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The morning the next day, four people kneeled in the throne room before the Empress, two men, and two women, all dressed in regal attire befitting royalty.

They were her children, grieving as they expressed sadness for the death of their father. But soon after, the Empress snapped her finger as four royal guards brought forth a box each, setting them before each of the prince and princess respectively. "This is the fruits of your father\'s labour."

"This is?" The eldest prince opened the box, staring at the tiny jackfruit within, wondering what it was. Only then did he notice that the royal guard before him, the same person he was used to seeing daily, appeared strangely…strong?

\'No, it\'s not him alone.\' The eldest prince was able to feel that all the royal guards seemed a lot stronger than usual. His gaze then fell on his mother, the Empress, only now noticing that she seemed even stronger than the others. Moreover, she seemed to have aged in reverse, at least by a decade.

She was currently brimming with vitality, akin to a plant.

The eldest prince, Felor stared at the fruit, asking the Empress, "Do I need to eat it."

"Yes," The Empress nodded in response, saying with a smile, "You\'ll be surprised once you do."

"Alright," He didn\'t ask further as he popped the fruit in his mouth directly. Unlike the rest of her children, he wasn\'t afraid. After all, he was the most liked by his mother, so there was no way she would plot against him.

He sensed the Devil Fruit melting before a warmth spread out of his stomach as information surged into his mind, telling him everything he had to know about his power.

Gradually, his eyes lit up as he sensed a gentle heat emanating from the palm of his right before noticing the same coming from his mother too.

The moment he looked at her, he noticed the Empress\' face beaming with a wide smile before she couldn\'t control herself anymore, bursting into laughter.

The laughter was for a simple reason: Felor too had obtained the Fornol Sunflower.

What did this mean? It signified that the abilities they obtained could largely be a genetic influence. Meaning, all the royalty would obtain Fornol Sunflower as their power, the symbol of royalty.

This was a direct display of their power and bloodline. Moreover, this was by far the strongest ability one could obtain.

The other three siblings of Felor couldn\'t understand what was happening anymore. But upon seeing the wide smile on Felor\'s face and their mother\'s uncontrollable laughter, they stopped thinking anymore and directly swallowed their respective Devil Fruits.

And just as the Empress had expected, all three of them too awakened to Fornol Sunflower as their power. Moreover, each of them was able to sense the warmth emanating from the right hand of each, understanding the reason for the Empress\' laughter.

"Mother, just what is this?" After some time had passed, Felor asked, expressing his curiosity at the mystical power he had just obtained.

"Currently, only I and the royal guards here know the truth." The Empress said, "Once you succeed me, you too would gain the qualification to know about this. Until then, remember this…"

Her voice turned solemn immediately, containing power that caused everyone to instinctively prostrate before her, "The truth is linked to the rise and fall of our Empire. So, guard it with your lives."

"Now," Her voice then turned jovial as she descended from the throne, motioning for her children to follow her as they arrived at a balcony. Except for the Empress, everyone else was surprised to notice the large crowd of people that had gathered below.

"Mother, what…is this?" Felor was surprised.

"Just follow my instructions." The Empress said as she looked at the crowd, waving her hand as the crowd turned silent, hearing her every word, "Today marks the saddest day of our Empire, for our Emperor that we pride in is no more."

The news slammed into everyone as a shock. The common populace wasn\'t able to handle the news, for a moment unable to believe it.

It wasn\'t just them, but the nobility too. But their fear was for another reason entirely. It was because the Emperor passed away without naming an heir. So, they feared unrest due to the infighting among the four princes and princesses that might happen next.

But, a single glance at the Empress and their worries eased up immediately; the same thought resounded in the minds of everyone, \'The power is in the hands of the Empress.\'

"But fret not!" The Empress\'s voice resounded loud and clear through the masses, calming them automatically as she announced, "The Late Emperor used all his power to ensure our Fornol Empire\'s glory would continue to shine through generations. And the result of that undying effort is this…"

Saying so, she raised her hand, motioning for her children to follow her a second later. The crowd followed her hand, feeling the cold, morning air turning warm all of a sudden as a bright beam of sunlight emerged from her palm and travelled towards the sky, vanishing into the clouds.

It not only was bright but also emitted dense heat.

Immediately following that, her four children too raised their hands, pointing at the sky to unleash similar sunlight beams. Theirs were a tad weaker as compared to the Empress, but most among the crowd didn\'t notice that detail, just flabbergasted with the scene before their eyes.

"This is the might of the royal family that protects the great Fornol Empire. Rest assured! The sun is with us!"

"The Sun is with us!"

"The Sun is with us!"

The crowd erupted with a roar as the people lost their minds, echoing the words nonstop as even the nobles were affected by the same, roaring as, in their eyes, the royalty had surpassed humanity, becoming a higher lifeform.

A couple of seconds later, the Empress retracted her hand, stopping the sunlight beam as she whispered, "Don\'t fall unconscious now."

"Y-Yes…" Her children muttered weakly, masking their exhaustion as they waved their hands as briskly as possible.

Slowly, they turned around and began to make their leave, hearing the nonstop roars from the crowd that resounded throughout the capital.

"Phew!" Felor collapsed to the ground in exhaustion the moment he was away from prying eyes, "That was exhausting."

"As long as you continue to train, you\'ll grow stronger." The Empress said, patting his head gently, "You should know through the memories that there\'s no limit to how much you can grow, right? Once you reach Stage 5, you\'ll unlock the true potential of our power."

"I\'ll work hard, mother." Felor said, immediately frowning upon seeing the seriousness on his mother\'s face, asking, "Is something up?"

"I\'m wondering what power will our enemies possess." The Empress said, deep in thought.

"You mean, there are others with this power?" Felor asked in shock.

"The ones we consumed are called the Devil Fruit." The Empress said, "It is what granted us this power. Only I can procure these Devil Fruits. So, we\'re the sole ones to have this power. But, there is another counterpart of the same, a different power originating from a different fruit."

"It\'s called a…Beast Fruit." She said, iterating Yulna\'s words, "And they\'ll become our sworn enemies."

"The world is changing, and we have to do everything in our power to reign at the top." The Empress concluded as she looked at her children, "Fornol Sunflower is the strongest variant in our power. This means that we\'ll be the strongest sword to exist in this Empire."

"So, the task of destroying the strongest of our enemies automatically falls on our hands." She said, continuing, "Though, if you slack off in your training and allow others to surpass you in terms of the Stage you attain, you won\'t be strong enough anymore. As our enemies gain strength at the same time, we\'ll have to train without wasting a single second to be at the lead."

"Yes!" They nodded as the Empress informed them of the ways to train their power. It was something she experimented with the past night and had drafted up. Of course, Yulna had helped her to finalise everything.

After all, both of their goals aligned, so Yulna ensured the Fornol Empire developed the fastest.

Following that, the Empress began to draft up names among the nobility based on their contributions in war until now, allowing them to become Blight Humans with priority.

She first planned to arm all the nobility and turn them into Blight Humans. Following that, soldiers among commoners with achievements would be given a rank and awarded the opportunity to become a Blight Human.

And with that, the Blight Humans would take part in the wars to decimate their enemies faster and conquer more territory. But, she couldn\'t just expand without control, for that would cause cracks to form in leadership.

To prevent that, a solid communication network had to be established. And upon seeing that one of the recent nobles gained a power that allowed him to communicate over long distances, she smiled, drafting up the necessary plans.

Yulna didn\'t even need to observe their actions. After all, whenever the Blight Humans thought of their power, a Mental Energy stream flowed into the Tower of Corruption, allowing Yulna to digest their thoughts, understanding that her plan was a resounding success.

"That Empress is as talented as she is ambitious." She smiled, muttering after a while, "So, what will you do now, Rhizen? You\'ll never be able to find me without employing Coincidental Luck or Destiny Luck."

"And," She smiled, turning into a bird to fly out of the basement, "I\'ll never come before you until I\'m strong enough to kill you."

A strong barrier had formed around the Tower of Corruption now. Even for Rhizen, it would take a second to break through it. And that was enough time for her to retract her Tower of Corruption to escape someplace far away.

As the Empress would store enough Devil Fruits in her treasury, it would last her enough until Yulna returned. So, Rhizen would only end up making a futile trip.

And unless she was killed, the number of Blight Humans would only continue to increase.