Chapter 70

Arya, refreshed and feeling clean after a (cold water but Arya wasn't too picky after going for so long without a bath) bath, towel dried her hair. An early morning bath was what she needed to feel awake and alive in the morning.

Her hair had definitely grown much longer now than when she first arrived at the palace.

It had almost grown by an entire 7 inches.

Arya thought about the mind controlled victims.

They didn't act like themselves nor did they seem to be aware of their surroundings.

When she was fighting them, they were strong and powerful but they seemed to lack focus or any skill. It was as if they were fighting purely on raw strength alone.

Catalina, Javier and Elijah were taking care of the paralyzed mind-control victims that had been tied up and stored inside of a barn.

They weren't going to take any chances with having an insane person with supernatural abilities wander around an area of unarmed and defenseless civilians.

When the first victim was released from the effects of the paralyzing gas, he tried to bite Elijah on the shoulder.

He was still crazy and out of control.

Every single one of them was knocked unconscious as a safety measure before being tied up and locked up inside of a barn guarded by three powerful ability users.

Arya pondered about how the victims were still being controlled.

She read up on abilities during her time as a royal princess.Baron Pax taught her everything she needed to know about known and well-documented abilities wielded by nobility and royalty.

Books after books after books she read.

Pyrokinesis. Hydrokinesis. Electricity manipulation and generation. Cryokinesis. People are able to summon storms and control the weather. People who were able to talk to animals. People who could read minds.

She read about King Cullen-her biological father that she never met-having telekinesis.

Strangely, she couldn't find anyone with healing abilities similar to or like her own.

Strange as it stated that abilities were passed down from parent to child.

Telekinesis came from her father so the healing abilities must have come from her mother.

But the royal libraries had no such record of anyone-male or female-with a healing ability.

But putting that matter aside, she read about mind-control abilities.

One of the rarest and most feared abilities of all time, mind control abilities had all but gone extinct after all the users of the ability were purged and killed off 50 years ago by some paranoid king whose name Arya could remember off the top of her head.

Mind control users were feared because their ability gave them the power to control people's minds. Mind control users weren't just limited to controlling people and getting them to do whatever they want. They could brainwash people, destroy and twist people's minds to believe in a false reality, even have someone drop down dead in seconds just with a single command if they were powerful enough to reach that stage of power and control of their ability.

But from what little information there was on mind control that Arya could find out, mind control was a powerful and feared ability but it had its limits.

You could maybe only control a certain number of people at a time or that was a time limit on how long they could control someone. Or maybe you had to be within a certain distance to the target in order for the mind control to take effect. Only a small handful of people with mind control abilities could control a large number of individuals or establish permanent and long-life brainwashing and control.

Arya thought it must be a powerful mind-control user running around. That may explain the current state of the Royal Academy students and other victims right now.

Ary finished drying off her hair and she stopped to ponder about the future.

No, better not think about it.

Not until they had a clear view of a ray of light in the darkness.

A loud mob cheering and screaming outside caused her to snap her head towards a window.

Arya dared to take a peek outside and saw Matthew being chased around by the townspeople.

They played cat and mouse with him.

When he tried to run off to the right, a couple people blocked his path.

Same story if he tried to run off to the left.

Arya smiled a little.

She decided to allow the townspeople to punish Matthew as she saw fit as they were the ones who suffered because of him.

The food was freed from Matthew's control and was now being distributed equally and fairly among the people.

Everyone stopped to thank Arya for standing up for the poor widow and her three children.

Actually, Arya later learned that the widow and her three kids weren't from the village at all but rather that they came to the town, starving, cold and pitiful.

Arya suspected that they were refugees who fled when their homes were destroyed and the invaders came around.

That sounded reasonable given the current situation.

Arya had no clue what was going on right now in the kingdom.

She ate her ration of white bread, roasted potatoes and roasted chicken while she thought about what Lucifer said.

How some were forced to fight and that many didn't want to fight at all.

Was there any way to end this insanity?

Lucifer and his sister went off on their own to free the hostages.

If they managed to succeed, then many would stop fighting as their children were no longer being held hostage anymore.

But what about all the crazies and the nasties who fought because they craved blood and violence? There were others who must be fighting on their own free will from what Lucifer had told her. Murderers and psychos who killed for pleasure.

Arya heard a loud scream.

Her heart dropped.

That was Elijah.

Chapter 73

A full-blown riot had just taken place.

Tired of oppression and abuse, sick of fighting and war, the soldiers of the demon king's war revolted.

It was a civil war as werewolves fought werewolves and goblins fought goblins.

Punches and kicks were thrown and weapons clashed.

Some of the deserters managed to escape and run away but many others were killed and executed for revolting by those loyal to the mad king.

The demon king growled and he angrily stomped on the ground. He was in the middle of a meeting with his generals to plan out the next attack when the bearer of bad news arrived.

The earth shattered and shook as a minor earthquake took place under his feet.

"Tighten up the security. Don't allow for rebellion anymore."

As the generals rushed off to carry out his orders, the king howled and clutched his head.

"Get out of my head….you…bitch…"

He screamed and slammed a fist down hard onto the table, causing the table to break apart.

"I…I-I won't be controlled by you anymore!!"

A dark and shadowy figure of a woman appeared in front of him.

She looked evil and scary looking.

She disappeared and the king went slack, his eyes blank and unblinking.

….

Arya raced down the streets towards the sound of the scream.

It was still early in the morning but there were crowds of people outside.

Some were waiting in line for breakfast. Others were chatting with each other and making small talk.

But no one was really smiling or relaxed. The attack last night woke them up to reality. That it was a warzone outside and danger lurked everywhere. There weren't too many injured but a few people were killed in the attack.

Their families and friends were mourning them and Arya knew the tragedy of death well. 

She prayed she would never have to see another cor[se again. No more fighting or violence.

Elijah was strong but Arya couldn't help but worry about him.

The sound of fire burning and fighting could be heard, getting louder and louder and Arya raced towards the scene to witness a fight going on.

Lucinda. And she was fighting Elijah.

A few butterflies flew up and started to surround her, fluttering all around her, their wings blinding gold and pitch black. 

A single butterfly landed and nestled itself into her hair while a few others rested on her arms.

It was a whole swarm of them.

Arya couldn't tell exactly how many there were but she guessed that there were a few hundred at least.

The swarm of butterflies flew at him.

Elijah channeled his mana and summoned his flames.

Bright, red and burning fire ignited in his hands and he sent them in the direction of the butterfly horde that was approaching him.The wave of fire sent the butterflies on fire, reducing them to ashes in seconds.

But that didn't seem to stop Lilith.

She disappeared in a flash.

She's fast and Elijah couldn't see her movements at all.

Did being a demon make her much stronger and faster than a human?

Well, she was never human to begin with.

Arya saw Lucinda but it was too late.

"Elijah, look out!!"

Lucinda's roundhouse kick caught Elijah in the jaw. He crashed onto the ground and a massive carter where his head touched the ground was made.

Elijah was still able to move and was still concise so he must have blocked just in time but barely.

Arya knew she needed to take action.

"STOP!!!"

Arya grabbed Lucinda by her feet, lifting her off the ground.

Arya made sure not to grab her by the neck like she usually would. That would be bad if she accidently lost control of herself and snapped her neck.

"Lucinda!! What are you doing?"

Lucinda recognized Arya's voice and she snapped her head towards her.

"PUT ME DOWN FIRST!! MY BLOOD IS RUSHING TO MY HEAD!!"

Arya did as she was told, gently turning her right side up before putting her back onto the ground.

Lilith sighed.

"Well, you're a strong one for sure. You'll make a good queen one day."

"I have no interest in the throne."

Lucinda looked like she was expecting that answer already.

"Yeah, I could already tell. So anyway, this guy here,", she jabbed a finger at Elijah, "attacked me out of the blue. I was doing some scouting when I bumped into him. Looks like he was doing some scouting as well."

Arya crossed her arms.

"And what were you doing up until that point?"

"I…look, we need to get going. I have something to tell you but we first need to go somewhere private first."

Arya shook her head.

"No. Not yet. I got a gut feeling that the mind control put on those guys back then was the work of someone not human."

"ELIJAH!!!"

Looks like Catalina and Javier also came rushing over to the fight.

Yeah, Arya needed to calm things down first before it got out of hand as it looked like a huge fight would break out between humans and monsters.