The situation at Atlantis was NOT good.
It had been 6 months since the war had entered the all-out stage.
With 3 Overseers, 2 plans, and Aslot gone, the Organisation had gotten surprisingly weak. All they had left were 2 Overseers to fight in the front lines, the Forced Relic Wielders, and cannon fodders. They didn't have much in the way of Equipment compared to Kingdoms either.
But still, the squids put up a decent fight with many surprise tactics, making the fight last this long.
The number of their Forced relic wielders turned out to be overwhelmingly large. Forced Relic Wielders are people with only slight affinity towards the relic being forcefully bonded to them through the Blue markings.
They aren't as powerful as the natural relic wielders, by any chance. But they're definitely better than a huge majority of non relic wielders.
Having freshly lost two more in the Fight against Aslot, the Kingdom didn't have many Relic Wielders itself to begin with. And when these Forced Relic Wielders turned up in huge numbers, it seemed that the kingdom was going to be in trouble.
But.
It was then SHE showed up.
Akiko of the Death. Or Death Eyes Akiko.
Those who meet her eyes die, and then rise up as soldiers under her command. With one glance, could make her enemies feel the worst pain imaginable and inflict them with numerous curses. Her darkness brings decay and destruction in its wake.
In short, she was an abomination that the Kraken regretted facing without preparation. Alone, she killed so many that it was difficult to count. And she relished in every bit of suffering she caused to her enemies.
And the Kingdom's forces feared her equally, thanking the ocean gods that she was on their side.
Due to this, despite their efforts, it was looking as though the Kraken was just trying to delay the inevitable. The Kingdom's forces had almost won the fight.
But, before the final decisive battle, something unexpected happened.
The Royal Throne, one of the Kingdom's most important relics, was suddenly compromised.
It was as unbelievable as it sounds when suddenly the Kingdom's defensive weapons suddenly began backfiring one Atlantian Forces which had been resting.
Not only that, even the civilians were attacked.
The whole Kingdom was put in a frenzy as everyone tried to comprehend just what the hell was going on. Kingdom's defense system do friendly fire, that had never happened before! And neither did anyone ever think it would ever happen.
The Kingdom suffered numerous casualties, both civilian and military, being caught off guard.
But, there were people who rose to occasion to handle the situation.
The General was able to protect and quickly evacuate the Military to the emergency bunkers that he had somehow anticipated might be useful someday.
On the other hand, Kyrin, Akiko, and the Cloak, with their managed to quickly disable most of the threats in the civilian areas, which had been most focused on defense.
In this emergency, another person who has been a huge asset to the Kingdom... turned out to be the newcomer and Outsider Martina Valentino, who only arrived four months ago.
In four months, she has not only rapidly improved her magical capabilities, but also her grasp over the Atlantian Technology.
With her help, the Atlantian forces were able quickly track down and disable all the dangerous automated systems throughout the city.
But, the real problem was only just starting. The real weapons and defense of the King are stationed at the huge wall that is protecting the Kingdom from the Trench.
And now that the Armies have had to evacuate them due to the emergency, and the defenses like the portal, the magi-tech artillery, and protective force fields are under the Kraken's control…
They've gotten free access into the city.
And, having anticipated that, the Kraken forces decided to attack at this moment with their full force, putting everything into this attack.
In an emergency meeting held at a bunker, the leaders were standing around a map showing the real-time situation of Atlantis.
"How many casualties?" Asked Antilla, her face cold.
The General clenched his jaw. "More than 10,000, princess. And still counting."
Antilla closed her eyes, burying the pain deep inside. Along with the rest of it.
The rest of the members also sucked in cold breaths upon hearing the numbers.
"How did it even happen? How could they take control of the Royal Throne?!"
The General shook his head. "We're still trying to investigate that.
"Did… Did we manage to evacuate the king?" Asked Antilla, trying to sound as neutral as possible, but her voice still trembled, showing how nervous she really was.
The General lowered his head, not saying anything.
That meant no.
Silence descended into the meeting room. If the King hadn't managed to evacuate, everyone knows what that means.
The Royal Throne can override all control of the castle. And if the Kraken manages to get control over it before the King evacuated, it means that he has no chance.
Antilla still had her eyes closed, trying her best to make her mind forget this particular information through occlumency.
Royal father… was the last family member. To lose him too….
Nononono! Don't think!
Everyone could only pity the Princess at this point. No one could fault her. She has been trying her best, making the best decisions possible under the circumstances. They were even winning the war with minimum losses.
And yet, with one move, everything is now overturned.
"That Scitus… I want to kill him so badly…"
They couldn't even understand how the Kraken even managed to do it. It was the same with a lot of other tactics of the Kraken. And it was all because of one person.
Scitus Marcelus, the Third Overseer. And the Organisation's strategist. It is mostly due to him that the Kraken has almost won many times, only failing due to the Kingdom being lucky.
The bombing, the biopark incident, Aslot, numerous cunning strategies during the war, the list goes on and on.
And now, he has pulled this. Just how?!
At this moment, there was a red alert notification on the screen, attracting everyone's attention.
The General quickly expanded the alert and an old and familiar face appeared on the screen.
"Greetings to all Atlantians."
"King?!"
"It's the king!"
"And it's a Kingdom-wide live broadcast!"
Everyone in the room straightened, suddenly elated to see the King still alive. And not only was he alive, he was also sitting on the Royal Throne.
People began cheering, because if the King was still alive and sitting on the throne, it must mean that they had the city back under their control!
"I had surrendered to the Entity."
But the first words the King spoke shocked everyone to the core. It was only then that they noticed the extremely familiar blue markings over the King's face.
"The Royal Throne, is now under the Kraken control as well. It is my request to all the Atlantians to surrender peacefully in order to end this conflict once and for all. I repeat..."
Antilla fell to her knees as she blankly looked at the Broadcast. She couldn't move her eyes away from those blue marking.
'Royal Father... under Kraken's control...?'
She had thought his Death would have been the worst outcome.
Oh how wrong was she…
…..
On the other hand, having thought he had finally won the battle, Axel couldn't enjoy the peace for long.
His body flinched as already tired mind suddenly suffered the pressure from the Entity. And, as if to make the matters worse, light magic began gathering from every place.
"Fuck… me"
Axel looked at the rising light particles in a deadpan, too tired to even react.
"My Prince, actually, this is what I was trying to tell you. Aether world has many existences with unimaginable power. And the Aetherian Royal Family stands above them all. One of the major reasons has been… no one has ever found a way to kill them."
This is exactly the reason why the Trident got scared when he learnt that the Kraken actually had a member of the Aetherian Royal Family under their control along with a tree that looked eerily like a world tree.
"I had hoped that being an imitation, this world tree wouldn't have the same properties. But, I don't know how, but they've managed to get it's real properties."
Axel had no idea what to do anymore.
He had tried everything at this point. If he had to think where he went wrong, he'd say he was in too much of a hurry to go back to think things through before making decisions.
Had he chosen to fight a protracted battle, Zeta's attacks are so clumsy he wouldn't have had to spend even a little bit of his mental energy.
But he was in a hurry to return and wanted to end things quickly, so he decided to go big.
Besides, all his life, he's only fought the battles on back-foot, always having to win due to tricks because of not having enough power. But, now that he had the Royal Trident, he thought he could finally be free of that stigma and fight the battle head on.
Of course, that has backfired spectacularly on him, as even though the World Tree had already been destroyed, the huge amount of magic inside it manage to remain conserved.
"I'm never fighting on relaxed mode again," he said. He'd never underestimate his opponents again. Zeta might be too amateur a fighter, but the World Tree and the Entity backing her up are the real deal.
The light started to gather again, forming into Zeta's face. And this time, instead of the Royalty from AetherWorld, she looked like a demon from the Netherworld.
"You… I will not kill you now. I'll just fill you up with light so fierce that you'll beg for night. I am going to spend years torturing you."
Axel slowly got up, looking up at the super-pissed woman who looked like she would kill him at any cost.
'Maybe, I should've gone with less taunting this time.' He thought, cursing his poisonous mouth.
Had he not killed her four times, each providing with different experience, and had he been a little nicer, maybe things would have been different now.
"Uh… any chance we can talk this out?" He asked. [Silver Tongue]
Doubtful. But hey, it's still worth a shot.
A light beam was the only answer he got, making him jump to the side. Since he was mentally spent, the [Water Body] was temporarily gone, meaning he could die with those beams now.
"Alright, I deserved that," he said, dodging an even more powerful light beam. He was thanking the gods that he still had his physical strength left. It was buying him time to come up with a new fighting plan.
"Okay, I shouldn't have called you stupid! Having blonde hair doesn't automatically make you dumb! My friend is blonde too, and she's really smart! Uh… most of the times…"
BOOOM
"Alright, I shouldn't have called your breast small either! They're at least average size!"
BOOM
"Alright, better than average! Are you happy now? What's the use anyway? It's not like anyone will ever see them if you keep yourself holed up in this place?"
BOOOOM
"I mean seriously, are you really supporting the Entity voluntarily? When you've been stuck here for years growing a tree?!"
"Don't you want to go out and touch some grass? I mean, see the outer world? Meeting other people?"
It seemed that he hit a nerve as the frequency of attacks decreased a bit.
"I stay here on my own free will!" Said Zeta.
"Oh. But do you really? I mean, there is no one to talk to here, no one to observe, heck, there's not even any sunshine here! Do you even know what the sun, moon, and stars look like? Do you never want to go out and explore? And if you do, and you still don't, then, are you really not under the Entity's control?"
Axel was really on his last leg here, resorting to talking in order to buy time. This is yet another one of deception tricks he had picked after on the streets for whenever he was cornered and outnumbered.
Every person has things that when said by another person, can throw them into confusion or deep thought, thus distracting them from their original goal, which could be, for example , fucking Axel up.
You just have to put yourself in the person's shoes and keep throwing out random topic until you hit those weak spots.
Zeta has a similar interest as Daphne, that is nature. And Axel knows very well what these nature enthusiasts like.
And it seemed that he had hit a nerve, as Zeta stopped attacking him to think over his words. "I… actually want to," she realized.
'Gotcha!'
Now, to reel it in.
"See?! I told you! You're not under control of yourself! You're being manipulated by the Entity, the same being who was supposedly so bad that your ancestors had to seal it up!"
Axel's mind was suddenly put under a lot of strain and the pressure on also increased, sinking him to his knees. It seems that the Entity didn't agree with his views.
"You're the Royalty of the Aetherworld! You're supposed to rule a fucking Empire!" He yelled out despite the increased mental burden. "And what are you doing here? Trap in a garden being a fucking gatekeeper of your enemy?! Are the Organisation's goals really your goals? Do you really want to destroy everyone in Atlantis? Is this what you really want?! So much so that you'd sacrifice your own freedom?!"
Zeta clutched her head, seeming also feeling a headache now. Zeta was at a loss as something was preventing her from thinking along what Axel had said.
Why had she never even tried to venture out of this place? Why has she not seen what the outer world looks like? And, why has she always been thinking for the Organization instead of what she actually wants?
"Yes! Fight back! Don't let it control you! You're bloody Aetherian Royalty! Can you seriously let the Entity control you when someone like me with an "inferior" bloodline can resist?!" Said Axel, continuing his gaslighting.
'For what it's worth, take this as well.' he thought, gathering his magic and locking it down on Zeta.
[Unshackle]
That seemed to do the trick as Zeta screamed clutching her head, blue marking appearing over her body.
Of course, as was the case with the trident, Axel couldn't fully remove the markings as he didn't didn't have enough power to do so. But, he didn't need to.
Zeta has the same bloodline as the dudes who sealed the muthefuking Entity. She has to have a great amount of resistance against the Entity's control.
And besides, [Unshakle]… is actually a light affinity spell. That clearly shows just how effective light affinity is against the Entity's control.
That's why he tried breaking her out in the first place.
Light Magic in the surroundings began to enter Zeta's mind as the world tree also regrew back from the ground to support her.
CLICK
CLICK
CLICK
BOOOOM
Zeta's body shook repeated before the blue markings were burnt away, as she screamed out loud.
"That's it! There we go!"
Zeta was covered in light, suddenly free from the Entity's influence. And Axel was also happy at unexpectedly succeeding through this tactic.
'Is this… the Legendary Jutsu Akiko was talking about?'
It seems he had just pulled off the same Jutsu as the Seventh leader of Magical Japan, who had the ability to win his fight just through talking.
...
A.N.: POWERSTONES
next: REUNION
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