The thunder blasted Geld away and the roar of it shook the entire castle.
"Commander!", Geld screamed and he stood on his shaky legs.
Kasimh who was fighting the general of Hammer's army paused and looked at the massive bolt that felt inside the castle, his face had an expression was serious and etched in concern.
He was slammed into the ground by the bloody hands of the general and he laughed weakly and said mockingly "Is this it for The Ashen Knights?".
"What do you take our commander for!?", Kasimh said and swung his legs to kick general on his sending his several feet away as he stumbled and fell.
Kamish stood up and took support on a tree near by and said in confidence "Come on old man".
General stood up and ran towards Kasimh, to which he roars and does the same then as they prepare to hit each other a screeching dread fill them and they both fell on their knees.
The army of Hammer as well as the Ashen knights start falling unconscious in the garden as well as inside the castle.
Ali and Lily who were running towards the underground king's room felt the same dread.
"Commander!", lily said in a hushed tone as she took support of the wall to barely stand up.
Geld used his hammer to stand up as he slowly steps away from the blast and the big gate.
As the bolt of lightning dissipate Geld saw Arman's katana shoved into the ground and his commander stood tall with terror.
The Big gate slow slowly opens as clanging sounds of gears and cogs are heard.
A lady with thick thighs, white long hair and deep black eyes walked out with a long wooden staff with a purple Mana crystal embedded on top if it.
"As expected, you're no slouch Dark Knight", Pristine said slowly in a composed and soft voice.
"A bolt of that caliber almost caught me off guard", Arman said as his muscles steam and he slowly looks up to glare at her with his piercing blue eyes.
"I was wondering why would the infamous knight of freedom would show up in happy country", pristine said as the lifted her wand and her eyes glow with purple glint matching the stone on her wand as he chanted a spell.
"I don't think the goddess has gone out after the king's death", Arman said as he threw a dagger towards geld.
Geld knowing his commander ducked quickly and swung his hammer to his behind, A loud scream was heard as a old man with a katana on his waist was smashed by the hammer of geld.
"I will handle it", Geld told Arman as many soldiers with proper armor and battle hammers fill the large hall.
"Its surprising these number of royal knights were able to survive my aura", Arman said in a cold and slow voice.
As a beam of light shot towards him, he vanished just before it could hit him and appeared behind pristine.
Pristine despite being a mage quickly reacted to his attack and ducked shoving him with her wand like a blunt weapon.
Arman kicked her knee from behind breaking her balance and punched her on her shoulder dislocating her socket then he held her by her neck and smashed her on ground.
"Spatial law imprisonment", Arman said in a serious voice and white chain shoot out of the ground then held limbs and neck.
"How…d do you haa... know that level of spells", Pristine asked Arman in a weak and almost crying voice.
"No time for small talk", he said coldly and showed her a piece of paper.
Her eyes went wide and her facial expression was so terrified that it seemed like she saw an actual ghost.
"a…..a Apostle's Hammer!", she managed to squeak out.
"After the king died the power balanced crumbled as you his most trust worthy retainer was in isolation, The prince committed atrocities like it was a novel work. Taking advantage of it your prime minister kidnapped a thousand people to sacrifice thinking it's a condition to awaken the Apostle's Hammer", Arman said to her clear enough to raise no doubts.
"A secret door in the abandoned royal forge", She said softly.
"Geld!", Arman shouted and continued "Our work here is done let's go".
Geld smashed a knight's head with swing of his hammer and said "Yes commander".
Geld ran after Arman holding his stomach with one hand.
"How many were there?", Arman asked geld.
"27", he replied as he gasped from running.
Arman raised his hand and shot a small red ball of magic.
Kasimh who was laying on his back in middle of the garden with a slightly twisted head of the general saw the red ball in air and groaned.
"Morons, Retreat our job is done", he shouted and the previous disoriented Ashen knights in black hoods stood up in middle of the garden filled with corpses.
Lily and Ali broke into a big dark room and conjured two balls of fire to see the big royal library of the castle.
"Look for that book", They both said to each other at the same time. They both rolled their eyes and walked separate ways to search the vast library.
"It should be in the fiction section", The tied up prince says in a crying voice.
"They put something like that in plain sight", Ali said as he ran to the fiction section and after a minute pulled out an old book with a red thick thread tying the worn and almost decayed pages.
"Arman-", Lily said making Ali look up at her, "I mean commander, we got the book", she said into her bracelet.
"Lily's done too", Geld said as he ran in an funny way out of the castle his chubby fat bouncing as he tried to juggle his hammer.
"Mind slowing down for me boss", he called out to Arman in a whining tone.
Arman sighed and ran a little bit slower towards the castle wall's back exit.
Geld jumped off the ground and sat on the back of large 5 foot high great wolf with sharp claws and long fangs with thick and sturdy limbs.
Arman climbed on the castle wall and saw as the assassins who were inside the castle and the kinghts who were with kasimh ran towards the exit.
A large window on the fourth floor of the castle broke, Lily and Ali jumped out of it and stumbled into geld's wolf making him growl in frustration.
"Kasimh", Arman shouted and jumped off the tall castle wall, Kasimh ran towards him and swung his muscular hands.
Arman stepped on his hand and got shot in air by kasimh's push, he raised his hands and mana in the air and started swirling and falling into a ball forming above his hands.
As the seconds passed the ball of mana increased in volume exponentially looking like a huge meteor from ground.
Sound of multiple door slamming open was heard as people of the royal capital rushed out of their homes holding torches to see the giant ball of mana in air above the castle.
The sound of chattering was almost deadly, many people fell on their knees and bowed followed by many more and slowly half of the capital's population bowed.
A old man blind in one of his eyes cried and shouted "They came, Ashen Knights are here to save us".