Chapter 255: Chapter 255: The Empress’s wrath 2

Lucas and the girls didn’t waste a second once the Empress and Seraphine took off. The winds from their ascent were so fierce that the ground cracked beneath their feet, but Lucas steadied himself and looked back at the others. His tone was firm but calm, his eyes scanning the cold expanse of the ruined gate.

"Stay close and watch your surroundings," he ordered. "We don’t know who or what’s taken control of the city, but if the Empress is this furious, it’s bad...worse than any of us can imagine."

Nyx gave a sharp nod, clutching her staff tightly. "We’re with you," she said, her voice unwavering.

Selene exhaled slowly, the frost of her breath curling in the air. "I can sense powerful Qi signatures near the palace already. It feels wrong...tainted somehow."

Lucas frowned. "Then we move faster."

Without another word, he leaped into the air, his Qi flaring like silver light beneath his feet. The girls followed, running behind him in incredible speed, their auras rippling in unison. The wind howled around them as they shot through the streets toward the grand palace that rose at the center of the city...once a symbol of Lechia’s pride, now veiled in an unsettling stillness.

By the time they neared the palace grounds, chaos had already erupted.

The Empress was descending like a falling star, her presence radiating great immense pressure. The palace courtyard was filled with armored soldiers...men clad in unfamiliar insignias, their Qi dense and disciplined. They were not the royal guard she once commanded. Their armor bore no crest of Lechia. These were intruders...Ascendant-ranked warriors, dozens of them, drawn together in formation as the Empress landed.

The moment her feet touched the marble floor, frost spread in all directions.

"Who commands this treachery?" Her voice rang through the courtyard like thunder, every word sharp as crystal. "Where is Prince Khan?"

None of the soldiers answered. They only raised their weapons in unison, a disciplined formation glowing with dark Qi. One of them, a tall man wearing a crimson pauldron, stepped forward and called out, "By decree of the new regent, you are forbidden from entering the palace, Your Majesty. Leave now, or be restrained."

The Empress stared at him for a long, quiet moment, as though she hadn’t heard him properly. Then, very slowly, she lifted her gaze toward the palace behind him. Her expression didn’t change...but the air around her did.

A cold wind tore through the courtyard. The temperature plummeted so fast that ice began to form along the marble tiles. Her silver eyes glowed faintly, and the frost that spread from her feet began to climb the soldiers’ boots, creeping up their legs like living tendrils of vengeance.

Lucas and the girls landed some distance away, the sheer pressure of her aura forcing them to brace themselves. Seraphine floated beside the Empress, her blade already drawn, though she hadn’t moved an inch.

"Your Majesty," Seraphine said quietly, "these are Ascendants. They won’t surrender easily."

The Empress’s reply was little more than a whisper. "Then they will not live long enough to regret it."

The lead soldier roared a command and dozens of energy projectiles burst through the air. The Empress didn’t even move. Her aura expanded like a wave, freezing every incoming blast mid-flight. The glowing orbs of Qi turned to crystal and shattered before touching her.

Then, with a motion so swift that the soldiers barely saw it, she raised her arm and clenched her fist.

An explosion of divine frost consumed the entire courtyard.

The Ascendant-ranked warriors screamed as their weapons froze and shattered in their hands. Armor cracked and splintered under the force of her power. Within two minutes, the courtyard that had been filled with soldiers stood silent once again, blanketed in ice and death. Not one of them had survived.

Lucas stood motionless, the sight sinking deep into his chest. "She didn’t even give them a chance," he muttered.

Selene swallowed hard. "Would you?" she asked softly. "If your child was taken?"

Lucas said nothing.

The Empress didn’t glance at the frozen bodies. Her fury only grew stronger. She turned toward the palace gates...massive golden doors reinforced with divine steel...and raised her hand once more.

"Open," she commanded, her voice echoing through the halls beyond.

The gates didn’t move.

For a single breath, the environment seemed to hold still. Then the Empress unleashed another blast of celestial power, her aura flaring bright enough to drown the courtyard in white light. The gates exploded inward with a deafening roar, scattering fragments of molten gold and frost across the marble floor.

The palace trembled as she stepped inside, her power rippling through every corner of the once-proud hall.

"Bring me the prince!" she shouted, her voice reverberating through the shattered corridors. "Bring me my son, or face my wrath yourselves!"

Her words echoed like a divine decree, shaking the very foundations of Lechia’s palace. Behind her, Lucas, Seraphine, and the others followed swiftly.

The Empress’s fury did not abate as she strode through the broken corridors of the palace, each step cracking the marble beneath her feet. The cold she emanated clung to the walls, turning once-elegant pillars into jagged towers of frost. Her eyes gleamed with purpose, but deep beneath that seething wrath was uncertainty. She had no idea what she would find ahead...whether her son still breathed or if the corruption had already consumed him. The thought of either possibility clawed at her heart like a curse she could not shake.

As the grand doors leading into the central hall came into view, she stopped. The hall had once been the pride of Lechia’s capital, a vast chamber crowned with golden arches and luminous crystal lamps. Now, however, an oppressive darkness had settled over it.

Without hesitation, the Empress pushed the doors open with a single sweep of her arm. The massive slabs of steel groaned and flew from their hinges, slamming into the far corners of the chamber. For a heartbeat, there was silence. Then came the sound of shifting armor and synchronized movement.

From the shadows emerged a host of warriors...each radiating the unmistakable aura of an Ascendant. Their eyes glowed faintly beneath their helms, cold and devoid of life. They moved with an eerie precision, forming ranks before her as though awaiting a command from some unseen master.