33 Risen#re

"You should watch yourself when you make accusations, an accusation without proof is meaningless," Lord Draco said coldly to Lirian if the empress wasn't standing there he would have already beaten Lirian until he was unrecognizable for insulting him.

"An accusation!" Lirian said in surprise.

"Last time I checked Efrideet was still a member of the empire, there is nothing wrong with being her ally," Lirian said with a playful smile, "But your reaction really makes me wonder," Lirian chuckled lightly.

Lord Draco gritted his teeth in anger, this situation made him furious, a child managed to rile him up and make him slip up, it was an utter embarrassment to him.

Lirian turned away and pulled out a remote from his pocket, 'It should be in position now,' Lirian thought as he pressed a button.

"Mother two pods are about to crash down here, and it won't be good if they are shot out of the sky," Lirian said to Taliyah, she looked to one of her aides and in the next moment a message was sent to the planetary defence unit to allow the pods to land safely.

Lirian turned back to the crowd and called out, "Lady Xuanuan, please step forward and prepare yourself Edith was not the only candidate to be murdered by Telamon's order," Lirian said, Lady Xuanuan was the leader of the family Wentian came from it was one of the second class high worlds of the Opal star zone.

In the setting of the banquet her world didn't gather to much attention when compared to the other powers, but she remained calm with all of the attention suddenly falling on her.

"You're saying that Wentian was killed as well," she said her voice was completely calm, it seemed as if she was completely unfazed by the news.

Unlike Lord Callum, she wasn't a parent to her families candidate, Wentian's parents had made a blunder at one point and due to that he was chosen to be a candidate his life and death would determine the fate of his parents.

It was a very common situation amongst the nobles, to use their children as pieces to improve their lives and make up for their mistakes, if the child performed well it would benefit the family as a whole and help their parents but if they didn't perform well then their parents would be served their punishment.

It could even be called a gamble on the parents part, and Wentian was one such sacrifice due to that his family wouldn't place to much expectations on him even the family leader wasn't shaken at all by his death.

"How did he die?" she asked with her lips pulled into a thin line, while she didn't care for Wentian if he was assassinated it was no different from a slap to her family and that could not be tolerated.

"Shortly before the princess candidate Ilma's death, Wentian was trying to investigate a couple of things about Telamon for me, Telamon didn't approve so when he sent his zealots to kill me he gave them an additional mission while they were at it, to kill the prince candidate Wentian," Lirian stated the truth plainly.

Just as he finished speaking two pods came crashing from the sky, the thrusters activated as they came within view and the pods landed steadily in the middle of the garden.

Lirian pressed a button and one of the pods opened up, Lirian quickly entered, it was the type of task that most people would leave to the servants but Lirian didn't want anyone getting to close to Edith's body.

It was silly, but he felt that it only right that he brought her body out by himself, soon everyone saw the capsules being pushed out by Lirian and through the clear glass they could see the two corpse's.

One of a boy with long hair a sharp face and very serious brows, just looking at his body one would think that he was the type that had no sense of humour and was always serious, on his neck they could see stitches in place holding his head onto his body.

When they looked at the next capsule they could see Lirian moving it like it was a fragile object and inside it they could see an extremely beautiful girl, with creamy white skin that made her skin look like a dolls, black hair that fell to her shoulders and a sleek oval shaped face, making her look extremely elegant.

"Lords and Ladies of the empire I have a question for you, what is the punishment for the crime of killing a candidate?" Lirian asked loudly.

Lord Callum stepped forward and looked at his daughter with saddened eyes then he looked at Telamon, "The punishment would depend on the station of the person who had the candidate killed, it were a faction leader in my family, that whole faction would be killed, if it were an ordinary subordinate their bloodline would be exterminated, and if it were a family leader, the entire family would be executed,"

"In this case it is different, as the paragon families are the pillars of the emperors and emperor's strength, such killing won't be allowed, only the one guilty would be punished along with co-conspirators," Lord Callum said while looking at Telamon in anger.

"Young Lirian, even if Telamon is guilty of what you say, you must present proof before anything is done," Lord Callum reminded.

"Of course, I did come prepared" Lirian said and as he did the second pod began to open up.

The nobles could already sense the presence of the people inside, as the pod opened up they looked on expectantly at the group.

Without anyone noticing Lirian slipped the submission disc from his pocket and gave an order, at that moment the zealots all stepped out and walked in a line under Lirian's order.

"I present to you the zealots that have been breed and trained by the traitor Telamon Dao," Lirian said with a gesture of his hand.

The zealots all fell still as Lirian gestured to them and the nobles could see panic on their faces which was uncharacteristic with how orderly they were walking, there bodies and faces seemed to belong to different people.

"Lord Draco has told you all the condition on which a paragon member would be able to control a zealot, by ensuring that it's impossible for the zealot to betray them,"

"An extremely difficult condition, because even the most restrictive of oaths have loopholes, however there is one such object in existence capable of fulfilling the task," Lirian said.

"I'm sure that some of you remember this object personally as it caused a fair bit of trouble during your time," as Lirian spoke he brought out the submission disc and showed it to the crowd.

As the submission disc came into view, their were many nobles that recognised the black disc in Lirian's hands, the empire lost 23 leaders of super worlds due to the object, and there were some in this very crowd that wrongly believed they were betrayed by their own trusted family and executed them, to later find that they were being controlled.

Lirian could hear the nobles break out into a chatter, and he could feel looks of hate being directed at the object in his hand, but most of all Lirian was focused on Telamon who had gone completely pale.

Telamon recognised that his zealots were being controlled with the disc, other wise there was no way they would have walked out of that pod, they would have died first before revealing themselves.

Telamon was a very accomplished warlock, the disc was a calamity grade item, so in order to place the self-destruction seal on the disc, in case it landed in someone else's hands, he spared no resource and effort, yet before his very eyes he could see Lirian using it.

Even the other spells he placed for it to kill the user weren't working, seeing that he lost all hope, without a doubt everything was over for him, almost all his secrets would be exposed, the only thing that he could be happy about, was that his relations with Efrideet weren't known to the zealots.

He was extremely tight lipped about that and he was glad about it, 'It looks like it's over for me Efrideet, I leave the rest to you, only you have what it takes to save the empire now,' Telamon thought with lifeless eyes.

Taliyah was staring fixedly at the object, she remembered how much of damage those items had caused, because of it neither her nor Albus had any rest for almost a decade.

She looked to Telamon with disbelief in her eyes, those objects were all supposed to be destroyed it was a capital crime to possess one a crime that warranted death if a link was found between the disc and a person.

When she looked at Telamon it was like she was looking at a complete stranger, the crimes he committed, possession of a submission disc, the murder of candidates, creating zealots as a member of a paragon family, each one warranted death without exception.

Just then Lirian walked to one of the woman amongst the zealots, "Tell me are you ready to betray your master, your entire world," Lirian whispered in her ear in a menacing tone as a cruel smile formed on his lips.