"I could say make a sign or tell me you surrender…" said Corvinus as he let out a deep sigh, "but with your situation, the blades would hit you before I could even remove the spell… in both cases, one of you has to die."
Vane and Orechin wanted to exchange a look to try to understand what the other would try to do, but making even the slightest movement would be the end for them.
'There's only me and Vane in this case, right? Maybe Lily has been able to escape,' thought Orechin.
"Root girl… you'd better come out with your hands where I can see them," said Corvinus as he glanced around in the bushes, trying to see where the girl was.
'I haven't been able to check the bushes as I was busy with them…' thought Corvinus, when suddenly a movement came from the bush that was right behind Lily's old position.
"I'm here," said she with a serious face while having her hands in the same position Corvinus asked.
'She came out of the bush that was behind her… maybe she hasn't prepared anything?' thought Corvinus as he closed his left fist. 'As much as I know, she can create roots…'
Corvinus for a moment looked at the bushes and realized something. 'If she were to make the roots spawn from there… based on the speed, I would easily be able to dodge them.' Corvinus had never actually fought against Lily, but from what he had seen of the roots that she created on the ground to block him, based on that distance, he would be able to dodge them without any problem.
"Don't try to do anything… any movement and you'll be dead," said Corvinus as he grabbed something from his pocket while he walked around the cage where Vane and Orechin were trapped.
Suddenly, Corvinus grabbed a pistol and pointed it at Lily, who was now sweating. As the general got closer, she tried to maintain her serious look, but her body started to shake in fear.
"Okay… and do you realize that there is no way for me to leave you alive? Not especially after what you've done… no traitor will be tolerated, not today, not tomorrow… and never. The empire will live forever." Just as Corvinus's pistol was pointing right at Lily's face, he was about to press the trigger when suddenly Lily smirked.
"And do you realize you've never seen me fight?" said Lily. "Poison crown!"
Suddenly, two roots she had planted before, positioned right behind Corvinus, grew and rushed directly towards his arm.
Corvinus, not realizing what was happening, couldn't help but gasp the moment he felt his arm blocked by something. The impact was so strong that the pistol—while the bullet had been fired—fell to the ground.
The bullet, after the pistol fell, was pointed right between Lily's legs, and the bullet ended up in the ground.
Other roots emerged from different parts of the garden, always hidden between the bushes. One root divided into at least six parts and entered inside the cage.
"No!" shouted Corvinus at the sight of his blades rushing for the roots. Two blades had already rushed, and with that, the other four tried to destroy the huge roots, and at last, all six blades attacked together.
"It's now or never!" shouted Orechin the moment he realized both him and Vane could now move freely again. Other roots rushed at Corvinus and blocked his legs.
"ARGH!!! I must free myself!!!" shouted he while gritting his teeth. With all the strength in his body, he did everything possible to push his arms and legs to remove the roots blocking them, but the more he tried, the more spikes entered his skin and made him bleed.
"The poison will paralyze him just enough… FINISH HIM, VANE!" shouted Lily.
Vane, not thinking about it twice, still in the shape of an eagle, rushed towards Corvinus at extreme speed.
"It's over!!" shouted Vane as he hardened his whole body and rushed directly towards the stomach of Corvinus. 'You're not much different from the others…' thought Vane as in his mind the scene of when Corvinus slashed in half that guard in the prison was played again.
'You'll end up in the same way!!'
Just when he was about to pierce through Corvinus's body, the enemy guard shouted in anger, "It can't end like this!!!"
After Corvinus yelled, all the blades returned towards him, and two of them rushed directly for Vane.
"Vane!!" shouted Lily.
Vane, not realizing what was happening, could see the two blades pressing against his body just when he was about to pierce Corvinus.
Both blades were trying to pierce Vane from his right wing, as the eagle had hardened his body just enough for this attack not to pierce him, but the blades were pulling him away.
"Argh… I'll still do some damage!!" Vane, unable to win against the pressure of the two blades, decided to fly towards that same direction, and his wings were now pointing at Corvinus's left arm.
"It's really over for you now!!"
With that, Vane began to spin mid-air, and with a powerful and clean hit, he made Corvinus's left arm fly away.
"AHHH!!!" shouted Corvinus in pain.
Vane, while breathing heavily, returned to his human form. His eyes had turned black and he fell on his knees. "I remained in animal form for too long…"
"He has got enough poison in his body… his arms and legs will not be able to move for long," said she as she removed the roots from Corvinus.
"Vane, are you all right??" asked Orechin as he rushed towards Vane while he was finally able to hold the injury on his leg with his hand. As he ran towards his friend, he fell on his knees too.
"I can't feel my legs anymore…" whispered Corvinus while blood dripped from the huge injury from his missing arm.
He tried to move his other arm to block the blood, but his other arm was stuck, too.
"Can't move anything, eh?" asked Lily.
Corvinus gritted his teeth in anger.
"You've been lucky… if I had inserted more poison into your body, you would have died," said Lily with an angry look.
Corvinus remained on the ground.
"Didn't your poison just paralyze?" asked Vane as he was able to return to his feet, and he rushed to help Orechin, who was lying on the ground in pain.
"That's true… but too much of that poison can be lethal for any human… I'll not describe the process as it will just be confusing," said she, remembering that these two were the ones who never listened to Darian's explanations, and realizing that if she told them how it worked, they would just walk away.
"The important thing is that we survived… it surely was hard…" whispered Orechin as, with the help of Vane, he returned to his feet.
Suddenly, Corvinus began to laugh slowly until it became so loud that the others could hear it, too.
"What is it? Your poison makes someone crazy, too?" asked Vane playfully, but as he looked at Lily, even if his vision was blurry, he understood that she had a horrified look over her face.
"Why does he only have four blades behind him?"
Corvinus used to have a total of six blades, and now behind him, lying on the ground, there were only two.
"You should have killed me…"
Suddenly, they heard a sound the group had completely ignored. In the sky, Corvinus's two missing blades were hitting each other, creating small sparks.
"If I can't stop you… he will."
With that, the other four blades rushed into the sky and began to hit the others.
"You fucker!!" shouted Lily in fear as a root erupted from the ground and grabbed Corvinus by his neck, slowly making his face turn purple as air wasn't arriving anymore.
"It has already been multiple hours and they aren't here yet…" whispered a creature outside the walls hiding between the bushes. As he got up, he looked around and no one was there.
"There are only three exits from there… the one on my left," said he while looking at the right, where the entrance that brought them directly inside the secret laboratories was located.
"The other is the one in the desert…" said Ashikunz. The moment he was about to turn his head, his ears caught something.
The sound of some blades clashing against each other in the sky.
Ashikunz looked at them, confused.
"What's that?" said he when suddenly another six blades joined in the clash.
'One… two… there are six in total.' Ashikunz began to count the blades in the sky, and as he noticed that there were six blades, he realized that they must belong to Corvinus.
"What the hell is even happening?" Ashikunz glanced around. 'If that is something made by Corvinus to distract me so the others can pass… I'll kill him first, then I'll rush towards the others.'
Ashikunz made a jump and he let out a surprised gasp.
The moment he landed on the walls, the center of the city, where the prison was located, was a total mess. A part of the prison was on fire, and even if he couldn't see exactly what was going on, he saw some guards killing the robots.
"Oh, so you picked the third entrance… the worst one." With that, Ashikunz began to run as fast as he could just to reach the prison.
"He stopped breathing…" whispered Lily as the six blades in the sky disappeared and Corvinus remained on the ground lifeless, still with the root around his neck.
"But why did he even do that…" whispered Vane, confused.
"He said: 'If I can't stop you… he will.' Was he referring to Ashikunz?" asked Lily in fear.
"Hey, no, calm down. We've just finished the fight against Corvinus… how are we supposed to fight Ashikunz, too?" asked Orechin as he began to sweat in fear.
"We've got countless guards helping us! He can come… we will stop him!!" shouted Vane, but both Lily and Orechin shook their heads.
"Remember what we told you? Of how he was able to destroy Karyuz and kill countless guards like it was nothing? We are even fewer than that night…" whispered Orechin as he gritted his teeth.
"We have to warn the others… even if we don't know how long it will take for him to get there!" ordered Lily.
The others nodded their heads and entered inside the prison, leaving Corvinus's lifeless body inside the garden all by itself.
"Hey guys!" called Liro as he noticed Vane, Lily, and Orechin walking in the prison searching for the group. "We're doing all right! We've convinced other people to join our rebellion. We're almost done!" shouted he.
"And if we see you here, it means you've won—"
Liro couldn't even finish speaking before he was interrupted by Lily, who spoke with a scared tone.
"He's coming!" shouted Lily.
"What are you talking about?" asked Syrmax, confused. His body wasn't small anymore as he had spent some time charging up thanks to the artificial light of the prison and the light created by the fire.
"ASHIKUNZ! We believe Corvinus has warned him!" shouted she.
Liro, Syrmax, and Darian twisted their faces into a horrified look.
"Ashikunz? What are you even saying?" asked Darian in fear.
"Let's go find Tyel… he can definitely tell us something with his power!" shouted Liro.
Everyone else nodded and they all rushed around the prison just to search for him.
"Mhmm, let's see… if I'm correct, Corvinus's blades were around here…"
Ashikunz was jumping on top of the roofs when suddenly he spotted Corvinus's lifeless body lying inside one of the prison's gardens.
Ashikunz landed next to him and with the spear in his hands, he touched Corvinus's neck to see if he was still breathing.
'He's dead,' thought Ashikunz as he looked at the lifeless body. 'Maybe he wasn't a traitor after all…'
With that, Ashikunz rushed inside the prison.
"Tyel!!!" shouted Lily the moment she spotted him.
Tyel was leading a huge group of guards who were all shouting his name, and each of the guards was excited that the end was near.
"Oh, everyone!" shouted he, happily to see the others alive, even if badly injured.
"H- he… he is COMING!!" shouted Lily while breathing heavily.
"What are you talking about?" asked Tyel, confused as he tried to help her.
"We were all searching for you… I found you… but we have to escape… Corvinus warned Ashikunz."
'Corvinus warned Ashikunz? No one should know about his plan… how did it happen?' thought Tyel, confused.
"Explain it better!" said he to Lily, who took a deep breath before speaking again.
"With his blades, he made a sign… it didn't feel like they were agreeing on this because he hadn't done it before… he had done it because we killed him," said Lily.
Tyel looked at her, confused. "He made a sign with his blades? How?" asked Tyel, but the moment Lily tried to speak, a scream was heard from behind.
Countless guards were all thrown away by an attack. Someone was dead and others had huge injuries across their chests.
"You should have directly come from one of the other exits… you would have had a better chance," said Ashikunz with a threatening voice.
"Lily, you found Tyel!" shouted Liro. He was walking together with Darian and Syrmax.
As they arrived near the others, Ashikunz moved his head and noticed the rebels.
"You're here… that's even better," said he with an angry voice.
'Fuck, it was going so well… you can't be serious!' thought Tyel as he looked around and realized that most of his friends were doing really badly.
"We will not back down anymore!" shouted a guard following Tyel as he suddenly took a step forward.
"You gave us hope, Tyel… we will keep him busy just long enough for you all to go with the other rebels and kick his ass!" said another guard as he took a step forward and raised his arm.
"EVERYONE… WHO IS WITH ME—"
Just before everyone could start to scream, Ashikunz grabbed a small rock from the ground and launched it directly towards the raised arm of the guard.
The rock didn't pierce his arm; the bones inside of it were simply all shattered so that the guard felt a huge pain all over his body.
"Let's go!!! We can't fall here!!"
All the guards here, who numbered around 200, all rushed towards the emperor, and all of them used their spells to hit him.
"We can't lose time here… we have to go!" shouted Darian as he began to rush in the opposite direction.
The others, nodding with him, all rushed.
'It can't be true… more and more are dying… you all will die, too…' thought Tyel as he looked over his companions. Behind them, other guards were joining in the last assault against Ashikunz, but more of them were dying than the guards joining.
'Don't let me restart it…' Tyel looked behind, and tears were almost flowing down his eyes. 'But everyone is dying… and we can't defeat him like this… are we really able to win this war?'
Tyel began to think about all the multiple attempts he had made, and none of them ever came closer than this one.
'If this ends, too… how can we actually defeat him?'
"You found him!" shouted Orechin the moment he spotted the group.
"Has he arrived?" asked Catripple in fear.
The others nodded their heads.
"It's so bad… how can we fight against him?" asked Martheel.
Tyel looked at all his companions and noticed that everyone who could use magic was bleeding, and some were even in worse condition, like Orechin, Vane, and Martheel, who could barely stand on their feet.
"We don't…" said Tyel.
Suddenly, behind him, a voice was heard.
"You really thought a few guards could damage me?"
Ashikunz was standing alone in the hall. Behind him, countless lifeless humans were lying on the ground.
"It was the best try so far… you can't all be serious…" whispered Tyel as he didn't know what to do anymore.
Ashikunz looked at the group's condition and let out a soft laugh. "If you had been at your max capacity, you would have at least been able to match a part of my power… but spending all your strength on freeing the prison is just dumb…"
"We thought…" whispered Orechin.
Ashikunz smashed his spear on the ground, interrupting Orechin's words.
"You've thought wrong… this was the worst possibility ever… and I don't know who decided this… but because of you, everyone else will die!" shouted Ashikunz.
Hearing his words, Tyel's eyes opened wide.
'He's saying it, too… it's all because of me… once again… like every other time…' thought Tyel while the others were trying their best to resist Ashikunz's bait.
"There are countless other guards helping us… what do you even hope to do?" barked Vane.
Ashikunz looked at him with an annoyed face.
"None of them are at my level… especially if I have all this stamina left," said Ashikunz as he finally took a step forward.
'We will all die… it doesn't matter what we do…' thought Tyel, while around him, the other guards and the rebels, unafraid, rushed towards the emperor to kill him.
"Tyel, you stay behind… we will kill him!" shouted Martheel.
Tyel, with a tired look, grabbed something from his pocket. It was his knife.
"Keep it to defend yourself, Tyel. At least fight against some enemy guards—"
Martheel couldn't even finish the sentence before Tyel had already put the knife in front of his throat.
"You will not have to die… I'll be the one to take the burden," said Tyel as he pierced his own throat with the knife.
On the other side, Ashikunz was about to pierce Vane's head with his spear when suddenly Tyel ceased to breathe.
"Déjà Vu."
'I'm tired… how many times have I done it?'
Multiple other attempts Tyel and the others had made after the one in the prison, but they always ended badly. Currently, Tyel's body had just turned transparent and his eyes were tired after dying and seeing his friends die multiple times.