Will of a Prince

They all stared at the pillar with fear in their eyes. There was only one man capable of such an attack.

"General Stone! It’s me, Commander Enlil! We come in peace!"

Enny called up to the man standing on top of the wall. However, the words didn’t seem to have much an effect on him. His voice echoed out over the plain.

"Traitor. I know what you’ve all come for, and I will die before I let any of you get close."

Jacob raised his hands and got on his knees.

"We will leave our weapons right where we are before we enter! We truly mean no harm!"

He hesitated.

"We are... all that’s left."

"Of Paria Empire?"

"Of humanity, General."

The General finally seemed to show a hint of emotion. It looked like he was fighting with himself on what the right decision should be. Eventually he took out his sword and dropped it off the wall. He took off his thick breastplate, revealing incredible muscles underneath. Then, he stretched his arms and craned his neck before finally speaking one last time.

"Liar."

Suddenly, hundreds of pillars shot around their group, aiming to crush them. Lidia was the first to react. She blitzed around and destroyed as many as she could before they could do any devastating damage. Lucy and Bart got together and started fighting the stone with their famous black Iron. However, when the black iron tried to meet the stone, it exploded into small shards. It was as if the stone was not stone at all, but a material much stronger.

"Shit! Everyone take space!"

The group scattered outward in different directions. Harold in particular brought Abby in a place far enough away from the fighting so she wouldn’t be harmed before running back towards the group. He was barreling through stone pillars aimed at him as he ran. He passed one, ducked under another, but when he passed the last one...

"Found you."

A fist collided directly with his chin, sending him crashing into the ground. General Stone was dancing between his pillars, but that wasn’t the extent of his power. Him managing to hit Harold meant that he could keep up with his speed.

Everyone noticed their comrade laying injured on the ground, struggling to get up. General Stone continued hiding himself between his ever-moving pillars while speaking to the group.

"Isn’t this much more honorable? Fighting one on one? Why must you all attack me at once?"

Lidia crashed through the stone he was hiding behind and threw a fist aimed right at his stomach. It collided with resounding force, causing the ground beneath them to split partially. But the General shook it off and continued his ballet. Ice shards began to rain down from the sky. It looked like Luna and Enny were somehow combining their powers to cause a devastating ice storm to destroy the stone all around them. Seeing them work together so well even when they hardly knew each other was inspiring to Jacob.

Suddenly, the first major shift in the battle finally happened.

Slimo, Gabriel, and Avala managed to surround the man. At the same time, they all charged him from three different directions. Slimo would throw his broadsword, aiming to get any cut he could. Gabriel would use his powers to shrink and grow past any attack, including that of Slimo. Avala rid the ground of friction beneath him to throw off his balance. Yet, through all of these combined efforts, the General seemed hardly phased. Slimo’s attacks would be shortened or stopped by stone being thrown randomly in front of him, the ground beneath the Generals feet was constantly changing with new stone to prevent Avala’s power from being useful, and Gabriel couldn’t seem to land a single hit because of how great his reflexes were.

One mistake was all it took.

Slimo overthrew his sword, causing his balance to slightly falter. Instead of the stone blocking his sword, it immediately shot into his face, sending him flying backward. After their momentum was shattered, Gabriel and Avala fell just as quickly. Dozens of stone slabs rammed into their bodies and face. And just as quickly as before, he disappeared behind his stone again.

It wasn’t until the General found a small blonde girl did things start to magically go against him. He hid himself perfectly, timed his attack perfectly, and yet when his fist was about to collide with the girl’s cheek, a random shard of a broken pillar that was above him fell on top of his body, causing his attack to be off by mere centimeters.

"What?!"

Once again, he commanded stone to wrap around the girl and crush her body. However, just before the stone could touch her, the ice storm that was now on top of him crushed his stone to bits.

’Lucky timing. I’ll deal with her later.’

The General moved on to another victim, but before he could, his senses heightened to extraordinary levels of awareness. Something was coming his way, something was about to kill him, but he didn’t know what. His body seemed to react by itself. He turned himself sideways trying to avoid the indescribable feeling, but it didn’t seem to be enough. A hand managed to cut right through his shoulder and out the front of his body. He grunted in pain threw a powerful kick behind him, sending the attacker flying.

"HAHAHA!! YES! CUT CUT CUT!! I CUT HIM!!"

The General held on to his bleeding wound while panting heavily.

’How the hell did he get behind me? I was so sure no one was there a moment ago.’

He used stone to patch his wound. But being fixed with stone made his shoulder move slower than it used to. He was now slightly crippled. A familiar feeling of incoming danger spread across his back. Without wasting any time, he threw another attack behind him, but his fist hit nothing at all.

’I need to retreat for a bit. I need space.’

The general slammed his fist on the ground, causing a plume of dust and dirt to litter the battlefield, obscuring everyone’s vision.

Serena was coughing and waving her hand trying to run through the smoke.

"Zoey?! Zoey! We need to transform! This guy means business!"

Serena saw something laying on the ground completely still.

"Zoey? Did you get hit by his fists?"

She walked closer.

"Oh, Lucy. You scared me. Come on, you need to get up and-..."

She stopped.

"L-Lucy?"

A blood-curdling scream echoed across the field. Lidia heard it and immediately shot towards the sound, adrenaline roaring through her veins. Even though she made it towards the sound so fast, it was too late. Lucy had been killed. There was blood streaming out of a fresh knife wound in the back of her skull. Serena was holding Lucy’s body in her arms, crying.

"That bastard. When did this happen? I thought he dropped his weapon?!"

Lidia looked around cautiously and put an arm up.

"Stay close to me. He may still be nearby."

Sheeby began getting agitated on Maria’s shoulder. Her little snout was sniffing in a certain direction in the smoke.

"What’s wrong, Sheeby? Is he over there?"

Sheeby started charging a large yellow attack in its mouth. Maria covered her ears before it blasted outward.

"So, he is over there."

Maria charged toward the attack with Sheeby still attached to her. However, she couldn’t find anything except a small bit of blood on the ground.

"You hit him! Good job, Sheeby!"

Jacob tried screaming using his Zalo.

"REVEAL YOURSELF!"

Nothing happened.

"CLEAR THIS DUST!"

Nothing once again. Before he tried a third time, he came to the conclusion that the General may have been too powerful, or Jacob was too weak for him to listen to commands.

Suddenly, a large gust of wind carried itself across the field, clearing most of the dust away from the battle. The General himself was grateful for this opportunity and attacked a woman with two axes for weapons.

"The Butcherer of the North. I can’t wait to take her down!"

He soared through the air and slammed his fist right through her cheek... or at least he tried to. Instead, his fist passed clean through her body, as if she was merely an apparition of some kind.

Sarah wasted no time with her counterattack. Her axes fell down on the General and clashed against his rough flesh, allowing more blood to seep from shallow wounds. It was after this exchanged that the General realized something horrifying: he couldn’t win. Therefore, he decided to try and take down as any as he could before he lost. He disappeared behind his stone once again.

’The two blondes have some sort of defensive capabilities. I will have to save them for last. I need to rid this place of the ice storm first.’

The General easily found his way towards Enny and Luna. He tackled Luna far away from Enny to separate them. Luna grabbed hold of Stone’s body and froze it before bringing an elbow down to break off part of his body. However, he broke through the ice with ease and had two stone pillars slam against Luna’s head, knocking her unconscious.

’That’s one.’

He managed to find the man who stabbed him with nothing but his arm. Instead of trying to directly attack him, he made a large stone cage around where he was. The bait was set. And in no time at all, the real person he was looking for made himself known. Bo unveiled his invisibility and tried to help Steel break through the bars with his weapon. The General crashed on to his head with a kick, taking Bo out of the battle as he laid still on the ground.

’That’s two.’

Steel finally managed to break free from the cage and transformed into his length white-monster form. Its tendrils shot its way towards Stone faster than he could blink. Stone threw himself in the air, leaving him open for a perfect attack. Just as expected, the tendrils shot upward right where he was. However, this was merely a distraction for what Stone really had planned. He used a small portion of rock to move himself out of harm’s way then he clasped his hands together and mumbled under his breath.

"Release."

Suddenly, the mountains from far off in the distance began to curve inward toward their direction. Stone from miles away started flying towards the battle. The General started floating off the ground as more and more stone wrapped around Steel’s transformation. In mere moments, Steel had been turned into a statue, frozen in place.

’That’s three.’

Lidia grabbed hold of Serena’s arm.

"We have to leave her here for now. The others need our help."

"I can’t. I can’t do that."

"If you can’t I have to leave you! Please, Serena!"

"Just go without me! I can handle it myself!"

Lidia clenched her teeth and darted away. Suddenly, the ice storms had stopped.

Jacob started calling out to his friends in through the small haze.

"Maria! Lidia! Slimo!"

Jacob kept running towards the sound of fighting before he finally found someone laying on the ground.

"Luna... Shit. Just stay there for now and rest. Something is wrong with the way he’s attacking."

Luna didn’t respond. Jacob did a double take looking at her wounds. There were mounds of blood seeping from the back of her neck. Her skin kept getting paler by the second. Jacob’s heart dropped.

"L-Luna?! Miss Katra? What the hell?!"

He ran over and pushed her head forward off the rock she was laying on. In the back of her head was a knife wound that led directly to her brain. She had been killed instantly. Grief and confusion grabbed hold of Jacob’s heart.

"No... NO!!"

Jacob ran away from her, tears streaming down his face.

"This can’t be happening. Is this it?! Is this my terrible destiny flourishing?"

The more he ran, the more bodies he saw on the ground. Bo was lying face down with the same wound on the back of his head, dead.

"No."

The statue of Steel had the same wound as well. Its tall stature started crumbling, as if the only thing keeping it up was when Steel was still alive trapped inside the stone.

"No. No. No. This can’t be happening. Not yet. I’m not ready yet. I haven’t done anything. Please..."

Once again, he found another, except this one was still alive. It was Enny. She had the same knife wound as everyone else, but the stab was much less clean. She was still dying rapidly, but her motor functions were still fighting for her life.

"E-ENNY!!"

Jacob grabbed her and held the bleeding wound. Enny held on to Jacob, shaking.

"I don’t... want to die."

Jacob screamed a command at the top of his lungs.

"DON’T DIE!"

His throat felt like it was bleeding.

"DON’T DIE!! YOU CAN’T DIE!!"

"J-Jacob. The killer... he’s..."

Jacob laid her down gently. Tears were streaming down his face."

"I know. It’s okay. We’ll kill that god-forsaken general. I promise."

Enny shook her head.

"N-NO!"

Jacob’s heart dropped.

"No?"

"H-He’s... not... the killer."

Suddenly, something clicked inside of Jacob, but there was still something missing. It was the way the General was attacking everyone. There were more than dozens of instances where the General could have taken someone out if he wanted to. So, why did he not kill them when he had the chance? However, if the General wasn’t the killer, that meant there was something else here with them, taking them all out one by one.

"Maria. I need to find Maria."

Enny grabbed hold of Jacob’s arm before he left.

"Please. Don’t leave me yet."

Jacob’s eyes widened.

"I-I’m... scared."

Jacob’s heart filled with an infinitely vast sorrow. He sat in silence and grabbed hold of Enny’s hand.

"You aren’t going to die alone. Your brother is here now."

A small tear fell down Enny’s cheek.

"B-Brother..."

Jacob sat in silence until her body finally went still. After her passing, Jacob gently set down her hand. He walked slowly back towards the fight, unaware of what was yet to come.

The battle between the General and his people was still ongoing. General Stone had managed to find Maria and was in an extraordinary fist fight with her. Each hit sounded like an explosion travelling across the sky. Even Sheeby would manage to take a good bite out of him every now and then before flying away. The dust was almost all gone. Both wounded and dead friends alike littered the battlefield. Lidia looked around seeing the carnage and screamed. Jacob raised his hands right before Maria and the General exchanged another blow.

"STOOOOP!!"

This command took almost everything in Jacob to scream out. Everyone stopped in their tracks and stared at him. The General had a small hint of fear in his eyes staring at Jacob. It was clear he was trying to move but could not. Jacob panted heavily and looked around the battlefield.

"Stop. Stop fighting."

Slimo had blood seeping down his forehead. Sarah and Squabee stared at the carnage with tears filling their eyes. Serena and Zoey were crying as they limped their way towards Jacob. The General clenched his teeth.

"Unfreeze me."

"Tell me why your attacks were not trying to kill us."

The General squinted his eyes.

"UNFREEZE ME!"

"He killed our friends, Jacob. Have you gone insane?!"

Lidia’s anger was beyond seething. He was sure he saw dark flames roaring behind her pupils as she stared him down.

"There’s someone else here who killed them. Look at the wounds at the back of their head. They were all made by a dagger of some sort. He threw away his weapon before the fight as well, so it can’t be him."

Weirdly, the General seemed surprised to hear that most of his friends were strangely dead. Jacob noticed his hesitation and pushed him to answer.

"Even he looks surprised. Look at that look he is giving us. Tell us already. You know you can’t win anyway."

The General aimed his mouth sideways and spat some blood on the ground.

"Because maybe part of me, the smallest little part of me really did believe you assholes."

Lidia’s eyes widened.

"But if he wasn’t trying to kill us, then who-...?"

Just then, Serena’s eyes widened as a knife flew out the front of her forehead. She slowly went limp as Zoey turned her head in horror. Behind Zoey, was none other than...

"NOOOOOOOO!!"

Bart pulled the knife from Serena’s skull, a playful smirk across his lips as he wiped the blood off his weapon.

"You all truly are the most gullible group there is. You all trust people so easily, and yet your future murderer was besides you this whole time. It makes me truly wonder how humans have made it so far in this pitiful world."

Suddenly, an army began rumbling behind them. Jacob looked over the horizon.

"Paria’s reinforcements. They’re finally-"

He stopped. The people marching towards them weren’t soldiers. They were something beyond worse. An army of Epigones was heading right for them.

"B-But... Orvo..."

Suddenly, it all clicked. Jacob stared at Bart with wide eyes.

"Oops! It seems my cover is blown!"

Something strange appeared to happen with Bart. His skin began morphing into something different. His facial and body structure evolved into a unique person. Before long, Orvo had transformed back into himself.

"I-Impossible. My eye should have..."

Everyone, including the General, was at a loss for words.

"You were working with the Epigones this whole time. Then that also must mean you were-"

"Yup! That Lee fellow was me as well. To be honest, he was very hard to understand. I almost got my cover blown many times while I was him!"

"Then the real Lee, the real Bart-"

"Both dead! To be honest, I was quite proud of myself with killing Bart. That one had to be done extremely quickly. My good friend Slimo over there thankfully made my job incredibly easy with that overreaction towards the emperor!"

Everyone felt so utterly defeated they didn’t know how to react. Suddenly, Jacob and Maria’s mark started searing with indescribable pain. Orvo started clapping his hands lightly.

"They’re finally here!"

The army of Epigones were now lined up in front of them, and at the head of the line was a person with a familiar, sunken face.

"Doc..."

Doc looked at Jacob mournfully.

"I’m sorry, Jacob."

Suddenly, something strange began to happen with Zoey’s body. Her skin started peeling off, like something trying to hatch from an egg. Dark red flames took the place of the peeled skin. The area around everyone started getting much hotter. The words next to her body began to freak out as Jacob used his special eye to stare at her. Zoey was transforming... No. That wouldn’t be an accurate assessment. She was evolving. There were only a few words next to her name now, followed by random characters, as if his reading power was breaking as it studied her:

Name: Defiled Flame

Assessment: Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. Avoi-5%$(#

Suddenly, breaking free from her skin was a new being. Its form was the same as Zoey, but her entire body was pure fire. Instantly, the new form teleported behind Orvo and touched its hand to his back. Orvo wailed in pain and fell on the ground as his armor boiled on his skin. However, once his armor cleared and his back was revealed to everyone...

"No... it can’t be... you are supposed to be..."

Doc’s eyes turned desperate.

"JACOB!! YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!! YOU HAVE TO RUN!! YOU CAN’T WI-"

An Epigone covered Doc’s mouth, trying to silence him. Jacob was so distracted with what he saw, he hardly had time to process what he was hearing. Across Orvo’s back was none other than the same dark skull mark that both he and Maria shared. And similar to their skull marks, his skull had a complete mouth that was constantly changing colors.

"It... can’t be. He’s marked."

A womanly chuckle echoed in his mind before a voice spoke behind him.

"How kind of you all to bring everything we needed in one place. Tell me, Crimson Prince. Do you know what the three parts of a person are?"

Jacob began shaking uncontrollably staring up at a familiar figure through his messy hair. It was a woman with flawless skin, thin body, and cold attitude. He could recognize these philosophical questions anywhere. It was none other than Annis, one of the three of the Profane Trio.

"Well, since you seem a bit distracted, let me tell you."

She lifted his chin with the tip of her finger.

"The three parts of a person are the mind, the body..."

She stared at his mark while licking her lips.

"... and the soul. You know what we’re trying to do, right? So, which part is it that you think we need from you?"

"You need the body."

Annis laughed maniacally and covered her mouth.

"My dearest prince, we can get the body without you. What you harbor-"

She grabbed his arm and squeezed it tightly.

"Is his soul."

Suddenly, Jacob felt power seeping out from his limbs. However, it wasn’t from Annis’ grasp. There was somebody else draining him of his ability. A large man who towered over Anis stood next to Jacob. His cloak was pitch black, his face hidden from view, but Jacob knew that’s where his power was being taken from. This had to have been Garno, another one of the Profane Trio. And if those two were here, Ferro must have been close by. The situation had become utterly hopeless.

Everyone around the battlefield, except for Zoey, was kneeling on the ground. Not from being tried or wounded, but from the immense pressure emanating from the Epigones being so close to them.

There something else Jacob noticed too about his mark. The runes that were counting down the end times had all the same kind of runes except for the very last two. Jacob assumed that meant he only had mere minutes until everything was over. Possibly even seconds.

"Do it now, Garno."

Garno nodded his head and raised his hands. Jacob’s mark seared into his skin more and pulsated with dark energy. He was coming. The ground shook, the skies quaked, the sun in the sky slowly darkened into nothingness, only leaving stars to light up the earth, and with one massive boom, a hand broke through the entirety of Iron Kingdom. Then another hand broke through the forest to their right.

Finally, a massive, rotting body climbed itself out of ground from where Iron Kingdom was. When the thing stood up to look over the world, its head touched the clouds in the sky.

Humanities first Providence Deity had been born, and with it, calamity ensued. Hundreds of thousands of corrupted creatures began spilling out of the open wounds in Zalo’s body, falling down like a waterfall of black blood. With that, the runes on Jacob’s mark finally disappeared.

The end times had officially arrived.

"RELEASE THE LIGHT!!"

"RELEASE!"

"RELEASE!"

Lidia, Maria, and Harold had all released everything they had at once. An explosion of light consumed the surrounding area, blinding all the Epigones, causing Zalo himself to flinch slightly, and abought everyone around them three seconds to run away as fast as possible. Jacob, Squabee, Sarah, and Slimo were all picked up by Harold. Garno watched them run away.

"Should I chase them?"

"No point. We got what we needed from them."

Harold ran as far south as he could in the blink of an eye.

"Harold! The ocean is this way! We can’t-"

But when they reached the ocean, they were not met with any water. Only an infinite expanse of ice instead.

’Stay away from the ocean...’

They had no time to think about warnings. They needed to run.

Maria and Lidia both ran over to Gabriel and Avala, but they refused to leave.

"We won’t leave Zoey. No one can carry her now."

"Zoey will follow. We need to run, Gabriel. Please. I can’t let you die after everything that’s happened."

Gabriel nodded his head.

"I understand. That’s why I asked Maria to do this for me in case we ever ended up in this situation."

Just like how the fall of Iron Kingdom went, Maria grabbed hold of Lidia and dashed away as fast as she could, leaving Gabriel and Avala to themselves. Avala had tears streaming down her face as she looked at her opponents helplessly. Gabriel grabbed hold of her and held her face, looking into her green eyes.

"Gabriel..."

"I know."

"We... can’t win."

"I know."

"Why... were you always so cold? What were we?"

Gabriel hesitated.

"I’ve loved you for a while, Avala. I simply couldn’t bring myself to tell you. We both had many other things more pressing than our relationship."

Avala broke free from his grasp.

"We didn’t have to fight."

"But we were the only ones that could."

"Don’t we get the right to choose what to do with our power?"

Gabriel looked away for a moment.

"Maybe. But, why work for strength if you aren’t going to use it?"

Suddenly, the General of Monlo Empire walked over to them both. He reached out his hand.

"Quite the shit-show we got ourselves into, huh?"

Gabriel looked at his hand and shook it firmly.

"You can say that again. I’ve never been one for last-stands, I must say."

General Stone laughed proudly.

"Are you kidding me?! Final stands are the most honorable fights of them all!"

And so, the heroes of the Monlo Empire, Paria Empire, and Iron Kingdom all stood together for one final hopeless fight.

"We should let the flame girl do her stuff first. I’m sweating just standing near her here."

"Agreed. I’ll watch our backs. The monster spilling from Zalo are already almost here."

After a while of travelling over the ice, Harold threw everyone off his back.

"Abby. I need to go back for Abby."

Jacob grabbed on to his arm.

"Please, Harold. You’ll die."

Harold held back tears.

"Without her, I’m as good as dead."

Even with his heart beating out of his chest, Harold pushed himself beyond his limits.

"Release!"

And just like that, he ran back towards Abby, leaving Jacob alone with Slimo, Sarah and Squabee.

Jacob sat on his knees, utterly defeated. He screamed and slammed his fist against the ice multiple times as tears rolled out of his eyes.

"It’s always me! It’s all my fault! I killed our friends!!"

Instead of correcting him or trying to comfort him, every else was so shocked and numb from everything that happened they let Jacob take out his frustration himself.

A cold wind swept across the Icey surface of the ocean.

Humanity had lost.

End of Volume 2: Rule of Three’s

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