“And you feel the same?” Gon Shuren asked the grand marshal.
Emboldened by the prime minister, he stood up and nodded. “There were downsides in allying with the South, but the benefits were substantial. Our ancestors were neutral, but was that not due to helplessness? No kingdom could help us achieve our full potential and claim the vast swaths of ocean all around us. Now that the opportunity has come, why not grasp it?”
“I see…” Gon Shuren said. The Emperor was still kneeling and awaiting her command. “How low we have fallen, where we need allies who would abandon us the moment trouble arises.”
Both the prime minister and grand marshal looked around at these words. To their surprise, Zhou Li, who’d orchestrated the entire battle, had vanished.
“We have erred,” the prime minister said. “But everything we did was for our empire.”
Gong Shuren sighed and shook her head. “Don’t waste your breath. With the Sea God Clock Tower comes power and knowledge that completely exposes you.”
She waved her hand, and an image appeared. It was of the prime minister conversing with Zhou Li, who held a black crystal.
“I may not have been there, but the clock remembers. It remembers when your thirst for power, combined with your fear, overcame your benevolent heart. You succumbed to your deepest desires, and from that moment on, you cared little for your clansmen. You only cared about yourself and your descendants.”
“And you,” she said, looking at the grand marshal. “You grew up dreaming of conquest, and just the mention of battle would boil your blood. Your weakness was easy to exploit; you became the lynchpin that embroiled us in a war.”
“I’m guilty,” the grand marshal said. “Please punish me. But know that I did sincerely want our empire to return to its former glory.”
Gong Shuren looked at him for a moment but shook her head. “Glory? Is glory necessary? You broke our ancestors’ edicts and put us in danger. The road to ruin is paved in good intentions.”
She then looked to the Emperor. “What of you, Sea God Emperor? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
“Nothing,” he said after a moment.
“Nothing in your defense?” Gong Shuren said. “Gong Xuandi, your life is in my hands.”
“I am aware,” the Sea God Emperor said. “I’m also aware that my actions have endangered our empire. They went against the edicts of our ancestors. I was blind, and I regret my actions. Only death can absolve our sins.”
Gong Shuren walked over slowly. Her every step was synchronized with the ticking clock tower behind her. As she walked, swords leveled against cultivators, and leaping sharks inched toward their targets at a snail’s pace. She stopped inches away from the bowing Sea God Emperor.
“You made a grave mistake. You all did.” Her gaze turned to the prime minister, who was still standing. “Gong Luoyang, your mistakes were both self-centered and irredeemable. You manipulated the grand marshal with Zhou Li’s help and caused this entire situation. The matter with the scholars was your doing, but it is nothing compared to the karma you have sown for the empire. I sentence you to death.”
“I—” Gong Luoyang started.
The clock tower tolled, and the toll resonated with everyone containing the Sea God’s bloodline. The sound was sinister, like a reaper’s scythe, and dissonant like a macabre orchestra. It was the sound of death itself. Gong Luoyang collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Gong Shuren then turned to the grand marshal, Gong Huan, who was still shivering. She sighed before speaking, and her sigh carried across the battlefield. “Your situation pains me the most,” she said. “You were clearly manipulated, and you did all these hurtful things for our kingdom.”
“Please have mercy,” Gong Huan said, trembling with closed eyes.
“But you’d do it over again in a heartbeat, wouldn’t you?” Gon Shuren said.
“Yes,” the grand marshal replied. “For the glory of our empire.”
“I’m sorry, then, for I must wrong you,” Gon Shuren said. A tear fell from her left eye as the clock tolled a second time. The reaper struck once more, and the newly appointed grand marshal of the Sea God Empire was dead.
She sighed again. “Now’s your last chance. Your life is in my hands.” Time, which had already slowed to a crawl, seemed to freeze even further. Endless moments passed as those on the battlefield awaited his answer.
“I will yield to your judgment, Emissary,” the Sea God Emperor said, not raising his head. “May our empire flourish under your reign.”
Gong Shuren nodded. Then she reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. “You… have erred. You have endangered our kingdom by sowing karma, and there’s no telling what the consequences will be for the Sea God lineage if this karma isn’t rectified. The purpose of our empire was never to thrive, but to breed proper and upright descendants for the Sea God. Every emperor, prime minister, and grand marshal is appointed through the Sea God Trials and tempered through their reign. When they transcend, they are judged according to their actions.
“Unfortunately, your death will do little to appease the karma sown. Furthermore, your brothers were unrelenting. You are different. You regret your actions, and that is why you are still alive.”
Gong Shuren lifted her hand, and the Sea God Shell and the Sea God Scales floated up beside the clock tower. The power of force and space they emanated merged with the tower’s aura and strengthened it. Then she picked the crown off the Emperor’s head, looked at it for a moment, and placed it on her own.
The crown attuned the moment it touched her brow, and a wave of crushing pressure swept over the elite corps of the guard. The clock tolled a third time, and their lives were no more. A wave of her hand caused time to quicken around the fiendish sharks, even as the time in their surroundings was frozen. They aged at a rate visible to the naked eye, with
