Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 360. A forced audience with the Emperor

Theo took almost a full day to finally be able to walk properly. It felt quite weird as he had to change the whole perspective he had for walking till now.

His feet reached the ground slower in his mind than what was happening in real life, making him stumble here and there.

But when he got used to that, walking didn’t seem like a problem.

On that day, around the 8th-hour mark, a beast they had been awaiting to wake up finally woke up.

The mantis still felt like it was half asleep even after getting up and cleaning its forelegs.

But after trying to talk with it for a while, Theo realized that it was all good now. But just like Theo, its mind didn’t seem to be working that well currently.

And being a beast who had very few brain cells to begin with, the mantis took time to get back to normal.

But still, the spider and the crawler were still unconscious. Theo didn’t know the reason, and when he asked the ant queen about it, he realized that their minds were a lot sharper in comparison to the mantis and the worker ants.

So it took some time for them to get used to the new evolution; the overload in the brain was just too much for them.

So Theo decided to carry them safely, one tied up on his back and one kept in the waist bag beside the ant queen with a lot of soft leaves.

By the time Theo started feeling better, they had finally decided on a big decision.

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"Everyone ready?" the baron asked. He had his sword out of the hilt already and was in the front.

Just after him was Theo with his sword out too. The mantis was perched on his shoulder while all the ants were all around his body. The ant queen, the unconscious spider, and the crawler too were carried by him.

"If you said there is no need to fight after going out, then why are we so ready right now, father?"

The baron didn’t even look back to answer. "You never know what this kingdom is up to. Always mind that before any actions," the baron spoke.

It felt like there were hidden lines in what he spoke, but right now, it was not the time to dig up things.

Clara and Elias were right behind Theo, them and their beasts all ready to fight.

Without any further answers or a command, the baron just stepped forward and went inside the gate, making Theo take a deep breath.

He looked back and nodded with determined eyes, making Clara and Elias respond the same way before he too moved forward.

When Theo moved inside the gate, all the energy that was flowing did not feel random anymore.

It felt like they all connected in a mysterious but curious way to make up the whole gate, which was like a portal in Theo’s eyes.

He stepped forward and forward, and the more the gate’s energy became intense, the more Theo understood things.

A notification popped up, and Theo realized his spatial awareness skill leveled up one more time.

Soon, when he blinked again, a blinding light followed, and then another blink made Theo realize he was outside the gate again.

’Wait,’ Theo realized after looking around.

’Everything about this spatial energy... this is different,’ he realized.

’This is a different gate,’ Theo thought and soon felt something tap him on his shoulder.

He looked up and saw the ape, who was already with him too.

Theo moved forward to get out of the surging noises and new type of energy that was boggling his mind with curiosity.

When he saw the whole terrain of the forest again, Theo felt nostalgia.

He wanted to smile but realized his father was calmly standing with his sword gripped tightly.

"If you still cannot tell by the crest on my armor," soon the baron spoke with an authoritative voice.

"My name is Aldric Merrick," he stated, "and I am really angry about this unsightly behavior."

Theo tried thinking of something else when a chuckle seemed to want to come out of his mouth in this situation.

Did the baron just say he was angry from their behavior? Weren’t his group the ones that caused so much chaos to begin with?

"Baron Aldric, we have been ordered by the Emperor himself to restrain you," a man in white robes spoke with a calm expression.

He was fully unarmed, but that didn’t matter.

As there were about 50 tamers in red uniform, all in a formation that seemed meant for attacking.

"The emperor, huh..." the baron’s authoritative voice now had a little bit of irritation in it.

"I don’t believe the emperor would be foolish enough to approach me like this," the baron spoke again, making every single person there freeze.

"W-What do you mean?" The white-robed man wanted to curse right in front of the armored man.

But everybody in the royal family already knew the kind of man Aldric Merrick was.

"Did Duke Alver put you up to this?" the baron spoke again, making the calm face of the white-robed man not so calm anymore.

"... I don’t know what you are talking about, Baron Aldric. But the Emperor urgently wants to talk with you..." he said, making the baron spit on the side.

Even Theo felt disgusted looking at him do this, and he wasn’t that noble.

But the white-robed man made the most disgusted face Theo could ever see.

Most of the other tamers followed behind, but they only seemed to be the young ones.

All the older tamers were fully serious and looked at the baron with unknown emotions.

When Theo peeked at them, he could see some of them had concern in their eyes, but they still were ready to fight as if forced to.

When the baron saw the same thing, he sighed.

He looked back to his son, who was covered in ants all around his armor.

"I really wished you could keep your ants in the beast space," he spoke. "We will need to go and meet the emperor as we talked about."