Elizabeth immediately activated her domain and froze everything in the vicinity. After all, she's a powerful Divine Emperor expert with water affinity. Sensing what Elizabeth was doing, Fan also released his domain which happened to be a darkness domain.
Even though he's only a mid-stage divine emperor, his darkness domain can reduce the effects of Elizabeth's ice domain significantly so that his son can take over and hold her off.
"Ling, hold her off while I go kill the boy and those Imperial Guardians" Fan swiftly moved toward the carriage while Ling stood in front of Elizabeth and unleashed his fire elemental attacks on her.
"FAN, DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE KILL MY GRANDSON!" Elizabeth lost it when she saw Fan unleashing attacks and killing the Imperial Guardian near the carriage. Unfortunately for her, the ice domain was weakened enough to allow Fan to hold her off.
Ling cast a sea of flames and turned the entire road into a hell pit while Elizabeth summoned her sword and froze everything in her path.
Ling's only job was to hold off Elizabeth while his father finished off the target. It appeared that Elizabeth had gotten stronger because all of the fires that were created by Fan are frozen completely.
"Worthy of the title Ice Empress. However, I can't let you go past me" Ling surrounded his body with fire and summoned his weapon. He created a gigantic wall of flames between Elizabeth and Fan. Then, he charged directly into Elizabeth to delay her.
Meanwhile, all the imperial guardians summoned their attacks to stop Fan. Even though the imperial guardians tried their best, it was useless. A Divine King is an ant compared to a Divine Emperor.
Sensing that Elizabeth was closing the battle between her and his son, Fan released all his energy. Suddenly a gigantic darkness tiger appeared in the sky and slammed into the carriage suppressing every Imperial Guardian.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Elizabeth screamed when she saw the state of the carriage, blood was everywhere. Fan pushed all the debris away and confirmed that the body was indeed Bruce Stellae and signaled Ling to back off.
"Ling, good job holding her back. We have to leave now" Hearing his dad's signal, Ling threw a wicked smile at Elizabeth and ran away.
In her rage, Elizabeth chased the father and son duo across the land for countless hours. Unfortunately, they got away.
"Hahahaha good news Forest, that stupid brat is dead" Alizah Hopkins had just received the news that the Imperial Guardians and Bruce Stellae had died due to an assassination from the dark forces.
"As expected of the Twilight Tower, even Elizabeth Blackthorne could not protect him. Did you hear any news about Elizabeth? It'd be really good for us if she had died in the battle" Forest laughed heartily after hearing the news and truly hoped that Elizabeth had died in the battle.
The only thing left for the Hopkins family is to remotivate Jonathan and they should be back on track to control the country once again.
"Unfortunately, she was too powerful even against the two divine emperors. Apparently, she chased down the divine emperors from Twilight Tower throughout the entire day."
"That's a shame but that's okay. We have accomplished what we originally wanted. Now what's left is to inform Jonathan of the news and the Hopkins family will rise" Forest and Alizah concluded the meeting and went back to enjoying life once again.
At the Stellae castle.
"So, Bruce was right after all. The dark forces did send more than one Divine Emperor to assassinate him" Elizabeth stood in the room with Logan after hearing the news.
"I have to give it to that kid. His prediction was spot on. Including the part where we have spies in the castle" Logan sat in the chair and began to recall what Bruce had told them earlier.
1 month ago…
"No one outside this room can be trusted. I'm sure that the Hopkins family or whoever wants to harm me has already placed spies in the castle. So, they'll know right away when I am leaving for the academy and attack accordingly"
"If I were them, I'd place a few experts hiding near the Gold city and come out when the target leaves the city" Bruce explained to his family what he would do if he were the enemy.
"By the off chance that I somehow manage to survive and reach the imperial academy, it's not like the academy is impenetrable"
"There is still a potential for spies and assassins from the Dark Forces in the academy planning for my demise. As of right now, I'm pretty much dead as long as the Dark Forces are alive"
"What should we do then Bruce? We can't just let them kill you" Elizabeth turned anxious after hearing Bruce's thoughts.
"Well Dad could technically reach the legendary realm, Great Emperor in a few weeks and wipe out the entire Dark Forces on the continent"
"Afterwards, I'd enjoy my life leisurely and have 100 beauties in my harem" Bruce had a happy look on his face as he imagined having a luxurious life.
Logan smacked Bruce in the head and yelled.
"You brat! Take this seriously. What's this about a harem of 100 beauties? Even I don't get to have such a thing" Logan knew he misspoke when he sensed his death as he turned around and saw his wife and mother-in-law wanting to strangle him.
"Uh, I was just kidding honey! I never want to have a harem since I have you. Mother-in-law, please trust that I am only hitting Bruce to educate him!"
Right before Jennifer and Elizabeth get the chance to kill Logan, Bruce continued.
"Realistically, the only way for me to survive is to be dead."
"WHAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY DEAD?" Everyone freaked out after hearing Bruce's solution.
"Bruce, explain yourself." Jennifer spoke up as she knew her genius grandson is not suicidal.
"It's simple really. The Dark Forces have to believe that they succeeded in killing me which means they'll stop looking for me. I have a plan to make that happen."
After explaining his plan to the entire family, Logan became flabbergasted.
"So, your plan is to have a dead body of a young boy with dyed white hair inside the carriage."
"Yup that's correct."
"What if the assassin sees a dead body in the carriage?" Jennifer thought there was a flaw with Bruce's plan.
"If a divine emperor is coming to kill me, it's much easier for him to blast that carriage to pieces than to knock on the door and choke me to death. Especially with the imperial guardians around. Anyway, it's a safe bet that I'm willing to try"
"How do you suggest we get a dead body of a young boy? I hope you're not telling us to go find a random young boy and kill him" Logan refused to kill innocent people, especially an innocent young boy.
"No, I'm not. There are plenty of people dying every day, it's not particularly hard finding a dead body of a young boy in the kingdom"
"We should anonymously provide wealth to the family of the dead young boy since we're using his body without their permission"
"Afterward, we can change the boy's appearance to look like me and the assassins won't know the difference." Gears in everyone's head were turning after hearing Bruce's explanation.
"What happens after you die?" Elizabeth seemed to have accepted Bruce's plan and wondered what her son will do after faking his death.
"I'll change my looks and have a new identity. I plan to enroll in the Imperial Academy under a fake name and grow until I'm strong enough to protect myself. With my estimate, I should be able to walk in the public as Bruce Stellae after I reach the Divine King realm."
After some time, everyone agreed with Bruce's plan and carried out their respective parts of his plan. Jennifer's role is to discretely obtain the necessary "ingredients" to fake Bruce's death and act in anger when her "grandson" dies in the ambush.
Jennifer and Logan's roles are to act normally so that the spies in the family don't notice anything weird. Meanwhile, Lisa had a much bigger role.
Right after the Imperial Guardians and Jennifer left for the Imperial Academy…
"HELP! My brother is dying here, could someone please get us to a doctor!"
In the center of the City of Gold, a young beautiful woman was screaming out loud asking for help. Next to her was a little boy who was bleeding to death. Even before help could come, the little boy passed out and died.
"NOOOOO!!!! James don't leave me alone" The young woman cried heavily and walked to a funeral home. There she explained her situation to the director.
"My little brother and I traveled all the way to the City of Gold to work and earn a living. Unfortunately, my brother got stabbed today and died. Could you please arrange for us to return back to our village so that I can bury him?" The girl cried as she explained her request to the director.
"Of course, here are the fees to do so. I'll set everything up for you and your brother"
The dead boy got moved into a casket and moved into a carriage and his sister got inside. Then, they traveled back to the village. The sister bid farewell to the workers of the funeral home and brought the casket to a discrete location in the village.
"Here you are Bruce, everything worked out just as you planned" Lisa smiled as she opened the casket and found Bruce napping.
"Yawn… That took a lot of work. You're a pretty good actress Lisa. You should be in movies" Bruce smiled as he got out of the casket.
"I still don't know why you went through so much work to get out of the city. Couldn't you just sneak away after your clone left for the Imperial Academy"
"That's true but I don't know if there are spies at the City Gates watching for any kid moving out of the city. It's much more plausible and discrete this way in my opinion." Bruce wiped off the fake blood on his body and pulled out a new shirt from the universal storage his grandma gave him for the trip.
"Lisa, it'll be a long time till I see you again. But I promise that I'll see you again in the future. Please wait for me, okay?" Bruce looked at Lisa lovingly as he prepared to begin his new journey by himself.
"I'll always wait for you, Bruce. But I want to know that you're alive so can you please let me know what fake name you will be using in the future"
"Good question, I haven't thought of that yet. Give me a few moments" After much contemplation, Bruce told Lisa his new name.
"My new name will be Bruce Pendragon."