Devouring Dragon Heir

A few days had passed since the brutal massacre of various nobles in the royal palace.

During this time, Caesar, the army general, had led his men to consolidate all the power of the kingdom and ensure that Andrea, the young princess, ascended the throne smoothly.

The kingdom was now under a strict curfew, with the public having been told a carefully crafted story about the purge of corrupt nobles by the will of the Messenger, a new, divine savior.

The truth of the brutality Klaus had shown was still a closely guarded secret among the highest echelons of the army, a chilling reality only a few knew.

After Andrea had woken up from her exhaustion, she had personally come to thank Klaus. Her expression was a mix of awe and profound gratitude, almost to the point of worship.

The significance of the Messenger was very holy in their culture, a messianic figure foretold in ancient prophecies.

At first, Andrea had been mesmerized by Klaus's handsome looks, which was the most natural reaction to his appearance, but with the fact of Klaus being a god-like entity in her mind, she did not let that thought fester.

She quickly dismissed any personal feelings, replacing them with only pure reverence.

Klaus had already ascended to the EX-rank in the system's terms after killing the corrupt nobles.

Now, he felt some undeniable changes in his body.

He felt that the human limitations, the need to sleep and eat, were slowly starting to fade. He could go for days without either, his body running on pure, refined mana.

He felt a newfound strength, a sense of breaking free from the physical constraints of his mortal form.

But he still felt a strange anchor holding him tightly; the feeling was very subtle, but it reminded him that he still had not reached the ascension realm.

Klaus right now sat on a chair in his room, playing with a broken, silver, lotus-like artifact in his hands.

The backstory behind this lotus was intriguing.

Just after the purge of nobles, a woman had come to the gates of the palace crying. She had been screaming about how the Messenger had killed her mother and how she wanted to meet the Messenger to avenge her.

Of course, everyone knew she was the daughter of a previous marquess who had been killed by Klaus in his massacre.

Her screams were loud and annoying, echoing across the palace grounds day and night. The new queen, Andrea, might have just had her killed for disturbing the peace, if not for her complex background.

Apparently, the marquess that Klaus had killed earlier had blood relations with a very strong noble from a great empire.

Empires were forces several times stronger than normal kingdoms, so much so that lower-ranked demon lords like Krazinok never bothered them.

Of course, Klaus did not care about them, but the queen and Commander Caesar were tense.

They feared the political repercussions of such a confrontation. They simply complied and requested Klaus to meet the daughter of the marquess, hoping to settle the matter in any way possible.

The woman was cunning. She came in front of Klaus, her eyes filled with a mad glint.

She did not cry but simply laughed wildly. Her laughter was loud and unnerving. She then declared that she had already sent a message to the empire to bring the kingdom to ruin.

After that, she attacked Klaus with a strange, lotus-shaped artifact. This artifact was made of a cold, strange metal. It appeared above Klaus's head, pulsating with a white energy, trying to take control of his mind and shatter it.

"Hahaha," she laughed, her eyes shining with a crazed ambition.

"This is an artifact from the empire! It can control the targets and make them the user's slave! Now, watch how I use this messenger to raze this kingdom from the ground and slaughter all of you like chickens!"

The allure of controlling an entity like the Messenger was too enticing. She saw herself ruling the kingdom, then the empire, then all human kingdoms with Klaus as her slave.

She could not to this day understand how the king of Riverdale, this medium-sized kingdom, had gotten his hands on the summoning ritual.

The power of the Messenger was just too immense to be from a normal summoning.

"Ohh, what a bitch, this thing just gave me a headache," a voice came from the man she thought she had secured full control over.

Klaus was now clutching his head; his expression became annoyed as he looked at the daughter of the late marquess.

The lotus that had just been floating over his head broke and fell on his hand. He held the lotus and looked at the woman with a cold, terrifying glare.

"For giving me this headache, you will pay a much steeper price."

As soon as Klaus spoke, an aura of death spread in the surroundings.

A black, shadowy figure, the death form of the marquess, materialized with glowing eyes, its form menacing, its eyes filled with a strange, dark energy.

The woman, looking at her dead mother appearing like this in a terrified form, screamed. That was all she could do before her own dead mother's form plunged on her, gripping her to the floor before killing her with a dagger.

After a swift kill, the death form of the previous marquess returned to its designated place inside the sanctuary.

The dead body of the daughter lay sprawled on the ground. Klaus simply looked at Andrea and Caesar, who had been standing on the scene looking completely shocked by the quick escalation of the situation before them.

"Clean up the mess and don't disturb me for such trivial things until the kingdom is being invaded or something." As he said those orders, he left for his room.

Klaus was now in his room, looking at the broken lotus in front of him.

The artifact was a beautiful piece; its silver curves and intricate designs were a work of art, but it was now broken into two pieces, and its power was gone, so he could not test it in any way.

He held the two pieces in his hands; his thoughts returned to the moment the artifact had been activated on him.

[Ding! System had blocked a mind attack] x 99

He had seen this message over and over again; a rapid-fire of notifications had flooded his mind.

The System had been fighting the artifact, blocking its attempts to take control of his mind, one after another.

Finally, after a few seconds of intense struggle by it, the artifact had broken into two pieces, leaving Klaus with a slight headache.

The sheer number of times the artifact had tried to attack his mind, and the speed at which the system had countered it, was proof that the system was quite powerful on its own.

"I just don't understand why you behave powerlessly sometimes, though," Klaus said, only to not get a reply from the system.

But still the sensation he got, as if something was trying to pierce through his mind, was something he would never forget.

Klaus acknowledged that he had been saved by the system, not his own mental fortitude, and this reminder only fueled his will to get stronger.

The universe was full of people with strange powers and artifacts, and he had to be careful.

He then put the two pieces of the broken lotus in his inventory. He would study it later.

----------------------------

Meanwhile, in a far distant empire, in a large, dimly lit hall, a huge, powerful man in dark, noble attire stood in front of a group of his nobles.

The hall was vast, with high ceilings and walls adorned with huge, golden paintings. The atmosphere was tense and silent.

The man was the duke of the empire, and his face was contorted in a mask of anger and pain. A crystal in his hand, which was a mirror image of the artifact his niece had just used, was showing the image of his niece.

The crystal showed the message of the lady Klaus had just killed moments ago. She spoke with tears in her eyes as she informed him about the death of his sister.

"Who! Who dared to hurt her!" he roared, his voice shaking the entire hall. The nobles of the empire, who had been standing in silence, now knelt in fear.

The duke had sent his niece and his sister to a small, insignificant kingdom with the intention of making the king his puppet.

He did not know about the Messenger; he did not know about Klaus. He just knew that a small kingdom's king had gained immense power, and he wanted it for himself.

"Find me the person who did this," he commanded, his voice filled with a cold fury.

"I want him alive. I want to see his face before I kill him with my own hands."

The small nobles and soldiers, who had been kneeling, now stood up. They had a new mission and a new prey to hunt.

The duke's anger and fury were not just for the death of his sister and niece; it was a matter of his own power and a political game that he had been playing for a long time.

The nobles, who had been kneeling, now stood up. Their faces were filled with a mix of fear and a new sense of purpose.

They had a new mission, to find the man who had dared to challenge their duke. And they would not stop until they found him.