When they stormed the palace, the battle had already begun. With the Imperial Army reaching a distance away, the goal was to prevent them from entering the palace and controlling it at any cost.
The fighting inside the palace was violent, but it was clear that military force was not able to face the shrewdness and preparations made by Kayden and his team.
Freeze, who had reached the heart of the battle, led the attack against the guards who were trying to repel them, while the revolutionary forces continued to besiege the capital from the outside.
Then came the time for the great confrontation. The Emperor, who had been informed of the attack on his palace, was trying to flee the fight, but Kayden had laid precise plans to seize all palace entrances before he could retreat or try to escape.
Kayden (with anger): "You will not escape. We are here to put an end to this corrupt system."
With Marcus's forces storming and occupying the capital completely, it became impossible for the Imperial Army to regain the city. The revolutionaries' plan had achieved its goals.
At that moment, Kayden, Eugene, and Mariana had stormed the throne room, where they were steps away from facing the Emperor face to face, trapped in the heart of his palace.
The end was near, and the Empire was on the verge of collapse.
As Advisor Seraphin fell to the ground, and alongside the constant commotion from the battle raging outside, one of the men entered suddenly, his face full of anxiety and panic, running toward the Advisor.
"Sir, there are dozens of ships coming from the direction of the Kingdom of Swords! The ships are full of men... these are not poor people or revolutionaries, they are part of the alliance against the Empire!"
The Advisor heard his words, and his eyes bulged for a moment, then he began to connect things in his mind quickly. Expressions of astonishment appeared on his face, followed by an unexplained feeling of anxiety and confusion. As his mind began to work on absorbing the truth before him, he began to breathe more rapidly.
Then, as if something inside him had broken, he looked at Kayden with eyes full of wonder.
"I... I understand now... I understand everything!" he said in a broken voice, starting to turn in place as if revealing a great truth.
Kayden, who expected many responses, felt surprised hearing these words.
"What did you understand?" Kayden asked, trying to grasp what was happening.
The Advisor, staring into the void as if his mind was still working on connecting the ideas, replied with clear hysteria:
"This... this is Valerian's plan! Yes, now I know. These are the men of the Kingdom of Peace! They have been working behind the scenes all this time. They are part of the alliance against the Empire, and here they are now on their way to pounce on everything! I was watching, but I was not seeing the full picture."
Kayden felt astonished. He knew Advisor Seraphin was sharp-witted, but he did not expect him to reach these conclusions so quickly.
"How did you know all that?" Kayden asked, approaching him.
The Advisor, who began to stagger on his feet as if in a state of delirium, looked at Kayden and then muttered:
"There were signs all along. Unannounced military movements, secret transport of weapons, and all these ships appearing on the horizon. Then... then came the Kingdom of Swords... and I was noticing everything, but I did not fully understand until now."
The Advisor had begun to enter a state of madness, doubts accumulating in his mind quickly. The more he questioned the plan, the more tensions increased within his mind.
But suddenly, interrupting this torrent of words, Kayden felt a surge of anger accumulating in his chest, and he raised his voice nervously, frowning, looking at the Emperor and the Advisor.
"You... you are the ones who made all this happen!" Kayden said in a sharp tone, pointing the finger of accusation at them. "You who let the Empire increase in corruption until it reached this point. You are responsible for the injustice that has plagued our people! How did you dare to continue your rule in this way? How did you dare to push the country toward ruin?!"
The talk was like punches to the Emperor and the Advisor. They did not expect this to be Kayden's reaction. The Emperor, who was gasping with difficulty after his injuries, looked at Kayden with a look full of hatred. As for the Advisor, he seemed to be suffering from more confusion, as if his words hit him directly in his heart.
"How did you dare to strip rights from the people? How did you dare to suppress the oppressed in this way?! Many people were killed, and the lives of the innocent were sacrificed just because you wanted to protect your thrones! And you think you are safe now?" Kayden's nervousness increased as he stood before them defiantly.
But the Advisor, his mind almost exploding from the effort of trying to understand what was happening, his eyes looked at the ground as if everything was falling around him.
"You... you are right... we made mistakes. But we did not see them at the time. We..." The Advisor began to stagger, but Kayden was not merciful.
"No! There is no excuse for you! You drowned the country in darkness, and here we are now facing the consequences!" Kayden said with anger, pointing to the commotion around them.
Suddenly, a knight in iron armor with a shining sword entered and struck Kayden with a powerful blow that knocked him to the ground, then went to the Emperor and helped him stand.
The knight said:
"Boy, this place, this position, this throne, and those matters concerning the country... are much larger than you. Go back where you came from, and we will let you live your life."
Kayden helped himself up, leaning on his sword, looking at him with intense anger, saying:
"Do you think I would believe words from people like you? You are scum who should have died a long time ago. I... I am the person most capable of fixing the Empire."
Then he ran, pointing his sword toward him, while at the same time, Eugene was pointing his sword from the other side.
The knight waited for both young men to approach each other, then moved quickly to the left so they would collide, but they quickly realized the situation and continued the attack. While Kayden struck powerfully from the right side, Eugene tried to hit the knight in vital areas.
In a moment, the knight pushed Eugene away, then struck Kayden a hard blow in the stomach with his hand and wounded him with his sword. Mariana intervened skillfully and made him go to the other side, the right side next to Joseph and Seraphin.
A short silence prevailed after Kayden's scream... before the knight asked the three:
"Only you, and some skilled soldiers, entered the palace.. how did you know the secret palace entrances?"
Kayden said with shining eyes, placing his hand on the wound in his stomach:
"Do you think we will tell you anything?"
Eugene stood in front of him, protecting his friend, saying:
"Are.. you okay, Kayden?"
Mariana looked at Kayden, asking about his wound and asking him to rest, while Kayden laughed in Eugene's face, not answering Mariana, saying:
"Who do you think I am, Eugene?"
Eugene smiled as he looked at the knight, cracked his knuckles then his neck, and then...
Attack!
Eugene became faster than before, as if he were a completely new person. He kept striking with his sword in quick hits to the knight's dangerous areas, while the latter could do nothing but block, to the extent that if he missed blocking a single strike...
He would be killed.
As the knight struggled to stay in the battle, Joseph was telling him the importance of winning, as if the knight did not know that his victory or loss was now linked to his life, for the knight to reply to him:
"Do you think I am playing now, Joseph? This is at the cost of my life... and besides, I won't let them disturb the Leader by taking the throne."
While Mariana was fending off the other knights, protecting Kayden, Kayden said, and then Eugene, whose sword had stopped moving for a while:
"The Leader?!"
Then Eugene followed:
"Speak more."
Without a word, the knight began attacking Eugene forcefully, and as Eugene parried, the knight was shocked by a deep stab from behind by Mariana's sword. And when he turned his back to return Mariana's strike... Eugene's strike came, ending his life.
While Eugene and Mariana's swords were plunged into the man's body, Eugene was helping his friend to stand, leaning on his shoulder, then said to him in a playful tone:
"What do you think of my training results? If we face each other again, I will win."
Kayden laughed, then said as he put his sword in its sheath:
"The last time we faced each other, it was a draw."
Eugene laughed, then Kayden ordered the guards to detain the Advisor and bind him, while he himself turned toward the Emperor, who was also in a state of weakness and hesitation.
The guards began to lead Seraphin and the Emperor away together for later interrogation.