Chapter 383 - Panic At The Palace
Emperor Yamato sighed as he recalled the events reported to him by his men. He sat on the ground properly and looked at Lance in the eyes.
"The kids were corrupted by the darkness of Malice," the emperor said. "They were just helpless kids, but then they were… taken."
"Taken?" Lance asked. He started to lower his swords down after being satisfied with the answers given to him.
"Taken and then corrupter in the depths of the Abyss," Emperor Yamato said. "Our kingdoms had studied about the Abyss and the Afterlife long before the West even existed. We have been existing long before the Age of the Five Kings."
"And if you knew all that, how come you couldn't prepare for such tragedy?" Lance asked. "The crown princes were taken and then you were taken over by the darkness. You had all the information in the world– hoarded in your drawers yet us who had only known about it for a couple of years prevented that same darkness."
"Do you think they sent equal forces?" Emperor Yamato snickered. "You are wrong. Malice had already taken three levels of the Abyss below her realm and she had been sending all of those forces in our kingdom, led by the corrupted princes."
"But…" Lance trailed off. "I don't get it. How could you not warn us? We could've helped."
"Try to guess how long before we were completely taken over," Emperor Yamato muttered confidently. He pushed himself up and stood, towering over Lance and had a piercing dark brown eyes staring at the prince. "Try it."
Lance was silent. He couldn't reply. Emperor Yamato exuded a completely different aura than he was showing just a second ago.
"Nine hours," the emperor said. "It only took nine hours for Licht to take the south and Du Du to conquer the North. How did you expect us to ask for help then?"
"I…" Lance trailed off. He grit his teeth and raised his swords once more. "That doesn't erase the fact that you hid all your information. We only knew there was Hell, and there was Abyss. We didn't know that Hell was part of it and on the deeper levels had stronger monsters."
The dark hallway that led to the room they were in lit up. Soldiers from Shyako entered the basement and surrounded them.
"Men," Emperor Yamato raised his hand. Just when they thought he was going to stop them from attacking, his eyes suddenly turned pitch black. "Take them."
A collective gasp of shock came out from the group's lips. They brandished their swords and prepared for impact. They were outnumbered by the guards, three to one.
Hope roared and slanmed his sword on the floor. He grit his teeth and morphed into his dragon form, with Connor following and morphed into his Infernal form.
"I'll take four," Hope said. "Connor, you take the others."
"I can fly on my own," Lance said. "Take the children with you, Hope. Elliot, go with them. And Connor? You take Ed with you."
"You can't escape the Diamond Emperor," Emperor Yamato said. "Even if you escape now, you can never run away."
Lance snickered, "Let's see abou that."
He raised both his swords above him, charging them with black and white magic before firing a large beam through the roof.
"Now!" Lance yelled.
Hope nodded and took off, flapping his wings to create strong force and disrupt the soldiers. Elliot and his three students were riding Hope's dragon form when they went past the roof and breaking free from the castle.
"Give me your hand!" Connor yelled while offering his hand to Ed. He was riding his staff when he pulled the other boy up, flying through the large hole in the roof Hope created.
Lance was the last one to take off. He formed wings with his swords and raised them on either side of him. He was about to fly when Emperor Yamato called him.
"You know we have people in your castle, right?" the old man spoke. "If I send a signal there, they kill everyone in that castle. That includes your father."
"Fredrick is at the castle," Lance smirked. He leaped off the ground and spun midair. The black and white wings that were created by his sword formed a vortex that fired a large destructive beam down below.
"You cannot do this!" Emperor Yamato yelled. He blocked the attack with a glass case reinforced with magic but the cloud of dust and smoke made them lose their sight on the prince.
"Lance!" Emperor Yamato yelled. "You can never escape. We will find you and when we do, we will kill you."
"Find us then," Lance smirked. He didn't wait for the emperor's final response and he followed his friends outside of the castle.
The group flew and flew until Hope ran out of mana, therefore they needed to rest. Lance also thought it would be wise to walk on foot since flying would give their enemies the vision to easily find them.
"I don't understand him," Elliot asked. They were sitting on top of a large tree, resting and recovering their mana. "How come the emperor was evil too?"
"You don't understand, do you?" Lance sighed. "It just means that the East is already corrupted by the darkness. All of them are probably like Yamato or Sayu now. There's not a single person that we can trust in here."
–
In Avancia, it was almost nightfall when the maids made their way to the quarters of the guests. They was carrying pillows, new sheets, and toiletries to replace the ones their guests were using while they invite them downstairs for dinner.
"I heard one of the envoys is very hot," one of the maids said. "The exotic brown Eastern beauty that everyone desires. He has that."
"Oh, I want to see him too," the other maids giggled as they made their way to the quarters.
Knocking on the door, the head maid asked, "Good evening, madams and misters, we would like to invite you to dinner and clean your sheets."
They giggled and waited for the response, but a few minutes in, and the ones inside were still silent. They knocked on the door again, but they still received only silence.
The maid had gotten nervous and immediately opened the door, only for her to be lunged by a large beast made of darkness.
The other maids shrieked in fear. They threw their blankets over the beast and ran to the halls, screaming, "A monster! There's a monster in the castle!"
Their clothes were long so they couldn't run very fast. It didn't take long for the beast to call out its friends and chase the maids down.
"Help! Please help us– argh!"
From eight maids to service the envoys, only one was left. She was running as fast as she could and when she thought that she could get away, one of the beasts smirked at her.
"No!" the maid yelled and went to the throne room. The guards saw the beasts and tried to block the entrance, but it didn't take the beasts much effort to tear them apart.
"Please," the maid cried as she shakily opened the door of the throne room. When the beasts got near her, she pushed the door open and screamed, "There's a monster!"