Throne of the North.

Chapter 685 The Death of the Emperor (Part 3)

Frozen soil collar.

Ryan was suddenly bumped into by a transparent, palm-sized dragon. The newborn dragon spirit searched for the spiritual panel on his body, but ultimately found nothing.

"what happened?"

Ryan looked at the transparent dragon spirit, which was in a panic. After a frantic search, the dragon spirit calmed down a bit, and then entered Ryan's brow.

His soul suddenly felt cool, and then an incomparably ancient, wild, magnificent, and vast aura burst forth from his body.

At the same time, he gained a completely new perspective, a perspective that did not belong to humans. The dragon's gaze was as high as the sky. He no longer looked up, but calmly looked south, and saw the terrifying power of the deep darkness.

"The dragon."

Ryan murmured softly; it was not human language, but the essence of dragon civilization.

The dragon race is a fearsome race with three great beings: the Dragon God, the Demon Dragon, and the Dragon Emperor. Ryan never expected that the Demon Dragon that Nidhogg left would appear in the sky above the capital city.

and……

He looked south and caught the terrifying killing intent released by the demonic dragon—the breath of a great being.

In Ryan's view, the sky above the capital city dimmed instantly, blocking out the sun's rays. The dragon's head, emerging from the dark vortex, opened its gaping maw, and a dark beam of light descended from the sky, covering the Cathedral of Light.

Countless people looked up, shocked and horrified by the terrifying power above them. The bodies of the hundreds of thousands of citizens of the capital city even underwent horrific changes; their flesh was twisting and mutating.

They were too close to being great.

An angry roar resounded through the heavens and the earth. The Cathedral of Light shone with a dazzling golden light. The source of divinity erupted, dispelling the alienation brought by the gods and restoring the hundreds of thousands of citizens of the capital to normalcy. After all, they had not yet truly become the servants of the demonic dragon.

Ryan was amazed; the Empire's power was incredible, and the immense strength within the Cathedral of Light had actually held back the demonic dragon.

However, this is only temporary, because the dragon's target was never the citizens of the capital city, but the emperor of Flor, the great pope of light.

The great dragon's breath engulfed the emperor, and countless people in all directions looked in terror at the source of the breath, but only Ryan on Rhinoceros Horn Mountain could see clearly that the emperor was not dead.

Even under the attack of a god, a great being, the emperor of this empire did not die immediately.

Two forces shone on his body: one was light, the divine grace of Fransca to the emperor, a believer; the other came from the foundation of the empire, the benefit of blasphemy more than a hundred years ago, the divine essence left behind by a great being after his death, which was sealed in the scepter in the emperor's hand.

In theory, as the emperor of the empire, wielding the scepter, he could not be killed by any means.

But theory is theory, and the real world is the domain of the divine.

The power of the dead and great beings could not stop the living gods. The divine grace that bathed the emperor was constantly dissipating, and the demonic dragon's slaughter was eroding his life force inch by inch.

Ryan was somewhat surprised that the emperor had survived so long despite the direct divine punishment, but he soon realized that the empire's strength was far greater than that.

The Cathedral of Light, the cathedral bathed in golden divine light, at a certain moment, erupted with a terrifying energy tide. No one could see or touch that energy, but it simply existed.

Ryan realized something in his heart: it was the origin of the soul, the origin of countless souls.

They transformed into a storm and swept towards the dragon's divine punishment, actually shaking the power of the great being.

The dark dragon's breath and divine punishment dissipated, and the dragon in the sky roared in anger. He felt humiliated that mortal ants had dared to stop his divine punishment.

The dragon did not leave. Filled with savagery and destructive desires, the dragon extended its claws from the dark vortex. Mortals could no longer see the dragon's claws; they could only see the sky like a black seal pressing down on the earth. The hundreds-of-meters-tall Cathedral of Light and the tip of its tallest bell tower were annihilated in an instant, without even leaving behind any rubble.

The emperor's divine essence was still surging, and he was still resisting, but it was all in vain. The dragon was already enraged and determined to kill this human ant who dared to challenge His majesty.

Blood gushed from Grand Duke Meyers' body, astonishing the Pope beside him. The essence of the nightmare rose into the sky, transforming into enormous double blades that slashed towards the dragon's claws. The immense power showered black blood upon the sky, and all the ordinary people bathed in the blood were instantly mutated, sprouting wings and bloodthirstyly attacking the surrounding ordinary people, causing widespread chaos.

Ryan watched all this, but it was no use. Grand Duke Meyers' power could not shake the dragon's resolve. On the contrary, because of the spilled divine blood, the dragon lost even more of its divine essence.

"ended."

Ryan understood that even the empire's strength could hardly withstand the killing intent of a true god.

But the next moment, Ryan looked surprised. He saw... the Imperial City opened its eyes and stood up.

That vast, majestic city, the largest city in the world of Norris, the heart of the empire, came to life. Within it, some incredibly terrifying energy was surging and erupting like a volcano. The massive imperial city trembled and shook violently, countless houses shattered, and the stones on the surface of the tall city walls crumbled and collapsed. Finally, a huge, crystal-like hand reached out.

That wasn't a human hand, only similar. It was enormous, reaching out from inside the capital city toward the Cathedral of Light. Ryan clearly heard a cracking sound for a moment.

The dragon roared, and its claws—broke off.

"What power is this?"

Ryan was terrified, and then he saw knights with eyes covered by armor appear in the void above the imperial capital. The Sunbeam Legion, the empire's most powerful superhuman legion, a terrifying army that had reportedly reached the final stage of the three stages of superhuman legions: the Divine Kingdom.

They rushed toward the dark vortex in the sky and disappeared into it. Then Ryan heard the roars and howls of dragons coming from the space behind the vortex.

The frost dragon Areris told Ryan a very simple truth.

When energy becomes pure, combat becomes a form of consumption, with energy in a one-to-one ratio dissolving into one another.

The Sunfire Legion is doing just that; they are dissolving the divine essence of the dragon. The spiritual panel tells Ryan that the divine essence of a god can also be compared with numbers and primordial energy.

The dragon has only been awakened for a few years, and it was injured in Nidhogg. Its divine essence is definitely not much.

Whether it's one hundred portions of Taisu, ten thousand portions of Taisu, or one million portions of Taisu, no matter how many, the essence of divinity is the lifeblood of the gods, and once the gods also have lifeblood... things become simple.

The Sun Legion slaughtered dragons madly in that vortex of divine realms. It's hard for even the dragon civilization to imagine that dragons, the pinnacle of hunters, would be slaughtered by humans.

"According to our ancient pact, you must kill him."

Ryan heard someone's voice, the Pope's. He relayed it to the dragon in the sky, who seemed incredibly angry, not only because of the Empire's resistance, but also because of the Pope's constant pressure.

He roared, finally revealing his true form from the vortex. In that instant, Fransca of the Eternal Heaven looked furiously at the world he had just left. The dragon didn't have much time. Compared to Fransca at her peak, if he stayed here too long, he might die at the hands of the Dawn Followers.

He had no intention of holding back. Darkness converged in his eyes, and divine punishment descended from the sky in a fraction of a second, instantly shattering all of Columbus III's defenses.

Ryan rubbed his eyes, and the transparent dragon spirit returned to his side, sensing that the threat had gone.

……

……

……

Dead silence.

Black ash fell from the sky and the earth, while golden light shone brilliantly on the dome. But it was precisely because this golden sunlight was so pure that the falling black ash appeared even more extremely dark.

The gods surveyed the world in fury, and the sunlight even melted the blizzards of the North, turning the snowstorms brought by countless avalanches into raging floods.

This winter is warmer than any winter before.

Inside the dilapidated Cathedral of Light, countless people stared in horror at the spot where the emperor had once stood, where only a solitary scepter remained.

The emperor died. In less than a minute, he became the most authoritative figure in the world, but at the same time, he died in divine punishment.

Those dragonkin who had become servants of the dragon were killed by the knights in their anger and fear, quelling all the chaos. However, no one in the Cathedral of Light dared to move easily.

The emperor is dead.

This news left everyone bewildered. Columbus III was neither his father nor his grandfather. Columbus II and Columbus I did not possess the same level of authority, but Columbus III truly led the empire to new heights time and time again.

he died.

"You've colluded with ancient evil gods?"

Grand Duke Meyers glared angrily at Pope Solarion.

Outside the Cathedral of Light, a large number of knights stormed in and surrounded the Pope of Dawn.

Solarian ignored Grand Duke Meyers and instead offered a sorrowful prayer for the deceased emperor.

After a long while, he finally looked at Meyers and spoke up:
"Years ago, the Empire shamelessly killed Cardinal Tom Walter, who came to the capital to attend a ceremony. Is the Empire going to kill Pope Dawn, who was invited by the Empire, this year?"

Solarian looked at Grand Duke Meyers, and then at the surrounding nobles who were all looking angry.

"I will always be a believer in my Lord, devout and sincere."

The emperor died, and the entire process was the divine punishment of that alien god, without the participation of the power of dawn. Even at this moment, Fransca, who represents the Lord of Dawn and the God of Light, is still angrily chasing after the fleeing demonic dragon.

There is no evidence or reason to link this matter to Solari.

Just like a black swan, ordinary people might be at a loss, but the nobles know very well that the alien god would not appear on the continent of Norris casually, much less kill the emperor of the empire without a purpose. He even paid a huge price for it, and in the process, the god did not gain any benefit.

The gods want to kill the emperor of the empire for no reason? Such a reason is ridiculous. In the eyes of the gods, humans with a lifespan of no more than a hundred years are not even ants. They would never target the humans of this world.

There must be a reason for that.

On the continent of Norris, the only candidate the nobles could think of was the Dawn Church.

Only them.

But... no one can give the order. Solarion is right; he was invited by the Empire. In fact, before that, Solarion announced to the world from the Holy Mountain that he had accepted the Empire's invitation to go to the capital.

Anger and suspicion cannot serve as evidence, nor can they be a reason for the Empire to kill Solarion here. Moreover... this is not inside the Imperial Capital, but outside of it, and they may not be able to kill Solarion.

The demonic dragons and alien gods that appeared in the sky all used every means to kill the emperor. The Pope of the Dawn Church, who is far more powerful than the emperor and is favored by the Dawn, will only be more difficult to kill.

Perhaps in the end, the only people the empire can kill are the clergy brought to the empire by the pope, but that problem is equally serious.

The army grew larger and larger, with nobles from all over the Imperial Province sending their troops. Inside the Imperial City, a large number of knights also appeared. Without orders, no one could easily leave the Cathedral of Light.

With the emperor dead, only one unspoken political correctness remains.

The entire empire needs to address the consequences of this event, and let's not forget that every nobleman swore an oath of loyalty before this dead emperor.

Even Archduke Meyers was loyal to the Empire and to Columbus III.

The one they were loyal to had died before their eyes. This was not only a dramatic change in the empire, but also an absolute insult to the honor of all the nobles present.

At this moment, the Grand Duke was at a loss as to how to resolve the matter. If handled improperly, he would become the greatest villain and sinner in the entire empire, countless nobles would break away from Meyers' political system and factions, and everyone would reject Meyers.

They were locked in a stalemate, and Grand Duke Meyers dispatched knights to the imperial capital.

Council of Elders.

This group had already become obsolete more than a hundred years ago. It used to be the place that decided all matters of the empire and all matters of the nobility. Only elderly, retired, and highly prestigious nobles were qualified to enter it.

More than a hundred years ago, after the empire changed, the nobles gained great power and authority, and the Senate became almost useless, becoming a place for the nobles to spread their political ideas.

But now, everyone is incredibly grateful that it did not completely disappear into the annals of history.

The respected old nobles had the power to jointly decide everything in the empire when the emperor was absent.

In the past, nobles were unwilling to listen to the Senate.

Now, the nobles are doing everything in their power to ensure that the elders do not die on their way to the Cathedral of Light.

(End of this chapter)