Cyrus and Lucius kept advancing through the many corridors and hallways of the palace, the guards and the vampire army already having been taken care of by the Rebellion Army. They didn't kill any of them, since their goal was to kill the king and save everyone under his control, but they knocked them out using Lucius's powerful sleeping potion, so they wouldn't bother them any more.
However, everything was a little too quiet. Their plan seemed to be going perfectly, but both Lucius and Cyrus had a bad feeling in their gut. They quickly pushed their doubts aside, focusing on getting to the king. They had checked almost all the rooms in which Aragoth could be, but he was in none of them. The only place left was the palace's back garden, where the king sometimes came to relax.
The two vampires stealthily made their way towards that garden, exiting the palace and reentering the cold, night air. Rows of beautiful flowers and trees surrounded them, an elegant path in the middle. They scanned their surroundings, looking out for any possible enemies, but they were completely alone.
"Could the king not be here?" Lucius asked, his voice merely above a whisper.
"Maybe he's somewhere else?" Cyrus suggested even though they knew that was highly unlikely, since they already checked every nook and cranny of the palace. The bad feeling they had grew even stronger as they began thinking of the worst case scenario.
"We have to leave," Lucius suddenly said, realizing a deadly flaw in his plan. Both of them turned around, ready to retreat, but they stopped dead in their tracks when a voice came from behind them, sending chills down their spines.
"Leaving so soon? I've been waiting for you," Aragoth mockingly said, laughing.
Lucius and Cyrus slowly turned to face him. From all around them, his army of vampires surrounded them.
"Why are there so many...? They were supposed to be in the south-east," Cyrus whispered under his breath to Lucius, his voice filled with confusion and anxiety.
Lucius was really pale, from both the usage of his mana and from the dread filling his body. "I messed up. I failed to take into consideration the most important factor of this plan. Aragoth has Reia. Reia, the one who understands us the best. Aragoth knew we would try to attack him, so he probably asked Reia to tell him what he thought we were going to do. And he figured out what we were most likely to do. This was a trap," he explained, standing back to back with Cyrus, looking around at all the vampires menacingly approaching them.
Right then, the Rebellion Army dashed through the palace exit, desperately looking around the garden. "It's a trap!" one of them tried to warn Lucius and Cyrus, but then they noticed it was already too late. They looked at their enemies, their hearts falling to their stomachs as they realized just how badly they messed up. However, when they saw Cyrus and Lucius standing in a fighting stance in the middle of it all, something inside of them changed, their eyes filling with new determination. This was also their fight. They weren't going to back down now.
And so, the fight began. The vampire army charged at them, attacking any enemy that came in their way. Cyrus tried using his fire ability, but then he realized it was too dangerous, since he could accidentally kill his own people too, so he settled for good old hand to hand combat, smashing and fighting off the king's vampires while also trying to back up Lucius, who was using the last bit of mana he had left, his skin sickly pale as he bound and stopped the vampires attacking them using the darkness.
"The king! We have to get to the king!" he shouted towards Cyrus, desperately fighting off vampires.
"I know, you fucking idiot! But that's kinda hard, isn't it?" Cyrus snapped at him, punching a vampire that was approaching Lucius. There were too many of them. The king was calmly standing back, watching the madness unfold with a sly, sinister grin on his face, knowing that they stood no chance against so many of his puppets.
"I'll...I'll teleport to him," Lucius suddenly said, barely standing anymore.
"Have you completely fucking lost it? You'll pass out and get yourself killed!" Cyrus yelled at him, managing to kill a few vampires with his fire. "I won't be able to have your back if you go straight towards Aragoth. Don't be stupid, Lucius. You'll die."
"Then I'll make sure I take that bitch down with me," he calmly responded, ignoring Cyrus's shouts of protest. Lucius ignored the dizziness and nausea as he summoned the darkness around himself one more time. He closed his eyes, letting himself get engulfed by it.
Suddenly, from above them, a red, sharp spear broke through Lucius's wall of darkness with uncanny speed.
"Lucius!" Cyrus screamed as the darkness dissipated, revealing Lucius -who had fallen to the ground with the spear going right through his shoulder. He wasn't moving anymore, a big pool of his own blood forming underneath him. "LUCIUS!" Cyrus desperately screamed again, his voice filled with fear at the thought of losing him. He started rushing towards him, but another spear fell from the sky, barely missing him. The vampire snapped his head upwards and his heart completely dropped.
Like a falling angel, Reia was coming at him full speed. Cyrus barely managed to dodge him as he landed on the ground. Then, giving him no time to recollect himself, Reia sent multiple blood bullets towards Cyrus, even killing some of the vampires on his side.
Cyrus jumped high in the air at the last second, managing to avoid most of the bullets, but some managed to pierce though his left leg and left shoulder. He grunted in pain as he avoided yet another attack from Reia. He was barely managing to keep up with him, his wounds slowing him down. If things kept going this way, he was going to die.
"My sweet Reia! You finally arrived too!" Aragoth happily exclaimed from somewhere behind them. "Kill all of them, dear," he sweetly commanded, laughing.
The spiral in Reia's eyes grew a brighter shade of white. With incredible speed, he dashed towards Cyrus, his blood breaking through the skin on his back, forming tentacle-like weapons, which shot towards the vampire. This time, Cyrus couldn't avoid them anymore. Reia's blood wrapped around him, tightly bounding him and restricting his movements. Reia continued rapidly dashing towards him, his blood tightening around Cyrus even more, some of his bones cracking and breaking under the pressure. However, even though he was in excruciating pain, the only thing Cyrus could focus on as Reia came closer and closer to him was the way Reia looked. His body was covered in a hundred more scars, not an inch of skin left untouched. His eyes looked empty and tired as the spiral in them kept glowing and deep, purplish eyebags surrounded them. He was two times thinner than he was before.
Even though he knew he was going to die, something inside Cyrus snapped, his heart breaking as he thought about how he failed to protect Lucius and Reia. Lucius, who stayed by his side all of his life and whom he failed to protect that night when they were turned. Reia, who had gone through so much but still found the strength to be kind and protect them with the stake of his own freedom. He failed again and again and now he was going to die. A sad smile formed on his face as he closed his eyes in acceptance, tears falling down his cheeks as he stopped struggling against Reia's blood ropes.
"I'm sorry Lucius. I'm sorry, Reia," he softly whispered as he waited for Reia to kill him.
Then, a pained voice came from under them. "R-Reia! Snap out of it!" Lucius managed to scream as he used the last bits of his strength to summon a rope of darkness around Reia, stopping him right before he was about to kill Cyrus. He contorted in pain and gritted his teeth as he pulled out the blood spear piercing through his shoulder, concentrating on keeping Reia bound by his darkness, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to do it for much longer.
"Reia! Fight it! Please come back to us!" Cyrus desperately screamed too, Reia wildly fighting against Lucius's darkness that tied him.
"You can do it! You did it before, so please, Reia!" Lucius cried, his entire body shaking from the strain of using his ability.
Reia's face contorted in pain and anger, something inside him seemingly reacting to their voices. The spiral in his eyes started flickering, tears falling down his face.
"I want to die. I want to die. I want to die. I want to die," Reia desperately thought as Aragoth's control over him flickered. He was in so much pain. He just wanted everything to end. "I want to die," he softly cried out, his mind a scattered mess.
"Reia!" Cyrus desperately screamed one more time as he saw Reia trying to fight back against the king's control.
Reia's eyes suddenly snapped to Cyrus, as if it was the first time he realized who he was fighting. He watched his friend's pained face and the blood ropes bound around him. He was hurting him. He was hurting Cyrus.
"I want to die," Reia softly whispered as more tears kept falling down his cheeks, the spiral in his eyes slightly dimming. Then, he looked around him and noticed Lucius on the ground. He saw all the people fighting against the vampire army. And lastly, his eyes landed on Aragoth, who was watching this fight with a smirk on his face. Slowly, he turned his attention back to Cyrus's pained and bloody expression and something inside him finally snapped, the spiral in his eyes completely disappearing. "I want to live," he whispered, releasing the blood ropes from Cyrus.
Cyrus fell to the ground and coughed, instantly rushing towards Lucius. "Are you ok?" he asked.
Instead of replying, Lucius nodded towards Reia with a shocked expression. Cyrus turned around too, his jaw almost falling to the floor.
Reia suddenly attacked Aragoth, the two of them being in an intense fight.
"You foolish child! You dare try to go against me? So what if you temporarily managed to regain your conscience? I'll take over your mind again soon," Aragoth mockingly said, dodging Reia's attacks.
"I'm going...To...Kill you," Reia breathed out, using all his strength to try to fight back against Aragoth's control by severing the nerve connections to his brain by using his blood, but that took a lot of mana, so Reia's attacks grew slower and slower, the king giving him a sinister smirk.
"You stand no chance against me, my sweet Reia. Surrender," he laughed as Reia fell to his knees, coughing up blood from the effort and strain it took to fight against his ability.
Aragoth calmly approached him, ignoring the fierce battle still happening around him, grabbing Reia's jaw and making him look at him. "Stop being a fool," he cruelly said.
However, Reia let out a deranged laugh, taking aback Aragoth. "You're forgetting one thing... I am the one that made you stronger. My blood is in your system, Aragoth," Reia mockingly said and Aragoth's face fell at the sudden realization of what he was planning.
He backed away, but there was nowhere he could run. From within him, blood pierced through his body, millions of sharp blood spears -made of Reia's blood, that Aragoth drank to get more powerful- stabbed him from the inside out. Aragoth fell to the ground, bleeding from hundreds of wounds.
"Rot in hell, fucker," Reia cursed him before collapsing to the ground too, not moving or breathing at all.
Suddenly, the entirety of Aragoth's vampire army stopped fighting, finally regaining control over their own bodies since their controller died.
"Reia!" both Lucius and Cyrus yelled, rushing towards him, ignoring the pain and exhaustion in their own bodies. They fell to their knees next to his body, Cyrus holding him in his arms as Lucius desperately looked for his pulse.
"He's...He's still alive. But his pulse is so faint. He used up all of his magic energy to take down Aragoth. He... He only has a few minutes left. We have to do something!" he cried out, looking at Cyrus with panic-filled eyes.
"I'll...I'll give him all the magic energy I have left," Cyrus suddenly said.
Lucius snapped his eyes at him. If he did that, then Cyrus was sure to die. "That still won't be enough. I'll give him my energy too," Lucius whispered. They both stared at each other, understanding what that meant.
"I will gladly give my life it means he gets to live," Cyrus said, his voice calm as a small smile formed on his face.
"He saved us. All this time, he protected us. My life has always been his anyways, so I won't think twice before putting his life above mine. We will save him," Lucius agreed, both of them willing to sacrifice themselves for their friend.
Just as they were about to transfer their magic energy to Reia, someone from the crowd surrounding them shouted. "Stop it! He... He saved us too. We won't let any of you die," a vampire from the king's army said. After his words, both the vampires that just regained control and the Rebellion Army shouted in agreement, circling around Reia, Lucius and Cyrus. And then, one by one, they all transferred a bit of their magic energy to Reia, the color slowly returning to his pale skin.
Lucius and Cyrus watched in awe as so many people came together to help them. The humans that couldn't do anything to help Reia (since they didn't have magic energy) helped Lucius and Cyrus instead, taking care of their wounds.
"Lucius...? Cyrus?" Reia's hoarse voice made both of them rush towards him. He had woken up.
"Reia! Thank god!" Lucius cried, wrapping his arms around him and tightly hugging him.
"You fucking idiot! I thought you were gonna die for real this time!" Cyrus sobbed, hugging him too.
Reia softly laughed, wrapping his own arms around them, glad to see that they were alive and safe.
"It's over..." Reia softly whispered under his breath, his heart finally at peace.
The three of them struggled to get up to their feet, holding each other's hands, silently promising to never leave each other again. They were family.
Suddenly, all the people around them bowed down in front of them, solemnly holding their heads to the ground. "Our rightful kings!" someone from the crowd cheered, all the others cheering in agreement.
Reia, Cyrus and Lucius looked at all the people around them with shocked eyes. Then, Lucius let out a loud laugh. "You are the rightful heir to the throne, after all," he playfully told Reia, a big grin on his face.
Cyrus's face lit up when he heard that. "Holy shit! That's right! You're king now, Reia!" Cyrus laughed too.
Reia squeezed both of their hands, a soft smile on his face as he looked at all the people bowing in front of them. "I'm not the king. Look at the people. They have chosen all three of us," he said, looking from Cyrus to Lucius. "We'll rule this kingdom together. We'll keep it safe and protect it as The Blood-Mage Hunters, not as kings."
The End.