Dark Dragon: The Summoned Hero Is A Villain-Chapter 364: Empty Throne

Lord Vine kept pacing.

The hall was empty except for the sound of his own footsteps, and he moved through it with the restless energy of something unresolved pressing at the back of his mind.

There was something. He was certain of it. A thread he had been holding that he could no longer locate, a name or a task or a piece of the larger design that had simply ceased to present itself when he reached for it in his memories.

He stopped and stood still, trying to find it. Nothing came.

The door opened and one of his servants crossed the threshold at speed, dropping to both knees before he had finished entering, the urgency of the motion announcing the content before the words did.

"Lord Vine."

He sat on his throne. "Speak."

The servant spoke quickly. "News just came from our sources in the palace! High Magus Edric engaged with Noah Webb and was severely wounded."

"Irina Valey and the Stormborn are dead. Princess Cecilia remains unconscious, her condition still unchanged. The only capable defender left in the palace is the S-rank Oracle, Arlo Kael."

Lord Vine sat forward.

He turned the information over, examining it from each angle with the experience of someone who had spent decades finding the openings that other people walked past.

Cecilia was the next in line to the throne with King Cillian dead. Her coronation had not yet been completed, as the ceremony had been delayed by the rebuilding of the capital, then the hybrid rain, and finally, the academy disaster, the reconstruction, and the cascade of crises that had kept administrative matters from being resolved.

But she wore no crown yet. And in this critical time, Edric was weakened.

Which meant the throne was, for this specific window of time, genuinely undefended.

All he had to do was kill Cecilia, kill Edric before he recovered, then kill Arlo.

And there would be nothing left between Lord Vine and the throne of Camelot.

He stood.

The energy that entered his voice was not just excitement. It was also certainty.

"Suit up," he said to the room, to the Reunifiers waiting beyond its walls. "We take the palace tonight."

***

Edric exhaled and flexed the shoulder.

The phantom pain was still there, a ghost of the nerve endings that had been severed and painstakingly reconnected over the past hours, but the arm moved correctly and the grip responded when he tested it.

The healers had done thorough work. If the arm had still been attached when he'd escaped, Arlo would have been able to reverse the damage in seconds, but unfortunately, his arm had been severed.

As it was, it had taken considerably longer and left him functional but hollowed out, the kind of depleted that sleep couldn't fully address.

He'd been in the middle of his healing session when news reached him of Arlo bringing Cecilia in. He'd abandoned the session immediately.

He'd made sure Cecilia was secured and properly guarded before allowing the healers to complete their work. That much had not been negotiable.

He rolled the shoulder once more and reached for his robe.

The knock came before he had finished dressing.

"Enter."

Thomas Ramsay walked in and closed the door behind him, a neutral expression on his face. "High Magus." He greeted.

"First Premier." Edric returned the nod.

The man stood there, his salt and pepper hair combed immaculately. His coat was without crease, and his purple eyes moved across Edric in assessment.

Edric dismissed the healers with a gesture, and they filed out, leaving the two of them alone in the room.

"The coronation," Ramsay said, without preamble. "When does planning begin? Surely you can see that not having princess Cecilia on the throne is hurting the kingdom."

"The absence of confirmed leadership is compounding every problem the kingdom is currently facing. People need something to look towards."

Edric said nothing.

"If you're unwilling to move forward," Ramsay continued, his tone remaining reasonable, "a regency council is a viable alternative. A temporary measure until—"

"No." The word came out hard. "There will be no regency council."

Ramsay studied him for a moment. Then he walked closer, his expression filled with exasperation.

"Edric." He exhaled. "You have to see reason."

"There will be no regency council," Edric repeated.

Ramsay sighed.

It was a genuine sound, almost regretful, the exhalation of someone who had hoped for a different answer.

His hand drove forward.

Edric's eyes went wide, the shock of it arriving before the pain did, his body not yet having processed what his mind already understood.

Ramsay's voice was very quiet. "You should have chosen the council."

Then he tore out Edric's heart.

There was a moment of silence before Edric's body flopped to the floor.

Ramsay released the heart without looking at where it landed, already turning to the door as it opened.

Arlo stood in the doorway.

His eyes moved from the body to Ramsay, his expression morphing into shock.

Before he could even do anything about it, Ramsay was already crossing the room, his hand leading, driving forward with the same motion that had just ended Edric.

His hand speared into Arlo's chest, his palm clamping over his heart.

Then the world reversed.

Arlo was back at the door, with Ramsay staring at him.

Ramsay attacked just like he'd done before, but this time, Arlo already knew what was coming. He stepped to the side, watching Ramsay's attack pass through empty space where his chest should've been.

He moved to counter but Ramsay's follow-up was already there, the second motion faster than the first, tearing across his chest before he had finished redirecting.

Blood sprayed into the air as his chest was torn open.

The world reversed again.

This time he had the angle correctly. The dodge was clean, Ramsay's hand finding nothing, the momentum of the attack carrying the First Premier one step past where he needed to be.

Ramsay's expression shifted from focused to furious and he roared, firing a powerful attack.

The wave of corruption roared towards Arlo, rolling across the floor and up the walls in indiscriminate hunger.

Arlo felt his body straining as he activated one of his skills, the world slowing around him as he manipulated time.

He surged forward, moving up and over the wave, the corruption passing beneath him, and came down with the ice shard already formed in his hand.

He drove it into Ramsay's chest.

The shard entered cleanly and exited the other side, and Ramsay coughed blood as his heart and lungs were pierced.

His hand closed around Arlo's arm.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said.