What should have been a peaceful(?) roasting of nobility and incompetent officials, is now a pandemonium of panicking humans and clashing combatants.
Bullets went flying from every direction, blades clashed here and there and dead bodies drop once in a while. Strangely enough, no one could see a single magic spell go off in the ensuing melee;
On one part of the once spotless throne room, Guinnevere is busy subduing numerous terrorists who cowered before her might.
On another part of the room are the black knights-members of the Order of the Ashen King, who are busy in either taking down terrorists that were disguised as nobles or making sure that civilians got out of the room safely.
While in yet another part of the room, was Kallen holding off multiple assailants who are trying to kill Rosseweisse, with the latter just sitting on her chair completely lost on what to do.
All of these was happening around a very annoyed Ashen who just wanted some peace and quiet but got chaos and mayhem instead.
"Kill the Lotus!", one of the terrorists screamed while brandishing a dagger as they charged at him.
"Who the heck are you calling 'Lotus'?!"
Ashen responds by grabbing a large piece of shattered debris and throws it right at the oncoming enemy's face. Effectively crushing their face and toppling backwards.
'Strange. This crest of mine was never a thing back in the past. Heck, I only made the crest out on a whim when I was a kid. How would other people let alone, terrorists, recognize it?'
Ashen ducks down to avoid a bullet that went flying over his head from behind him which then hits yet another enemy that had approached him from the front.
"This is getting us nowhere."
Thinking that there must some kind of connection with how they perceived the crest on his surcoat and their attempt to kill Rosseweisse, Ashen tries to determine the reason.
Looking at the enemy, they looked like an orderly mob trying to keep Ashen and Guinnevere away from Rosseweisse. However, one look at their faces easily told Ashen that they were in a rush. Almost as if they did not expect something to happen.
'Did their plan only account for Guinnevere to be present here? Was the Lord Knights not in their radar or something?'
He takes a look at the knights. There he could see that only the black knights were fighting off the enemy while the ones in white rushed to also leave the throne room along with the nobles.
The sight made him mad but he also somewhat expected as such so he could only shrug in dismay.
'That means, the enemy accounted for the white knights' cowardice and the black knights' courage. It can also mean that these shitheads(white knights), were in cahoots with the enemy so this makes it all the more troublesome.'
Ashen as he threw another piece of rubble at an enemy.
'The enemy was disguised as nobles and the Lord Knight Shithead was working with them. That means this is a whole lot more complicated than one would think.'
He looks at Rosseweisse who remained lost in her seat,
'Targeting such a defenseless nitwit...what's so great about Saints anyways? They're just pains in the ass!'
He picks up a dagger from the floor and then throws at Rosseweisse's direction and hits the enemy that had managed to pass through Kallen on their exposed neck.
"Tsk! Mother Nature is threatening me to save that poor sod at my own expense. Damn it."
Ashen cursed as he made his way to Rosseweisse, leaving dead bodies of his enemies in his wake.
"Oi! Kallen! Get back and make safe Mother!", Ashen calls out to Kallen after throwing yet another blade at the enemy.
"Do not be unreasonable brother! Graah!", Kallen deals a deadly blow upon her opponent then she quickly kicks them away, "These guys are targeting the Saint like hungry rabid dogs! If I let slip my vigilance for even a second-! Damn it!", just as she was about to finish, another enemy gets past her and heads for Rosseweisse.
However, Ashen is already at the scene and quickly disposes of the enemy with a large piece of rubble.
"Oraaa!!!", he shouts while bashing the enemy's head in and causing a spray of blood to color the marble floor crimson, "Can't you see that you can't? I'll deal with them, you go and get Mother to safety!", he snapped while picking up the dagger by his feet and brandishing it and then throwing it at another enemy that tried to backstab the distracted Kallen, "Now go or else I'll make you!"
Kallen was obviously reluctant but in the end, she relented and went to Queen Olivia's side,
"Let us go Mother. It is not safe here.", she then tries to take the queen away but for some reason she refused to come with Kallen, "Mother?", Kallen asked.
"To think that even my own knights would abandon me here...", Queen Olivia sighed.
"What do you expect? Those guys sure didn't look as loyal as the old goats years ago. What did you do? Fire them?", Ashen grunted while slitting the throat of another enemy.
"Nonsense! They simply retired after so many years of service under the crown. The ones whom you saw today are their own proteges; their disciples."
Hearing the queen's denial, Ashen could not help but think.
He knew the old knights from the Knights of the Lion Queen and he remembers them to be quite harsh, courageous, and very loyal to Queen Olivia. Especially when she was younger and took to the battlefield to fight much like how Guinnevere(albeit much to Ashen's disappointment...) currently does.
When he was here in England, he remembered them being quite strict with their disciples and instilled within them the attitude to never cower before the enemy.
But how come the so-called disciples of theirs, immediately turned tail and ran?
'Strange. Even for a newly deployed knight who trained under them, facing this kind of situation shouldn't be too much of a terrifying experience. The option of running away shouldn't have existed in their brains. So why?'
He then recalled the purpose of the audience a few minutes ago.
'Scolding the nobles...the nobles were doing something stupid...Lord Shithead and his shitty underlings were being negligent...Lord Shithead is discovered to be a terrorist...a lull in the siege...'
He looked at Queen Olivia.
'Nobles...terrorists disguised as nobles...wait, disguised? Even with the best camouflage tech, to be able to fool the magical security of the palace is just plain impossible...'
Feeling like something was about to make sense, his gaze drifted towards the dead noble by his feet.
'Then again, it still boils down to their motive. What is it? Killing the nitwit? Attacking London was a tad bit too overkill for that. We were never here before and the siege was already underway long before we came.'
Suddenly, the noises of battle started dying down causing Ashen to look around him.
The black knights had managed to dispose of the remaining assailants and all the nobles(along with the white knights.) have managed to flee the scene. Guinnevere stood right in the middle of the throne room holding Rhongominiad and is surprisingly unscathed.
'Hell, how did her dress remained unstained in the middle of the chaos?'
Ashen had a random thought.
Then he turned his sights towards Rosseweisse. It seems even the sniper from before has stopped. Probably because one of knights had taken care of it.
"Is it over?", Amber, who had hidden herself behind one of the thrones sheepishly asked while peeking out from behind the cover.
"It appears so milady.", one of the black knights approached her and helped her stand.
'So the pervert is safe, the gummy bear is safe, Mother is safe, and the nitwit is safe...', somehow, Ashen feels like he's forgetting someone.
"Hey. Ashen, where's Eva?", Guinnevere asks while looking around.
"Ah. Eva? I had some black knights escort her out of the throne room. She should be safe in my ro-"
*BOOOOOM!!!*
The sound of an explosion shook the air and the direction it came from made Ashen and even Guinnevere feel anxious and just as they were about to go and investigate, a heavily wounded black knight fumbled into the throne room.
"Lady Anna! What happened?!", Guinnevere demanded worriedly as she approached the wounded knight.
"Your...Majesty...", the knight spoke in a pained and raspy tone, "Her highness...Baroness...Evaline...has been taken. Sir Fontan...was killed...", she struggled to answer but then she keeled over and fell to the floor.
One of the knights rushed to her immediately and then started casting healing magic.
Guinnevere then knelt beside the Knight, Anna and assisted in the healing.
Concerned for the Evaline's well-being, Ashen also approaches but quickly demands answers, "What happened and what took her?"
"Hey now! You're being too unreasonable brother!", Kallen reprimands Ashen from beside Queen Olivia.
But Ashen couldn't care less and instead badgered the Knight, Anna for answers, "Answer me."
Anxiety started creeping its way to Ashen's heart and his shoulders(figuratively) started to feel heavy and Anna's answer did not help to lessen it;
"An andromorphic...dragon...disguised...as one of the nobles...appeared and attacked us...just as we were nearing the Royal Suites...as per her Majesty's, Queen Regnant's command...then...after it had...managed to kill Sir...Fontan with its firebreath...Lady Evaline cast...wind magic on me and moved me right near...the throne room...just as the wyvern grabbed her and took her away...", Anna immediately fell unconscious as soon as she had finished.
This caused a lump to form in Ashen's throat.
Out of all the Royal Family, no-out of all humanity, Evaline is one of the few people he would do everything in his power to protect. He would even kill anyone or anything that means or could potentially cause her harm. That is why he was even willing to fight in the throne room and was even grateful that the enemies targeted him instead of Evaline.
But as he was busy trying to figure out the enemy's plan, he was too complacent in the fact that he had sent her away with 2 guards and because of that, the enemy was able to easily take her away.
'Tsk! To think that I was too careless! Dammit!'
Ashen grimaced. But he quickly takes a deep breath to calm himself down.
'No use panicking. That wouldn't help Evaline one bit right now...'
Regaining his composure, he then calls out to the other black knights still inside the room, "All of you, can you still fight?"
The knights, hearing him ask, all stood at attention and saluted in assent.
"Good. All of you are coming with me.", Ashen commanded and then proceeded to leave the room but is then stopped by Guinnevere.
"Where are you going? You cannot just leave the Saint behind.", she asked. Completely trying to remind him that Rosseweisse was also his priority.
However,
"Did you not hear what I said earlier?", Ashen's voice turned cold and menacing, "Evaline comes first."
"But the world-"
"Screw the world! Whoever tries to stop me from rescuing my daughter; whether human, monster, or even a goddamned god or planet, I will kill them all!"
Ashen's shout of rage echoed in the air.
His mind was made up. No matter what anyone says to him right now is useless. For him, right now, he has to rescue his one and only daughter and in the process, kill whoever is pulling the strings in this whole ordeal.
He doesn't care who and how many will die.
All that matters is that Evaline is safe.
"Then I shall go with you."
Suddenly, the most unlikely person to offer any solution, suggested something that could not even be called a solution.
"What the hell are you talking about?", Ashen growled menacingly as he turned his face towards Rosseweisse, "I don't have time for your stupid antics right now so shut up!"
Undaunted by his words, Rosseweisse looked at him and said, "The Heavens have commanded me to go with you in this ordeal. Whatever they may mean to happen, I care not for their will is the will of the world."
"Don't spout that cultist crap to me, Nitwit!"
"Evaline may be severely injured by the time you rescue her. Since you cannot use magic on your own, let alone have the other knights to heal her, my Privilege which can heal even the most deadly of wounds, would prove useful to you."
She argued back causing Ashen to feel annoyed.
Leaving her behind will inevitably make Mother Nature a pain in the ass for Ashen by hindering him and the knights greatly and based on his experience, Rosseweisse had a weird and pointless ability to point out things that will definitely happen and if she says something will happen to Evaline, Ashen could not just ignore it.
But for him, having to run around the battlefield with a useless non-combatant in tow and even ensuring she isn't hurt as well, is a total pain in the ass and he would rather not do it.
But compared to Evaline's safety...he could only sigh in resignation.
"Tsk! Fine! But go change your clothes first. That stupid white robe is just gonna give away our position to the enemy. Go get something easier to move in.", he finally relented.
"Eh?! But, these are sacred garments! I cannot simply go and abandon the-"
Ashen grabs her head and pulls her closer, "Either you change your clothes yourself or I strip you naked and dress you again. Your choice.", he threatened in a whisper.
"...Okay...I shall change...", Rosseweisse sheepishly agreed and proceeded to leave the throne room accompanied by a few knights.
"Seriously...this is just the worst.", Ashen shrugged while looking out the shattered windows.
The siege of London has yet to end.