The merciless howl of the snowstorm could no longer hide the sound of the massive threat approaching from the horizon.
The surface's endless white, frozen blanket trembled rhythmically as hundreds—perhaps thousands—of heavily armored boots struck the ground at the same time. The savage snarls of war mounts, the grinding of steel against steel, and the enormous waves of mana tearing through the air screamed that what was coming was not an ordinary patrol unit.
This was a force designed to conquer, crush, and annihilate.
The Royal Army.
Standing before the heavy metal hatch of the submarine, Hope focused his Architect Sight toward the horizon. Through the storm he could barely make out enormous banners of crimson red and golden yellow appearing behind the blizzard.
"King Khronos…" Hope whispered.
He clenched his teeth so tightly that his jaw began to ache.
"And a massive army."
"Hope!" Lypin's voice trembled through the storm as it reached him.
Her hair whipped violently in the freezing wind. In her hands were two heavy leather bags she had taken from the submarine, stuffed to the brim.
"They're moving incredibly fast! With those huge armors it's impossible for them to move that quickly in the snow. They must be using wind mages!"
Hope tore his gaze from the horizon and turned toward his team.
Team…
What a meaningless word it had suddenly become.
Kai and Bianca had wrapped themselves tightly in their black cloaks, their backs loaded with bags filled with supplies and mana potions. Both of them wore the same alert, calculating expression that had kept orphan thieves alive on the streets for years.
"We're finalizing the plan," Hope said quickly and decisively.
As he stepped toward them, he pointed toward the horizon.
"If an army this large follows a single trail, they'll find us easily. We need to split up."
Kai nodded in agreement.
"You're right, Captain. Bianca and I will head east, into that mountainous area with the sharp cliffs and rocks. If those armored idiots try to track our footprints in the snow, I can leave plenty of fake trails for them. They can't move an army through that terrain anyway. It'll scatter them."
Bianca grabbed Kai's arm with her gloved hand and smiled toward Hope.
For the first time, genuine gratitude shone in the eyes of the cold thief girl.
"You two should go north," Bianca said.
"Toward that forest valley. The trees will block the storm and narrow their vision."
"Protect Lypin, Hope."
Then she hesitated before finishing.
"…and survive. Wherever the World Tree is… find it."
Hope looked at the two thieves for a long moment.
These two companions had been with him since even before GreenHollow. A bond that began as an assassination mission was ending now with pure trust.
"You survive too," Hope said, raising his voice against the wind.
"If you ever get tired of robbing rich nobles at the bottom of the ocean or on the surface… you know where to find me."
Kai grinned.
That same old arrogant thief grin.
"Take care of yourself, Hope."
Bianca stepped forward and hugged both Hope and Lypin, kissing their cheeks.
"You two remind me of my siblings… See you later, lovebirds."
And the two thieves disappeared.
Their black cloaks vanished into the storm within seconds as they ran eastward into the white darkness.
They were nothing more than two ghosts swallowed by the sound of the storm.
Hope took a deep breath and walked to Lypin, lifting two heavy bags from the ground onto his shoulders.
"We're heading north," Hope said.
"We need to move fast."
But at that moment, a chilling, raspy voice rose from the center of the battlefield a hundred meters away.
"You… are not going anywhere."
Hope and Lypin turned instantly.
In the middle of the battlefield, on the melted and glassified ground scorched by emerald flames…
Deniz stood.
No.
He wasn't standing.
He was simply refusing to fall.
Deniz's left arm had been completely burned, the melted metal of his armor fused directly into his flesh. Half of his face was covered in second-degree burns and his right eye was completely shut. His legs trembled, and every breath he exhaled released bloody steam.
He had been defeated.
Crushed.
Shattered.
Logically he should have gone into shock and lost consciousness minutes ago.
But he had not knelt.
Ignis stood only a few steps away from him, arms crossed over his massive emerald-flame body.
The ancient spirit tilted his head slightly as if trying to understand why this human still refused to surrender.
"Deniz…" Lypin whispered in horror.
"Why… why is he still resisting? It's over! Why doesn't he just wait to die?"
"Because he's not a gladiator, Lypin," Hope said, narrowing his eyes as he read the suicidal surge of mana gathering inside Deniz's body.
"He's a fanatic."
Deniz grabbed the melted armor on his chest with his remaining right hand and ripped it away.
Then he pressed his fingers directly into his own bare, bloody flesh.
The yellow earth mana in his eyes began burning brighter than ever before, wild and unstable.
This was not a spell meant to survive.
This was a sacrificial ritual that converted life force, soul energy, and even the rhythm of his own heartbeat into mana.
"Even if I die here!" Deniz roared.
His voice was so loud and full of conviction that it drowned out the storm itself.
Blood poured from his throat, but he didn't care.
"Even if my body rots beneath these snows… I will make King Khronos the greatest king in history!"
Deniz fixed his single bloodshot eye on Hope in the distance.
There was no hatred in that gaze.
Only the terrifying loyalty of a soldier willing to burn the world for what he believed was right.
"You cannot escape, Architect!" Deniz shouted, raising his blood-covered hand toward the sky.
"You are not an ordinary child! You are the absolute weapon that will carry our kingdom to the heavens and place us above even the gods!"
"And a weapon must return… to the hands of its owner!"
Deniz gathered every last drop of life energy, blood, and mana into a single point.
Then he drove his hand violently into the melted, glassified ground beneath him.
[ANCIENT FORBIDDEN SPELL: KING'S ECHO]
VZZZZZZZZT!
This was not a deafening explosion or an earthquake tearing the earth apart.
It was a seismic assault directed at frequencies themselves.
At the fundamental vibrations of mana.
At the nervous systems of living beings.
A massive yellow shockwave spread from beneath the ground, rippling across the snow like a giant ocean wave and expanding in every direction faster than the speed of sound.
This spell had two purposes.
The first:
To send an encoded emergency signal to the Royal Army approaching from kilometers away, and perhaps even directly to King Khronos himself. Through this vibration, the army would instantly know the exact location of their prey, understand that Deniz had fallen, and realize the seriousness of the situation. Instead of blindly marching through the storm, they would switch to a tactical hunting formation.
The second purpose was far more lethal.
This seismic wave attacked the brain cortex, souls, and mana veins of all enemies within its range, paralyzing them and shutting down their consciousness in seconds, turning them into defenseless lumps of flesh.
The invisible yellow wave rushed toward Hope and Lypin like a tsunami, vaporizing the snow in its path.
The moment Lypin felt the crushing pressure of the attack against her mind, she screamed and clutched her head.
Her vision darkened.
Her knees nearly gave out.
But Deniz had forgotten something.
The person before him was not merely a powerful mage or warrior.
He was an Architect.
Someone who could read every particle of mana and view the world like a chessboard.
The instant the wave left Deniz's hand, the Architect Sight interface in Hope's mind filled with flashing crimson warnings.
The System instantly provided the attack's type, speed, and target.
A consciousness attack!
Within a tenth of a second Hope slammed his scythe into the ground.
Instead of releasing his green flames outward, he directed them inward.
Toward his own soul.
And toward Lypin beside him.
The flames did not form a sphere of fire around them.
Instead they became a transparent emerald armor that wrapped directly around their souls.
[SOUL SHIELD]
The seismic consciousness wave slammed into them with a violent buzzing roar.
Snow exploded into the air around them.
Even the metal hull of the submarine warped and groaned under the resonance.
But inside the emerald shield, Hope and Lypin felt nothing.
The mental attack that transcended the physical world had been absorbed and neutralized by Hope's soul flames.
Lypin slowly opened her eyes while still covering her ears.
She was alive.
Her mind was intact.
Hope stood firm beside her, gripping his scythe tightly.
The wave had passed.
The marching sounds of the massive army on the horizon suddenly changed.
The rhythmic heavy footsteps stopped.
They were replaced by something far more organized.
Faster.
Deadlier.
A terrifying silence.
The royal soldiers had received the message.
They were no longer blind.
They knew where the prey was.
At the center of the battlefield, the blood-soaked Deniz fell to his knees and looked toward the horizon.
A painful yet proud smile appeared on his trembling lips.
"The message… was delivered," Deniz whispered to himself.
There was not a single drop of mana or life energy left in his body.
His arms fell limp.
The light in his eyes slowly faded.
"Mission… completed."
Deniz had not slowed Hope.
He had not knocked him unconscious.
But he had completed his duty.
He had proven his loyalty.
"A fine sacrifice," a deep voice echoed coldly.
Deniz raised his single remaining eye upward.
Despite standing directly at the center of the seismic consciousness wave, the massive emerald-flamed Ignis had not moved even a millimeter.
He had not trembled.
Because Ignis had no brain to paralyze.
No nervous system to shock.
He was nothing but pure ancient spirit and will.
Ignis leaned forward slowly, green flames drifting from his shoulders.
There was not the slightest trace of pity on his face for Deniz's desperate fanatic resistance.
"The justice you speak of," Ignis said as he raised his massive right hand blazing with emerald flames,
"is nothing more than lies written by kings."
"But mine…"
"…is absolute."
Deniz did not close his eyes.
Even as he felt the scorching breath of death on his face, he kept his head high with faith in his kingdom.
"You will share the same fate as Yaat, the one you mocked and called weak," Ignis said, his voice as cold as the icy abysses at the bottom of the ocean.
SHLAAAAK!
Ignis drove his magma-like emerald-flamed hand violently into Deniz's chest.
The sound of burning flesh mixed with the cracking of bones.
Emerald flames burst out from Deniz's back.
Deniz's body stiffened.
His eyes opened wide.
Only a faint bloody rasp escaped his lips.
He did not scream.
He did not beg.
Only one final sentence left his mouth.
"Long live King Khronos!"
"Behold…" Ignis whispered as he slowly pulled his flaming hand out of the man's chest.
"…absolute justice."
The last fanatical yellow light in Deniz's eyes vanished.
The kingdom's great shield, the champion stronger than even Scorch and Zero of the arena, collapsed onto the melted snow as a lifeless heap at the end of the great chess game built upon lies and betrayal.
He was dead.
Ignis slowly lowered his blood-soaked flaming hand.
Then he turned his gaze toward Hope.
The massive being lowered his head slightly in silent acknowledgment of a task completed.
His body began dissolving within seconds.
The enormous emerald flames scattered into thousands of glowing green embers drifting in the wind.
Those embers spiraled like a vortex and were absorbed into the curved blade of Hope's scythe.
The man who burned the ocean returned to his ancient slumber within the Architect's weapon.
The battlefield fell silent.
Only the howling storm and the increasingly closer presence of the massive army remained.
Hope slowly placed the scythe onto his back.
He walked across the snow toward Deniz's lifeless body.
He looked down at him.
Once, he had respected this man.
Once he had felt safe behind his massive frame and laughed at his cheerful voice.
But it had all been a lie.
Deniz had been a soldier who chose to sacrifice others' lives for his own truth.
And Hope no longer played games with soldiers or pawns.
There was no victory or sorrow on Hope's face.
Only cold determination.
"Let's go," Hope said as he turned back toward Lypin.
He lifted the two heavy leather bags filled with supplies and potions onto his shoulders.
Lypin wrapped her winter cloak tightly around herself and pulled up her hood against the storm.
Hope did not look back even once at the ocean, the massive submarine, or the betrayal lying on the snow behind him.
His gaze remained fixed only on the dark northern horizon.
"The World Tree is waiting for us," Hope whispered.
And the two lone figures began running into the merciless white darkness of the surface, leaving behind them the approaching army of an entire empire.