Ning cried out in pain, finally as his other arm was ripped away.

The left arm hurt because it was flayed open, but the right one was completely gone, and yet he felt the felt on his arm that wasn’t even there.

The Emperor ignored the pain and wounded Ning before walking over to the sword that had been flung to the side. He kicked Ning’s arm to the side and stood in front of the sword with greedy eyes shining at the prize.

“You!” Ning cried out. “You truly…”

He couldn’t form words. The pain kept taking away his focus from the thoughts that he tried his best to form. He couldn’t speak his mind at all.

“Shut up,” the Emperor said without glancing back. He didn’t want anyone to disturb him while he made the sword his. He let Ning suffer for the moment and reached down to grab the sword.

His hand gripped the hilt of the sword tightly and he pulled on it. Instantly, he felt the unbudgeable nature of the sword.

He grew blue and red in the face, turning purple as he tried his hardest to pull on it. But even with the strength of a Stellar Harmony realm individual, he couldn’t even budge a single dirt off the sword.

It lay on the ground, unmoving.

“Truly amazing,” the Emperor said. “This is a sword that holds the weight of half a continent.”

He smiled as the years of knowledge that had been passed down through his ancestors were finally helpful to him. He tried to move the sword around a bit more and only smiled more when he couldn’t move it at all.

“Ha! Hahaha! Hahahaha!” he laughed out loud with happiness he hadn’t felt in ages.

Clara looked toward the emperor even though she was fighting for her life at the moment. She was surrounded by the 6 True Essence Soul guards, who normally should have been easy for her to win against.

However, she had lost movement in her right arm, and her left leg was completely cut off. She had formed a fake leg with Shadow Essence, but it would be destroyed if it took too much damage.

Behind her grew out a massive black Shadow Essence Soul. It was a giant black spider with 8 pitch black eyes that seemed to stare into the soul of a human being. It was wounded too under the constant barrage of attacks that Clara had received.

She was wounded… and confused. She looked to her left at the Prince who fought against his own people to protect her.

Why did he do that? Did he really feel guilty about killing her family? She couldn’t forgive him though, but she also needed his help.

The other 6 were staying far away so they only attacked her and didn’t take on any attacks themselves.

She looked at Ning in the distance, wounded and dying. She wanted to help him, but… her own life was at stake at this point and there was nothing she could do about him.

He was going to die, and she could only let that happen.

‘I shouldn’t have fought,’ she thought. ‘I shouldn’t have attacked him, and instead should have just taken him away.’

She regretted her past actions but that was of no use now. She could only hope for the best. At worst, she was going to die before they could torture her.

The Prince knew he wasn’t going to die, but he was still being attacked so much that he would get injured if he couldn’t hang on there properly. Even with his Essence Soul out, it was a risky situation to fight in.

Ning was all alone at the moment, but that did not make him scared. “You’re not getting that sword,” he said loudly, fighting back his pain.

The Emperor turned around with a confused look. “Now, why would you say that?” he asked. “You’re dying. What are you going to do with it?”

“Even after I die, you won’t get that sword,” he said. “I’m certain that you require extremely pure Essence to bond with that sword. Otherwise, it’s not happening.”𝓞𝗏𝑳xt.𝑐𝗈𝕞

He wasn’t sure if that was the case, but he had a hunch about it. He couldn’t imagine why else the sword hadn’t been bonded until now or had records of being used anywhere else.

“Do you know about the sword?” the Emperor asked. “I’m certain you do not. This is a sword made by someone so strong that he converted half a continent and everything inside of it into a sword.”

“This is a sword that can use almost all of the Essences in the world. You don’t need a pure essence to bond to it,” he said. “You only need it to be unbounded. Which, unfortunately for you, means you will now have to die.”

“Even if I do, you won’t get your hand on the sword,” Ning said, feeling his vision slowly fade, his head a jumbled mess. He was rapidly losing blood and he couldn’t do anything about it.

“You know?” the Emperor spoke. “For a kid, you talk a lot of crap. And here my son was suggesting that I let you marry Alena to bring you into the family.”

Those were the words Ning last heard before a single tone enveloped his hearing. Still, he replied back with what little voice he had.

“Sorry, I’m not interested in someone so young, even less to become part of your family,” he said. “You can kill me now.”

He closed his eyes and lay there.

“Okay,” the Emperor said as he used a bit of essence. Crystal spikes appeared from beneath Ning, shredding his body as they all pierced through it, killing him in an instant.

The Emperor shook his head and turned around to grab the sword. Now that the sword’s owner was dead, he could finally claim it.

However, when he looked at the sword, his eyes widened in shock. The sword was not there at all.

“Where…” he searched in shock.

Then, a voice drifted from a distance to his left.

“Looking for this?”