Where Is the Emperor

The gladiatorial match began quickly.

Gravity Hammer and Ant-Man gradually approached each other, stopping when they were ten meters apart.

"Begin!"

The moment the command came over the broadcast, the two gladiators began fighting.

The battle did not build up gradually; it was brutally intense from the very start.

Though Ant-Man was huge, he was extraordinarily nimble. He slid forward along the ground, rushed up to Gravity Hammer, and severed his left hand with a single slash.

But this was a weakness Gravity Hammer had deliberately exposed. Before Ant-Man could swiftly evade after finishing his attack, Gravity Hammer grabbed his right leg and rapidly spun the pincer on his arm, twisting Ant-Man's right leg off.

Amid the audience's cheers, the two quickly pulled apart.

Ant-Man hopped to keep his balance, while Gravity Hammer picked up his severed arm from the ground and placed it in the storage box stitched to his back.

As the audience's cheers gradually subsided, the two began the next round of their duel.

"Die!" Ant-Man roared as he charged, hopping with all his strength toward Gravity Hammer. The two blades on his arms were ready to pierce flesh and metal.

Gravity Hammer charged as well, yet he was somehow slower than the one-legged, hopping Ant-Man. Still, his momentum was greater as he ran and roared, "The Valorous Champion blesses me!"

As he roared, Gravity Hammer grew faster and faster. Before Ant-Man could react, he had already tackled him to the ground, smashing the pincer on his arm viciously into Ant-Man's head.

After the first blow, Ant-Man's head was already deformed.

After the second blow, Ant-Man's face caved deeply inward.

After the third blow, Ant-Man's head burst apart.

Gravity Hammer rose from the pool of blood, lifted Ant-Man's corpse, and roared at the audience, "For the Valorous Champion!"

The audience's cheers and applause became even fiercer as they celebrated the victor of the gladiatorial match.

Gravity Hammer did not leave. Dragging Ant-Man's corpse behind him, he stepped down from the arena and walked along the iron railing surrounding the audience seating, showing off his victory and his enemy's miserably mangled body.

"This guy really went all out. He actually traded an arm for his enemy's death." Klein rose and applauded.

Grey looked at Grot beside him. He had assumed Grot would enjoy such a fierce gladiatorial match, but instead found him staring in shock, trembling all over.

"Antala!" Grot shouted at Gravity Hammer. "It's me!"

Hearing the name Antala, Gravity Hammer immediately turned toward the source of the voice. He saw an officer and two people clad in Power Armor.

Grot then removed his helmet, rushed to the edge of the stands, and waved at Gravity Hammer.

Gravity Hammer threw aside Ant-Man's corpse, jumped up, and waved vigorously at Grot. The two shouted back and forth, but their voices were soon drowned out by even louder cheers and applause.

Grot pointed in the direction Gravity Hammer had emerged from when the match began, then used a gesture only the two of them could understand to indicate that he would go over there.

But Gravity Hammer merely shook his head with a grim expression before turning and leaving.

Backstage at the arena.

To reward the victorious Gravity Hammer, the arena implanted a new Prosthetic Body where his arm had been severed. It did not have the functions of a normal arm; it was merely a blade capable of releasing electric currents.

While the Prosthetic Body was being implanted, Gravity Hammer saw Grot following the female guide inside.

Grot had come alone. He had already sent Grey and Klein back first, so they would not get caught up in trouble.

The instant he saw Grot, Gravity Hammer rose, dragged over the half-implanted Prosthetic Body, and knelt before the female guide. "Mentor."

The female guide nodded in satisfaction and introduced Grot. "This is a guard of the First Legion's Legion Commander. He says he wishes to meet you, a brave gladiator."

"Yes." Gravity Hammer deeply lowered his head and knelt before Grot. "Respected sir, I salute you."

"Antala... you... I..." Grot trembled and stammered. After struggling for a long time without managing a complete sentence, he finally turned to the female guide. "I need to be alone with him."

"Of course." The female guide nodded and led everyone else backstage away.

Only after everyone had left did Gravity Hammer dare rise and embrace Grot. "Little brother... my little brother..."

"You... what did you go through?" Feeling half of his brother's body, cold metal, Grot did not even dare guess at what he had experienced.

Gravity Hammer did not answer immediately.

The two muscular men clung to each other and wept bitterly, tears and snot running together onto each other's Power Armor and metal shoulders.

Only after Gravity Hammer had cried enough did he pull Grot down to sit with him and tell him what had happened during this time.

On the second day after Grot entered the underhive, an officer suddenly came to their home and said Grot had become a traitor on the front lines and defected to the rebels.

As the family of a traitor, Gravity Hammer and his younger sister had to pay a five-hundred-Throneys atonement fee. A soldier's monthly pay was less than twenty Throneys, so it was obvious they could not afford it.

Those five hundred Throneys then became a debt owed by Gravity Hammer and his sister. Both were sold to a guild. His sister's whereabouts became unknown, while Gravity Hammer underwent modification to become a pit slave.

"A week ago, I killed an overseer and escaped. Then I was forced to join the arena. After two days of training, I began fighting." Gravity Hammer lowered his head and looked at the floor, his voice filled with barely restrained fury. "I gave myself the name Gravity Hammer. A fine middle-aged gladiator guided me toward faith in the Valorous Champion."

As he spoke, Gravity Hammer took a statue from his clothes.

The statue depicted a gladiator holding a prisoner of war in his right hand and a string of skulls in his left.

"No... you cannot forsake the Emperor... I fought beside the Emperor's messenger in the underhive, yet you actually worship..."

"Where is the Emperor?"

Gravity Hammer interrupted Grot. The stern elder brother stared at his younger brother, paused for several seconds, then asked again, "When they said you were a traitor, where was the Emperor? When they sold our sister away, where was the Emperor? When I was turned into a pit slave, where was the Emperor?"

Grot was left speechless.

"The Valorous Champion granted me strength. I cannot leave. I can only remain in the arena and use blood to worship this great god." As he spoke, Gravity Hammer tucked the Valorous Champion statue back into his clothes.

"But... but the Emperor's messenger saved me... Without him, I never could have left the underhive..." Grot suddenly came up with a reason to defend the Emperor.

Hearing this, Gravity Hammer glanced at his younger brother and said calmly, "Perhaps the person who saved you was also a god, or the messenger of another god willing to bestow grace upon the world. Whatever he is, he is far better than that slave master on Terra who will not even fart."

Grot silently considered this. He remembered that there really were people who worshipped Qin Mo as a god.

"I have to take part in the next gladiatorial match." Gravity Hammer rose and headed toward the arena.

"You have to leave with me." Grot pressed a hand onto his brother's shoulder. "The Legion Commander will give you better Prosthetic Bodies and make you normal again. Then we will find Maya together, and our family will live in the underhive."

"Will they let you take me away?" Gravity Hammer looked toward the door.

"Of course they will not." Grot took the Gravity Hammer from his back and shoved it into Gravity Hammer's pincer. "But I have to take you with me."

After looking at the Power Armor on his younger brother and the hammer shoved into his hand, Gravity Hammer thought briefly and nodded. "We have to find Maya. Then our family will be together again like before. But before that, I have to take brutal revenge on those bastards."