Sword of Dawnbreaker

”Both you and Duke Ferdinand Wendell should handle the aftermath of the battle first. We now have a huge mess to clean up,” Emperor Rosetta stated calmly, his tone leaving no room for doubt. ”Although the enemy has been defeated, the damage he left behind is still spreading. The faster we manage the aftermath, the more people we can save. Additionally, there are other tasks to handle—the fragments that fell from the sky during the final phase are spreading across the entire battlefield, and no one knows what effects they might have. Assemble the Mage Corps who are able to move, and collect as many of those remnants as possible... The members of the Cecil Clan should have started taking action as well.”

”Yes, Your Majesty! And you...”

”I’m perfectly safe here, and I’ll contact you shortly—until you receive my orders, do not let anyone approach the Hall of Mysteries.”

”...Understood.”

Count Winterhold’s communication was cut off, and only then did Emperor Rosetta breathe a slight sigh of relief. He then turned and walked back to the center of the Hall of Mysteries. He glanced at the illusionary wall, shattered by the final magical impact, and the slightly disheveled hall. The fall of the War God and the close-range explosion of the Annihilation Seed had caused a certain degree of damage to this solid hall; the walls were cracked, the ceiling was also slightly damaged, and debris and dust covered the floor in a thick layer, while a set of table and chairs in the center was already covered in dust.

”Not really suitable for receiving guests... but it doesn’t matter anymore.”

He casually muttered these words, conjured an invisible whirlwind with a wave of his hand, which cleared most of the dust from the surface of the chairs. Afterward, he sat down rather nonchalantly, picked up a teacup that was placed upside down on the table, wiped the dust off the rim, picked up a nearby teapot, and poured himself a cup of cold tea.

After taking a sip, he sat here quietly, as if waiting for some destined event to arrive, while behind him, one by one, hazy and nearly transparent figures silently emerged from the air.

If there were an aristocratic scholar familiar with the Augustus Clan present, these figures should be quite recognizable—

George Augustus, Majori Augustus, Corinthina Augustus...

They were all members of the Augustus Clan who had already passed away, blood relatives of Emperor Rosetta Augustus over the past two hundred years.

Some of these figures were solid while others were so illusory they were barely visible. They stood silently behind Emperor Rosetta, quietly and patiently waiting. Their wait didn’t last long; soon enough, Majori Augustus’s phantom uttered a hollow and ethereal voice, almost like a sigh, ”The time has come.”

Almost the instant this voice fell, an invisible wind swept through the empty Hall of Mysteries, accompanied by the infusion of a dead, stagnant aura from the twilight glow outside the bay window. The ceiling and floor of the entire hall were instantly covered with points of starlight, as if countless whispers were echoing in the hall, countless murmurs from dreams emanating from all directions, while a hollow eye formed from a multitude of twisted and chaotic lines rapidly appeared before Rosetta—accompanied by a sharp, frantic shriek: ”What’s happening here!? What have you damned mortals done to me? Why can’t I return to my kingdom, why can’t I contact my real self, why... why is my power continuously fading away?!”

”Welcome back,” Rosetta calmly addressed the suddenly appeared ”Eye of the God.” For the first time in decades, his expression was so light-hearted, he even raised the teacup with a smile, ”Care for a cup of tea? Blended with centuries-old dust and the smoke from the battlefield of the gods.”

”You...” The Eye of the God suddenly turned toward Rosetta and immediately took notice of those vague figures behind him, ”Augustus... Is this the work of you insignificant mortals?!”

”Compared to the War God, your performance as a fragment from the Ancient Era is truly unflattering at this moment—the War God at least fought until the last moment,” Rosetta placed the teacup down and slowly stood up before the Eye of the God, ”Are you perplexed? You don’t understand why your power is rapidly dwindling away? You can’t figure out why you can’t contact your ’true self’? You don’t know why you can’t return to your kingdom?”