Ever since the war started, King Harth and Lord Korogin had repeatedly tried explaining this, but Emperor Lianghu was rigid. He was like a mountain, unmovable in his stance. There was no way he could be convinced otherwise. In their minds, Emperor Lianghu's judgement was clouded and this made him vent his frustrations on the kingdom. They knew how much he loved Empress Mei. Still, it was unreasonable and invoked their immense fury. Everyone had something precious to them. For Emperor Lianghu, it was Empress Mei. For King Harth though, it was the entirety of the Alzar Kingdom. The empire had gone too far! With no other choice, they were forced to engage the empire again in a bloody long war.
Lord Korogin was equally infuriated as Emperor Lianghu. Who liked to be wrongfully accused of something? No one did, especially when the lives of millions were at stake! The two sides glared at each other hatefully. One could imagine that if they were alone, they would be barbarically killing each other with no consideration to their image or reputation! The bystanders, Sir Winstin and the Four Cardinals, felt suffocated by the tremendous sea of hatred and fury. Even these great warriors felt trepidation here.
"Do what you wish, Lianghu," Korogin spat. "I know you won't listen to me anyways. Just kill me already."
"Until you confess to killing my wife, I won't let you die so easily," Lianghu sneered.
"Killing your bitch of a wife? I wish I was the one who did it!" the Master of Strategy laughed. He no longer cared about his image and openly insulted the emperor. Perhaps, in the entire known world, Korogin was the only one who dared to do such a thing!
Emperor Lianghu narrowed his eyes and suddenly grinned maliciously. "I will enjoy making you suffer!"
With that, he nodded towards Cardinal Shaolong. The man stepped forward, unsheathed his sabre, and in a lightning quick attack, Shaolong sliced off Lord Korogin's right arm! Anyone who had their arm cut off would be assaulted by unbelievable pain. Even with Korogin's rock solid willpower, he was no exception. He began screaming uncontrollably as blood splattered across the floor. His detached arm was still wiggling far from him. The air was filled with his hoarse screams of agony and anger!
Although Sir Winstin was weak and bounded, he was thoroughly enraged and tried standing up. He could stand this no longer! A man's fury had no bounds! Using it, the Royal Guard fought his way through his restraints. Seeing this, Cardinal Hui and Loujin had a change in their expressions and rushed to pin him down. Sir Winstin gritted his teeth and summoned every bit of strength in his body to resist the weight of both Hui and Loujin! He was like a wild bull as he pushed himself off the ground, but he was too weak. His body was frail from the beatings and starvation. In this case, there was no way he could match both Hui and Loujin, who were at the peak of health. He was forced to watch as Emperor Lianghu stand over Lord Korogin's quivering body.
The emperor bent over and picked up Korogin's head by the hair, dragging him face-to-face. For the mighty Master of Strategy to be treated like this would startle anyone. He was fully at the mercy of the emperor. Lord Korogin's face was several times paler than before and his eyes were listless. The amount of blood he lost was not small and the open wound kept leaking. It was a horrifying sight. At the rate he was losing blood, he would die from blood loss quickly.
"How is it? How does it feel to lose something?" Emperor Lianghu mocked. "The pain you're going through, I've felt a million times over! After I'm done with you, I'll destroy the Alzar Kingdom and put an end to this war!"
His words carried a bone-chilling coldness, as if he treated millions of lives as nothing but trash. Even the Four Cardinals were shocked by his ruthlessness, especially Cardinal Hui. As the one who stood by the emperor's side since his ascension to the throne, his emotions were somber. Besides the Twin Imperial Princesses and Imperian Qiang, there was possibly no one who knew Emperor Lianghu better than him. Because of that, he could not understand. Had the emperor really gone insane from grief? The position of Cardinal was different from a Royal Guard. Sir Winstin often provided advice to Lord Korogin, but Cardinal Hui could not. He could only accept the emperor's orders as law. Nonetheless, his eyes hinted at a sense of unwillingness.
"Cardinal Shaolong, get Lord Korogin patched up. I wouldn't want him dying so soon," Emperor Lianghu said, turning his gaze to Sir Winstin. "Even now, you still want to fight back? Who gave you the right? You're just a mere dog of the kingdom."
"It was our mistake for ever trusting you," Sir Winstin fumed. "How could you do this? Do you not have a sense of shame?"
"Shame?" he laughed loudly. "Well spoken for the ones who assassinated my wife! You were the ones that forced my hand! Cardinal Loujin, cripple both of his arms! I'd like to see how the strongest knight fares after he becomes a cripple!"
Sir Winstin burst into another storm of rage and fought against his captors. If he could, he would kill them without mercy! Twice, he failed in his mission. Twice, he failed to protect his lord and king! The first was during the Battle of the Millennium, forced to watch King Harth be captured. The second was now, forced to watch Lord Korogin be mutilated. He felt vexed and furious at Emperor Lianghu but also himself. The strongest knight in the kingdom? What a laughable title right now! These two failures would forever stain his heart. He could never hold his head high again. Even without Emperor Lianghu's torture, the glory of Sir Winstin might end here.
Before Cardinal Loujin could cripple him, a messenger rushed into the room with a panicked expression. Upon seeing the brutality of the scene, the man was struck mute. Everyone frowned and turned to glare at him. His interruption was like pouring cold water on the boiling mood. The most irritated person was Emperor Lianghu. He had given orders to prevent anyone from interrupting. The messenger really wanted to slap himself a hundred times for his mistake, but the emperor saw the urgency on his face and restrained his murderous aura.
"What is it?" the emperor demanded.
"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty! We have received reports of an approaching Alzar fleet, around four thousand strong. From what we understand, it was led by General Illion Doro and…" the messenger hesitated. "The Twin Imperial Princesses and the heir apparent of the Alzar Kingdom are onboard as well!"
"What?" everyone reflexively shouted, shock covering their faces.