Chapter 65: Chapter 65
King Malik Howard
The Royal Palace, Kingdom of Howard
“Colter is under the imperium-class spell; it is a magical poison that seeps through every corner of his body. “ Malik announced finally recognizing its effects, he remembered how often it was used in battles before Gian and Colter’s time, “There is one weakness that Dyron has not accounted for.”
Dyron glared at the king and flung another black ball of magic at him, and he dodged it cleanly.
“Your ambition will be your downfall, old friend” Malik taunted the furious Dyron this time, finally putting it all together. Colter running away. Vida coming over to help and Tessa assisting. It had been in front of him all this time, and finally, a way to save the lives that could still be saved.
“The poison indeed courses through every part of their body, except for one” Malik announced, “It could never breach the heart. The mark of Ecanus protects the heart from being fully poisoned, this is why Colter fluctuates in and out of control while his heart pumps out new batches of blood that is not corrupted by the poison.”
“I can see your bluff, Malik.” Dyron hissed at the king, “But there is no way the poison can easily be stripped from his body now.”
“There is one way.” Malik announced, “True love’s kiss will dispel everything the poison has corrupted, it will awaken and empower the heart that has been fighting the poison by itself. Only with love can Colter be saved.”
---
Vida
The Royal Palace, Kingdom of Howard
“-Only with love can Colter be saved” the king announced, Vida felt a jolt in her body, Malik was trying to tell her something. It was her opportunity, the king’s announcement had told her, only she can save Colter.
“I have to go…” Vida said with uncertainty, her heart beating fast and sweat beading all over her body, as Tessa tried to hold on to her.
“Girl you’re going to get your ass killed out there. Did you see the spooky shit they do?!” she said with fear and anger.
“I saw it, I’m literally with you!” Vida said to her friend in a panic laced with slight sarcasm, “Look Tessa, I’m scared shitless here but what else can we do? Do we let Colter go on a murder rampage? Would he want this? Do you want this? Do I want this?”
“No, but you’re just a powerless human, these could be literal gods with all their abracadabra bullshit. I keep telling myself that we’ll wake up and find ourselves with a hangover in a bar somewhere, but it’s just real. So don’t go. You might die!”
“We’ll all die eventually, Tessa. That’s how humans are. It is how we live that matters, isn’t it?” Vida said, trying to muster courage amidst a wave of fear.
Vida stood up from her position and prepared to move towards Colter when there was a dull explosion, a body had flown straight into the palace and splattered against the wall in a violent shower of blood and innards. There was a rallying cry that echoed from outside, as if the tide was turning, and there were even more sounds of weapons clashing. Which stopped Vida dead.
---
Vergil
The Palace Outskirts, Kingdom of Howard
The push against the forces of Dyron took a while, they had been overtaken and the kingdom of havocc’s creatures had managed to gather outside the palace. Vergil and the royal guard had fought through countless hordes of monsters, there had been casualties on both sides.
“Continue the march” Vergil ordered the vice-captain as he leapt out of formation, “Let me cut a way for you.”
“Understood, Captain” the vice-captain answered him as Vergil mustered his energy and felt the flow of magic overwhelm him.
“Very well, let’s get serious for a bit shall we.” He taunted the large number of creatures in front of him, “You are in the way. I shall cut you down and rescue the royals.”
The creatures stepped back in fear, this was one of the Ecanus that the king had warned them of, Vergil the torrential ocean. He can control and conjures water out of his energy while coupling it with a masterful skill in swordsmanship that surpasses even Colter’s.
Vergil took a drawing position, he put his right leg forward while his left one was stepped back, he held on to the sheathe of his sword with his left hand while his right hand was gripped tightly onto the sword’s hilt. To a normal human who is well-versed in popular culture, it would be reminiscent of a samurai style blade draw.
“Last warning” Vergil shouted at them, focusing his energy into his hands, as they shook with the overwhelming magic, in fear the creatures blindly charged at him which made him smile at their idiocy, “Very well. Secret Arts, Maelstrom!”
In a flash, he drew his sword as they encroached on his location, there was a blue flash and a wave of water shot out of the edge of his blade. Some of the creatures had come too close to Vergil as he drew his sword and felt the impact of its steel, they were immediately cut in half and sent flying into various directions. The wave charged forward, cutting down every creature in its way, it also dragged the dead bodies along with it. As it reached the end of its pathway, a vortex appeared and dragged them towards the center point. The creatures tried to fight it but the pull was too strong, for what is a maelstrom but a whirlpool in the middle of a raging sea.
The pathway was immediately cleared as Vergil’s secret art had vacuumed them to the center, making their bodies collide with each other in violent fashion. It was a macabre looking ball of flesh, some of the creatures were still alive and twitching as they tried to struggle out of it to no avail.
Vergil slowly approached them and slashed at the ball, to the naked eye it would seem like he only made one slash, but he had already released 6 attacks. The ball spilled to the ground, gore and blood soaking the floor.
“Next.” Vergil said as another group of creatures arrived to prevent him from reaching the palace. He glanced behind him and the royal guard were advancing perfectly, they were still in their vanguard positions while Vergil took the lead.
“I’m really sick of dealing with you small-fries, give me a challenge.” The Royal Guard captain said confidently, pointing his blade at them tauntingly, “You defile our kingdom with your numbers, yet you still fail against one fighter.”
He suddenly felt a presence to his left, his instincts screamed at him to block which he did by raising his sword. An ugly looking creature that looked like a mixture of a lion and a wolf had lunged at him and tried to attack him from his blind spot.
“Great.” Vergil muttered annoyed, as the beast charged at him again, he took a step back as its claws tried to reach for his throat, “Very agile indeed, good sense of weak points. I might have fun with you.”
The beast growled and leapt towards him, using its legs as a spring to reach him faster, Vergil merely stepped to the side and neatly dodged this cannonball of flesh and violence as it collided with a nearby wall.
“Okay, so maybe not that fun. Very undisciplined fighters.” Vergil commented as he looked at the cloud of dust that his enemy had kicked up after crashing into the wall. But as he finished his sentence, he felt its fist collide with his stomach, he had managed to raise his guard at the last second, using his sword to block but he was flung backward nonetheless.
He used his flight abilities to stop the momentum, and grinned in amazement. “Alright, so you managed to land a hit. That’s great.” Focusing his thoughts, he darted towards the enemy and started slashing him with the blunt side of his blade, mixing in some hits from his sheathe as well. He was like a fearsome warrior wielding two weapons and using it with precision and grace. But the beast managed to break through this barrage and left Vergil momentarily stunned.
“Shit.” Vergil said as he felt a fierce kick into his chest, he was unable to block this time. His armor was immediately dented and a footprint had left itself in the plated steel.
“Gross” he commented, shaking off the attack as the lion-wolf humanoid hybrid closed in on him again. “You got dirt on my armor.”
The beast growled in anger as it realized that Vergil still wasn’t taking him seriously.
“All right, I give.” Vergil said jokingly, “I’ll take you seriously. But first, I need to take care of these things.” He finished pointing at the cluster of Havocc Creatures behind him. He planted his sword on the ground and clapped his hands together, as if in prayer.
His magic surged as he focused his thoughts on the sky above the group of monsters, “Blood Rain.” He chanted and water droplets suddenly appeared above, there were thousands of them. He released his hands and they suddenly turned into blade like projectiles that plummeted to the earth. There were screams of fear, terror, and death. The tides of battle were turning in their favor, Vergil was now fighting seriously as they closed in on the palace.
“Now then” Vergil finished, taking his blade back and bowing slightly as an insult towards his enemy, there was nothing left of the monsters behind him. Just a mess of blood and gore impaled by blades of water. “Where were we again? If I recall correctly, you were trying to pull something off?”
The hybrid roared and launched itself at Vergil with anger, fury and bloodlust in its eyes. The royal guard captain grinned as he simply stood his ground without a care in the world. As his enemy closed in on him, bare inches before its claws and fangs reached his throat, Vergil drew his sword in a blinding speed upwards. It connected firmly against the creature’s back slicing it vertically in half. But the impact was so strong that it was sent careening straight into the palace.
“Oh shit” Vergil coughed, he had not been able to hold back, but he saw that another batch of creatures appeared before him but before he could launch himself at them, there was a battle cry as the royal guard broke their formation and charged towards their enemies, being inspired by Vergil handling multiple enemies all by himself.
---
Dyron
The Royal Palace, Kingdom of Howard
“Is that…?” Dyron thought to himself as he recognized the corpse that had just sped towards the castle, it was the Lion Wolf hybrid that he himself had created months prior, it was butchered badly, cut cleanly in half. “Only one person could do that” Dyron continued in his thoughts angrily, recognizing the clean cut.
His smile returned when he saw Colter poised atop his brother again, he had strengthened the poison once more by casting the ‘control’ magic at him, Colter’s eyes flickered to red and became the rageful corrupted prince he has been for a while now.
“Very good, my son. Now take his life, he should not be able to hold you back now. Start with your pretentious ‘brother’ and remember how he treated you as a child, because he knew you were not his brother!”
Colter roared, like an animal wounded and enraged by hunters. He lifted his sword up, but a figure suddenly entered the fray. It was a…
“HUMAN?!” Dyron shouted furiously, “What is a human doing here?!”
Vida silently, fighting her fears with tears building in her eyes as she stood in front of Colter without saying a word, but in her eyes, there was a quiet signal of her begging Colter to stop. Before Dyron could interfere further Vida dove towards the prince who was startled by her appearance.
---