Commander Lucifer was standing from afar as he sighted his kingdom. Smoke was neither coming out from the kingdom, nor something else. He was exhausted that he was seeing the kingdom moving backward as he approached it.
It was midday. It wasn't easy for him, trekking from the deep forest to home. The journey was full of challenges and endurance.
There was no horse to take him home. The only horse he got was his feet.
"Huh Huh!" Commander Lucifer coughed heavily as he was starved with water. He dragged his feet to the kingdom gate. What he saw struck his heart like a rumble of thunder.
The whole of Cyprus kingdom has been taken down to ashes. It was in a fury of fire. He couldn't identify if the kingdom once had a building or not. Dead bodies of both his men and their enemies were laying on the ground. Blood was flowing like water. There was no doubt that the attack happened recently.
Commander Lucifer's face was looking pale. Anger could be seen writing all over his face.
"Which kingdom could have done this when they defeated the Gapsin?"
Without giving it a second thought, commander Lucifer dashed into the palace to check on king Cheng. He got into the palace and searched everywhere, but the king was nowhere to be found. Commander Lucifer didn't want to assume that the king was killed.
Nevertheless, he went ahead checking the dead men lying on the floor with injuries. Still, he couldn't find the king, nor did he find Chao, his sword-bearer.
"They were captured for slavery!" Commander Lucifer mumbled and gave way for tears to flow down his eyes.
"No!" He screamed out in agony and fell to his knees on the ground. He buried his face in his palms and cried bitterly. Not only that, but he could see his whole world shattered. All the promises he made became fake. He was disappointed in himself.
He couldn't protect the princess the way he promised, nor did he protect the king. All the blame was on him. His guilty conscience never allows him to have peace of mind.
"Who could have done this atrocity?"
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It has been two days since Prince Junfeng found his way out of the tick forest after wandering for three days. He finally gave up on the princess because of what he had been facing in the forest.
Prince Junfeng passed through dangers but unlike commander Lucifer. He wanted not to give up on searching for the princess. This was because his men will see him as a failure, and he might end up killing someone if he dares hear such a thing from them.
He endured hunger and pain for two days, but on the third day, he found his redemption. Prince Junfeng almost clashed with commander Lucifer in the forest, but commander Lucifer wasn't aware of it.
Prince Junfeng sighted commander Lucifer from afar, even though his figure wasn't clear. But prince Junfeng was sure that it was commander Lucifer. This informed him that the commander was also searching for Princess Chu Hua.
"I haven't seen the princess for the past three days, nor has he. It shows that the princess has neither returned home without our knowledge nor is she still wandering around the forest." Prince Junfeng thought to himself as he hid behind a tree, to avoid commander Lucifer seeing him.
After hiding from commander Lucifer who was out of sight, prince Junfeng came out from his hiding place.
"Now, I have a better idea." Prince Junfeng mumbled and nodded his head with excitement. It was almost night, and the sun was about to go out.
The sun was giving its last smile to the earth before giving way for the moon to take over.
Prince Junfeng set out for his kingdom. Before he could reach home, it was already midnight. He arrived home early because most of the journey was covered with running. He needed to do everything fast before commander Lucifer could think of coming back home.
"It will be better if he comes back and finds out that his kingdom has been destroyed and princess Chu Hua and her father have been captured. Rather than him being around to fight me." Prince Junfeng thought.
On getting home, few of his men were awake and the majority had gone far with sleep. Without delay, he commanded one of the guards to wake and gather every warrior who was sleeping, which he did.
"We're launching an attack on Cyprus tonight." Prince Junfeng spoke.
Surprisingly, the guard caught most of the men having affairs with the kingdom's women in their rooms.
Only a few of the people were legitimately married, and others were only flirting with the opposite gender. It was a normal life to them, which is not considered an abomination.
Prince Junfeng was given food to eat as his men got prepared for the attack they were about to launch.
The majority of the Gapsin men were being killed by the Cyprus men, but eventually, thousands of them were still left at home to guard the women. It was their turn to go out for battle against the Cyprus.
Prince Junfeng ate peacefully and then lay with two women for an hour. The more he delays, the more time is fading out.
He was done with whatever assignment he was doing before coming out of his chamber. Furthermore, He was aware that he would be the next king of his kingdom, and no doubt about that. His father has passed away and no one is in the best position to do that except for him.
All the armies were set for war. No one was going on foot this time around. They want to do everything fast, without any delay.
"A smooth operation!!!"
Every warrior in the kingdom set out for the battle. No man was left behind, only the female. They assume that no kingdom will dare come against them because every kingdom was always afraid of them. They were always attacked unaware, but that was before and not now.
Unbeknownst to the Cyprusians, they were heavily attacked by the Gapsins, and they were not on their guard. The Gapsin men weren't showing mercy to anyone. They never wanted slaves or jailers. Their target was to eliminate everyone in the kingdom.
Thousands of men were killed during the war. The battle lasted for six hours until the morning. The Gapsin men weren't ready to leave the kingdom without setting everything ablaze. They never wanted to see anything remaining in the Cyprus kingdom.
Prince Junfeng got angrier when he was unable to find princess Chu Hua in the kingdom. Until they were very sure that no one or anything was remaining in the kingdom before they left with satisfaction. Even though some of their men got killed, it wasn't their problem. They have gotten what they wanted by destroying the whole city and killing everyone.
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After the battle, it took two days before commander Lucifer came and saw the horrible disaster that had fallen on his people.
"This could also be his fault. But he wasn't a god that would be able to protect everyone."
Commander Lucifer had to just accept whatever he had seen, to free himself from distress. However, can he easily forget these things?
It might last for years before he could get off them.
As commander Lucifer sobbed on the ground, he heard a sound like that of an animal. Someone must have been watching him from afar, or maybe someone was coming to check on the kingdom. He quickly stood up and hid behind some pieces of a crushed wall. He waited for minutes, which seemed like an eternity, but he kept hearing the sound and no one was approaching.
Commander Lucifer peeped and checked, but no one showed up. Commander Lucifer freed himself from fear and stepped out of his hiding. He then located where the sound was coming from. Low and behold, he saw a horse wandering around inside the broken pieces of the buildings. A glimpse of happiness caught him up.
Now, he can be able to go wherever he wants to go.
He moved closer to the horse and cared for it as he ran his fingers and palms across its neck. Commander Lucifer was so excited to see the horse.
The thought of going to Azanda's kingdom to check on everyone came to his mind.
He climbed the horse and left for the Azanda's kingdom.