The sound from the Emperor's office, where the bell that sat tight for a few decades has been ringing, alerting the sapphire eyes about something. The enemy finds out about the secret tunnel!
"Immobilise the Imperial Knights to ambush the enemy at the Imperial Hall and Kitchen now! Intruders are coming our way!" the Emperor growls to the leader.
When bringing the sacred Imperial orders, the Imperial Knights carry out the orders at lightning speed. Before they departed to the place, their leaders asked the Emperor of Angelos, Ares.
"What are Your Majesty's orders about the intruders?"
In a chilling voice, his sapphire eyes darken, and he says, "Blow up the tunnels. Then, if some manage to escape alive, behead all of them, and throw their heads outside the Imperial Gate. Let it be their reminder for them to what will become if they are in our hands."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the Imperial Knights grab the black powder and some torch to ignite it later.
Two Imperial Knights come to separate places, holding a small bag of black powder, pulling out the rope, and letting it shower on the secret tunnel entrance. However, some of them managed to emerge before they could blow it up. The knights come, fighting against the Imperial, with everything they have. Since the Imperial Knights are too many, the knights are outnumbered, and it is time for them to surrender.
Regardless, their motivation is blazing, vowing never to yield to the enemies. Finally, one of the Imperial Knights manages to throw fire inside the tunnel, collapsing it and burying the remaining Natalie's side in the ground. Some that tend to slip away continue their fight, but that's changed when the Imperial Knight gains the upper hand, slaughters some of them on the neck, rolling their fellow's head merciless.
"This is a lunacy!"
The knights fight until the end, but they already know what's coming. The least they could do was to fewer the enemies for the other team. Finally, after a few minutes, the massacre in Imperial Hall ends, with their heads lying on the floor, like countless balls from afar. Their blood stains the carpet and the place in total.
The leader turns his head slightly to his subordinates, carrying out the following order from Ares, "Bring those peasant heads to the Gate and toss them out so that the remaining foes on the outskirts will observe!"
The team led by Medea in the Imperial Kitchen manages to get in faster by the hair when the Imperial Knights come over, by Medea setting them off with another ambush. The Duchess notices the small bag, sliding in among the battle to target the knight holding it. She has a hunch that it is a black powder, and Ares wants to blow it up.
"It must be the black powder!"
Duchess Valimos tackles the knight as he trips over while her hand swiftly gets it without him noticing. Experiencing the same crisis as the Imperial Hall's team, the Imperial Knights swarm over to their side, fighting against them. The stacks against them, but Medea won't allow that to happen.
"Do not harm the servants!" Medea yells, warning not to touch the innocent one in this battle.
The Duchess holds onto the small bag, putting it on her side, then continue to fight, dodging the attacks from people. The Imperial Knights are bewildered by the sudden appearance and how she is still alive all this time. However, what even throw them off is her swordsmanship is so fine. Like the finest within the Empire, that remind them of Marquess Alwyn, the Hero of Empire.
The Imperial Knights and additional team were defeated at last at the Imperial Kitchen by Medea. She immediately ordered them to be tied while she looked at the tunnel that collapsed during the fight. A knight manages to blow it up with different black powder. It means they are alone with the other team now. Her chest rises up and down, and they cannot avoid bloodshed even if they want to. The enemy leaves them with no choice but to fight back at the critical moment.
She lets out a quiet exhale, putting back the bloody sword to her side.
"Prepare for the next move," the frosty voice notified her other knights, looking back at the amount of black powder she managed to get, but failed when they collapsed the tunnel with another one.
"Yes, Your Grace."
On another side of the Imperial Palace, Emperor Ares ordered the knights guarding outside the Gate to go in position. However, Ares smells rat about it, and something goes off. There is not even a citizen outside accompanying the knights. Yet, strangely enough, it is peaceful outside, and no movement from them to go to the tunnel.
"Have our knights taken a different path to the secret tunnel from the outside?" Ares asks, rubbing his chin.
"Yes, I've already notified them, Your Majesty," his knight replies, but something scratches inside his gut, telling him something is wrong.
With the blasting sound from a distance, not even a single person or citizen comes to the Imperial Palace.
"Is it a trap?" Ares scrunches his forehead.
"Release the fire catapult now! The enemy has surrounded us outside of the Gate!" Ares orders back, needing to destroy the army outside.
The Imperial Treasure has been lost since Natalie's seize a few days ago, so even if they manage to defeat the intruders, Ares knows they won't be able to hold out for very long, especially given the proximity of their enemies.
"Yes--What?"
"Do I need to repeat my order twice?" the sapphire eyes darken, raising the fear inside the man in front of the Emperor.
"Yes, Your Majesty. We shall carry out your order," he leaves immediately and bumps into another team that he dispatched earlier, carrying the traitor's heads to the wall.
The Imperial Knights then assemble the head in one line, where their face is directly seen in front of the other Knights from outside. Then, finally, the three allies' knights see their fellow's heads on the top of the wall and feel the agony of the cruelness from them, which is merciless enough to make it a display. Not only that, they throw it over their heads like it is nothing until it reaches them, rolling to their feet.
They smouldered in resentment at the sight, barely holding themselves in a position. The sapphire eyes watch them, chuckling lowly at their willpower over that. It is a matter of time for him to break that crumble will.
The Duchess of Light watches over this, realising the catapult is slowly being raised up, and the archers assemble around the Gate, targetting the knights outside. Apollo, Hector and Eli take a glimpse of that, taking up in a shield formation, ready to go in defensive mode.
"Defence formation!" the knights obey, forming it quickly under the firm voice of the former Commander, Marquess Alwyn.
Before it could even reach them, a strong wind came out of nowhere, blurring the archers' sight, while the fire suddenly caused them to retreat from the wall. However, it doesn't stop the catapult from loading the black powder and its stone. They are waiting to be released and crush the ones on the outside.
Natalie freezes it from afar, crushing the catapult by destroying it with fire, melting the metal. Then, she snaps her finger to stop time temporarily before it even has time to fall over at their knights on the bottom.
"Move away from the catapult!" the Duchess of Light's voice penetrates through the air, watching their knights move away to a better safe location.
She snaps her finger again, letting the melting metal fall, burying itself under the snow. Then, the stone rolled away, but she had already built another snowball of the same size, crushing with the stone to stop its movement. The blonde could feel her hands tremble from the power alone while holding up the invisible wall surrounding people at the Temple.
The other Duchess strikes from the inside, blowing up the wall to shake it up with the black powder she had. However, the wall is sturdy enough to be shaken even from the weakest point. Moreover, it attracts the other Imperial Knights to the location, where she lies for the perfect time to catch them off guard.
"Now!" Medea roars at the other, where they are flying, emerging from the plants around there, paralysing the knights' thought to fight back.
She uses the same tactic to numb their thought. However, she also used it to divide the enemies into smaller groups, matching their numbers. That way, she can avoid fighting all of them simultaneously.
"In war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak."
Simply put, she uses a divide and conquers method.
Then, after defeating, distract the enemies with a small occasion and beat them one by one. Finally, the enemies fall to their knees in front of her, and Medea finally makes it up to the main Gate. Then, Duchess Valimos orders the knights to open the Gate for the one waiting outside. They go to the two opposite sides, gritting their teeth to pull back the rope, opening the Gate with all their might.
Duchess Valimos also gives their hand for that. Then, finally, the Duchess of Light helps them to open the Gate momentarily by pushing it up using the ice frost that emerges from the bottom. With that, their allies on the outside take this as a cue to get inside, infiltrating the Imperial Palace.
Emperor Ares interferes, using the divinity power to crush the ice and cut the rope, causing the Gate to close again, crushing on some knights on the bottom. Not even half of the allies get inside. Luckily Lord Apollo and Lord Eli manage to get in, but Hector leaves behind.
The Imperial Knights emerge from their behind, wearing a complete set of war armour, ravaging the one who just got inside. Natalie knows it will be a hard fight. So she stops using her magical power from blasting around the Gate to save her ability.
"Valienth! I need you!" she roars, summoning her dragon.
Then, out of nowhere, Valienth comes to the rescue, breathing the fire to melt the Gate entirely open for Hector. When Valienth sees it is alright now, he fuses his ice power, leaving the glaze to cool down so the horses wouldn't get spooked from the heat. The horses started galloping, while some knights were in awe of such creatures. But, out of nowhere, another knight lands on Valienth's body. It is from the Emperor's personal knights, the finest knights within the Empire.
This cause Valienth to flap its wing and Natalie to notify about this. The ruby eyes filled the fire spark inside her, freezing the knight immediately. As Hector finishes getting inside with the rest, Valienth breathes the frost again, closing the Gate. It is the best in that way, so people wouldn't get into this bloody battle, sacrificing innocent people more.
Out of chaos and the sounds of people roaring in the battle, the sapphire eyes are about to stop Valienth but stop on a dead track, watching the woman he once loved and hated are alive and well.
"Medea?" he leans forward, narrowing his eyes to make sense of what he is looking for.
In the meantime, Countess Hera appears at the Grand Temple beside Her Holiness, causing the people, Pope and high priests to be in shock.
"Is that?"
"Hera! The Emperor's ex-fiancee!"
"The killer of Empress Ophelia."
"I am certain all of you still remember me from the incident when we lost our Empress in the autumn of this year. However, I am here to tell you that it isn't me that killed her," the emerald eyes said in a firm voice, but people had already made up their minds about the case.
It is all there. Hera even runs away without even justifying herself.
"Even so, why would you run away if it isn't you who killed the late Empress?!" the other hollers, demanding an answer from her.
They are trying to jump to her, handling the woman by themselves. Their eyes filled with hatred and anger, flaring their bodies, which made Hera more determined to change it. Understandably, they are in the dark about it, but they don't have to now.
Their expression changes to bafflement when there are invisible walls that trap them around, which also separate the people from the Grand Entrance of the Grand Temple, where Hera and the others stand. They started in a complete state of panic, but Hera had another thing to say.
"Why are you trapping us!" the man said in a rough voice, slamming his hands on the invisible wall, looking at the emerald eyes deadly.
"I was searching for the evidence that I was being framed because there's no way out for me to make justice about myself before the blade reaches on my neck first at that time. So that's why I am here again, to prove to all of you what happened that day. But, before that, let me introduce you to one person," the emerald eyes look up into the sky as people hear the same eerie sound from the Smith's manor again that day.
People followed her emerald eye movement, and then their bodies shook in fear over the dragon's sound from the sky as they stuck there, waiting for their fate for its wrath. However, the mighty Valienth had another purpose, to bring a significant man to the Grand Temple, where it would change everything for Medea's side. One of her ultimate cards in this final battle.
"While we are infiltrating the Imperial Palace, our main purpose is at the Temple, where we turn the table to our side without Ares' knowing, distracting him in the meantime," Medea lets out a radiant face, grinning in evil.
Yet, the men, except for Lord Eli and Cardinal Eryx still in the dark about how they would turn the table. It won't be easy to turn the tide for their side, where Ares has put deep roots in their mind about the villains.
"How are we going to turn the table?" Eryx asks, tilting his head at the map and plan.
"An excellent question. We will triumph by dropping one of our ultimate cards through Valienth. And that's Emperor Atticus, Ares' father," Medea drops the bombshell, forcing the Cardinal to have a puzzled expression and his jaw drop from that.
"Wait, he is still alive?"