His destination, one of the capitals of the Kingdom of the Nine. The city of Neptunia where the one he has been searching around for was last known to be. On his back Helena didn’t dare ask anything, she held on tight since he was running as fast as he could. Night soon came but he showed no sign of stopping. Although he was focused on reaching his destination as soon as possible, Helena was showing signs of fatigue since she didn’t fully recovered.

He was considered about her and wrapped her in the cocoon from before again “Rest at ease for you are safe.” he calmed her down as the dark strings wrapped themselves around her, holding her in place while he ran. This made him look almost like a giant wolf with a backpack on him.

Since it was night and he was running through the forests to avoid any unnecesary encouters with the city guards he ran into other sorts of trouble. At night the beasts and monsters roamed free. Although beasts would keep their distance from a creature such as him. Werewolves wouldn’t back down so easily and start to give chase. Of course they would find it hard to even catch up to him and even when they did he’d rip them in half with one bite.

But that didn’t make them give up and tried to ambush him multiple times since he passed through their territory. That only ending in their demise, soon after losing a few dozens of their own, the werewolves decided to back down. Although the deaths of their kin should have driven them to chase him even further until they all died or put an end to him, they backed down but it wasn’t because they were scared or because they lost too many. It seemed that something had scared them off and it wasn’t Shade.

The vile stench of rotting flesh and moving corpses of fallen knights, werewolves and other monstrous creatures, a hundred or so, they were setup well enough to block his way completely. He didn’t show signs of stopping though and when he got close neough, traps started to make his advacement harder. Holes in the ground, trees falling or swinging from the sides and on top of that the multiple arrows coming from the front.

The undead had two front rows of spearmen making it hard to reach the archers in the back. If he was alone he would have had no problem with getting passed, but Helena was still on his back and there was always the chance of them using some light magic to remove the coil around her.

After advancing a little more and seeing that there was just no opening, he shaked his back to wake Helena up “We got trouble, some undead creatures are blocking our way.” he told her as she was waking up.

The cocon in which she was sleeping started to peel off as she jumped up frin his back. Floating in air and encased into her defensive sphere. Shade charged at them without restrains now, ramming head first through the spearmen like a bull. Corpses flying through the air as if they were leafs in the wind. But as he was fighting the spearmen the archers threw nets made of steel on him, slowing his movements down until he was binded down.

Helena saw that he was getting caught up as she was casting her magic, bolts of fire rained from the sky into the undead army. Although they raised their shields, it helped them nought for the spears of fire melten through both their shields and bones. The air was filled with the smell of burnning corpses and through the flames and smoke four giant figures emarged. Each one of them without a head, the dullahans showed no fear to the fire as it proved useless against them, each spear that hit them would extinguish just as fast, leaving not mark.

Helena changed her target from them to Shade, she melted down the steel nets restraining him using the fire bolts. As soon as he was free he sprang forward towards the four dullahans with open jaws.

The one he jumped at caught him by the jaws and ripped them up, the one next to him, hit his back with two huge spiked maces as the other two peirced him with their spears. Helena was looking at the scene completely shocked.

Just how strong could this dullahans be compared to the demon from Angelzark. Her thoughts were cut short as the spears the impaled Shade soon came flying towards her. Despite her shield was up she felt the need to dodge and luckly she did so since one of the spears that hit the sphere, broke it to pieces.

As the dullahans where focusing now on Helena, Shade changed his form back into his humanoid one. He doesn’t seem to have sustained any wounds or damage at all. He moved with such speed and silence towards the back of the dullahans, placing his hands on the backs of the ones who were throwing spears.

That was enough for both of them to notice and turn back to him but from the body of the two dullahans he touched spikes bursted through every inch of their body, until they would drop to the ground. Either by being unable to move from the spikes or because they died. Now only two more remained.

Both of them had their atention chaned back to Shade and with swift moves started to attack him, making Shade be on the defensive, trying to avoid their fast attacks. This two proved to be more difficult to handle as they were very agile and on top of that kept their distance from Shade since they noticed what happened to the other two.

But now it was a two against two and Helena proved to be the better support as she was casting multiple spells to slow them down. She chilled the muded ground making the enemy move slowly on the ice and by using strong wind to make them come to a halt. Shade managed to get his hands onto one of the dullahans tearing him apart with his bare hands, limb by limb as the other one escaped.

Although he ripped the dullahan to part, his chest still tried to crawl on the ground. Helena looked at it for a second before setting it ablaze with a blue flame that seemed to have effect on him, along with the rest of the bodies that were laying around. One thing was familiar, all of the soldier were wearing armour similar to that of prince Tristans guards.

“Are you alright?” Helena rushed to Shade’s side which was turning back into his wolf form. She couldn’t help but ask him since earlier he was not only pierced by spears but torn apart by the dullahans.

“They do not have the means to harm me.” he replied back as he lowered down for her to mount. “I hope there won’t be anymore stoppings. This is already getting on my nerves as i meet more and more creatures getting in my way.” his tone was almost raging. Helena just listened to him without saying anything.

After looking one more time around, he sprinted out like an arrow and for the rest of the night nothing else stopped him from reaching the destination. Close to noon he had finally reached the city of Neptunia. A huge wall with a deep mot was surrounding it, not only that but the city walls were patrolled even during the day as well as each entry was guarded by more than twenty men.

Helena tried to make a plan on how to get in easily, but just as she was explaining Shade stopped her “I’ve waste enough time with all the things that showed up. I will not tolerate another obstacle.” and with just that he stood up. Walking towards one of the side gates of the city.

He was quickly spoted as he was approaching the gates, since not many people were coming from that direction. The soldiers rang the alarm in a rush as well as screaming at the top of their lungs “Demon approaching the castle gates!” they even started lifting the bridge so he wouldn’t make it across while the rest fired arrows at him.

He ran so fast that the arrows passed right by him, Helena from behind raised herself into the air and threw fire balls of the size of barrels at the top of the gate.The soldiers being thrown off the ramparts from the shock of the explosion. Shade managed to reach the bridge which was already lifted almost two meters from the ground.

He grabbed the edge with both hands and started pulling it down with all his strength, the chains creeking as it met an opposing force. Four soldiers used both cranes on each side of the bridge but couldn’t pull the gate any higher but it wouldn’t go down yet since it had the safety on. With a loud noise the chains broke and the bridge fel down making a huge cloud of dust enveloping the entrance of the gate.

On the other side of the bridge waited a whole infantery of soldiers. Each of them with their tower shields lowered, forming a cage around the gates entrance. Their spears at the ready. The tall houses and ramparts were used by the archers for higher ground.

Shade was just too determined to find the star, he went right in through the main gate. Helena flew over the gates, the archers immediatly starting to fire arrows at her, she threw back at them small fireballs and shards of ice while dodging their arrows at the same time.

Shade saw himself blocked between iron grates and the wall of shields. He stopped for a moment and looked behind him and seeing the iron bars blocking his way back. He turned his head back towards the soldiers moving slowly in their direction. He quickly grabed the spear of the closest one and pulled it with such force draggin the soldier along with it. As the soldier cralwed through the dirt trying to reach back to cover, Shade crushed his spin by stepping on him. Leaving his foot imprint on the soldiers armour as he was spilling blood through his eyes, mouth and nose, without a second wasted he threw the spear at one of the archers that wasn’t paying attention, piercing his chest and impailing him into a nearby wall.

The rest of the soldiers quickly raised their spears after seeing what happened and hit the ground with their shields so hard they were stuck in it from behind the soldiers. Mages started casting their magic, multiple fireballs and huge spears of ice made their way down onto the demon, within the narrow space he had no place to go.

He rushed towards the edge of the blocked, grabbing one of the shields and pulling it away from the soldiers. Ripping it from the ground as the soldier flew over the blocked from the force. With that opening he made his way through the shield blocked and started slaughtering the soldiers. The place was too crowded for the soldiers to move, they tried to fight with him but he avoied their hits easily and they ended up hurting or killing their own.

From behind the lines a voice could be heard yelling “Keep him in place, even if it kills you, make him come to a halt, the mages will finish him off.” a man wearing a well decorated armour and standing on a horse told the soldiers while sitting behind the mages which started casting their magic, each one of them using a different type.

The whole place was filled with screams and smoke as Helena was setting the whole place on fire from above, Shade quickly dealt with those below. Various spell were coming at him he used the bodies of soldiers to block them, at times even needing to dodge them by walking on top of the soldiers, using their heads as foot holders. When he landed he crushed a few soldiers under him. The mages were running out of options as their spells were either too long to cast or uneffective against him as they tried almost all element.

But one came with an idea, he casted light attribue and made a beam of light project straight at him. It was too fast for him to dodge, he didn’t even noticed it until he was hit by it. That light pierced three soldiers as it made its way towards Shade, killing them in an instant, but it only hit his arm which was severed in an instant from the beam.

All of a sudden the whole place was like brought back to life as the soldiers moral was regained when they saw the demon losing an arm from that attack. They started pushing the demon even if it ment they would die by the beam, at least the demon would die with them.

All of the mages used light magic from this point on. Multiple beams would be shot at him, he managed to dodge them nicely but it was harder to deal with the soldiers that were coming at him from all direction with just one hand. His tail would cut down those that are coming from behind as well as piercing through multiple enemies at the same time.

Shade tried his best to keep the soldiers away using his feet to kick them away. Most of those which he hit died from the impact as the rest were pushed back. Beams kept shooting at him just above his head and back, one even landing a hit on his tail, cutting it off, but it was enough time for him to regrow his lost arm.

The soldiers kept going, they were like a flood without an end, now Shade used them as projectiles. Throwing the soliders that cam at him at the mages with great force while avoid the beams a lot better than before since he was looking out for them.

The soldiers posed little to no threat at all to him as the only thing they could do was hold him in place. As soon as one would grab his leg or arm they would be thrown away towards the mages. He managed to knock one down before the mages setup a barrier to block the incoming bodies.

Helena noticed what the mages were doing, soon she finished with the last archers. She dashed towards the barrier in her right hand energy was gathering up as she closed in with great speed, she punched the barrier with her right fist. Breaking it apart and starting to cast a rain of ice spears over those below her, all of them being imapled by multiple spears and laying dead on the ground.

Now that Shade had nothing to fear anymore, his arms turned into scythes and slashes his way through all of the soldiers as if they were just practice dummies. They were massacred in a few minutes. Over two hundred soldiers now laying dead all over the gates entrance.

Helena made a sign to Shade to follow her around as they rushed through the streets towards the palace. While they were running through the narrow corriods between the buildings she started talking to herself “I’m gonna get so yelled at by Archeon for doing something like this, again.” she almost started laughing while imagining it.

They encountered multiple patrols around the area, as the whole city was in high alert. Considering who they were up against the soldiers would die before they could even react. At some point Helena even build up walls from the ground to block a large number of incoming soldiers to not waste time.

The commotion was growing in the city, the whole imperial guard and army was deployed. Those in the palace were sitting nicely without much panic or care, although all of them knew about the demon that was roaming in the town below, they showed the least interest. Since most of the soliders were gathered up around the palace and the best of them were positioned inside of the palace court, they had nothing to fear off.

In a dark room inside the palace three men, all dressed in black robes gathered up. “It seems that our god is helping us yet again.” one of the said with a low tone.

“Indeed, causing such disturbance in the city will truly be a great use to both getting to our target as well as escaping this place.” a second one talked, his voice much older than the first one

“Don’t be rash, we still need to be careful as there are still guards around.” the last one spoke with a grave done, although not as old as the second one, his voice was deep none the less.

After they finished talking, the three figures left the room. They moved with a fast pace through the halls while keeping their heads covered under their hoods. Some servants were passing down the same hall as them, those pitiful souls were met with the cold blades of a dagger piercing their skulls and dropping to the floor in an instant.

They didn’t lose their pace or rushed at all. They killed anyone, soldier or servants it mattered not to this individuals. As they reached the second floor of the palace, more guards were stationed and were patroling around. From here on started the sneaking as they had to watch careful at each corner.

They were caught by a guard from behind which started to yell at them as he drew his sword, one of them rushed to the soldier as he threw multiple daggers at him. The soldier blocked them with ease but had no time to react to the sword that pierced his chest. His assailant spinned around his body cutting cutting his neck very quickly so he wouldn’t make any noise. “That was close, we better move quickly and get out.” the one with the deep voice said as he looked at the body of the soldier he just killed, the other two nodded and rushed down the hall searching for what would be their target.

Meantime the king was discussing his plot along with his generals in the throne room, which were worried about the eastern border. But the kind reassured them “Don’t worry about it, as everything will be setteled with the minimum loss on our parts. Archeon will rush to the aid of his troops and kill the enemy army or make them fall back at the same time the three of you shall lead and army of ten thousand soldiders to the border and kill Archeon along with any survivor of his band.”

As the king explained the plan the generals couldn’t help but worry even more since it was Archeon they were talking about. There was no way to be sure he would do such a thing in the first place and even if he did, defeating him would be a hard task. “My lord, how can you be so sure that Archeon would even go there?” the one that asked was General Charon Margun, he was a batteled harded fellow, his body was twice the size of a normal man with scars all over his face.

“My dear generals, i assure you he will do so since he treasures his friends more than anything and among those soldiers, there are two of his best friends which you met yesterday. The reptilian and wretched dark elf.” he talked in a despicable tone when mentioning Kuang and Lavassir.

All the generals nodded and showed signs of calming down a little, but one thing was still on their minds. Something that needed a lot more than just words to get over “There is one more problem Sire. How can we defeat Archeon?” Charon asked his king, his face was filled with fear.

“All will be taken care off, those that have went to the fortress are already doome. As for himself, he will be exhausted from all of the fighting a long with the others that are with him. If they are still alive by the time you get there. You will offer them aid, you will place sleeping potion in their food and when they will go to rest you shall make sure they never wake up.” it seems that the king had his plan well set. Even the generals were shocked by how vile their kings ideas were, truly a man who had fought the demons and had managed to win. They thought in their minds as they bowed their heads to him.

Those three cloaked men finally found their destination. A room guarded by four of the best soldierssoldiers. They threw daggers at two of them, killing them in an instant. The other two had noticed that their comrades had fallen and drew their swords to fight their opponents, but they didn’t have time to do anything as their assailants were too fast for them, their heads were cut off cleanly with one swing.

“This should be it. Remember, don’t damage the goods and kill everyone that’s around.” the older robed man reminded the other two of their plan.

All three of them got into positions before opening the door, two were placed at each side of the large double doors while the third one was standing in middle ready to rush in as soon as they opened.

They started counting through signs so all of them moved at the same time, when the count reached three the two slammed the door opened as the third one bursted in like an arrows spotting four people inside, he threw daggers at all of them without a moments hesistation, the other two did the same thing, but they quickly stopped their advacement and drew their sword immediatly.

“I thought i smelled blood around here. She sure knows how to attract the most deadliest and pestering of creatures. Guess it couldn’t help since the star was here. But i won’t let you have her or even harm her as i need her as healthy as she can be.” the necromancer said while dropping on the ground the daggers that were thrown at him.

“Such childish tricks, to use daggers.” he laughed at their failed attempt, at the same time the dullahan blocked the other six knives that were aimed at him and the star, only the other three dagger got their target, a maid that was originally there to take care of the star and ended as a hostage now laying dead on the floor.

The star was too shocked to say anything and tried to keep her distance from the dreadful headless being that was in front of her. “Next time you try to do a sneak attack, use poison. Much more effective.” he gave a hint to the three figures that were standing the doors entrance.

Kala-hazar got up from his chair, taking a few steps towards the three who attacked him. Each one of them standing their grounds with swords at the ready. Just as those three robed men were about to charge at the necromancer the whole palace started shaking and with the the sound of crumbling stone could be heard from outside.

A huge wooden door flyed through the walls of the palace right into the chambers where the necromancer and star were, destroying the room almost completely as it made its way through to the other side of the wall leaving a huge hole behind it. The necromancer and dullahan were no where to be seen, one of the three assassins was killed by the rubble as the other two were burried beneath. The star might as well be under that pile of rubble that came crushing down.

Everyone in the palace became agitated as they were the ones being under attack now, all of the guards rushed towards the entrance of the palace to face the invaders. It was complete havoc, the place was filled with screams and the sounds of the soldiers running through the place, their metallic armour ringing as it hit the sheats of their swords.

Just outside of the palace, Shade and Helena were causing chaos among the soldiers. They completely destroyed the gate that was separating the town from the castle. On top of that Helena has set ablaze the roofs of the nearest buildings to the gate while Shade ran around killing soldiers left and right.

The job seemed almost impossible for the guards of the palace, they had to put out the fire that would otherwise spread all over the city and deal with the demon on top of that. Luckly for them someone was there to put things in order, at least slightly. The sergeant which was with the prince’s escort to Angelzark rushed out of the palace as the attack began. Seeing how poorly organized the soldiers were he bursted out in anger, yelling left and right orders at them as he pointed in direction to where they need to go.

He put the mages to deal with the fire while the foot soldier had to check if anyone was still alive under the rubbles of the gate. When he spotted Shade killing the soldiers, it gave him a cold sweat “So we meet again demon, to bad we don’t have a god with us to deal with you again.” he talked to himself while looking at him kill the soldier from afar.

He was sblown to the ground as something exploded in one of the buildings near him sending a lot of soldiers flying while killing a few others “What was that?” he yelled as he tried to recover from the shock, which had knocked him down.

One of the nearest soldiers explained to him “That’s the storage, there are some new weapons brought by the third king. They blow off quite easily and do a lot of damage, on top of that they are very small.” he tried to show that one could easily fit into one hand.

“Blasted all, those things could have been really useful now. Why did they had to go to waste so soon.” the sergeant shouted in anger while hitting a barrel that was nearby with his leg, breaking it apart.

“Sir, there are more of those in the next storage, we are lucky that mages had managed to put out the fire on that one before they could blow.” the soldier pointed out to a building with a burned roof.

He rushed there, busting the door with his shoulder, looking inside of the huge storage. There were multiple boxes with small round black spheres, each one of the had a fuse, as he took one in his hand he noticed that they are very light as well. He went outside of the place in a rush.

“I need fifteen soldiers here to drag this boxes out. Twenty more soldiers will throw this black spheres at the demon. The mages are to cast defensive magic around them while taking cover in another place, after finishing that you are to attack the demon with light magic, the stronger the better.” the sergeant rushed back in after yelling the orders, picking up two of the boxes and bringing them outside, he started to throw them at Shade as well, the rest of the soldiers followed him and tried to throw in the same places.

Explosion after explosion was setting off near Shade, which made him move back as they did some damage to him. Blowing off his arms or half of his abdomen. Each time he tried to do something he there would be bombs coming down at him. Just as he stopped to look around rays of light pierced his body, cutting one of his legs off. He quickly grabbed onto a buildings roof with his tail and pulled himself out of there. Now hiding behind to in order to recover his lost limbs while keeping an eye out.

Helena had noticed what was going on and tried to break the barrier that was protecting those throwing the bombs. Just as she managed to cast a huge fireball, arrows came flying towards her, making her use it to defend herself. They couldn’t get through this way anymore “Go into the barrier, if you reach there we might get this over with.” she threw a smaller fireball towards the place where Shade needed to go.

He looked at the direction the fireball went, but couldn’t move yet, he still needed to wait a bit for his leg to recover. Those soldiers had no plan on waiting for him as they continued to throw bombs at the place where he was hiding, blowing off the building almost completely. The explosions produced by those bombs was truely devastating.

Shade had to be careful to not get hit by those bombs as they would do some serious damage to him as well as leave him open to an enemy attack. “Helena, buy me some time!” he shouted at her before going around the building that was being blown apart.

She looked at him go, before looking around as to where to strike in order to attract the most attention. She spotted the place from where they were bringing the boxes with bombs out and instantly threw multiple fire balls at that place, the soldiers had no time to react to her fireballs since all of their attention was focuse on dealing with the demon and barely any soldiers paid attention to what she was doing.

The mages and archers turned their attention towards her when the soldiers inside the warehouse started screaming about the fireballs. The archers started firing projectiles at ther while the bombers kept going for Shade. The mages had to deal with the fire at the warehouse so it wouldn’t explode and lose their only option of dealing with the demon.

The barrier that was protecting those that were throwing bombs was a really sturdy one, Helena threw multiple great fireballs at it, they were the size of a human body and made it look as if meteors were raining from the sky, everyone knew they couldn’t let her move around freely, all of the archers started firing their arrows at her with a deadeye precision, all of the hits finding their mark and weakining her shield. She couldn’t focus on breaking that barrier anymore since she needed to take care of the archers. She made multiple balls of light in her hands and threw them in the sky, each one of them floated in the air. A total of six light balls were floating around the place, after taking enough distance Helena snapped her fingers and the light balls exploaded, making a blinding light cover the whole place. Everyone had to cover their eyes if they didn’t want to go blind.

Most of the soldiers were stunned by light and couldn’t do anything, an explosion that shacked the whole place was heard from where that light was coming from. The light was fading away and with it everyone regained their sight, looking in the direction from which the explosion came. The place that was filled with bombs had exploded, destroying the buildings nearby as well as killing all those close to it. But the barrier was still standing although it was so close. Helena still hasn’t figured out what to do to break it and was keeping her distance to avoid being targeted by the archers again.

In the middle of the smoke Shade was standing ten meters away from the barrier, the soldiers haven’t noticed him yet as they were shaking their head, their sights were still blurry from the light. Shade moved at a steady pace towards the barrier, after two steps the sergeant noticed him and screamed at the troops but, that was all he could do, scream.

Black spikes rosed from the ground imapiling all the soldiers that surrounded Shade in a fifty meter radius, each and everyone of them being pierced by so many of them, their bodies were filled with holes when the spikes disappeared.

Helena was shocked as she saw that again, she couldn’t believe her eyes although it was the second time that happened, but first time was on a much smaller scale, around twenty-five meters and in a straight line. She went towards Shade which was walking inside of the palace through the main door, walking along with him inside.

The king got up from his throne, with a dar look on his face, he ordered his generals with a yell to go and deal with this nuisance. The room still had ten more soldiers around, that had the duty to guard the king. The three generals complaied to the orderes they received, they only walked half the way towards the door as it started to open by itself. None of them were expecting this kind of turn of events, it could be seen on their faces that they were completely shocked by those who entered the room.

It was Archeon along with the other three he had with him while escorting the prince, his expression was grim, his sword pulled and held with a firm grip. Same as those that were with him. It was clear they were in no mood for chatting.

“Are you the one resposible to this chaos, Archeon?” the king yelled at him almost jumping from his throne.

It was as if he was amused by something, since a smirk showed up on his face “It would have been my pleasure to be the cause, but sadly i’m not. Nor did i care about it as i made my way here more easily.” he made it clear that he had no intention of helping them what so ever, no matter the problem they were facing.

“That’s no way to speak to the king you scum. You should be executed on the spot for uthering those words.” one of the generals shouted at him as he drew his sword and pointed it at Archeon, but that sword fell from his hand very quickly as one of Lao’s daggers pierced his shoulder making the man back down and keep his mouth shut.

“As you can see, i’m not here to tolerate your little king play. Where are my men?” Archeon started walking towards the generals which held their ground since they couldn’t let him pass and go to the king. Everyone tensed up, all the soldiers around the room lowered their halbards as well as drew their arrows, pointing them to Archeon.

The whole room was so tensed up, one soldier made all that tension suddenly drift away as he rushed in front of the door to the kings throne room, he stopped there and started shouting “THE DEMON IS IN THE PAL....”

That was all he could utter before getting hit by a huge boulder that stopped into the other side of the room, crushing his whole body against a wall. With slow steps something that shouldn’t be in this realm had appeared before the king, beside him a witch with scarlet hair was floating in air, fireballs the size of a head in both hands.

Finally Shade has reached his destination, it made everyone freeze from fear. The king couldn’t believe it, his perfect plan ruined by some random incident, he was caught up in his thought. Thinking how can he deal with this situation, how can he deal with both Archeon and the demon or should he make Archeon fight the demon? All types of plots were crossing through his minds, but he soon came back to it as the witch called out to Archeon.

“Its been a long time captain, how is everyone doing?” she extinguished the fireballs in her hands with a snap as she landed on the ground, walking towards Archeon with a bright smile on her face. That seemed to make Archeon calm down.

He place a hand on her shoulder “We are good, for now. How have you been? Are you alright?” he gave her a warm smile before pulling his hand off. He turned his head towards Shade which was looking straight at the king with a cold gaze “Seems like you finally reached this place, the star should be around here, i’ve met her a week and a half ago.” Archeon told him with a serious look on his face.

The king was simply dumbfounded as he saw them talk to each other. There was no way he could get away from this, nothing would stop Archeon now since he got that demon on his side as well. All of the troops in the city must have been completely destroyed by this monster or crippled by that witch.

General Pallas is out of the city so there is simply no one who could help out in this kind of situation, he grit his teeth so hard they would make breaking sounds while clenching his fists till his knucklets would crack “There is just no way this will end like this. There has to be a way.” the king said to himself while looking around with desperate eyes.

“Where is the star?” Shade spoke with a loud and clear voice, anyone could catch up his threatning tone. If that wasn’t enough one of his hands changed into a scythe as the other into a long lance, his tail was hitting the floor, making holes in it, as if it was out of patience, he moved slowly forwards till he stood right where Archeon was. Looking at the king with blood thristy eyes. The three generals that are in front of them took a few steps back while drawing their swords as well.

Archeon turned towards the king as well “Where are my men?” his voice carrying the same amount of pressure as Shade’s. Both of them coming in front of the one which rulled this lands for something that belonged to them, something was taken away by someones mischiveous acts. How will a king that’s good at playing tricks in the shadows deal with a problem that not only knocked at his door but is waiting with swords at his throat?

Tolstoj smiled, although sweating a little from the pressure they’ve put on him, soon bursting into a loud laugh that filled the room. Everyone looked at him, his men were worried while the rest didn’t understand what was the meaning of this. “You got me well there, i should have expected this from you Archeon. You always enjoyed the company of this inferior sub-species it was only a matter of time till you’d get along with the demons.” the king got up from his throne, pulling his sword from its sheath “Stand down men, i’ll deal with this nuisance.” he walked proudly down the stairs.

The generals and his men moved to the side of the room, leaving only Shade, Helena, Archeon and his folowers in the middle. Shade charged at him just as soon as he placed his foot off the last stair, his scythe and lance as well as tail were easily blocked by a barrier of light that was surrounding the king. With such a light swipe he cut off both of Shade’s arms, leaving him shocked by what happened in that time he kicked him in the stomach sending him back to were Archeon was. He stood on both of his legs as he slided back. Archeon clenched his fist and grip around his sword, ready to strike in the next second, but stopped as he noticed the kings actions.

“What happened? Think you can face me? Have you forgotten that i weild one of the nine divine weapons that were used against the demons? I was expecting more from you Archeon.” the king was puffing his chest foward while boosting. He sheated his sword, opening both of his hands wide “But i will forgive you this once. After all there is no need to fight. Your men are at the eastern boarder, which is going to be attacked soon by a large army from the kingdom of Azure. Those blasted cock suckers sent an army of over 30.000 troops amongs which its said that 10.000 of them are demon spiritualists while the rest are regular troops. If you go there and protect the boarder your troops might get out alive.”

What he said surprised everyone in the room, Helena was shocked about the number of demon spiritualists that were being sent there. It was clear that they want to start a war with this, not just recover their lost terriotry.

Archeon plunged his sword into the ground “You take me for a fool? Don’t make me laugh with your bullshit divine weapon, i know all too well what you are capable with even with that stupid toy. You really think i’ll do as you say?” his anger was bursting out through his words, his hands were shaking from all of the anger which he barely contained.

“Of course you will, like last time and like always. But i did say if you complete my task i will free her didn’t i? Well this is also part of my task, complete it and it shall be the last time we’ll meet.” the king talked in such a calm manner, almost as if he was the one doing the threats not the other way around “But of course, she will receive some punishment from all of the damage you have caused in this town.” the king smiled wickedly.

“You bastard!” Archeon shouted, grabbing his sword and dashing froward, the king blocked his blow “Dare to touch even a hair on her head and not a single human will be left alive in this whole kingdom.” his aura was slowly releasing, green steam like energy was flowing around Archeon, causing pressure around him as well as pushing the king back.

Although being engaged in close combat, the king didn’t show any sign of worry “Archeon, even if you do so, by the time you will reach her, there won’t be anything left of her. She will be raped countless times, tortured in the most horrific way, her body sliced to pieces and healed up so she won’t die, by the time you get there she will be nothing more than mice food. I suggest you do as i say if you don’t want her to suffer. Who knows if you finish this fast i might consider not punishing her after all.”

Hearing his words his grip had losed up, he sheated his sword and went back to his comrades. His face was completely black and his aura changed from a green to a bloody red one. Helena’s worries could be read all over her face after hearing what the king had said “We are moving to the easteren boarder.” Archeon told his men, but didn’t leave yet as he turned to Helena.

Before Archeon could have said anything, the king’s voice rang again into that place. This time addressed towards Shade, he smiled larger than before and even more cunning, almost as if he though of a brilliant idea “Oh, as for that star, she should be on her way...”

A door bursted open from the side of the room, from there came Prince Tristan. The one who kidnapped the star as well as the one who hit Helena “Father...” he made a pause, trying to catch his breath, he was all exhausted as if he ran alll the way from the other side of the kingdom, his clothes all dirty and covered in blood “The star, she is....”

Everyone’s eyes widened when he mentioned her, everyone in the room knew he is her husband, or at least should. Seeing him like that, his expression almost saying that something bad had happened, but what could that be?