Chapter 309: The Slaughter of Thunderbanes

“V… Voltrex,” Aestra gasped, her lips trembling in horror. She tried to move toward him, but in the very next instant, a mouthful of blood gushed from her mouth, and she collapsed to her knees.

“What the fuck are you doing, Kharos!!?” Nathan shouted from the sidelines as he witnessed the madness unfolding.

His hand moved toward the spatial ring on his finger to draw his sword, but before he could reach it, a blade pierced through his throat from behind.

“Die, arrogant Thunderbane,” a voice whispered coldly into his ear.

It belonged to one of the empire’s soldiers, a man with whom Nathan had fought side by side against demons only days ago.

At that same instant, numerous sword thrusts followed, each blade piercing the hearts or throats of the Thunderbanes gathered around the center.

The floor quickly turned into a pool of blood, while the musicians continued playing the song in the background as if nothing had changed.

Strangely, not a single Thunderbane used their Soulforce, not even to protect themselves.

“Wh… why?” Voltrex whispered, his half-open eyes refusing to believe the scene before him.

“Forgive me, my old friend,” Kharos murmured as he pulled the sword from Voltrex’s abdomen, triggering another cascade of blood from the wound.

“The Thunderbanes have grown far too strong. They have become a threat to the empire.”

His voice was laced with sorrow as Kharos continued, “I trusted you, Voltrex. I know you would never raise your sword against the empire unless provoked. However, your son is different. From the very first day, he did not show me even the slightest respect. He is an abnormality, a breaker of the laws of cultivation, an absolute monster. Once he inherited your throne, there would be no guarantee that he would not turn his weapon against the empire. I could not gamble on such a risk.”

After a brief pause, he declared coldly, “The Thunderbanes must die tonight.”

With sheer horror filling her eyes, Nymeria reached Aestra and grabbed her by the shoulder. She tried to force her voice out, but instead of words, something hot, metallic, and crimson spilled from her mouth.

It was her blood, spilling from her body for the first time in her life.

The empire’s representatives laughed with sinister smiles as they stepped forward, stomping, spitting, and kicking the Thunderbanes who writhed on the ground in agony, gasping for air as their limbs convulsed in terrifying spasms.

Amid the chaos, one person remained completely frozen in place.

His golden eyes were hollow, fixed upon his family, his entire world. Nymeria and Aestra knelt on the ground, vomiting blood, while his father, though still standing, lingered at death’s door.

His lips were slightly parted, yet no words escaped.

His golden hair trembled violently as icy winds rushed into the hall, tearing through the tent.

“K… kkkkk,” Taranis mumbled, his voice finally escaping, accompanied by a thin trail of blood from the corner of his lips.

“Huh!? How can he still speak after the amount of poison we mixed into his food?” Rhaegar gasped, his lips quivering, as everyone’s focus turned towards Taranis.

Taranis’s voice slowly sharpened as broken sounds began to form into words.

“Kkkkkkkk… kill you!!!!!!!!!!”

Taranis roared, his raw voice thundering throughout the hall.

“I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU ALLL!!!!!!”

With nothing but his voice, the musicians in the background collapsed unconscious, while several cultivators of the empire staggered backward, overwhelmed by the sheer horror carried within his unfiltered roar. The abyssal clouds above roared with ear-deafening thunder as lightning descended upon the hall, scorching it away completely.

“W-what was that language he just spoke?” Hector, the firstborn of Kharos, murmured, cold sweat breaking out across his entire body.

“This child truly is an abnormality,” Kharos said, even he shaken by the spectacle.

Turning toward Rhaegar, the Sword of the Empire and a man of the Eternal Sage Realm, Kharos commanded coldly, “Kill that brat.”

“As you command, Your Majesty,” Rhaegar replied, unsheathing his sword as he advanced toward Taranis with calm, measured steps.

Without hesitation or the slightest hint of emotion on his face, Rhaegar thrust his sword forward toward Taranis’s chest. But just as the blade came within a hair’s breadth of its target, the clash of steel rang out as a man appeared between them out of nowhere.

“Zephyron, you can still move,” Rhaegar muttered, recognizing him. “No wonder you are one of the five wardens of the Thunderbanes.”

“You empire dogs,” Zephyron spat, his lips stained red with the blood he had just vomited, his sword trembling under the crushing pressure of Rhaegar’s blade. “After everything His Majesty has done for you bastards, this is how you repay him?”

At the same time, four more cultivators appeared. The remaining wardens had arrived, positioning themselves around Voltrex, Nymeria, and Aestra from all directions. Their swords trembled in their grips, yet remained firmly pointed at the empire’s warriors.

“You need to run away, Your Highness!” Zephyron shouted, his gaze briefly shifting toward Taranis.

Taranis stood utterly vacant, his hollow expression sending jolts of terror through everyone present, as not a single soul dared to take a step closer to him.

Rhaegar needed only this brief moment of distraction from Zephyron, who was already poisoned and greatly weakened, to break through his defenses.

In an instant, his sword slid past Zephyron’s blade and pierced straight through his chest.

“Zephyron!!!” the remaining four wardens cried out as they watched their companion of centuries fall before their eyes.

Seizing the opportunity created by their shock, Hector and the empire’s warriors rushed forward, slaughtering them without mercy.

“N-no… don’t do it… stop…” Voltrex murmured weakly. Though he could neither see nor hear anything, as the poison had already sealed all his senses, he could still feel it—the souls of the Thunderbanes leaving their bodies one by one.

With Zephyron fallen, Rhaegar turned toward Taranis once more. Even to him, the boy looked terrifying, yet Rhaegar knew Taranis could do nothing. Judging by how long it had been since the poison took effect, it must have fully run its course by now.

“Die, arrogant child!” he shouted, swinging his sword in a horizontal arc toward Taranis’s neck.

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