Her clothes were worn from top to bottom and a little bit torn. There were traces of blood on her face and small bruises on her arms. She was standing right in front of me while taking deep breaths but she seemed fine.

I quickly approached her and asked,

"My princess, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, but he's seriously injured."

"Who?"

"By pushing me, he prevented the rubble from falling on my head. But he got injured." She replied while pointing at somebody,

As she said that, I felt my soul leaving my body. Because it was no ordinary person either.

It was the Prince.

Half of his body was under a huge piece of rock. His head was bleeding like crazy and it seemed like he lost consciousness. While being under the rock, I immediately approached him and cut the rock above him with my sword.

Then I controlled his pulse, breathing, broken bones, and heart rhythm. There were about five broken bones and he didn't seem he can walk, So I lifted him anyways and started walking with him.

"If you can walk, I would like you to follow me to the safe room, My Princess. We have no time to lose here."

She looked at me and nodded,

"I can. Let's leave here."

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We quickly made our way to the safe room and met up with the king once more.

When we opened the door of the safe room, The King was sitting on the ground, holding his arm and looking at the ground with zero hope of escaping. But as soon as he saw us, he looked at us with shock and said,

"You have returned."

"I have already told that this was my duty, Sir." I replied while slowly putting the Prince down.

Princess started to take care of the Prince and tried to heal his injuries.

I then looked at the King and asked,

"Has anyone ever come here, my king?"

"No, But why did you ask such a thing?"

*So they didn't arrive here, huh? Something is wrong here.*

I looked at him and said,

"We were supposed to meet the other knights here, but they're not responding to the signal."

"I'm sure they're all right, just give them some time. Remember, they're knights just like you."

"You are right my king. But I can't just wait for my friends like this. I've got to go out and look for them, something's wrong."

"But there is something dangerous too! I don't what is it but it had killed many people in minutes, you can't just go like that Akihiko!"

"I'm sorry my Princess, but this is the thing I have to do."

"But-"

"It's enough." The King said while looking at the ground.

He knew I wasn't going to listen to any order at the moment, so he decided to give up on it.

He looked at me and said,

"Be careful Akihiko. Whatever this is, there are times we can't do something. So try to come back here alive."

"Yes sir!"

I left the safe room and quickly started looking for my friends. It was a big palace for any kind of person. But with this many dead people and blood traces, it was easy the track down where it lead.

And on the other hand, the palace was very quiet for some reason. Everywhere was empty. Every room, every corridor. There was literally nothing. But I couldn't investigate the reason for the silence here. There was only one place I could go.

The throne room.

A heavy chill had enveloped me. I was shaking as if there was a monster in front of me. That's why I took out my sword. But I was getting more and more crept out. My hands were shaking as I opened the doors of the throne room. I didn't know why, but I was cold.

It was dark when I opened the door. Only the light, filtering through the opened door, was hitting the room. Other than that, the room was completely dark. And when I got to the middle of the room, dozens of soldiers appeared out of the darkness. Obviously, they had prepared an ambush for me.

"A surprise for me, huh?"

As I said that, another person came out from the left part of the throne. She had a presence that I had carved into my mind.

It was Poison herself.

I pointed my sword toward her and said,

"I'm going to ask this once. Where are my friends? What did you do to them?"

Poison didn't say anything. She just rolled his eyes to the left. And when I followed her eyes, I saw something I didn't want to see. There were two bodies lying on the floor. And seeing the faces of people I know lying on the floor like this was probably the biggest pain I've ever felt in my life.

My friends, my brothers were lying on the floor. They cut their throats and killed them both without mercy.

At that moment, I couldn't control my eyes, I couldn't control my breathing, I was shaking. So with all my anger, I swung my sword.

I aimed for that cunts head!

With the magic of my sword, I shattered the entire room. I've taken down more than half the soldiers in one move. I couldn't control my anger and attacked them all nonstop. Like I lost my mind. I had taken down almost all of them.

Then I turned to that snake.

I tried to swing my sword at her. But just then I tried that, she pulled a poisonous fume of smoke gas out of a device on her wrists and knocked me down.

I don't know what kind of gas it was, but I lost my balance first. I started shaking like I was drunk and my eyes started closing. I could barely feel my body. And I finally collapsed.

Poison, on the other hand, was keeping her calm. She slowly pulled the spear out of Irio's body and was slowly approaching me. I had no power left to defend myself. I knew the end was coming for me.

However, at that moment, a voice shouted strongly from behind me,

"Don't! Don't kill him!"

It was Princess Mila once more. She seemed like she came here running.

"It's me you want! Come and take me!"

"No.... Prin... cess..."

I tried to talk, but it was no use. Poison dropped the spear and moved towards the direction where the sound was. I should have stopped her, but my eyes were already closed because of the smoke.