Three months after the assassination of Borick of The Path of Peace, Borick's death had caused his influence to completely vanish, allowing The Path of Peace to finally orchestrate an armed uprising. Believing that fighting against the Empire oppressing it's own people was their calling. They assaulted the government offices that imposed heavy taxes and storehouse of the landlords. Although the Great Lord wanted to avoid bloodshed, understanding the land and food were needed to sustain massive number of followers, he agreed to the rational of the Religious Group's Leaders.

Many of the citizens oppressed by the Empire, also rose up in response to the uprising. The Revolution spread throughout the Empire. Simultaneously, the western nation's massive army began an invasion, as if it had been waiting for that precise moment. The inexperienced military of the Empire suffered one defeat after the other and allowed the nation's army to penetrate deep into the Empire's territory. And thus, the Empire found itself with many problems in it's hands.

CHAPTER 35: KILL THE HUNT

In the Imperial Capital's Palace, Prime Minister Honest, along with the Emperor himself were in the courtyard as winter overcame the land. The young ruler was kneeling before a pond that used to contain fish, before the change of seasons.

Emperor: "Hey, Minister, I heard our army lost to the Western Nation again. Will we really be alright..? It sounds like we're surrounded by enemies at all times..."

Honest: "My, my, where did you hear something like that, your highness?"

Emperor: "From Seigi, the secretary of domestic affairs."

Honest: *sly grin* "I see... It seems that Seigi is running away from his responsibilities." The Emperor looked at him, tilting his head in confusion.

Emperor: "What do you mean?"

Honest: "The uprising across the Empire which is occurring right now is the Secretary of Domestic Affairs' responsibility. He is trying to take the heat off hid back by distracting us with news of the Western Nation. Please do not worry about our foreign enemies. We've called General Esdeath's army into action."

Emperor: "Oh!! Then that means..." He looked back at the prime minister, excited.

Honest: "Yes. General Esdeath will no doubt be able to rout the invading army. The number of soldiers is no longer of importance." That brought a smile to the Young Emperor's face. "A thousand-year-old-Empire will be bound to have something like this happen eventually. But please do not worry. Please remain calm and collected, and be the pillar that supports the people."

Emperor: "I understand!" He stood up with new found enthusiasm. "If the Emperor is weak-minded, the Empire won't be able to stand strong! Thank you, Minister! You always have my back."

(A/N: "Let's be honest... No not that Honest... The Emperor I feel like should have some form of redemption, since he's just a naive child.)

Unfortunately the young Emperor knew not of his most "trusted ally's" true intentions. Yes, the young Emperor's heart was in the right place, but his actions were being completely controlled by the Prime Minister. He thought he was doing the right thing, but in reality, he was just helping Honest with his quest to gain more power and control over others.

Sitting in a dining room, Prime Minister Honest was stuffing his face with multiple kinds of food as his son, Syura sat across him with his feet kicked up.

Honest: "My, my... Rebellions, invasions... It's been so stressful lately.. I'm going to gain weight from all of the stress.

Syura: "Gyahaha! You're eating too much, pops!"

Honest: "It's because your souvenirs are so delicious. I wanted to let my beloved child on a journey, so I let you go outside of the Empire. And you've comeback as impressive as ever. You've made me very proud, Syura."

Syura: "I saw many interesting things around the world, but in the end, this Empire is still the most developed Nation by far. The Southern Islands and the Northern Tundra were so rural. They don't even have firearms."

Honest: "So the next civilization that can match up to the Empire is the Western Kingdom?"

Syura: "Yeah. They had some interesting unique culture, like Alchemy. My only regret is, that I wasn't able to visit the Eastern Island Nation."

Honest: "There was nothing you could do about it. The area across the Eastern Ocean is unknown territory."

Syura: "But... *grins maliciously* I've finished the homework you gave me to do over the journey--'Find People with useful talents'. Pops..."

Honest: "Oho." He rose his eyebrows in interest. "Why don't we take a look right away?"

Moving to the Empire's Military Training Grounds, aka the Coliseum, Honest sat himself down in his personal booth with Syura standing by his side with a grin. Gathered in the center of the arena were several prisoners, terrified and holding their weapons very weakly.

Syura: "Hey, you! Since you're gonna be executed anyway, how about this? How about we play a game?" Their attention was brought to the wooden gates being open, letting in five hooded figures, each one emitting a powerful and malicious aura that sent chills down the prisoners' spines. "If you defeat all five of them, you will be acquainted and given prize money! And of course, you're all welcome to attack all at once."

Despite being given the possibility of money and hopefully freedom from their cells, the Prisoners remained still, fearful of those that stood in front of them.

Prisoner 1: "H-Hey... of course we'll do it, right..?"

Prisoner 2: "Yeah.. If we don't, we'll be killed either way.."

Syura: *grins* "Oh? Looks like they'll do it. This was a great idea. Making the Death Row criminals fight by using acquittal as bait."

Honest: "It's a technique in training assassins. Nothing beats hand-on experience."

With their rally cries, the criminals all rushed forwards towards the five cloaked figures, with the one in front of them throwing his hood off, revealing him to be a man with some Japanese attire.

Man: "Well then, as decided earlier in rock-paper-scissors, I shall be first."

Girl: "Fine." Soon the man revealed a sheathed katana in his hands.

Man: "Oh, my beloved Kousetsu... I will feed you now."

In a blink of an eye, the man had dashed forwards, making a series of rapid slashes before coming to a sliding halt on the other end of his opponents, who all had blood flying from them. He just let's a small smirk loose.

Syura: "His name is Izou. He loves his sword more than anything, and always makes blood rain."

Prisoner 1: "H-He's a monster!!" Just that display of Swordsmanship was enough for the criminals to all start running away, hoping to find a way out, however, the shortest of the group, A hooded female only grinned.

Girl: "Oh my, there's nowhere for you to escape. Poor things." Soon after, she took out what looked like a type of microphone with a cat-shaped head. "At the very least, let me sing you a farewell song for your journey to heaven!"

She threw her off her hood, revealing her to be wearing some type of pop star bunny costume before she began to sing into it, skipping around joyously. However, the sound waves she was generating, caused major damage to the criminals, cracking their bones and causing blood to fly out of their mouths and noses.

Syura: "Her name is Cosmina. She is a singer who's was convicted in a witch hunt in the western country."

Cosmina: *smiles happily* "Got them all! ...Kyah!" she yelped as the man behind her kicked her right on her behind, clearly annoyed.

Man: "What do you mean, 'got them all' you bitch!? The hell are you doing, killing them all in one go!? What about my share!?"

Cosmina: "Come on~" He looked at her before she got into a bit of a seductive pose and grinned while blushing playfully. "I'll take care of you later~"

Man: "You're not good enough!"

(A/N: "Mmm.... *snaps picture* Research")

Another hooded female, silently made her way away from the group and towards the bodies before sighing disappointingly.

Girl: "What a bunch of useless guys." However, she soon noticed one of the criminals, a rather large man still breathing. "Hm? This one is still breathing."

Prisoner: *panicking* "A-Ahh!!" He panicked before the lady grabbed him by the collar and surprisingly threw him up into the air while throwing her hood off, revealing her to be a seemingly young woman wearing a type of dress that made her look like a doll.

Girl: "Why won't you calm down!? You should consider yourself lucky." She leaped up to him before sinking her fangs into his shoulder. She began draining him dry like a Vampire. Releasing a pained yell, the man's rather large body suddenly lost all of its fat, becoming what looked like a man with malnutrition. "Delicious!"

Syura: "Her name is Dorothea. She's an Alchemist with many modifications to her body."

Soon the other two revealed themselves, one being a very dissatisfied man and the other being a very "large" clown.

Syura: "And that over there, is Enshin. He's a pirate who was rampaging in the seas of the Southern Islands."

Enshin: "Ugh. I wanna kill someone. I feel so restless."

Syura: "And that fatass who is out of breath is Champ. He's a serial killer entertainer."

Champ's thoughts: "There aren't any kids here, so I don't want any motivation."

Honest: "I see... you've gathered a group of talented people with high potential. However..." He specifically took notice of the different weapons they carried such as, Enshin's cutlass, Cosmina's microphone and Dorothea's Vampire Fangs. "No matter how you look at it, they're all equipped with Teigu, aren't they...?"

Syura: "I went though all the trouble of gathering Truth scattered outside of the Empire. The least you could do is let me use them. Besides, these guys all have world-class talents. They leave your Rakshasa Demons or whatever in the dust."

Honest: "What a cute provocation." This seemed to have slightly offended Syura.

Syura: "It's not a provocation. I can prove that to you, by killing that Seigi person who's been a problem for you, with our own powers." The Prime Minister looked at him before smirking.

Honest: "Oh, that won't be necessary. Times like these, when the nation is in chaos, are the perfect opportunity to determine who's loyal or not. Any fools who oppose me will be driven out of their position and executed. Framing someone for A crime takes no effort at all." Syura just stared at him, with a single drop of sweat falling down his face before he looked back into the arena, a serious expression on his face.

Syura's thoughts: "He's as rotten as always. It won't be easy surpassing pops." However a smirk slowly formed on his face. "Well, either way, it's play time. All of my toys are gathered."

However unknown to the two of them, someone was listening to their conversation; a certain twin-tailed witch Rakshasa Demon, Lieselotte Sherlock. Using her magic, she was thankfully able to hide her presence from the likes of Syura and Honest.

Lieselotte's thoughts: "Huh... So that's the situation, huh?" She looked over onto her shoulder, where what looked like some form of Hell Bat was perched on her shoulder.

Closing her eyes she sighed. "Let's hope this works." Touching the Hell Bat on its head, she hummed before...

Lieselotte: ">Chrono Calculation<" Just as the magical bindings appeared around her, she vanished from sight, completely.

END