“Protect Hector! We can’t let them get any closer to the throne room!” a soldier yelled out.

“What happened to all the guards?!” another soldier asked him.

“They were all taken out, hehe!”

“W-What?!” their jaws dropped as soon as they turned their heads towards us.

Scarlet twirled her revolvers around as we approached the last two soldiers standing in our way. I decided to do something similar, spinning my white sword around with one hand while I stared directly into their eyes. They instinctively stepped back, fumbling their guns as they tried to point them forwards.

“Lars, you’re such a copycat,” Scarlet grinned at me as she poked her revolver on my shoulder. “Was I always this inspiring?”

“It’s not exactly copying when it’s not the same weapon. Swords and revolvers are two completely different things.”

“Just admit it already…..” Scarlet pouted. ”Whatever, we both look badass doing it anyway!”

“S-Stay back..or we’ll shoot!”

“Too slow.”

With the flick of her wrists, she fired two gunshots before they could even get a chance to react. Both bullets grazed through the side of their face, opening thin cuts of blood on their cheeks.

“I won’t miss the next ones,” Scarlet said. “So why don’t you just drop your weapons and stay out of our way? Isn’t that a fair deal?”

The two soldiers shivered and dropped their guns.

“Y-Yes ma’am!” They finally ran away, leaving the throne room doors unguarded.

“Scarlet…” I muttered. “Are you really not going to kill people anymore?”

“I only said as much as possible,” Scarlet winked. “Didn’t you notice how hard I’ve tried not to kill anybody today?”

That’s true. When we fought the Ting and Tang brothers, I noticed that she struggled in shooting both of them down. It took me a while to realize that she was aiming for non-vital areas, which increased the difficulty significantly. That also explained why she finished them off with her kicks instead.

I placed my hand on her hair and patted her forehead.

“Hey, why are you suddenly giving me a head pat?” Scarlet flicked an eyebrow and tilted her head. “Do you like my hair that much?”

“I just thought you did a great job,” I said.

Scarlet’s face flushed to a light tint of red, then she returned to her usual smug look. “Of course, I’m the Cutest Genius Gunslinger of the Under Sectors after all!”

“Please stop saying that title….”

We stopped right in front of the big wooden doors and looked at each other.

“This is it. We’re going to be facing off against the leader of the Midas Hogs, Hector himself,” I said. “Are you ready?”

“I’m ready to kick his ass,” Scarlet smiled.

“Alright.”

I held the door’s iron handles and took some deep breaths.

1…..2…..3…..Breathe. Calm your senses, Lars.

“The real question is, are you ready?” Scarlet tilted her head.

“Just needed a breather. Let’s go.”

I pushed the doors open and we both made our way inside the room, prepared to face the final boss.

A strange silence filled the atmosphere. Stone cold pillars were arranged around the hall like a circle, surrounding the room with lights of bright yellow and golden lines spread into patterns through the floor beneath us. In front of each pillar were what seemed to be a variety of precious artifacts, such as pieces of armor, weapons, statues, vases and strange oddities that I couldn’t describe. Plastered on the walls were all sorts of paintings, showing many different pictures and colors.

I’ve already been here on many occasions, but I still couldn’t believe how all of these treasures could be gathered into one place.

“It seems like everyone is incompetent nowadays,” a sharp tone broke the silence.

Sitting on a throne directly before us was the one and only Hector, glaring at us with his golden gaze with his hand plastered on his chin. He clawed his fingers deep into his hair, pulling its tips rather harshly with the click of a tongue.

“Please do tell me,” he said calmly. “How the hell did everyone let you in here?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Your reign has come to an end. I set the slaves free. Their numbers have overwhelmed Midas Hogs completely. It’s over now.”

Hector clenched his teeth and banged on the armrest. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! All those years I’ve spent trying to build everything up from the ground, all my hard work! My empire! It’s all crumbling down! You’ve ruined everything!”

“Pfft!” Scarlet let out a giggle, but covered her mouth to stop herself.

This girl just never seems to stop laughing at everything.

I found it pretty funny too, you know.

I think you two are just sadistic.

“You think this is funny?” Hector locked eyes with Scarlet.

Yes, it is.

“What? Are you expecting me to feel bad for you or something?” Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Why should I pity someone who enslaves people anyway?”

Ah, I get it now. I guess laughing about it isn’t so bad.

“So you were working with Lars all this time. I should have known,” Hector sighed. “Especially considering how you decided to bring her in at the day of the deadline. Let me guess, you used that time to look for a way to free the slaves. What a clever cat you are.”

“Let’s cut to the chase,” I said. “You have two options. It’s either you surrender yourself and turn from your wicked ways or we’ll take you down by force.”

Do you really expect that guy to change?

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Maybe. I want to believe in him. There has to be a least a small part of good in his heart-

“No. It’s you who has two options,” Hector stood up and pointed at us.“It’s either you die or you two continue to be my little pets.”

There you go.

“Don’t you understand?” I pointed my sword towards him. “You’re at a disadvantage.”

“Am I?”

BANG!

In an instant, Scarlet shot her revolver without any hesitation. The bullet hit directly against Hector’s shoulder, but instead of piercing through his skin, a yellow aura manifested from his body and absorbed the impact.

What….just happened?

“No way…” Scarlet said. “Is that magic?”

“Not exactly,” Hector smirked. “It’s a Magium Shield. One of the first of its kind. Cost me a fortune to get one of these!”

“Magium Shield? Even the Enforcers didn’t have such a thing!” I said.

“That’s probably because they banished the people capable of inventing such things.”

“Why would they do such a thing?”

“You’re from the Over Sectors, you should know exactly how strict and unreasonable their standards can be.”

“Lars, you’re from the Over Sectors?!” Scarlet opened her jaw.

“Let’s talk about that later, just focus on the fight,” I said.

“That’s not the only thing I have up my sleeve,” Hector smiled and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, all the lights went out, filling the room with nothing but darkness.

“Hey, why is it suddenly so dark?” Scarlet voiced out. “This is kind of scary, can you hold my hand?”

“Seriously….?” I muttered.

“Screw it, I’ll just destroy everything,” Hector gave a maniacal laugh. “Everyone’s useless anyway, so I might as well just start over all on my own. If I can do it once, then I can do it again. In the end, as long as I have myself, that’s all that truly matters.”

A heavy metal thumping sound broke the silence, causing the floor to vibrate underneath our feet. It seemed to be moving one step at a time, as if it were…..walking.

“This doesn’t sound good,” I said.

The lights flickered back on again, revealing exactly what was causing the sound.

“W-Woah….” Scarlet stood there with her mouth agape. “That’s quite big.”

I really do wonder how you’re going to win this one, Lars. Especially without using Black.. Might be a good time to run away now.

A giant golden body of metal appeared before us. It had four limbs similar to that of a human, but it had multiple barrels arranged like a circle on its left arm and a right arm brimming with Red Magium energy on the middle of its palm. Steam leaked out from the pipes of its shoulders and legs, signifying its way of warming up for a fight. Sitting above its chest was Hector, protected by its pod-like glassy head.

“Behold, ladies and gentlemen! I present to you my greatest toy ever, the Golden Boy! Hahahahahahaha!”

Tsk, this is going to be extremely tricky. My hands shivered at the mere thought of fighting that thing.

“He sure knows how to set up a stage,” Scarlet shrugged.

“You seem to be rather calm for such a drastic situation,” I said. “Does that mean you have a plan?”

“We’ll just wing it!” Scarlet grasped her fist.

“I don’t think we can just ‘wing’ it this time.”

“I’m kidding, okay! Of course I’ve got a plan!”

“Tell me-”

“Die, you stupid pets!” Hector’s left arm started firing an array of bullets, forcing both me and Scarlet to separate and run towards the nearest pillars.

“Protect!”

The bullets seemed to be trailing more towards me, so I used the skill on myself to defend myself. Right after the shield reached its cooldown, I placed my back on the pillars and took a deep breath. Smokes of debris spread out from the sides of the pillar as Hector continued to fire his bullets. A chunk of metal pierced right through the stone, grazing my shoulder.

“It’s no use trying to hide, kitty, hahahahaha!”

Unfortunately, taking cover didn’t seem to help very much. His weapon was far too powerful for the pillars to handle.

I decided to run around, hoping I wouldn’t get myself hit by any of the bullets.

“Over here, big boy!” Scarlet yelled with a smile, blitzing forward with guns blazing.

She dashed around the mech suit, shooting down as many parts as she possibly could. I would have thought that getting close would be a death sentence, but it turned out to be a vital key to beating this thing. The mech was rather slow and it had to constantly adjust itself to keep its mark on its target. Scarlet’s close proximity made it hard for Hector to shoot her down effectively, forcing him to swing his arm around just to shoo her away.

“You pesky brat, stop moving!” Hector screamed.

“You can’t catch me, idiot!” Scarlet pulled her tongue out.

Something was telling me this wasn’t just it. His left arm acted as a gatling gun, but what could the right do? An uneasy feeling urged me to get close.

Lars, follow your intuition, don’t hesitate. There’s definitely something bad going to happen.

Yeah.

I blew air out from my mouth and started running.

Scarlet continued to fight against Hector, constantly looking for openings to counter with her kicks and shoot around with her guns. However, the mech suit didn’t seem to be taking any damage at all. I tried to pay close attention for any possible weaknesses, trying to figure out a way to finish it off with my sword. That’s when I noticed something off about its right arm. The red energy emanating from its palm had a stronger glow, like it was about to surge at any moment. I gasped at the idea and locked my eyes towards Scarlet, who was still busy trying to evade the left arm’s bullets.

“Scarlet! Get out of there, now!” I yelled.

“Huh? Why-ah!”

Scarlet tripped on her leg and fell down to the floor.

“Ouch!”

Not good!

Hector pointed his right arm towards Scarlet, its red energy ready to burst at any moment.

“Eat this!” Hector screamed.

“Illuminate!” I casted the skill.

“Argh! What is that light?!”

The blade’s light may have blinded Hector, but it wasn’t enough to stop the attack from happening. A ray of red light blasted from the mech’s palm, obliterating the floor with its burning fury.

“Scarlet!”

I dove headfirst and pulled her away just in the nick of time. We both rolled to the ground, with my arms locked around her body to keep her close. Hector fired his laser everywhere, but failed to hit us due to his temporary blindness. I used this as a chance to hide behind one of the pillars with Scarlet on my arms.

“Ah, my prince, you saved me again!” Scarlet hugged me tightly.

“Can you not? We’re in the middle of a fight,” I said.

“I just wanted to thank you!” Scarlet grinned smugly.

“You look awfully happy for someone who almost died.”

“But I didn’t die, right? Why wouldn’t I be pleased? Destiny is on my side, I truly am the protagonist of this story!” Scarlet nodded her head.

Uhuh, whatever you say, girl.

“Where are you hiding?! You can’t escape me forever!” Hector called out.

He then started walking around with his mech suit, looking around every pillar and shooting his gatling gun in different directions. It seems like that laser of his takes a while to charge back on. That thing was way too deadly.

We may have escaped Hector’s sight, but it was only a matter of time before he would find us again.

“What happened to that plan of yours?” I asked Scarlet.

“I think it’s working,” Scarlet said.

“It was working, but you almost got yourself killed.”

“But it is working!”

“What do you mean?”

“It wouldn’t be fun if I ruined the surprise, you know?” Scarlet giggled.

“So you expect me to trust you,” I placed my hand on my forehead.

“Exactly! Just like how I trusted you in your own plans! Consider it as payback for everything you’ve put me through!”

“Fine, fair enough,” I sighed. “But what are we supposed to do now?”

“We’ll use these!”

Scarlet showed me some metal objects on her hands and looked into my eyes with a cheeky smile.

“Ah, these could work,” I said.