Will of a Prince

Chapter 198: Here Lies Maria Rose

Harold seared through the air as fast as he could run. He was now running through a forest trying to find the spot that Doc was talking about. The Epigones were slowly inching forward with every passing moment. Harold felt their deathly-glare piercing his back.

"Shit. I don’t know how much longer I can run, Doc. Please tell me we’re almost there!"

"Just keep going! It’s just up ahead!"

Harold pushed through the pain building in his legs and continued to sprint. Finally, the weakness in his legs accompanied by the drawback of using his enchantment started to get to him. Harold’s legs gave out underneath him and he was sent rolling into a large field of golden flowers. It appeared to be the only opening throughout the whole forest. Moments later, the Epigones closed around him, looking down at his pathetic state with malice behind their onyx masks.

"You are a fast one. It’s going to be such a shame to simply kill you."

Harold began vomiting on the ground. Blood was notably mixed in with it as it painted the once-pristine field a light crimson. The Epigone began to laugh.

"That’s right. Just look at the flow-"

Before the Epigone could finish his sentence, his head fell off his shoulders. Blood spurted out of his stump like a geyser. Standing behind him was a tall, stone knight with a massive broadsword. A glowing green light shimmered under its visor as it stared at the other Epigone. Harold watched the scene in horror. His soul itself began to shake in the statute’s presence.

As Harold blinked, the stone figure had already disappeared, right next to the other Epigone. However, this Epigone managed to block the sword with a weapon of their own. Their clash moved the trees themselves from the impact. Harold desperately grabbed on to the dirt as to not be thrown away from the fight. Suddenly, the Epigone began to take off its mask.

There was nothing underneath it. It was as if the cloak itself was possessed by someone, or something else. The stone knight didn’t let up. Their sword was moving so fast that even Harold with his insane reflexes struggled to keep up with it. However, the sword hits were hardly damaging the floating cloak. A dark aura began to shroud it as more sword hits fell against its surface.

Suddenly, something crazy happened. The sword of the statue began to glow with a white, iridescent light, similar to how Lidia’s power glowed. It clashed against the dark force with vigor.

All Doc and Harold could do was watch the fight helplessly. Suddenly, small cracks started to appear over the statues surface. Doc’s heart sank.

"This can’t be. That’s a guardian of untold strength and it’s being pushed back!"

However, as he said this, the small cracks started to appear on the cloak too. It seemed as if the two devastating opponents were stuck at a stalemate between each other.

Three hours had passed with Doc and Harold watching the spectacle reach its end slowly.

The fighting was in no way majestic. It looked as if two street fighters were duking it out with weapons. There was no fighting style, no honor, just cold and unforgiving ruthlessness in every strike that was thrown. However, by the end of the fight, the cloak simply couldn’t keep up with the statues overwhelming strength.

With one last overhead strike of the now cracked stone sword, the dark cloak was shattered into thousands of small pieces. Upon the disappearance of the cloak, the statue fell to its knees, attempting to balance itself on its sword only for it to shatter in their grasp.

The helmet slowly crumbled off its head as a face was revealed underneath the visor. Both Harold and Doc gasped.

The guardian of the forest, the statue of this seemingly once-powerful warrior, was none other than Maria, or at least someone who looked identical to her.

Doc struggled to get words to escape his mouth.

"I-Impossible. This can’t be possible."

Harold started shaking staring at the facial features more clearly.

"Is that... no. It can’t be. Why didn’t you tell us about this? Does someone know Maria?"

Doc’s eyes were as wide as small disks.

"We didn’t know. This is the first time we were even allowed to step inside her circle. Wait, why is she not attacking us?"

The mark that Lidia had drawn on their necks started glowing warmly. Doc touched it, his heart beating faster.

"The mark Lidia gave us... it’s keeping us alive somehow."

Doc studied the statue carefully, ensuring that what they were seeing wasn’t simply an illusion. There was no doubt in his mind that this was a statue of Maria in a unique armor set. Instead of returning to its podium, the statue limped over to the bodies of the Epigones and threw them out of her circle. Then, it walked over to the flowers that had been bent and slowly tried to fix them to the shape they used to be.

"The flowers... she’s keeping the flowers alive here. Why?"

"There’s writing on the pedestals further in. Maybe it will have some answers on that."

Doc and Harold limped towards the marble structures slowly as to keep the flowers under their feet from bending too much. Doc walked up to the one on the left first and slowly read the text out loud.

"Here lies Maria Rose, Commander of the Fallen, Queen of Everything. May her soul rest blissfully for the light and peace she has brought to our world."

Harold slowly repeated the last words carefully.

"Queen of Everything?"

Doc walked over to the marble structure in the middle and read it outload.

"Here lies Lidia and Slimo Kin. Queen of Lumos, King of Humanity, together for all eternity. Not even the binds of death could break them apart."

Harold felt like passing out. His knees felt like Jello, his head began to swell, and he felt sick to his stomach once more.

"Graves? These are graves of our friends?"

Doc remained silent, staring mournfully at the last grave.

"Here lies Jacob Vice, King of Everything, and humanities ultimate savior. For even with nothing left of him or his wife after the War of the End, there are still rumors he wonders the cosmos, forever intertwined with the one he loved. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten for as long as humanity lives."

Both Doc and Harold remained speechless. They had no words to describe what they had just read. However, if what they were reading was true, that would mean that their friends were somehow present in the past, or perhaps they will be present in the past within some time.

As much as both of them wanted to deny the probability of the statue’s existence, they had faced a creature of time before, so something like this was more than possible of existing, which also meant that these graves were as real as it gets.

Jacob, Maria, Slimo, and Lidia were going to meet their end in the timely future... or past.

"Doc. I don’t know what to say. What do we do?"

Doc took a moment to more to himself before responding.

"We stay here."

"Stay here?! How long do we have to stay here?"

"Think about it: we have a guardian as a protecter right now. Even that extremely powerful Epigone didn’t stand a chance. And look, it’s already almost completely repaired itself."

Looking over at the stone statue of Maria once again, its condition had improved tremendously in only a few minutes. As much as Harold wanted to argue, Doc’s logic was too flawless.

"You’re right. However, that also means I have to be in charge of going to get us food when it comes down to it since I am the fastest."

"Fine by me."

Harold sighed and ran his hands through his hair. Doc noticed his somber expression and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Do you want to talk about it a bit longer?"

"No. Yes- well... It’s just a lot to take in. How else am I supposed to react to hearing some of my favorite people are going to die one day for humanities sake?"

"Is that not what you are doing with yourself right now? Sacrificing yourself to save me for humanities sake?"

Harold sighed deeply.

"I hate it when you make too much sense sometimes, you know that?"

Doc chuckled lightly and sat down next to Harold.

"Listen, if these statues are the real deal, it means the War of the End will eventually come to pass, which also means I will not be alive forever. Leave me here and go back to Abby. Do not sacrifice yourself for a battle we both know I will lose."

Harold angrily bit his lip.

Suddenly, Doc understood something about Harold that he didn’t before. Harold knew the whole time that this was pointless the very moment he heard the news of Docs capture. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a timer on Jacob and Maria’s mark. He knew throughout the whole journey that this would be pointless, yet he wanted to try anyway.

Doc put a hand around Harolds shoulder and brought him in closely for a small side-hug.

"Thank you, Harold. But I am going to be okay. Young people need to live for me. My time was coming to an end anyway. Make this world a better place, be true to your wife, and raise a wonderful family for me. Got it?"

Harold was crying as Doc held him.

"I’m... not ready to say goodbye. I never was, Doc. I’m still not."

"Everything will be okay, Harold. Can you just promise me one thing?"

Harold looked at Doc with tears filling his eyes. Doc pulled out a slip of paper from his armor and placed it in Harolds hands.

"Ensure that this paper reaches Jacob safely. You may read it if you wish."

Harold sniffled and looked at the paper suspiciously.

"What is it?"

"It’s the truth about his mother, and the truth about Iron Kingdom. His father gave this to me ages ago and asked me to hold on to it for him. He said I would know when to give it to Jacob and to only open it myself when I am ready."

Harold wiped the tears off his face and stared at the paper with surprise.

"Truth about Iron kingdom?"

Doc nodded.

"I read it the other day. However, there seems to be a strange enchantment that comes with reading it. I can only remember what the paper is about but nothing about its contents. Promise me you will get this to him safely."

Harold laid down in the grass and stared off into the clouds, slowly losing consciousness.

"I promise."

Doc spoke up one last time.

"Oh, and one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Thank you, Harold."

Instead of responding, Harold drifted into a deep sleep.