Beginning Of The Final Battle

"Think he heard all that?" Sieghart asked Beezelbub with an exhausted voice.

Shortly after a brief silence, the sword gave a reply.

"Maybe. But I doubt that he'll give you an answer after ripping his soul apart. He's state is as same as being dead. But once his soul fixes itself, he should regain his consciousness again."

"Oh..."

Inside the cave where Jinrah and Edward entered, there is David. Standing in the corner, he shouted at Jinrah.

"Hey, Jinrah! That's enough, stop playing. Just let him be."

"Huh? Oh, they're here."

Turning right to face David, he also sees Lira along with the two silver haired women approaching the man from behind.

"Looks like it all went well." David told Susun.

"Yeah, thank you for listening to my favor."

After their exchange of words, Susun got startled slightly after Jinrah called her and teased her for her figure.

"Good for you, Susun. I can't believe how tiny you are than your daughter. Are you sure you're the Mother and not her?"

While Rein is suppressing her chuckle, Susun's brows twitches in irritation. She looked up front to respond to Jinrah, only for her to hold her breath after seeing him and Edward.

"You...!"

Susun was speechless to see Jinrah holding the unconscious body of Edward in the neck. She couldn't believe what she had seen.

Among all the henchmen of Celestine, Edward Edmond is said to be above everyone else including Ronan in terms of physical strength. He is known as a man who can carry a giant battle axe as well as making it more bigger and heavier with his weapon enhancement magic. He is a butcher that is in charge of butchering monstrously big beasts with his giant axe.

That supposedly giant axe is lying on the floor nearly behind where Jinrah is standing and lifting Edward. The giant axe is completely broken, as though it was made of a clay that was smashed into the ground and ended up breaking into tiny pieces.

Incidentally, Jinrah felt an uneasiness coming from Susun as her silver eyes were glued onto him. It hit Jinrah that it was because of Edward Edmond he's effortlessly carrying by the neck.

"U-Uh..." Stuttered, Jinrah paused as he tries to find the right words to speak. Before long, he opens his mouth once more. "...He's a former comrade, right? Don't worry, he's not dead. At least not yet."

"No, that's not it. I'm only being forced to work with them, I never once thought about them as my comrades. I could care less whatever happens to them. So you can do whatever you want." Susun gave the most frank reply Jinrah has ever gotten.

Obviously, the man did not expect such an answer.

"Oh...!"

"In any case, just let him go. There's still things that we need to do, after all."

Lira came and interjected to their conversation, telling Jinrah to let go of the unconscious, wounded man. Jinrah diligently obeyed the elven woman's order and immediately releases Edward from his grip.

At the same time, Jinrah asks Elf about another thing that they needed to do.

"There's more? I thought all we need to do is to take care of the Princess's henchmen."

"Well, I figured with this we can minimize both sides' losses when the final battle begins. Anyways, hear her out." Lira replied to the red haired man as she pointed her finger at Rein to bring both David and Jinrah's attention to the young woman."

Once more, Rein introduces herself to everyone with more confidence.

"I'm Rein Ednia, a former henchman of Princess Celestine and a former slave to the Kingdom of Kruule. I have a plan to save the people who were in the same situation I was."

A few moments after explaining everything to David and Jinrah...

"You can extract the lightning from the collars on the people's necks?"

"How can we trust this plan of yours will work? You're also under control of the lightning collars not long ago, but you've never once done that to yourself, right?"

After revealing an intriguing ability to the two veteran adventurers, Rein immediately got tackled with their questions.

"Yes, I have never done such a thing back when I was still under Princess Celestine's control. The reason was because I was scared of accidentally making a mistake and trigger the collar and kill me." Rein gave an honest reply to the two. "However, after being freed from the collar, I realized that my body can withstand such an amazing amount of lightning. No, my body can absorb lightning as though it is my own lightning magic."

Both Susun and Rein had an affinity with elemental magic. Lightning magic to be exact. The real reason why Susun and Rein did not die from the collar triggering is because both their bodies were able to absorb the lightning inside them as if it is their own.

Every single individual that possessed an affinity to use magic also possess a sizeable amount of mana inside them. Mana acts as a fuel to use magic. The amount of mana one can have varies with different people. The more mana one possess, the more powerful they are. And the more powerful they are, the more powerful magic they can use.

Mana also acts the same as one's stamina. If one constantly uses magic, they can slowly deplete their mana and experience exhaustion, much like anyone who relies on stamina to fight. If one uses all of their mana inside them in one ago, they are most likely going to end up losing consciousness. In rare cases, it can even result to death.

Exhausting all the mana inside one's body doesn't mean that they can no longer use magic. Mana replenishes itself over time. But, through proper rest or eating food, people can speed up this process.

Among all kinds of magic that exists in Alteria, some elemental type magic users have a great advantage with replenishing their mana in a quick second.

In dire cases, when one is being backed into a corner, an elemental type user can absorb the same type of element as their magic and convert them into a temporary source of mana for them. An example to that is the scenario that happened to Susun and Rein.

Christa tires Susun to the point that she forgets her way of fighting. Rein who casts numerous magic spells against David and Susun exhausted the mana inside her.

When the lightning collars triggered, they were both in their exhausted state, and with lightning magic affinity running through their veins, they were able to absorb the same element and replenish their exhausted mana back. But because the amount of lightning the collar produces is greater than the mana they can contain, the great amount of mana they absorbed overwhelmed their body and ended up knocking them out of consciousness.

Rein was hesitant on doing it back when she was under the King and Princess's control, fearing that it might actually kill her rather than saving her. But now that she had experienced it. She is certain that she could do the same to the people who are being forced to work by the suffocating collars on their necks. And that is the plan she is proposing to them.

"So you want to save the people of Kruule by absorbing the lightning from the collar and discharging them in the process..."

David pondered to himself for a minute before giving Rein an answer.

"All right. We'll follow your plan."

Both Susun and Rein were pleased by the answer David has given to them.

"All right. Let's find Prince Edle and the others and tell them everything about it. But to do that, we need to find a way out of here fir--"

Just then, all five of them sensed a wild flow of magic coming from somewhere outside the cave. It is so powerful that it even reached the inside of the cave to where they are. And without a doubt, Lira, Jinrah and David were familiar with this flow of magic they are sensing.

"It's Sieghart."

"Sieghart?" Susun asked in wonder. Lira answered her with a resounding yes.

"There's no doubt about it."

"But if we can sense it even inside this dark cave, it's more obvious that the ones above us would notice it as well." Susun told everyone with a worried tone. "We were supposed to be hiding until Christa and the others successfully obtain the Gates!"

"Do not worry." David told Susun. "Even if we can sense it, it doesn't mean that they actually see Sieghart. The way we sensed it almost faintly, I'm guessing that Sieghart is quite far outside of Kruule, although I don't know how he got there. And speaking of Christa and the others..."

David closed his eyes for a brief moment before pointing his index finger to the ceiling above them.

"...The young Knight Commander named Kaien and Christa's party members have already gone outside and it seems that they have successfully took the Gates."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Although it also seems that they've been found and are being surrounded."

Slap!!

"You should've said that one sooner!"

Lira violently smacks David's head, knocking him out to the ground.

"That really hurt...!"

"Whatever, we need to save them! We need to find a way out of here quick!"

Both Rein and Susun diligently agreed to the elven woman's suggestion. And then, Jinrah followed suit.

"I found one."

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Itsuo, Selene and a wounded Kaien find themselves surrounded by enemy soldiers.

"We haven't seen those faces here before! They're intruders!"

"Inform the King immediately."

Itsuo flew towards the running informant to stop him from informing the King about their presence.

"No you don't!"

Leaving the two unguarded, the rest of the enemy soldiers attacks Selene and Kaien. Selene can no longer create a full barrier like the ones she created not long ago, which forces Kaien to defend both of them from the enemies behind.

"Sorry, Knight Commander, it looks like I've used most of my mana inside that cave earlier that I can't create a full barrier anymore."

"It's fine, I can at least protect myself, so you should also watch your back."

Kaien told the woman. At the same time, a stinging pain from his abdomen causes him to avert his eyes from the enemy in front of him who is about to strike.

The enemy soldier swings down his blade towards Kaien, only to be blocked by a small, rectangular barrier of light made by Selene.

"It doesn't look like you can do so by yourself." The young lady stated to the Knight Commander.

Kaien did not utter a word as he struggle to stand up and continue to fight. He knows that he cannot defend himself against a number of Soldiers of Kruule, especially that he is critically injured. But he had no choice but to fight for survival.

"Damn it. I should have known that there is no safe exit in an enemy territory." Itsuo thought to himself as he try to eliminate people who are trying to get away and inform the King and the Princess about them.

Not long ago, Itsuo, Selene and Kaien were able to get their hands on the Gates that the Kingdom of Kruule are hiding. Soon as the Gates were in their possession, the three of them quickly look for an exit.

Before long, they found a hole that leads to the land outside not far from where they all fought the three enemies they took down. Sure enough, Itsuo find it convenient for placing it not far from where they all fought. It did not hit him to think that there is something waiting for an intruder like them to take a step onto that exit.

Itsuo takes the lead and opens a basement door that is connected to one of the houses in the deepest part of the northern sector of Kruule.

"It's the way out, let's go."

"Hey, watch out! There's a trap underneath the floor!"

Only before hearing Kaien's warning, that Itsuo had already stepped on a trap placed inside the house. A sealing magic binded one of Itsuo's feet to the floor which alerted the soldiers that happened to be taking a walk outside.

The trap is not something that Itsuo cannot destroy by force, but the noise he will make as he forcefully break the trap on the wooden flooring is definitely gonna be the cause for them to be caught by the enemy soldiers.

Since then, they've been trying to defend themselves against the overwhelming numbers of the soldiers of Kruule while also keeping them from spreading the information that they have infiltrated the Kingdom.

The difference in manpower forces all three of them to fight for their own lives, but seeing as Kaien is gravely injured from the battle inside the cave, it makes it hard for both him and Selene to fight. And Itsuo blames himself for his careless action.

"It's all my fault. My carelessness got ourselves caught by a cheap trap... Knight Commander Kaien would have been able to open the Gates to open a path for reinforcements if I didn't act recklessly! But now we're in a dangerous situation, Selene cannot create the same big and strong barrier unlike before, she exhausted most of her mana and can only keep up with small barriers that can block attacks from the front. Kaien, too, the wound in his abdomen is making it hard for him to fight on his own. I am also in the same boat, Soon I won't be able to use my Quick Footwork and I won't be able to stop anyone that are trying to inform the King about us. If only... If only we could meet up with everyone..."

Fwoosh!!

Just as Itsuo's head is running with thoughts, a powerful surge of wind stormed the northern part of Kruule all the way around the area where Itsuo are fighting for their lives. At the same time, a tremendous magic stopped everyone that sensed it from moving. That includes Itsuo, Kaien and Selene as well as the other Soldiers of Kruule. It is so powerful that they can sense it so clearly.

"What is this tremendous waves of magic power? It's too big..."

"Is there someone fighting in the outskirts outside of Kruule?"

"This power... It might be even more powerful than what King Castile had!"

"What?!"

The three did not utter a word, but, all three of them have suspected one person to be the source of that huge magic power. Though they have not witnessed him fight seriously, Itsuo, Kaien and Selene had a grasp on who had this kind of power. And it's none other than the strongest hero of Reilaea - Sieghart Banderas.

Toom...!

While their gazes are onto the same direction to the north, the people in the barracks, where slaves are forcefully being trained and work, was startled to witness a gigantic magic arrow emerged from the ground and flew high into the sky.

The magic arrow caused a loud explosion which caught everyone by surprise.

Now, their eyes are glued to the spectacle above the starry skies.