“Where am I?”, asked Median, still tied to a tree as he saw a slave collar near his body. He hurriedly touched his neck, where his collar was, and screamed in happiness, “I’m finally free!”, he exclaimed as he looked to the rope still tying him to a tree, “Oh.”

He tried his best to pull the rope, hoping to somehow tear it apart. He finally found his freedom and couldn’t wait for another second to finally really be free. But his tries resulted in nothing.

He looked around and still saw the cadets lying down on the ground.

“Alright, that’ll do... hopefully.”, as he scrambled to see them and use his power.

He pulled and failed, “Alright, the next one...”, he pulled and failed, “Maybe the next one...”, he pulled and failed again and again. He kept doing it until he was out of royal guards to look at. Median let out a huge sigh as he gave up trying, “Really? None of the royal guards were strong enough to break away from the rope?”, he questioned himself.

“Maybe if I had a sharp object!”, he got his hopes up, only for it to be destroyed after seeing the nearest sword being far apart from where his hands could reach. He let out another sigh, defeated, and gave up before hearing a dog’s bark coming nearer and nearer.

“A dog?”, he wondered. “How good are dogs at chewing off ropes!”, he wondered, excitedly.

Doug came running to him and kept barking in his face. “I’ve seen you before...”, he looked closely at Doug before realizing, “Wait! You’re Dit’s dog!”

He happily greeted it, “I’m sorry, I forgot your name... but am I happy to see a friendly face!”, he pointed towards the rope. “Can you- Wait!”, he looked at Doug again who wouldn’t stop barking.

“Unless...”, Median stopped for a moment, “Unless...”, he added, “Unless you’re here to finish me because I couldn’t finish my task!?”, he finally finished and screamed.

“There you are Doug.”, Slav walked into the commotion. She also saw Median tied up to a tree and ran towards him.

“Are you alright?”, she asked, worryingly.

“Never been better.”

Slav looked around and picked up a sword, as she cut up the rope, finally freeing Median.

“Alright...”, Median moved his wrists, checking if anything was wrong before looking at Slav, “Thank you.”, he smiled. “Are you alright?”

Slav nodded and looked down, before starting to cry.

“What’s wrong?”, asked a worried Median.

“Dit... He’s dead.”, Slav replied, still crying.

Median sighed, “Slav...”, he stopped himself as he realized that Slav did care about the siblings. They had known her ever since she was a child, they watched her grow and treated her well enough. Well enough could treat their slaves.

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Slav hugged Median as tight as she could, “I don’t want to be alone...”, she cried with Doug whimpering around her.

Median sighed and patted her head, “You don’t have to be...”, he looked around.

“You know the best part about this Slav?”

Slav looked up and nodded a no before asking, “What?”

“We’re... free!”, Median exclaimed.

“But Dit...”

Median patted her head again, “We’re free to do whatever we want to do now... That’s... “, he stumbled to find his words. “That’s what both Ban and Dit would’ve wanted.”, he sighed.

Slav looked up at Median again, “Are... Are you going to leave me?”, she asked with tears still in her eyes.

“No...”, Median sighed and looked around, “I wouldn’t... but we should probably get out of here.”

“I don’t know where Ban is...”

“Hopefully dead.”, Median whispered back.

“Did you say anything?”, asked Slav.

“No. Nothing!”, Median replied while smiling.

“Where’s Ogre...?”, he added.

“We need to pick up Ogre and get out of here!”, he held Slav’s hand, making her run alongside him as Doug followed behind.

“He should be somewhere in the village...”, said a worried Median, “I hope he’s alright.”, he added as he ran as fast as he could.

Meanwhile back in the village near Ban

“Let’s see... she was really close to gaining an ability of herself... that’s a lot of spiritual blessing waiting patiently for me to utilize.”, the voice said to itself.

“With just enough motivation and my blessing... there you go!”, it added.

The villagers screamed in terror as Ban’s lifeless body rose once again. It healed all its wounds and laughed.

“HAHAHAHAHA”

The pressure was too much, none of the people near could move as they watched it happen in awe and shock.

“A perfect puppet!”, exclaimed the voice, as it laughed and escaped from a distance.

Orph was the first to react, “How are you alive?”, he screamed.

Ban did not reply. But she did smile. She kept smiling as she slowly walked over and picked up the knives that she threw. She looked behind her and laughed again as she threw the knives up in the air, but they did not fall. As it started to float around, near Ban. Her smile was sinister and her eyes soulless.

“Why couldn’t you just stay down!”, Orph screamed again. This time waking the others up from their shock. The villagers started to scream and run away in fear as Ban laughed again.

“HAHAHAHAHA”

“Keep a safe distance!”, Dave screamed and ordered the royal guards near to protect and evacuate the villagers as he took out his sword and took his stance.

Orph couldn’t help it anymore, blinded with rage yet again, he rushed towards Ban, “I’ve burned you before! I’ll burn you again!”, he screamed as he tried to grab Ban.

Ban looked over at Orph and let out a smile before her knives started to fly toward him.

“Orph!”, screamed the others as they gasped for his safety. Orph barely managed to dodge the knives as it grazed his right arm. He revolted in pain.

“Stay back.”, said Dave as he came in front of Orph, trying to protect him.

“But...”

“This is an order!”, Dave screamed.

“Leave it to us.”, he added as he ordered the remaining royal guards to take formation.

Dave pointed his giant sword at Ban as he screamed, “Charge!”, as he and the other royal guards took charge while the cadets stayed behind, in safety.

Ban saw them coming. She did not react. She chose to laugh, again. She did not care. She couldn’t care.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA”