Will of a Prince

Chapter 192: The Big, Beautiful Kingdom of Paria Empire

Another few weeks had passed with nothing eventful taking place. Everyone in the group had grown strong enough to handle elder beasts by themselves with little effort. Some people needed another with them to handle beast deities, and the rest were capable of taking on monsters of any caliber, with the exception of a deity.

Luckily, the strongest beast they had found was an elder monster which took the combined efforts of everyone to defeat. They were rapidly approaching the main kingdom of Paria with each passing day. Jacob walked with Maria who still led the group forward with her pristine armor and deadly spear.

"Hey, Maria. Can I get a second opinion on something?"

"Sure! What is it?"

"When was the last time you’ve seen one of those cultists?"

The question was simple, but Maria struggled to give her answer.

"I... I am not sure. It has to have been a month by now at least."

"Isn’t that a little suspicious? I mean, we have these targets on our arms and Squabee’s Zalo doesn’t exactly hide us."

A memory of a conversation that Jacob held with Skelly flashed in his mind.

"I also think they’re looking for Doc."

Everyone, including Doc, appeared startled hearing the news.

"They’re after Doc? Why? How do you know?"

Jacob hesitated.

"Well, it’s hard to explain. Sometimes I have these dreams of a skull freak talking to me who gives me philosophical lectures. However, they claimed to be a part of the Profane Trio. I believe Annis is the skeleton I’ve been talking to."

Slimo glared at Jacob cautiously.

"You’ve been talking with someone of the Profane Trio? Why the hell didn’t you tell us anything?"

"Ease up a little. They haven’t spoken to me in a very long time. It’s also not like I wanted to talk with them!"

Jacob sighed and cleared his throat.

"Anyway, they offered me an answer to something in exchange for Doc. They never said why they need him though."

"Well, what did you say to them?"

"I told them to screw off and got thrown into a ceiling."

Maria thought back to the instance she walked in Jacob’s room and saw the hole caved into his ceiling when she woke up. She stifled a laugh and continued walking.

Slimo walked up to Jacob and pulled him back, whispering close to his ear.

"What answers were they promising you?"

Jacob was a bit surprised to hear Slimo’s curiosity but told him anyway.

"They kept calling me their prince and Maria my commander. I mean, I guess Maria is our commander right now, but I am not a prince anymore. That would be like me calling you Prince Slimo even though you left the kingdom."

Slimo’s eyes betrayed a small hint of fear. Jacob saw it but decided not to comment.

"I see. That is very interest-..."

Slimo stopped walking and looked around.

"What is it?"

"Do you hear that too?"

Suddenly, Maria’s voice echoed over everyone in the group.

"Hey, Slimo? You aren’t related to giants, are you?"

"I am not. Why do you ask?"

"Then why is your kingdom so huge?"

Everyone slowly walked up over the small hill Maria was standing on to investigate what she was talking about. A few people gasped at the reveal.

Paria’s main kingdom was standing right before them in all its glory. The walls were so tall and wide they looked to be touching the clouds and stretch for miles without end. The steel that they were made up of was dark black and flawless. There were thousands of sentry towers on the top with large groups of people standing in each one. However, even with such a grandeur display of the outside, there was something even crazier in the fields that surrounded the place.

Slimo’s face dropped.

"... What the hell are those things?"

Chained up all around the kingdom were tens of thousands of creatures. The chains binding them looked ethereal, as if they were made of a strange mist. Even though they were so far away, the sounds of their dark grunts and howls reached their ears.

"It’s because of the war. They strengthened their defenses in case of an attack."

Maria tried to think of something to say but struggled to find the right words.

"I think we should... stay here for now. We need a plan if we’re still going to go in there."

Everyone sat in a large circle and put their heads together. Steel was the first one to start the conversation.

"Can’t we just cut our way through them?"

"That can’t be possible. All of those creatures are of the monster class at least, and that’s only the ones on the outer ring. There’s no telling how strong some of those things are."

"Even if we do make it past all of those creatures, how do we get past that gargantuan wall? I don’t even see a gate anywhere!!"

"The wall is impenetrable. The only way in is to either be escorted in by one of the guards or scale it ourselves. As far as I’m aware, none of you can fly, can you?"

Everyone looked at Jacob and Maria.

"These marks don’t give us wings! We can’t fly!"

"Then our only choice is to lure the guards outside of the kingdom somehow. We need a distraction big enough so they would have no choice but to open the gates."

"What the hell can we possibly do for that to happen?! I’m almost positive I see a few leviathans by the front. What’s more distracting than a chained-up leviathan?!"

Slimo put his head down and clasped his hands together.

"A leviathan that’s free."

Everyone in the circle went silent. Slimo slowly looked at Bo with a sympathetic expression. Bo’s eyes widened.

"Oh, no. No no no. I don’t like that look you’re giving me."

"Come on Bo. You’ve been training for a mission just like this!"

"Are you sick in the head?! That’s a suicide mission! You seriously expect me to waltz into a horde of powerful creatures, find the most dangerous ones I can, then set them all free?!"

"You’re the only one who can do it. The creatures may not be able to see you."

"Exactly! They may not! It’s not that they will not! Why don’t we have Sarah go? She is the one who can’t even be touched by them in the first place!"

"Her ability doesn’t last for nearly as long as yours does yet. She is still practicing."

Zoey slapped Bo across the back of the head.

"Quit being a big baby and get a move on it! You’re embarrassing me as your training partner!"

Bo ran his fingers through his blonde hair.

"This can’t be happening to me. This isn’t fair!"

"We’ll be waiting. Good luck!"

Bo was slowly pushed further away from the group by Zoey. He looked over the field of monsters and instantly activated his ability.

"Well, here goes nothing."

Bo steadily walked in between the monsters on the outer ring. The smell coming off their hides and skin made him want to vomit. A few times he needed to cover his mouth to gag as to not make a sound. It wasn’t until he got towards the inner ring of creatures that things started to get weird.

Every now and then, a monster would look his direction quickly, as if spotting him for a moment, but then quickly turn back away. Bo stopped and held his breath each time he watched his happen.

’Can they see me?! Are they too powerful?!’

After a short bit of hesitation, he continued walking forward. He was moving so slowly that it took him thirty minutes before he finally reached the front of the wall. However, the creature that guarded it was something he had never hoped to see in his life.

A dragon with a scar over its left eye. It’s green scales covered its body perfectly like a set of armor. Its wings spread dozens of meters wide and held faint scars of a previous fight.

Suddenly, it lifted its head and stared right where Bo was standing. Bo held his breath and stopped moving, but it was no use. It was clear the dragon could see him perfectly. Suddenly, something unexpected happened.

"Human, you are brave to travel so deep in this sea of creatures. What be your purpose for daring to approach?"

Bo felt like passing out,

’Did I just hear a dragon speak?’

"I am not speaking. I am sharing my thoughts with you. Answer me or die by my claw."

’I think I’ve officially lost it. Uh-wait. How does would this work? Oh! Hi, I guess? Did that come off as weird? Whatever. I-uh came to free you, dragon, sir. Is it even a sir? Oh wait, you heard that didn’t you? Wait, you heard that too probably.’

’What reason would you have for freeing me? Do I not seem like a threat? Do you not think I will simply kill you once I am unbound from these shackles?"

’Well, I was hoping that you would hold a grudge for these people that enslaved you. Actually, my whole plan is riding on that fact, I have to make sure he doesn’t know that so I can take advantage in the negotiations. Wait... he just heard that, didn’t he? DAMN IT.’

"You are quite an ignorant human. Possibly the weakest mind I have ever seen. However, freeing me also means freeing everyone else. I cannot promise your safety once these binds come loose."

’... Did he just call me dumb in dragon-talk? It’s okay, I understand the risk. How do I set you free?’

"There is an enchantment etched into the steel door. You must break it. This will be the only thing I will help you with."

Suddenly the dragon reached into its mouth using its claw and scratched at its gums until a tooth fell on the ground.

’I think I’m going to be sick.’

"Take my tooth and stab it as hard as you can into the wall. The toxin residing inside of it will do all the work. After that, I would recommend running. I am not the only one who can see you perfectly fine."

Bo grabbed the dragon tooth and held it in his hand. It was so sharp that simply grabbing hold of it left a deep gash in his palm. Blood started to stain the tooth.

’Shit. I have to hurry. Is this toxin going to go into my hand?’

Bo walked up to the wall, wound the tooth up and shoved it as hard as he could into the steel.

Further back, everyone was crowded in front of the line of creatures. They were all lunging at them while still in their chains.

"I hope Bo will be okay. He’s only releasing a few powerful things at the front, right?"

"That’s right. We can just try and walk in between these smaller enemies for now until the distract-"

Suddenly, a massive green shockwave flew over the field. Every single chain holding a creature down was instantly snapped. Within moments, dozens of monsters were already upon them. Maria stabbed her spear through the head of a ravenous dog-like monster that was about to close its jaws around Lucy.

Slimo tackled three more and kicked them far away.

"If Bo survives this, remind me to kill him later."