Chapter 36: The Shocking Revelation

At once. Blaze awoke as the great humming sound surrounded her. The sounds of fierce battle screamed from outside the walls of her room. These sounds were familiar to her. She quickly ran to the window and opened it frantically, poking her head into the drizzle to see if her fears were true. It was.

Right above her head, she saw a great earth spire hanging in the air, with tiny figures of soldiers falling from the edges, attached to ropes. It was the floating castle.

Hurriedly, she threw on her armour and grasped her rapier before dashing out of the room, where Stamatis was standing, waiting for Blaze.

"Blaze!" he said as soon as she appeared. "I heard glass shattering from the treasure room!"

Without a word, the two ran as fast as they could amidst the guards, who were taking defensive positions and preparing for the attack and went towards the treasure room.

As soon as they entered the room, Blaze noticed that the room looked devastated. The glass was all shattered and the bodies of many soldiers were lying about the room, either in agony or dead Some sections of the walls had been sprayed with blood, and much of the decorations had been vandalised. But there was one soldier who Blaze recognized at once.

It was Wolfgang. Lying on the floor in front of her...in a pool of crimson red blood.

"Wolfgang!" she screamed, running right towards him. The shattered windows on the wall and ceiling let in the heavy rain, and it was pouring into a section of the room. She knelt down and cradled his head in her arms, trying to get a reaction out of him, before looking up and seeing something even more unexpected.

There were three men stood before her. On the left side was a large, muscled Anubis esque creature with scars on his body and tape wrapped around his midsection and arms. To the right was a man wearing a half mask and completely covered in a cloak. It was none other than Branko and Delago. But the man in the middle was the biggest shock.

He was a great big man with a wolf's face, covered in grey hair. One of his eyes were slightly squinted and he bore a toothy, jagged grin. He was clad in great and shining golden armour, which shone from that rain that poured onto it, and he wielded a large, devastating axe with beautiful patterns and decorations on the blade and handle. His calves and biceps were less armoured, revealing his bulging muscle behind the chain mail, and he also had a large red cape which was furled beneath his large shoulder plates, billowing behind him in the wind. Blaze swore she knew who the man was, and when she looked at the portrait behind her, she recognized the man at once. It was King Marcelino.

"...You..." Blaze said quietly, with a twinge of disgust. Marcelino begun to snigger in a horrible dark voice.

"He put up a fight" he said. "But before he could get the upper hand, Delago got him with a stab through the back"

Blaze gasped at the remark. She looked back down at Wolfgang and saw where the wound was. He had been stabbed right through his lung, a small slit at the front of his body still bleeding profusely. She looked back up in horror, both at the wound and the sudden revelation of Marcelino's alliance.

"Y-you...you're the one behind all of this?" she shouted in utter disbelief. Marcelino begun to snigger again, with both Branko and Delago following. Blaze suddenly noticed the row of guards behind Marcelino, all wielding weapons that emitted a light fog, just like the soldiers who kidnapped Silver. Some of the weapons were stained with blood.

"I bet Delago had you on your toes with the countdown" Marcelino said. Blaze stood up at once.

"What have you done with Silver!" she yelled, her voice piercing through the sound of the castle's humming and the rain. Marcelino crossed his arms, still wielding his large, intimidating axe.

"Him?" he said. "We're not done with him yet"

Blaze felt a rush of relief build inside her, mixed with regret and terror. She then noticed Wolfgang's groans of pain, and she suddenly knelt down back to his aid.

"Wolfgang...can you hear me?" she asked.

"Aaahh...uuuuggghh..." Wolfgang groaned. Blaze looked back up at Marcelino with disgust.

"You monster..." she said quietly. "How could you betray your people? How...How could you do this!"

She then realised that the glass cabinet in front of her was shattered. The red blanket that concealed it was strewn across the floor. The Hestia Blade was missing.

"The Hestia Blade..." Blaze said quietly. "...Where is it?"

"You mean this?" Marcelino asked, placing a hand down to his belt. He suddenly pulled and unsheathed the Hestia Blade with his free arm, raising it into the sky before bringing it down and examining the flat of the dark blue, jagged blade carefully.

"So that's what you were after..." Blaze said quietly. She was trying to piece together why Marcelino had stolen it.

"And it is a fine blade..." Marcelino said, examining the blade, bringing it very close to his face. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again, his face frowning with evil.

"Now that I have it, this pitiful city will cease to exist" he added.

"What do you mean!" Stamatis shouted suddenly, after a long silence spent taking in the terrible atmosphere of death. Marcelino, with the Hestia Blade still close to his face, shot a gaze towards Stamatis, his face unturned.

"I could tell you..." he said. "...But I think you should find out for yourselves. In any case, your time in this life is cut short. Before long, you shall all be plunged under a mountain of ice!"

He turned around, lowering the blade. Then, all of Marcelino's group raised their left hands, revealing their silver bands.

"Listen to his last words carefully" Marcelino said, gesturing to Wolfgang. "...They may be important, heh heh!"

Suddenly, blue beams shot out of all of their arms and the group shot right up towards the castle, leaving Blaze, Wolfgang and Stamatis by themselves. Blaze looked up in grief as they vanished towards where the castle floated, before she noticed Wolfgang's groans of pain. She looked back down and could see the paned expression in Wolfgang's eyes.

"Blaze..." he said quietly.

"Don't talk" Blaze said hurriedly. "Save your strength, we'll save you"

"N-no!" Wolfgang yelled, raising his hand, almost swatting Blaze's hand away. "I...I must tell you something..."

Blaze could feel a tear coming to her eye as she cradled the dying man in her arms once more. She placed an ear to his faintly beating heart. She could tell it was fading.

"Wolfgang...you can't die..." she said quietly, sobbing.

"Blaze...there are letters on that desk...that Marcelino wrote..." Wolfgang wheezed. Blaze suddenly looked up towards Wolfgang's face, studying the pained expression in his eyes and listening carefully to what he had to say.

"...The letters are...addressed to your...granduncle, Blaze" he revealed.

His image appeared in her head at once. Gustav, the terrible king. The granduncle that raised Blaze and attempted to kill her once she fell in love with Silver. The tyrannical beast that possessed the Hestia Blade. The man who used to rule the world.

"G-Gustav..." Blaze stammered, unable to even think of the man. It had been so long since he was killed; she whished that she would never have to think of him again.

"Marcelino...has a terrible past, similar to Gustav..." Wolfgang explained. "Nine years ago, Marcelino was...an aide, just like Tinder was to Gustav. He wanted to be on the throne badly...and the current ruler was... Queen Teresa..."

"Lolita's mother?" Blaze asked.

"Yes..." Wolfgang said quietly. "Teresa had no children, and if she died...the rule would pass to the aide, which was Marcelino...Marcelino was receiving orders from Gustav to usurp the throne. Marcelino was getting ready to put together an uprising of the castle soldiers, ready to oust Teresa...but before he had the chance...she became pregnant" he explained. "Lolita and Marcelino...are not related. Lolita's father was another man who fell in love with Teresa. Her pregnancy meant...Marcelino was no longer next in line..." he explained.

"So...how did he become the king?" Blaze asked.

"According to his letters to Gustav..." Wolfgang continued. "He was so enraged that he was no longer next to take the throne...that he killed Lolita's father" he said. Blaze grimaced at the thought of such an act, closing her eyes tightly.

"...Marcelino was tried for murder...but Gustav involved himself with the trial. Gustav was an...excellent politician, remember...he used his powers to drop the charges on Marcelino...yet it took months before he could actually do it" he explained. "So when Marcelino was let free from the courts many months after he...murdered Lolita's father, he continued his uprising. But before he could usurp the throne...Teresa gave birth...and vanished" he explained.

"...So that's why she's not here..." Blaze uttered quietly.

"Marcelino and Gustav worked together through letters to cover up Teresa's disappearance. He managed to take the throne and become the new king of Laleh...but at a price. And that was...Lolita" he said. "Marcelino admired Gustav to heaven, and decided to raise Lolita like Gustav was raising...you...urgh..." Wolfgang uttered. Blaze then suddenly noticed that Wolfgang was dying.

"Wolfgang...you have to pull through!" Blaze begged. But Wolfgang responded with a cough. Blaze could feel his body becoming heavier in her arms.

"Blaze...I...I have been lung-wounded...I've lost too much...*cough*...bl...blood..." he uttered. Blaze felt the tears streaming out of her eyes as she looked at Wolfgang. All this time that she had known him, she couldn't believe that he was going to leave her like this.

"I...no, you just...*sob*...you can't!" Blaze pleaded. But it was no use. She could see that his eyes were fading in and out of consciousness.

"They attacked in...groups..." he said quietly. "...I...fought, but I had...*cough*...no chance..."

"Wolfgang...*sniff*...don't...please, you can't die..." Blaze whimpered, almost unable to plead any more.

"B-Blaze..." Wolfgang stuttered. "I'm...sorry I shouted at you..."

"No...don't be... Blaze said quietly, stroking his proud face softly. She wiped away the blood that was seeping out of Wolfgang's open mouth. She had accepted the fact that Wolfgang was on his last breaths.

"You've...become so...st...rong...Blaze...do me and...your father proud...aaahhhhh...never let them...grind...you...down..." he uttered. Blaze watched in sorrow as Wolfgang's eyes closed and his body became fully limp. There was no life in him anymore. Cradled within her arms was a man who had given his life for the sake of peace. Wolfgang was dead.

Stamatis watched as Blaze remained still with Wolfgang, all three of them becoming soaking wet from the rain. He had witnessed such a sad scene unfold in front of him. It filled him with anger, with rage.

He yelled and ran towards the smashed glass walls and ceiling, looking up towards the floating castle.

"Damn you!" he screamed. "Damn you all to hell!" Aaaaaaargghhhhh!"

He fell to the floor, punching it with his fists. He was striking so hard that he was causing cracks to form in the ground, A few living guards came in to see what was happening, shocked by the scene that they were introduced to.

Blaze slowly stood up and walked towards Stamatis, her face wet with both rain and tears. She looked at him.

"...I can't believe it..." she said quietly. The two of them stood there silently, trying to cope with the loss that they had been given. It was heart rending for Stamatis to see his friend like this, defeated and broken. Blaze had looked as if she truly gave up on the quest. Even with the floating castle right above them, without Wolfgang, everything seemed lost...

From the sky, there was a large mechanical noise, which was familiar, yet crushing for both Blaze and Stamatis to hear. Stamatis looked up and watched in horror as the rock formations started to move, revealing the giant cannon. The castle, and the cannon, seemed to gigantic now that it was much closer. They watched as blue electric bolts sparked across the edges of the shining cannon, different sections of it flashing a light blue. The entire atmosphere became very cold and frigid.

"It's..." Stamatis uttered. "It's so powerful...I never thought I would imagine my life ending like this..." he mentioned.

Blaze remained completely quiet, her head still down. She closed her eyes and unclenched her fists, the fiery warmth of her body completely dissipated. She knew in her mind that she had failed, that Silver was probably dead. And she had accepted death. She knew as soon as the beam fired, she would be with the people she loved once again...

"Blaze...you can't give up..."

A mysterious voice! This is the longest chapter so far, so it can only indicate that the end is nearing! Hope you're enjoying it! Also, you may have wondered why this chapter has come a day early? Well, in about 9 days' time or so, I will be going on holiday for what may be the better of three weeks. So to make sure that you're not kept waiting too long, the next nine chapters of this story shall be posted within the next nine days, and perhaps I might add another chapter if I find a computer cafe anywhere on my travels. So enjoy!