Purge – Sometimes Necessary
Blood trickled slowly along the grooves in the marble floor. The Sun Justice Hall was no longer a chamber of debate. The slaughter that had begun at the crown prince's fingertips now crushed the entire space, transforming it into a single execution ground.
No one dared even breathe deeply. The nobles and officials who had just moments ago eyed each other with words and pretexts now wore faces of true realization. They finally understood that the being before them was no mere ill-tempered crown prince.
Sword Master. The pinnacle revered by every soul who wielded a blade. A being where one man's life, technique, spirit, and obsession were compressed to their extremes, finally transcending the limits set by the world's laws to reach the absolute.
And every Sword Master possessed their own Sword Heart. It was no mere conviction or resolve. It was the very truth that one had reached after a lifetime of swinging the sword.
Some made oaths their sword, others protection, and still others perfected slaughter and dominion through it. And when that Sword Heart fully manifested in reality—
All called it Sword Heart Manifestation.
A personal microcosm unfolded, where one redefined the laws within. An absolute domain.
That was what now crushed the Sun Justice Hall.
Heavenly Wheel Annihilation Realm.
Kainar Iskara von Solaríos's Sword Heart.
An illusion gripped the entire chamber, as if a massive, intangible solar wheel hung above his head, bearing down relentlessly. The air grew heavy and stagnant, breaths shallow, bodies refusing to obey. Those who tried to summon aura felt their chests crushed by overwhelming pressure, their breath stolen. Swordsmen reaching for their blades found their fingertips frozen stiff.
Within this realm, Kainar's will was the order. Rebellion was forbidden, escape impossible, resistance nothing more than bugs crushed beneath the sun.
I gazed down impassively at every reaction. Then I called another name.
"Domien Rel Baskar."
The elderly marquis flinched violently at being singled out. His face drained white as he glanced around, stammering.
"Y-Your Highness... Th-that's a misunderstanding. I have only served with utmost loyalty—"
"You embezzled thirty thousand gold from the border defense budget," I cut him off.
"And used it to bolster your private forces. The ledgers were laundered, but the clerk who altered them still lives."
Marquis Baskar's mouth snapped shut.
I hadn't moved a step as I continued.
"The taxes vanished from your territory, the serfs forcibly taken, the missing military rations. Must I say more?"
"Y-Your Highness! Mercy, please—!"
Slice.
With a mere twitch of my finger, his neck twisted and severed. His head rolled across the floor, blood spraying.
Only then did someone let out a short scream. But even that faded weakly and pathetically within the Heavenly Wheel Annihilation Realm.
I turned my blood-drenched gaze to the nobles frozen in place.
"Next."
One by one. Name by name, they crumbled.
Some had taken bribes, others dabbled in the empire's forbidden slave trade, still others sold the imperial name to collude with provincial nobles. Filthy money, base desires, false loyalties. All rotten to the core.
With each death, the Sun Justice Hall's floor grew redder. Blood flowed over the marble, and as corpses piled up, the golden pillars and ornate murals formed a grotesque harmony.
The empire's most glorious hall of justice was, on this day, being washed in blood.
The Heavenly Guard Knights moved at my command. Some I slew personally; others had their necks severed or hearts pierced by the knights' blades. There was no hesitation in their motions. They couldn't hesitate. Here, they were mere pieces on my Sword Heart's board.
The core bureaucrats of the emperor's faction watched the scene with faces pale as death. The Minister of Finance bit his lip, eyes downcast and trembling; the Minister of the Interior's fingers quivered faintly; several from the elder council were rigid, barely breathing.
They had distanced themselves from the corrupt nobles, but they were no strangers to bloodshed—far from it. Yet even they looked unwell.
This unflinching slaughter. Eyes as cold as if the victims were neither men, nobles, nor lives, but mere vermin or livestock. That chilled them to the bone.
I knew those stares all too well. From crown prince Kainar to Sword Master, mad tyrant, despot. They knew reform required this. But the emperor's faction believed it shouldn't be built solely on blood.
That belief soon turned to action.
Finally, one of the Ten Great Ministers—the Minister of Justice—shot to his feet and strode forward, kneeling amid the scattered blood and bodies. He bowed his head squarely into the horror.
"Your Highness!"
His voice rang with resolve. The tone of one prepared for death.
"Death is fitting for those who break the empire's laws, but slaughtering them all could paralyze the empire's functions!"
He swallowed a shaky breath and pressed on.
"Please—please stop here. A purge is indeed necessary, but cutting everything out today leaves nothing behind."
His words spurred the emperor's faction nobles and officials to step forward one by one.
"Your Highness, the Minister of Justice speaks true."
"We understand your intent to restore order, but further purge—"
"Surely they've grasped your will by now."
One became two, three, four. In the end, most of the emperor faction's core officials knelt before me.
They were afraid too. Petitioning to halt an imperial decree in the emperor's stead was unthinkable. Yet here they were, begging to withdraw my command, steeling themselves for death.
For the empire? Their survival? Both? It didn't matter.
I stared down at them long and hard. Ministers kneeling in blood. Nobles bowing amid murderous air. And those still unable to draw deep breath under my Heavenly Wheel Annihilation Realm.
Quietly, I raised my hand.
At once, the knights mid-swing across the hall froze. The Heavenly Guard Knights withdrew to the flanks, blades dripping blood onto the floor.
The sight was somehow more wretched. The chamber of slaughter had reverted to order all too easily.
Slowly, I shook the blood from my ebony magic sword. Then, in a low voice, I spoke.
"In His Majesty's stead, I will continue acting for the empire's stability."
The entire Sun Justice Hall focused on my voice.
"So heed me well."
My icy crimson eyes swept the room.
"My gaze does not linger in the capital alone. It reaches noble estates, border fortresses, frontier domains, rotting storehouses, hidden vaults—everywhere."
Someone gulped.
"Cease wriggling like lowly worms, gnawing at the empire's flesh."
I stepped forward.
"Do not assume anything escapes my sight. Do not expect anything to elude my knowledge."
My voice was soft, yet it burrowed into every bone in the hall.
"Serve the empire. That alone may grant you a chance to live."
And finally, chillingly:
"But if you reek of rot before me again, expect no mercy like today's."
Silence fell over all.
No one replied. They didn't need to. They understood.
I withdrew my gaze.
"This state council ends here."
With those words, the pressure of the Heavenly Wheel Annihilation Realm eased bit by bit.
Yet no one sighed in relief. The stench of blood, the gruesome scene, and the crown prince's parting words clung thickly to the hall.
Thus the Sun Justice Hall purge drew to a close.
But that day, every bureaucrat and noble in the empire learned the truth.
Crown Prince Kainar was no longer the mere rampaging madman of old.
He had become far more dangerous. A beast that knew how to draw blood—and a cunning lion that knew why and moved with purpose.
The rumor spread swiftly across the empire, etched into memory as the Day of Slaughter. It shocked not only the Acreasia Alliance Kingdom and the Gaia Holy Kingdom, but nations across the world. A massacre that stunned the globe.