The council room was the most secular room inside the whole palace; it was laced with soundproof inscriptions. The room had white walls, a luxurious table, and 8 chairs. Right now, 7 people were sitting on 7 chairs and they had serious expressions on their faces.
*Knock* *Knock*
"Come in" General Luke ordered.
The servant who was sent to call the emperor came back with a nervous look.
"What did the majesty said?" Lord Haze questioned.
Lord haze had blue hairs and an elegant look, he can't be considered weak looking, but he was nowhere close to a tough-looking person either. He was one of the most trusted subordinates of Ace.
"He… He…" The servant sputtered.
"Don't worry, just tell us what he said and we will let you go" General Luke comforted.
"He… he said 'Fuck the council meeting'" The servant replied and the council turned silent.
"…" The servant tensed as he thought that he was about to get punished.
"You can leave" to the servant's surprise, General Luke ordered him to leave, he bloomed and quickly left the room.
"Well, we can't say we didn't already expected that," Haze muttered with a small smile and others nodded.
They all knew how much Ace values his family, and now that a new member joined in, he won't leave that room until it was very urgent.
But unfortunately, the matter they were discussing was, urgent.
"I will go and request his presence" Luke announced and others nodded.
Luke was Ace's most trusted subordinate, if it was Luke himself, even Ace will give some face considering his loyalty.
General Luke stood up and walked towards the empress's room.
*Knock* *Knock*
"Who is it now?" Ace's annoyed voice was heard.
"It is me, your highness" General Luke answered politely.
The door opened and Ace came out with a frown.
"General Luke, is it something important?" Ace questioned directly as he knew the General wouldn't bother him in a time like this until it is very urgent.
"Your highness, I request your presence in the council room"
Ace glanced at General who's gaze remained stoic.
"Just wait for a while" Ace muttered and General nodded. Ace returned back to the room and placed 20 protective inscriptions all around the room, again.
"Let's go" He announced silently. General Luke knew the inscriptions were overkill, but he valued his life too much to say that.
…
Ace entered the council room with the general and others sitting inside sighed in relief.
"Your majesty" Everyone bowed and greeted.
"What is so urgent that General Luke had to come to me personally?" Ace questioned directly after sitting on a chair.
"Your majesty, your plan of planting underground spied all over the empire has really worked wonders for us and we have learned extremely essential news" General started with a serious tone.
Looking at how serious general and the others were, Ace nodded, signaling the general to continue.
"The Motle and the Tian families have planned a rebellion and are trying to involve the other 4, previous 1st tire noble families into it.
We doubt that the other empires are behind it or else I don't think they will dare to go against the Empire knowing that His Majesty is a Divinity.
It is rumored that Tian and Motle families might try to create trouble in the naming ceremony of the imperial princess" General reported.
Unintentionally, the general glanced at Ace who had a perfectly calm expression, but somehow, that same calm expression gave off a terrifyingly dangerous feeling. General Luke and the others instantly knew that this won't end without blood.
"We are heading out" And to everyone's fears, Ace stood up and ordered.
"Um… where to, your majesty?" Luke questioned even though he had some idea about what it was about.
"To the Tian and Motle family mansions" Ace answered with the same, calm expression.
"Y-your h-high-" Haze sputtered as he could guess why the emperor decided to visit the 2 families and to confirm his guesses, Ace declared.
"We will execute the Tian and Motle Families, today."
*Gasps*
Many of the council members took in cold breaths.
"Your majesty… we can't do that… we don't have any evidence against them to prove their crimes, if we execute them without any reason, the public will think of us as tyrants. And don't forget about the other two empires, if they are behind these 2 families, it won't be a good decision to annihilate them" Haze reasoned.
"It doesn't matter" Ace answered with cold eyes while everyone except General Luke had hesitating expressions.
"I am Ace 'Vorste'.
It is the 'Vorste' empire.
I am the emperor, I don't have to provide any reasons, if anyone dares to revolt, I will slaughter them all and as for the other empires, they won't care about the two families, if I am correct, they just want to probe our strength.
And if they want to see our might, see they shall. " Ace declared, especially focusing on the word, Vorste.
"Follow my orders, we are marching towards the Tian Family" Ace announced and stood up.
"As you command, your majesty" General bowed, he was excited inwardly.
He was the general of the Vorste army, so he loved the action. Scheming from behind the scenes wasn't his thing.
…
An hour later, an army of 5 million soldiers marched from the imperial Palace towards the Tian family mansion.
"Tian family! This shall be your last day!" Ace declared as he was standing in front of Tian Family entrance.
*Thunder*
*Rumble*
The sky roared and the ground shook.
*Flap*
2 pairs of long, Golden colored wings appeared behind Ace as he floated in the air.
Hot black Magma surrounded the whole 10 km wide mansion within seconds while terrifying Typhoons accompanied by lightning appeared all over the place.
The Tian family members weren't even given a chance to clarify themselves, fierce winds blew, the building wasn't able to stand destructive against the force and started collapsing.
Tian family members were in a difficult situation, they couldn't move out of the mansion due to the scorching Magma surrounding them, while they couldn't stay inside as the mansion was about to fall, they were trapped.
Ace moved quickly and captured the family head who wasn't able to put up any fight.
"Aaaghh!"
"Please let me out I didn't do an- Aaghh!"
"No! NO! Aghh!"
The family members screamed in agony as they died either due to debris falling on them, or were scorched in Lava as they tried to run away.
Within a minute, the majestic Tian family mansion was turned into a pile of debris, only the treasure room was left.
The members, the guards, the workers, all dead.
"Soldiers! March and take out all of their cores, don't miss a single one!
And some of you go and empty the treasure room, don't miss a single penny!" Ace ordered as the lava moved to make a way for the soldiers while Ace sat on a throne made of Magma.
"…" The soldiers along with General Luke had strange expressions.
'Did the emperor just called us to collect loot?' everybody has similar thoughts while Ace sat on the throne leisurely.
"Move it already! We also need to visit the Motle family" Ace commanded and Soldiers came out of their reverie.
"HEEAA!!" The soldiers marched forward and started locating the bodies under the debris.
...
Within 30 minutes, every core was collected and the treasure room was emptied.
"Good work" Ace praised and waved his hand.
Scorching flames were summoned as they rushed towards the debris, burning down everything.
10 km wide mansion was now turned into sea of flames.
"This is what you get when you plan to rebel against the Vorste empire" Ace muttered as he saw flames burning the entire thing down with a calm expression.
A similar thing happened with the Motle family as their head was captured.
…
The next day, the people of the empire were instructed to gather in the open trial grounds, where most of the public executions were performed.
A large crowd gathered and sat on the seats that were circled around the huge ground with a large stage in the center.
There was a man holding the end of 2 big ropes, standing at the center of the stage with 2 families' heads were positioned on 2 guillotines. The family heads had a fearful expression but their cores were taken out and mouths were sealed so they couldn't do or speak anything.
Ace appeared and sat on the throne inside one of the cabinets and as the people saw the emperor, they started cheering with excited expressions.
"All Hail The Emperor, Ace Vorste!"
"All Hail The Emperor, Ace Vorste!"
The cheers stopped as Ace raised his hand. He stood up and cleared his throat.
"People of the Vorste empire, I know many of you have already realized that I, Ace Vorste, have completely eradicated Tian and Motle families yesterday and these 2 are the only ones left alive.
My sources have discovered that Motle and Tian families were planning a rebellion against the Vorste empire, and I, as an emperor, plan to send a message to everyone who is planning a rebellion by doing this publically.
If anyone dares to rebel, I will slaughter them without mercy.
Now, for the crimes they have committed, I shall execute these traitors and purify our land" Ace declared.
"Let the purification commence" Ace ordered.
The man released the ropes after nodding. The patriarchs' expression paled as a heavy, blunt blade fell on their necks.
*Clang*
*Spurt*
They tried moving in order to defend themselves but their movements stopped after a moment as the blade fell on their neck.
Under everyone's eyes, their heads rolled on the ground.
They were publically executed.
This was Ace's way to warn anyone who plans who rebel to cease their movements.
…
Meanwhile, Maeve who had her daughter sleeping in her arms was looking at the screen showing the execution with an uncertain expression.