Chapter 76: Odri V
The Imperial Palace, Capital.
The Finance Minister's voice echoed through the cavernous hall, heavy and monotonous. Every figure he cited represented a shattered family or a scorched home within the capital.
"Preliminary assessments indicate that ten percent of the capital's infrastructure has been sustained during this Undead Calamity."
"Civilian casualties are still being tallied, but we estimate the count will exceed five thousand souls..."
Odri V sat upon his throne, listening in a cold, practiced silence. Suddenly, his vision blurred. A wave of nausea, thick and unnatural, surged from the deepest marrow of his bones.
His body gave a sharp jolt. His fingers clamped down on the stone armrests of the throne. Below him, the Finance Minister stopped his report, sensing the Emperor's sudden instability.
"Your Majesty?"
Odri did not respond. In his vision, the world was losing its color, bleeding into a monochromatic, ashen grey. A voice—a jagged, intrusive rasp—erupted within the theater of his mind.
"You didn't expect to see me again so soon, did you, Odri?"
It was the Sovereign of Death.
Odri felt his right hand twitch, rising slowly against his will. He slammed his left hand down upon his own forearm, pins-and-needles of golden Battle Aura erupting to suppress the alien control. He ignored his ministers, roaring instead within his own consciousness.
Get out.
"Out? No, Odri. It is you who must depart. My plan suffered a minor deviation, but no matter—this vessel... I find it quite suitable."
Odri stood up abruptly, his movements stiff and mechanical. Every eye in the throne room was now fixed upon him. He ignored them all, turning on his heel. Every step was a staggering, labored effort. He had only one instinct remaining: to leave this place before his body was completely usurped.
The commotion behind him swelled.
"Your Majesty!"
"Summon the Court Physicians immediately!"
Odri didn't look back. He poured every ounce of his willpower into his legs, hurtling toward his private chambers. The guards outside his bedroom wore masks of pure bewilderment as their Emperor approached like a wounded beast.
"Stop me—" Odri tried to command.
But the words that tore from his throat were different.
"EVERYONE, GET BACK! DO NOT APPROACH MY CHAMBERS WITHOUT AN EXPRESS ORDER!"
The voice belonged to Odri, but the cadence carried a chilling, ancient arrogance—the voice of the dead. The guards froze, but the weight of his command forced them to obey.
Odri burst into his room and slammed the heavy oak doors shut, throwing the bolt with the last of his strength.
BANG!
Behind him, the ministers and knights who had chased him were cut off. They heard only his final, desperate decree:
"STAY OUT! THAT IS AN ORDER!"
Inside the room, Odri leaned against the door, gasping for air. His body had become a battlefield.
"Give up, Odri. Your willpower is impressive, but you are merely human. A human soul has limits—undead existence is eternal!" The Sovereign of Death's cackle resonated in his skull. "Once I hold the reins of this body, my first act will be to welcome our kin from the East. The entire world shall bask in the glory of the Grave. You should be honored—your flesh shall be the cornerstone of a new era!"
Odri used the wall for support, stumbling toward the center of the room. His left hand suddenly seized a crystal goblet from a side table, intending to shatter it, but his right hand was faster, catching the wrist and forcing the glass back onto the table.
"This is my body!"
"Not for much longer!"
The control was hemorrhaging. Odri began to smash his own belongings, upending bookshelves and shattering vases, desperate to exhaust the body's physical stamina and delay the parasite's takeover.
Just then, a knock thudded against the door.
"Father! It's me, Alice! I'm coming in!"
Alice's voice.
Odri's heart clenched. No. Do not enter.
But his jaw was locked. He could no longer issue a warning. The lock turned, and Alice pushed the door open. She had come to boast of how many citizens she had saved and how many skeletons she had felled, but the sight before her stopped her cold.
The room was a ruin. And her father, the Emperor, stood in the center of the wreckage—his eyes burning a terrifying, unnatural red.
"Father...?" Alice's voice was thin with unease. "What is it? What's happened?"
Odri stared at her—or rather, the Sovereign of Death stared through his eyes.
"Oho? This is the Princess? Altlais's only disciple? It is time that bastard knight learned the price of defying the dead."
The Sovereign's malevolent intent flooded Odri's mind. His body moved.
Total control was achieved for a singular second. Odri's fist clenched, his golden Battle Aura exploding as he launched a punch directly at Alice's face.
Alice's eyes widened. She didn't even have time to scream.
A heartbeat before impact, the trajectory of the fist buckled. By a mere inch, the strike veered to the side at an impossible angle.
BOOM!
The fist whistled past Alice's cheek and slammed into the stone wall behind her. The entire palace shuddered under the force. The defensive runes in the masonry flared blue and died. A deep, fist-shaped crater was left in the solid rock.
Alice collapsed to the floor, her cheek stinging from the mere wind of the punch.
Within Odri's mind, the Sovereign shrieked in fury. "What are you doing?! You lunatic! You're burning your own soul to override me?!"
Odri lowered his head, his golden aura grinding against the blue Soul Fire of the parasite.
"A King... shall not be insulted."
"A mere ghost... dares to presume... in my presence!"
He spotted an ornamental longsword on the floor, fallen from a broken shelf. He looked at Alice, who sat paralyzed and shivering. He remembered the Court Diviner's prophecy.
Your only daughter... will personally end your life.
So, Odri realized. That's how it is.
With the last of his sovereign will, he suppressed the Sovereign of Death and knelt to retrieve the blade. He walked toward Alice, step by agonizing step, and extended the hilt toward her.
"Do it," he said. His voice was a terrifying calm.
Alice looked up, her face a mask of tears and confusion. "Father... what are you saying?"
"DO IT, ALICE!"
Alice shook her head, sobbing. She couldn't understand. "I can't! Father, how could I ever—"
The Sovereign of Death, sensing Odri's resolve, began a frantic assault on his consciousness. "Are you insane, Odri?! You want to die?! I tell you, no! This body belongs to me!"
Odri's vision was being swallowed by ink-black darkness. His time was measured in seconds. He looked at his daughter and let out a roar that shook the rafters.
"ALICE!"
The girl flinched, her head snapping up. Odri stared directly into her eyes, his words etched with the finality of a monument.
"A King does not waver! Among ten thousand paths, choose one and walk it—ask no leave of right or wrong!"
"A King does not break! Before a million foes, the frame does not bend; the spine does not fall!"
"A King does not yield! Destiny may be cruel, but the King's command is higher than the Heavens!"
"A King does not abandon! Until life's end, the conviction shall not perish!"
"This is the last lesson I can give you: the Resolve of a Monarch. Now! Prove your resolve to me!"
"DO IT!"
Odri's roar filled the room. Within his mind, the Sovereign's voice turned into a shriek of pure terror.
"Stop! Stop this! I waited centuries for this opening! I was to be a founder of the Realm of Death! My immortality! My empire! You cannot do this! You tyrant! You madman!"
Alice looked into her father's burning red eyes. She reached out with trembling hands and gripped the hilt. Tears blurred her vision, but her movement was absolute.
It was the most basic, most practiced thrust Altlais had ever taught her.
Alice drove the blade into Odri's heart.
The steel sank deep. Blood flowed along the fuller, staining the metal. Odri's body stiffened. The red light in his eyes began to fade rapidly into the void.
But Odri smiled.
A genuine, soulful smile.
The stern, meticulous father... finally smiled.
Alice bowed her head, unable to look at his face. Her tears splashed onto the floor in heavy, rhythmic drops. Odri reached out one last time, his hand weak and cold, and rested it on her golden hair.
"Well... done..."
He used his remaining strength to lift her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Smile, Alice. From this day forth... you are Odri VI."
"Be proud... my daughter."
Odri's hand slipped from her face. His body lost its tether to the world and slumped forward. Alice caught him. She held her father tight as he went cold.
"AAAAAAAUUUUGHHHHH—!"
A shrill, soul-shredding wail erupted from the Princess's throat. It tore through the doors and echoed through every corridor of the palace.
Outside the Door.
The Queen had arrived long ago. She had heard the impacts, the Emperor's roars, and Alice's final cry. She kept her hand on the door handle but never dared to push.
She knew the prophecy had been fulfilled.
She stood there in a cold, brittle silence alongside the ministers, knights, and guards. They stood in vigil, listening to the sound of a daughter's heart breaking—a sound that would haunt the palace corridors for a long time to come.
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