"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

-Sun Tzu

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"What? His Paradigm did not get canceled? How?" A question like that was written all over there face, as they saw me and Shiro not even garnering the slightest of wounds and the smallest of signs that our ongoing Paradigm Shifts had been canceled or had grown weaker... Well, first of all. My paradigm has already been canceled earlier. This is my paradigm Shift of which Azazel likes to implicitly define as 'Uncancelable'.

"Even Dainsleif's worked... And yet, the mages' coming from the Kingdom's top academy did not? Is that even possible?" The King with sweat running down his face exclaimed...

"Oh, Dainsleif? You mean the priest that you just fired? It might be a little bit unnerving... but his Cancelling Paradigm Shift is exponentially stronger than all of your top tier mages combined... and that's a fact... And now, what are you gonna do with all of these mages I wonder... Fire them? Force Exile from your little Kingdom?"

"Tsk! I also heard that you have the power to control the shadows." He added...

Again with the false reports of my Paradigm's mediocrity again huh...

"Mages, Scatter all around! You are strong! Use every bit of your power to illuminate the night! And let your excellence shine forth! Now, deem this man powerless by eradicating every shadow!!!!!!!!!! Brave warriors! Attack him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need to get the Kurenai!" he instructed desperately, inspiring them with his rosy empty words...

And then, the same mages soaring high up on the air, raised their scepters high up emitting this great light just as the King has requested it to be... eradicating every shadow... but little did he know, that it's not just the shadows that I can control, and it certainly is not just their negative emotions and ill intents, and neither the 'Crossange Arsenal' Celtic crosses that I have with me with this ready-to-serve buffet of darkness' inside them...

Well, if it was my paradigm, I think this stratagem could have worked... but they're dealing with a Paradigm Shift here... what the deities emblazon to our ability to alter a natural law of the universe by paying the equivalent price. And in my case, I think that the altered law is not that complicated. Light, as of now would be unable to drive out darkness. Simple.

"You sure?" I asked the King charging towards me with his three million men altogether...

"What do you mean I'm sure? It's time to say checkmate!"

"Well of course...."

"Huh?"

"Checkmate!" I pronounced, delineating their early defeat.

Then, amid the mages' potent illumination of the surroundings, even making the night seem more like heyday... The dark part of the eclipsed blood moon scattered all through the sky, now, making it seem like we're back, not on just any night time, but on the void, where not even a single point of light could be seen. It engulfed all of us in this dark dome of the starless and lightless abyss of darkness.

Next. Utilizing the bloody moon eclipse's scattered darkness, came these chains from the sky, clanking like metals as all of it started holding out every single man in their heads, in their hands, feet, and wrists... Making them seem like mere puppets with me as the show master...

"What, what is this?"

"TAKE THIS OFF ME!!" everyone then began to complain as they were unable to hold out the chains from holding out to them... It's like the chains can touch them, but they, however, can't touch it.

They defenselessly were now incarcerated, as their life's fervent outcome now also entirely depends on me...

"Dance my new puppets.."

Using the chains that I was able to amass for the three million, I disarmed them from their individual weapons and made them dance in sync with the music that I am currently listening to, while of course, making them look stupid and goofy in their armors, especially in their perspectives.

"Y-you what did you do!!!!!!!!!!!!!?" The King, now also being chained, asked gritting his teeth as he dances together with his men, but even goofier than the rest... It is probably the stupidest dance that I could think of.

"Just use my powers that's all..."

"Wait... I- is this 'Requiem Aranea's Dark By Default? A- are you perhaps Lacrimosa's chosen vessel?"

"Oh-ho... I'm very surprised as to how widespread her name is... Yes, I indeed am her representative in this war... Too late to realize though."

"TSK! THIS CAN'T BE! MEN! FREE YOURSELVES AND KILL THIS CRUEL OVERLORD!"

"It's basically impossible... Now then, that I have won... I presume you kept the negotiation terms to the end right?"

"As if! I am King Aurelius! Supreme Leader of a Sovereign Kingdom! You have no authority to do this to me! And I bare the authority to make any negotiations null at will!!!!!!!!!"

"And you also have no authority to torture my race, 'King of a Sovereign Kingdom'... Oh, I can't also forget... I'm adding something in the terms. There are no such rules that say that I can't right?"

"No, you can't!" As if he introspected as to what term I would like to add, he defied...

"What's this? Want me to snap a thousand heads from your army with a single snap?"

"I don't care about them! All that's important is me and my position!" He answered shredding his true autocratic figure...

"Hmmm... You heard your King loud and clear right? Like, come on... You might not be that stupid..." I shouted to his men in a way that all of them could hear.

And yet, they, as well as the mages, were unable to say a word...

"I guess you won't be needing this anymore then..." I then approached him myself, took his crown, and you better not think that I will wear it...

From the Celtic cross on my right, I then utilized its ready darkness to form a Jet-black flame and it was so... and then I let it enshroud the expensive-looking crown disintegrating it to tiny pieces of obliterated ash.

"Y-you!! WHAT DID YOU DO!?" He then struggled from the incarceration of the chains as he saw his symbol of authority being burned by unquenchable black flames, but was unable to break free...

"You're so noisy. Come to think of it... Every King needs their beauty rest, right?" Using the chain on his neck, almost like a dog lash... I snapped his head in a way that would make him fall to deep sleep. Relax... I can't let him die an easy death... just yet.

Well... that was easy... Easier in fact than defeating the hero, the exiled priest, and their few assassins.

Now, this is how you dethrone a King... Narcissistic or not... First. Let him realize how trashy his philosophy is. Second. Disarm his vast array of armies. Third. Kill his image, or at maximum, do it physically, and lastly, take his filthy crown off his head...

But, as I was still busy with the performance of my dancing puppets and the shamed King...

"Master... I sense someone coming at a certain speed. Recent Coordinates are 10.519181, 123.962982"

"Who?"

"Collecting database... Database collected... She's a human female, Master..."

"Eh?"