Z-Day

Freiheit

However, the queen did not seem unfazed.

"Trying to buy time now, are we?" Queen Alkaia uncrossed her legs and stood up before walking down her throne. "While I commend you for your courage but that would be unadvisable unless you would like one of them losing a limb or two,"

"Please! We know that deep down inside, you're a very kind person who just wants to make sure that women stand on the same ground with men in this world but we can't stay here forever!"

Ahh. So this was what this was all about. Fubuki could only virtually roll his eyes in disgust. The queen was planning to recruit their female members. But needless to say, what a dirty card she had chosen.

As he continued to crouch on his knees, his numbed senses dulled further. It didn't seem like the sensation his hands and feet were going to be coming back soon. Oxygen seemed scarce even though it was practically all over the Earth's atmosphere. Well, at least to him as he found it increasingly harder to breath. To make matters worse, he had a vague feeling that his vision was slightly darker than it should've been under normal circumstances...

Therefore, he wasn't really paying attention when the queen tilted his chin up either. By the time he once again became aware of his surroundings, everyone was looking at him as if he had grown another head. It even took that much effort to strain his ears to make sense of their distancing voices.

"...do you mean by that?" Kidou questioned in an alarmed tone. Everyone seemed tensed for some reason.

"Have you not asked yourselves what it is I poisoned him with?"

His vision flashed in a myriad of colours as he panted, everything going hazy all of a sudden.

"What did you do to him?!"

And that was the final sentence he heard before he collapsed, silver eyelids fluttering shut. The Amazonian women let go of him, allowing him to fall unceremoniously to the ground.

"Fubuki!" "You crazy bitch!"

"Right now, his lungs are almost about to stop breathing. He has arrived at Death's Door,"

A moment of silence passed through them as each side fail to give in. Queen Alkaia's face softened ever so slightly at the tears glistening down the girls' faces. Strange, was she not doing the right thing? She was merely giving these girls a chance at freedom. Away from those beasts.

Yet, why are they acting as if it pained them to see the suffering of that male?

"Girls..."

"Alkaia... Stop,"

The Queen whirled around and to her surprise. She would have known that voice anywhere- it was Katheeva who had spoken. Her second-in-command who had always been loyal and served by her side, the one who never turned her back on her even when everyone else did and most importantly-the only one she could call her best friend.

Hiroto immediately identified Katheeva as the one who Queen Alkaia had spoken to the first time they met. He had guessed she was close from the first glance but to call the Queen without any honorifics, she must be even more close to the queen than he had initially thought.

Queen Alkaia's eyes went cold.

"What do you mean stop? I'm doing this to save those girls and liberate them from their suffering. Surely you of all people are able to see it,"

"No," Katheeva took in a shaky breath. It wasn't hard to figure out that this was probably the first time she had ever spoken back to Queen Alkaia. "What you are doing is forcing them to be a part of our sisterhood. Have you ever forgotten the ways of our ancestors and the previous queens? To be a warrior is to fight; but not kill without reason. That is what Queen Myrina had instilled to us from the very beginning,"