Oath's downfall

After the decision to wait, Seth remained with Molly and Cain in Necros’s hideout.

The situation inside the kingdom ended up as everyone expected. The incidents were becoming more frequent, putting more pressure on King Lian, and Iris’s departure made everyone much more uneasy.

The Capital was slowly falling apart, and the stopgap method of locking up any troublemaker was not helping. Soon, the dungeon was also filled with people, making Lian have no choice but to cancel his curfew orders.

It was not all bad since he had started to calm down without Seth’s perception muddling his head. Realizing he was slowly losing his grip over the kingdom and might have already lost Iris, Lian eventually started making changes.

He went into the prison and promised everyone a hefty reward for helping to calm the masses. With Seth filling the kingdom’s coffers before he departed from Oath, he had a lot of gold to work with, and nothing worked better in changing minds than gold.

He then explained to them that Iris was currently missing, and if the situation continued, an attack wouldn’t be necessary for the kingdom to crumble on its own.

With the attraction of monetary rewards and the promise of freedom, most people accepted the deal and were released. Seth’s removal of his perception energy also helped with them being able to act rationally again.

The ones that remained strong in their convictions were kept inside prison.

Lian then made an announcement to the rest of the population. He asked the citizens for their forgiveness for the rough handling and even declared he was ready to make reparation for everyone.

He talked about how the kingdom was in a difficult situation and even lied that he had started negotiating with the alliance for a peace treaty.

He also said that Iris’s current condition was unknown after deciding to chase after the former teacher of the academy Seth, who had sided with the alliance.

His apologetic face, combined with the act of removing all taxes for an entire year, somewhat calmed most of the population. People took it as a show of goodwill since the king was even giving up on his fortune to make things right and started to calm down.

After noticing his plan seemed to be working, Lian thanked the people again and ended the announcement.

With Iris missing for over a week, Lian sent all ascended back to the academy to continue cultivating and teaching the students. He knew that if Iris truly lost, all the ascended in the entire kingdom might be unable to protect him from the one who bested her.

With all these thoughts in mind, he might as well allow the kingdom’s power to recover in preparation for the alliance attack and hope for the best.

Finally, the change Seth and the rest were waiting for had come, and Lian was once more vulnerable.

“Are we doing it?” asked Elise in the underground office.

Seth nodded and stood up. It was the first night after Lian had gotten rid of his ascended guards, and Seth didn’t want to delay anymore.

His perception source was also full, and he was ready for Lian.

Lian had just returned to his chambers and told his wife to leave for the night. The recent happenings and Iris’s disappearance slowly sapped away at his willpower, both in affairs and in bed.

Every day ever since that night, he had to live in fear that Seth had taken care of Iris and would return to take care of him as well. The last thing on his mind would be to satisfy his wife.

Tonight, his greatest feat became true, and just as he was getting ready to lie in bed, a thud sound made him look in its direction. The shadow guarding his chamber was dead on the floor, and two people were sitting over his corpse.

His heart froze when he noticed who those two were. One was Seth, the source of most of his recent nightmares, and the other was Iris, the one he wanted to see the most.

She was looking a bit strange, but it was undoubtedly Iris.

What made him freeze was that the two were sitting side by side, slight mocking smiles on their lips as they looked at him.

Holding on to his last bit of hope, Lian gulped and asked: “Protector, have you brought Seth to our side?”

The smile on their lips grew wider, and Iris bent her head to the side. Slowly, blood mist changed her face into that of Elise as she said: “Oh Lian, don’t tell me you don’t recognize me after everything we’ve been through together. I am truly hurt.”

Lian’s shoulder’s slumped, and his head hung down helplessly as he muttered: “So she lost….”

Hearing footsteps approaching, Lian lifted his head again, his eyes looking hopelessly at Seth.

“Is there anything I can give you to let me live?”

Seth smirked as he extended his hand and cupped Lian’s face.

“Oh, don’t worry. You’ll live.” Said Seth, his eyes flashing gold and black color. Lian’s eyes, staring at Seth between his fingers, started to lose their light, the will inside them slowly dying as Seth’s perception started eroding at his soul.

Seth continued feeding perception energy into the King of Oath until his source briefly shook inside his head. Taking a step back, Seth’s face contorted in pain.

Elise noticed this and helped him stand up as she asked: “Did anything happen?”

Seth didn’t respond as he continued watching King Lian. King Lian’s body remained frozen, perception energy seeping out of his eyes and covering his body slowly.

<Shutting down…>

Seeing the familiar notification, Seth turned towards Elise. “Make sure no one comes in here.”

After Elise nodded, a stabbing pain came from Seth’s soul, and his consciousness suddenly blanked.

Elise supported his body, laying it slowly on the ground, but Lian soon attracted her attention. She could see a small mark appearing on Lian’s forehead.

“What is happening?” she asked herself, but there was no one to answer her. After the mark took form, Lian’s eyes closed, and he fell forward.

More than half an hour passed until Seth finally started moving again, sitting up while holding his head with his hand.

Looking at the passed-out Lian, he asked: “What happened?”

“That’s what I want to ask you. You both passed out, and even a weird sign appeared on Lian’s forehead.”

Seth was surprised by her words and used his space energy to turn Lian’s body around. When she noticed the mark on Lian’s forehead, he smiled despite his horrible migraine.

Standing up, he moved to the bed and sat down with Elise: “Nothing should be wrong. We have to wait for him to wake up.”

Elise nodded and started asking questions about what had just happened, but Seth barely knew himself, so he couldn’t give her any.

Since his system had also shut down, he could infer some things about the current situation, but nothing was sure.

After a few more hours, Lian also woke up, and Seth was surprised to receive a notification.

<A link has been established with Lian’s soul.>

Seth removed the seal placed on his soul after the lust source incidents, and his mind flooded with Lian’s memories, thoughts, and feelings. After having the system sort them out, Seth asked, “Lian, who are you?”

Lian’s eyes snapped back into focus, and he moved to kneel before Seth.

“Lian Crovan Oath, your humble servant.”

Seth could feel the truth of his words through the link between their souls. As long as he kept the connection open, every single thought and feeling of Lian was clear for him to see.

“Good. Very good.” Muttered Seth as he did a few more tests.

He only discovered little about the new ability to link souls, but he could tell it was a lot better than the method with Necros. He could read Lian’s thoughts, see what Lian saw, and even use his thoughts to give him orders.

‘So now it doesn’t change the target’s mind, but somehow seals their consciousness and gives me access to their souls. System, doesn’t this mean I can remove the mark, and he’ll come back to normal?’

<That seems logical, but it’s unknown if host can remove the mark.>

‘I need Lian, so I won’t risk anything unexpected happening. I’ll experiment more in the future.’

<Host should be aware. This link appears to put pressure on host’s soul. Host’s soul is already under a heavy burden from past memories, so use this ability with caution.>

‘Alright.’

Happy with the results, Seth turned towards Elise: “Everything seems fine. You know what to do now, don’t you?”

After Elise nodded, Seth ordered Lian to hold a new announcement where he would appear with Iris and declare her victory.

The announcement was held the following day, and both played their role perfectly. Elise has also declared, as Iris, that she will be moving inside the Royal Palace and guard King Lian at all times. This was to give herself an excuse not to attend the academy and prevent ascended from suspecting something.

After the conference, a new meeting was held deep inside the Oath Royal Palace, inside the throne room. This meeting was a bit different since it was held between Seth, Elise, Molly, Cain, Necros, and King Lian.

If someone else were in there, they would be terrified to see Seth sitting on the Royal throne while both Necros and Lian kneeled in front of him.

Three more seats were created next to the throne where Elise, Molly, and Cain were sitting.

Molly was the most overwhelmed, her face bright red with excitement. She had never thought a time when a king would kneel in front of her will ever come.

Seth ignored Molly’s shining eyes and said: “Everything has now fallen into place, but there are a few more things you will have to do.”. As he said the last part, he turned towards Elise.

Elise sighed and asked: “Great, more work. What now?”

“Since both the Oath king and the underground king are under my control, it is time to take over the kingdom. Since I need to keep my promise to you and mess a bit more with the alliance, changing people’s hearts will fall onto you.”

“First, Cain and Molly, are you willing to help?” asked Seth.

Molly nodded immediately, but Cain seemed reluctant as he said: “I have no problem helping, but my father….”

Seth chuckled and said: “You’ll have the chance soon enough and even make it publicly, bringing justice to your mother and making the entire king aware of his crimes.”

Cain looked interested in Seth’s plan and said: “Go on.”

“Elise will have Necros start moving the dark guilds to extort more people and act up. In the meantime, Lian and the guards will not react to all this.”

“With the recent chaos, this will make the people start to doubt the royals again, but you’ll not address that and let it grow into their hearts.”

“As the situation gets out of control, Cain and Molly will begin working to help people out of their issues. Gather the trust of the people by playing heroes. Denounce Necros as a criminal and promise the people you’ll do all you can to bring them justice.”

“Take a select few and even show them you are an ascended. As for Molly, an honest, young, pretty lady will make it easier to earn their trust.”

Molly blushed and lowered her face with a smile but didn’t bother Seth.

“As you move to clear up more and more of the underground guild members, Lian will step in and send shadows to assassinate the people who were supporting your movement.”

“Of course, you will be able to protect them and use this as a spark to ignite the doubts in their hearts. Plan the idea of the king supporting the underground guilds.”

“Expose other noble’s crimes to the people, letting them spread the word for you as you start fighting against the nobles and the underground guilds.”

“Cain, you can use this chance to publicly denounce your father, exposing his crimes, what he did to your mother, and so on. After that, you can kill him in the name of justice.”

“Next, Lian will move to declare you a criminal for fabricating evidence and killing a noble of the kingdom. Use this chance to expose the Royal family of their crimes next. Also, make sure to clear my name when doing this.”

“The distrust in the crown and the support you have gained will move the people’s hearts to your side as you continue fighting the royal family from the shadows.”

“With Lian and Necros under your control, it will be easy to act up the entire play.”

“As you gain more and more popularity, you will let yourself get captured, and Lian will declare a public execution.”

“Henrietta will return, appearing in front of everyone and saving you two. You will kneel in front of her, and she will announce that you two were her knights, sent here to remove her father’s corruption.”

“Having her sit on the throne will be easy after that. She will have the heart of the people and the academy’s support with Iris on our side.”

“Since she is already my wife, we’ll use this to annex Oath to Endora.”

As Seth explained his plan, everyone was starting to get excited.

“A game where all the pieces are under our control. I’m in.” said Elise, and everyone else nodded.

“We’re in.”