Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Inside Don's room, everyone was waiting for him to wake up. 

"Why is he not waking up?"

Amaryll sat on the bed beside Don and asked Knight.

"He will"

When Knight placed the life shard on his body, the life shard merged itself with Don. Yet, nothing happened as they were expecting. Except for Benedict and Ken who were fixing the cannon in Ishikara, everyone dropped what they were doing and came to his room.

On the corner of the room, Lia stared at the elves, dwarves, orcs, and demihumans with widened eyes. In Elvelon, she rarely saw an Astrel but in front of her, the room was filled with Astrels.

Occasionally, Lia saw the elf who was sitting on the bed turning her head and gently smiling at her while the goblins kept their distance from her.

Lia realized the youth on the bed was Knight's brother but as far as she could tell, he's dead as his body had huge wounds and skin paler as white paper.

"LOOK!"

Suddenly Lia's focus on the youth had broken by the elf's shout

"His wounds… they're healing"

Lia was stunned to see the wounds in him slowly closing up. After waiting for a few hours, this was the first time they saw smiles on their faces.

Boom!

However, when the elf put her hand on his face, a powerful wave of energy blasted everyone in the room and sent them flying.

"Ah"

"Grrr"

"Everyone leave the room!"

When Lia hit the wall and fell, she heard many growls as she saw Knight standing in the middle of the room and shouting at them.

"What's...happening?"

Amaryll stood up with the help of Arwen as Arwen dragged her outside the room leaving Knight and Don alone.

An old man with full white long hair helped Lia up and led her outside the room as she glanced at Knight and a golden robed woman who was trying to contain the energy radiation coming from the youth's body.

"Knight, what's happening to him?"

Reghys shouted at Knight while she kept everything in the room from catching fire because of the heat he's radiating.

"He's...breaking through"

Knight sensed the Battle energy violently circulating inside his body and repairing and enhancing his organs. However, the Battle energy inside Don's body was nothing like in his body as Don's energy seemed more violent and more powerful.

"His body devouring the dark energy!"

Unlike Knight, Reghys couldn't see the transformation of Battle energy inside his body but she could sense the dark energy fusing with his body.

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

Crack!

Chill!

Outside the room, Amaryll heard the howling sound of a tornado and pushed back a few steps by the force of the wind. The windows and the glassware in the room shattered by the wind while Reghys and Knight seemed tense standing in front of Don.

"Everyone, take a step back! "

Arwen shouted the order due to the howling sound of the wind. They quickly moved back to avoid being thrown off by the wind.

The situation continued for another half an hour before the wind started to settle down.

"Is he going to wake up now?"

Reghys asked Knight but he shook his head in return.

"No, he's reaching the Mid Sun Realm"

Even though the wind created by the violent Battle energy settled down, Knight could tell that it's not finished transforming. He had reached the Sun Realm but still, his energy didn't stop at that point.

"It must be because of the thing you used"

Reghys had no idea of the golden shard Knight used on Don but the shard was charged with the Purest form of the Life Energy.

And suddenly, both of them saw Don's hand tremble.

"Wake up, you bastard!" 

Knight roared after seeing his hand tremble and waited for him to do more than moving his hand.

Gasp!

Just as his roar echoed through the room, Don suddenly rose up on his bed and gasped for air.

"DON!"

"Me King!"

Don saw Knight and Reghys staring at him as before he could open his mouth, Amaryll threw herself to him and wrapped her hands around his neck.

"You're alive!"

Then the next movement, he felt another tight grab around him and caught the scent of Steel Chick ale.

"Let him breathe!"

Reghys grabbed Stodemar by his collar and pulled him away.

"You're alive!"

He felt his shoulder being drenched by Amaryll's tears of joy as he slowly moved his hand to pat her on the back.

"Yes, Amaryll, I'm back"

"Brother!"

He looked up and saw Catalie appear beside him with a wide smile on her face.

"Can you let him go now?"

Seeing Amaryll glued herself to him, Amaryll shook her shoulders.

"No"

Amaryll didn't budge as she still clung to him like a child. 

"I'm okay now"

His heart was warm looking at the love she showed him as he gently pushed her away to stand up.

He slowly placed his feet on the ground and pulled himself to stand.

The first face he looked when was a one, yet Don recognized him in a blink of an eye.

"Knight"

Knight walked towards him and embraced him in a brotherly hug 

"So this is your human form huh?"

"Are you jealous?"

Knight didn't shed tears or showed his emotions as Amaryll did but Don could feel the brotherly love in his eyes. Looking at his human form, Don remembered the time he took an injured weak cub on the roadside and now the weak cub grew up to be a Sun Realm divine beast.

Just as Knight let go, Arwen also embraced him in a warm hug.

"We missed you, Don"

***************************

At this moment, Arrora was standing under the huge tree on the hill where she used to train with Don overlooking the river.

She refused to be there when Knight tried to resurrect him because she had no strength to see him failing to resurrect Don. So she came to the hilltop to reminisce the memories of her time with Don.

The guilt of not being there with him when the ambush went down made her feel like her heart has been pierced by a thousand needles. When she first met him, she was too weak to seek revenge on those who killed her family. Then she wanted to increase her power with his help and take revenge but now all she wanted is to hear his voice one more time.

Just the day he died, she decided to confess her feelings to him and now she feared that she missed her chance.

The only thing that kept her from taking her own life was she wanted to finish what he started here. She was struggling to decide whether she could go to his room or not.

She felt like this once when her parents died but this was the first time in a long time that she's feeling like this again.

"Arrora"

Her body and mind went rigid when she heard a voice from her behind. At snail's pace, she turned around to see Don was staring at her. 

Without her control, tears welled up in her eyes as moans escaped her lips through the suppressed sound of hiccups.

Tears spilled over and flowed down her face like a river escaping a dam. She lost all her strength and felt extremely weak looking at him.

He walked towards her while she kept sobbing and mumbling. Her hands shivered as she reached out to touch him.

"Don (sob) (sob)"

She wailed again in a loud tone when she realized that he's really in front of her.

"Didn't I tell you not to cry again?"

He softly asked and wiped the tears away from her face. After breaking through to the Heavenly level, she was only an inch shorter than him but her crying made her look like a scared little girl.

Bit by bit, she leaned closer and wrapped her hands around his neck.

Don passionately patted her back and waited until she let all her pain out by crying out loud.

"Are you finished?"

After a few more minutes, she ran out of tears and heard his voice again. She took a step back and wiped her tears off the face and looked him in the eyes.

"Falling in love with you was the easy part, Don. Admitting to myself that it happened, that's hard. You see, I was afraid to confess my feelings thinking that you'd reject me but now I don't care, I just want you to know, I love you"

He always knew deep down that Arrora is in love with him but he didn't want to get attached to anything that would hinder him from achieving his goals. However, returning from death made him look at things from different perspectives.

Besides, he learned a valuable lesson in the divine continent, that was, find someone that loves you more than you love them. Arrora waited for his answer but instead of an answer, he simply hugged her again.

In his embrace, she felt like the world stopped still on its axis. Everything around her seemed to come to a pause as there was no time, no wind, no rain. Arrora's mind was at peace. She felt her body press in, soft and warm. This was the love she'd waited for, prayed for. She inwardly thanked the Gods and hugged all the tighter. A love like this was to be cherished for life. 

Finally, on the beautiful hilltop of Everlight, they found their soulmates.