Chapter 26 – The Sovereign's Judgment
General Kael dismounts, his own soul power radiating to counter the "Endless Thread's" pressure. He looks at the boy floating on ten wings of fire and feels a cold sweat on his neck.
"Stay your hand, child!" Kael bellows. "I do not know who you are, but you wear the crest of the Supreme Pontiff's inner circle. Do not throw your life away. This is a Duke of the Empire! If he has sinned, he must be tried by the Imperial Court. Killing him here is a declaration of war against the Throne!"
"The Imperial Court?" Lakan laughs, a sharp, cold sound. "You mean the court filled with his cousins and drinking buddies? Yeah, I'll pass. My 'Court' is right here. And I've already heard the evidence."
The sound of heavy whips and agonizing groans cuts through the tension. From the Duke's estate, a young man with a bloated, arrogant face appears—Victor Junior. He isn't walking. He is sitting on a palanquin held by four skeletal, bruised men in chains. Behind him, he "rides" a young female slave like a horse, her back covered in fresh welts as he lashes her with a barbed whip.
"Faster, you cattle!" Junior screams. He looks up at the scene, seeing his father trapped. "Father! Why are you playing with this brat? Kill him! And save that Ice Phoenix girl for me—I want to see if she screams as loud as the others when I break her spirit!"
He pulls the hair of the slave he's riding, forcing her face into the dirt. "And her mother too! I've heard the Shui women are 'sturdy.' We can use them to replace the ones that died last week."
The courtyard goes deathly silent. Shui Tian and his family tremble with a mix of fear and nausea. Shui Bing'er's grip on her silver Kampilan is so tight her knuckles are white.
The Duke, seeing his son, gains a surge of sick confidence. He laughs through his spider-mouth. "You hear that, General? My son is right. These people are just resources. Slaves, commoners... even minor nobles. They exist to serve the blood of the Empire. You can't kill me, boy. I am the Pillar of this Province. Without me, who will keep these 'animals' in line?"
Lakan doesn't yell. He doesn't manifest anger. He stands perfectly still. Adarna's Gaze of Truth scans the "walking dead" humans holding the palanquin. He sees their hollow eyes, their shattered spiritual seas, and the way their very humanity has been ground into the dust.
"This isn't just corruption," Lakan's internal monologue is like a frozen void. "This is a cancer. And when you find a cancer, you don't 'negotiate' with it. You excise it."
Lakan looks at General Kael, then at the Duke, then at the son. His eyes are no longer just gold; they are a terrifying, absolute violet.
"General," Lakan says, his voice so calm it feels like a blade against a throat. "You asked for a protocol. Here it is."
Lakan snaps his fingers.
"Severing Rhythm: The Final Thread."
The "Endless Thread" web that was already surrounding the Duke doesn't just cut—it implodes. The high-frequency vibrations don't just shave the armor; they vibrate the Duke's atoms until they lose cohesion.
"Wait—NO!" The Duke's scream is cut short as his massive Spirit Avatar is literally erased, turning into a fine purple mist that drifts away in the wind.
Before the son can even blink, Lakan is in front of him. He didn't use the wings. He used a Diamond Glide so fast it bypassed the General's perception.
Lakan's hand catches the son's throat. He lifts him off the back of the suffering slave.
"You called them cattle," Lakan whispers, leaning close to Junior's ear. "But a cow is useful. You? You are just a waste of oxygen that the world has tolerated for far too long."
Lakan's Eyes of the Origin God flare. Spiritual Collapse hits the son's mind like a supernova. Junior doesn't even have time to scream; his brain is incinerated from the inside out, his eyes turning white as he becomes a vegetable before his heart even stops. Lakan drops him like trash.
Lakan turns to the trembling slaves and the stunned General. He wipes a small drop of blood from his cheek with a silk handkerchief.
"General Kael," Lakan says, looking at the Rank 81 Douluo who is now too terrified to move his hand toward his weapon. "You said killing him would start a war. Look around you."
Lakan gestures to the commoners and the slaves who are now looking at him with the first sparks of hope in their eyes.
"The war already started. Your Empire just forgot which side it was on. I am Lakan Diwa. I don't follow your laws because your laws protect the predator and punish the prey."
He sheathes Araw with a definitive click.
"If the Heaven Dou Empire wants to call this a declaration of war, tell them I'll be waiting. But tell them this: If they send more trash like this to represent them... I won't just sever the Duke. I'll sever the Throne."
Lakan walks toward the Shui family. "Bing'er, Yue-er. Let's go inside. The air out here smells like rot, and I'm suddenly very hungry."