As Arius ran through the palace corridors, he found himself before a narrow crossroads and turned right with lightning speed, entering a dim, rarely trodden passage. Suddenly, a suspicious whisper and strange sounds reached his ears—sounds unmistakable to his Raizo-sensitive senses. Arius immediately stepped back and took cover in the shadow of a massive pillar, holding his breath.
From among the shadows, he saw Gelius standing with a rigid expression alongside a masked figure wearing a robe that concealed all his features. He heard Gelius say in a decisive tone: "Finish what we agreed upon!" The masked figure bowed his head in obedience, and in a flash, he vanished from the place as if he had never been there.
Arius's eyes widened behind his hiding spot, and he muttered in an inaudible voice: "Could Gelius be the spy? But for whom? Is he with Uncle Kane, or does he work for Nahira?" He shook his head violently to dispel the confusion, as the situation allowed no room for guessing: "Not important now. The important thing is Uncle Kane... I must warn him before it's too late!"
With great skill, Arius snuck past the palace boundaries, and once in the open, he unleashed the Raizo energy within his body to shoot off like an arrow toward the distant mountains, where the Revolutionary Army hid in its fortified strongholds.
Arius landed in the middle of the camp like a thunderbolt, stirring the soldiers who spread out quickly and drew their weapons, but as soon as they saw his face, they lowered their spears in respect. Arius pushed his way through them with a tense expression, demanding to see Kane immediately.
When he entered the tent, Kane was sitting, reviewing some papers. He raised his head with a calm smile and said: "Welcome, Arius... Do you feel better than yesterday?"
But Arius did not return the greeting; instead, he approached him and said breathlessly: "Kane, listen to me carefully... You must leave for another place at once! Nahira has discovered all your locations!"
Kane froze in place, shock etched on his face: "Impossible! No one knows anything about our locations. We have been extremely cautious!"
Arius did not utter another word; instead, he pulled out the map whose details he had managed to copy or memorize in his mind and spread it before Kane, saying: "Look... this map has all your locations with pinpoint accuracy!"
Kane began to examine the map, and as his eyes moved from one point to another, his face grew paler, until his features became a mask of astonishment and terror at what he saw. The betrayal was deeper than they had all imagined.
A suffocating silence prevailed inside the tent, broken by Kane's trembling voice as he whispered: "Arius... what is this?"
Arius replied in a tone filled with bewilderment: "What? Are these not your locations? Will you believe me now?"
But Kane's eyes were not those of a man whose hideout had been revealed; they were the eyes of a man who realized he had fallen into a greater trap, and he said bitterly: "But these places, we left them years and years ago, Arius..."
Arius's body stiffened, and he felt the coldness of death creeping into his limbs: "What?!"
Before he could grasp the horror of the word, a soldier burst into the tent with a trembling body and jagged breaths, shouting in panic: "Master Kane! The capital's army... they are surrounding us from every direction!"
Arius and Kane rushed outside, only to be shocked by a chilling sight; thousands of soldiers armed with Raizo surrounding the mountains like a wall of iron and fire. In that moment, Arius activated the "Eye of Oras" to see the bitter truth... he saw an overwhelming purple aura splitting the heavens.
Arius whispered in terror: "Damn it! Nahira... she came herself! But how did they find the place? The map was a trick!"
In the midst of the chaos, Rog ran toward Kane, clinging to his robe and crying: "Master... I'm scared!" Kane hugged her, trying to soothe her: "Do not be afraid, my daughter," but his eyes glowed with a despair Arius had never seen before.
Suddenly, the clouds parted, and Nahira appeared standing in the heart of the sky, surrounded by an aura of terrifying Raizo that made the earth tremble beneath the rebels' feet. She focused her piercing gaze on Arius, and despite the distance, her words, cold as blades, reached his ears:
"I expected it from everyone but you, Arius... but you have disappointed me."
Arius began to tremble, not out of fear of death, but from the weight of the helplessness that shackled him. Nahira continued in a tone carrying a lethal mockery: "But I thank you very much, for you led us to the den of the stray insects and saved us a simple trouble."
Kane turned toward Arius, his eyes carrying a mixture of brokenness and suspicion: "Arius... were you deceiving us? Were you the one who led them to us?"
Arius looked at Kane, tears nearly escaping his eyes in anger and frustration, and he screamed in a choked voice: "No! They are the ones who deceived us... they used me as bait to reach you!"
Arius understood the game now; the map Nahira saw was nothing but a means to push him to run toward the "real place" she already knew, to be the guide that confirmed her suspicions and led her army to the slaughter.
Nahira stood in the heart of the sky, contemplating the terrified crowds of rebels with eyes overflowing with arrogance and disgust, as if she did not see humans but worms squirming in the dust of her kingdom. She said in a chilling, cold tone: "What a disgusting sight... as if I am now going to step on gross red ants."
Some rebel fighters could not bear this humiliation, so they rushed toward her in a desperate suicide, charged with weak Raizo compared to her majesty. Nahira did not move a muscle; she only lifted her finger in boredom, and a beam of scorching emerald energy erupted, erasing them from existence in the blink of an eye, even turning the area she pointed at into flying ash. Everyone fell silent in horror, and a stupor paralyzed their limbs.
Nahira descended slightly, and with a movement of her hand, she ordered her armies to retreat. Thousands withdrew like a receding tide, leaving the arena to their mistress. She opened her palm and began to charge a ball of glowing energy; her Raizo aura was compressing the oxygen until the rebels nearly suffocated. She aimed her palm at the entire camp... one moment, and the mountains would turn into a mass grave.
In those fractions of a second, Arius's eyes widened; he felt Rog's muffled scream and Kane freezing. With an instinctive movement, he grabbed both of them tightly, draining every atom of his "Teleportation" ability to disappear completely before the beam struck.
The mountain exploded! A sound echoed that shook the foundations of the First World, rocks evaporated, bodies burned, and every trace of life turned into a nebula of dust and heat. Nothing remained... as if the mountain and the army had never been there.
Arius tried to teleport away, to another continent or even another world, but he collided with an invisible energy wall. Nahira's assistant had surrounded the entire planet with a shroud of his own ability, turning the world into a closed prison. Arius stumbled and fell with Kane and Rog onto a rocky slope not far from the site of the obliterated mountain, with black smoke obscuring their vision.
Arius stood up, blood flowing from his forehead due to the energy pressure; he looked at Kane and Rog and said in a desperate tone: "You must run now... I will stay here to delay them. My teleportation ability has become limited, but I can stop them for some time!"
But Kane, despite the horror of what he had seen, straightened his body, wiped the dust from his face with the dignity of a warrior that had not been broken, and looked at Arius with eyes burning with the fire of revenge and loyalty: "No, Arius... I will not leave you to face this fate alone. My men are dead, and I have nothing left but this battle. I will stay with you, and we will fight to the last breath!"
The two stood facing the void, while the shadows of the capital's soldiers and Nahira's footsteps began to approach the place of their fall, and the wind carried the scent of ash and death.
Arius ordered "Rog" to run and save herself, but she stood with a rigidity he had never known in her before and said in a tone charged with frustration: "I'm tired! I'm tired of being the weakest link always. I will not run and leave you behind again."
Arius turned toward Kane, his eyes squeezing with pain: "Kane... I hope you can forgive me, for it is because of me that all this destruction happened." Kane replied with a terrifying calmness as he watched the horizon: "It's fine, my son. I know exactly who the real reason behind this is, and you are not to blame for what happened." Before Arius could ask him what he meant, the place exploded!
A series of vast explosions erupted that tore through the region's terrain, turning the rocks into deadly shrapnel. Arius rushed, covering "Rog" with his body and his aura to protect her from the blast wave, then the three flew into the sky, separating to distract attention.
Arius was like a hurricane; whenever a squadron of the capital's soldiers got close to him, he tore them apart with Raizo sharp as blades, turning them into shreds before they could touch his robe. As for Kane, he used his combat experience to lure a huge group of elites behind him, taking them away from Rog, who was stationed in a hidden location, sending bursts of healing energy and support to Kane to ensure his energy was not depleted in this unequal fight.
Nahira watched the scene from the heights of her energy throne in coldness, seeing her soldiers falling like autumn leaves. Her assistant asked her in a whisper: "My lady, are there other rebels fighting?" She replied, narrowing her eyes: "No... it is definitely Arius."
Nahira no longer wanted to waste any more time, so she issued her final order: "Attack all at once! Wipe out the entire area!" Her plan was clear; the massive numerical pressure would force Arius to retreat to defend himself, leaving Kane and Rog as easy prey for extermination.
Arius felt the thousands upon thousands flowing toward them and realized that individual power would not be enough to protect his comrades now. He stopped in the air, and a terrifying black and golden aura exploded from his body, and he shouted in a voice that shook the foundations of the planet: "Come out! My loyal soldiers!"
In a flash, space tore behind him, and 40,000 energy soldiers emerged from the depths of his power. Knights with energy dragons and faceless fighters rushed like a torrential flood toward Nahira's army. The collision between the two armies was like a solar explosion; an imaginary massacre broke out in the sky and on the ground, where ordinary Raizo mixed with Arius's advanced Raizo, and columns of smoke and blood rose to cover the sun of the First World.
Stupefaction prevailed in the ranks of the capital's army; the commanders who thought they were on a picnic to crush rebels found themselves facing a ruthless ethereal nightmare. One of the commanders screamed in panic: "What are these things?! Where did they appear from?" while Nahira watched with shock and a gloom she had never known before. She saw her soldiers, the elite trained for centuries, falling like bloody rain before creatures that did not feel pain, did not hesitate, and did not fear death; obedient blood moving at the command of one master.
Within a few minutes, the arena turned into an energy slaughterhouse; 600,000 soldiers of Nahira's army fell dead, while Arius did not lose a single soldier, for whenever an energy soldier was damaged, it would reconstruct itself from Arius's infinite Raizo.
In that moment, Arius's internal entity shook, and he heard the voices of his great commanders; Jelen the King of Dragons, Rainus the Faithful, and Dark the Immortal King, as they roared within his consciousness asking for permission to come out to end this farce. Arius whispered in a firm voice: "Not yet.."
Kane flew toward Arius, his eyes barely able to believe the scale of the destruction a single boy had inflicted on a massive army, and he asked in astonishment: "How did you do all that? Are you really the one who made these?" Arius replied, his eyes roaming the sky in search of an exit: "This is nothing, Kane... The important thing now is to get out. The planet is covered with an energy crust that prevents us from escaping, but I will try something."
Arius focused all his energy, and suddenly, the "Domain of Void" erupted from him; an absolute black aura that began to inflate and expand at a tremendous speed until it covered the entire planet, in an attempt to swallow the crust that Nahira's assistant had created. But, for the first time, Arius felt solid resistance. The domain trembled and then vanished without a trace.
Arius realized bitterly that the numerical power gap between him and Nahira's assistant was too great at this moment; the domain could not penetrate a barrier supported by a governor's Raizo or energy that exceeded his current limits.
Arius turned to Kane, his face filled with desperate determination: "Kane, take Rog and run by any means... I will sacrifice myself. I will detonate all my Raizo reserves to create a gap in this shroud and distract them from you."
But Kane gripped his hand tightly and screamed in categorical refusal: "I told you I will not leave! If death is the fate, then we will die standing here. I will not let you become a sacrifice for these killers!"
While they were in this argument, Nahira began to move, and her purple aura began to devour the horizon, indicating that she had decided to intervene herself to end this rebellion before she lost her entire army.
As Nahira approached like the shadow of death devouring the light, Kane asked her in a low voice filled with anticipation: "Tell me, Arius... are you capable of defeating Nahira?"
Arius did not turn; he remained watching the approach of the terrifying purple aura and said with bitter honesty: "Unfortunately, my power level is very far from hers. To be honest, our chance of winning against her is 0%."
Kane was confused, and Rog stepped back, trembling: "Then what will we do now?" Arius replied in a voice that regained its usual firmness: "We will fight, even if it means our end here." Kane clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white: "As you wish."
But Arius's curiosity did not die out even in the face of destruction, so he said: "But before that, tell me, Kane... what did you mean by saying that I was not the cause?" Kane looked at him with a mysterious look and said: "Don't worry, if we survive from here, I will tell you everything." Arius contented himself with a silent nod: "As you wish."
In that moment, Nahira landed on the ground like a silent thunderbolt, surrounded by her loyal commanders. From among the ranks, Gelius stepped forward and stood beside his mistress with a smile of gloating and victory on his face, and said: "Did you see, my lady? I told you that that person is not on our side!"
Nahira did not pay him the slightest attention; her focus was entirely on Arius. She said in a biting coldness that cut off Gelius's words: "Shut up, Gelius." Gelius bowed immediately, confusion mounting on his face: "As you command, my lady."
Nahira directed her gaze toward Arius, and the anger in her eyes was cold, more lethal than fire, and she said: "Arius... you are now standing before your mistress with all impudence, and on top of that, you dare to think about confronting me! Are you in your full consciousness and mind?"
Arius felt the pressure of her Raizo crushing his bones, but he stood firm and replied in a tone choked with a mixture of broken loyalty and suppressed anger: "I never betrayed you! I was always by your side despite the hatred of the hearts that surround us; I never thought of being a traitor... but you have now proven to me that I am a person who does not deserve to be in this world under your command."
A complete silence prevailed after Arius's words, as if time had stopped between the two parties, while Arius's energy (40,000 soldiers) was still hovering in the background, waiting for a single signal to turn the place into a field of wreckage.