Akira stood his ground in a struggle against five invaders who were attempting to bring destruction to the kingdom in an effort to repel them and defend the inhabitants. Akira was by himself as the knights fought the creature they had called.
"Bring us the king, or your life will be taken!" demanded one of the guys in the white robes. If the king wasn't brought, he made a threat that they would kill him.
"You'll have to pass my grave!" Akira yelled.
"Then we shall agree." Two men combined their earth and fire magic to produce a lava magic combo.
[FIRE X EARTH MAGIC: LAVA BOULDER]
To hit him, they threw a lava boulder. The boulder was split in half by Akira using his blood magic, the blood slash. Then Akira fired another one at them. Sadly, they built an earthen wall to repel the assault.
Akira then encountered 10 monsters that the woman had summoned before she called out another monster as a distraction. He completely cut them with ease.
"Impressive monsters you have back there! But I've fought better."
"No way, they were B-tier summons. He shreds them whole like it was nothing." The summoner was shocked by how effortlessly her monsters were vanquished.
"Numbers may be good and all, but powers are prioritized. You can't beat an enemy who has a hundred strengths with an enemy who has seven times ten in strength. It's simple math."
One of them then realized who he was, a man was shocked and so he spoke to them that he was one of the Mikadzuki's targets. They didn't want to after him but wanted to kill the king. Akira heard that they were the Mikadzuki.
Then they unleashed a firewall to escape, Akira swung his scythe and cleared the flame. They were gone in an instant, Akira couldn't locate where they at and assumed they must have portaled somewhere nearby since he heard a strange noise.
Akira rushed to the palace quickly as a bullet but was later disturbed by another monster who finished fighting against the knights.
"Get out of my way!" Running out of time, he finished them off by performing another blood slash.
"Damn it, the more they are, the slower I'll get there!"
He jumped into the palace and heard Shirahoshi was screaming for help. Akira went to the princess's hiding place. Upon reaching there, the guards who guarded the princess were injured badly. A hole in their stomach was fatal, reaching their death. "Save the princess" Was one of the guard's last words.
Akira couldn't stand it but wanted to heal them but it was too late, and now, he must save the princess so their deaths wouldn't be in vain. Akira opened the door and saw them strangling the princess. Akira wanted to attack them but they took her hostage. He couldn't risk it, if he attack she would die.
"You coward! Hands off her! Fight me fairly!"
"No can do, if you don't follow our conditions, your precious princess will never see the light of day. In other words..." They smiled, "Bring us the king or the princess will die. We will await your arrival." They placed a portal underneath them and slowly went down. Her eyes were staring at Akira, he noticed that her look wasn't despairing but trusting, signaling she trusted Akira to save her and so he promised.
"What was that smile for? What the hell are you doing anyway." He clenched his fist because of their escape and he left the room to protect the king.
He knew that Volts was occupied protecting the king to a safer place, the princess was separated since it was too dangerous and so they hid her and it was a big mistake.
Akira came across a paper after they portaled their way out, a note that they gave off. "Bring us the king and we will let the princess live." Akira gritted his teeth while holding the paper very tightly out of frustration.
"The hell is wrong with that group? I can't tell if they are ambitious or being too irrational." Akira crumpled the paper after recalling the Savanth and Metamorians encounter.
Akira then informed Volts and the king.
The peasants were secure because they lived outside the kingdom 20 minutes later, when the mess was enormous, and it was obvious that they were seeking revenge on the aristocrats. Since the peasants didn't cause the incident, the nobles held them responsible. The way they were acting disgusted Akira.
When he saw that those demons had taken his daughter, the King began to sob violently. He accused Akira of failing to save her. He was right when he remarked that he shouldn't have confronted them outside. Akira wasn't thinking clearly, but he reasoned that they were killing them so he could hear their pain. The King strangled Akira and warned that he would face severe penalties because of his responsibility.
Volts intervene that it wasn't his fault, he tried his best but they took her hostage before he got there. It was also Volts's fault because the princess was separated because of an urgent emergency.
He couldn't leave his place to protect the king and said to blame him instead of Akira since he was the one who was available in the palace.
The King let go of Akira and yelled to them both to save his daughter or their life would suffer. Akira said if he hadn't put his ego to save himself, things wouldn't happen. The King resented and blamed them entirely.
Akira left the king's room in disgust and went to save Shirahoshi. Volts advised him to wait because he was unsure of their whereabouts. She put her faith in Akira when he refused to stay and tried to save the princess by himself. The knights wanted to immediately assist in the princess's rescue when he departed the palace. To safeguard the kingdom, Akira instructed them to remain.
"I'm fighting alone. There's no telling when they'll arrive again. That's why I want you people to stay and protect your king."
"We refuse!" The whole knights refused to protect their king.
"Huh?"
Because the princess's benevolence was the highest in this kingdom, they owed her greatly. They insisted that despite what Akira had told them, the king wouldn't suffer the same fate. He tried to consider the possibilities while keeping his arms crossed.
He was then informed by one of the knights that his main ability was what would be most helpful. Akira's eyes widened at the coincidence that he had discovered a brave knight with the potential to help her and who was willing to die for her.
"But who's gonna protect the king then?"
"I'll do it." Volts stepped in and offered himself in protecting the king. The only person Akira laid trust in his abilities.
"If you're going then I'll protect the kingdom. It's no use if you settle things with the kingdom unprotected. My point is, if you want someone to rely on, that'll be me."
"Volts..." Akira felt moved by Volts's words that he finally agreed on teamworking.
Akira sighed and accepted their request to join, Akira gave them some info on what they were after and so he led the knights while making a plan to save princess Shirahoshi. No time to waste, he hop onto the horse, and since Akira had info about the location, he knew the place and the meeting would be held. He knew it would be obvious that they would lead him to a place very far from their hideout.
With all the knights ready to go, Akira and the knights headed off to save the princess...