Silver King

Chapter 23 - Mare

" Abigail shouldn't talk, " she concludes.

Evangeline nods proudly to Elane, then redirects her gaze towards her father. He speaks up.

" Good. Now that they think the only menace we sent them is in prison, they won't think we're coming. "

I gasp but quickly muffle it with my hand. What's coming?

" Evangeline, is everything ready for the soldiers? " he asks her daughter.

" Yes. I went to the basement yesterday to check on them, they're all ready to go. Metal soldiers, ready to answer your command and destroy everything democratic in Norta. "

Volo Samos chuckles at this, sending shivers down my spine. But I don't stay to hear anything else: all that matters to me now is this metal army the Samos have built themselves. I dash to the nearest staircase I see and as fast as I can, I skim downstairs. Down, down, down. I see no door leading to another floor for several minutes so I just continue to go down the stairs, two steps at a time, until I finally see one heavy, greasy metal door with no windows. I delicately push it, so I don't signal my presence, but it's useless. Once I'm inside, I see I'm alone. If you can consider alone with hundreds and hundreds of empty suits of armor bearing weapons as alone.

I hold my breath, not daring to give a reason to these soulless soldiers to attack me. They can't have remorse. They can't have humanity. They just attack.

Then I do something that is either very dumb or very useful. Knowing quite well that I may be electrocuted by the return of my blow to the reflecting metal, I send a big bolt of purple lightning to a soldier.

It doesn't rebound.

The soldier crashes backward, a mangled hole gaping at his front, the rest of the armor seeming to be melting away. I can't believe it.

I send another bolt, bigger, brighter, more destructive. Seven suits of armor 'die'. Suddenly exhilarated by my power over this army and the thought that I have a secret asset by being there without the knowing, I start firing bolt after bolt after bolt of shimmering purple electricity, sometimes sending a spark so big and so hot that it burns up 50 soldiers at once. They don't retaliate, as no magnetron is here to control them.

Hundreds of mangled metal pieces lay at my feet, with only a few dozen left to the far end of the enormous room.

Then the world spins.

Ptolemus Samos is here.

I can't let him win again, not this time. As he starts rounding up the suits of armor, I whip around and send a bolt at him.

But I forgot to tone it down. It's a deadly bolt. He falls back, his eyes suddenly empty, and staggers into a pile of old soldiers.

I don't have time to stop and mourn the man who hates me, especially since more are probably coming. I blast three times a big purple bolt, finishing off all of the remaining suits of armor, then I dash away, climbing up the stairs and jump out the first window I see. So I run towards the forest before stopping. I know I'm doing the right thing. I raise my hands to the sky, taking all the electricity I can from the humid air. Then I form the biggest bolt of lightning I've ever produced. It's at least two times my size. And I throw it at the castle.

The bricks start to crumble, and the gaping hole in the side of the palace gets bigger by the second, until the top floors fall brutally on the first ones, reducing the castle to a pile of bricks and rocks and metal, so destroyed you can't know what stood there before. There are screams, there is blood all over. But there is no more Volo Samos, that much I am sure. There is no more of anyone who was in that meeting room I aimed for.

Nothing moves for several minutes, until I see two silver-haired girls emerge from the ruins, clutching each other and tears steaming down their faces. At first I don't recognize Elane, because of the silver blood streaking her hair and the gash opened at her cheek. Evangeline is crying beside her, half dragging her and half dragging herself, away from the trouble. I take it they know they're the only survivors.

I let them go, disappearing into the forest, because I have the feeling they're never cause us any trouble ever again.

They'll want to live calmly in their love.

Author's Note: Wow, I can't believe I produced a whole chapter (which is also probably the longest chapter of this fanfiction!) in just one day! I don't know if it's really clear, but this is the last action chapter before the epilogue, so I would love if you could comment what you liked the most about this story's plot, to help me for my future fanfictions. The epilogue should be up in a couple of days, maybe even tomorrow, and I'm very excited to finish this one great adventure. Thank you for reading all the way down here and for all the nice comments that have really kept me going through this writing process. Love you guys!