacred blood among those kneeling and ordered him to approach.
It was Tosabid of the mighty Arakjimum family, who immediately came to Zeke's side.
"You called for me, my king?"
Seated on a throne of shadow, Zeke looked out over the kneeling masses in the plaza and asked Tosabid.
"Is it possible to establish communication with the outside or install magic circles for portal travel?"
Tosabid's face fell at Zeke's question.
"I apologize, my king. We possess ancient powers, but what you describe is beyond our capabilities."
They could deploy impressive magic circles using mandra, but they seemed unfamiliar with the central continent's magical systems.
Being so isolated, even basic communication was difficult. That was the problem.
Whether by chance or some arrangement unknown to him, Zeke had seized Tantra upon arriving here. But there was no reason to linger.
He needed to head to the central continent, but the issue was that system portals could not be used within the Everwinter Mountain Range.
While the system portal accessible via karma points was highly convenient, its operational range was limited, so it seemed he would have to exit the mountains and reach the Murk Empire's territory.
Zeke turned to Tosabid. "Is this all of Tantra's forces?" Tosabid shook his head.
"Those gathered here are the private troops of the sacred blood families. There are also border defense units and the central standing army."
"And the central army's role is to eliminate invading magical beasts?"
"Primarily, yes, but they prepare more for conflicts with external threats, my king." Zeke turned his head at Tosabid's words.
"By external threats, you mean the Murk Empire?"
"No, my king. Within the Everwinter Mountain Range, not only Tantra exists, but other races form groups and live as well."
"Other races. So you're saying there are territorial disputes with them."
"They sometimes raid our managed farms to steal food or abduct slaves, leading to occasional battles."
From Tosabid's explanation, Zeke pieced together the structure inside the Everwinter Mountain Range.
The third-eye clan of Tantra sat at the top of the food chain. They enslaved other races.
And some resisted that system.
Tantra operated on a blood-rank caste system, treating outer races like livestock and forcing them into grueling labor.
Since things had come to this, Zeke decided to dismantle Tantra's rotten structure in one fell swoop.
Turning from Tosabid, he opened his mouth toward the front.
[As the true master of Shambhala, I decree.]
Zeke's voice, resonating deeply in their minds, spread beyond the plaza to the entire kingdom.
[From this day forward, Tantra's blood-rank caste system is abolished.]