-I’m sorry.

‘It’s okay. You tried your best, Wild King,’ Kireua answered with a bitter smile. The butterfly effect was in full force.

-Even if I did, it doesn’t matter if I failed.

The Wild King glanced at Houl, the captain of the Martial Knights. He was a slowly cooling corpse thanks to the Wild King rearranging his insides with demonic power, but his final mission was complete.

Despite what happened, the Wild King focused on protecting Joshua. The fight between the Wild King and First Flower threw off a steady shower of sparks.

“…Let’s get rid of them first,” Kireua said.

Selim nodded. “Okay.”

To Cazes and the others, Selim and Kireua’s arrival was a windfall with their help, they were able to break the impasse.

“Fuck!” First Flower cussed aloud in frustration while he swung his sword. He had been trained his entire life like an animal with the sole purpose of taking down Joshua Sanders. Bel was coming, but this wasn’t how First Flower wanted the Blood Flower Knights to end.

“Joshua Sanders is already in a critical condition! It’s only natural for his soul to be affected after he’s taken that much damage! Focus on our main target!”

The Blood Flower Knights stopped fighting Cazes, Valmont, and Viper, and threw themselves at Joshua.

Joshua’s knights weren’t going to let that happen. While Cazes cut off an enemy’s leg, Viper cleaved his opponent in half and Valmont’s sword pierced one of the enemy knights in the heart. But the Blood Flower Knights didn’t stop.

“Joshua Sanders!”

The Blood Flower Knights thrust their swords. Their eyes were glued to Joshua Sanders, their lifetime target, as they scraped up every drop of their mana.

“Kireua!”

“I’m on him!” freёwebnoѵel.com

Kireua and Selim’s sword and spear took down one Blood Flower Knight each however, the Blood Flower Knights continued to advance without regard for their lives. Four of them managed to reach First Flower alive.

First Flower attacked the Wild King with everything he had, keeping his saw toothed sword occupied.

“Go! Cut off his head!” First Flower screamed.

All four of the relatively unscathed Blood Flower Knights struck with everything they had, despite Joshua’s already critical condition.

-It looks like this isn’t the time to sit back and admire the view of the palace.

At that moment, another death knight appeared in front of Joshua. This death knight used to be a noble prince of Avalon, so he had been reluctant to come out in public however, it didn’t stop him from diving into the battle and blocking two swords.

The problem was, there were still two more Blood Flower Knights.

“Vaikals!”

Kireua revealed his aces in the hole, Swallow’s ultimate weapons lent to him by his friend.

The last two swords were blocked by the Vaikals’ smooth yet sturdy arms. “Golems…?” Selim boggled at the monsters.

As Kireua willed, the two golems crushed the two Blood Flower Knights’ heads, bringing them a miserable demise after an entire lifetime dedicated to survival.

“Fuck…!” The last survivor, First Flower, clenched his teeth.

However, Wild King shredded First Flower with his saw toothed sword.

Joshua ended his meditation and slowly opened his eyes.

“…Mmm…”

Selim was the first one to approach Joshua.

“Are you okay, Your Majesty?”

“I’m sorry.”

“There is no need—”

“…It looks like this body will need to hibernate for the time being,” Joshua interrupted.

Selim’s eyes widened slightly. He had heard that supreme dragons could hibernate for centuries.

“...Like you, Your Majesty?”

Joshua nodded with a frown. Creshua’s body reached its limit. Unless he received treatment now, Creshua wouldn’t be able to maintain his existence because of how strong the Blood Flower Knights’ seal was.

“Bel is going to come soon.”

Joshua’s quiet yet clear voice brought a suffocating silence onto the chamber.

Selim mulled over the problem.

“…We need to split our group in two. One group has to stay here, and another needs to go out and help our people outside.”

“Huh?” Valmont gave him a look of disbelief. “What are you talking about, Your Highness?”

“A lot of Hubalt's forces still remain outside the palace. They will be difficult for the Queen Consorts to handle on their own.”

“Ah…”

“Besides, they must have noticed that we came back. They’ll bring every last soldier, including the ones outside the castle walls,” Selim added.

Hubalt had over three hundred thousand troops in Arcadia. Although Avalon had the alliance’s help, Avalon’s own army still constituted the majority of the friendly forces.

“And If Hubalt was to put Arcadia to the torch, our people would suffer.”

“I-I doubt that—”

“…I agree with His Highness,” Viper said, looking serious as usual. “We should protect our country. Besides, if people of our skill remain inside the palace, it might lead to an unnecessary misunderstanding. They might think Avalon is trying to protect its elites by letting the other countries fight our war for us…”

“I would like three of you to join the fight outside. Kireua and I will stay here,” Selim said in an authoritative tone.

“I’ll also stay,” Viper answered with a resolute look. “I’m an Imperial Knight, and there are over one thousand of us in Avalon. At least one of us has to stay by His Majesty’s side.”

Viper had a point. It looked like Cazes and Valmont also wanted to stay, but they didn’t insist after what Selim had said.

“We, the Black Knights, will also stay here.”

“…You guys…” Selim frowned. “Don’t even think about stopping us. You’re our leader, Your Highness. If something bad happens to you, our entire existence is meaningless.”

The bond between Selim and the Black Knights made Joshua beam. He was happy enough forget about the pain in his soul.

“You have good people by your side,” he complimented.

“…No, they’re just incredibly stubborn… My apologies for doing this in front of you.”

Contrary to his remark, a smile was tugging on Selim’s lips. On the other hand, Kireua envied Selim for having comrades unlike him.

“Kireua.” Joshua turned.

“Ah, yes, Your Majesty.”

“Where did you get these golems?”

“Umm…” Kireua wrestled with the answer for a moment. “My friend lent them to me.”

“Your friend?”

“Right,” Kireua answered.

The two Vaikals he had brought were Swallow’s ultimate weapons, and therefore one of Swallow’s best kept secrets. Explaining everything about them would put Anna in quite a difficult position.

Joshua nodded. “You made a good friend.”

Kireua’s face brightened up a bit. “…Yes, she’s a good friend.”

“Selim and Kireua, I believe I have to leave it to you two again.” Joshua beckoned them closer.

The brothers exchanged glances before approaching Joshua.

Joshua putting his hands on his sons’ shoulders.

“I have faith in you,” he whispered. “Please hold on. You only need to wait for half a day at most.”

Josuha would be lying if he wasn’t worried because he had already experienced how strong Bel was. In addition, Joshua had also received a troubling piece of information from First Flower, but there was no other choice.

‘Creshua.’

Joshua got no response back, which meant that he couldn’t waste any more time. After getting Creshua to safety, Joshua had to return to his original body in the ice boulder to lessen the pressure on the dragonling. Joshua already had a place in mind: the palace’s underground vault. Since Creshua used to live in the vault with Crevasse, there couldn’t be a better place for Creshua to relax and focus on healing.

‘…I must save Creshua,’ Joshua thought. He closed his eyes.

Creshua was the only surviving dragon in the Human Realm. For the future of the land—after stopping they’d prevented its collapse—Creshua had to survive until the end and become the protector of the Human Realm.

Just then, everyone in the council chamber felt a colossal mass of mana flying toward them and turned.

“That monster…” Valmont grunted. His words expressed everyone’s feelings.

It felt like a dragon was flying toward them. If all humans could move as fast as Bel, expensive warp gates or teleportation spells wouldn’t be necessary.

“…He’s here!”

The council chamber was rattled by a tremor that eventually spread throughout the entire palace. Selim, Kireua, Viper, the Black Knights… everyone who would have to fight Bel was tense. One question filled their thoughts: would they be able to stop that monster?