Xander’s group, having just come to an agreement with the next commander of the Sacrosanct Empire’s military, Avesa, exits the city, making their way to the rendezvous point in the woods. A few hours later, Kayde, Drakthar, Lunette, and Kali show up from between the trees.

“So how did it go?” Kayde asks as soon as he sees the others.

“Okay, they agreed to support Oswald if we eliminate the current king, but they aren’t going to help us do that,” Xander explains the terms Avesa gave them.

“Kayde, you guys learn anything while scouting things out today?” Xander takes the opportunity to ask.

Kayde reports on what he saw, “So mostly the royal guard are spread out, but there is one time during the day where all of them are gathered in their barracks which is at the edge of a city square in the Northern part of the city. I think they are having lunch together or something… anyway, after that they all go back to patrolling again”.

“No that’s when they give their report to the king and Wulfric,” Alwin corrects him, knowing exactly why they gather there at that time.

“What? Why didn’t you tell us this sooner? We are trying to get those two out of the way, didn’t you think that is information we could use?” Kayde asks, frustrated as to why Alwin had not shared this until now.

“They are surrounded by like one hundred dudes, and they are very well trained might I add,” Alwin defends himself, not believing that they could challenge all of them and win.

“They seem to be worthy opponents,” Drakthar adds, having admired their fighting skills while surveying them.

“See, there is no way we can deal with that,” Alwin goes on, using what Drakthar said to fuel his argument.

“No, we have to deal with that. And we have to do it as soon as possible. If we draw things out any longer it is only to their advantage. I say we attack tomorrow at midday when they meet at their barracks,” Xander declares, eager to end this.

“We can take out as many royal guards as we can in the morning before, so we don’t have to fight all of them when things start to get ugly,” Lunette suggests, looking to give them the best odds at success.

“Yes, I like that,” Kayde smiles at her, approving of her idea.

“So we want to fight when they are all grouped?” Alwin doesn’t seem too sure about the plan.

“Yes, that way we take out all our enemies at the same time,” Xander elaborates, not wanting to have to tie up loose ends after winning this battle.

“Okay, but did you forget the part where there are tons of them and only eight of us?” Alwin reminds them, not seeing how they can match up against their forces.

“I don’t see a problem,” Drakthar comments, excited for the opportunity to draw blood once again.

“We will be taking out some beforehand as Lunette suggested, but yeah, it will be tough, but we will win this,” Xander tries to inspire hope in the sardonic priest.

“Look, I’m all for this plan, but won’t we be fighting out in the open? Couldn’t citizens get caught up in the middle of the fight?” Oswald points out, worried about the safety of the people.

“Good point, I’ll get a message to Avesa and see if she can have her men keep citizens inside when this goes down,” Xander takes note of his concern, quickly coming up with a solution.

“Okay, so that is the plan, if everything works out tomorrow we will have rid the Sacrosanct of the Purity and you will be king,” Xander puts a hand on Oswald’s shoulder.

They head back to the lab and begin to prepare for the battle coming up the next day.

“Hey, Kayde? You uh... want to go for a walk?” Lunette asks him once they get back.

“I do, but I can’t with you. It’s nothing personal, I just have a lot to take care of before tomorrow,” Kayde turns her down unexpectedly.

“Come on Fore,” Lunette hears Kayde say as he and the grey wolf walk off into the woods, having a plan he hasn’t informed anyone except Fore of.

“You ready for tomorrow?” Alwin asks Oswald, seeing the doubt in his eyes.

“I think so, I know what we are doing is the right thing, but still… I don’t feel like fighting about it is the right way to do it,” Oswald voices his concerns.

“Nah, fighting is fine, I’m just not sure we can win… These guys are strong don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if they can go up against the king, Wulfric, and the entire royal guard,” Alwin disagrees on what they should be concerned about.

“You two shouldn’t be so worried,” They hear Gwendolyn tell them from behind the couch.

“Wait… why?” Oswald turns around catching a glimpse of her silky blonde hair resting on her back.

“I know it may seem like we are outmatched, but stop for a second and look at who you have on your side. They may seem like a bunch of misfits, but Xander, Kali, Drakthar, Kayde… they’re all monsters in their own way. I don’t really know about Wulfric or the king, but I don’t think I would want to go up against who we’ve got on our side,” Gwendolyn attempts to reassure them.

“That sounds great and all, but them being strong doesn’t mean anything for us,” Oswald points towards Alwin and himself, thinking of their chances of surviving this battle.

“Oswald, our entire plan relies on you, when the time comes, if you are in danger, all those monsters on our side will do anything in their power to make sure you survive, so you shouldn’t be worried,” Gwendolyn continues to try and quell his worries.

Oswald’s head slowly drops until his eyes are no longer looking at Gwendolyn, but instead the floor between them, “Maybe that’s true, but it only applies to me, it doesn’t mean anything for Alwin”.

“Hey, Oswald it’s fine,” Alwin stops Oswald protests.

“What? No, neither of us should have to die for this,” Oswald is shocked Alwin is fine with this.

“Nah, they said they’ve got you, I’m good with that. They have a bunch of people to kill, they can’t babysit both of us, and you’re more of a baby anyway, so they should look after you not me,” Alwin puts his arm around Oswald’s shoulder.

“What? I’m not a baby,” Oswald and Alwin start to bicker like usual, letting Gwendolyn walk away, her attempt to get their mind off the battle ahead a success.

“Everything okay there?” Xander asks her, seeing the two priests arguing.

Gwendolyn looks back at them squabbling and smiles, “Yeah, they’ll be okay”.

“You worried too?” Gwendolyn asks him as the two of them make it outside.

“Yes, I’d be crazy not to, but at the same time, I am ready. Either way, it will be over, I’ll have accomplished the thing I’ve been working towards my whole life, or I’ll be dead,” he explains his thought process to her.

Gwendolyn’s smile turns into a frown, “That’s not what I want to hear”.

Xander grabs her hand and looks into her blue eyes, “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on dying”.

“You better not, I have a wedding to plan... and I need a groom if I want to do that,” she pulls him closer to her, wrapping her arms around him.

“Then I guess I have no choice but to succeed,” He notes, knowing he cannot go against Gwendolyn’s wishes. He lowers his head down to hers, their lips meeting once again.

Meanwhile, Kali walks amongst the trees, trying to find Drakthar who she spotted walking off into them a little earlier in the night. Eventually, she hears the sound of rhythmic chopping and knows he is close.

Finally, she comes to a clearing, spying Drakthar at the other side of it. She stops for a second, enraptured by Drakthar’s taut muscles; a fine sheen of sweat glistening in the moonlight.

She lingers for too long, causing Drakthar to notice her in his peripheral, while he swings his large battle-axe towards a notch on the side of the great oak he’s been chipping away at.

He stops, stowing his axe before turning towards her, “Hey, you need something?”

“I… I guess I just wanted to talk,” Kali stammers, unsure how he will react to her interrupting him.

Kali continues to wait for that response as Drakthar wordlessly starts to get closer to her.

Only as he stops, now towering in front of her, does he respond, “I don’t want to talk”.

“Okay… I…” Kali’s words come out muffled as Drakthar puts a hand over her mouth as the other begins to tear away at her clothing.

The next morning, everyone heads towards the capital, everyone in disguise save Lunette and Fore, who couldn’t look different with the help of Lunette’s device anyway.

They enter through the front gate, and while approaching an older looking guard calls out to them, “Stop”.

They look over at this old man, and Xander, Gwendolyn, Alwin, and Oswald recognize commander Volkov. They didn’t notice before because he was in a common uniform and they were trying to make it through the gates without making eye contact with any guards.

Volkov pulls in the man he knows is Xander in disguise and whispers to him, “Avesa will hold up her part of the bargain, citizens will be out of the streets around midday, and my former men here will do nothing to stand in your way. Good luck son”.

Xander responds with a resolved nod, before continuing with the others through the gates.

“Now everyone spread out, maybe into groups of two,” Lunette orders once they are alone.

Fore barks back up at her causing her to correct herself, “Or three in Fore’s case”.

“Take this and knock out as many of those white armor guys as you can before midday,” she hands, Alwin, Drakthar, and Gwendolyn a veil of the knockout agent and a needle.

Drakthar looks down at it, thinking to himself he would never use such a thing in the place of his axe.

“Alright, we meet up at the edge of that plaza just before midday,” Kayde reminds the others as they all head off in their separate directions.

“I don’t know how we are going to stab people with this,” Kali comments, looking over at the veil of green liquid Drakthar is carrying.

“We don’t, there are other ways better suited for us to knock these guys out,” he explains, tossing the veil towards her.

Alwin and Oswald walk off towards the Eastern part of the city.

“Hey, let’s grab something to eat,” Alwin suggests out of the blue.

Oswald looks at him with an anxious face, “But aren’t we supposed to be knocking people out? You know so we don’t have to fight them later?”

Alwin shrugs, “The way I see it, it could be our last meal. You want to go someplace special or nah?”

“Okay… yeah, let’s go,” Oswald agrees, finding this a good way to silence his nerves about their later endeavors.

“So what’s our plan?” Xander asks Gwendolyn, once they split off from the others.

She grabs the needle, dips it in some of the liquid and tells him, “Watch and learn,” as she begins to walk off towards a man in sparkling white armor that Xander only spotted now.

“Hey, I’m a little lost, can you help me,” Gwendolyn approaches the man, putting a hand on his shoulder. The man turns his head to see a homely looking woman, obviously from the village due to her more ragged appearance.

He shrugs his shoulder to get her hand off of it before responding, “You must be lost, try going back to your village. You don’t belong in the city”. Gwendolyn’s face sours, this sort of thing has never failed before, but she realizes she didn’t take into account her change in appearance.

She stands there until the man is the one who begins to walk away, as he does Gwendolyn walks towards him again, pricking his hand with the needle as she passes by.

“Ouch, what the fu…” the man passes out, his body hitting the cobblestone with a dull thud.

“Oh, my! Somebody help this man has passed out!” Gwendolyn acts worried as others rush onto the scene trying to see if the man is all right. Once there is a significant crowd, she slips out and meets back up with Xander.

“Is that how it’s done?” Xander can’t help but quip.

“Shut up,” she grabs his arm and the two of them move on to their next target.

“So… you wait here with Fore, I’m going to go invisible and make em drop like flies,” Kayde tells Lunette, promptly turning invisible and departing.

Lunette looks down at Fore and smiles, “Looks like we don’t actually have to do anything”.

She finds a bench in a plaza and sits down on it, for now, Fore hops up onto the bench himself and lays down.

“Hey! Is that a wolf?” A concerned citizen questions from a few feet away.

Lunette looks around for a couple of seconds and sees a group gathered, whispering anxiously to each other while staring at Fore.

“Who Fore? No, he’s just a dog see,” Lunette starts to pet him and Fore begins to howl at the amazing feeling behind his ears.

“He’s howling like a wolf,” a different woman claims, hiding her kid behind her leg as she does so.

“No, he just looks like a wolf…” Lunette stops and watches as Fore gets up and begins to approach the woman.

“Hey, you stop right there!” The woman yells in fear as the large grey wolf begins to walk towards her. Fore continues, walking around her to stand right in front of her kid.

“Doggy,” the young child comments as he begins to enthusiastically pet Fore.

He sits down and accepts the petting; eventually rolling over to the child can pet his stomach as well.

“See, he’s harmless,” Lunette comments as she walks over and crouches down next to Fore.

“Lady… what’s his name?” The boy asks as he continues to run his hands through Fore’s fur.

“Fore,” Lunette responds, smiling down at the child.

“That’s a weird name, why would you name him after a number?” The kid precociously remarks.

“I didn’t name him, my… uh... friend did… but I think the name fits,” Lunette explains with a smile.

“Oh, okay,” the boy doesn’t think much of it, content with continuing to pet Fore.

The other concerned onlookers start to disperse upon learning the wolf wasn’t a threat, most of them believing they were mistaken and that the animal was just a dog.

“Okay, say goodbye to the dog,” the child’s mother tells him before lifting him into the air.

“Bye Four,” the child waves down at the wolf.

Once everyone is out of earshot Lunette looks down at Fore, “You are a real ham you know that?”

At midday, the royal guards that were not incapacitated by the group of insurrectionists meet at their barracks for the standard role call. It doesn’t take long for some of them to realize something is afoot.

“Where is everyone?” One comments, looking around at their numbers.

“I don’t know, but can it, the king and Wulfric are going to be here any second,” another silences the first, not wanting either of them to be punished for speaking out of turn.

Like clockwork, Alexandros arrives, Wulfric flanking him on the left.

Alexandros raises an eyebrow upon seeing nearly half of his men missing, “Well, either I did not train you all correctly or we’re under attack. You get a message to that new woman that took over for Volkov, tell her to have her men sweep the streets for Alexander, Kayde, and their friends”.

The man he was pointing towards bows before leaving out the front towards the military offices. Just as the man steps outside, an oddly loud bird call is audible originating from outside of the building.

“Everyone outside now! Be ready, they are making their move,” Alexandros orders, causing his men to pick up their swords before walking out from the barracks. Wulfric and Alexandros following from behind.

The scene in front of them is that of Drakthar standing over the dead body of the man Alexandros sent to get word to Avesa; and behind him stands Xander, Gwendolyn, Kali, Alwin, and Oswald.

“Alexander! I see you brought some new friends, some traitors by the looks of them,” Alexandros looks specifically at Alwin and Oswald.

“But still the seven of you are no match up against all of us,” Alexandros declares, counting the six of them and Kayde who he starts to look around for assuming he is invisible.

“Undermanned… maybe, but not outmatched,” Xander replies confidently, lifting his arm into the sky to signal towards Kayde. This time they hear a different birdcall, much more high pitched than the last.

The royal guards look around expecting something to happen, but they see nothing. They start to smile believing it is only the six in front of them they have to take down.

Just as they start to march towards their enemies standing at the opposite side of the square do they notice them; lines of wolves, bears, and even squirrels begin to fill the square.

“Form up, cut them down!” Alexandros orders as he pushes his way to the front of the formation. The others watch the animals begin to assault the royal guard, eventually splitting up their ranks and making the battlefield into a chaotic mess.

“Alright, let’s help them out,” Xander tells the others as he draws his sword and enters the fray. While the others are content to fight whatever royal guard happens to be in front of them, Drakthar has other plans. He heads directly to where Alexandros is fighting, towering above the other royal guards, almost seeming as large and imposing as the biggest of bears that have joined their side thanks to Kayde.

Alexandros caught up in the fight against the filthy beasts in front of him, cuts down another bear, his sword cleanly carving through the animal’s stomach as if its body were made of soap. The bear’s corpse crashes to the ground, Alexandros sees a determined man standing behind it, his axe drawn ready to take on the challenge of a man who calls himself king.

“Drakthar, the one Alexander was so confident could defeat me. Let’s see what you can do?” Alexandros accepts his challenge bringing his free hand to join the other on his sword.

Elsewhere, atop a roof, Kayde and Lunette are set up with their rifles, firing into the battle.

“These guys are so hard to hit, the only exposed parts of them are their hands and faces. And it’s not like they are going to go down if we shoot their hands,” Lunette comments after having no luck taking out any one of the enemies.

“Nah, you can do this. See that guy on the left there in the back? Just watch…” Kayde shifts the rifle, breathing in before pulling the trigger. Lunette watches as the man Kayde pointed out slumps down, collapsing from the deadly accurate shot.

“Okay, it’s not impossible,” she admits before beginning to fire away once again.

Oswald and Alwin stand back at the edge of the fighting, looking at the battle playing out before them.

“You two,” they hear someone say to the side of them. They turn to see the ever-stoic face of Wulfric glaring back at them.

“You two would betray your own brotherhood?” Wulfric asks, not fully believing them to truly be on Xander and Kayde’s side.

“Yeah, I never liked it much anyway. I’m not going to be listening to your lectures today, let’s rumble,” Alwin pulls out his sword, determined to defeat this foe for his friend’s sake.

Back in the middle of the battlefield, Kali is fighting alongside Xander and the remaining animals. She can’t help but notice many of them falling at the hands of the royal guards, who are undaunted by the pack of beasts.

“Xander, I don’t think this is going that well,” she shouts at him as her blade collides with some armor, she is starting to get tired, having already killed twenty of them herself. Xander looks around after beheading his current opponent to see a pack of wolves and bears start to run from the plaza, scared from the carnage in front of them.

“Looks like you’re right, I guess that means we just need to fight even harder,” he yells back as he begins to fight the next man who takes a swipe at him. He notices as the man starts to smirk, his eyes shifting to something behind Xander.

He turns around, but it’s already too late, a blade is inches from his neck, the man’s comrade seeking to behead Xander. Suddenly an arrow emerges from between his eyes and flies past Xander lodging itself into the skull of the man he was fighting. Once both the bodies fall, he sees the source of the arrow behind them, he grins at Gwendolyn, impressed she could pull something like that off, before continuing to fight.

Back towards the edge of the giant mob of men and beasts, Drakthar and Alexandros begin to clash. Alexandros brings his sword towards Drakthar, cutting through the air before his blade collides with Drakthar’s own.

The two exchange a few blows, attempting to gauge the ability of the other without revealing the extent of their own. Alexandros blocks an incoming axe with his sword using only his left hand, he smirks at the ease of which he has done so, knowing he is vastly superior to the child before him.

Drakthar can sense it as well; after his attack misses he backs off, leaving a big gap between Alexandros and himself. His hand hastily rummages through his pocket until it comes upon a stym he had ready for just this occasion.

“What’s wrong? Have you realized how outclassed you are and now you want to run?” Alexandros taunts him after he backed away.

“No,” Drakthar pops the stym into his mouth and approaches the giant white-haired man in front of him once again.

Back in the bigger skirmish, Xander is fighting a particularly adept royal guard who has been keeping him occupied for a while now. He swings over and over chipping some of the white off the man’s armor, but he refuses to go down and let Xander move on to the next.

While taking Xander’s attacks to the armor, the man looks down and sees one last wolf on the battlefield. He glances back up at Xander to confirm he hasn’t seen the wolf before swiping at it with his left hand.

Initially, Xander is confused as to why the man would strike at such an odd angle while he was getting pummeled until he notices the man’s blade on a collision course with an unsuspecting Fore.

“Fore! Look out!” Xander does what he can to warn him. Having heard his name Fore turns his head around just in time to see the sword approaching him. Just as it seems like it is going to collide with his skull he sees Xander jump towards it, holding his sword across his body.

Xander falls right in front of Fore, pinning the man’s sword to the ground with his own. Before the man can react to his attempt failing, Fore uses Xander’s back as a springboard to vault himself directly to the man’s throat, tearing into it, blood and viscera now coating his teeth.

Xander gets up and sees the man on the ground.

“Nice one,” he tells Fore, before beginning to survey the battlefield. Now that he has a second to breathe, he can smell the aroma of blood and steel all around him. Corpse after corpse littered on the cobblestone.

He sees Kali and what is left of the animals fighting with all they have up against the remaining royal guards. One of them runs off, he tracks the man; his eyes darting to the only place he could be heading.

The royal guard makes a beeline directly towards where Drakthar and Alexandros are fighting; his sword is drawn ready to assist the king in defeating this assailant. He strikes furiously, a wide smile across his face as he expects his sword to collide with the back of Drakthar’s neck, but instead, it is met by steel. He looks to the side to see Xander holding the sword that protected his friend.

Xander notices how taken off guard the man is by this turn of events, he lifts his sword and beheads the man with a single decisive slice.

“I thought you would respect a one on one fight,” Xander comments to Alexandros, who used the distraction to land a kick in on Drakthar’s left leg.

“I never viewed this as a one on one battle between this man and myself, he is just another attachment you have that I need to sever. I would never give one such as him the honor of fighting me man to man,” Alexandros coldly dismisses the idea.

“Good, I wouldn’t have wanted to get in the way, but now I can,” Xander points his sword towards Alexandros, preparing to join their bout.

Back up on the rooftops, Lunette looks at the state of the battlefield and determines, “There isn’t a safe shot anymore. Xander and Drakthar are fighting the king and Kali is mixed up with those last few royal guards”.

“Yeah, I think Gwendolyn realized the same thing, she isn’t shooting anymore either,” Kayde points out, causing Lunette to look down at Gwendolyn below them.

“So I guess we should just go down now,” Kayde suggests, not seeing anything to do anymore from up here.

“Nah, if any of our people go down we will have a clean shot at the ones that got them,” Lunette disagrees, readying her rifle in case that happens.

“Hey, everyone is going to be fine,” Kayde insists, a desperate tone in his voice that makes it obvious that this is what he wishes to believe whether he actually does or not.

“I hope so, but we shouldn’t be caught off guard if they aren’t,” she puts a hand on his rifle and puts it back on the edge of the roof so he will be in a position to fire if it comes to the worst.

Down on the battlefield, Alexandros prepares to take on both Drakthar and Xander at the same time. Drakthar grabs another stym out of his pocket and hands it to Xander.

“Woah, hold on, I’ve never used that sort of thing before, and it would be a really bad time for it not to work,” Xander points out, not willing to take the stym and chance him being a liability for Drakthar.

Drakthar pockets the stym and readies his axe just to see Alexandros is gone, having run from the two of them towards the edges of the buildings. Xander and Drakthar begin to chase after him, realize he is heading towards Gwendolyn.

“He’s going after Gwendolyn!” Xander calls out to Drakthar.

“I know,” Drakthar responds calmly, more focused on sprinting after him. As they continue to run Xander knows he will catch her before they can get to him, so he warps himself right in front of Gwendolyn, using himself as a shield to halt Alexandros’s progress.

Alexandros doesn’t stop, using his left arm to knock Xander to the side, landing on his rear, scratching the backs of his arms and legs on the rough cobblestone. He immediately gets up to see Gwendolyn restrained in Alexandros’s giant arms, the other holding a sword to her neck.

“Fuck!” She swears, angry she was caught like this.

“Stop right where you are Alexander,” Alexandros orders, threatening the life of the one trapped in his arms.

“Leave her out of this,” Xander tells him to stall for time, trying to think of a way to get her out of this.

He could switch her out, but he knows Alexandros has the same ability, Kayde having experienced it in their earlier confrontation.

While Xander is thinking, Drakthar catches up to them prompting Alexandros to warn him, “Take another step Drakthar and I’ll slit her throat”.

Alexandros watches as Xander starts to beg, “Wait! Please don’t”.

“You should have thought about this before deciding to defy me,” Alexandros starts to revel in the moment, finally having his grandson where he wants him.

What he fails to notice is Xander’s looks at Drakthar. Even though he can’t communicate verbally, Drakthar knows Xander is planning something, so he braces himself for whatever it is.

“You know what Alexander, it looks like I am going to be able to show you this woman’s corpse after all,” Alexandros decides to end the standoff. As he begins sliding his sword, Xander throws a bell directly behind Drakthar and switches it with Gwendolyn the moment it is blocked from Alexandros’s view.

Alexandros discovers he is slicing the air, he quickly looks up and switches what he assumes is Gwendolyn with the bell. Instead, the one in front of him is Drakthar his axe blocking his sword.

“What? I guess what my men said is true, you can switch twice,” Alexandros realizes his gambit has failed as he pushes back against Drakthar’s axe. Xander runs towards the two of them, attempting to slice off Alexandros’s arm as he is busy dealing with Drakthar.

Alexandros tries to back off, but he is too late, losing two of his fingers, his sword wobbling in his wounded hand. Despite the injury, Alexandros barely flinches, calmly bringing his off hand to join the disfigured one on the hilt.

“I guess I should be impressed, you have thoroughly outsmarted me twice now… but that is to be expected you are my grandson,” Alexandros never gives up on reminding him.

“No, I was, but after what you did we are no longer family,” Xander disagrees, getting ready to finish this.

“We are family, you’ll realize that once I kill those around you, that much should still be easy even with only eight fingers,” Alexandros swings at Drakthar, his attacks maintaining all of his power from before when he had all of his fingers.

Their battle continues, blood being thrown forth from Alexandros’s hand every time he strikes with his sword.

Despite fighting two to one, Xander and Drakthar start to feel on the back foot, causing Xander to call out, “We need to coordinate better!”

“I know,” Drakthar agrees, but is unable to say out loud what they should do, due to Alexandros being right in front of them.

“You know you were always shorter than me,” Drakthar tells him while giving Xander the quickest of looks, which Alexandros doesn’t notice due to him dealing with fending off both of their attacks.

“Alright,” Xander thinks he understands what Drakthar is getting at. He drops down low and begins to bring his sword through the air heading towards Alexandros’s legs. Noticing what is happening, Alexandros moves his sword down to protect his lower half, but while it is on the way he finally notices Drakthar’s axe heading for his head.

Alexandros knows if Drakthar’s axe connects he will die, he gives up on blocking Xander’s attack to raise his sword to stop Drakthar’s axe. It is then that he feels it, the extreme pain of losing both of his legs. He falls to the ground, the lower halves of his legs completely severed off by his grandson.

On his way down, Drakthar cuts off his sword hand, making him completely unable to fight back anymore, blood flowing out of the gashes where his limbs have been removed from his body.

“I’ll admit you were strong,” Drakthar tells Alexandros as he stands over him.

“I do not care what a man like you thinks of me,” Alexandros tries to spit at him, but it only lands on the cobblestone between them.

Just as Drakthar is about to deliver the killing blow, he hears a scream from behind him, he immediately recognizes the voice as Kali’s. Before he can even realize it himself, Drakthar begins to run towards the source leaving Xander to deal with what is left of Alexandros.

Drakthar spots two royal guards standing over a heavily wounded Kali. They are not trying to kill her, but instead are kicking the woman who killed so many of their comrades, basking in the moment to cause her further pain before they end her.

They are completely unaware of the man barreling for them. Drakthar angrily strikes at one as he pulls back his foot preparing to kick Kali’s face once again, his axe cutting straight through the man’s heavy armor causing both halves of his body to hit the floor.

The other can’t ready his sword quick enough, unable to stop Drakthar from beheading him, the decapitated face landing onto the floor right next to Kali.

“You couldn’t handle these two?” Drakthar questions as he helps her up, finding them easy to dispatch himself.

Kali spits some blood onto the ground, clearing her mouth to respond, “Maybe you missed the part where I killed thirty of them before going down”. Both of them stay there silently there for a moment, an odd tension between them.

“Thank you though, I didn’t think you would do something like this for me,” Kali gently thanks him for his help, putting a hand on his arm while doing so.

Drakthar takes her hand and helps her up, “I didn’t even think about it… I just heard your voice and my body just moved”. That statement causes Kali to smile, starting to believe maybe, even if it’s just a little bit, he does care about her.

Xander continues to stand over Alexandros, who is bleeding out before him. In one last desperate attempt, Alexandros rolls over and grabs his sword, swinging it wildly at Xander’s feet.

Xander pins it to the ground with one foot, before kicking it out of his hand with the other.

“Wait, please… please don’t kill me. We are family; this isn’t how it was supposed to happen… we were supposed to rule together. We could have had everything… Why? I did everything I could to make this happen… how did I fail?” Alexandros begins to grovel, desperate now that he realizes it is over.

Xander looks down at Alexandros, disgusted that he would stoop to groveling at a moment like this.

“That is why you are here. Maybe if you didn’t kill your brother and let him rule you wouldn’t be here now. Maybe if you accepted your son’s decisions and not killed him and his wife, you wouldn’t be where you are now. You lie and beg for me not to kill you because we are family. What do you think your brother and my parents would say to you? You didn’t think twice about killing them, so I am not going to give a second thought to killing you now,” Xander doesn’t hesitate, bringing his sword down across Alexandros’s neck as he continues to plead for him to stop.

After finishing the deed, Xander pulls out a rag and begins to clean his sword, not wanting the blood of a terrible man to stain it longer than it has to. As he is focusing on a particular spot with a lot of blood he hears yelling. His eyes dart over to the side to see it is Oswald who is shouting as he watches Wulfric run Alwin through with his sword.

Without a second thought Xander turns back time, he finds himself over Alexandros who is now alive again. As much as it pains him to not be able to lecture him before finally ending him, Xander quickly kills Alexandros before starting to run towards where Alwin and Oswald are fighting Wulfric.

He soon realizes he isn’t going to make it in time as the same scene starts to play out in front of him. He freezes time, trying to get as close to them as he can to try and stop Wulfric from killing Alwin. He counts in his head marking how much longer he has until time resumes.

As he reaches one, he is only ten feet from them. He desperately throws his sword to try and intercept Wulfric’s as time resumes. He watches as his aim was off and the sword misses Wulfric’s, instead the hilt collides with Wulfric’s head not able to stop him from running Alwin through.

Alwin grabs a hold of the sword as he begins to cough up blood all over Wulfric. Xander is confused as he sees a spear come through Wulfric’s body, killing him on the spot, his body falling to the floor revealing commander Avesa standing behind him.

“Oh... an angel,” Alwin comments as he falls to the ground.

“ALWIN! No, get up!” Oswald starts to put his hands over Alwin’s wounds to stop the bleeding.

“Dammit,” Avesa cusses as she rips off some of the excess fabric on her uniform.

“Calm down my liege, I need to remove the blade,” she catches Oswald off guard by using his new title as she puts the fabric up against the wound while carefully pulling Wulfric’s sword out of Alwin.

“Why did you help us?” Xander asks as he watches Avesa start to deal with Alwin.

“I was watching the whole time, the king was defeated so it was over,” she explains herself.

A few of her men arrive on the scene, she quickly orders them, “Take this man to the infirmary, but be careful with him, he isn’t out of the woods yet”.

“Now, we should get you cleaned up, you are going to need to address your people, explain to them what happened here and what has been happening this entire time. It’s the best if they know the truth about Alexandros,” Avesa tells Oswald.

“I need to know if Alwin is okay first,” Oswald insists, his mind only focusing on his friend and not his newfound position.

“Hey, he’s going to be fine. You can do this, we chose you for a reason,” Xander puts a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

“Yeah, okay…” Oswald begins to respond as he watches Xander pass out next to him.

“Hey, take this guy to the infirmary too and those two over there as well,” Avesa tells a group of her men referring to Xander, Kali, and Drakthar.