Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

While flying away, Zack wondered what he would tell Jonathan. That he had just killed one of his most trusted duke who was suddenly with the dark side?

Zack wondered how the king would react to that. After all, having a close person die like that was not an easy thing to process. He knew firsthand how hard it was to get over that.

The next thing Zack could think of was to tell that Ezio suddenly attacked them and Eirias\'s property was activated. The sword and bow then had forced them to attack Ezio.

\'Who was that guy though? He looked stronger than us.\' Daedalus asked before narrowing his eyes. \'Also, how did both of you defeat him in a single move?\'

\'That man was someone named Ezio and he was the duke of the western region of the kingdom and yes, he was indeed stronger than both of you. He was at least as strong as that Hark person we met or that Animagi.\'

Zack replied before pausing. He then turned towards Emma and asked her what was the move that she had used during the battle.

[ I honestly don\'t know. It was as though that arrow had appeared automatically. ] The pink-haired woman had no idea what had happened back then.

The arrow that had appeared in her bow was something that she had seen for the first time. She didn\'t even get the time to read its information before she had to shoot it.

The arrow had vanished seconds after killing the duke which made Emma wonder how it had gotten back after being thrown away.

\'Honestly, we have no clue as to what happened there.\' Zack replied back to Daedalus as the eagle realized that it was indeed the truth. However, the duo had managed to kill someone that he recognized as a threat.

Not only that but they had done it with a single move. This made Daedalus and Icarus question whether their partners were hiding their true strength or something.

His doubtful thoughts were immediately transmitted to Zack who faked a cough. The eagle then realized that it had forgotten to turn off the connection and kept flying forward with a neutral expression.

\'No, I am not hiding any secret strength. If I had been doing that, I wouldn\'t have died in that spider queen\'s dungeon.\' Zack replied with a sigh as he saw the capital city in the distance.

Daedalus and Icarus landed on the top of the guild as Zack and Emma climbed down their backs. The duo then made their way to the palace before moving towards the throne room.

To their surprise, it was empty.

"Uncle is currently in his room," Pearl\'s voice came from behind as the duo turned to see the girl standing a few feet away. "He wanted me to escort both of you there."

Pearl had a grim expression on her face as though she had seen something she shouldn\'t have. The light-blue-haired girl then started guiding Zack and Emma through the halls of the palace before taking them towards steps.

The entire way, Zack and Emma didn\'t let their guard down. Ezio had managed to surprise them and if not for what Zack remembered, there was a chance that he and Emma would have fallen in some kind of trap.

\'But who said those words?\'

Zack once again tried to remember that yet he couldn\'t. This made him wonder whether he had amnesia.

[ Emma, do you remember what happened after I got the jewel? ]

Emma too fell into deep thinking as she tried to remember who had given Zack the jewel. However, she too couldn\'t remember anything.

[ Who gave you the jewel? ]

[ That I don\'t know. ]

The duo then decided to think about it later on as they had arrived in front of Jonathan\'s resting chambers or room in simpler words.

"Go inside," Pearl said as she stood beside the entrance and opened the door for the duo.

Emma and Zack entered the room to see that it was empty. They then turned their gazes towards the balcony to see Jonathan standing there.

The king was overseeing his city as he heard Zack and Emma\'s footsteps.

"You don\'t need to tell me anything. I saw it all happen."

Before any one of them could speak anything, Jonathan revealed that he had seen everything. The King had made an oath with the dukes that whenever any of them were about to die, he would be able to see what was happening.

The moment the two weapons had gone berserk, the entire scene had popped up in front of Jonathan. He saw the two black lines in Ezio\'s face and how he was looking towards the duo with hate.

He then saw Zack being dragged forward with the sword as he sent a slash in Ezio\'s direction. He then saw Emma using her bow and a golden arrow appearing out of nowhere.

As the duke fell down and was burned, Jonathan had closed his eyes and had gotten up from his throne room.

He had ordered Pearl to bring the duo to his room when they returned. But now that they were there, he had no idea what he should say to them.

"While you were away, another problem came up…" Jonathan decided to not talk about Ezio and shift the topic. "I will have to go and check on the remaining two dukes myself while you both will take care of the new thing."

For the first time, it sounded as though Jonathan was asking for their help instead of ordering or asking them normally.

"What is the situation?" Zack asked curiously as he too decided to avoid Ezio\'s topic.

"It\'s regarding the underworld of the kingdom," Jonathan replied with a sigh as he remembered that despite the power control throughout the continent, there was still an underworld below the normal world.

The underworld had been there since the starting of the kingdoms and no matter how hard people tried, none of them could eradicate it.

Instead, a ruler was chosen from every kingdom and both the official and the underworld ruler had a sworn oath. They would not make things difficult for each other\'s jobs.

The occasional conflict happened between the two parties yet the oath prevented them from doing any damage.

At times when a new ruler arose, their first job was to have the oath with their counterpart. This way, the peace between the two sides was maintained.

"A new ruler has arisen in the underworld and he had not held an oath with me. This means that he can do anything against the kingdom and he won\'t be restricted by anything."

Jonathan said while sighing. Things had already become too difficult and losing one of his most trusted men was not a good thing for the king.

Now that another ruler had appeared like that, Jonathan decided that he would go meet the other two dukes himself to make sure that they were doing fine

But he needed someone to take care of the situation in the underworld.

"What is the name of the new ruler?" Zack asked curiously as he was ready to accept the quest the moment Jonathan had told him about it.

"The name of the new king is Hayden, Hayden Solanski."