Lifelong Grudge

It was Nell's first time fighting against these "things." But it wasn't just her. No one else in her squad, nor any of the other squads fought any of these "things," before either.

"Are they still human?" Her squad asked as they walked past all the corpses of the dead hybrids. One of her members gave a body a nudge.

"Careful, or you might lose your foot," Nell warned them.

"Huh? They're still alive!?" The guard retracted his foot so fast that he stumbled and almost pushed someone else over.

"Hey, watch it!"

"Sorry."

"Okay, stop getting distracted. Let's move," Nell called everyone's attention to her. She pointed towards the castle and said, "The wyvern riders were pushed back by something..." It was very worrying to see it happen. What was possibly at the castle that even their most powerful force had to pull back? Was it the same thing that shot down all of the monsters they had been struggling with?

Maybe... It could be the same person who took care of the hybrids for them. They didn't know whose side they were on, if they were on one, to begin with. Just because the person or thing helped her and her squad, along with the rest of the soldiers, it didn't mean it was on their side. The hybrids could just be in their way.

Whichever cases, Nell knew one thing for certain, and it was that she needed to get to the castle fast. There was a rumor going on among the soldiers right now that this was the doing of the two princesses who wanted the throne from the queen, but Nell didn't believe it. The whole thing always sounded fishy to her. Although she has never met or seen them before, to her knowledge, the two of them were much younger than their eldest sister by almost half of her age. How could those two possibly plot against their older sister when they weren't even the age to inherit the throne yet? It just didn't make sense.

Nell and her squad met up with the other squads who were going to the castle. They didn't give each other much of a greeting. With just a nod of their heads, they all understood the drill. Reunite and move together to the castle. They didn't know what was there and having a numbers advantage was a good idea against whatever they were facing.

On the way, Nell saw that the rest of the city was in a similar state as where she and the rest of the soldiers were just at. Bodies were everywhere, both infected and non-infected alike. And just like the rest of the bodies she had seen before, the hybrids had severed heads, almost like something swept through the entire city, systematically killing all of them.

It took some time, but she and the other soldiers eventually made it to the castle gates to find that half of the gate was broken down. Lying all around the region were bodies of soldiers, clad in full armor. They all had arrows sprouting out of them.

Nell went over to one of the bodies and kneeled down to examine it. "Wait... This insignia... Isn't this..." She didn't finish her sentence. Everyone here was familiar with the insignia. There was no mistaking it. These were their kingdom's prided wyvern riders. Who were their enemies exactly? Nell ran her finger along the shaft of one of the arrows. These were nothing like she has seen before.

More and more soldiers arrived at the scene, including the Iceblade and Lentis, along with their squads. There was also an elf in the mix which quickly caught the attention of all the soldiers, but they didn't ask any questions as to why she was here since she was with the two royal guards from the looks of things. Nell remembered her as the elf who was with the young mercenary who offered to help them.

Speaking of which, where were he and his partner now? Nell hoped that the two of them left the city. It was far too dangerous for them to be in here right now.

"Attention!" Rui raised her sword. "Everyone, line up!" The soldiers all formed ranks and divided themselves into their own squads before lining up in front of Rui. Nell looked around at her squad members and saw that they were all pretty nervous. Out of all the years of work they had as guards for the city, they have never actually defended the city from a large-scale attack, well not until now. Everyone here had a right to be nervous. It wasn't just her squad either. Most of the other guard squads were shifting about, looking at each other to see if anyone had a clue about what was happening. Even the soldiers, who have the most experience were not looking good.

Rui waited a moment for everyone to settle down before explaining the situation to them. "As you may have seen already, people are turning into monsters. We know the people behind it. Our enemy is the anti-magic corps. Other than them, there may be more that we don't know off... We're going in blind, but we do have a powerful ally on our side," she said on the bright side, trying to raise the morale of the soldiers. "He's a wind mage, and he's already inside. We need to assist him."

Rui felt traces of magic belonging to him inside the castle already. She felt a little better knowing that they had someone else on her and Lentis' level on their side, and that included the elf too. Without them, things would be looking a lot grimmer than they currently are. However, the soldiers and guards didn't feel the same way.

"A wind mage?..." Going off their own personal knowledge and what they've heard, wind magic was by far one of the weakest elements. Furthermore, they were also going up against enemies that made his magic useless. What use was a mage?

Rui saw that the soldiers were doubtful but there wasn't anything she could do. In all honestly, she wasn't sure about this either, but they had to save the queen.

"Look," Lentis raised his hand and everyone turned to him. "Our enemies may be the as formidable as the wyvern riders or even more formidable-" especially since they actually took out the riders, "-but, we outnumber them. Remember, they are one of the smallest units." Composed only of elites, the anti-magic corps lacked numbers and they rarely operated together as a whole squad. In actual battles, they were split up and told to lead or assist other teams. Together, against thousands of soldiers, there were only forty or so of them. Each of them may be veterans, but they can't win against sheer numbers.

Hearing this, the morale went up, not significantly, but it was by a good margin. Time was running out and they didn't have time for anymore pep talk. It was do-or-die, now or never. "Okay, I'll take the lead. My squad, with me! Everyone else, behind Lentis!"

"Understood!" the soldiers and guards all shouted in unison.

"Good. Let's go."

***

The place was like a maze. It was as bad as the undead forest that Kies had been to. Corridors and corners everywhere, it was really not that much different from navigating a forest where all the trees looked the same. Actually, Kies would've preferred it if the castle was a forest instead. He'd plow right through it, but he couldn't do this with the castle unless he wanted to create the biggest tomb the world has ever seen, burying hundreds of people inside a building that could fit tens of thousands.

"Where did they go...?" Kies lost the soldiers' trail. His winds were searching far and wide in this seemingly endless building. Smooth limestone walls and a pure white floor, likely made out of quartz. Everything was clean, not a speck of dust or stain anywhere.

Kies ran his hand along the wall. It was so smooth. No lumps or bumps. Each brick must've been chiseled to perfection. Big golden chandeliers hung from the ceiling, lighting up the path. There were no windows. All the light came from the ceiling The amount of money that went into the building and maintaining the place... Kies couldn't imagine it.

The only thing strange was that the walls were empty. With so much space, it would take hundreds of thousands of paintings to fill up the walls, but yet why wasn't there a single one? The walls were bare, or did the designer want people to admire the perfect walls? These walls were so perfect, it almost felt like they were made with magic... Yes, magic.

"Winds, destroy everything." Kies stood back and watched as the walls were torn down. The ceiling opened and chandeliers fell down. The one directly above him loosened and fell too. However, Kies stood still. He wasn't afraid of getting crushed by it, nor was he going to use his magic to shield himself. After all, everything was just an illusion.

The chandelier passed right through Kies, blowing a hole in the floor. Kies didn't fall. He was standing above the pitch-black void, magically levitating above it.

Piece by piece, the illusion magic broke apart like glass, revealing the real castle. Jagged walls, open windows, a dirty sandstone floor, and decorations all around. This was more real.

*Clap.* *Clap.* *Clap.*

"Well done," Kies heard someone say. It was a male's voice and an old one at that. They sounded like they were in their late fifties or sixties with the crackle, but that was if they were even human. Illusion magic was not something a human could use under normal circumstances.

Kies was alone in the room. There wasn't a person in sight and the voice sounded like it was coming from his head. "Telepathy..."

"Well done again," the man complimented Kies for figuring out this as well. He sounded like a father after teaching his child how to do something and watched them do it correctly on their first try. Kies didn't like it.

"I don't remember ever making an enemy out of someone like you, so why are you getting in my way?" Kies asked the person. He has only met a handful of illusionists since they were that rare, and he was on neutral terms with all of them.

"You don't...?" The man sounded disappointed. Suddenly, he had a change of tone, like a mood swing, he said in an angry voice, "If you don't remember, then how about now!?"

The room was enveloped in smoke and a figure appeared in it. The smoke quickly escaped through the window, revealing the face of a person whom Kies recognized.

"Oh, it's you..."

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