With Carmen dead, Kari had been at a loss for what to do. Some part of him had already felt that he would never use his Gift again. But now, he realised that the last, tiny piece of hope he still held, so small that it was unnoticeable, was gone.

Kari had been asked to wait at the hospital, having been at the scene of Carmen’s murder, and having heard her last words. Leon had decided to try and find his sister rather than wait around.

Kari was sitting in a chair against the wall of the reception area, being regarded suspiciously by hospital staff and patients alike.

It was there that a most unexpected encounter had happened.

“Kari?” someone asked.

Kari recognised the voice. A woman’s. Where had he heard it before? He turned around.

A familiar masked face. Effie. And beside her, was a serious-looking man. Average height, broad shoulders, chiselled features and cold cyan eyes. But his clothes are what gave his identity away. Robes of royalty. The King of Al Dherjza, Rolynd.

Kari’s eyes grew wide at seeing the Aegis-bearer so close. Guilt pounded loudly in his chest. Suddenly, Kari was afraid that he would be found out for revealing the teleporter beneath Sarigold to Lucina, and by extension, he was afraid that he would be found out for being indirectly responsible for every misfortune that had befallen the city. Carmen included.

“E-Effie?” Kari managed to stutter out.

Effie turned to speak to the hospital staff who had been regarding Kari nervously. “This man is innocent. I’ve met him before, he’s not capable of this. He’s one of the adventurers that opened the Sixth Gate in the swamp.”

Rolynd seemed to regard Kari with greater interest upon hearing this.

“What did Carmen say, at the end?” the king asked Kari.

Kari cleared his throat which suddenly felt very dry. “She said: Tell Rolynd to remember me.”

“…I see,” Rolynd replied simply, dropping his gaze as he fell into deep thought.

Kari stealthily let out a sigh of relief, Rolynd’s shining eyes had finally stopped drilling into the depths of Kari’s soul.

“Remember me,” Effie muttered. “Why would she say that?”

“…She doesn’t want to be brought back,” Rolynd said with a face set like flint. “She accepts her fate.”

“O-oh…” Effie let out sadly.

“Let’s retrieve her gemstones,” Rolynd said. The two of them disappeared for a few minutes, leaving Kari in strained silence.

Disturbing noises came through the closed door, but Kari tried his best to ignore it. He wondered what he was going to do with himself.

Then, Rolynd appeared once more. His face seemed relieved of some stress, though it still bore lines of deep sadness. He made to walk past Kari, out of the hospital, but something stopped him.

“What is your name?” he asked Kari.

“Kari.”

“Kari. Why are you here, when your friends are facing the Final Trial as we speak?” Rolynd asked with curiosity… or was it suspicion?

At this news, Kari was completely stunned. He had all but forgotten about Elwin and Blue. “They?!…We had a disagreement and parted ways.”

“I see… Kari, do you know what I see in your eyes?” Rolynd asked him. There was a special tension about how he asked the question.

Kari gulped, keeping his silence.

“An immovable spirit! Will you fight for me, for all of us? Just as Blue and Elwin are?” The King’s eyes burned with passion... and something else that Kari couldn’t quite place.

“Did-did you say that the others are facing the Final Trial? Doesn’t that mean that ADAM’s Labyrinth could open its doors at any moment?”

“It does. We must keep Al Dherjza safe and the entrances guarded. One wrong wish and all will be lost. So, I will ask you again… Will you fight for us?”

Kari took a deep breath, but it did nothing to remove the guilt that had made its home in his chest. Being reminded of Elwin, who had gone out of his way to save Kari’s life hadn’t made things any better. Before, Kari wouldn’t have cared less about taking advantage of someone’s goodwill. But after Lorrie, Franklin, and Leon, without whom he would be a destitute Giftless Sarigold street-rat, Kari now realised that he really hated the feeling of being indebted to someone.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

He owed them all.

And, he was not going to just let the people that had stolen his Gift from him a second time by killing Carmen get away so easily. Though Kari had learned that revenge was a dangerous path to go down, that didn’t mean that he could so easily let that old habit go.

So, with the flames of vengeance rekindled in his heart, he gave his answer.

“I’ll fight for all of us. But, I have a condition: I need to find Lumie, one of the knights. Elwin wants to see her safe.”

The stoic king seemed very pleased. He almost smiled. Not just at Kari’s response itself, but in the change in Kari’s emotional state. How much was genuine pleasure at seeing the emotional catharsis of another, and how much was pleasure at having his intuitions and plans fulfilled? The corner of Effie’s mouth turned down sourly. She didn’t enjoy seeing Rolynd so manipulative, but she admired his skill nevertheless.

“Very well. The knights are on the battlefield outside the South Gate. Take care; Lucina’s forces have occupied the battlements.” Rolynd said, leaving now that his business had been concluded.

Effie followed in Rolynd’s footsteps. “I’m sure you will be reunited with the others; they’ll be glad to see you keeping Lumie safe.” She said reassuringly in passing.

The two of them disappeared from sight.

Kari was not one to waste time either. He resupplied with whatever relevant food and medicines were available to him, the hospital staff cooperating after seeing their king seemingly approve of him. And then, he was out the door.

…And that was how Kari ended up sneaking along the battlements of Al Dherjza’s South Gate, having fought his way there through the streets alongside Al Dherjzans and Sarigoldians alike.

There were only a few enemies left; the Apolaphians had the Angels surrounded.

From the battlements, Kari had a good view of both Apolaphian and Incandestine forces. Countless motionless corpses littered the landscape, most of them Incandestine. The front line had pushed to within five hundred meters of Al Dherjza’s walls. If there was any time to open the gates, it would be now.

Kari spotted movement in the streets below him. He readied the wand-pistol, preparing to take a shot with the green vial. He lifted the brass sights of the gun to his eye level, looking down the length of the wand. He tracked his targets, bobbing silver helmets, as best he could, waiting for the Angels below to stand still so that he could get a clear shot.

Finally, the moment arrived. But just as Kari squeezed wand-pistol’s trigger, the sky fell dark. The green vial was meant to fire a seed stone that would rapidly grow into a sizeable chunk of volatile exergonite crystals. The slightest touch would set the crystals off in a vibrant explosion of purple and yellow dust and shrapnel. But instead, the seed crystal which struck the back of the Angel’s helmet blossomed into an excessive quantity of blood-red crystals that engulfed the entire squad of Angels and spilt out of the alley that they had been hiding in. The immobilised men and women shouted in fear and confusion. The crystals pulsed synchronistically with crimson light, like there, was a heart that beat at its centre.

Kari felt something warm and viscous begin to fall onto his neck and shoulders. The scent of iron filled his lungs.

A stray drop of red blood landed on the crystals filling the street with a ‘plop’. The entire formation glowed brightly for an instant before exploding in a blast so violent that the shockwave reduced the enchanted houses adjacent into rubble, and blew a stunned Kari backwards clear off the battlements. He was too surprised to even scream or shout, the sensation of cold desert air sailing past his ringing ears.

Would he become another rotting corpse thrown into the ditch dug around the front of Al Dherjza’s battlements?

In the dark clouds above, a dark shape. A jagged circular silhouette. And from that unnatural blanket above, great, blinding bursts of red lightning scorched the earth with such intensity that Kari thought the world was about to end with some attack from the Intercessor.

Kari’s fall was broken rather unexpectedly as something yanked him by the ankle, slowing him to a gentle puff onto the sands far below Al Dherjza’s great 30-meter tall walls of polished, etched sandstone.

With the hydrohand safely on the ground, a ring of metal flew from Kari’s ankle, out of his sight. Tired arms helped him to his feet.

“You alive?” a voice asked him.

“Wh-what’s happening?” Kari asked in a daze. The voice belonged to a robed man, perhaps in his early thirties. A warlock.

“The Coronum is here.” The warlock said.

Kari checked his ringing ears by putting his ears to them. Had he misheard the man? “The Coronum?! Tenebria Coronum?!” he asked.

The man, also soaked in falling blood, simply pointed to the skies above. “Tell me what that is, then.”

Kari took in the sight of the flying citadel. It seemed that he had fallen into a waking nightmare. Around him was what remained of a battalion of Al Dherjzan knights.

The warlock took note of Kari’s weapon, still clasped tightly in his hand. “The Coronum has enchantments that empowers all magic in an area around it. Expect your spells to be far more destructive than you might expect.”

“Ugh. That explains a lot. We were just taking out the last of the enemy garrison when my magic blew me off the wall.”

“Indeed. It is the noise of the sudden explosion that notified me of your presence. That should mean that the gate should open soon, no?” The warlock asked.

Kari nodded. “Yes, I believe so.”

A knight listening to the conversation between Kari and the warlock heard this and began to spread the word to whoever was listening nearby. In moments, there was a sizeable presence of knights gathering at the gate, mostly the wounded and mages who had run out of reagent.

“When’s the gate opening? We need to get Harold and Craven to the hospital; we’re all out of supplies.” someone gathered said.

“I heard it will be opening soon. Can’t be too long now. Try and be patient.” A woman answered.

“What about Grandmaster Sophia? Where is she?”

But then, Kari began to notice the blood soaking the desert beneath his feet pooling into a most unnatural shape. A straight line. No… Kari took a look all around. A series of straight lines. A magic circle that must have spanned kilometres across. The warlock beside Kari also took notice, his red-stained brows furrowing fiercely as he analysed the pattern.