"LONG LIVE THE PRINCE!!"
"LONG LIVE THE KING!!"
The crowd roared continuously, stomping their legs on the ground. Both adults and children celebrated. The King on the balcony above raised his heir higher for everybody to see.
Then—
BOOM!
An explosion.
It struck where the kingdom's bell was situated.
And the bell was sent flying into the skies.
The King slowly gave his child to the Queen, then told her in a deep, almost terrifying voice, "Head to quarters, don't look back, and don't come out unless I tell you to," looking directly into her eyes with his cape bellowing behind him. He then told her, "GO." The Queen ran without looking back while cradling her child.
Then, sharply looking at the guards on his left without turning:
The guards, after making eye contact with him, nodded their heads and followed the Queen and the child to protect them.
Below, everyone was in a panic.
Some looked for shelter, some looked for their loved ones. It was chaotic, but the guards stationed at the corners and walls did not waver. They slowly grabbed their spears, raised them in unison, and forcibly implanted them into the ground, cracking it.
Then, a sigil in the form of a cobweb appeared above the courtyard, sealing and protecting the citizens from the falling rubble.
BOOM!!
Another explosion tore through the outer wall of the castle. Stone shattered. Dust swallowed the sky.
Screams erupted.
"RUN!!"
"GET DOWN!!"
"WHERE ARE THE GUARDS?!"
But the guards were already moving.
Above the courtyard, the sigil trembled—its web-like structure flickering as debris slammed against it from above.
CRACK.
A thin fracture formed across the barrier.
One of the stationed guards shouted:
"Reinforce the formation! Don't let it break!"
They drove their spears deeper into the ground.
The sigil grew bigger, larger, and stronger.
On the Balcony
The King didn't move.
Not when the bell was destroyed.
Not when the second explosion hit.
Not even when the people below began to panic.
His eyes were locked on the horizon.
"So the flies are done hiding…"
Wind howled past him, carrying ash and dust into the sky.
Behind him, a guard dropped to one knee.
"Your Majesty, unknown attackers have breached the outer perimeter!"
Silence.
Then—
"How many?"
"…We cannot tell."
The King slowly exhaled.
"…Useless."
His hand lifted slightly—
—and the air around him began to hum.
A faint cross formed in the air.
Not summoned.
Manifested.
Lines of pale light intersected slowly in front of the King, hovering just above his palm. It rotated once… then stopped.
The air around him began vibrating, like the world itself was being brought to its knees.
The guard behind him lowered his head even further, sweat rolling down his temple.
"Y-Your Majesty… permission to engage the enemy directly—"
"Denied."
The word came out quiet.
And final.
The King stepped forward.
The balcony stone beneath his feet cracked.
"…They came to be seen."
A pause.
"…So let them be seen."
His fingers curled.
The cross of light expanded.
The light that expanded from the King's palm did not erupt into an explosion. Instead, it stretched into thin, crystalline threads that wove through the wind, catching the falling ash and turning it into a shimmering, silver fog.
Down in the courtyard, Lisa and Maxwell ducked behind a merchant's cart as debris continued to rain down against the protective sigil.
"Maxwell! My ears are ringing!" Lisa shouted, covering her head as a chunk of stone slammed into the cobblestone two feet away.
Maxwell squeezed his eyes shut, his hand pressing into the side of his face. The headache was back—a sharp, dull throb that felt entirely out of place, like a memory trying to claw its way out of a locked door.
"Stay down, Lisa," Maxwell said, his voice dropping an octave. The childlike teasing was gone, replaced by an instinct he couldn't quite explain. "Something is coming."
Above them, the fracture in the cobweb sigil widened. The guards, their arms trembling under the strain, grunted as they pushed more of their energy into their spears.
Now more explosions rang out as cannons hit the walls from every angle.
The dust settled into a fine, gray mist as the crystalline threads wove through the air, neutralizing the shockwave of the blast. But the respite was short-lived. From the haze of smoke and falling debris, the four figures in dark cloaks emerged.
They did not rush. They walked with the deliberate, heavy steps of seasoned hunters who knew exactly where they stood.
The King remained on the balcony, his hand still extended and humming with the pale light of the cross. His gaze dropped from the ruined walls down to the intruders.
"You finally stepped out of the shadows," the King said, his voice carrying effortlessly over the chaos. "The higher-ups in the east must be getting desperate to send their little birds into the lion's den."
The Confrontation
The leader of the group, a man with a weathered face and a silver dove insignia pinned beneath his collar, stepped into the open courtyard. Beside him stood the remaining members of the unit: Deep Hornet, Red Hornet, and Blue Horned Lizard.
"We aren't here for the blood spilled 11 years ago, Vincent!"
Captain White Dove's voice sliced through the ringing silence of the courtyard, gritty and laced with raw resentment. "We are here to finish what the first group started. We're here to take what lies underneath this kingdom."
The King's eyes narrowed, his gaze trailing from the captain down to the ruined outer walls.
"What? The curse? So you know of the curse? My child?"
A cold, mocking smirk played on the King's lips. He gestured casually toward the deep underground, as if offering a piece of trash. "I'll give it to you if you want."
Captain White Dove's eyes widened, and a look of genuine disgust washed over his weathered face. He scoffed, stepping forward with a golden ring between his fingers and slowly sliding it onto his right hand's ring finger. Once in place, a red hexagon activated behind White Dove. Stepping out was a behemoth the size of two humans stacked together, radiating pure killing intent toward the King.
"No! What! Your child?" White Dove spat. "We don't care about the boy you threw away, Vincent! If you don't know why we're here, I guess we'll just have to make your Queen, Elizabeth, tell us herself."
The King's expression instantly turned feral. The air around him dropped in temperature, freezing the remaining dust particles in mid-air. The cross of pale light hovering above his palm ceased its rotation, vibrating at a frequency that shattered the nearby glass windows of the corridor.
"You cross a line you cannot uncross, Dove," the King whispered, his voice dangerously low.
Up above, the Queen, Elizabeth, clutched the golden-haired prince to her chest as she ran through the palace corridors, terrified by the thunderous roar echoing behind her.
Down in the courtyard, Maxwell and Lisa remained crouched behind the cart. Maxwell's temple pounded as the two opposing auras of the King and the captain clashed.
We're not here for the child... the words repeated in Maxwell's mind, triggering a sudden, blinding flash of memories that didn't belong to a commoner's life.
"Maxwell... look!" Lisa cried out, pointing toward the castle stairs.
A robed figure had just bypassed the outer wall's explosion, moving fast toward the Queen's retreat path, completely ignoring the cellar where the child lay discarded in the dark.
He didn't look back at the clash of auras behind him; his focus was singular, his destination the royal wing.
"Lisa, stay behind the cart. Don't move until the guards tell you to!"
"Maxwell, wait! Where are you going?!" Lisa reached for his sleeve, her voice trembling as much as the ground beneath them.
"M–I'm just" he hesitate to answer
I—I have to stop him!" Maxwell blurted out, though the words felt shaky.
Maxwell, no!" Lisa cried out, her voice breaking as she gripped his sleeve with desperation. She was trembling so violently that her teeth rattled, her small body heaving with every sob. "We're just children… we don't have to do this! Please, let's just hide!"
She pulled him closer, forcing him to look at her.
"Look at me, Maxwell!" she begged, her eyes filled with tears. "You're shaking! Your eyes… you're terrified! We'll die if we go out there!"
Maxwell looked at her, his lips quivering as he tried to find his voice. Looking at Lisa's tear-stained face, seeing the pure, fright of a sister who didn't want to be left alone
"I… I know," Maxwell whispered, his voice shaking and scattering. "I'm scared, Lisa. I'm so scared I can barely…."
He looked toward the stairs where the shadow had vanished, then back at his sister.
"If I don't do anything the queen would be in danger. The guards are busy trying to regroup the townspeople and the queen… she isn't safe.."
"Maxwell, please! I'm your sister… please stay by my side… please!"
Lisa's voice was a ragged plea, her fingers digging into the rough fabric of his clothes
Maxwell looked down at her hands, then back into her eyes.
"I can't," he choked out, the words feeling like shards of glass in his throat. "Lisa, I'm so sorry… but I can't just stay here."