"I can barely try to move my body… we can't fight him…" whispered Lily. She was still next to the unconscious Alerya, and all the nearby Veilguards couldn't do anything either.
The rebels were too far to even think of doing something. Catripple and Martheel were still unconscious, and while for Tyel it was impossible to construct an attack, Orechin was still doing extremely badly. Just like everyone else, there was someone who was bleeding and whose vision was blurred because of the use of magic, like Tauren, Kael, and Orechin, but the others had their eyes turned black, and as they never found the chance to stop for a moment and rest, they never actually recovered.
"You all knew too much… that is how you were able to win." Suddenly, Ashikunz stopped walking, and with his whole body shaking, he paused for a moment. With his spear pointed at the group, he began to speak again.
"But even if you fought me in my weakest habitat… even if I had lower stamina…" With that, Ashikunz pointed his spear towards the unconscious Alerya, whose wound where her leg was missing was being wrapped in bandages by Lara, "None of you could even think about defeating me!"
"He's right…" whispered Darian as he began to shake. "The fact that we fought him in the desert with the sun up and not in the mainland meant that it should have been easier…"
"You're right… I wasn't even fighting at my max power!" With that, Ashikunz positioned himself in an attacking pose, ready to strike and slice the bodies of the Veilguards in half.
"I don't get it… then it was an impossible win from the start?" asked Tauren, confused.
"Exac—" Ashikunz couldn't even finish his sentence before someone else spoke—someone who hadn't participated in this fight.
"No… we've won." As everyone turned towards the place where the voice came from, they all faced the entrance of the city and noticed Syrmax, walking with his hands inside his pockets.
Syrmax's body was extremely big. "How much energy has he stored?" Orechin, who among those present had seen Syrmax's power the most, had never seen Syrmax's body this huge. His muscles were literally exploding, as no normal human would have ever been able to reach this much muscle mass.
"The city is free… Corvinus has escaped and…" With that, Syrmax turned towards Ashikunz. "Solar…" As the human began to pronounce these words, the face of the Krukin twisted into an horrified look.
"Cataclysm!" With that, a huge beam appeared in the sky and was about to fall right on top of Ashikunz.
"AHHH!!" shouted Ashikunz in fear as he rushed away trying to escape, but the beam was able to catch him; not his whole body, but his left side was hit by the beam.
Ashikunz tried to save his left arm and a part of his leg by jumping away, but it was useless. The beam was moving too fast and Ashikunz didn't have enough stamina. His entire left arm and half of his left leg were turned into ash, and nothing remained of them.
"IT HURTS!!" shouted Ashikunz as he was now crawling on the mainland with zero stamina. "Ahh… ahh…" Ashikunz was breathing heavily as he left traces of blood behind him, his organs slowly poking out of his injuries.
"I was actually his main problem…" With that, Syrmax became transparent and fell to his knees.
"SYRMAX!!" shouted Tyel and Orechin as they rushed towards their friend.
"I'll take the others." With a warm smile, realizing that the battle had finally finished, Kael passed right next to Tyel and Orechin to carry Catripple's and Martheel's unconscious bodies.
"I'll help, too," said Tauren as he slowly rose from his knees and walked towards Kael.
"I… I can't believe it…" whispered Orechin, who couldn't hold back his tears. The three men were slowly hugging each other. Since the deaths of the old rebels, the time Catripple escaped, and the death of Eilwarin, they had been the ones who had remained alive the longest.
Especially Orechin and Syrmax: since the death of the older generations of rebels, they had been the only ones who always remained alive, constantly inside the city thinking of a plan to free everyone from this endless empire. Tyel, who had joined them later, had done a lot, too.
Ever since Catripple rushed away, the three of them had spent time thinking of a plan, but if there was something they never lost, it was their hope. The three of them remained hugging each other as tears flowed down their faces.
"It's… it's over, guys," said Syrmax happily, as clear tears flowed down his face.
"Right… we've won…" said Orechin, who couldn't believe what had just happened.
"After all the pain we've endured… after everything I've endured… it's over…" said Tyel, with countless tears flowing down his face.
As the group slowly moved their eyes towards the entrance of the city, they noticed the old rebels walking. The first one was Eilwarin, followed by Isorin, then Estelle, Kriq, Taniya, Heleroris, Quinten, and lastly Uxar. Their bodies were transparent, but they were looking at the living rebels with tears flowing down their eyes.
Behind them, other people appeared. At first, the three men didn't recognize them, but they soon realized that they were other rebels. Uxar had spoken about them, but they had never met them. As more arrived, all the old generations of rebels were looking proudly at the newest—and last—generation of rebels, who had finally been able to free this city.
Some rebels were crying as they couldn't believe what had just happened, others were smiling proudly, and some weren't crying but had surprised expressions, as none of them expected that this would be the generation to free the city from the empire.
The people of the old generations weren't really there, everyone was only imagining this, but they didn't care. The three men, looking at the transparent figures that were slowly disappearing, couldn't help but smile warmly.
"It's over… we're free," said Tyel as he rose to his feet. The others stood up and smiled proudly.
"We don't have to fight anymore… we've won." With these last words from Syrmax, all the old rebels, who were smiling proudly, completely disappeared, leaving behind only happy expressions on everyone's faces.
"Should we go back into the city?" proposed Kael as he carried Martheel's body while Tauren carried Catripple's. The group nodded, and they all headed inside the city, with Vane carrying Alerya's unconscious body and Lily helping Lara walk, who was still deeply weakened after using her magic.
'I actually lost… I can't believe it!' Ashikunz was still crawling on the mainland. His body hadn't fully regenerated yet, only a part of his foot, and his entire left arm was still missing.
"And I can't even return inside the city… they've freed that, too…" With that, Ashikunz dropped his spear, which had remained in his right hand all this time, and smashed his fist against the ground.
"I've lost… I can't do anything anymore… the city has been freed… and they will probably come to look for me." With that, Ashikunz's eyes moved towards the black planet, and a small smile appeared on his face.
"It has been three hundred years since I last returned to the planet…" With that, thoughts of his brothers and sister replayed in Ashikunz's mind. "I wonder how they're doing…" With that, Ashikunz slowly grew sad.
"I got away from them with the sole purpose of ruling over a city and making humanity suffer… but…" Suddenly, an angry look appeared on Ashikunz's face. "They're still fighting… I don't care what it takes… I'll keep fighting against humanity… this is a war, after all…" Ashikunz couldn't continue his speech, as he heard someone's footsteps behind him.
"My emperor? Was that your voice I heard?" Ashikunz immediately recognized the voice, to him, it was extremely annoying. Taking a deep breath, he turned back and noticed Corvinus, missing half an arm.
"You're not in the best condition," whispered Ashikunz at the sight of his subordinate, who paid no mind to his own state and simply rushed towards Ashikunz.
"Oh god, what have they done to you?!" With that, Corvinus kneeled next to Ashikunz and tried to help him get up.
"These damn rebels… they'll pay." Ashikunz could hear a tremendous amount of anger in Corvinus's voice.
"Do you still want to be useful to your emperor?" asked Ashikunz. Corvinus, without hesitation, nodded.
"I don't care what I have to do… I'll do it without any problem!" shouted Corvinus in a serious tone. Ashikunz, on the other hand, answered in an annoyed one.
'He's so dumb… does he really think he's the exception to the rule? That he will be saved just because he was helpful to me?' With that, Ashikunz buried his face in Corvinus's chest and began to eat him alive.
The soldier, in agony, fell to the ground screaming, "AHH!!" Corvinus bit down on his lower lip. "If this is what you want… I will be of service, my emperor," said Corvinus. Ashikunz, with an annoyed tone, grabbed the spear with his right hand and sliced off Corvinus's head, putting an end to his life.
"He was never useful… he could barely win a fight… I only kept him because Zrelekai said having someone else to help us would be a great asset." With Corvinus's organs right in front of him, he began to think about Zrelekai.
"I wonder where he is… meh, not that I care anymore… just like I never cared about Corvinus… wait, what was his name?" whispered Ashikunz. "Now that I think about it… he never told us… meh, at least he's useful now, making me regenerate." With that, Ashikunz kept eating Corvinus, as that was his only purpose now that he was dead.
"Everything feels different now that the city has changed…" pointed out Tyel as he walked around. Normal citizens who were previously scared to go outside were now walking freely in the city without any trouble.
"Should we bring these bodies to your base?" asked Kael as he glanced around. "…But where the hell is the base?" he asked. Tauren, next to him, let out a soft laugh.
"I'll bring you there," said Vane. "Lara, are you coming, too?" asked Vane. Lara, who could now walk on her own, stepped away from Lily and nodded.
"We're going to the prison… we need to check how things have evolved," said Darian.
"I don't know why… but I have a bad feeling…" whispered Tyel. Everyone looked at him, confused.
"What? That can't be possible, I left when Corvinus had just been defeated…" pointed out Syrmax, but the feeling never left Tyel's mind.
"You go and stay with the bodies at the base… I want to check," said Tyel. Followed by Lily, Darian, Liro, Oerchin and Syrmax, he began to walk towards the prison.
As they drew closer, Tyel started walking faster. The prison could no longer be seen from a distance as it had completely collapsed, and as they turned the final corner, Tyel's eyes opened wide, just like everyone else's.
"WE'VE WON!!" The shouting voice belonged to Chud. He was completely naked, holding what appeared to be a flag, though attached to the top of the stick were his pants.
All the people standing on the ruins were shouting happily that they had won and the prison had fallen. No robots were moving freely anymore; beneath the debris of the collapsed prison lay countless bodies, but what worried Tyel the most was Chud's position.
"FOLLOW THE FLAG, EVERYONE! WE'VE WON!!" he shouted. Indeed, the prison had just fallen, and the rebels had emerged victorious.
"A painting…" whispered Darian, as this scene somehow reminded him of the painting Liberty Leading the People, even if instead of a woman holding the French flag, there was a naked Chud holding a stick with his pants attached to it.
"I don't know what painting you knew in your time… but this scene surely is something."