"How Long Until The Crown Breaks?"

15. Still sitting in his cell, Takashi managed to actually get some rest knowing that The Great Speaker and his accomplice were taken out. Now for Takashi, he just has to make sure his ulitmate plan comes through since Calshi did his part in all that needed to be done, now...It is Takashi who has to set off his rule to sit at the golden throne surrounded by bronze and wood.

.......

On the other side of the stone prison walls was the newly made Empress herself. Marishi stood with all twelve of her guards at the entrance to the underground prison chambers. 

"Take me in...Just the sight of this building draws out my golden silk made dress..." They nod and bow to her as the prison guards turn around and open the door, walking the Empress into the chambers, down the stairs into the dreaded and dark hallways of the prison walls and cells.

She casually walks down the hallways, paying no mind to her hellish looking surroundings as she puts her arms down, still holding her precious stuffed lion, while saying to her guards, "this is his cell, isn't it?"

"Yes, your power."

Marishi smirks, "well open his door then."

The guard nods and bows, then he proceeds to open the cell of the Twilight Warrior. 

Inside of the room, Takashi turn towards the door after waking up from his sleep. Sitting and seeing exactly who it is behind the guard, Takashi smirks and says to the Empress, "are you here to admit the sin your deceased mother omitted on me?"

Marishi walks in right past the guards as she lets her guard down, pointing fingers at Takashi and saying, "you had no right to hit her! My mother was the Empress, that was every right to arrest you, warrior." She throws the remark at him with pleasure.

The guards step inside with the Empress along with the maidens, with one of the maidens trying to calm her down by saying, "Empress, we must make this quick in time for supper."

Marishi waves her hand at her with a snarky attitude as she says, "I want to enjoy my time with the Twilight Warrior one last time before we end him completely."

They all look in shock, then she adds in "I can't have him in my vison no longer while I reign from the golden throne."

"Your wanting of that is not even something you can dream young Empress, it is merely the thought process of a simpleton to think you can kill me so easily."

She chuckles, even giggling still before putting on a brave face to say, "I'll prove you wrong with action then, even though I was going to let you out of this cell of yours."

"I'm only waiting for that."

Then right after, the high priest makes his way to the cell, bowing down and taking off his mask before putting it back on.

"Your Power, it is only but law that Takashi be let out for not being involved in the poisoning of our late Empress."

Marishi turns around with anger as she shouts at the high priest, "my mother was still hurt by him! He pushed her?"

"Your Power, it is law that it be done."

"Then I will change it!" She yells, gripping onto her stuffed lion during so.

The high priest takes a breather before saying one last time, "you could do that, but not in the early stages of your reign, you must follow Naminek law yourself, changing it for your own gain is not something that happens in early reign. The Twilight Warrior must be released."

Marishi stands there, breathing heaving while slowly turning back to Takashi who is just casually looking back at her.

"You are going to try it, you are going to try to overtake me, overthrow my throne!"

"Not if you let me, my young Empress."

As if sick of him, Marishi leans back against the wall and proceeds to say, "now i'm feeling faint, I only wanted to taunt you today, but since I'm so young and so dumb and so lost I...I got carried away" As if being sarcastic with her words, she continues, "I should study on the law more and the way of Naminek life...Maybe that is what will make me smarter and big enough to handle such confusing mess as releasing a prisoner..."

She proceeds to laugh, "if that be the case, then I want to challenge you once you are released...You won't return to temple grounds, I'll make you go through trials against the strongest warriors of Naminek, then I'll see whether or not you deserve to be in my presence, after all...My mother loved you still and I want to know why."

Takashi kneels down before the Empress and says to her, "I will gladly do that service, your Power."

He looks right at the child as Marishi just stares back at him, and as Takashi reads her golden eyes, he senses some fear in them, as if she really doesn't know what she just did or not.

All the guards stand back as they make the pathway open for the Empress. "Takashi...Is your name? I will only proceed to call you that if you win."

"Then you better get used to saying it." He replies.

As if sick of Takashi even more, she turns around to the prison guards and says, "release him and send him to the courtyard of the temple, and make sure all the warriors are sent out, all one hundred of our best ones" She turns her head to Takashi as if that is supposed to scare him in some way, "have it ready by ten tonight."

They nod and make their way out of the building with her; meanwhile, the guards come and take Takashi away, preparing him for the sudden battle.

......

Out in the golden litted courtyard surrounded by statues of the past Captains that had control of the guards over the hundreds of years, Takashi, walking with a group of guards, is walked right into the middle of the stone yard that he imposterized as Norshi before, and also where he attacked the other guards which they apparently let him off for.

Sitting in a seat across from the courtyard, Empress Marishi stares back at the warrior, ready to bring on the fight as she stands up just to say, "Let them in."

And in a second, a hundred men, masked up from head to toe, come marching in, fifty from the right, fifty from the left, all of them standing before Takashi, getting into stance right before Takashi, ready to fight him.

The guards let go of Takashi and they present him with his weapons.

"Sorry that those were taken from you" Marishi says sarcastically, with a glowing smile on her face.

Having his sword and bow and arrow again made Takashi feel completely alive. Holding them tight in his hands he casually looks around, getting into postion, ready to kill.

Marishi lifts up a golden flag and says, "I say that if you defeat all of these men, I'll give you something to stay in Naminek for, outside of prison of course...And if you lose which I'm sure you will, I'll have you thrown back into prison for the rest of your life..."

Marishi steps back and proceeds to put her mask on, shouting "Beginnnn!!!"

And without hesitation, she sits back down and Takashi aims for the first person he sees, glad to know that Marishi is falling right into his trap.

As soon as three of them men make their way to him, Takashi takes out his sword and slices through all three of them before cutting the throat of a warrior coming up behind him. 

Facing his left is another group of men slashing at him, but Takashi blocks their shoots and proceeds to end them casually with slicing through them. Even taking out his bow and arrow to shoot at the ones far off from him while proceeding to hit the men right beside him with the arrow.

This action caused Takashi to take four hits, two to his back, one on his left shoulder, and one on his right knee, but this doesn't stop Takashi as he takes out his sword again, jumping over the same men that hit him and he slices all three of their heads off before backing who and stabbing through two men in the stomach and face without even looking at them.

He straightens himself out and continues slicing through the rest of the men, with about thirty five left now; Takashi keeps going.

.....

Marishi stands up, looking at her guards then back at Takashi with a confused but intrigued look on her little face.

....

Takashi stabs through two men at one time, then he starts using his retracting blade, one that boomerangs back and forth to where he can throw it and it'll cut through multiple people at once.

Which he does, with his blade cutting through ten men at once, but as Takashi retracts it back to him, a warrior tries to grab it and throw it all Takashi, but it's become sharper as Takashi, with just and open and closing of his fist, has the blade cut the warrior's fingers off.

As the warrior screams he tries to fight Takashi with his other hand and Takashi just slices the warrior's arm off and then proceeds to cut his head off.

....

The young Empress starts to breathe heavy, she feels her chest as she notices her heart pumping as if it will beat out of her chest, and Marishi was starting to feel afraid that this feeling would get worse, and that when her heart sank, she will go down with it.

....

Takashi, while below her, makes sure that he is able to destroy all the warriors making their way towards him, slicing through them to where their blood splatters on him with every hit.

It was so much blood around, it started to decorate the floor. Takashi, on the other hand, turned his golden attire into one that's not just green, gold, and black, but now green, gold, black, and the bloody red.

....

The Empress's heart starts pumping even more as she stares at the bloody temple grounds, with blood splattered onto the statues and dead, mutilated bodies all over it. 

She started feeling sick for the first time as she kept her eyes moving left from right while watching Takashi tear through everyone with ease.

She turns right around and shouts to the guards, "let my tigers out! Let them eat him!!" She shouts with anger and passion.

....

As soon as the gates open up, the three adult tigers sneak their way unto the temple grounds, snarling and crawling their way towards Takashi.

"Huh really..." Takashi says through his mask, unamused.

With some of the warriors left siding with the tigers as they slowly make their way towards Takashi, the young Empress suddenly yells out, "Kill him!" While gripping the rails of the balcony she is on.

Hearing her voice, the tigers react and lunge at Takashi, but he grabs one of the warriors just in time to throw him at the tiger, with him being crushed by the five foot and two hundred and fifty pound tiger.

Takashi then takes on the tiger itself as he quickly slashes through it and cuts it's neck open, then he jumps on the second tiger and does the same all while riding it from it running all over the temple grounds, cutting through the few warriors left. 

He stabs through the second tiger and proceeds to kill the third one, until another warrior pushes him off of the tiger causing Takashi to roll off of the tiger unto the bloody ground.

But Takashi doesn't let this stop him, as the warrior jumps on him to stab through the Twilight Warrior, but Takashi grabs the warrior's face so hard to wear his mask falls off, then Takashi takes his blade and stabs through the warrior's head, killing him instantly.

...

The Empress starts banging on the rails to where the entire bar, even from inches away, starts shaking. "Get him! Kill him Goldie! KIll him!!!"

...

But Takashi simply uses his blade and it makes it's way into the tiger and causes it to fall over and bleed out. 

Takashi then turns around and lunges at three more men making their way towards him. Next thing you notice is a viciously ruthless man tearing through the rest of the bodies of the Naminek warriors.

And with that being all one hundred of them, he simply walks over to the tiger and stabs through it, taking it out of its misery.

Takashi walks over to where he can see Marishi perfectly and to where she can see him. "Anything else?" He says calmly, although with a bragging undertone. 

Marishi doesn't say anything back to him, she just stares at him with vicious eyes, then the high priest starts to speak, "your Power, he has won the challenge you gave him, he must be released and granted honor from you."

As he leans away from Empress Marishi now, she only slightly leans towards the high priest to say, "bring me the warrior."

Then she proceeds to walk through the dark hallways of the temple. Guards make their way towards Takashi and they walk him in to talk with Empress Marishi.

.....

In the halls of the temple, the Empress stands right before him, saying "I made my word, you are a master of your work."

"I appreciate the gesture child, but I am more than a mere master. I am the one who will sit at the throne, I am the one who will change the laws of Naminek and rule rightly our people by the way that will grant the throne and our people right ruling for each of our lives as well as the generations to come."

The Empress scoffs, "are you trying it already? And what makes you think our laws have disrupted our people's living? Profiting from the slaves of Doulishii is what makes us the power that we are, showing control is what is what will make the world afraid of us."

"I have other ways of making this Empire great, says that a child like you would never understand."

Suddenly feeling afraid by Takashi's words, the Empress steps back from him saying, "I'm not going to let you overthrow me..." She shakes her head, "I have all my people with me and the public, they would never have you on the throne."

"I already have our lands guardian on our side, once I sent him out to the people they will understand."

She walks up to him, fuming with anger shouting, "I am the one who sits on the throne!!! It is my family! My dynasty who has ruled this place for three hundred years!"

With smugness, Takashi simply replies by saying "Then maybe it is time for something different, a new dynasty for Naminek so that you can be duchess over the Doulishii provinces, that is what I will give you."

 

Marishi backs up from him when she sees everyone around her agreeing to Takashi's words. "You all are a bunch of traitors."

"Takashi is very much Naminek as you are, considering his warrior status he...May be better to reign."

 

"How could you?" She starts breathing heavy once again, "you can not overthrow me? That takes war and-"

"There is no need to go to war with a ten year old child, I believe it is up to the people to decide."

As his necklace starts lighting up, Takashi says to them, "I'll have you killed it you don't step down."

"And what power do you have to do that, you don't have the public opinion, your matters will have to be known?" The high priest says, starting to feel concerned for the young Empress.

"Yeah, you don't have the public's opinion, they love me." She snarkly replies.

Takashi casually says to her, "if you all would have paid attention to Calshi over this set of time, you would have been able to stop me before hand."

The Empress snarky expression lowers, instantly she starts looking afraid as Takashi keeps speaking up about Calshi's doing, she eventually runs away as everyone, but Takashi, follows her.

"Empress!" The high priest shouts for her.

But once they make it back in the public eye, nothing but chaos has ensued.