C1764 Imperatress
"You are lucky…" Leonel suddenly said as Simeon breathed his last few breaths; "… If not for your own foolishness, I would have made you suffer a fate far worse than this…"
Amidst his cackles and deliriousness, Simeon just barely managed to understand Leonel's words and they left him both stunned and infuriated; Was Leonel trying to say that he had showed mercy? This was the funniest thing he had ever heard in this short life of his;
However. before Simeon could think any further. the hand of Leonel's panda construct squeezed down. shattering what remained of Simeon to pieces; From start to finish. Simeon never managed to threaten Leonel even a single time;
"Rise." Leonel commanded;
Simeon's soul was snatched in its attempt to dissipate, forming his body one again as his eight lenses felt into his illusory hands.
Simeon caught them and kneeled, bending his head from so far that his forehead nearly passed his knees.
Leonel didn't even look at Simeon. raising his head to look below; He stood in the skies. carnage and blood flowing in rivers behind him; He wasn't the only one in the skies. his cousin Noah had approached and hadn't left from the very beginning. and yet it still felt that things were like this;
Leonel was both close and yet so far. so near and yet so unfathomably transcendent; It was hard to look at him like a hero. but it was also almost impossible not to; Even so. one could tell by his demeanor that he simply didn't a damn anymore;
Becoming a King? An Emperor? A light to the masses, a hero to the many? He couldn't be bothered to care.
Simeon's soul construct rose to his feet and quickly helped raise Raj and Drake to the feet. placing them on the platform before putting it on his own back and respectfully waiting for Leonel;
Leonel stepped forward without a word. vanishing in the blink of an eye; Simeon rushed after him. vanishing into the dark clouds above like an obedient servant;
Not long later. the clouds slowly began to disperse and the wrath of the emperor vanished as well; Leonel's descent had brought thunder and darkness; His departure gave way to rays of sunlight. and yet the ominous atmosphere still hung. omnipresent and resilient;
Leonel's brothers stood with their fists still clenched, their tears rolling down their cheeks; They already knew that the Leonel they knew was longer among them;
**
Leonel stepped onto his flagship with an indifferent expression; His heart didn't have the slightest fluctuation and his breath remained steady; Even after wiping out four families. committing what could only be described as mass genocide. his steps didn't feel any heavier. his shoulders didn't feel any more burdensome;
"Speak." Leonel said indifferently; There was only one person he could be talking to. and that was. of course. Simeon;
The reason Leonel didn't care about Simeon's so-called information was because he could get it out of him whenever he wanted; With a soul in his possession, he was essentially under control of everything this person had ever known, and the most fearsome part was that they had no ability to resist; In this state, Leonel's Emperor's Charm was its absolute strongest and his charisma was on a completely different level;
Not only were his soul constructs sentient, they were also endlessly loyal.
He had heard of others who had necromancer-like abilities. But he didn't have to deal with the restrictions many of them did. Outside of the initial investment of Dream Force and his will power, he didn't need to invest anything else if he didn't want to.
He could take control of hundreds of Seventh Dimensional existences with ease before he felt any sort of burden, and that was because much of the strength needed came from the original soul owner to begin with. Leonel's only job was to give the soul form and stop it from dissipating. In fact, he didn't even need to invest stamina into control as that was all done passively by his Emperor's Charm.
On top of that, if he really wanted to control them, he could, using his intelligence to make efficient use of their power. But in most cases, it was better to simply allow them to fight with their usual battle style, something they were the most familiar with.
Of course, there were problems as well, these weaknesses coming from the fact that Leonel didn't have access to [Emperor's Command: Breathe] and [Emperor's Command: Assimilate].
Currently, Leonel could only stop these souls from dissipating for a single day. After a 24 hour period, no matter what he did, even if he tried to use the Arise command again, it would be useless. This was why among the Seventh Dimensional soul constructs he came with, he only had Adurna family members as they were the last he destroyed before he came back to Earth.
If Leonel's assumption was correct, the Breathe command should be a method of tethering a soul to the real world on a more permanent basis. Without it, Leonel would always be limited in this way.
In addition, as the soul constructs took damage, this 24 hour period was fed upon to reform it, thus cutting it down further. Depending on the damage, more time was lost.
This was simply how things went. There was no technique or ability in existence without any drawbacks.
"Yes, Your Imperial Highness! My inferior self wanted to use information about the Brazinger family and the other Great families as a bargaining chip!
"The first thing my inferior self wanted to let Imperial Highness know was that among the number killed, Your Imperial Highness' Empress' worst enemy was not among them. The woman, Imperatress Anselma, is hidden within a special realm of the Brazinger family.
"The second thing my inferior self wanted Imperial Highness to know is the existence of these special realms. The current showing of the Great Families is nothing more than the tip of the iceberg.
"This inferior servant's status is lowly and does not know much else, but what this inferior servant does know is that there are certain rules and restrictions restraining the Great Families from acting as they please."
To be continued