Together, we moved the bodies out of sight. Unfortunately, in order for this to work, I had to leave my bow behind, so I stashed it under a bush, took up a Balgyran rifle, and then entered the Capitol through the front doors.
It was the very thing I’d told Rayf we shouldn’t do, but I knew we could avoid conflict so long as we kept our visors down and heads turned slightly away from direct eye contact.
My theory was immediately tested as the door closed behind us.
At least two dozen soldiers raced by in a hurry. One of them, clearly a commanding officer by the special gold band across the top of his green helmet, stopped. “What do you think you three are doing?”
“Uh—I—uh—”
“Get back in line, or I’ll have your heads!” the man shouted.
“Y—yes. Right away,” I said with my head down.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you!” he yelled.
I lifted my head as much as I dared. “O—okay.”
“That is not how you address me, soldier!” The man shouted everything he said, and I didn’t understand why.
One of the commander’s soldiers came rushing back into the room. “Commander!”
“What is it, corporal?”
“The Allyrians have breached the western wing. President Alton needs us in the audience hall immediately,” the man said.
“Understood!” The commander shouted, then he turned back to us. “You three are with me. We’ll talk about this later.”
“Yes, sir,” I said. That seemed to appease him.
The commander took off running and led us through a series of doors and corridors until we arrived at a large room with nearly fifty Balgyrans already inside.
On a raised platform in the center of the room stood Alton and Leon. Behind them, two soldiers held Bella and McKenna with guns pointed at their backs, and in front of them, Claire knelt on the floor, bound. But most notably was Elsie, who stood to Alton’s left, completely unfettered and unnerved.
Rayf started to step forward, but Von placed a hand on his shoulder and held him in place.
“Not now,” he whispered.
We fell into line with the other Balgyran soldiers and waited for our opportune moment at the back of the room.
There was a bang just outside the door on the western end of the room, and all the soldiers raised their rifles.
“Do not fire unless I give the order,” Alton commanded.
A man wearing ceremonial attire bedecked with a bunch of shiny insignias I didn’t recognize said, “Yes, Madame President.”
The door burst open a moment later, and a dozen of Allyria’s royal guard filed into the room, led by none other than Hayden. His eyes immediately made contact with Bella. Upon seeing him, Bella turned her head in disgust. Hayden frowned ever so slightly, and then his face became stoic once more.
Lucian entered the room next with determined ferocity and stepped up to the platform. Hayden and one other guard closed in and flanked him.
“I see you don’t trust me, Klara,” Lucian said.
“You didn’t exactly come alone either,” she remarked.
“I’m no fool. I knew this was a trap the moment I received your communication,” he said.
As much as I despised Lucian for what he’d done to me, a part of me was relieved to hear him say those words.
“Hand over my people, and you might survive the night,” Lucian said tersely.
“Come now, don’t be coy. We all know the only reason you’re here is for your sister,” Alton said with an evil smile. “You’re not really interested in the disgraced guardsman and the deserter are you?”
Lucian’s eyes flashed to Bella, and his face twitched slightly with regret.
A pang of hope rose up within me. Hayden might still harbor a grudge, but it appeared, at least on the surface, that Lucian might regret his actions. Whether those feelings transferred to me or not remained to be seen.
If the future were any tell, Lucian and I would stand together again someday. Despite Izaiah being dead, I still held hope for that future—minus the end of the world scenario, of course.
“Just release them before I lose my patience,” Lucian said, clearly annoyed.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, young prince,” Alton said, making extra sure Lucian understood that she did not accept his recent claim as king. “Did you bring what I asked?”
What’s this? I wondered.
There was apparently a greater reason for taking Claire hostage than simply killing Lucian. I supposed that made sense; otherwise, Lucian would already be dead.
“It’s right here,” he said, procuring a scroll of some kind from his back pocket.
Alton’s face lit up. “Toss it here, and I’ll free the girl.”
“No,” Lucian said. “You free my sister first, I give you the scroll, and then you release the others. That seems fair enough.”
“I’ll be the judge of what’s fair,” Alton chided, “And since I’m holding all the cards, you play by my rules. Now, give it here or your sister dies.”
Lucian bit his lip, and his eyes shifted quickly across the room. He must have felt he had no choice because he tossed the scroll to Alton.
She practically squealed when she caught it, and her eyes grew wide with anticipation as she unrolled it. Her eyes scanned across it, and whatever was on it apparently made her happy because her lips practically curled from ear to ear.
“Do it now,” Alton ordered.
A single rifle blast went off throughout the room, but I didn’t see who shot it or where it went. The Allyrians tensed while the Balgyrans were neither surprised nor bothered.
Lucian suddenly collapsed to reveal Hayden standing behind him, his rifle pointed directly where my brother had been standing.
Forty-Six
“No!” I shouted.
For a brief second, all eyes turned in my direction and then pure pandemonium broke loose.
Thankfully, we were at the back, and nobody except the person in front of me, which happened to be Rayf, knew that I was the one who’d yelled. I didn’t know why Hayden had betrayed Lucian, but I was going to do whatever it took to figure it out.
Right now, though, I had other problems.
Blasts of magic flew across the room at abandon. In a desperate attempt to get to Claire, I raced to the front of the room. The Balgyrans ignored me, but a few Allyrians took shots at the idiot dressed like a Balgyran running at them shouting at the top of his lungs.
Leon held out his palm toward Claire, but she bucked up and slammed into him, forcing his arm out wide just as he shot off his own fireball. The blast flew at me completely by accident. I took out the man beside me as I dove to the side while a second Balgyran was caught in the blast and disintegrated.
Chet. I’d never seen power so strong.
Bella used the distraction to lunge forward, shoving Alton to the ground and leaping for Lucian’s gun. McKenna slammed her elbow into the Balgyran at her back and then shoved a dagger up under his visor and straight into his throat.
The other soldier spun on McKenna, but she kicked him in the chest and ran.
By then, I was on my feet again and heading to the platform once more.
Bella grabbed Lucian’s gun, aimed at Hayden, and pulled the trigger, but the light blinked red and misfired.
Reaching the base of the stage, I glanced over at Claire to see her bashing her head into Leon’s face, then kicking him in the groin. Meanwhile, Hayden drew a sword and closed in on Bella.
Seeing Bella was in the greater danger, I changed direction and jumped, tackling Hayden to the ground.
Three Allyrians all raised their guns at me.
I yanked off my helmet and yelled, “Stop! It’s me, Aren Halland!”
My face gave them pause, and for a brief moment, I thought they’d still pull the trigger, but then they turned away and went back to the fight.
By then, Hayden had recovered from being disoriented and punched me
in the face. I fell back next to Lucian’s body, grabbing my nose as blood flowed freely.
Hayden jumped to his feet and closed in on me.
I reached over and grabbed the sword off Lucian’s back and raised it just in time to block Hayden’s blow.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
He bellowed and came in again. Before he reached me, though, he crumpled to the ground as Bella slammed the butt of Lucian’s gun into the back of his head as hard as she could.
“Thanks,” I said as I rolled over and surveyed the situation.
At least ten of the Allyrians were down, but since they had the high ground upon the platform, double that number of Balgyrans had also fallen.
In all the chaos, Elsie stood like a statue, completely unmoving.
“Kill them!” Alton shouted from her place on the ground. “Kill them all!”
That’s when Elsie suddenly exploded into a flurry of motion.
Two Allyrians fell in the first second and another two in the second following. The dozen or so left all turned their weapons on her and let loose. Blasts came in from every which way, but as they neared her, she moved her hands and deflected them like they were nothing.
A shield appeared around her at the same moment that a geyser of fire shot forth from her hands, engulfing the Allyrian that stood next to me.
Why was she doing this? She was on our side! It didn’t take long for me to discern the truth. I immediately looked to her temples, and sure enough, I saw a metallic neural link just like mine.
Elsie was being controlled.
I activated my own shield, followed by Enrage, then I sped forward with my enhanced speed and slammed into Alton as she climbed to her feet. A small device in her hand went flying and slid underneath a row of seats.
Diving after it, my hand closed around the transmitter.
Leon backhanded Claire, sending her crashing to the ground as her hands were still bound, before turning to come after me.
“Stop Elsie!” I shouted into the device as I’d seen Alton do.
Immediately Elsie shut down and returned to her statue-like state.
It worked! But if I could make her stop, then I could also make her fight for us. “Elsie, get the—”
Leon shot another fireball at me, but with Enrage activated one hit was sure to kill me. I dropped to the floor as fast as I could, and the blast flew over me and slammed into the wall, setting flame to one of the large banners that decorated the audience chamber.
I rolled away as he fired another blast at me, which ignited the chairs and carpet.
Flames rapidly began to fill the room.
Leon continued firing, and my Enrage-enhanced reflexes stayed just out of his reach at all times. After his sixth consecutive fireball, I decide to play offense instead. I dodged to the left, then cut back in and swung my sword at Leon’s chest.
He moved to shoot another fireball, but switched tactics and drew his own sword just in time to block my attack. The hit drove him back a step thanks to my heightened strength.
Or so I thought.
When he launched his own attack, the force of a single swing knocked the blade from my hand and sent it flying away. Then Leon spun and drove the blade straight into my abdomen.
I was thankful Enrage was still activated or that would have seriously hurt. Even so, I could tell it would be a crippling wound the moment the magic ended.
With what little energy I had left, I kicked Leon in the gut and sent him stumbling backward, effectively removing the blade from my stomach.
“Elsie! Elsie!” Rayf shouted as he tried to get her to respond to him, but she only stared blankly.
“Elsie, be yourself!” I yelled into the device, which was still in my other hand.
Elsie’s eyes blinked rapidly, and she shook her head. Then she exploded toward Rayf, and for a brief second, I thought she was still under Alton’s control and was going to kill him, but instead, she wrapped her arms around him and embraced him in a tight hug.
Then she turned and unleashed her own fireball at Leon. It crashed into him and knocked him to the ground but, otherwise, didn’t seem to harm him.
When his head hit the ground, his hair flew back, and I thought I glimpsed something metal beneath it. Was Leon being controlled as well?
Before I could get a better look, the ceiling exploded.
Stone jettisoned toward us and slammed into the platform. Elsie twirled her hands and caught a chunk the size of a man that was headed right for me and pushed it away with a great gust of wind.
The same piece of stone flew at Leon and though he ducked, the corner of it nicked his forehead and knocked him out cold.
Claire screamed.
I glanced to the side to see her cut off from the rest of us by a wall of flames, but immediately had to look away as the fire was growing too strong. I raised my arm to block the heat only to have the hairs on my arm singed off.
At that moment, Enrage wore off, and I collapsed.
A sharp pain rose up from my abdomen and blood began pouring from my wound. The stress of the moment, the sheer exhaustion, my injury, and the anguish were just too much, and I blacked out.
When I opened my eyes, the thick smell of smoke was replaced by a cold and sterile emptiness. My head was too foggy, but one thought pierced through the haze.
“Claire,” I mumbled.
“He’s awake,” Rayf said.
“Wh—” I coughed. “Where’s… Claire?”
“She’s here, but she’s been badly burned,” Bella said. “How are you doing?”
“Never mind me,” I replied, I said weakly. “What about Leon?”
“We left everything in the flames. He’s probably dead, who cares?” McKenna cut in. “Lying traitor.”
“I don’t think—” I coughed again.
“Take it easy. I healed you as best I could, but you lost a lot of blood,” Bella said.
I took a deep breath and tried again. “I think Leon was being controlled.”
“He wasn’t,” a distantly familiar voice said. I turned my head and saw it was Elsie who spoke.
“You can’t know that for sure, we have to go back.”
“There is no going back, lad,” Von said.
“W—what do you mean?”
“We’ve already taken off,” McKenna said.
“Taken off?” I asked. My head was still a little groggy. “How?”
“Lucian’s AGIS-Scepter. They took one look at you and Claire and rushed us onboard,” Bella explained.
“Lucian, is he—?”
“Dead,” Bella said, then roared in anger and kicked the wall of the medical bay as hard as she could.
I took a deep breath and released it. I didn’t really know how to process that. I hadn’t expected any different after seeing what happened, but there was always a chance. Even after everything that happened, he was still my brother, and now he was gone.
“Claire. I want to see Claire,” I said.
“I don’t think that’s such a good—”
I tried to get up on my own, but standing proved difficult.
“All right, all right, I’ll take you,” Bella said as she came alongside and draped my arm over her shoulder. Together we walked to the other side of the medical bay and into the intensive care wing.
Claire lay in a bed, her eyes closed.
“Claire?”
Her eyes blinked rapidly, but didn’t open. “Aren?” she asked weakly.
Her entire left arm was covered from top to bottom in scars from third degree burns. The skin was pink and bubbly but otherwise seemed okay.
I grabbed her fingers, but she hissed and pulled them away.
“Can’t you heal her?” I asked.
“We’ve done all we can. The wounds themselves have closed, but the damage to her body will take time to heal. Maybe if one of us had a higher class Healing stone, but the best we have is a Class 3.”
I placed my elbows down on the bed beside her an
d laid my head in my hands. “There’s one thing you haven’t tried,” I said.
Bella furrowed her brow.
“Ranera,” I explained.
“You did it, then? You got the stone?” Bella asked, her face lighting up.
I nodded.
“How does it work?” she asked.
I closed my eyes and tried to remember how Claire had done it. I’d not seen her do it since we battled the supreme commander, and those details were still fuzzy to me. Touching the stone, I said, “Ranera, I summon you.”
A brief twang of pain coursed through my body, starting at my fingertip and running clear down to my legs, then a bright light filled the room and blinded me. A bunch of footsteps came running, and the door hissed open behind us.
“What the—” someone said.
The light faded, and Ranera floated in the space in front of me. Her body glowed, and her garments fluttered as if there was a breeze—but there was none.
She had a staff in her hand, which she waved back and forth as tiny balls of light appeared in the air. When she stopped, most of the balls flew into Claire while a few entered my own body, and others still went past me into the others.
Claire’s eyes flew open, and she took a deep breath. My own back stood up straighter, and my head cleared. I turned to thank Ranera, but she was already gone.
Claire sat bolt upright and looked at us. “What happened? Did we—did we win?”
A good question, and one I should have asked sooner.
Bella sighed but wouldn’t answer. I looked over to McKenna, but she turned away. Von frowned.
It was Elsie who finally spoke. “It’s over. Allyria is no more.”
I thought Ranera had healed me completely, but now, I wasn’t so sure as a pain arrested my gut and I half-doubled over. “I mustn't have heard you right. It sounded like you said Allyria is gone," I rasped.
“Not gone,” Elsie said. “Just over.”
“I couldn’t have been out that long,” Claire said.
“About thirty minutes, but none of that really matters,” Bella explained. “When we boarded the Scepter, we immediately sent a message back to the palace to inform them of Lucian’s death, but there was no response.”
Sworn Guardian: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (Forbidden Magic Book 1) Page 35