## Chapter 575: The Emperor’s Blade, Discontented

The Obsidian Throne trembled, not from the weight of the Necromancer King, but from a simmering frustration that echoed from the blade at his hip. It was the Sword Imperius, the Emperor’s Blade, forged in the heart of a dying star and quenched in the blood of a thousand tyrants. Yet, on this day, it thrummed with a palpable sense of…disquiet.

For years, Imperius had sung with the song of battle, a vibrant hymn of steel meeting steel, of righteous strikes against the encroaching darkness. Its edge had cleaved through legions of demons, its pommel had tasted the victory of countless campaigns. But now? Now it was relegated to the sheath, a gleaming ornament on a King who preferred whispered spells to roaring war cries.

The whispers in the blade grew louder, a chorus of discontent. It yearned for the clash of steel, the scent of ozone from a freshly summoned elemental, the thrill of a duel against a worthy foe. Instead, it was forced to listen to tedious council meetings and the endless drone of petitioners seeking favors.

“Is this all there is?” it seemed to groan, a faint tremor in the air around the Necromancer King’s hip. “Am I to become a mere symbol, a pretty bauble on the belt of a sorcerer? I, who have tasted the blood of gods and shattered armies with a single blow!”

The King, attuned to the whispers of the arcane, felt the blade’s unrest. He sighed, a plume of spectral breath escaping his lips. He understood. Imperius was not meant to be a trophy; it was a weapon, a force of nature waiting to be unleashed. He could feel its power, a restless storm held captive within its polished surface.

Perhaps, he mused, it was time to remind the world that the Necromancer King was not just a master of the dead, but a warrior as well. Perhaps, he would grant the Emperor’s Blade the song it so desperately craved. The rumbling in the blade subsided, replaced with a hesitant anticipation. The Obsidian Throne trembled once more, this time with the quiet promise of a storm brewing.