Summer staggered out of the tower, nearly toppling over something heavy. A metallic tang undercut the sweet smell of Yggdrasil. Her nose flared.
Blood.
She looked down. A headless body lay on the ground, wearing the armor of the imperial army.
'You should've tried to stop me from exiting,' she complained in her mind.
[I will always follow your command, whatever it is. There is no other will for me.]
'That's good.'
Summer stepped out and stopped. The courtyard had been adorned with polished marble; now it resembled purgatory.
Dead bodies marred the surroundings, belonging to both imperial army soldiers and the crown prince's soldiers. Summer felt her heart hammering in panic.
'They attacked him!' Her feet moved instantly, threading through the dead bodies and following the trail of carnage. From afar, she could hear the cries of combat.
When Summer reached the battle, she was horrified to see how far it had spread. Fire raged everywhere. Even from afar, smoke rose. Her eyes snapped towards the palace.
There was a huge fire reaching the sky. Even Yggdrasil was on fire.
'What's happening?' Panic intensified in her stomach as her eyes searched for the familiar figure.
But when her eyes found him, tears instantly streamed down.
At the center of the chaos, where the blood pooled deepest, one figure stood alone.
He was a ship's mast of a man, straight as the spear trees that lined the palace. His sword was raised. He had no grace anymore; rather, he was marred with dirt and blood.
His white aura had always made Summer think of clean bone, of untouched snow. Now it was stained. It pulsed red at the edges, like a wound that refused to heal.
The man who always healed, now carving scars across himself and others.
"Sylv..." Summer's words rattled.
He was facing the imperial captain of the army. That man also lacked his usual graceful appearance. Weariness was etched onto his scarred face.
Sylv did not hear her. His focus was cleaved to the captain. There was no doubt of the captain's battle prowess, because he was one of the strongest in the domain.
However, what surprised and worried her most was how Sylv could fight with him without losing the advantage.
He was just a healer. How could he fight? Had he activated any forbidden spell? That notion made her panic.
Steel sang. Sparks mapped the air. Sylv's sword struck with the quiet certainty of someone who had never thought of losing.
"Sylv..." She called out weakly.
"Crown prince! Do you intend to rebel? For a woman?" the captain shouted while parrying the blows.
"If me protecting my wife from the filthy hands of the likes of you is considered rebelling, then I am rebelling."
His words snapped through the air. The captain's mouth twitched, his eyes flashing in her direction and quickly moving away.
"Then die for her, prince, and leave a kingdom to rot."
Steel met steel. Sylv's blade flashed in a way that made Summer's breath catch.
For a moment she thought he would fall. For a moment she thought the whole world might.
He did not. And the whole world.
[A quest is generating. Calculated time: 5 minutes.]
She wanted to run to him. She wanted to throw herself between the two men like a shield.
But she knew her intervention would never help; rather, it would be detrimental for Sylv.
'What to do...'
Summer hated how she was helpless to do anything for her only friend. She had no spells and her talent had no…
'Wait...'
Her eyes snapped towards the battle raging between the two armies. An idea formed in her mind as she looked around and then took a spear and a short shield from the ground.
They were of ordinary quality, but it was enough to fight against the unranked soldiers.
Her eyes hardened as they locked with an idle imperial army soldier. He too saw her, and in his eyes, she saw bloodlust.
Summer knitted her brows.
Something was wrong with him. He looked at her like he had a life-and-death enmity with her which would only end when she died, rather than simply following an order.
He gave her no time to study more as he rushed at her. His spear almost reached her when she sidestepped and struck him on his back.
He staggered and fell. Once again Summer was surprised. This soldier was an elf. He was not supposed to be in the army at all, because all elves have healing talents.
But the speed and the strength behind the spear he had shown almost reached that of a warrior.
He jumped from the ground, ignoring the wound in his back, and rushed at her again.
Summer held the short shield in her left hand and blocked his spear with it, then her spear pierced through his chest, killing him.
She looked inwardly and saw a small red mote appearing in one of her petals. Because she hadn't suffered any hit damage, she hadn't earned any attributes.
But her aim wasn't to farm attributes now. She wanted to fill her entire lotus with red. That's when she could unleash all these damage at once.
The current situation felt so wrong. The emperor only had one son. There was no way he would allow him to be killed.
Also, the imperial army and the crown prince's personal army always had the same number of soldiers, but now the imperial army had double the amount of soldiers as the crown prince's army.
And they included elves, too. Summer tilted her head to watch the fight between Sylv and the captain.
Even though both of them were evenly matched now, Summer doubted it would continue that way as time passed. Also, there was a nagging feeling in her heart that something amiss was going to happen.
Summer wanted nothing more than to run away from here with Sylv. For that to happen, the captain had to die.
Her eyes turned cold as she rushed toward the battle.