According to Dralos, the banquet would take place in a large manse adjacent to the Colosseum, where all VIPs and nobles could attend each night. Arriving there from the main battle area, where the path we had just liberated let out, wouldn't be difficult or time-consuming.
When I finally exited the dungeons, I was met with cool, fresh night air for the first time in weeks. It was a stark, incredibly pleasant contrast to the stifling heat of the latest accommodations I had grown accustomed to these past few weeks. The sensation was almost startling—a sharp, invigorating, and intensely refreshing change. Despite the scent of blood and gore wafting from both our clothes and the caverns below where many had been slain, the cold night air was crisp, filling my lungs with a purity I had almost forgotten. Not even the continuous blaring of the remaining alarms could disturb our temporary peace.
The coolness kissed my skin, causing a small, nearly imperceptible shiver to run down my spine. It was not from discomfort, but from the incredible novelty of the sensation, as if I were someone dying of thirst just granted rain. For a moment, I closed my eyes and tilted my head toward the sky, letting the night breeze whisper a gentle caress through my matted hair. It tugged gently at the ruined tatters of my clothing, reminding me that a change would soon be necessary lest the garment fall off in pieces.
When I opened my eyes, the stars seemed brighter, and the world seemed oh so quiet. I stayed there for a few more seconds, basking in the glory of the night and of freedom, before finally turning back toward my Resurrected servant. True to his word, we had exited without a problem. If the truthfulness of his words continued, the banquet hall would be just through the north passage.
Though Dralos was still taller than me by at least a head, I was able to look at him without craning my neck. I must have grown around eight inches or so from the reformation. It was difficult to judge without a mirror, but I guessed I was a few inches over five and a half feet.
“You will not be coming with us, draconian.”
He didn’t even flinch in surprise, his face remaining stoic as always. “What is it you wish from me, my Queen?”
“Do you know where the monsters are kept?” Considering the creatures that had been unleashed on us during the so-called saintess trials, there was a high chance that the Colosseum had many other beasts kept chained somewhere.
“I do,” Dralos responded, confirming my suspicions.
“Set them loose,” I instructed. “By the time I leave the banquet of pompous nobles, I want the entire city in a panic. Understood?” The draconian nodded and bowed, disappearing without a word of discontent back into the dungeon so many of us had just managed to exit.
“You’re going to release monsters into the city?” Romeo said, his face scrunched into a grimace of horror. Others joined him in quiet protest, echoes of whispers giving sound to the otherwise silent night. I realized once again that these were not soldiers, and that Romeo, as well as he fought, did not appear to even be twenty.
“It makes sense,” Gronch responded, approaching us. The pale green half-orc had been pretty badly injured compared to Romeo and Julius. One of his oral tusks had been shattered halfway down its base, while large, ugly gashes crisscrossed his now naked torso. At least none of his appendages were missing. Marisar was chasing after the stumbling half-orc, a dim white light emanating from the clearly exhausted Selenian.
“How does setting such vile creatures on innocent civilians make sense?” Romeo spat, his voice loud enough to turn a few heads.
Gronch shot him a look of annoyance. “Shut the hells up, brat.” Romeo’s mouth dropped open in surprise, but Gronch kept his sour demeanor. “Why speak as if you know war? We can all tell you’re some pampered noble’s brat. Even enslaved, you have a fucking guard.”
“Lilliana, if this is the path you are taking, I cannot abide by it,” Romeo said, gritting his teeth as he cast an angry stare in my direction, outright ignoring Gronch. “There is no reason to kill innocents in the city when we can just leave.”
“More innocents will die tonight no matter what I choose to do,” I replied calmly, placing a hand on his shoulder and looking around at the freed slaves who cast us worried looks. “The reality of the situation is if we don’t release the monsters as a distraction, we will all die. Even as we speak, I have no doubt the city guard is rushing to provide backup to their fallen brethren.”
“We can do both if I go save them,” Romeo retorted in protest, his eyes alight with determination as he attempted to shrug off my hand. I didn’t let him and squeezed my grip until I saw him give a slight wince.
“Do you think they will care that a mere, dirty escaped slave saved them?” I shook my head. “No, they will simply throw you back into those cages like an animal.” I looked at all in my sight. “You will all be thrown back into those cages. You may not yet understand, but this is war. And in war, you fight. You kill. You never look back, or else the person in front of you unburdens you of your head. When faced with a monster, sometimes you must become the monster.”
Romeo’s hand gripped the handle of his sword as if to give him strength. Eventually, however, he withered under my stare and took a step back. “How can you all be okay with the death of so many? The monsters won’t just kill soldiers, you all understand that? They will kill children. Women. Everyone.”
I clicked my tongue, urging our group to begin moving toward the banquet hall without any further delay. “Sometimes sacrifices must be made and people must die,” I said to the young man, “but I do not waste life needlessly.” I released my grip on his shoulder. “Put your faith in me, young one. By the time the sun rises, we will not only be free, but we will be victorious.”
With that, I left Romeo and Julius behind to do as they willed. If they fled, blind to what I was doing, then that was their destined path. I did not have the luxury of debating morality with the boy, nor did I desire to. Though I had grown rather fond of the two, my words had not been spoken simply to soothe the restless mind of Romeo. I had been speaking to all the freed slaves. Until I was rid of this city, the larger my force remained, the better. And, even though the freed slaves were currently beneficial, I would need to deal with them later. It was too early in my conquest for them to begin spreading the fact that some thought of me as a Queen. I doubted that would bode well with the royal family of Lysoria.
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Following the direction Dralos relayed to me before leaving, the group of us flooded out the arena gates like a swarm of ants. I was like the queen ant as they flooded around me, wild whoops of joy from Paragons and freed slaves alike as they crossed outside the Colosseum’s borders and into the freedom of the city. Some of the freed slaves immediately fled into the distance, and I instructed the others to not interfere. While I was displeased and having the fact some referred to me as “Queen” spread into the outside world was not preferred, I didn’t want to bother with some insects. No one would believe them anyway.
As the hundred and fifty or so of us remaining survivors milled about the Colosseum entrance, I raised my voice to be heard above the increasing sound. “Silence!” Once eyes had returned to me and words were whispered or silenced, I continued. “This is your final opportunity to flee. For those of you who continue with me here, we have a long and bloody road ahead of us. But if you put your faith in me, we will rise above the little kingdoms of this world. For those of you who wish to live your lives free of burden and pass away in a small forgotten corner of the world, you may leave now.”
Words though they may be, I could see the profound impact they had on many of the freed slaves. Even though they had chosen to not become Paragons, I was promising them glory in their freedom. A few of the freed slaves trickled away into the distance, but most remained. Once the deadweights of cowardice finished running away from the destiny of greatness, I grinned at those left. At least a hundred stayed, with a little under half being surviving Paragons.
For the first time since arriving at the Colosseum, I was able to take in what it looked like from the outside. Just like the inside, the Colosseum was massive, but from the outside, it looked more like towering walls than a stadium. Hundreds of windows for the audience peppered its thick layers, wrapping around it like hundreds of little eyes in a distinctly menacing manner.
The group of us stood on a wide gravel walkway that split into three directions. The first path was the most trodden and led back to the city proper. The second led back into the Colosseum—the same path we had just taken to leave. And finally, a path to the VIP manse that, according to Dralos, was used to house important guests for Colosseum events. That was the path we headed on. Looking ahead, it was an uphill trek to the mansion. I found the fact it was an uphill climb to be somewhat poetic.
I didn’t bother telling those who followed to hush their steps or not to talk. I wanted them to hear us coming. To hear me coming. To know that despite all their precautions, their plans, and schemes, they had not been able to keep me down.
At first, the mansion was too small to make out anything distinct about it. Then I spotted some ten or twenty soldiers with red embroidered uniforms standing guard and circling the territory. Some held weapons of steel, and others had what appeared to be sticks that curled at the top into fat nubs. Almost like a club, but not quite. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of them.
From the outside, the mansion stood less like a house and more like a stronghold, a testament to both opulence and strength. It was perched snugly atop a hill overlooking the sprawling city and Colosseum below. As we approached, some of the motivation of the freed slaves began to wane in the face of the commanding and protective presence of the structure. Massive gargoyle-like structures loomed ominously behind the posted soldiers, their eyes seeming to move as I moved.
The roof was covered in dark, slate tiles that glistened faintly under the moon’s luminescent glare. A grand, wrought-iron gate marked the entrance to the estate, guarded by both soldiers and gargoyles. The gate was flanked by enormous stone pillars topped with three lanterns each that emitted a flickering glow into the night that was no less ominous than the life-like sentinels watching our every movement.
“W-we’re supposed to get into there?” one of the freed slaves whimpered, losing his courage. “H-how?”
Before anyone else could answer, I simply said, “Just watch.” The man’s head snapped in my direction so fast I thought he might have broken his neck. His eyes opened wide and his mouth dropped agape as if he hadn’t expected me to hear him. Then his face turned beet red and I saw him grip his sword with a mixture of shame and determination. I gave him a light chuckle. “Your honor is not lost, warrior. There will be much glory to be had. Stay brave.”
The aura around the stronghold instantly shifted into trepidation the moment the first soldier spotted us and shouted something I couldn’t hear. Though the soldiers had been continuously on guard, there had been a layer of boredom to it. No real threat to stir their fighting spirits.
No threat to put fear into their hearts.
I led us into plain view without pausing or slowing, ignoring the shouts of the soldiers who drew their blades and readied their… sticks.
“Halt!” one of the soldiers shouted, a mass of burning blue flames shifting into a length of lava that twisted around him. “You are trespassin—”
The soldier didn’t have time to complete his warning. Ethan’s fist smashed into his red chest armor, crumpling both steel and the man inside. The silent peace of the night was abhorrently shattered by the primal roar of battle and blood that erupted from Ethan as his body grew beyond his already enormous size, reaching at least fifteen feet tall.
His roar stirred fervor and the will to fight even in my heart, whipping my heart energy into a frenzy. If that’s what his roar had done to me, I couldn’t imagine what it had done to the others. Luckily, I didn’t need to.
The Paragons around me followed Ethan, surging against the soldiers with the destructive force of a tsunami. The freed slaves charged after, a half-step slower with the power of the Desire System aiding them. Just like it had been after the Pandorian died in the dungeon, what proceeded was a massacre. It wasn’t quite as one-sided due to the exhaustion of the Paragons and freed slaves, but was nonetheless a complete stomp.
As if sensing the intrusion and losing the tide of their forces, the sentinel gargoyles began to move from their stony prisons, rock exploding off their surfaces as the creatures shrieked into the air. The gargoyles wore faces of both man and beast, with large, round eyes that seemed to suck in all light. They snarled as they broke free, revealing rows of sharp, menacing teeth and elongated tongues that flicked the air as if trying to drink it. A pair of horns curved back from each of their foreheads, giving them a devilish look aided by the bat-like leather wings that spread to their full lengths as the beasts took off into the air overhead.
I didn’t pay them any heed, letting the others engage the creatures. I simply walked forward, an untouchable point in the battle. The silver light from my core radiated once more as I approached the gate separating me from my most recent torturers.
My heart energy flooded around me into a bubble of power and Authority. As I walked to the gates, the steel structures screamed as the sheer force of my energy commanded the gate to make way. With a single ear-deafening pull, the gate was yanked apart and flung away to hang loosely by the edge of their hinges.
I took a few more steps into the mansion’s territory before letting a world of heart energy pour into my throat, enhancing the volume of my voice to a level those inside would have to use heart energy to protect themselves, lest my words rupture their eardrums.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of Cael. Let’s start with Radford Coldrun, the Red Cardinal, and Baron Silverwater. If the three of them come out of their own free will within the next fifteen seconds, I will let the rest of you live.” After fifteen seconds, no one came out. I shrugged. “Alright. Here I come.”
The sphere of energy cloaking me blew apart the entrance door like it was made of sand and I stepped into the banquet hall, followed closely by Nasq, Nida, Romeo, Julius, and Marisar.