Martheel was there in front of the others with his stomach pierced by Ashikunz's spear. "Did you really think that some simple bubbles were enough to even scratch me?" asked Ashikunz as he pulled the spear closer, their faces a few inches away.
"I… It can't be…" whispered Martheel, who couldn't believe it. "I thought that…" Martheel's painful voice hit Ashikunz directly on his armor. The moment the hot breath touched the armor, the emperor removed the spear from Martheel's body, and the human fell to the ground.
"And you thought wrong…" Martheel's body was now laying on the ground, and the situation became critical.
"Martheel… no…" whispered Tyel as he began to crawl towards his friend, who was slowly losing consciousness. Ashikunz, at the sight of this pathetic human, couldn't help but let out a soft laugh.
"What are you even trying to do… powerless, useless hero?" Suddenly, Ashikunz pressed his foot against Tyel's hand. "Ahh!!" shouted Tyel after a huge crack was heard. "MY HAND!!" yelled he as some blood began to drip out from under Ashikunz's foot.
"I can't believe this is happening…" said Tyel with tears flowing down his eyes. "I sacrificed everything… I can't end like this…" In anger, Tyel smashed his fist against the ground.
"What did you even sacrifice? You don't even have a power…" said Ashikunz. "And you'll die, too… just like everyone else…" Suddenly, Ashikunz raised his spear, and before he could actually hit Tyel, a voice was heard from behind.
"No… he has really saved… all of us…" whispered Martheel. Tyel, even if he was in pain, tried to speak, "Stop, Martheel… focus on calming down…" But Tyel, deep inside, knew that because Martheel's stomach was pierced, there weren't many chances for him to survive.
Ashikunz, hearing that, turned around. As his foot was removed from Tyel's hand, the human emitted a strong cry and Darian immediately rushed to put some bandages over his injury.
"Help him, too…" whispered Tyel with multiple tears flowing down his face. Darian gritted his teeth as he tried not to cry.
"Cough… cough…" Martheel spat some blood on the ground before he even threw up.
"And say… how was he even able to save you?" asked Ashikunz as he kneeled down in front of him. More blood was spat on the ground.
"He isn't as powerless as you think…" said Martheel with a smirk on his face. Ashikunz looked at him, confused.
"Explain better!" yelled he as he pressed his spear right next to Martheel's neck, almost piercing it.
Martheel exchanged a look with Tyel and nodded with his head. Tyel, understanding what Martheel was about to say, couldn't help but stop for a moment.
'If he dies now… I don't have any more tries to save him…' thought Tyel. 'I can't fight anymore in that way…' With his hand bandaged, Tyel closed his other fist and slowly rose to his feet. 'I don't have to think anymore about fighting in that way…' With that, Tyel was finally on his feet, and even if his legs were shaking, he was able to look at Ashikunz directly in his eyes with a serious look. The Krukin, realizing that the other human had returned to his feet, grabbed the spear from the ground and turned back to face Tyel.
"No one has ever betrayed you, Ashikunz…" whispered Tyel. Ashikunz now began to walk towards Tyel. Darian rushed towards Martheel to put some bandages over him, too.
"Thanks, Darian…" With that, Martheel spat some more blood and his eyes were slowly closing.
"Don't move!" shouted Darian. He knew that Martheel couldn't resist, as he didn't have any way to actually stop the internal bleeding.
"What are you talking about?" said Ashikunz as he let out a deep breath. "Why do you humans never explain properly… is it too hard?" asked he, annoyed.
"It was me that discovered all of your plans… the ways to defeat you… no one has told me them, I simply discovered them…" As Ashikunz heard these words, his eyes opened wide.
"What are you saying? How is that even possible? Only Zrelekai and…" said Ashikunz until he stopped for a moment. "I don't even remember if I told how my armor worked to Corvinus…" whispered he before shaking his head. "It doesn't matter right now… right?"
"You've called me powerless… but that was the worst thing you could ever say." Without any fear, Tyel pointed his finger towards Ashikunz. "I've actually got a power!" shouted Tyel. With this, everyone on the battlefield looked at him; knowing what he was about to say, they all got slightly excited.
"Does your power let you see into other people's minds or what?" asked Ashikunz as he pointed his spear full of blood towards Tyel. The human's finger and the Krukin's spear almost touched.
"Nope…" Tyel shook his head before he looked directly at Ashikunz in his eyes. "I can revert from death… every time you killed us… I was always there knowing what you were doing." As Ashikunz heard those words, he removed the spear and pointed it towards the ground. The moment he positioned his hands over his face, he began to laugh uncontrollably.
"HAHAHAHA! I knew it…" Ashikunz kept laughing non-stop, and while everyone else was looking at him, confused, Tyel was the only one with a serious look.
"I knew my plans could never fail…" said he as another laugh was coming from his mouth.
"Your plans were simply perfect… we couldn't do anything to go against them," answered Tyel. With some laughter still coming from Ashikunz's mouth, he now looked again at Tyel.
"I was never wrong… I WAS NEVER WRONG!!!" shouted Ashikunz as he looked at the sky, breaking down in a huge laugh.
"Your plans always killed us… but this one is different!" shouted Tyel in anger. "I've talked to my companions about all the tries… WE WILL DEFEAT YOU!" yelled he. Suddenly, Ashikunz turned serious again as his eyes locked with Tyel's.
"Mhmm, only this one is different?" asked Ashikunz as a huge smirk appeared on his face. "Then you're saying that you've told them about your power… only in this loop? Not in the others? Then… I believe it has to be one of your latest… right?"
Tyel's expression now changed and he took a step back. "You can't fool me, stupid human… let's say that hypothetically you never told them because you were scared of how they'd react or of how they're going to use you… then if you told them about your power… it means that it is one of the latest tries you can do before you'll reach the final stage?" asked Ashikunz. But the moment he finished speaking, he shook his head.
"Not one of the latest… THE LATEST!" With that, Ashikunz pointed his spear towards Tyel again. "Then if I kill you… it means… you'll reach the final stage after this? No one knows what happens after someone reaches it… but it's definitely not a good thing!"
Now Ashikunz took a step forward, and while Tyel was taking a few steps back, the spear was pointing directly between Tyel's eyes. "Still… thank you, power… no, rebel with a power." Ashikunz now spoke with a totally different tone from what he had ever used since he began to rule over Ardoris. "Without you, I would have thought that my plans were failing because I was doing something wrong… BUT IN THE END, IT WAS SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU HAD AN UNPREDICTABLE POWER! I'M SIMPLY TOO PERFECT! MY PLANS… CAN NEVER GO WRONG!" With that, Ashikunz rushed forward, and right before he was about to slash the spear to slice off Tyel's head, a voice was heard from far away.
"NOW! CRIMSON BLOOD!" After this voice was heard, a person with a small red knife rushed towards Ashikunz and Tyel and blocked the Krukin's spear.
After the clash of the two blades was heard, Tyel opened his eyes and noticed in front of him a woman with a long ponytail and a grey armor that was blocking Ashikunz's attack like nothing, and there was a red wire connecting them.
"A-ALERYA?!" shouted Darian, who couldn't believe his eyes. Vane and Lily, who had gotten closer, also couldn't believe their eyes.
"Princess… what are you doing here?" asked Vane, confused.
"We're here, too, everyone!" shouted another voice that the Veilguard hadn't heard in another long time. As they turned back, they noticed Kael running together with Lara and Tauren.
"Sorry… it took us a lot," said Alerya as she was slowly winning against the pressure of Ashikunz's spear.
"Mass blade!" shouted Kael. Suddenly, a huge invisible force hit Ashikunz, forcing him to stay on his knees.
"What?" asked Ashikunz, confused. 'Is it… gravity? Has it been multiplied?' thought Ashikunz as he glanced around, noticing that in a line starting from his body all the sand was being pushed down by this force, but outside of this invisible line, everything was normal.
'The gravity is only in this line…' With that, Ashikunz glanced around at Alerya, and while the gravity was becoming stronger, he jumped away, coming out of the gravity.
'She is strong… without the gravity, she was almost winning against my attack…' With that, Ashikunz was now standing in the desert while he had Alerya in front of him. Everyone else had been moved away, especially Martheel, who was in the most critical condition.
"Can you save him…" whispered Tyel as he noticed a weird green light coming from Lara's hands and the skin was slowly forming again.
"Yes, it isn't hard… but we've arrived just in time… in a few minutes he would have died," said she as she focused on healing and reconstructing the stomach directly from the inside.
"Why are you all here…" whispered Vane as he arrived at the others while he was being brought by Lily.
"Exactly… and you said that Alerya never came to missions… why has she gotten out of the city?!" asked Darian, confused, as he couldn't find an explanation.
"I'll go help her!" shouted Tauren as he rushed towards Alerya, who was exchanging some hits against Ashikunz. The emperor was using his long spear while Alerya used this small knife.
'I can barely see their movements… how can they move so fast?' thought Tauren. 'Let's try this…'
Tauren emitted a powerful sound that rushed directly towards Ashikunz. The emperor suddenly turned towards him, and Alerya rushed towards him and sliced her knife to create a huge cut all over his skin.
'Shit… does he have a magic that lets my attention focus only on him?' thought Ashikunz while the cut created by Alerya was slowly regenerating. 'At least before we didn't fight and I was able to gain back some of my stamina… but I'm only at fifty-five percent… how can I resist them?' Ashikunz glanced around and noticed Alerya once again rushing towards him and Tauren, who was about to emit another strong sound to bait him.
'I'd better think about that muscular man first…' With that, Ashikunz rushed towards Tauren, completely ignoring Alerya, who was about to create another cut over his body.
"YOU'RE DEAD!" shouted Ashikunz as he made a jump and slashed his spear forward, about to crush Tauren's hands, who tried to protect himself with his arms.
"Body hardening!" With that, Tauren's body became hard as metal and the spear couldn't pierce his skin. Ashikunz was looking confused while Tauren looked at him while smirking.
Alerya didn't rush at him; instead, she pressed a button on her armor, and while blood began to drip out, she commanded it and it arrived directly right in front of Ashikunz, covering his whole body. "Sorry, Krukin!" The whole of Tauren's body became hard and the blood covering the Krukin's body became some roses.
"Ritual of the black roses!" The roses that appeared over Ashikunz's body exploded, creating a huge smog.
"Guys, I've finally been able to finish the attack at the prison, everything is going well… how are you all doin-" The trapdoor finally opened and Liro came out of it, his whole body bleeding, his vision having become blurry, his eyes black, and parts of his body having become transparent. His voice was cut off as he noticed everyone close, and there were Kael and Lara, and not far from there Alerya and Tauren were fighting against Ashikunz.
"Wh-What? What are you all doing here?" asked Liro, confused.
"We arrived to help… Bianca warned us about what happened… and we couldn't just stay still," said Kael as he walked over to Liro. "Still, what has happened to you? I've never seen you use this much magic that even a part of your body became transparent…" pointed out Kael. Liro scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Well, you see… it's a bit hard to explain," said Liro as he laughed awkwardly.
"We don't know why, but his power evolved…" said Darian as he walked towards the others.
"Oh… then you received a liberation of the soul… am I right?" asked Kael. Liro and Darian looked at him, confused.
"What is it?" asked he, confused.
"You've seen a version of you, transparent, that was chained, right?" asked Kael. Liro, with his eyes wide open, nodded with his head.
"Exactly… but what was it?" asked he, confused.
"It happened when you felt like you had overcome something hard, right?" As Kael began to explain, all of them got closer, except for Lara and Martheel, because Lara was still healing the barely conscious guard.
"I was scared to help the others, as I knew it would have definitely killed me… but deep inside, I knew that it wasn't the right thing to do… and the moment I decided to do it… I simply found myself in this black room with a version of myself, transparent, chained," said Liro. Kael nodded with his head.
"Do you know something?" asked Vane.
"It's a really rare phenomenon… it's called the liberation of the soul, and it happens when you evolve mentally… to make it simple, there is always something that binds us, right? Something that keeps us chained, that we have never been able to get away from, and we're scared to take that step forward because we know that we're chained by something?" asked Kael. Everyone nodded with their heads.
"Then Liro, who was always chained by the fear of fighting and taking the initiative in a fight…" whispered Darian. The moment he ended the sentence, he understood exactly what had happened.
"Each of us has something that keeps us chained… and for Liro, it was the fear to go forward and take the initiative in a dangerous situation, but the moment he was able to overcome this fear, his soul wasn't bound by this anymore, and he was able to unlock his true power… and what did you unlock?" asked Kael with a warm smile, but before Liro could speak, Vane interrupted him.
"Hey, Kael…" said he as he pointed his finger towards Alerya. "Her spell, Crimson Blood… it only worked while the enemy was dead, right? Then why does it feel like Alerya is moving exactly like Ashikunz…" pointed out Vane.
"Now that you've made me notice… you're right," said Liro.
Kael, before answering, took a deep breath. "There's good and bad news… the good one is that a liberation of the soul happened to Alerya, too… and she doesn't need to kill enemies anymore, she just has to put the spell on them." As he finished speaking, his voice drastically lowered and Kael looked at the ground. No one was able to read his expression as his eyes were hidden by the hat, but everyone understood that it wasn't something good.
"The bad?" asked Lily, scared.
"Therya has fallen."