Will of the Unyielding [LitRPG Apocalypse • Progression]

Pin drop silence.

The great hall where hundreds of people were currently standing in had descended into a silence that, to many, was louder than thunder.

Nobody dared to breathe, fearing any sound would attract the wrong attention, all they could do was staring at the dais where an unknown young man had dared to talk back to His Imperial Majesty.

I want to be like him, Maelor thought.

At this point it didn't matter if Nova was stronger or weaker than the emperor and the Vireah Empire, at least to him.

He wanted to have the same guts Nova had to freely do as he wished against an opponent that seemed to be insurmountable.

Andretas, standing beside him, was clenching his hands unconsciously while his lips had arched up. His gaze never left the dais.

If one didn't know him they would think he was daydreaming while eyeing Deborah.

But, strangely or not, the most stunned person of all was Garran.

Every time he had asked that question, all the people in the past hadn't dared to repeat their words and had quivered in fear.

Now, though, he'd found someone who not only was calmly standing just a few meters from him, but had also entirely disregarded his Emperor title in front of every important noble of his empire.

This was a direct affront to his dignity and what he represented.

To the weaker observers, the emperor's face was a mask of tranquillity, never changing and aloof even in the face of such insults.

Only the strong ones knew that this couldn't be further from the truth.

The guards posted in the hall wanted to intervene, but stepping onto the dais without being allowed by the emperor was a crime in and of itself.

They stopped at the edges and readied themselves. The only course of action they had was to wait for their call and intervene as quickly as possible to take the blasphemous man down.

That call, however, didn't come.

Mana trembled around the emperor, seemingly angry in his stead for the insults he had to suffer.

The emperor lightly chuckled as if he'd heard the best joke of his life, but his chuckle didn't ease the atmosphere one bit.

In fact, as soon as the empress heard that chuckle, her expression changed. She shot up to her feet and quickly vacated her chair.

After so many years of being married with the emperor, she knew him too well, and that chuckle meant nothing good.

Nova noticed the empress quickly leaving and gently pushed Deborah off the dais before turning toward the emperor, whose expression had reverted back to normal.

"Boy," Garran raised his hand, exposing a ring with an inlaid mana stone that shone brightly as the energy gathered inside, "for the crime of treason toward the crown, I, Garran, Emperor of Vireah, sentence you to death."

The ring shone with a blinding light. He pointed a finger at Nova and solemnly muttered.

"Emperor's Decree — Purification."

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A book, larger and taller than the emperor, materialized above Garran's head.

Whooosh!

Its pages flapped quickly and soon stopped on a particular one.

Then, a beam the size of an adult's arm and made entirely of light shot toward Nova.

It took long to explain, but only the blink of an eye passed from the time the emperor had sentenced Nova to death to the beam being fired.

It was so quick that even Nova, who already knew something was coming, only had time to summon Dreadscape from his Inventory and grab it, an action that could be considered instant.

BOOM!

The crowd hadn't even registered Garran's words when their ears shook like drums, and a shockwave hit them, whipping their hair and clothes wildly as their eyes turned the size of slits.

The dais broke and debris flew everywhere. Some of it hit few unfortunate spectators, injuring them slightly.

The shockwave soon died out, and their eyes all turned toward the dais, now leveled to the ground, searching for any remnant of that young man but dust clouded their vision.

Nobody had any hope of finding a whole body.

Experiencing such power, where only the shockwave had almost lifted them from their feet, added another sense of inferiority toward the emperor.

And these weren't normal nobles.

All of them were the best the empire had to offer. Both in influence and strength.

Sixth, seventh, and even a few eighth rank mages, along with third and fourth rank knights, were among them.

The older generation in the hall had seen the emperor grow since he was a kid, they had already witnessed snippets of his strength over the years and knew he was a monster in human skin.

A talent born once every several generations.

But the younger generation had only heard stories about him, some even too mythical to believe if not for their elders solemnly recounting what they saw with their own eyes.

Yet this was the first time both the older and younger generations experienced the current might of their emperor, and it awed them.

"Rank nine…" an elderly noble muttered.

Someone next to him shakily nodded. "Unbelievable. The last rank nine mage our empire saw was the Tower Master of the Magic Tower, but it's already been hundreds of years since then."

"This is history. History is unfolding right in front of our eyes."

Murmurs spread, and a single thought sprouted in their minds:

Coming here to the emperor's birthday was totally worth it.

In the middle of the audience, Jeffrey muttered, "Dead… he's dead. How am I going to report this to the court mage?"

Maelor and Andretas snorted at his comment, not even looking toward him. Their eyes were glued to the spot where Nova had been standing, now covered in dust.

Garran also stared at the spot where Nova was, waiting for the dust to settle. For some reason, he felt the boy he'd just hit was still alive.

Despite the thought being preposterous, his gut feeling had never betrayed him.

When the dust cleared, everyone's eyes bulged, even the emperor's, who was prepared, widened slightly.

Nova was standing there on his two legs, not a single hair out of place, but his head was lowered in a thoughtful look.

Feeling all eyes on him, Nova came back to himself.

He lifted his head and said, "That was light element, right?"

Garran was silent. His eyes darted between a small hole in Nova's shirt and his perfectly intact face.

Despite only having used a rank seven spell, it had been cast with his ninth rank mana quality and quantity, elevating every aspect of it.

So how was this boy unscathed?

"I'm talking to you."

Garran felt himself being picked up by the neck, with no power to resist, as his legs instinctively flailed in the air, searching for any ground he could step on.

His eyes met Nova's deep blue ones, which had turned icy, but Garran's demeanor didn't show any sign of weakness, even in this situation.

He said with difficulty, "Do you know what you're doing?"

"No." Nova's grip tightened. "But I know for sure what I'm going to do next if you don't tell me."

Nova had no idea why this was, nor did he know why he couldn't sense any of the two back on Earth. Even in the three kingdoms he'd visited, there was no trace of them. Yet this emperor not only was a light mage, he was apparently the highest light mage there could be in this place. It was as if someone were mocking him.

You couldn't find even a trace of light element, but here was a person who had mastered it.

Having already come into contact with every other base element, at least those he knew of, he didn't feel good about missing two when his mind was already set on perfection.

But now he'd found a clue, and he would get to the bottom of this as he'd always done.

BANG!

The great hall doors slammed open.

Everyone snapped out of their reverie. Terror filled their eyes, which had been staring at their emperor being gripped like a chicken, and made them turn toward the entrance.

A calm, middle-aged man, wearing army clothing with a sword strapped to his side, stepped inside the hall. His eyes fell on Nova, who was gripping the emperor by the throat.

"Friend, why don't you release him and sit down with me for a chat?"

Recognizing whose voice this was, Nova's head swivelled toward the hall's entrance.