As the barrier shattered, several more columns of lightning descended from the storm clouds, this time heading towards the audience. The screams of people cause King Oriole as well as a few other high-rank people to take action.
"Rachel, I need you to help me guide these people to safety, try getting as many of them out of the coliseum as you can!" King Oriole shouts as he creates a lightning barrier to deflect several lightning columns at once.
Heeding her uncle's words, Rachel flaps her wings and shoots into the sky, using herself as a beacon to lead people towards one of the exits. However, before anyone can escape, the exit they were headed for explodes, causing several people to be blown back, including Rachel.
'What's going on?' Rachel thinks, a loud ringing in her ears making it difficult for her to think. Picking herself up, she tries to fly back into the sky, but that's when she realizes she is missing one of her wings.
Back in the arena, Sydra and Jason have both stopped fighting to help people escape the arena. As he helps people stand up to keep them from being trampled, Sydra's eyes dart back and forth.
'Where are they?' Sydra thinks as he searches for Lucas and Kayla. Finding them is his main priority because he is the reason they were put in this situation. As Sydra jumps over several parts of the ceiling that had been broken off, he spots people trapped underneath a wall at the top of the coliseum.
"There!" Jason shouts, pointing towards the people, "That's where they were sitting,"
The two of them push through the crowd, hastily making their way to the top. When they reach the people trapped, Sydra grabs the edge of the fallen wall and tries to lift it up, but the wall proves to be too heavy.
Seeing Sydra unable to lift it on his own, Jason grabs the other end of the wall and lifts it with him, both of them activating their aura to assist them. Together they manage to flip the wall over, only to become devastated at the sight of Tio's and Tina's crushed bodies.
"No..." Jason says, his body trembling as he drops to his knees, "Their... dead?"
Sydra steps past Jason and kneels down next to Tio's body, releasing a green halo into Tio's body. After a few seconds, Tio coughs and his eyes flutter open, causing Jason to jump forward.
"Tio?! Can you hear me?" Jason shouts, "It's going to be okay, Sydra can heal you!"
Before Jason can say anymore, Tio shakes his head, "There's no time, you both need to escape from here and find Cho and the others,"
"We can't leave you behind!" Jason shouts, trying to pick Tio up, "I can bring you and Tina somewhere safe where Sydra can heal the two of you, then we can all go search for the others together,"
"Jason... stop," Tio mutters, trying to push Jason away, "My sister is already dead, and I will be soon. But Cho and the others are still alive, and they might need your help,"
Tio stops talking for a few seconds as he glances over at his sister, tears streaming down his face, "I want you to find the bastards that did this, and make them pay,"
With those words said, Tio's eyes shut once more, never to open again. Unwilling to accept it, Jason tries to shake Tio but Sydra pulls him away and slaps his face.
"Get a hold of yourself!" Sydra shouts, "What Tio said was right, and we don't have time to try bringing back the dead!"
With his face stinging, Jason looks back at Tio's and Tina's crushed bodies, clenching his fist as he stands up, "I promise you that the people who did this will not die a peaceful death,"
Turning around, Jason and Sydra rush off to find the remaining members of the group. Searching high and low, the two of them look for any signs of their friends until they eventually find them protecting Rachel from being trampled.
"Cho!" Jason shouts, shoving people out of his way until he gets to her. Reaching her, Jason wraps his arms around her and squeezes as tightly as he can, tears streaming down his face, "I'm so glad you safe... Tio and Tina are..."
Jason is unable to finish his sentence, but Cho understands what he is trying to say. Pulling away, Cho moves to the side to allow Jason and Sydra to see Rachel laying on the ground with one of her wings missing.
"We tried to move her, but every time we went to pick her up someone would run into us," Cho explains, "Now with the two of you here, it should be much easier,"
Before Sydra and Jason can move, another column of lightning descends from the sky, heading directly towards them. The bolt of lightning had appeared so suddenly, that only Sydra had enough time to put up an amber colored barrier.
'It's not going to hold,' Sydra thinks, his eyes widening as the bolt heads straight towards him. Bracing himself, Sydra prepares to protect the others, but the moment before the lightning strikes his barrier two men jump in front of him.
One is the king, who uses his massive yellow wings to protect the group, and the other is a man dark blue armor with multiple shadows revolving around him. Reaching into one of the shadows, the man pulls out a shield and holds it in the air above the group, his muscles bulging as the lightning slams down into it.
"Aslot, I want you to take my niece back to the palace and protect her there," King Oriole says as he folds his wings back up. Turning his head up to the sky, he narrows his eyes, "I'm going to find out who released the Storm Monarch inside our kingdom,"
Hearing this, Jason steps forward, "King Oriole, please take us with you. We also wish to discover who unleashed that beast, and killed our friends,"
Standing next to him, Sydra nods his head, "I wish to go as well, although I may not be of much use,"
King Oriole looks between Sydra and Jason before nodding his head, "Alright, I'll take the two of you with me, the rest of you can go with Aslot to the palace,"
Grabbing Jason and Sydra, King Oriole flaps his wings and flies into the sky, flashing through the top of the coliseum and through the dark storm clouds. As they fly above the clouds, Sydra gets his first clear look at the creature called a Storm Monarch.
The beast resembles a massive whale, except it has three pulsing horns going down its head, and six black wings across its back. Everytime the whale flaps its wings, more dark clouds form, each one crackling with electricity.
"There are people standing on its back!" Jason shouts, pointing towards a group of people standing in a circle in the center of the Strom Monarch's back. The people are all wearing golden robes, and each one is holding different colored spheres of lightning above their heads.
"The council?!" King Oriole shouts, recognizing the robes the people are wearing, "Why would they do this?"
By now the council had seen King Oriole approaching them, and they increased the speed of their chant, tossing the spheres of lightning down at the end of it. The lightning spheres all land in the center of the circle, and become absorbed by the Storm Monarch.
"Your too late, King Oriole," One of the council member says, grinning wickedly, "The Storm Monarch will destroy this kingdom, and allow us to build a new one on top of it! A kingdom that will rule over everything!"
Landing on the Storm Monarch's back, King Oriole drops Sydra and Jason before turning to the council, "And who will live in that Kingdom, if you kill everyone in this one?"
"The strong of course!" The council member shouts back, his long white beard flapping widely in the wind, "Those who survive the destruction of the kingdom will be the new residents of the future kingdom, and once we tell them that it was the neighboring kingdoms who released this beast, they shall desire revenge!"
"You want to start a war with the other kingdoms? Have you gone mad, there is no way you would win!" King Oroile shouts, but it seems that his words have landed on deaf ears as the council members all start to smile wickedly.
"We won't win? Haha!" Another council member laughs, "With the power of the council combined, there is no way we could lose!"
As the council all started to laugh widely, Sydra noticed something odd about them. Although they all seemed to be acting crazily, and without reason, none of them had any life left in their eyes. It was almost like they were puppets, being controlled by someone else behind the scenes.
However, before Sydra could tell King Oriole what he had seen, he found himself falling into a yellow portal that had appeared beneath his feet, along with Jason.