Nowl-Ahn and Anissa fly towards the assembly point. Thousands of other Viltrumites are already there, waiting to find out what the alarm was all about. They land and look around, trying to gather information on the situation.
"Did you hear? They captured Conquest," someone says.
"Truly? Why would they do that?"
"I don't know, but the explosions might have something to do with it," another says.
"Nonesense. Conquest would never bother with setting up explosions. Strength above all," another person says.
Hearing the people talk, Nowl-Ahn turns to the first person.
"Where did they bring Conquest?"
"Huh? Who are you?"
"Just answer the question. Where did they bring Conquest? Do you know or not?" Nowl-Ahn asks and walks closer to the man. But these are Viltrumites and not humans, so this doesn't work as intended. Only strength rules, and Nowl-Ahn is not known.
"Oh? You think you can threaten me by approaching me?" the Viltrumite asks.
"How else will I beat the shit out of you?" Nowl-Ahn asks. He has no patience for anyone right now, hearing his mentor and trainer being sent to prison.
"Is that a promise?" the Viltrumite asks with a savage smile.
*woooshh*
Nowl-Ahn's fist seemingly teleports through the air and hits the Viltrumite's stomach in full force.
*BOOOOM*
"KKK...ahhhh..."
The force of the blow rips a small hole in the man's stomach and causes him to bleed right away. He looks at his stomach unconsciously and then falls to the ground, his brain shutting down and preventing him from feeling the pain. The other Viltrumites around look at the scene in shock and surprise. Violence is nothing unusual, but none of them saw the attack coming, and they all felt the shockwave. Before anything can happen, someone steps in front of Nowl-Ahn. Surprisingly, it is Anissa who appears before him. This stops Nowl-Ahn from attacking.
"Please, Nowl-Ahn... Let's not do that just now."
Those are words unlike anything Anissa would normally utter. But she has changed somewhat, and feeling anger from Nowl-Ahn, she doesn't know how to deal with it. Nowl-Ahn doesn't answer and flies away. He just guesses the place where they imprisoned Conquest. He is one of the strongest Viltrumites in existence, so he will be placed in a very secure location.
Anissa follows him but realises she is nowhere near fast enough to keep up. Nowl-Ahn makes his way to one of the prison complexes on Viltrum, which is used for the most heinous crimes, betrayal. If Conquest was imprisoned, then it would have to be for something serious, and there wasn't much that was more serious than betrayal of the Viltrum Empire. But Nowl-Ahn wasn't sure what that would mean; he had a guess, though.
"I want to meet with Conquest," Nowl-Ahn says as the guards stop him.
"No one is to meet with Conquest. Orders." one of them tells him.
"Whose orders?" he asks.
"General Thragg's. He was the one who imprisoned Conquest as he was on a rampage," the second guard says.
"Rampage? What rampage?"
"Leave! You won't get in here."
"As I remember, a prisoner is allowed to have one visitor before his sentence is carried out. I want to be that visitor and request entry. Now!" Nowl-Ahn demands.
"Are you deaf?! No one gets in here, and that's final!" the guard shouts and prepares for a fight.
"I will enter, whether you're conscious to see it or not, is none of my concern." Nowl-Ahn threatens.
"You are welcome to try, child," one of the guards taunts.
"Nowl-Ahn, stop!"
Anissa appears and once again stands before him. She looks conflicted, which makes sense. On one hand, she is more than turned on by this side of Nowl-Ahn; on the other, she is aware of what might happen should he truly go through with it. She doesn't fully understand how strong he has become. No one does, not yet at least.
"You should listen to the girl. It's better for your health," another voice says.
In the sky, another figure floats, looking down at the people below - a large man with a powerful physique, short black hair and the usual moustache.
"General Thragg!" "General Thragg!"
The two guards greet the man with respect. After a moment, Thragg lands on the ground and looks at Nowl-Ahn. The two men are not the same age, not in the slightest, but both of them respect strength when they see it. And Thragg knows that Nowl-Ahn is a strong young man.
"You are Nowl-Ahn, aren't you? You are the one who Conquest trains." Thragg says.
"Indeed."
"I thought as much. Go inside. Conquest will remain imprisoned until we have concluded our investigations." Thragg says and nods.
Nowl-Ahn then walks inside. The prison is a special one that uses Viltrumite technology as a means to hold the criminals and stop them from leaving. It is always harder the stronger someone is, but Viltrumites have a lot of pride, so Conquest wouldn't flee. Nowl-Ahn reaches the place where Conquest is kept and sees him kneeling on the ground, with his hands and feet bound and his face all bloody and beaten. He looks as if he had been in a fight.
"What are you doing here, kid?" Conquest asks.
"I'm here to talk to you and find out what happened. I refuse to believe for one second that you set those bombs and killed Lord Argall." Nowl-Ahn says.
"That's what I said."
"Tell me what happened, Gortus." Nowl-Ahn calls Conquest by his real name.
"I never should have told you that. Urgh, fine. It all started a few hours ago. I just returned from a mission which lasted two years. I was about to go and see you to see how much you've grown, and beat you to shit, when they arrived."
"Yeah, the beating the shit out of me is now over. I have become far stronger." Nowl-Ahn says.
"Oh, yeah? Haha, good, good. As soon as I get out of here, we'll see whether that's true."
"So, who arrived?"
"Two of the royal guards arrived and kicked my door down. I don't care, because I'm never home anyway, but it bothered me how they talked to me..."
(Flashback)
"You are under arrest, Conquest. For murder-"
"And who did I kill? And since when is death something we cry about, huh? You two have another moment to apologise for my door and then leave, before I break both your backs." Conquest tells the two guards.
"-and treason. You are under arrest for murder and treason," the guard finishes.
"We knew you were a mad dog, who only knew how to conquer and kill, but that you would lose it and kill your former friend, the one who trusted you," the second guard says.
"Huh? What are you two on about?" Conquest asks.
"The murder of Lord Argall!" the guard shouts.
"Don't act like you don't know."
"Argall... is dead?" Conquest asks.
"Do not resist. You are to be imprisoned until your sentence has been decided, and then you will be executed," the guard says, but Conquest doesn't listen. He had an argument with Argall, but to hear that he's dead now, that's hard for him. He has lost so many people he knew over the millennia that he is used to it by now and doesn't even feel anything anymore. But Argall was probably one of the two only Viltrumites who somewhat cared about him.
The guards touch Conquest on the shoulder to take him with them, but Conquest reacts.
"NO!"
*BOOOM*
He punches the guard in the face, smashing his head in and crashing his body through the wall. The second guard is immediately on high alert and attacks Conquest as well. These are some of the highest-trained Viltrumites in all of Viltrum, but Conquest is a monster, and he doesn't hold back any longer. He blocks the attacks from the guard and grabs him by the throat, ripping his pharynx out.
"No," Conquest says absentmindedly and shoots into the sky, towards the royal palace.
He doesn't bother with anything and just crashes into the royal quarters, where he finds Argall dead on the ground. He is suddenly angry and looks around at the guards who have entered the room and are surrounding him.
"Who did it?! Tell me who killed him!" Conquest shouts.
"Conquest, stand down! You are under arrest!" they shout and prepare for a fight, and because they think that it was him, they attack.
"ARGH!" Conquest shouts wildly and starts attacking as well.
This starts a big fight. The guards are powerful warriors capable of handling someone of Conquest's calibre, thanks to their numbers. Even Thragg was subdued in the future when he was attacked by Kregg, Anissa, Lucan and Thula at the same time. Granted, those are four of the strongest Viltrumites. It just goes to show that it's possible, and that's why this fight was similar. There were a dozen guards, and more were arriving, and while Conquest was truly powerful and enraged, he couldn't fight all of them. But he could do damage and kill some of them. Falling into his truly savage nature, Conquest ignores the damage and smashes one of the guards' heads in.
The fight causes a lot of damage to the royal chambers and the men themselves, and most likely, they would have killed each other if Thragg hadn't arrived at that moment. The general had stopped the fight after dealing with Conquest rather quickly and without much problem.
(End of the Flashback)
"So he beat you?" Nowl-Ahn asks.
"Thragg is a different beast altogether, Nowl-Ahn."
"So they will most likely find out that it wasn't you who killed Lord Argall. That shouldn't take too long, especially considering the bombings, which took a lot of time, and that you were off-world. This seems like a bad way to frame you, since it can be proven easily. Someone wanted to waste time." Nowl-Ahn concludes.
"You are correct."
Thragg walks up to them and looks at Conquest and then Nowl-Ahn.
"It was as you said, a waste of time. We have found the true culprit, and it was truly only meant to sow chaos and distract us. The reaction of Conquest was most likely calculated, and the culprit hoped to have him and others killed as a bonus." Thragg says.
"So who was it?"
.
The next day, all of Viltrum eagerly waited around the grand assembly point. It was said that the true culprit had been found and that it wasn't Conquest. So, after a while, Thragg appeared and started to give a speech, which was broadcast all over Viltrum.
"Viltrum! The true culprit of the events yesterday has been uncovered. It wasn't Conquest who killed Lord Argall. He was framed. The one responsible wasn't an enemy of Viltrum either. None of the other races we have conquered or will conquer have attacked us. No! It was someone amongst our midst. I was a traitor! Thaedus, Lord Argall's servant, was the one to plunge a dagger into his brain and assassinate him. Lord Argall was my mentor and teacher. He taught me well over time, and like my mentor, I believe that Viltrum is infested with something that has now accumulated far too much.
Weakness! It was weakness that killed Lord Argall. The growing weakness in Viltrum, where we have forgotten our ways, the ways we are supposed to use and employ. The way we conquer the galaxy and the universe. Strength rules, and yet, we have allowed weakness to fester and kill our Emperor. Therefore, I have come up with a solution. A drastic one, I admit. One that those of you won't like, who are those weak ones I am talking about. In order to rid ourselves of that weakness, we must purge that weakness and destroy it.
A Great Purge..."
After those words, life on Viltrum immediately changed. Some agreed with Thragg and saw the death of their Emperor as the result of allowing weakness to fester among them. But then some didn't like what he was saying at all and thought it was a way to get to power. As the student of Lord Argall, he naturally knew some things about ruling, but Argall had someone else in mind to rule; the Viltrumites expected his son to rule. But that would now be hard, since Thragg was suggesting strength to rule them, and he, whether we like it or not, was still the strongest Viltrumite alive.
_________________
The MC is now approaching Conquest level in power.