A few seconds crawled by, with every eye locked on King Augustus. But Augustus himself wasn't moving at all. His gaze was fixed on nothingness, not even blinking, as if he were lost in a world of deep thought.
A full minute passed this way, the silence in the room growing heavier with each tick of the clock. But what almost no one in the courtroom knew was that the most panicked person in the room was not the king, nor Cassandra, nor Ethan.
It was actually Queen Maddie Madone herself. She fought to keep the panic from her face, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Fuck, he's dead!" she thought, a cold dread washing over her as she realized the truth.
Augustus wasn't in deep thought; he had died while standing. His hands and body had become stiff and still, like a statue.
"Who else knows?" Maddie's eyes swept across the courtroom, her mind racing. Her most logical answer was that only two people could have noticed.
One was Victoria von Scarlet, the king's guard, who stood right behind him. The second was Lortell. Maddie could understand why Scarlet hadn't said anything; she was likely waiting for Maddie to act first. But for some reason, Lortell hadn't done anything either.
Maddie took a deep, steadying breath and didn't waste a single second. She put on a confident and stern expression, her face a mask of authority.
"Okay, it seems you have already made your choice!" she said loudly, making it seem as if she were speaking directly to the silent king.
She stood up from her high seat. "Anyone who does not wish to participate in the coming battle may leave with me now," she said, her voice clear as she looked out at the terrified audience.
She then turned to the other rulers. "Thank you all for your cooperation, but this is now an internal matter where we cannot intervene. We shall take our leave!"
The moment she said it, everyone understood.
If the king had wanted a trial by combat, he would have chosen it already. His silence could only mean one thing: he wanted an all-out war. In that chaos, he had a higher chance of surviving, or at least of securing some of his territory.
The entire room was deathly silent. There were no murmurs, no whispers, because most of the people present already knew which side they were on.
Both princes had their hands resting on the hilts of their swords. Ethan and the other loyalists stood ready, their bodies tense with anticipation. The same was true for Lortell's side.
It looked as if they were all just sitting, but the room had already been split into three factions: one for the king, one for Lortell, and a third that just wanted to escape.
"I shall take my leave first!" announced Xulgorath, the Dwarf King. The very next second, his body cracked open and fell apart.
There were no blood or organs, only complex robotic components. The Dwarf King had expected this kind of outcome when the trial was delayed.
Since he wasn't an S Rank, he had to think about his own safety first. He had left last night, leaving behind a mechanical double. Of course, by using this robot, he knew everything that was happening while he sat safely far away.
"A fascinating exit indeed!" Mohammad Abdul of the Desert Kingdom said, clapping his hands lightly.
The next second, a large shadow enveloped him, swallowing him whole. When the shadow vanished, he was gone, as if he had never been there at all.
Seeing both of them leave so suddenly, Maddie's lips twitched twice. "Can't we just go back normally?" she muttered under her breath, a mix of annoyance and irritation on her face.
"Don't worry, I'm coming with—" Igret began, about to join Maddie, but her eyes widened in shock.
She suddenly felt the presence of someone approaching. "Nightmare? Anomaly? Why are those two coming here?" Igret thought, her mind racing with panic.
Although demon lords didn't necessarily have to help each other, it was an unwritten rule that they wouldn't just attack one another. She and the others weren't on bad terms either, so there was no reason for an attack. But if she stayed here, to keep up her image, she would have no choice but to fight them.
"Miss Maddie, I shall take my leave as well!" she said immediately, forcing a dry, nervous laugh. A golden vortex of light enveloped her like a divine sphere, and the next second, she was gone.
Maddie puffed out her cheeks and pouted. "Hmph!" She didn't say another word and just turned to Scarlet.
"Let's go!" she commanded. Victoria nodded and followed Maddie from behind.
As Maddie walked down from the high platform and calmly headed for the exit, everyone in the room stood up. Those who wanted to leave immediately formed a line behind her, while many others stayed in their seats, ready to fight.
On both sides, the most recognizable figures were clear. On the king's side stood Ethan, Cassandra, and both princes.
On Lortell's side were Meldia, Verdes, Esdeath, and Maruti. But the king's team knew their main goal wasn't to win, but simply to survive against Lortell and her subordinates, who were clearly much stronger.
Maddie was almost at the exit. Everyone left in the room was slowly taking their battle stances, their bodies tense, even ready to unleash their ultimate attacks on each other.
But the very moment Maddie took her first step outside the door, a ripple of dark pink energy swept through the room. The next second, several people randomly collapsed to the ground.
They weren't dead, but in a deep, magical sleep. It wasn't actually random, though; the weakest people in the room were the ones who had fallen. Even Maddie was surprised, as she hadn't sensed the attack at all.
Lortell immediately turned to look at Cassandra, since she had powers related to sleep, but Cassandra looked just as shocked. She hadn't done anything.
BAM!
Out of nowhere, the entire ceiling was blown away, revealing the dark, cloudy sky outside. Everyone gasped in shock.
They were on the ground floor of a palace that had five floors above them, and the walls were protected by powerful barriers that shouldn't have broken so easily. Yet, it had been blown away as if it were made of paper.
As they looked up, they saw a man with two large, dark purple horns and snake-like eyes flying in the air without any wings. He wore a fantasy-style warrior costume that made him look like a general from another world. There was no need for an introduction.
"Lord of Nightmares, Morpheus?" Maddie realized the moment she saw him.
"Mariette family! Today is the day I shall take my revenge for my humiliation!" Morpheus boomed, his voice filled with dark laughter.
But then, in the very next moment, a brilliant pillar of golden lightning, as thick as a giant tree, shot down from the sky and slammed directly into Morpheus.
The force sent him crashing far away into the distance. Another figure then hovered in the air where he had been. She was a woman with two beautiful angel wings and a glowing halo floating above her head.
Esdeath raised her eyebrows the moment she saw her. The face was clearly familiar. The angel pointed her golden spear down at them.
"Esdeath Mariette! I, Angel Raguel, shall take your head back!" Behind her, dozens of hundreds of other angels appeared, flying down and charging directly toward them.
"Esdeath, get over here!" Lortell shouted, immediately jumping to Esdeath's side and standing ready to protect her. "Verdes, lead the others and kill everyone else!" Lortell commanded, her voice sharp and clear as the battle suddenly began.
"This is our chance! We should run!" Cassandra shouted, immediately creating a gap between herself and Lortell.
She rushed over to grab the king's hand and drag him out, but the moment her fingers touched his shoulder, he fell backward like a sack of stones, landing with a heavy thud. Cassandra was stunned for a second, but she forced herself to stay calm and spun around.
"RUN! THE KING IS DEAD!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice filled with desperate urgency.
Ethan's eyes widened in horror. For a moment, he just stood there, his mind blank. The king was dead. There was no reason to fight anymore. The will to defend anymore drained out of him completely.
"No one will escape!" Verdes roared, dropping to one knee and slamming his hand onto the stone floor.
Instantly, thick, thorny vines erupted from the ground, snaking across the entire room and sealing every possible exit. The only ways out were now the massive hole in the roof where Angel Raguel and her forces hovered, and the main exit where Maddie and Victoria stood.
---
"No, don't fight! This is no longer a normal situation!" Maddie shouted, her voice strained.
But the next second, all the people who had been sleeping on the floor stood up at once. Their bodies twisted and morphed into weird, disgusting anomalies, their eyes glowing with a mindless puppet energy as they lunged toward Maddie.
"My lady!" Scarlet gasped, instantly moving to shield Maddie. With a series of swift, fluid movements—swish, swish, swish—she cut down every single creature, her spear a blur of silver that left nothing but chunks of flesh in its wake.
"Well done, well done!" a voice echoed from the main entrance. A figure stepped through the doorway, a terrifying humanoid creature with the head of a octopus. It looked like something that had crawled out of a Lovecraftian story.
"Lord of Anomaly, Horax. Just what are two demon lords doing here?" Maddie gritted her teeth, forcing a dry, nervous laugh as she asked.
"This has nothing to do with you," Horax said, his eerie smile stretching across his inhuman face. "So you can step aside and watch quietly, too!"
---
Meanwhile, high above, Raguel looked down at the small army of demons charging toward the half-destroyed palace.
"Angels, kill those filthy demons while I take care of her!" she ordered. Although Raguel had descended into the mortal realm, it came at a price.
At most, she could only stay for fifteen minutes, and she intended to make the best use of her time. She turned her gaze downward.
"Only one obstacle," Raguel muttered, her eyes locking onto Lortell. The others weren't even worth her time.
She was fully confident she could kill Esdeath, but her main goal was never to get into a long, drawn-out fight. Lortell wasn't jesus christ who could protect someone from the combined might of heaven's forces. Even if Lortell managed to block her attacks, the sheer backlash from the divine power would be enough to vaporize Esdeath.
"Divine Judgment—Setia!" Raguel raised her golden spear high into the air. Instantly, the foggy, beautiful form of a goddess appeared in the sky, with four arms and three serene faces. The goddess's arms began to move slowly, gathering immense power. But before she could unleash her attack...
BAM!
A fist, wrapped in dark energy, slammed directly into Raguel's face with such force that several of her perfect teeth flew out. She was sent flying backward for several meters, only stopping herself by flaring her powerful wings.
The punch had come from none other than Morpheus, who had recovered and shot back into the sky.
"You dare to show your authority in the mortal realm? This is our land!" Morpheus snarled, his voice trembling with pure rage.