The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

              Drannor led those three to the capital of the Ashiris kingdom. Just as they had heard, all the soldiers and guards had surrendered. Even the shops that sold weapons had been closed until everyone learned what was going to happen.

              The castle of the Sairus kingdom looked really gloomy lately, so those three welcomed the sight of the new castle that would be annexed to their country. While it was also a fortress, it was beautiful like no other. When they crossed the gates, they were received by the royal guard members of the castle. But they didn't have any armor, much less weapons.

"Tell us what happened," Drannor said.

"... Around midnight, five days ago, a cloaked man invaded the castle after creating a mist that fooled the guards outside," A light brown-haired middle Aged man that had a mustache replied. "After that, he entered the castle and found the secret passageway in the throne room. In the underground, he found the king, the queen and some other men in the secret library."

"So much incompetence… no wonder you surrendered without a fight," Drannor said. "Take us to this library."

            The guard didn't even think of answering those words. Drannor was emanating so much blood lust that the people who saw him were imagining that he would cut people down if they just looked at him.

              In the end, the guard showed them the hidden stairs, the corridors, and the libraries. Five days had passed since everything happened, so the bodies had been removed, and yet, Nyana still found mana signs of magic.

"I want to hear your analysis of what happened here," Drannor said to Nyana. "You… Did you see the criminal? What did he do?"

"He put many guards to sleep and then while Reinforcements were approaching, he stayed inside the library," the guard said. "I was among the last group that saw him, and apparently, he was looking for some books."

"Do you remember where the corpses were?" Nyana asked.

"Most of them were where you can find big blood marks, but the queen, the king and two other royal guards were here, here and here," The guard replied.

"... There are no blood marks in those spots," Cohnal said. "How did they die?"

"The two men and kid had their faces burned to a crisp, the queen had a hole in her stomach," The guard replied, making a complicated expression. "However, the wound in her stomach was so burned that no blood left from it… it almost looked like…"

"Something very hot melted a part of her stomach," Nyana said.

"... Yes," the guard nodded.

"There are many marks of magic that resemble lightning around," Nyana said. "I found a long line of burned walls when we were coming to this place in the previous corridor."

"Lightning…" Cohnal muttered.

          Drannor clenched his fist and teeth in anger, and his earth-shattering blood lust made everyone raise their guards. They knew only one person who could do that…

"It was obviously Zaos…" Melisse said while ignoring Drannor's blood lust. "The real question is… what was he doing here and why did he use such powerful attacks against these types of opponents? His sword skill alone should have been enough."

"Send a message to all our troops to close the borders!" Drannor shouted. "No one will leave or enter this country until we find him!"

          The other guards quickly left to spread the command. As for Cohnal, Melisse, and Nyana, they approached the bookshelves, and they noticed that some books had been burned with magic. Nyana recognized that those had been burned weeks ago… Why would Zaos invade a castle, kill the king and the queen just to ruin some books? Or was it the other way around? He was looking for something, but those books had been disposed of. If he wanted to burn a few books, it would take a lot less time if he had used his magic.

"What do you think, Nyana?" Cohnal asked when Drannot left the library.

"... I heard that two years ago, the head of a certain noble family of this county also died in a night attack… a cloaked figure killed several guards and then stole some documents regarding their process of creating magic weapons," Nyana said. "The guards were supposed to be no match against Zaos, but he still used magic against them. His most powerful magic."

"What is the point of thinking about that?" Melisse asked. "Are you two trying to find a reason why he killed the princess and kidnapped her daughter?"

"Do you think the Zaos that we knew would do that?" Cohnal asked.

"The Zaos we knew worked with the followers of the demon god and lived with them for six months," Melisse said. "He isn't the same person as we knew."

"You are right… but he didn't use tactics to kill our troops, only to repel them," Cohnal said.

"It doesn't change the fact that he abandoned all of us for the followers of the demon god. If he considered us his friends, he would have contacted us and explained his actions." Melisse said.

            After hearing that, Cohnal didn't know what else to say. From all things Zaos had done, they couldn't find an explanation to a single thing. His actions didn't make any sense. What was his end goal in all that mess? He killed members of two royal families. He was already the most wanted person in the world. Not only was he already the most dangerous, he probably was already the most hated… What was the point of all that?

            When they left the castle, those three found the soldiers of their army fleeing the war prisoners. That was only a tactic to calm down the masses. Still, Cohnal and Melisse could already see many nobles that might cause problems, in the long run, being silenced in the next few months. Times were really strange and dark in such an age.... thinking about that, only Cohnal feel like sighing more.