Chapter 62 Private Conversation with my Grandson

His body convulsed violently. Muscles bulged, skin tore, mana bled from his flesh in wild arcs. His swelling form glowed with unstable power. The knights scattered around the cavern began convulsing too. Their bodies swelled grotesquely like bombs ready to ignite.

Verron moved, blinking from one fallen ally to the next dragging them into his orbit as he tore through space itself. In a flash of void light, they were gone outside.

 Verron collapsed to one knee, drained, sweat dripping down his face. His mana was gone—emptied completely.

Behind them, the mountain convulsed, then imploded. The entire peak caved in on itself, rock folding inward as if the mountain were being devoured by a singularity. A deafening roar of stone and fire ripped skyward, ash blotting out the sun.

Where once stood Hans’s fortress, there was now only a smoking crater.

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Rein stood Infront of the king—the man who raised him, who taught him stories of justice, who called him grandson.

“Grandfather… please. It doesn’t have to be this way. Step down. End it here. No more lies, no more blood. I don’t want to fight you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Rein, stop. Don’t waste your breath. You still see a grandfather. I see a tyrant who’s enslaved, murdered, and twisted everything for centuries. There’s no redemption for him. No forgiveness. He won’t step down, he won’t repent, he won’t change. He’s already chosen his path—and it ends with his death.”

Arthur’s lips curled into a smile.

“What? Hurt me? Kill me? Oh, dear boy… you truly think I'm just some old man, sitting here in the twilight of my years? Do you even understand why other kingdoms never dared march against me? Why their kings bow their heads and whisper my name with fear in their voices?

It is because they know. They know that if they cross me, if they so much as irritate me, I could reduce their cities to ash with a single spell. I could wipe their legacies from the map in one stroke. That is why they leave me be. That is why this kingdom has stood untouchable for three hundred years.

Now, Rein, be a good boy. Sit. Watch. And do nothing… while I erase this traitor once and for all.”

He swung his arm toward Liora, raw mana burning at his fingertips—

—but before the strike could fall, a hand shot up, stopping his wrist mid-motion.

Arthur’s head snapped sideways. His grandson stood there, his grip unyielding around Arthur’s arm.

"Haven't you had enough? How much more will you hurt her until your satisfied? You took everything from her! I won't let you hurt her ever again!"

Arthur let out a long sigh. 

“Ahhh-hhaaa… perhaps it’s a good thing you stopped my hand, Rein. Now that I think of it, that damned announcement crystal is a pain to craft and set in place. I nearly destroyed it along with half my castle just now. No… I’ll deal with the witch later. Right now…”

His gaze dropped to his grandson. 

“…I need to speak some sense into you.”

Rein’s grip only tightened around Arthur’s wrist. 

“You care more about some damn crystal than her life? What kind of a man are you?”

 But before the king could speak, Aura lunged forward.

“Enough! There’s no talking with him! He’s too far gone—he must be cut down!”

Arthur sighed again, deeper this time. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Rein and Aura froze as hands clamped around their faces, fingers digging into their skulls. 

“Let’s take this outside. I think I need to beat some sense into the both of you. My castle…” his voice hardened into a growl, “…is far too small for our quarrel!”

Before either could react, Arthur leaped.

The ground detonated beneath his feet. The marble floor shattered like glass, shockwaves tearing upward as the throne room collapsed. In the same instant, Arthur rocketed skyward, carrying both Rein and Aura like dolls clamped in his fists.

To the people in the capital below, it was as if the heavens themselves had been torn apart. The upper half of the castle imploded, stone raining down like meteor showers. A blinding streak of golden fire tore through the sky, faster than sight could follow, carving a burning scar across the horizon.

And then—

The beam struck the distant mountainside. Then came the explosion.

A mushrooming explosion roared outward, a storm of fire and rock that swallowed the peak whole. The shockwave blasted across the land, flattening trees, shaking windows, and sending the citizens falling to the ground. Even from miles away, the city could feel the heat kiss their faces.

The mountain was gone. Not shattered. Not broken. Erased.

Arthur’s landing had vaporized the peak into a smoking crater that stretched for miles, molten rivers oozing down the rim. The air boiled, shimmering with raw heat. And still—Arthur stood in the middle, calm as stone, Rein dangling from one hand, Aura from the other.

With a crack of shadow, Aura’s obsidian great sword materialized in her grasp. She swung upward, black fire trailing her blade.

Arthur didn’t even blink.

His arm snapped like a whip, tossing her skyward, and in the same motion his body twisted into a devastating spin.

“Get lost, little girl. Me and my grandson need to talk. In private!”

His heel connected with her stomach in a roundhouse so violent it split the sound barrier. The sheer force ignited the air, plasma detonating in a ring of blinding light. The crater floor quaked as the sonic boom ripped outward, turning stone into molten glass.

Aura’s body vanished.

One instant she was there—next, a streak of black and violet fire tearing across the horizon. The speed alone carved a burning scar into the earth, melting soil into rivers of lava, incinerating the forest below to cinders. Trees disintegrated, collapsing into ash before the shockwave even touched them.

She smashed through the first mountain in her path, the impact detonating the peak in a spray of molten rock and fire. But the momentum didn’t stop—her body punched straight through, leaving a smoking tunnel in her wake, before colliding with the second mountain beyond.

The world shook as the second peak shattered. Entire cliffs collapsed, avalanches thundered down, and Aura’s body was buried beneath a hurricane of rubble, vanishing into a flaming crater of stone and ruin.

Back in the smoking basin where it all began, Arthur cracked his neck, lowering his arm, golden eyes burning with mana. He tightened his grip on Rein’s skull, dragging his grandson forward until their foreheads almost touched.

“Now then… where were we?” 

 “AURA!!! You—You call yourself king?! You’re nothing but a monster! You think I’ll just stand here while you hurt her, hurt anyone—”

Arthur set Rein back on the ground, one hand brushing the dust from his grandson’s shoulders as though nothing had just happened.

“Now, now, my dear boy. Settle that fire before it burns you alive. That girl is fine. Bruised, buried, and likely angry when she wakes up, but fine. I only… sent her flying for a while. You and I need time. Time to talk, time to understand. And she—well, she was in the way."