Carrying the hopes of the entire world, and the sacrifices of his fellow Gladean Knights, the champion was betting it all in his final attack. The immortal god Specter, rallied his forces to put an end to the last knight on earth and become the supreme ruler of the world.

Cutting down every specter in his path, the champion charged with all his might to avenge the deaths of the gladean knights. Showered in a divine azure light, with the spirit of the goddess holding his weakened body, the champion cut down Specter with one final blow of his bronze sword.

“I thought it was azure?” Yeon asked.

“It was,” Sovereign replied. “But then it was bronze.”

“Two knights whose names history simply forgot huh… and now they are only known by the title they once carried.”

“I can tell you the name of one, but sadly the other had slipped my mind.”

“Any way to recover those memories?”

“Not that I know of, it’s not something I can do at will.”

“I see… so, you think this girl can bringing him back?”

“I don’t think she can… I know she can, Ki-Joon.”

“You are putting your life in her hands, Sovereign. You don’t even know this girl.”

“Maybe not, but I do remember her. At least, to some extend… I know it’s still her.”

Democratic Republic of Pelkesk, Underground Facility: 936, May 14th, Monday, 9:00 AM.

“Are you alright, lady Euthemia?” Claire asked the princess.

Euthemia nodded with a smile, keeping her face buried in the lieutenant’s shoulder. Meanwhile behind Claire’s back, the princess prepared to plunge a hypodermic needle filled with a strange black liquid into the lieutenant’s flesh.

“You are so brave, dear Claire.” Euthemia’s smile widened into a devilish grin. “I will you an award worthy of your efforts, I promise.” she whispered—grasping the needle firmly before pulling her arm towards the lieutenant

“…”

The princess’ hand rapidly moved against Claire’s back, the sharp tip of the needle shining brightly as the lights of the room reflected on its steel. Before the sharp object could pierce the lieutenant’s skin however, an exoskeletal hand of crimson color abruptly stopped the princess by the wrist—forcing her to drop the needle.

“Ow, what!” Euthemia wailed in surprise.

“I think I’ll pass on the reward,” Claire smirked, breaking from the princess’ clutches before stepping to the side.

With the lieutenant out of the way, the specter summoned by the Juno&Jupiter tightened its grip on Euthemia’s wrists—forcing a screeching yell from her lips. The crimson demon then proceeded to pull Euthemia in closer, twisting its upper body sideways to gain further momentum—catapulting the princess into the wall with an energetic throw.

“Agh!” Euthemia’s back collided with the concrete—bouncing off of it and dropping to the floor.

Before she could pull herself back on her feet, Claire stepped in front of her from a safe distance—keeping her guns trained on her head and torso.

“Now, don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.” The lieutenant suggested. “You’ve been outclassed by a village girl… princess.” The corner of her lip curved into a confident grin. “And you’ll be apprehended for what you did to these people.”

“You, how did you…!” Euthemia’s voice reached a higher pitch level as her brows curved downwards—opening her eyes wide with passionate rage. “How dare you, bitch!”

The exaggerated reaction of the girl caused Claire to flinch slightly, raising an eyebrow at the hostile screams of the princess—quickly regaining her composure. “Just accept you are not as smart as you thought, not even your sister could stop me so… what chance did you even think you had?”

The cocky attitude of the lieutenant enraged the princess even more, who was a stranger to any type of violence directed at her. She suddenly broke into a smirk, chuckling quietly. “I will kill you…” she whispered—loudly enough for Claire to hear. “I will kill you so slow you’ll beg to become my pet instead… die!”

A strange object suddenly hurled out from the princess’ hands, flying straight in Claire’s direction. The object was of a spherical shape with a metallic structure—strong and heavy enough to break a person’s bones on impact. Claire raised her arms in front of her to protect her face, but the crimson specter was able to leap in between her and the object—protecting her from the blast of the metallic sphere, which combusted into scorching flames at contact.

“Agh!” The force of the explosion was enough to push Claire away against the floor—rolling backwards on her back to land on her knees. “Damn…” she cursed, covering her mouth with her arm—coughing up the smoke created by the grenade.

Although the specter was able to protect her from harm, the explosion inevitably caused it to vanish into embers—returning to Juno&Jupiter as its life came to a sudden end. Keeping her senses sharp, Claire stared into every corner of the room as the smoke slowly dissipated. She quickly came to realize that the princess had made her escape as soon as the bomb ignited however, leaving no trail behind.

“Well done, village girl.” Sovereign’s voice spoke through the lieutenant’s earpiece. “Those were very convincing words you just spoke.”

“I planted the tracker, but I need to regroup with my team first.” Claire replied.

“Take your time.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“We also lost contact with HQ, what’s the situation?”

“It’s not looking good,” Sovereign informed her. “This won’t distract you from your mission, I would hope?”

“No, continuing operation.”

“Jacob is counting on you, Good luck.”

Cerberus HQ, Outside of the Main Gate: 936, May 14th, Monday, 10:30 AM.

Having destroyed the belfry that erupted at HQ, Gal and Maulik engaged Loki on their own after encountering him during their escape. The battle made its way outside the gates, into the open snowy field.

“Is that all?” Loki grinned confidently while cracking his knuckles. “I guess it’s my own fault for expecting more from mere hybrids.”

Maulik raised his fists in front of him, initiating the offensive with a frontal charge. Pulling his arm back to gain momentum, the hybrid thrusted his punch towards Loki with a potent right hook towards his face.

The knight deflected his attack easily however, raising his arm to deflect Maulik’s punch—which forcefully flung the hybrid’s arm backwards. Not giving up on his assault, Maulik stretched the fingers on his left hand before pressing them tightly into a fist—propelling it forward with a low hook towards the knight’s ribs.

“Not good enough!” Loki roared while stepping to the side to avoid the attack, responding with a punch of his own right after—burying his fist in Maulik’s abdomen, and propelling him away with a spinning kick to the chest.

Sensing danger from behind, Loki bent his knees rapidly to avoid Gal’s surprise attack—ducking under her spinning kick. Making use of the momentum she gained with her failed attack, Gal continued her spin while lifting her other leg above her head—returning to face Loki, and forcing her foot down against the knight.

Stopping the downward kick from Gal by blocking it with his hand, Loki pulled himself back up while grasping Gal’s ankle—catapulting her away with a strong swing. The redhead flew a great distance away from Loki, bouncing on the ground multiple times before sliding on the dirt—eventually coming to a stop.

“I don’t… I don’t think we can beat him…” Gal claimed—fixing her back with a painful groan.

Maulik lifted himself into a sitting position, panting with heavy breaths. “Ugh… he is just playing with us.”

“I had enough of this,” Loki said with a frowning mouth. “I’ll just kill you both right n—”

Before finishing his sentence, the knight suddenly turned his gaze towards HQ—looking into the Deadlands general direction. His curious eyes continued to examine the empty space for almost a minute, as if completely forgetting about his fight with Gal and Maulik.

“Did something happen?” the redhead asked—to which Maulik shrugged in response.

Floating City of Paradise, Human’s District: 936, May 14th, Monday, 10:30 AM.

Specters invaded Paradise in large hordes—crawling from under the island and climbing the walls into the human’s district. The gladean knights fought off the demons while protecting their own district, clashing into a massive battle against the creatures.

Jacob gathered groups of refugees into a crumbled building, helping them hide from the chaos that unfolded outside. The terrible condition of the citizens made the task extremely difficult, as many could barely hold themselves up—slowing down the rest.

“Come on, we’ll get you all out of here!” Jacob urged the crowd to continue.

Although the building was mostly destroyed, its wide interior and large walls became the habitant’s best bet to survive the invasion. Luckily for Jacob, a few hybrids were also present among the crowd—helping barricade the place as much as possible.

“Alright… all we gotta do is wait.” Jacob said, nervously holding an object close to his chest—which was enveloped in a piece of cloth. “Surely the lieutenant will make it in time, right?” he whispered to himself, trying to calm his nerves.

Meanwhile outside, as the turbulent conflict between knights and specters continued. A small child hid behind a pile of rubble by herself, sitting on the ground while hugging her knees. She attempted to control her loud sobbing, but the fear in her mind prevented her more relaxing her breath.

“Ah!”

A specter suddenly jumped in front of the girl, drawing out a shrilling scream from the child. She stared horrified as the four-legged demon slowly approached her, its gaunt appearance and glowing crimson eyes petrified her in place—sniffing with a running nose and teary eyes, with her legs frozen in fear.

The demon leaped at her suddenly, and the girl could do nothing but avoid her gaze while protecting her face with her arms—waiting for the inevitable. It took the child a quick second to realize she was still unscathed, lowering her arms to witness the specter impaled by a blade through its chest—waves of electricity running across its body as it vanished into embers.

“Run for safety,” the voice of the woman told her.

Looking up at her savior, the girl set her eyes on the tall knight with long blonde—falling down below her knees. She wore a golden plated armor, and a mask of the same color that concealed her face.

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with the specters.” The knight stated. “Now go!”

Atalanta watched as the girl immediately rushed away from the conflict, spinning her weapon in hand before turning to face a large horde of approaching specters. One by one she took down the demons with her glaive, twirling around like a tornado engulfed in golden lightning. A larger specter with bladed arms rushed at her furiously, pulling its arms back to gain momentum, and thrusting them forward against her torso.

“Hya!” Atalanta deflected the blades of the demon with a quick motion of her glaive, smacking its arms to the side and giving herself an opening.

With the creature stunned, The Golden Lightning sliced the specter’s legs clean with a horizontal swing through the knees—forcing it to plummet with its back against the ground. Finishing off her opponent, she proceeded to raise her hand in the air while giving a spin to her glaive, bringing it down with the full force of her arm—splitting the demon in half from top to bottom.

“…!” Sensing danger from behind, Atalanta was quick to react against an ambush by jumping a few meters into the air—avoiding the massive swing of a large azure hammer that grazed the sole of her boots.

Propelling herself away with a powerful kick in mid-air, Atalanta landed on her feet at a safe distance from her assailant—turning to face the knight that tried to take her life in a single blow.

“…”

The giant that stood before her was no one other than King, the ruler of Paradise who left the throne to protect his sanctuary. The long bangs in his black hair covered his eyes in a shadow, and his massive hands tightly gripped the metallic shaft of his azure Warhammer—glowing with a powerful light.

“King…” Atalanta frowned.

“You have abandoned the order, Golden Lightning.” The giant addressed one of his former knights. “You have betrayed your fellow knights… Gladea, and humanity with your actions.”

“You tried to kill me!”

“False…” King calmly replied. “Your strength was to join with my own, just like many others before you. Together we could’ve freed the world from Specter once and for all, and your name would’ve lived forever as the hero you were meant to be.”

“You are sick… Ninigi was right about you all along.”

“That traitor claims to know Gladea, but he refused to protect those who needed him.” King responded. “Only those with the strength to do what’s necessary can stop this conflict, and your champion simply does not have any.”

“We’ll see about that.” Atalanta took an offensive stance, holding the glaive behind her back in one hand—aiming the blade towards the ground.

???, ???: ???, ???, ???, ???:

In a peaceful and beautiful garden filled with flowers of the same white color, lied a large three that rose above all the flowers—gently caressed by the light of the sun above, displaying itself pridefully in the clear blue sky.

Somewhere near the tree lied a gravestone, with the name of a woman written on it, ‘Luna Harumi.’ Under her name, a poem was engraved in the stone, filled with words of gratitude towards a mother, a wife and a savior. Just in front of the grave stood a tall figure, who stared at the poem in silence—his expression completely devoid of any emotion. His ragged tunic waved slightly with the breeze of the wind, as well as his messy jet-black hair—which long bangs cloaked his eyes into a shadow.

The man lowered his head to look at his palm, setting his gaze on a broken ring made of bronze.

END OF CHAPTER