CHAPTER 45

  AN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR

  The tension between the Elven queen and the Parvian prince reached its peak. They both knew they had to act fast.

  As the photonise grew stronger, a burst of energy erupted from Hans. Reina also raised her sword, her encasing sphere of light spinning wildly. With his energy reaching maximum, Hans asked her, “Just tell me one thing, why Zephyr is following your orders? He’s a member of Blood Monk. Even if he’s an elf, those people have no ties to Clandor—“

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” She straightened her sword, ready to attack at any moment. “It’s probably on you.” She added, “You must’ve upset him. That’s just what you do. Your mere presence is a provocation.”

  “That’s a very nice way of bullshiting. What is the real reason you are doing this?”

  “Your death is more meaningful than your life.” She pointed towards Hans’s right, “In that way is the Council node. What will happen if you die at their doorsteps?”

  “That ain't enough to frame them—”

  “Hope is a very dangerous thing.” Reina interrupted, “You are synonymous with hope to the Parvians. A beacon whom they awaited for a decade. What happens if it’s taken from them? They will charge blind against the council. Even if it is not… I have ways to prove. So just die already.”

  Hans grunted, talking reason with a woman who came determined to kill him is insane enough as it was. His face contorted and infuriating, he shouted at her. “Who do you think you are to use me for yourself—”

  “Have you never done it yourself?” She asked, her expressions dumbfounded. She reasoned her actions, “The karma of ‘killing’ you carry is far heavy. It’s your nature. I’ll be doing the world a favour by getting rid of you.”

  “You will be implicating your own sister. Don’t you care what happens to her? I was volunteering. My life was her responsibility—”

  “I was the one who exiled her from Clandor,” Reina cut him off in mid-sentence again. She stated, almost proud, “I was the one who took her crown. Do you think I care what happens to her? Parv vs Hera. That would be another sight to see.”

  Hans chuckled, “Thank you.” He added with a smirk, “Don’t you know I carry memory stones every time?”

  Reina chuckled too. She responded with the same grin as his, “Don’t you know that artefacts, even the smallest ones like memory stones, don’t work here?”

  Hans was embarrassed. He truly didn’t know. He was out of options in wiggling out. There was only one thing that remained. Hans mustered all the solar energy within him. “Guess, only one of us can come out alive from this. I can’t die. My grandma will be very upset.” He blasted a huge explosion towards her.

  ..

  .

  .

  “Idiot woman,” she pointed that side as the council’s node that means far left to it is the west and at the edge of the western barrier is the Concordia node. “ I ain't involving myself with her. God knows how she’d exploit this if I hit her first. If you can’t win, just run.” He convinced himself as he bolted far away from the explosion.

  However, Reina was cleverer than Hans. She had already pointed him to the opposite direction, and Hans was only increasing the distance between Concordia and him further. Living around Hera had made his vigilance deteriorate.

  But he wasn’t completely oblivious to the fact that she used her head quite ingeniously. “Always assume the worst, and you won’t be surprised.” He quoted Dietrich and thought hard of a contingency as he sped up, absorbing more sunstone energy of the barrier.

  “So what happens if I can’t go back? Only a battle to death— oh come on, I really don’t want to fight her and even with Elder Form, I don’t have confidence in beating her. She is too cunning and is a Dominion Knight. What can I do when I can’t even fly?” Hans missed his Wind Gem more than anything. His sole weakness was his manoeuvrability and his Wind Gem was the solution.

  Frustratingly, he stressed, “Think, man, think — Sunstones, yes, the book said, red demon have Sunstones in their hearts. If I can haul some… Yes, that would work, it even worked on Father. I’ll blow this damned hag off the map.”

  He ran and ran and ran, but he couldn’t sense or see Reina following, “hmm… did I get away…No. She is not following— did I really fall for her scheme?” He halted his boosted run. A small dust cloud formed with friction, evidence of how fast Hans’s speed was.

  However, his sudden realisation wasn’t the only thing for his halting, his target, a natural source of Sunstone, a red demon infantry— commonly called Two-Hands— was in his sight. “Didn’t they say, these red cockroaches snuggle together? Why the heck is this bastard alone.” He murmured, hiding atop a tree.

  With the red hue all over the place, it was a natural camouflage for these invaders but for Hans, they felt out of place since they reeked of a dark smoke that he could see, similar to what he spotted in Vanessa in their first encounter.

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  VeganBind

  Hans wasted not a second and summoned his deadliest wines beneath the strolling Two-Hands. “Swoosh!” It was a perfect spell with perfect timing but the target was imperfect and within a flash, it pulled a move similar to Dijkstra, disappearing right before his eyes. The restraining wines caught only air.

  “The hell—”

  “Shriek!” A high-pitched scream deafened his ears and he involuntarily covered it with both hands. But his eyes were searching for the unique dark smoky signature of the infantry Two-Hands.

  He searched frantically, but there was no sign of the red demon appearing. “Beneath and behind. Only way these bastards would resurface—”

  ManaStorm

  “Boom.” A deafening explosion countered the shrieking voice, and the red demon hidden in some spatial place exited, wounded, almost shredded.

  “I was right to study the records in the node. These things are troublesome; they can use spatial magic and even hide inside invisible rifts.” He mumbled and dug inside the carcass’s chest.

  “Found it— the heck. Why is this so small?” He looked at the sunstone, which wasn’t even the size of a chickpea. He raised his head, looking afar with his ManaVision in full swing. “Just how many of these bastards do I have to hunt to stand against this over-obsessed witch?”

  He found several of his marks, just stroking around his far sight. “These are tricky to hunt, but all creatures have habits, hence their weaknesses. Just as that woman said.”

  He breathed in and launched himself against the targets. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t too tough for him either, since all of his prey were the lowest of ranks. Until he met his first formidable foe, a Four-hand, captain of an infantry.

  “Shit! Man, I’m not prepared for this.” The shrieking Four-hands dodged Hans’s every move like a slippery eel. He rained down every possible attack, but nothing seemed to work. Hans was losing the battle of attrition, despite his boundless access to mana. The relentless assault from the fiery red-demon captain left him gasping for air, making any hope of recuperating his stamina through ParadiseGarden impossible.

  “Damn it! He’s everywhere.” Hans cursed as his tired eyes shut for a moment. His head almost rolled down, but he was saved by his quick deployment of a mana storm that pushed the four-handed captain away.

  “Should I just run away?”

  “You can’t even die without causing havoc.” The voice, full of arrogance, interrupted.

  “Ah man! What a rotten luck. Did I not have enough on my plate?” He cursed inside as he raised his head to the levitating sphere of light. Inside it was the elven queen, looking down on the red demon and Hans alike.

  “Shack!” A sword of light, almost as broad as a river and as high as the sky, fell on the red demon and annihilated it in a flash. It was so quick that the red demon captain couldn’t even budge a little.

  “Damn, will I get to see my ancestors today?” The attack was so powerful that Hans couldn’t dodge it. Countering it was another story. Fortunately, the primary target for that attack was the Four-hands.

  He glared at her. Even in the heat of his anxious beating heart, he noticed for the first time that her glowing sphere of defense was finally down. “Habits…yeah, habits. I wasn’t just observing her enough. Every technique has flaws, and everyone has weaknesses.”

  He needed time to analyze her habits. “You saved me. Why?” He asked her, hoping she would answer, and she did.

  “Saved. Pft…” She chuckled, even her ridicule was dignified as she quickly covered her mouth. “Me saving you will never happen. My plans will be ruined if you didn’t die according to the scenario.”

  “So, you think I’ll die at the Council node? Well, Mrs. Reina Clandor, I’m far from the Council node. Even if I do die, you won’t be able to pin it on the Council node.” Hans smirked, and Reina smirked back.

  “And what makes you think of that?” She asked him, adding her words of wisdom. “Information must be verified from multiple sources to be legitimate. All this time, you were moving towards the Council node, and now you’re in their territory.” She explained, hoping to startle Hans, but he wasn’t even fazed.

  “I guessed so. We have something in common, you know; we both never let our prey escape and giving false hope to the enemy while watching it crumble is satisfying—”

  “Agreed.” Reina nodded, adding, “I do admire your fearlessness… Maybe it’s the false confidence that everything will go your way, but that very thing is the reason you’ll meet your end today, Prince of Parv.”

  “So, she enjoys playing with her food. This confirms that I won’t be facing any killing blows soon. Ah man, I have a very narrow window until she starts to get serious— a ranked 21 knight, damn it! My resume is going off the charts here.”

  “Cat got your tongue?” She pointed her sword, indicating that she was done talking.

  However, Hans didn’t respond. His mind was focused on something else—her protective-rotating-sphere. The moment she pointed her aura-filled sword at him, the sphere flickered, as if it were about to disappear at her whim.

  “If I’m right… no, I can’t take risks. I need to confirm it.” He wrestled with his inner thoughts and finally tested his understanding. “Hera will get into trouble.” He said, genuine concern in his eyes. He was right to be concerned; after all, she was still his responsibility, even if he had foolishly left the safety of the barrier.

  “Hmm… you seem concerned.” She lowered her aura, and the light sphere regained its strength.

  “So, this is how it works. Got you.” He confirmed, the rotating sphere was passive. Whenever she let her guard down, as long as she kept channeling, the sphere intensified defence.

  “Hera? I can’t recall the last time I saw her. I’ve told you, I expelled her from succession and Clandor as well. You won’t find any sympathy for her, at least not from me—”

  “She is your sister.” Hans shouted, “She would be blamed for this too.”

  Reina responded, her voice devoid of emotion, “I will protect what is mine, regardless of the cost, and I need your life to do so. I suppose you won’t offer it to me if I asked you politely, right?”

  “Can’t we talk this out? You are doing this because you needed Parv’s support on your side. Fine. I’ll give it to you.” Hans proposed, but Reina was quick to dismiss it.

  “You aren’t the type to bow down even if your head is on the line.”

  “Yeah.” Hans breathed deeply. “I needed time. Hence the lies. If I can’t confront you…” His fist was still tightly clenched, encasing a handful of pea-sized sunstones. “Then I will outlast you.”

  “Outrunning a light elemental knight—”

  “Who says running? It’s me versus you, a battle to the death. You don’t need to be on the same level to kill one. So don’t resent me; you chose this fate, you damned queen.”