“Your Majesty, Fourth King. I will give you a chance to retreat. If you leave now, we will consider this incident forgotten,” the knight said.
Kasser chuckled. The knight’s confident, threatening stance was laughable. They seemed to rely solely on the power granted by the monster’s seed. With that power as their safety net, they were recklessly overestimating themselves.
I must eliminate them now to prevent interference when I break the spell, he thought. It was an unintended consequence, but it seemed he would have to deprive King Akil of his entertainment. With his first target in mind, he lunged forward.
The knight’s bold command for the king to step back did not intimidate him. Though a slight quiver ran through him as he stood face-to-face with royalty, the divine power coursing through him filled him with unwavering courage.
“You have obtained the sword of the gods. No one will be able to defeat you, bearer of divine power,” the High Priest had assured them. So what if it was a king? Even a king was but a mortal before the great deity.
“Ugh. The Fourth King has moved,” he muttered. As he braced himself for the confrontation, his grip tightening on his weapon, the Fourth King merely took a step—and vanished. A sharp thwack echoed from his side, followed by the sickening sound of something slicing through flesh.
His gaze followed the trajectory of the flying object. It took a moment to register that the object rolling and bouncing on the ground was a comrade’s head.
“Aaahhh!”
A nearby scream was cut short by a chilling silence. A strong metallic scent filled the air, a familiar odor from his hunts of wanderers and cultists. The smell of blood, once merely a byproduct of his duties, now churned his stomach. The thought, “I will die like this,” raced through his mind, and the knight instinctively tapped into his hidden power.
“In moments of peril, you can draw upon the latent power of the gods, which will strengthen you,” the High Priest had warned. “But remember, a human body is too fragile to contain divine power for long. Use it only in the most dire of circumstances.”
This was that dire circumstance. The knight felt an overwhelming force surging within him, a power that banished fear. With this strength, nothing was impossible.
“Fourth King!” he roared.
His eyes blazed with a blood-red intensity, his muscles bulging grotesquely. Now, he could see the Fourth King’s movements, which had previously been too swift to follow. He propelled himself off the ground, soaring through the air with an ethereal lightness that elicited a laugh of exhilaration.
Knights, their eyes similarly bloodshot, charged at Kasser from all sides. Something was clearly amiss. If they could see themselves, they would be horrified. Their bodies were swollen, their muscles twisted into unnatural shapes. Kasser realized they were doomed to explode, just like the knights who had invaded the kingdom earlier.
Their folly was pathetic. Even with their newfound strength beyond human limits, believing they could challenge a king with such power was laughable. If they had ever witnessed the king hunt a Rak firsthand, they would not be rushing toward him like moths drawn to a flame. The king was a being beyond humanity. These knights did not comprehend the gravity of those words.
Kasser had planned to conserve his Praz for future encounters with the monster, but it seemed prudent to eliminate these fools swiftly.
A blue aura enveloped Kasser’s body, transforming into a shimmering mist of Praz that quickly sharpened into scales. In the blink of an eye, he was completely enveloped by the form of a serpent.
Kasser swung his arm at the oncoming knights. The blue serpent followed his motion, piercing through the knights with the force of a spear. Struck by the Praz, the knights convulsed and collapsed to the ground.
“Kuh!”
Those who had fallen vomited dark blood. Though they appeared unharmed externally, their insides were undoubtedly in ruins. Leaving the dying behind, Kasser pressed deeper into the building. He recalled the direction from which the knights had emerged after the whistle signal. The ritual site must be nearby.
The priests guarding the ritual trembled and either fled or fell to their knees at the sight of Kasser, his body wrapped in the colossal blue serpent. As devout followers of God, they believed the Praz, like the divine powers, was sacred and dared not oppose it.
“Elder said it’s a powerful ritual, impossible to break by human means,” Eugene had explained. “And the more it’s attacked, the stronger its self-defense becomes. So, when breaking the spell, you mustn’t rush or handle it clumsily.”
Kasser recalled Eugene’s words and muttered to himself, “Destroy it all at once with every bit of strength.”
Kasser sprinted toward the ritual, leaping into the air. Gripping his sword with both hands, he channeled all his Fraz into the blade, determined to shatter the ritual in a single blow. The blue serpent coiled upward, as if about to ascend to the heavens, then dissipated into azure energy, gathering at the tip of Kasser’s sword.
The blade struck the very heart of the ritual. A deafening crack echoed, and the light emanating from the ritual faded.
Is it over?
Kasser held his sword planted in the ground, surveying the surroundings, when he sensed a shift in the air. He quickly lowered his stance. An invisible explosion erupted, creating a powerful shockwave that rippled through the entire city like a massive wave.
***
When Pered reached the main gates of the Holy Palace, he found a crowd of Anikas gathered. He grabbed a nearby warrior and asked, “Are you all here?”
“His Majesty the Concord King left for the north of the Holy Palace some time ago. The sanctuary there collapsed under the attack of the larks,” the warrior replied.
Pered quickly scanned the group of Anikas. His queen was nowhere to be seen.
“Are all the Anikas accounted for? Are you sure everyone made it out?” he asked.
“We’re still confirming,” the warrior responded.
“Anika Cordelia hasn’t come out!” Katie exclaimed, her eyes fixed on Pered. “Anika Cordelia is the wife of His Highness the Dark King, isn’t she? Or am I mistaken?”
Pered felt a pang of guilt as if being reprimanded. He turned to the warrior and gave a command. “Escort the Anikas as far away from the Holy Palace as possible.”
Without hesitation, he sprinted into the Holy Palace.
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