The angels find their forces suddenly surrounded and at a ridiculous disadvantage, both numerically and strategically. The angels who before were scattered across the battlefield chasing the remaining enemies, begin to turn back and focus on the makeshift base.
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Basilius and Luscinia also retreat towards the base.
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Basilius starts muttering to himself, oblivious to his surroundings.
-No… they shouldn't arrive… not so fast, not so much…
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Luscinia sees Basilius's state and guides him through the battlefield.
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In moments they arrive at the base and are received by Salus and Leo in the middle of a discussion, seeing them approaching both of them advance to question Basilius.
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Salus
-Your majesty! Quick, order an all-out counterattack! Let's obliterate them or die trying!
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Basilius look at him confused and asks meekly.
-Do we have a chance?
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Leo
-Craziness! We will be exterminated! We must withdraw our forces to the capital!
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Salus
-Ridiculous! We will be easy targets!
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Leo
-At least we will not be completely obliterated you lunatic!
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Salus
-As expected of your traitorous bloodline, abandoning and cowering at the last minute!
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As the tensions rise, Luscinia could see that they would soon be at each other troats, literally, she readies herself to once again stop them but before she could do anything Basilius places himself between the two and yell.
-STOP!
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As if he was forcefully shaken off his previous panic by such pathetic in-fighting, Basilius had returned to his usual state, with a focused determined gaze, but with clear despair behind his eyes. His knights fall silent as they listen to him say.
-I'll serve as a distraction while our forces retreat to Utopia!
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Luscinia
-What are you saying, your majesty-
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Basilius suddenly interrupts her by holding both of Luscinia's hands.
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With a wistful smile, he speaks.
-Luscinia, I'm a coward unable to live without you, so I have a selfish request to make, run away and live.
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Basilius brusquely kisses Luscinia, a short, awkward kiss. After that, he lifts his wings and begins to fly away as he says.
- I hope you take care of our people with the same passion with which you protected me.
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Luscinia starts to reach out her hand to hold Basilius and stop him.
-No-
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But she stops when she notices something in the palm of her hand, a ring adorned with a heavenly yellow jewel, she immediately recognized it as the symbol of royal power. Looking at him, Luscinia squeezes the palm of her hand with all her strength as she murmurs.
-No…
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Leo put a hand on her shoulder and says
-We need to go.
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She begins to flap her wings and fly, forcing herself to keep up with Leo and Salus, clenching her fist with all her might as she continues to mutter "no" as her only attempt to resist because she knew what needed to be done.
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Salus glares at Basilius clearly disapprovingly as he flies.
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Leo raises his pistol and shoots upward, the sound echoes across the field and all angels knew what it meant, it was their signal to retreat.
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The angels flew en masse towards the capital while the human forces prepared their artillery to take them down. But the humans stopped for a moment when they noticed a distinct figure flying over the battlefield, a four-winged angel, at the sight of angel royalty they instinctively changed their target to focus on the enemy leader.
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Basilius is bombarded by human artillery, he closes his wings and starts to fall like a comet against the arrows, his eyes glow with a golden hue, and the projectiles going against him start flying abnormally, allowing him to dodge them all while he to defended himself using his scythe. Unfortunately, even with his efforts, several angels were still hit during the escape.
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While all of this action happened, a small hand was emerging from the rubble, pushing away at everything it could touch. As if led by the hand, several humans began to emerge from below, they were not soldiers though, just a bunch of runaway prisoners.
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Both Zarco and Caelum stand dirty and exhausted, Caelum stood in an upright posture despite her fatigue, Zarco on the other hand, was with his hands on his knees, head down and his spine looking like a hook.
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While Zarco catches his breath, Caelum looks around the battlefield, although she was surprised by the sights of war such as the corpses of angels and humans lying on the ground, she quickly understood what was happening and recomposed herself.
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Caelum then sees a distant figure going against human forces, a single angel.
-Who is that?
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Zarco raises his head and says with a dry voice.
-The light hurts...
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Saeve smiles as he sees Basilius advancing, being hit by several arrows, most luckily blocked by his armor.
-Pathetic, seeing a leader fall to this point. After we have your head rolling on the ground, what good will it do?
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While Saeve was monologuing, he could hear a few of his soldiers yelling something, but he paid it no attention. Instead, he just opened a huge smile and kept going.
-Without your king and after such defeat, your people's morale will crumble, your kingdom will fall between internal conflicts and your angels will kneel before a new master… I, PRINCEPS SAEVE!
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Right after he spoke, a huge beast broke through human forces, the creature resembled the hybrid of a dog and a lizard, and on its forehead shone a precious jewel. The monster rushes through the soldiers and ends up flinging Saeve up high, he fell unconscious immediately after the impact and ended up dropping Zarco's stone in the middle of the ar.
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Mounted on the creature were four familiar figures led by Deville, they yelled.
-YOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!
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Potentia
-DADDY!!!
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Everyone's attention is drawn to that unexpected event, the commander of the human forces and administrator of the colony fallen unconscious, defeated by a huge beast, and four people unknown to almost all but one of the people on that battlefield.
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Deville
-ZARCOOOOOOO!!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!
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The scream echoes through the field until it reached Zarco, who just said.
-Oh no…
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Basilius spreads his wings to avoid his fall, surprised that he was still alive but even more so by the scene in front of him, eloquently he wonders.
-What?
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Still confused, the attention of some individuals turned to a small but intense, beautiful blue light on the battlefield, they all knew what it was.
.
Zarco's ancient crystal glittered on the floor.
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Basilius, Zarco, Caelum, Potentia, Deville, and his Friends all yelled.
-THE CRYSTAL!
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END OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER.