To Rescue A God

What were they doing here? Lentis was one of the only few people in the entire kingdom who knew the face of the two princesses, and here he was. Just great...

Sirks backed off a little, uncertain whether they were their enemies or not.

"Don't be afraid," Rui told him, telling him that they were on the same side. "We know that the princesses didn't do it."

"Oh, and why should I take your word for it?" Sirks was skeptical and continued to move back while standing in front of Wompa, also nudging her back. If only he had his weapon on him. He didn't feel safe around these two royal guards. Forget the soldiers, all of them combined couldn't even match the threat that one of them posed. And also, the elf, why was she with them too?

"I can attest that they're not bad people," Nyana spoke up, ensuring Sirks that they weren't enemies. This wasn't very convincing and Sirks was still on guard against them.

"Why don't you tell them to put down their weapons first?" Sirks nodded his head at the soldiers. They all had their weapons drawn and were being hostile.

Rui waved her hand and the soldiers lowered their weapons. "We're not your enemies," she said again.

"Yeah? You were the ones who chased us out!" Sirks pointed out. Although it was the head of the elite soldiers that framed them, it was the royal guards that ordered their execution.

"We... Had our reasons." Rui explained everything to Sirks and Wompa. Starting at the very beginning, she told Sirks what happened. The royal guards also got framed and they had to shift all of it off them and onto the princesses and lay low for a while in order to face the wrath of the public.

"I'm... No, no words can describe my actions..." Rui lowered her head and apologized to Sirks and Wompa. "But don't worry, we were able to get most of the soldiers on our side. You no longer have to hide," she brought up a positive piece of news.

Sirks was still uncertain and looked back and forth between the two royal guards, trying to figure out if they were lying. It really looked like they were being honest.

Sirks sighed, scratching his head and trying to take in everything he heard. "Fine. I got it. You're on our side. Now what?" It wasn't like they could bring down the anti-magic corps.

Even the two royal guards, who were supposedly some of the strongest in all of Otane, couldn't deal with a single veteran warrior without their magic, and that was precisely what the anti-magic corps was designed to do. And they were against a whole bunch of them nevertheless, not just one!

They stood no chance. Ayrete was the perfect example of that. Rui and Lentis struggled to take down him together without their magic and he was only slightly above average in the rankings. All the other soldiers in the corps were more or less at the same skill level as Ayrete.

Rui knew this, and frankly, she was also unsure of what they should do now. Most of the army may be on their side, but they would need multiple more people to take down the anti-magic corps. That was how scary they were.

"We can figure that out later. For now, let's take the princesses to a safer place," Lentis suggested. He took a step forward, planning to pick up the princess but suddenly flinched and put his hand on his neck.

"Oh, the needle!" Rui forgot about it. She turned Lentis around and checked on it.

"How is it?" Lentis asked, afraid of the answer he might get.

"Not sure." It looked okay to her, but there was no way to tell for sure.

"You got hit by the bomb!?" Nyana approached Lentis and also took a look. Rui moved out of the way and watched anxiously as the elf. Her hands were black with blood and so she dared not touch the wound with it. She instead used her magic to scan his blood for any abnormalities.

"You're fine," Nyana finally said after a long silent minute.

Lentis and Rui were relieved. "Thank goodness..."

But their relief was short-lived. They heard the sounds of footsteps and all turned to see a soldier frantically running towards them, his face filled with fear as he delivered the dreadful news.

"People are turning into monsters!"

"What!? Where!?" Rui asked the soldier to tell them everything.

"The entire city!" The soldier sounded like he couldn't believe it himself either even though the words were coming out of his own mouth.

"The entire city!?" Rui repeated the soldier's words slowly, asking him if this was really true. She was begging that it wasn't but she knew that it had to be true. The look on the soldier's face was full of fear. It was like he saw a dragon. This wasn't a made-up story. They had a huge problem on their hands.

"What do we do?" The soldiers looked at each other, also shaken by this news.

"Stay calm. That's a good place to start," Nyana advised them. Out of everyone here, she was the least shocked hearing all of it. "You're soldiers, no?"

"Yes, we are," Lentis agreed. "Everyone, stand firm!" Immediately, the soldiers all stiffened and stood straight. "Good. We'll dispatch squads to different areas." He turned to the person who reported this and said, "Soldier, you lead the way."

"Yes, sir. Right away!" He quickly dished out the locations of the city that were affected and the soldiers moved out.

Nyana observed the soldiers for a little bit before turning around back towards the colosseum. "While you all figure things out, I need to do something," she said, already walking away.

"Something? What?" Rui asked. "If possible, we would like you to help us. We're lacking in... The medical department." If it wasn't important, she wanted the elf to help them. This was a selfish request considering that they just met and didn't even exchange names, but the city was in danger and she needed all the help she could get.

"I need to find someone. I need to find Kies," Nyana said.

"Kies?"

"Kies, is that his name?" Sirks asked, butting into the conversation. Was it who he thought it was? He looked around and saw that hoodie was nowhere to be seen. Where was he right now?

"Yes, if he didn't lie to me."

All this time they had been together, and this was Sirks' first time hearing hoodie's name.

"He should be back up now that the anti-magic field is gone... I hope." He was buried inside the colosseum somewhere and she needed to find him. If he was still alive, he was essential in saving the city.

"You said that you're lacking in firepower, right?" Nyana asked the two royal guards.

"Yes," Rui answered. While they did have many soldiers, they were all greenhorns with no real battle experience under their belts.

"And how would you rate the opponent you fought in the match?"

"Him?" Rui took a second to think about it. She didn't have much of a chance to fight seriously with him since the match got interrupted, but he had definitely hidden his strength in the previous matches, and it was no joke either. The amount of magic he emitted was enough to almost suffocate her. But what was strange was that his magic attacks didn't match that of the power he was emitting.

"It would be great if he could help us too," Rui said. Someone of that caliber would be nice to have as an ally.

"Is that so? Then I have some good news for you." Or rather, potentially good news. "He's inside there somewhere," she pointed at the pile of rocks that was the colosseum. Either dead or alive, no one knew.

"Is... Could he survive something like that?" Sirks asked, staring at the ruins of the colosseum. Even if he was alive, he was probably buried under tons of rubble. But knowing him, he was a hard bit to crack and Sirks believed that Kies could still be alive. However, they had no way of knowing exactly where he was and it would take forever to dig him out.

"That's what I'm going to find out," Nyana told everyone. Not only was he a valuable asset to have on their side right now, but Nyana also needed him to help deal with the situation in her forest. If he was dead then she basically lost her reason for coming to Otane in the first place. She needed to find him no matter what.

Rui wanted to ask the elf if that was a good idea but she couldn't find a nice way to phrase it and so refrained from asking her. "I see. Well, good luck then," Rui said, hoping that she could find him quickly.

"Luck? I guess I'll need a lot of it unless you lend me a hand."

"You want us to help? I'm not sure if we have the manpower to do that." It wasn't like they could spare any soldiers either. They were more useful fighting to protect the city than moving rocks and searching for a person that could be dead or alive, they didn't know.

"Oh, it'll be quick. Aren't you an earth-user?" Nyana looked at Lentis.

Lentis shook his head embarrassingly. Don't get it wrong. He was a very proficient earth mage, but even if he helped, there was far too much rock for him to get rid of alone. "I'm afraid I can't help you with this one. It'll take too long."

"No, it won't. Didn't I say it will be quick?"

Everyone looked at each other, puzzled. None of them knew what the elf was trying to get at. "Um... What exactly are you thinking?" Lentis asked.

"Rather than explaining, wouldn't it be faster to show you? Just follow me."

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