Chapter 564 - 564 – Suspicions

When Gravis saw the Emperor's reaction, he immediately contacted the Commander with a voice transmission. When the Commander heard Gravis' voice transmission, she first became shocked, but then her eyes narrowed. After that, she gave orders to the entire defensive line. Shortly after that, nearly all the corpses vanished into thin air.

"What is the meaning of this!?" the Emperor shouted. The Emperor was a bright red lizard, only three meters long. "I haven't given an order for an attack. Explain yourself, Commander."

The Commander looked at the Emperor coldly. "I have the right to call an attack without your permission. If you don't want to pay for the territory, an Empire beside yours will be glad to accept."

Suddenly, all Sub-Commanders and over 15 level four Kings scattered as they traveled to the land of the land beasts.

"Halt!" the Emperor shouted. "You will remain here!"

Yet, the beasts didn't stop.

"No worries," the Commander said. "I've sent them to contact the five closest Empires and a Judge."

"A Judge!? What is the meaning of this!?" the Emperor shouted aggressively.

What was a Judge?

A Judge was the equivalent to an Inquisitor but for Emperors. There were five of them in total in the land beasts' camp. Inquisitors killed traitorous Kings, and Judges killed traitorous Emperors. Of course, Judges were all very powerful for their Realm. The weakest of them was already an outstanding level two Emperor. Inquisitors also only followed the orders of Judges.

"If you're not a traitor, nothing will happen, Emperor," the Commander said. "Just let them go, and nothing will happen."

The Emperor gritted his teeth and looked with fury at the Commander. Yet, he let all the beasts escape. He didn't stop a single one of them.

"As you've seen, I didn't stop any of them. Now, tell me, what was the reason that made you decide to attack so suddenly?" he asked.

"That would be me," Gravis said with a smirk.

For the first time, the Emperor noticed that inconspicuous, tiny level three King. When he saw Gravis, he got confused. "You? Who are you!?" the Emperor demanded.

"My name is Gravis," Gravis said with a smirk. "You might have heard of me."

The Emperor was shocked, but then his eyes narrowed. "The traitorous beast that killed an Inquisitor but didn't get prosecuted due to nepotism," he said coldly.

Gravis only laughed. "I have received my punishment, which was a Realm-Stop for a century. The Empress of the Icy Pride Empire gave me this punishment."

The Emperor huffed. "The Empress of the Icy Pride Empire doesn't have any right to pardon you. Sure, she can revoke your status as a traitor, but the punishment for killing an Inquisitor still has to be decided by a Judge, and she isn't a Judge."

Gravis' eyes shone a bit. This was new.

"Is that true?" Gravis asked the Commander with a voice transmission.

"He's speaking the truth," she answered. "A level three Emperor can declare you not to be a traitor, but the punishment for the killing of an Inquisitor is still something that is up to a Judge to decide."

'Interesting,' Gravis thought. 'Apparently, Azure isn't as simple as it seems. Every beast knows about me killing an Inquisitor. Yet, no Judge has ever appeared to punish me.'

Gravis turned back to the furious Emperor. "Yet, here I am," Gravis said with a smirk. "Every powerful land beast knows of what I have done, but no Judge has ever appeared to give me punishment in the last century. I wonder why that is."

"As I've said, it's due to nepotism," the Emperor said with disdain. "If you had gone to any other Emperor, you wouldn't be alive anymore. Yet, you just had the luck to go to the Empress of the Icy Pride Empire. Of course your punishment would be so lenient."

"So? What does that change? I'm here right now, and I'm responsible for this defensive line moving," Gravis said with a smirk. "A Judge will come shortly, as will all the closest Emperors."

The Emperor frowned when he heard these words. On the outside, he appeared annoyed, but Gravis knew that the Emperor was very afraid and panicked deep inside. Right now, he was probably deciding what he wanted to do. Should he keep up the disguise, or should he openly flee to the sea beasts?

Gravis had expected this Emperor to be a traitor before the defensive line even moved. He couldn't be sure about it, but it made a lot of sense. It took two beasts to make a defensive line stop moving. One of them needed to be the Commander of the defensive line, while the other one needed to be the Emperor of the closest Empire.

Gravis hadn't known that this defensive line hadn't moved in forever before he arrived. Yet, as soon as he heard the Commander request Gravis to trigger her Law of Danger, he knew that this defensive line hadn't fought in forever.

Usually, Gravis wouldn't care much about any traitors as long as they didn't attack him or belonged to the Icy Pride Empire. He was a member of the Icy Pride Empire, not the land beasts.

Yet, his kids were here! He couldn't cultivate in peace as long as there was a possibility that they were serving under a traitor. His kids were not powerful enough to do something about this, but he was!

So, Gravis went on and talked to the Commander. He told her that she could temper herself as much as she wanted. She just had to declare an attack. In the end, the Commander realized that it was herself that didn't allow her to temper herself and immediately declared an attack. This proved to Gravis that the Commander was not a traitor.

And that left only one beast remaining, the closest Emperor. Yet, even with all these suspicions, Gravis couldn't be sure, which was why he made the defensive line attack without informing the closest Emperor. If they first informed him, he might find several excuses to stop the attack or delay it. Such an action couldn't prove that he was a traitor.

Yet, after the attack had already succeeded, it wouldn't be difficult to see if the Emperor was a traitor or not. Gravis only had to see the Emperor's reaction to see if they were a traitor or not. Of course, even if a Judge arrived now, it might still not be enough to convict the Emperor. Gravis was sure that this Emperor was a traitor, but he didn't have enough evidence.

"So," Gravis said slowly with a smirk as he flew closer to the Emperor. The Commander looked in shock as Gravis slowly closed in on the Emperor. What was Gravis' plan?

"What will you do?" Gravis asked as he came even closer. "Will you wait? Will you flee? Will you kill me? What is it?" Gravis asked.

By now, Gravis was just a meter in front of the Emperor. From this distance, the Emperor could kill Gravis without him even being able to react. There were two levels between a level five King and a level one Emperor. This meant that a total of four levels were between Gravis and the Emperor.

As a level three King, Gravis would be absolutely helpless in front of such a powerful Emperor. The fact that he knew a Composition Law that countered the Emperor's element didn't make a difference. Gravis would die with one attack.

The Emperor looked coldly at Gravis.

'Come on, take the bait!' Gravis thought as he looked the Emperor into the eyes. If the Emperor killed Gravis, he would receive incredible rewards from the sea beasts.

BOOOOOM!

Gravis exploded and burned into nothingness as the Emperor suddenly unleashed fire upon him. The whole defensive line was shocked as Gravis seemingly died in front of them. Yet, even until the bitter end, Gravis only smiled viciously.

Then, something came out of Gravis' falling Life Ring.