I do not own Epic7 or any of the characters.
Betrayed
Jarek narrowed his eyes as he glanced back in silence, catching sight of a guard stepping behind a building. They'd been being followed for half the city now, and everyone was getting tired of being followed. Finally, they reached the edge of the city and left, only for several guards to step out from behind a low hill within minutes of leaving, more appearing from behind them.
"What are you doing?" Pavel asked.
"Pavel of the Raiders, you're under arrest for desertion," the guard ahead of them said, all of the guards levelling rifles at them.
"Is this because of us?" Jarek checked.
"No," Pavel frowned. "If it was you, it would be 'treason.'"
"So, it's treason on their end, then," Jarek said, drawing his sword. "Alright then. Shall we do the usual?"
"It's been a long time since then," Pavel said. "Sure you remember how it's done?"
Jarek snorted. "Please, Pavel. I came up with it."
"Alright," Pavel nodded.
"Drop your weapons!" one of the guards ordered, realizing a fight was about to begin. "Don't be stupid! You can't handle all of us!"
"We'll see about that," Jarek grinned, resting his sword on his shoulder. "Ready when you are, brother."
"I'll take the ones in front," Pavel said. "Now!"
As one, Jarek and the others dropped into a squat so low, they were nearly lying on the ground. As all of the rifles fired, the shots passed over them, hitting other guards before Jarek slashed toward the guards in front. There was a flash as light rolled off of his blade, lashing out like a whip and blasting the ground apart into small fragments and stones, then an explosion as Pavel squeezed the trigger of his rifle sword's trigger. A blast of Wind magic erupted from the barrel, catching the fragments of shattered ground, turning them into projectiles and sending them streaking into the guards ahead of them. As he did, Jarek pivoted, still in his low crouch, and slashed a wide, horizontal arc toward the ground, a second wave of Light magic blasting the ground there, the debris blocking and deflecting a second volley of shots.
"Celeste!" Jarek called out.
"I know!" Celeste called back.
She fired an arrow into the air, and it shone before the light separated into dozens of shining arrows made of light, which rained down among the guards. Many of them were caught by the arrows and collapsed, several dead instantly, but several managed to escape the attack. However, just as they ducked into cover behind a pair of hills, Coli seemed to appear from the shadows of one of the hills, her daggers flashing as they struck again and again, felling half the remaining guards there in seconds. At the same time, Otillie raised a hand over her head and cast a spell she'd learned during a chance encounter with an exceptionally powerful being from a parallel dimension. A seal appeared over the second group, and before they could scatter, a bolt of lightning struck the ground, blasting and hurling them all. They weren't all dead, but they were all unconscious. Jarek turned back to Pavel's group just as Pavel slashed the last one standing. Pavel surveyed the other group and shook his head, surprise and wonder on his face before his face hardened again.
"We need to disappear," Pavel said. "But I can't abandon the city."
Jarek nodded. "Is there a way to smuggle ourselves back in?"
"Yes," Pavel nodded. "It's this way."
He turned, hurrying away from the path, and Jarek and the others followed, Jarek catching up to him quickly.
"What about the Raider we were going to check on?" Jarek asked.
"I think this is a pretty clear answer about what we'd find," Pavel said. "Besides, I already know he's missing. I was using going to his house as an excuse to test the reaction from the guards."
Jarek nodded. "I thought it might be something like that. Is that the way in?"
Pavel nodded, watching the sewer pipe ahead of them carefully. After a moment, something stalked out of it and Jarek tensed. It was a Summer Angara. However, despite Jarek and the others preparing to have to kill it, Pavel relaxed as he saw it.
"Don't worry," Pavel said. "It's mine."
Jarek nodded, and they all hurried past the Angara and into the waterways.
Jarek stepped out ahead of the fleeing mage and stuck out his leg, the man crashing to the ground hard as his own lead foot caught Jarek's. He began to push himself up instantly, only for Coli to pin him, placing a dagger to his throat, allowing Pavel and their newest companions to catch up. Their newest companions, whom they had met while stopping a Mana Amplification Device from exploding during a revolt by several mages, were Ras Elclare, the former Heir of the Covenant, now a human, and his Guardian, Arky. It was a flying ball of blue and white fur, that could be confused for a strange-looking Suin, if someone didn't know what a Guardian was. Thanks to having spent a long time in Ritania, and having helped fight in the Archdemon War, where he met all three of his girlfriends, Jarek had met both before.
"Time to answer a few questions," Jarek said, staring down at the mage.
The mage began to beg for his life and spilled everything all at once. A high-up noble had conspired with the elders of Constella, a city of mages, to sell magic weapons to Constella. As part of the plan, the mages of the Magical Research Agency where the revolt had been had tried to take control of the Mana Amplification device and overload it, then direct the blast at the Comit's Eye, a strange, somehow magical stone that the Perland Nobles had brought back from their meeting with Straze, when he'd wiped out their forces in seconds, and had set it up in the center of the city, likely on Straze's orders.
"And how do we find this noble?" Jarek asked.
"I was supposed to meet them this evening!" the mage said desperately. "They said the intermediary couldn't be trusted anymore, so I'm supposed to meet them in person!"
Jarek glanced at Pavel, who nodded. "Lead the way."
Coli stepped back and the mage stood, only for Celeste to level an arrow at their face.
"If you try to run, or if you try to lead us into a trap..." Celeste trailed off, and the mage swallowed hard and nodded.
He began to walk, and Celeste let the tension out of her bow, following with Jarek and the others.
"How've you been?" Ras asked Jarek. "I haven't seen you since you held off that Homunculus with the axe."
Jarek nodded, smiling at the memory. "That was an interesting fight. She had a lot of potential. But yeah, I've been good. These are my three girlfriends. I think you'll recognize one."
Ras glanced at Otillie, who surveyed him before turning away. "Sorry again for what happened back then."
"It's alright," Otillie said. "There was confusion on both sides."
"Anyway, is it normal for humans to have more than one girlfriend?" Ras asked.
"No," Jarek and all three of his girlfriends, as well as Pavel and Arky all said.
"It's not normal, and if you tried it, that girlfriend of yours would kill you," Jarek said.
"My girlfriend?" Ras asked.
"That pink-haired homunculus that usually travels with you?" Jarek asked. "Mercedes, I think it was. Where is she, anyway? I had heard you saved her after that final battle, so I'm surprised she's not here."
"She's alright," Ras said. "She had to go back to Meldrec for something important."
"Ah, I see," Jarek nodded. "Well, anyway, I always thought the two of you were together, given how much you obviously care about each other, and how far you went to try to save her."
"No," Ras frowned. "We're just friends. I think. I don't really know what..."
"Oh, that's right," Jarek nodded. "Emotions are new to you." He shrugged. "You'll figure it out. Just don't go kissing anyone other than her, or any of the more fun stuff."
"More fun stuff?" Ras frowned.
"Master doesn't need to worry about that!" Arky said hurriedly.
"Oh, alright," Ras shrugged.
They walked along in silence for a while before Pavel suddenly ordered the mage to halt, casting a glance around. Jarek did the same, right hand gripping the handle of his sword. There were guards everywhere.
"You know as well as I do this isn't a patrol area," Pavel was saying to the mage. "And those insignias...The Citylord Guard?"
"Those are Lilias's personal guard, right?" Jarek asked, Pavel nodding. "Then I guess we have our traitor. Or rather, you're a traitor, because the enemy is the ruler of the city and has decided so."
"Hey, where are you going?" Ras asked.
The mage laughed, sprinting toward a large group of guards. "You walked right into our trap!" Then, as he slowed to a stop, Jarek yanked his sword from its sheath, glaring at Lilias.
"Pavel, we're fucked if we try to fight this many," Jarek hissed, surveying the hundred Citylord Guards assembled around and ahead of them.
"I know," Pavel hissed back. "We're going to have to fight our way out in order to escape, though. Watch for an opening."
Just then, Lilias's sword swept up from the ground, cleaving the mage's head from his shoulders in a single, smooth stroke. "Begin the encirclement! There's no more room for mistakes."
Guards began to close in rapidly, but as they did, Jarek spun, flames erupting from the red crystal around his neck, enveloping him before roaring down the road as a dragon. The dragon roared, opening its jaws wide before snapping them shut around a pair of guards. There was a massive explosion and the two guards caught in the center, as well as several that had been around them were sent flying, all burned horribly and dead. The flames also left Jarek standing amid the smoke, and the others sprinted that way, and the guards scattered into the streets to try and circle around them.
"Scatter!" Jarek ordered his girlfriends, all three ducking into an alleyway instantly.
"Here they come again!" Ras warned.
Guards began to stream back from the side streets, swarming at them. Ras rushed on ahead, slashing several guards aside before diving to the side away from several shots, which breezed past Jarek and Pavel. Pavel went next, firing a blast of Wind magic through his rifle sword, which blasted the guards out of their way. Several behind them opened fire, but Jarek spun, slashing and sending a pulse of light into the ground, the debris blocking most of the shots, except one that grazed Jarek's side. Jarek sprinted past Pavel, reaching Ras as several guards with swords reached him. Ras deflected one blade into another just as Jarek blocked a second for him. He shoved the sword aside, slashing the guard before kicking one of the two Ras was facing backward, just in time for him to trip a spear-wielding guard. Just as they crashed to the ground, Otillie stepped out, one hand clutching her book and the other swinging downward, hurling a sphere of deep purple violet energy into the two, the sphere exploding and hurling both. Just as Jarek opened his mouth to ask why she'd rejoined them, guards began to enter the alleyway she'd just left on the far end, coming from both directions. He slashed instantly, a whip of Light magic blasting along the wall of the building to his right, a section of the building collapsing and crushing several of the guards, blocking the rest.
"Give up," Lilias called out to them, walking along the street behind them as more and more guards swarmed the street, halting their process and forcing them into a longer fight, giving Lilias plenty of time to catch up. "You can't outrun us."
"This makes no sense!" Pavel shouted, slashing a guard whose sword Jarek was blocking. "Why would a Citylord be behind a conspiracy threatening her own city!?"
"It's a shame you can't understand my deeper intentions, Pavel," Lilias said, signaling another wave forward just as the guards around Jarek and the others were beginning to thin. "Our city is stagnating and weak. It could do with a little pinch to wake it back up. Think of it as the first step towards the resurrection of a great kingdom, binding the whole of Cidonia together as one."
"Perland is not yours to use like that, Lilias!" Pavel shouted, then pulled his trigger, the massive, Wind magic, wolf's head exploding out and hurling several guards aside, knocking them out, before its jaws snapped closed on several, killing them.
"I thought it might come to this," Lilias chuckled. "Citylord Guard, continue your assault."
Jarek spun toward the oncoming wave, snarling angrily. "Enough of this! Burn!" Flames once again erupted from his fire crystal, roaring down the street and blasting the incoming troops. "I'm killing Lilias here and now!"
Lilias grinned wickedly, beckoning him forward.
"Let's go!" Pavel growled. "It's the only way we're getting out of here alive!"
They all charged, but even more guards surged to meet them, Lilias waiting patiently ahead of them, her sword resting on the ground and one hand on its pommel.
"You were behind everything from the start!" Ras accused as they fought their way through the guards. "Erecting the Comet's Eye, helping the Constellan Elders."
"Even the missing Raiders?" Pavel asked, shooting several guards with his pistol before blasting a larger group with his rifle sword.
"Every plan is part of a much wider one," Lilias said. "It may be too much for you to comprehend, but this is how history is made."
"So when it comes down to it, you're just following Straze's orders?" Ras asked, deflecting a sword away from Jarek, who slashed the guard instantly, then swung his sword around, Light Magic whipping out and blasting several guards. "You're helping him achieve his goal."
Jarek sent flames roaring down the street toward Lilias, but as the smoke began to clear, she was standing atop the city wall to their right, guards already joining up with her.
"No, Ras, this is my plan," Lilias informed them as Coli shot out of the shadows into the throng of guards between them and the stairs up to the top of the wall, rapidly dropping them as Jarek and the others cleared them from the other end, finishing them all within moments. "It was I who first sought him out and suggested all of this."
"What!?" Ras gaped, Jarek using his flame dragon to reach the top of the wall, Otillie and Coli following just behind him before Ras leapt up to the top of the wall with Pavel.
"We each had things the other wanted, and our individual goals didn't clash all too much," Lilias said. "I never lose the upper hand in a deal. Even more so if my opponent is stronger than me. How else do you think I've gotten this far?"
"You're insane!" Jarek spat, breathing hard, even as he and the others moved to fight off the next wave of guards.
He glanced around as he deflected a blade. Exhaustion was wearing on them all. They may all be individually stronger and deadlier than the guards, but Lilias had so many with her that their energy was quickly drying up. Before much longer, they'd all be overwhelmed.
"Hmm, I see you still have the energy to run your mouth," Lilias mused as they finished the wave of guards. "I suppose I need to knock some more of that out of you."
Another wave of guards closed in quickly, these ones bearing more elaborate armor, and when Jarek and the others reached them, they found that the armor wasn't the only thing that was better. Their fighting ability exceeded the countless guards Lilias had already thrown away. However, despite the difference in skill between these and those before, the gap between these guards and Jarek and the others was still far greater. Jarek knocked a pair of blades aside, then twisted his upper body, leaning aside, and allowed Otillie to hurl an orb of Darkness magic into one of the two, killing him, before slashing the other himself. He blasted the ground with his own Light Magic, and Pavel blasted the debris, the impromptu projectiles taking down a handful more guards. Ras leapt into the air and spun, slinging a shining ball of light from the end of his sword into a group of guards, blasting them all. One of the remaining guards leapt at Jarek, but as Jarek deflected his sword, he stepped around beside him and shoved him, sending him screaming off the edge of the wall. Another leapt at him from behind, but Coli all but danced around the guard, nearly cutting his body to ribbons before knocking him from the wall as well. A moment later, Pavel's blade decapitated the last guard between them and Lilias, who smiled knowingly and remained where she was, alone before a guard post. It was a large, tiered structure, but it was as abandoned as the rest of the wall around them, save for the corpses. And with as many as they'd fought through to reach her, it was no surprise that it was empty. She had brought a small army to deal with them. The section of the city they were in had to be emptied of guards by now.
"Last one standing, Lilias," Jarek said, stalking forward.
"You're looking tired, Pavel, Jarek, Ras," Lilias said. "How much longer do you think you can last?"
"Against just you?" Jarek asked.
Lilias's smile turned wicked once again just as more soldiers swarmed from the outpost behind her, lining the tiers above them, this time armed exclusively with rifles. Jarek's gut dropped, then clenched painfully.
"I'll give you one more chance, Pavel," Lilias said. "It's not too late to join me. Ras is fated to die. He knows it as well as I do. Nothing good can come from staying on the losing side. I'll even let your brother and his whores join us, if they swear fealty to me."
"Why are you doing this?" Pavel asked.
"Don't you listen?" Lilias asked. "A united Cidonia. I will rebuild the once-great kingdom of Perlutia with my own two hands, and sit in my rightful place as its queen! Queen Lilias, long may she reign!"
"And you think Straze will let you?" Ras asked. "What he wants is destruction."
"Do you really think that?" Lilias scoffed. "Only a god would create such an elaborate plan only to destroy everything in the end. Oh, Ras, once so holy. I'm sure you're dying to know what he really wants. You will soon enough. It involves you, after all."
Ras frowned.
"Now, Pavel, I'm still waiting to hear a response to my earlier proposal," Lilias pressed.
"No," Pavel declared. "I am sworn to protect this city, and so, I must protect it from you."
Lilias chuckled. "I suspected as much. We'll see how such stubbornness serves you when you're dead."
She raised her sword, and above and behind her, the soldiers all shouldered their rifles, taking aim.
"See, this is why I never sent any letters," Jarek sighed. "You always did lead me into trouble."
"And you always had such awful timing," Pavel said.
"True," Jarek said. "If we survive, remind me to smack you."
"Sure," Pavel said, both readying their weapons.
Then, as Lilias's blade swung down, the soldiers all fired. All at once, Ras, Pavel, and Jarek all blasted the wall between them and the soldiers. Bullets began to slam into the airborne debris, but this time, it didn't work out half as well as before. A bullet punched through Jarek's left side, right thigh, and left bicep, fortunately hitting nothing vital. Pavel was hit in the left leg, a shot grazed his cheek, and another grazed his left upper arm. Ras managed to escape harm but lost a couple hairs from a near-miss. Otillie and Coli both avoided the shots entirely, but only because Jarek had used his green crystal for a brief second to hurl them both from the wall onto the roof of a nearby building. Otillie moved to return to the battle, only for Coli to grab her and leap out of the way of more gunfire.
"Not bad," Lilias commended, walking forward. "I was expecting at least one of you to die."
"You first!" Jarek snarled, flames engulfing him and roaring forward.
Except, when the strike's explosion had faded, a sphere of the floating, hexagonal panels had shielded Lilias, and just as they began to break apart, Lilias's sword emerged from them, driving itself into Jarek's abdomen.
"Jarek!" Pavel roared, leaping over him and slashing downward at Lilias.
She stepped back, allowing Jarek to stagger away as she fended off several strikes from Pavel. Finally, he fired a blast of Wind magic at her, only for her barrier to once again defend her. As it broke apart, Ras reached her, striking again and again, only for her to expertly fend him off, then both him and Pavel together. Jarek could see why. Their exhaustion was slowing their reaction time and dulling their strikes. And it was more than enough. Lilias scored a small graze here, a kick there, a shallow jab after. A shallow gash across Ras's back, another to Pavel's uninjured leg. A cut in Ras's shoulder, a stab to Pavel's gut. Jarek rejoined the fray, greeting Lilias with a blast of Light magic, but the panels again blocked it. However, when they broke apart this time, Pavel's Wind magic wolf head rushed forward. She clicked her tongue, leaping backward as the head pursued her, only for her to spin out of its way at the last second, allowing it to explode against the wall of the garrison. She rode the explosion forward and avoided Jarek's slash, splitting the top of his shoulder, then flipped to the ground behind him, only for him to drop, Pavel's blade passing over him and clashing with Lilias's sending her skidding backward. As she stopped, Ras slashed from behind, but several panels blocked it before she charged, knocking Pavel's sword aside, only for Jarek's to block her own. Her knee collided with his face as her free hand slammed into Pavel's, both crashing down on their backs. Lilias leapt back to the garrison and the soldiers again readied their rifles.
"Shit," Jarek groaned.
Then, shining arrows made of light began to rain down on the garrison. Nearly half of the soldiers were caught by surprise, impaled by the arrows, their rifles going off but their shots going wide. The other half scrambled for cover, hunkering down behind the low walls or retreating inside. As they did, Jarek and Pavel shoved themselves up, grabbing their weapons, and charged again. Lilias growled in annoyance, fending them off instantly, but as she did, Light Magic shone from Jarek's blade. The next impact sent out a blast, and with no room or time to counter, Lilias took the brunt of it. A split second later, the panels blocked a blast from Pavel, then from Ras. Except, there were cracks as he finished. Before Lilias had the chance to retract them, Jarek was engulfed in flames and shot forward. The explosion sent cracks spiderwebbing across even more of the panels, but failed to break through. However, before anyone else could try, they separated and Lilias struck, only for Pavel's sword to knock hers out to the side. Then, a blast fired from his rifle sword's barrel, sending the back edge exploding into her head, hurling her backward. As she crashed to the ground, soldiers returned to try and drive off Jarek and the others, only for shining arrows to once again rain from above, catching most of them this time, though only to wound. It was enough to take them out of the fight, however, and Pavel stepped on Lilias's sword, aiming his pistol at her face.
"It's over, Lilias," Pavel said. "Surrender. You've lost."
"Is that what you think?" Lilias smirked.
"What are you smirking-" Jarek began.
"Cho of Creation!" a feminine voice called out before a blade tore through Jarek, hurling him from the wall.
He was conscious just long enough to see Pavel also be slashed and collapse off of the side before he slammed into the ground and everything went dark.
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