Jorris jumped off the wall, landing to the ground with a crunch as the snow cushioned his fall.
Standing from his crouched position, he approached Leroy with calm and serious demeanor.
Ella watched patiently. Having seen the look in his eyes, she watched and waited- for she sensed it.
This was his duty.
It was not her place to interrupt this moment.
Jorris walked forward. The snow around him crunched yet did not melt, unlike the snow which had been completely dispersed by the armies before him.
The grass itself which they stood on had been burned away as they had carelessly trodded through this place with no concern for it.
"What you say is true, King Leroy. It was through your own graciousness that I was allowed to leave the city of Volaciophus. And I thank you greatly for that."
Jorris spoke with legitimate gratitude as he approached Leroy, genuflecting before him and bowing his head.
The Knights of Iciclaris were taken aback from his actions, watching as this man who had served as their comrade bowed before one who had approached their city with an army in toe.
'Vice Captain Jorris....'
'Will he betray us!?'
'Was he.... was he a spy? Was his entire purpose here to spy on our village, and he is now returning to his own king!?'
'Shit!!! We should never have allowed a flame elemental to enter our rankings!! The Captain was deceived!!!'
'We were all deceived!!'
The knights became unsettled, but Ella stood firm. She watched with fervor as her husband bowed to his former king, hoping. Trusting. Loving.
'He will not betray us. That is not the type of man he is.'
The man before the castle then spoke to Jorris softly, so that nobody on the walls could hear their conversation.
"Jorris. Why do you bow before me? Do you still hold loyalty even now? Or is this merely an act to deceive me?"
"King Leroy, I told you once before, did I not? I would return the favor to you one day for allowing me to leave our city and explore the world. I will ask you now then. So long as it is reasonable, I will complete a request of yours in order to pay you back for your graciousness. I stand before you. What request do you have of me?"
Leroy looked at Jorris with a face of shock, in disbelief that he would say such things.
'He.... he is willing to pay me back? I was under the impression that he had forgotten.... no, not that he had forgotten, but rather that he had thrown aside that promise. I believed that those words were nothing more than lip service to seal the deal.'
"Jorris.... do you mean that? Will you do anything I ask of you?"
Jorris looked up to his king, nodding his head no.
"I will not do anything you ask. However, I will make every effort to pay you back. What do you wish of me?"
Leroy stroked his own chin, considering these words. Looking back to the men behind him, they all stood at the ready to attack such a village.
'He will certainly not join us in this attack.'
Without a doubt, the words which Jorris spoke carried volumes about his resolve.
He was prepared to do much in order to pay Leroy back, perhaps even to the point of personal sacrifice, however this did not mean he would do anything.
'Asking him to slaughter the people he has lived with would likely provoke him. Furthermore.... there is a more valuable gem than this city itself.....'
With a grin, Leroy held forth a hand.
[Allocation of Jealousy]
'With this.... my desire will come true. Jorris will accept.'
Standing forth, the King looked down on Jorris, his flames sputtering around like a wildfire.
"Jorris. I wish to take your wife for myself."
Jorris did not move.
He looked down at the ground, unable to move.
Silence filled the land, and Jorris sat there for seconds.
It felt like an eternity passed before Jorris looked up at his former king, a look of extreme conflict in his eyes.
"I am sorry, my king. But that is the one request which I cannot fulfill."
The king looked down to Jorris with surprise.
'What? Did.... did my ability not activate? No, for certain it did.... why then did he not agree?'
Jorris stood up, closing his eyes.
"My king, please leave this land. I do not wish to fight you."
At this, Leroy's face became filled with anger.
"You.... dare to stand before me after rejecting me of my request, and yet you call me your king?"
"My king, I understand my own impertinence. I understand well that by doing this I will go down as the greatest traitor, liar, deceiver, in the history of the world. However, even so, I cannot give up my family. I beg of you. Leave this place. Or I will have to fight you myself."
Leroy at this point was a flaming ball of rage. His brows wrinkled and he clenched his teeth with disgust at the man before him.
"Jorris.... you come before me saying that you will fulfill my request, acting like an honorable soldier, only to spit on me and ask me to leave empty handed? This is.... this is unacceptable, Jorris. To think that you were such a flippant man, so bent on being seen as honorable yet not willing to give anything of your own to prove that you held the honor which you claimed to have."
"Is there nothing else you wish for, my king? If it does not involve the harm of the people of Iciclaris, I will do anything for you."
"Hah! Anything, you say?"
"Anything."
Leroy smirked.
"Anything. Hahaha. How idiotic, Jorris. You refuse my request first, then make such a grand plea to save yourself from dishonor, in the hopes that I will make a reasonable request of you. Fine then. Let me test to see if your resolve is truly up to par with what you say it is."
With a grin, Leroy looked back to his soldiers.
"I will withdraw my soldiers after this if you follow my command. You have my word."
Jorris looked up to Leroy with delight as he said this.
"My king.... you have my gratitude. I cannot thank you enough."
"Do not thank me just yet, for that all depends on if you are willing to do as I say."
"No, before you even make the request I must make the effort to thank you, lest I not have the time later."
Leroy was taken aback by this statement.
'Has.... has he realized himself!?'
"Jorris.... you....."
"Please go on, my king."
Leroy nodded with a serious expression, looking up to the people on the walls, awaiting patiently to see if the army before them would attack.
"Then, sully yourself as a traitor and kill yourself."
Jorris dropped to his knees, smiling.
"Thank you, my king. I will trust in you to keep your promise as well then."
Leroy looked at Jorris with complete surprise and shock as he so readily agreed.
'This is.... what? Why? AH!'
Coming to a sudden realization, Leroy put his own hand to his chin once more in thought.
'So that is how it was.... when I activated my ability..... this is the path that the future took.'
A grin on his face, Leroy watched as Jorris stood forward, spreading his flaming arms to the heavens.
"To all who see me!!!!! To my knights!!!! To my brethren!!!! To my beloved wife and Captain!!!! To all the people of the city of Iciclaris, listen to me!!!!"
Ella watched as her husband stepped forward, and as he spoke a terror overcame her as if needles had been pricked within her heart.
'He is not.... his usual self.... that man did something to him.'
"To everyone!!!!! To those I love and care for, listen to me!!!"
An overwhelming dread overcame Ella which she could not shake.
'No.... something is wrong.... I feel.... this is strangely similar to that time before.... it is the same feeling that I felt when he spoke to that criminal, acting as if he was working with him in order to save those children....'
"I came to this city years ago, swooned your newly inaugurated Captain, and rose quickly through your rankings to become the Vice Captain of the Knights!!! However.... I did this not because I considered this place to be my home."
'Jorris.... what are you saying? In front of all these people.....'
"Ella.... what is your husband doing?"
A hand was placed on the shoulder of Ella.
Turning around, she saw a woman made from mist- the third in command of the knights.
"Misticia.... I...."
Looking back to her comrade with a face of distress, Ella was met with a grave look.
It was then that the whispers begun.
"Oi...."
"The Vice Captain...."
"Could it be true...."
Jorris then stood forward with pride, flailing his flaming arms about as he drew attention to himself.
"I came here for one reason, and for one reason alone. I have been working for the King of Envy, King Leroy, from the moment I came to this place."
A terrible grin came across the face of Jorris.
"I seduced your Captain, usurped a position, and played the part of the perfect father, husband, and warrior. And each and every one of you fell into the flames of my deception."
Holding out his hand, a sword of flame formed within it. Jorris held this sword forth before turning it around.
Ella watched with eyes wide in horror.
'No.... what has this king done to him..... what did they say!? Just what could have been said.... for him to take such measures!?'
Her heart sank deep within her chest, and she felt woozy as if she were about to fall over.
"STOP!!!!!"
Ella shouted out at the top of her lungs, a tear forming in her eye and dropping as a piece of frozen ice.
Jorris thrusted the sword of flame into his own heart.
Falling to the ground, Jorris died on the spot.
"That traitor...."
"He must be nuts...."
"He just went and killed himself after bringing this army here and informing them of everything!!!!"
The knights now began to speak with anger in their voices, gathering in a line to fight.
It was then that Leroy stood forward, thrusting an arm.
"All units, attack."
----
Ella watched as the flame and earth elementals under the command of Leroy rushed forth to attack the walls.
"Captain!!"
"Should we meet them on the field as well, or should we attack them from the walls?"
"Your orders, Captain!!!"
The soldiers around Ella began to shout at her to gather her attention, to which she looked around at her men.
Closing her eyes with a bitter expression, Ella looked back down to the raging men below.
They bursted forth, melting the snow underneath their feet as they ran- approaching the icy walls of the city with haste.
"If they are allowed to reach the walls.... they will begin to melt. It will take them a large amount of time to melt through the entire walls as they've been reinforced with magic, however we won't be able to push them back from here before they do so."
"Then..... we should launch an attack in the field ourselves?"
Ella's heart had been torn in two at seeing her husband kill herself.
Were Ella a weak person, she would have broken down in tears then and there. As a matter of fact, it took everything she had to prevent herself from doing so.
Even so, she stood firm, and took charge.
She was the Captain of the Knights. Even in the face of a fallen comrade, and her lover at that, it was her duty to take command and give orders.
"No. I will take responsibility for this. Just as my husband did."
The Knights around Ella looked at her with confusion.
"What do you mean, Captain?"
"What are you going to do?"
Ella walked forward, looking over the walls to where Leroy was.
"King of Envy!!! Am I not your goal? Or do you wish to take this city!?"
Standing forth, Leroy shouted out in a similarly loud voice, overcoming the shouts of his troops.
"HALT!!!"
At his booming tone, each and every man who was about to attack the walls stopped in their tracks, awaiting orders.
Stepping forward, Leroy made his way through his men, coming closer to the front to the point where Ella was close enough to speak with.
"Are you suggesting that you will give yourself up in order to save this city from my attack?"
Leroy eyed Ella, who stood firm in resolve.
"I am. However, not in the way which you believe."
Closing her eyes, Ella began to chant to herself quietly.
"Oi...."
"Wait....."
"That's...."
The knights around Ella stepped back as they watched her, and Misticia shouted out.
"Wait just a minute, Ella!!! What the hell are you doing!?!?!?"
Rushing forward to the side of the woman, Misticia grabbed the shoulder of her comrade.
"Are you trying to kill yourself!?!? Stop this!!!! Nobody wants you to sacrifice yourself here!!!!"
"Captain!!!"
"Don't do this!!!!"
"Stop this, Captain!!!"
The soldiers around Ella pleaded for her to stop but she kept her eyes closed and continued her chant as her icy body began to glow with blue energy.
Leroy who was standing at the bottom of the walls merely watched with a smile on his face.
"Hah.....hahaha..... hahahah!!! Foolish woman!! Are you trying to sacrifice yourself to kill me!? Allow me to inform each and every one of you here about something.... about the power of Envy."
Looking around to his own men and to the Knights who were visibly worried about their Captain, Leroy spoke out for all to hear.
"As the head of the house of Envy, I hold an ability which interrupts fate itself. My ability, [Allocation of Jealousy] makes it so that whenever I am jealous of another for something, fate somehow becomes twisted and turned in such a way that I obtain the object of my jealousy for myself. There has been nothing since I obtained this ability which I haven't been able to seize for my own!!!]
With a haughty laugh, Leroy continued speaking. As he spoke, Ella ignored his words and continued her chant as her body transformed further and further from her icy form to a being of energy.
"If I want it, I will obtain it. So long as my ability is activated, this must happen!!! And in order for me to obtain the object of my jealousy, I of course must be alive!!!! So long as my ability is activated, fate itself is on my side!!! It doesn't matter if you try and hit me with that beam of energy, for I have not yet obtained the object of my jealousy!!!! I cannot die until it is obtained!!!]
Leroy arrogantly explained his own ability to those before him with overconfidence, allowing those before him to understand the workings of an ability which he should have kept hidden to himself.
Even so, Leroy did not so much as regret his own words, filled with ecstasy at knowing that his own desires would always be fulfilled.
"Now then.... men, attack that village."
The men rushed forth, continuing their onslaught.
At that moment, as if it were a chain of lightning, a blue beam of energy flashed from person to person, destroying each and every one of the flame elementals- Leroy included.
This was [Absolute Sacrifice], a skill which would convert the body of an elemental into pure energy which would then target those who contained the greatest heat signatures.
With the field filled with flame and magmatic elementals, each and every one of them had been struck by the energy, vaporized in an instant.
Including Leroy.
The blue energy filled the field in an instant, and then dispersed into the air.
Misticia, the mist elemental who stood next to Ella, merely watched as she realized that Ella was no longer by her side.
The blue energy which once filled the landscape was now gone, and with it Ella was as well.
Not a single person lay in the field before them.
It was as if the army, and the woman who had given herself up to eliminate it, had never existed in the first place.
"Ella...."
Misticia turned from the battlefield, holding back her own emotions and shouting out to the others around her.
"In order to atone for the sins of her husband, who betrayed us and led the soldiers of the king of Envy to this place.... our Captain sacrificed herself. Because of this sacrifice, not a single one of us has been injured in this battle."
Holding back a sob, Misticia walked through the men.
"She died a true hero."
The Knights began to shout out in a rally, screaming in victory.
However, these victory screams were clearly forced.
They men shouted.
And shouted.
And shouted.
They shouted at the top of their lungs, rallying themselves in order to boost their morale.
For if they didn't shout, or if they stopped shouting for even a moment, they would have fallen to the ground in tears.
There was one mistake which Leroy made.
The single reason for his own death and defeat, which he had overlooked.
The skill of Leroy, [Allocation of Jealousy], was a skill which was based on his own jealousy of another.
This skill would manipulate fate such that he would without exception obtain that which he was jealous of, one way or another.
Put simply, this skill required Leroy to be jealous of someone.
This skill had been activated as a result of Leroy's jealousy of Jorris, over his wife.
The moment Leroy ordered Jorris to kill himself, the object of his jealousy no longer had one who held it.
For this reason, his skill was canceled- for the jealousy in his heart of Jorris disappeared the moment he died.
Due to this oversight of the mechanics of his own ability, Leroy died without the slightest anticipation of death.
In an instant, he was vaporized, and ceased to exist.
[See? This is what happens when the Host is unfit]
----