Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne-Chapter 153: Caught

"What happened?" Cynthia asked again, more urgently this time, as she knelt beside the pale and unconscious Jenny. Her skin was cold to the touch, and her pulse was so light it was barely there.

"She’s still breathing," Cynthia muttered, brushing Jenny’s hair from her forehead.

"It’s a long story," Alexa said grimly, her eyes still scanning the area for threats. "But where’s Jon?"

Cynthia straightened slowly. "That’s also... a long story." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Before Alexa could respond, Gar’al, who had been standing slightly apart from them, his massive frame scanning the horizon with narrowed eyes, spoke up.

"There’s still someone out there."

His voice was sharp and focused. The others immediately turned to face the direction he was looking.

In the far distance, among the shattered remains of the first camp, a lone figure moved.

Cynthia and Alexa exchanged a look and then, without another word, dashed toward the silhouette.

...

Meanwhile, Tomen stood hidden behind the broken edge of a collapsed supply tent. His fingers clutched a circular device, its surface etched with runes and codes. He pressed the activation sequence, whispering frantically:

"Don’t come. Don’t come... Shit."

His voice trembled with frustration. He had planned meticulously, anticipated every detail, even manipulated his own squad, yet everything had been reduced to ash in mere minutes.

From what he had heard, he knew the bits of the situation. Basically, Jon had appeared and destroyed everything

Tomen gritted his teeth. ’Will I have to wait for another opportunity like this? And when would it even come?’

He breathed out slowly, forcing himself to smile again, the calm, fake, trustworthy smile he always wore. He turned around just in time to see Alexa and Cynthia approaching with someone.

...

A few hours later, a temporary meeting tent had been set up at the edge of the newly re-established second line of defense.

Inside, a gathering of the strongest and most vital leaders had convened. The mood was dark, silent, and thick with grief and tension.

The toll of the previous battle was catastrophic. What had started as a hopeful migration had turned into a massacre. They had come here seeking refuge and found only war.

At the far end of the tent, bound in thick enchanted chains and sealed to the neck with a block of arcane ice, was the source of their disaster: the half-dead mermaid was the prince of the underwater Persia Kingdom. His skin was bruised and pale, his gills fluttering erratically, but his eyes, those eyes still held disdain.

They wondered how it survived; however, after remembering that large whale, they understood a bit.

The commanders present included familiar faces and some survivors: Victor, Victoria, Luna, Tim, Kathy, Robin, Alexa, Laura, Nancy, Jenny (still unconscious), Cynthia, Norman, Gar’al, Ronald, Simon, John, Mia, Tomen, Trudy, Jude, General Jul, and Mayor Jul.

The executives of the city hadn’t been so lucky. Most of them had perished in the destruction.

Silence dominated the room as everyone tried to process the scale of what had just occurred. Many wanted to execute the prince immediately, to make him pay for the thousands of lives lost. But he was a prince, and that status posed an existential threat. Killing him might draw retaliation, an invasion from the depths no one could hope to survive in their current state.

So, for now, he lived.

"It went like this..." Cynthia began, recounting what had happened on their end before their arrival.

The room listened with rapt attention. The mention of inhabitants on the moon startled many, but no one interrupted.

The details only grew more shocking: Jon had slaughtered the Moon King himself.

The eyes in the room shifted toward the frozen mermaid prince.

If Jon had no hesitation in killing the Moon King, then what would he do to this one?

Then Laura stood and gave her side of the story from the first battle to the Triton assault, to Jenny’s use of Creation World, and the manifestation of the wrathful Jon figure that obliterated half the battlefield.

Every detail caused new gasps, new waves of disbelief. Even hardened warriors like Gar’al seemed shaken, remembering that explosion.

Tomen sat silently among them, his eyes narrowing. Could that kind of summoning truly be possible? Could Jenny have replicated Jon’s strength to such an extent? That level of creation was meant to be impossible, especially from someone who hadn’t even broken into the second realm.

But what relieved him most... was that Jenny hadn’t woken up. Victoria had tried healing magic and advanced techniques, but she remained unconscious.

Still, the sense of danger never quite left Tomen.

Elsewhere, inside a quiet medical tent—

Jon’s eyes opened.

He blinked once, twice, and then sat up swiftly. The pain from his wounds barely registered. The bandages wrapped tightly around his chest and arms were torn off without hesitation.

He moved with urgency, pulling fresh clothes from a nearby shelf. He barely paused as the tent flaps opened and a woman entered.

"You’re awake?" she gasped.

Jon didn’t respond. Not a glance. He stepped past her, walked into the cold air outside, and scanned the encampment.

There were whispers. People stared. Fear. Awe. Unease.

But he didn’t stop walking.

Moments later, he pushed his way into the main meeting tent.

The conversation stopped. Everyone froze, looking at him with mixed emotions.

"Heup—" The Mayor gasped aloud.

After that attack, it was difficult not to see him in a different light.

Jon’s gaze swept the room, then locked onto Laura.

"Can I?" he asked quietly.

"W-What?" she stammered.

"Can I see it?"

She nodded, still unsure what he meant, but agreed. Jon wouldn’t do anything to harm her, right?

He reached out and placed a hand gently on her head.

The air grew cold.

He just went to the end of her memories and read through everything. It was like he was watching the situation in spirit, and he wasn’t there.

In the physical world, those watching felt a heavy, suffocating bloodlust pouring from him.

Mayor Jul felt like his lungs had stopped working, ’I-Is this the leader?’

Jon lifted his hand slowly and asked. "Who made the wall fall?"

The question crashed over the room like a tidal wave. Everyone froze.

Then, without waiting, Jon turned to one side of the tent.

"YOU."

Everyone followed his gaze.

Tomen.

His face went pale.

"Y-You’re mistaken..." he started, but Jon stepped forward and in the blink of an eye, his hand was wrapped around Tomen’s neck.

Tomen gasped, but he couldn’t move.

"You killed your own platoon. You colluded with the Lords. You brought down the wall."

Jon’s voice was cold, surgical. No hesitation.

The others were stunned.

Tomen’s thoughts raced as he figured out, ’He can read minds?’ All Jon had mentioned were the things in his mind at that moment.

Jon’s fingers tightened. He dove deeper into Tomen’s mind world and began scanning his memories.

Jon wanted to know more about how far their plan went, so he entered his mind world, and willed it to read all his memories.

And then it happened.

Jon’s eyes widened.

He had read Tomen’s memories, so he now knew all about him, his plans to even what he last ate.

Their plan wasn’t anything special, and he was going to fail in the end.

No, it was what he was seeing before him.

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED SKILL: "VOLT STRIKE" (SECOND REALM)]

It didn’t stop there.

[YOU HAVE UNDERSTOOD THE DREAM AND MYSTERY OF THE MOON. THE QUALITY OF YOUR MOON HAS INCREASED.]

[DREAM SCROLL (SECOND REALM) HAS FORCIBLY EVOLVED TO: DREAM READ (THIRD REALM)]

[YOU HAVE FORCIBLY EVOLVED "BRILLIANT MIND" (SECOND REALM) TO: "MERGING FOUNDER" (THIRD REALM)]