“So, you’ve come for my head, Knight Aldweck.” Lord Warner, in his dark robes, walked down the long set of steps that drifted down from the throne that was illuminated in natural light. Lord Warner’s aura permeated throughout the air, his anger was dark and visceral. His eyes were heavy upon Aldweck’s figure who stood at the entrance of the room, his shoulder bleeding and his breathing unsteady.

“I’ve sacrificed everything to be here. I won’t lose against you. I’m going to end your tyranny and fix everything!”

~ - ~ - ~ Earlier ~ - ~ - ~

“It’s Commander Larience!” Velis said, pointing out from the alleyway where the main group was hiding. The city was in turmoil, fires had broken out in every block and at the center of all the gunfire and screaming was Commander Larience who had been strung up by his hands and whipped into a state of unconsciousness. The blood rolled off of his skin, to many, he looked as if he were already dead.

“A large group of soldiers is guarding the entryway to the castle. I don’t see any of us getting through without making a lot of noise.” Steilart said.

“It looks like we won’t have to. Jarquale City wasn’t prepared for our attack. We made the right decision to subvert our expectations and come here. The surprise is enough for us to slip through.” Erick responded, pointing at Naomi and Chief Zaberdack who led the charge and began slicing through enemy rose soldiers.

People from the alleyways began targeting the soldiers in the back, picking away at the crowd of soldiers that had been defending the entryway to the castle. Mitch, with his heart in turmoil, grabbed his shirt and ran out to go relieve Commander Larience. He stepped up on the platform and cut the ropes with a dagger, Chammie, and Velis catching the commander before his body hit the ground.

“I can’t imagine the pain you must have gone through. Everything’s about to change.” Velis said to him.

Velis, with Chammie’s help, carried Commander Larience out of the fighting. Erick and Aldweck turned toward each other and nodded. It had been a long time coming, but they still had so much to do.

Steilart and the rest of them joined the fray with the Caraha tribe. They had taken the steps and were met with two large double doors that were locked from within.

“Get out of the way, I’m going to ram it,” Durda called out from behind, making everyone push off to the side as he ran toward the door and slammed into it. The door creaked but did not budge. He backed up and did it again, slowly but surely breaking the door down. Durda broke through the door as it fell flat to the floor. He turned around and grinned victoriously at the group before a fist punctured his chest and Durda’s expression transformed to one of pain and shock, collapsing to the ground in death.

Behind the fist, was the cold and unsympathetic second-in-command, General Hickory. He looked at the group with bored eyes, “So, you’ve come back so soon? I see you have caused quite the ruckus. Never did I expect you to so easily liberate and turn one of the lesser islands against the great Cariqueyan government. That much I will praise you on, Aldweck, but this is where your journey comes to an end. Prepare to die.”

A large swath of white light emanated and spiraled around in General Hickory’s hand before it expanded out like a laser beam, eviscerating everyone in its path.

Right after the attack killed several people, Aldweck had barely managed to keep his hair intact when he saw Chammie dart under the laser and send his leg straight between the General’s legs, kicking him straight in the groin and causing him to tumble over in pain.

“That’s fucking right Chammie! That’s how we do it!” Aldweck gripped his fist and rose to his feet as he charged in toward the general.

“You fucking cowardly brat!” General Hickory grabbed Chammie by his blonde hair and pulled him close. He screamed in protest.

“You come any closer and this fucking kid gets it!” His eyes darted up to Aldweck, clearly still in pain from being done in by the boy who he had vastly underestimated.

A bullet pierced General Hickory’s shoulder as the smoke spiraled from Steilart’s barrel, “You seriously think we’re going to let you hurt Chammie?”

General Hickory had let Chammie go as he took a few steps back to address his wound. Blood was pouring out of his shoulder, his face contorted in pain, but was quickly replaced with anger as his eyes met Steilart’s.

“I’m going to kill all of you. You think you can get to Lord Warner? Think again.” General Hickory’s aura exploded and he appeared in front of Steilart, elbowing him in the face and knocking him into the wall. Steilart fell unconscious.

“Steilart!” Erick shouted, before beginning to cast magic to defend the group.

“Out of the way, kid.” Naomi pushed Erick out of the way and met General Hickory’s strike with her palm, completely deflecting his strength. General Hickory’s eyes went wide with surprise that his strength was matched by this woman.

“Who are you!?” He shouted, before being promptly punched in the face by Naomi who didn’t bother to answer.

“None of your business. You won’t live to find out.”

General Hickory skidded back on his hand and looked toward Naomi, “Your strength is real, unlike that knight behind you who watches as his friends die so he can move forward. To him, you are just another sacrifice needed.”

“Don’t talk about master like that!” Erick said, stepping forward angrily.

“Knight Aldweck doesn’t seem to deny it.” General Hickory smiled.

Naomi interrupted, “What Knight Aldweck is or isn’t doesn’t matter to me. We’re taking our country back. Our freedom and our prosperity, and he will be the first one to tell you that.”

“He?” General Hickory looked confused when Chief Zaberdack ran along the wall and appeared in front of the general.

A wide and rounding kick smashed into General Hickory’s arms as he was nearly unable to block the kick that Chief Zaberdack had delivered. The leg was heavy on the general, causing him to lower under the pressure that Chief Zaberdack was exerting. He propelled the leg off of him and resisted by punching Zaberdack in his face. Zaberdack smashed into the wall but didn’t hesitate at all when Hickory followed up with a large punch.

Zaberdack dodged his fist and smashed his own fist into Hickory’s temple, sending him down to the ground.

“The difference between my people and you is that we are acquainted both with ruling and being ruled. It is only fit for us to retake the throne of the once-great clans to lead our country and kin into a new age. Without your iron fist.”

“What would you know about anything!? You lesser clans can go to hell!” General Hickory caught Chief Zaberdack’s foot that he had attempted to stomp in his face. His muscle bulged out as he pushed the leg back and bent it, breaking it. Zaberdack roared in pain as he fell backward onto his butt.

“Zaberdack!” Naomi rushed to intervene, blocking General Hickory from coming any further as he stood up, “You piece of shit!” She said, looking at the general with pure anger.

“It was as fair as him stomping on a man grounded in pain.” General Hickory palmed Naomi unexpectedly and pushed her away. As Zaberdack was screaming, Hickory picked up a gun and shot him in the chest before being tackled by Aldweck.

“What can you even do!?” Hickory threw Aldweck off of him and into a wall.

“No!” Naomi rushed over to Zaberdack who was bleeding out and struggling, his eyes crawled over to Naomi. Her eyes began to water as she held him.

“Take care of this for me. You always wanted to be Chief…now you can be a Queen.” He held her arm.

“No! Don’t die Zaberdack. We will get you through this. Erick! Help, please!” She turned back to Erick who had sent magic arrows at the general before turning to look at Naomi and Zaberdack. He rushed over, only to be attacked by Hickory.

“Stop attacking him!” Aldweck punched Hickory, making him lose his focus as he turned to Aldweck.

“Aldweck. You are truly a piece of work. Your punches carry no weight. Why are you even here? Intervening in affairs you truly have no business in. All of this is ludicrous to me. Whatever trick you pulled back at that cliffside, would definitely come in handy about now don’t you think?”

Erick cast his most powerful healing magic, but Zaberdack showed no signs of healing. He coughed up some more blood.

“No matter, do not get my hopes up. Tell my mother I fought proudly as my ancestors did. Lead us into a new age…Naomi.” His grip loosened on Naomi’s arm as the color was starting to fade from his eyes.

“I’m…scared…” Zaberdack whispered into sleep.

Naomi was shaking. Her eyes flooded and overflowed as she stood to her feet. She turned around, seeing General Hickory holding Aldweck high in the air. Many of the Caraha warriors wept around Chief Zaberdack, but saw Naomi’s back and immediately became wide-eyed.

“Grab the Chief's body. Naomi is about to lose it.” They shuffled Zaberdack out of the entryway to the castle and back into the chaos outside.

“Your time is up, Aldweck. Killing you will bring me much jo–”

Naomi sent a fist into Hickory’s gut, his flesh turned and spun into an amalgamation of pain as he was thrown back up into the ceiling. Naomi roared, the power in her body exerted out could even make a grown man piss himself.

“You’ll pay!” She threw off her jacket and revealed her muscles, “Knight Aldweck, go and take the Lord’s head. I’m going to kill this man. If you haven’t already killed the Lord by the time I’m done, I’m going to finish all of this myself!”

Aldweck nodded, “I will move forward,” he looked toward Erick and Chammie. Velis also walked with them after some of the Caraha warriors had grabbed hold of Steilart and Commander Larience to look after them.

“Let’s go!” They ran through the double doors and down a long corridor that opened up into an open hall. There in the open hall, all was quiet. A set of steps leading up to two main doors which could only be called the castle throne room were indicative of where they needed to go to find the Lord who had been ruling with an iron fist over his land.

A single woman with her lush hair walked out from the shadows of a pillar and appeared before the group of four that had journeyed so far to get here, that being especially true for Aldweck and Erick. She looked down at them with a frown, her eyes full of disdain and conflicted feelings as she cast a blue magic from her hand.

“So, the useless general has allowed you to slip into this room? You truly are a persistent bug, Aldweck.” Zaya said.

“How many times do we have to see you before you decide to give up? If anything, you’re the persistent one.” Aldweck pointed.

“I’m not here to debate, but I will be taking your lives.” The blue magic exploded from her hand and landed in front of them, erupting into a blue fire that trailed around the group in hot fiery heat. She floated in the air above them, “Unlike the general, I am not so weak.”

Erick summoned water and extinguished the blue flames, looking up at her with angry eyes, “Are you sure about that? The last time we fought, I recall you ending up soaked deep into the ocean.”

“There’s a difference between trying to capture you, and trying to kill you.” She appeared behind Erick and slapped him into a pillar as it exploded and debris flew in every direction.

“Goodbye Aldweck.” She reared her hand back as if she were going to slap Aldweck.

Mitch knew that this could very well be the end.