Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

The guards that secured Melinda and Rita were trying their very best to stay away from the conflict but it was easier said than done.

With the Array boundary blocking their path, there was only so much they could do. And yet...

...all through that time, Melinda and Rita\'s expressions remained perfectly natural, in fact, they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

But why won\'t they?

They instigated this after all.

That said, the guards wondered how they could have started all this.

All they did was say there were traitors in their midst and while that might have been true, it was far from being enough to cause all this chaos, unless...

...unless they had been completely truthful from the start and their arrival had really been the signal.

If so, then the traitors were obvious, it had to be the first two to engage in an altercation because their argument was what started the domino effect.

Now that they thought about it, the argument timing was way too convenient.

It was while they were having these thoughts that the two subjects of their skepticism showed up and made a beeline to where they stood with the instigators.

As one, the guards relaxed their stance of protecting the ladies and instead stood firmer to stop the two who were obviously the culprit, and then...

*Slash* *Thud* 

*Stab* *Whump*

First, there was the sound of a swinging blade that was quickly followed with the thud of a decapitated head and after that was the sound of a sword going through the body of another and was quickly followed by the sound of the falling body.

Quickly the other guards leaped away from the sound before turning to see the two ladies holding their cosmic Armaments in a loose manner by their sides.

The situation soon posed a dilemma to the guards. From behind, the two who they now believed to be traitors were moving ever closer while the ladies were looking quite dangerous as well.

However, they soon decided which of the two sides were of more importance.

It was the ladies.

Clearly, both were at the Cosmic Armament Realm as opposed to the two men who had showcased already that they were at the Cosmic Pearl realm, albeit the peak stage.

The guards summoned their Cosmic Armaments and let out their Early-stage Cosmic Armament Realm cultivation while blasting cosmic attacks at the two men behind.

As the two were weaker than they were, the guards merely sent a Cosmic attack and focused their attention on Melinda and Rita who smiled and flicked their Armaments at them in challenge.

The moment the guards dashed forward to attack however, two of them found fists protruding from the front of their chests.

Granted they died soon after.

As their bodies became limp, it was clear to the guards who turned to observe, that something was being absorbed from their bodies and once it was absorbed completely, the fists retracted and their bodies fell...

...to reveal the faces of the culprits who turned out to be the arguing men. But this time, their eyes were Blood red and incredibly fiendish.

"What the hell?" 

One of them was quick to exclaim but the Blood Knights did not seem particularly interested in introducing themselves as they moved forward very swiftly to attack more guards.

Melinda and Rita quite easily took care of any guards they could not get to or had not gotten to.

The Blood essence of all those killed became nourishment for the Blood Knights.

Of course, these two were not the only Knights in the mob and many others blended with the rioting mob while absorbing the essence of anyone who died in the conflict.

The easy way to pinpoint the Knights was to look for those who, regardless of their expression (which can be very misleading) were not really fighting for survival and were merely content with killing those who got too close.

*BOOOOOMMM!!!!*

The sound was sudden and with it came the heavy repelling of so many Payne forces away from the \'Leader\' and with their repelling came the complete unleashing of his Mid-stage Cosmic Armament Realm Cultivation base.

A level of strength he had been very happy and proud to achieve as it finally put him on par with Burt and maybe get him the position of Gregory\'s right-hand man.

In fact, that was merely going to be the starting point as his final aim was to become patriarch.

The moment he was free of those that had assaulted him, the \'Leader\' zeroed in on Melinda and immediately ran forward to attack her.

At that time, the guard (who we shall call mediator) who had tried to quell the first conflict that had been planned between the two Blood Knights also broke free and dashed towards Rita.

Things were already out of hand, so maybe killing these two ladies who were the instigators could finally bring order. At the very least, it might cause people to calm down long enough for him to finally get some words in.

He had just passed by Melinda and the \'Leader\' when the former let out the pressure of her Late-stage Cosmic Armament Realm cultivation base and forced the latter to his knees.

The \'Leader\' attempted to lift himself but it was all in vain. 

Melinda hardly spared him a glance as she swung her sword and cut off his head.

It was that easy.

The shock Mediator experience from witnessing such a domineering and effortless execution caused him to pause... at least until Rita stabbed at him and he quickly parried.

Despite the two of them sharing the same realm (Mid-stage Cosmic Armament Realm), Rita still dominated their battle and very soon, his corpse joined that of the \'Leader\' and many others.

Once both the \'Leader\' and the Mediator were dead, Melinda and Rita simply stood by once again and watched the events unfold.

The Blood Knights returned to the mix and more Men of status fell to their brutal attacks but it all mostly went unnoticed as everyone in the hideout still continued to strike everyone and everything that moves.

"It looks... Beautiful" Melinda said and it was clear that she was not just saying that.

The way the men went out of their way to kill one another was something she really appreciated.

Rita turned a fraction in her direction and while she might not have used the same words, she did admit that it was quite a sight.

It was this view, with Melinda and Rita being mere bystanders and the Payne forces fighting and killing one another, that Gregory Payne saw from atop the hill that he, Hal and Burt stood.

His hands were shaking and soon it was his entire body that shivered as he saw many more of his Payne Kinsmen (The Men of status) and his Elites kill more of each other.

He turned away from the scene and faced Hal who was grinning widely.

Gregory shed all of the benevolent looks he once held and reverted to his look of pure anger.

"Now there is the Gregory Payne I know and hate. Where have you been all this while \'Father\'?"

Hal said with a cackle that despite being Malevolent still made him look handsome.

Gregory was fuming, 

"What have you done, you son of a witch?"

Hal blinked, 

"Are you retarded or something? It should be clear to you what I\'ve done" he said with a disappointed shake of his head and Gregory clenched his fists but Hal was not done and continued, 

"Your men have been instigated to fight and kill one another because they have been told there is a traitor in their midst. Which is true"

Gregory snarled, 

"That\'s impossible. Everyone is either a Payne Kinsman or someone handpicked by me or by... Burt" 

As Gregory said the name of his butler, something seemed to dawn on him and he looked to his right-hand man with wide eyes, 

"Ah-ha, it seems you\'ve finally realized something. Took you long enough..." Hal was saying when Gregory\'s loud yell interrupted him, 

"Burt! You\'re the traitor?" He asked in disbelief.

Burt said nothing but looked to the ground.

Gregory began to regret at that moment that he had not enlisted a Payne Kinsman to be his right-hand man, they were bound to be more trustworthy!

If only he had known that it would have made no difference and his situation would very likely still be the same.

*Clap*

Hal clapped his hands once as he said, 

"Enough chitchat. The longer this goes on, the more Payne Elites die and the best way for you to quell the unrest would be to kill me which would free you from this Dome.

And then, you can attack the Dome that is trapping and causing your men to be so desperate as to kill each other. In fact,  just them seeing you might go a long way" 

Hal said in a thoughtful tone of voice like he really only wanted to help.

Gregory looked to the traitor Burt and the carriage driver Castor who was still on the carriage and was most likely an expert, 

"It\'s going to be three on one" he growled.

Hal shook his head and the Dome shrunk to only contain the two of them, leaving the other two on the outside, 

"No, it\'s going to be one on one. A fight to the Death.

Let\'s finally settle things.

Also, I feel it would be quite fitting..." He said.

Gregory looked confused, 

"Fitting?" He asked.

Hal nodded, 

"Yes Fitting. You once told Rad to fight me to the death just because you did not want to consider my return to the Payne Family and as you can\'t possibly forget, Rad died.

It\'s only fitting that you fight me to the death to atone for that, Don\'t you agree?"