Chapter 989 The Price to Spare
King Lutheran had rushed over from the capital of the Geyser Kingdom without a break, even overtaking the law-punishing forces sent out to bring Duke Flugerd's people back.
At that moment, there was nothing majestic about the Geyser Kingdom's king, just an exhausted older brother with messy hair who was concerned for his younger brother.
Nevertheless, the first group of law-punishing forces arrived several breaths later.
The group had four dozen people, but they were all Transcendents. Even five of them were at the Seeking Insight-stage Transcendent Realm.
However, the additional numbers didn't concern Leon one bit, nor did he give King Lutheran any face.
Leon quickly shot the dark energy arrow out of his Tier-7 White Spear, aiming straight for Duke Flugerd's heart.
"STOP!!!" King Lutheran barked furiously.
King Lutheran did not stop rushing to Duke Flugerd's side for a single moment. Thus, his initial pleas bought him enough time to reach Duke Flugerd's side and block Leon's attack.
Nevertheless, King Lutheran was incensed that Leon did not listen to his plea.
Deng!
The dark energy arrow clashed with King Lutheran's water barrier before it dispersed into the surroundings.
'A Paragon…'
Leon's eyes narrowed before silently reassessing King Lutheran and guessing his identity in the Geyser Kingdom.
At the same time, King Lutheran studied Leon with shock and alarm, suspecting Leon was a demon in human skin, a demonic cultivator, or one of the devil worshippers.
However, King Lutheran immediately refrained from jumping to conclusions after spotting the Winter Cat on his shoulders.
At the same time, King Lutheran witnessed Leon hacking up Priest Merkkon's body into pieces again, immobilizing him for another period of time.
"Who are you? Why did you listen to my plea?" King Lutheran frowned.
"When asking for someone else's name, it is proper etiquette to introduce yourself. Furthermore, I have no obligation to heed the words of an outsider when executing the criminals of my empire," Leon replied coolly.
At the same time, Leon dropped straight on Priest Merkkon's head with his foot infused with Nihility Power, effectively silencing the gigantified monster once and for all.
Shortly after, Leon returned to Faelyn's side.
Then, Leon instructed Rainshine to help with the resident's evacuation from the city before returning his attention to King Lutheran and his people.
Meanwhile, King Lutheran watched each and every action Leon took carefully. Still, he couldn't figure out how the gigantified monster died from a single stomp.
The Paragon-level gigantified monster's body still had overflowing vitality. Yet, its hostile eyes have lost their madness and became dull after the stomp.
The body was alive, but the soul was dead – was what King Lutheran felt from studying the devil worshipper's gigantified body.
"My apologies, sir. I am Lutheran Geyser, the current ruler of the Geyser Kingdom. I am also the older brother of the one you tried to kill, Flugerd Geyser, the Duke of Leviador. Please give me face and spare my foolish younger brother."
"Give you face?" Leon glanced at King Lutheran calmly and asked, "Did your brother give my empire face when he led his men to invade my empire, kill my people, and steal our arrays?"
"As for damage to the land, I don't think I need to explain; you can see for yourself. How do you plan to account for all this? We can only see this as an act of aggression."
"If it's a war you want, it's a war you will get," Leon stated coolly.
"Not at all, sir! As the ruler of the Geyser Kingdom, I can most definitely assure you that war is not what we want!" King Lutheran quickly denied the claim.
"However, please understand that Duke Flugerd is my only brother, someone who had struggled through the difficult times of the last Cataclysm with me and founded the current Human Domain."
"If you spare my brother, the Geyser Kingdom is willing to surrender and become a vassal power of the Crawford Empire," King Lutheran declared, shocking everyone from the Geyser Kingdom.
King Lutheran was still a bit hesitant with such a decision before coming. After all, it was humiliating for the Geyser Kingdom to fall under the Crawford Empire's rule.
However, King Lutheran found out the Crawford Empire had another three Paragons in addition to the last five he met.
King Lutheran had met a total of eight Paragons during his brief encounter with the Crawford Empire!
God knows how many more there were?
Meanwhile, Leon was more surprised by the fact that King Lutheran and Duke Flugerd were both over five hundred years old.
That would mean that they were founding members who assisted the Hero King, Aldrich Crawford, in ascending the throne and establishing the Crawford Kingdom.
"Your Majesty!" Marquis Raygor and the Geyser Kingdom's nobles cried with outrage.
"How can we surrender to the Crawford Empire? A winner hasn't been determined yet! We still have you, the Sea Emperor, and the High Priest!"
"This is the will of the High Council of Elders," King Lutheran stated.
Everyone from the Geyser Kingdom's side was immediately silenced after hearing that. Even so, their expressions revealed their shock, doubts, and confusion.
"Nevertheless, the Geyser Kingdom is not very unified. At most, I can only bring one-third of the kingdom under the Crawford Empire's rule," King Lutheran said to Leon.
"However, I wonder if you have the authority to represent the Crawford Empire and accept on its behalf?"
"As the one and only crown prince of this empire, I believe I certainly possess such authority to a certain extent," Leon casually claimed.
However, King Lutheran and everyone were shocked by the revelation.
They all thought Leon was an old expert with a youthful appearance. But as it turns out, he was truly as young as he appeared…
"Such overwhelming talent…" King Lutheran uttered with disbelief.
"Nevertheless, it'll be easier if you just discuss it with my father directly. But of course, us accepting your surrender is only the price for sparing your little brother's life. The compensation for the damage caused here is an entirely separate matter we need to discuss."
Leon added with a sharp look.
Although Leon wanted to kill them all simply, he shouldn't create problems for his poor father, who was already swamped with work.