Four days as passed, and The Shield Legions camped out within the woods to rest for the night. Meanwhile, Marius studied the map to plan their next journey.
"You look busy." said the hooded woman.
"When am I not?"said Marius.
The hooded woman sat near Marius "Is it true what they said about you?"
"My past is not something I prefer to discuss."
"I'm not talking about that."
"Then what it is then?"
"There's a rumor going on around Melromarc that the Masked Hero is a lolicon."
"... I don't even know what that word means."
"I'm surprised you don't. It means that you prefer younger girls... Very young girls."
"... Seriously?"
"So, is the rumor true or not?"
Marius crossed his arms, "If that girl isn't human... Am I still a lolicon?"
"So you are a lolicon."
"Just answer my question."
"I hope you're talking about a demi-human girl, cause anything more than that then you might just be a sexual deviant."
"... Do you have better questions?"
"No. That'll be all."
"Then let me ask you a question."
"Go ahead."
"You're a Peacekeeper, right? From what legion?"
"I was from the Iron Legion."
"And you fell in the water then something brought you here, correct?"
"Guess I don't always have a great footing. The Order found me and gave me a purpose, serving both them and the queen. Will that be all?"
"I knew many Peacekeepers, and they all never hide their names. So why hide yours?"
"I have my reasons."
"Very well. I have no other questions."
"Well, I'll leave you alone for tonight." the Peacekeeper got up and walked away.
Marius continued to study the map.
Marius and his legions have finally found the Black Prior mines. There, they saw demi-humans and beastmen slaves worked to the bone while only a small number of Black Prior guards. One of the slaves dropped a basket of ore due to exhaustion. One of the guards saw this and approached the slave.
"No, please! I'm sorry! I can still work!" the slave begged but the guard stabbed the slave to death.
"Get back to work!" said the guard to the rest of the slaves.
The slaves immediately hasten their work despite their tiredness, while the dead slave was left in the open.
"There's less security here. We should be able to take the mines." said the Peacekeeper.
"But where is Vortiger?" said Marius.
"If we can take the mines, we could weaken the Black Prior."
Marius saw one of the slave was abused by the guards, "Then we'll take it. Praefectus!"
"Centurion." said the praefectus.
"Signal the others to attack."
"Yes, centurion." the gave a command to one of the soldiers.
The soldier then conjured a ball of light to the sky. The Black Prior guards saw the light hovering above, and suddenly heard the Shield Legion's warcry.
"Ad victoriam!" the legions and their new allies emerged in all directions and attacked the guards.
"Secure the place and free the slaves!" Marius commanded his legions.
"Come, Marius. He might be inside." the Peacekeeper pointed at an entrance of the mine.
They entered the mine to look for the Black Prior leader.
"How do you know that he might be here?" said Marius.
"Where else would he be?" said the Peacekeeper.
"I don't want him escaping like before."
"Even if he did, atleast we have the mines."
"Right."
The reached a dead end and no sign of Vortiger.
"Malaka. A Dead end." said Marius.
"I'm sorry about this, Marius." said the Peacekeeper.
"What are you-" Marius felt a sharp pain on his neck and he suddenly felt dizzy, "You..."
The poison knocked Marius out and he collapsed to the ground.
Marius slowly woke up to the sound of a loud crowd. He opened his eyes to see Vortiger standing before him.
"Marius. Apollyon's favourite." said Vortiger.
Marius tried to get up but he was tied up to a pole and was stripped of his armor and clothings. He tried to break out of it but Vortiger kicked him on the jaw. Disoriented, Marius glanced around and saw warriors standing in circle around him and Vortiger. He realized that the warriors were all from his world.
The vikings, knights, samurai and even the Wu Lin have gathered around them, all berated Marius.
"Murderer!"
"Tyrant!"
"Kill him!"
"They all want your blood, Marius." Vortiger turned around, "This world call him the Masked Hero! But we all know him as the Blackstone Warlord! The Scourge of Valkenheim! The Defiler of Lands! Murderer of Kings!"
The crowd grew even louder.
"Why do you do this?" said Marius, "You were Blackstone too."
"This world have enjoyed their heroes too much. They must be baptized with war."
"And what about them!"
"They want vengeance, Marius. And by killing you, I will gain their favor. And in return, they will join me in burning Melromarc to the ground."
"You will not get away with this!"
Vortiger stabbed Marius's shoulders, "Favourite of Apollyon. She may call you her wolf, but you are still a whelp to me. We will not spill his blood tonight!" Vortiger turned to his audience, "We will march him to the queen's doorsteps by daylight!"
The crowd cheered as loud as they can.
"We will execute him on the eyes of the queen and The Order! And we will parade his corpse on the streets of the capital as we burn it to the ground!"
The loud roar of the crowd filled the air.
"Ready your armies! For tomorrow we have a kingdom to burn!"
Marius was tied to a pole and was suspended by ropes. The Jormungandr shocked Marius with his warhammer, and Marius's painful cries echoed in the mines.
"Gretar!" the Peacekeeper called out.
The white skinned ceased his torture and glanced at the Peacekeeper.
"Vortiger wants to see you."
Gretar responded with a grunt, then gave Marius another shock before storming out. After he's gone from sight, the Peacekeeper cut the rope and Marius fell to the ground with the pole. Peacekeeper went to untied the ropes on Marius's hand, but Marius grabbed her throat and choked her.
"I trusted you!" Marius snarled.
"Please... Just listen to me..." said the Peacekeeper.
"Why should I!"
"If you don't... They will go after everyone in Rock Valley..."
"Liar!"
"Please... Just trust me..."
Marius threw the Peacekeeper away, "Why are you helping me?"
"Because... I thought you're still that warlord... But it's obvious that you've changed your ways."
"How long did it took for you to realized that?"
"Didn't take long. I know where they took your armor. Follow me, but keep quite."
"If you betray me again, I will kill you."
A Black Prior guard was checking through Marius's gear. He grabbed Marius's helmet then put it on.
"Uh... How does he sees with this?"
Then, someone forcibly turned him around. Marius took the helmet off the guard's head then knocked him out with a single punch.
"I'll keep watch outside." said the Peacekeeper.
After putting on his armor and taking his weapon, Marius exited out of the room.
"Alright. Let's get out of here and report to the queen about this." said the Peacekeeper.
Marius drew his gladius on her neck, "Not without my legion."
"They're going find out you've escaped. We need to get out of here right now!"
"I brought those men here! And I will not abandon them!"
The Peacekeeper sighed, "They weren't joking when they said how stubborn you are. Fine, come with me."
The Black Priors who sided with Marius was executed one by one while the imprisoned legionnaires watched. One of them was dragged to the chopping board as he struggled. As he was about to be executed, the executioner was shot by the Peacekeeper with her crossbow. The two then went to release the legionnaires.
"What happened? How did you get caught?" said Marius.
"We secured the place like you ordered us to. Then they came out of nowhere and attacked us. We didn't stand a chance." said one of the legionnaire.
"How many were killed?"
"Fifteen men. We have no choice but to surrender."
"Marius. The key." the Peacekeeper threw the key to Marius.
Marius freed his soldiers then gave one of the the key, "Free your brothers."
"Yes, centurion." said the legionnaire.
"And free the slaves as well."
"We don't have time for that." said the Peacekeeper.
"We save everyone."
Vortiger sat on his knees in his room by himself praying. He was then interrupted by footsteps from behind him. Vortiger stood up to see the Jormungandr waiting for his orders.
"I thought I ordered you to watch the centurion." said Vortiger.
The Jormungandr's eyes widen, realized he was tricked.
"Alert everyone in the camp! Now!"
The Shield Legion sneaked through the mines with the slaves they freed, with the Peacekeeper taking point and clearing their path from Black Prior guards.
"We're almost there." said Peacekeeper slowly peaked outside the mines exit, "Marius... You might want to come and see this."
Marius walked towards the exit and saw a large army waiting for them.
"I told you." said the Peacekeeper.
"There is no way out, Marius!" said Vortiger.
"Is there another way out?" said Marius.
"No." said the Peacekeeper.
Marius turned his head to see his legions and the desperate slaves, "Then I do not have other choice."
Marius exited the mine to face Vortiger.
"Came to surrender?" said Vortiger.
"No. I challenge you to a duel." said Marius.
"A duel?"
"It is me that you want. Let my men and the slaves go."
"Very well! I accept your challenge!" Vortiger took out his kite shield made of pitch-dark glass with metal rims. "Now you will face true darkness!"
Vortiger activated his shield ability and surrounded Marius with darkness.
"Show yourself, Vortiger!"
"Gladly." Vortiger swung his sword.
Marius was hit by Vortiger's attack from the side. He turned and raised his shield.
"You're in my domain, whelp!"
Vortiger attacked Marius from behind, ripping his cape in half.
"Here, you are nothing!"
Vortiger's sword emerged from the dark and stabbed Marius's left side. Marius swung his shield but didn't hit anything.
"Marius." said a voice from out of nowhere, "Let me help you."
A bright light suddenly appeared and it revealed Vortiger's position, then Marius quickly blocked his attacked.
"Destroy his shield, Marius."
Marius readied his spear then he thrusted at Vortiger's shield. The spear shattered the dark shield like a glass, and it destroyed the darkness around them.
Vortiger looked at his shattered shield, "No!"
Then, they felt a tremor on the ground. And out from the trees, a large flock of filolials stampede towards the large armies. They, including Vortiger, were trampled by the rushing flock while some managed to escaped the chaos.
After the stampede stopped, it left behind trampled corpses of the army. Severely injured, Vortiger slowly got and saw his shield completely destroyed by the filolials, then he looked up to see Marius.
"This proofs nothing... You're still a whelp-"
Marius thrusted his spear inside Vortiger's mouth and he pulled it out. Vortiger fell on his side and died. Marius sighed in relief, finally got rid of Vortiger and the Black Prior. Hopefully, forerver. Then, the Jormungandr slowly got up. His body bloodied and his left arm severed. Holding his warhammer with his other hand, he faced Marius.
Marius readied himself to fight, when a giant filolial queen appeared from a puff of white smoke behind the Jormungandr. Before he could react, Queen Fitoria crushed the warrior under her large talon.
"Queen Fitoria! You have aided us! But why?" said Marius.
"I've been looking for you, Marius. There's an urgent matter."
"What is it?"
"It's Filo. She needs you."
Earlier...
"Marius! Marius!" Filo ran around the manor looking her mate.
She woken everyone, including Naofumi.
"Hey! Stop making that noise!" Naofumi yelled.
"Where's Marius!" Filo kept on yelling. She ran towards Marius's room and transformed to her filolial form before kicking the door open.
"You don't need to kick his door open! What's the matter with you!"
Filo looked around Marius's room like a wild animal, "He's not here! Where is he! Marius!"
"What's going on?" said Atla.
"Atla, stop Filo before she destroy the whole manor!" said Naofumi.
Despite being blind, Atla found her way to Filo. Filo turned around and glared at Atla like an hungry carnivore. Atla poked Filo and the large bird fell to her side.
"Uh? Atla? What happened? What are we doing in Marius's room?" said Filo.
"Wait, you don't remember what anything?" said Naofumi.
"No, Filo don't remember anything... Why is Filo in this form? What happened?"
"You were running around the manor looking for Marius."
"But, master said Marius will be gone for awhile."
"Hey, what's going on here?" said Sadina.
"Filo just suddenly lost control and started looking for Marius." said Naofumi.
"Loosing control and looking for her mate? Is Filo entered her mating season?"
"Mating season?"
"Mating season? What's that?" said Filo, titling her head.
"I knew this day would come." said Rato, who came over after hearing the commotion.
"You knew it all along?" said Naofumi.
"She already showed signs earlier before, you didn't noticed that?"
"I did noticed it, but I didn't know anything about it. Can this be cured?"
"There is a medicine filolial breeders used to curb those urge, but I'm pretty sure they don't have enough dosage for Filolial Queens."
"This is troublesome. So what other options do we have?"
"We couldn't leave her while she's inheat. There's a reason why such medicine exist."
"What do you mean?"
"A filolial inheat could destroy a whole farm if not taken care properly. And in her case, she could destroy the entire village just to look for her mate."
"Great. Any other options? What about gave her to a male filolial?"
"No!" Filo blurted.
"Filolial mate for life. It as to be Marius." said Rato.
"Yeah, Marius is still out there taking care of the Black Prior." said Naofumi.
"The next Filolial Queen is inheat I see?" said Gaelion.
"Why? You want to have a go with her?" said Naofumi.
"No! Not him!" said Filo.
"After seeing what the Masked Hero could do, I rather not."
"Why? You're afraid of him?"
"No, I respected him."
"Look, it doesn't matter. What matters now is Filo is inheat, and her boyfriend is not here right now."
Then, Filo transformed to her human form and her cowlick twitching, "Master, Queen Fitoria trying to say something."
"She's here?"
"No, she's talking to Filo with this." Filo pointed at her cowlick.
"What does she say?"
"She says that she knew what happened."
"Really? Please tell her if there's any solution for this."
"She says that I need to be with Marius."
"Listen, Marius is not available right now."
"She asked where Marius is. She sounds very angry."
"He has a mission to complete."
"She asked when is he coming back."
"How should I know? Marius never told me when."
They waited for a response.
"She says that she'll help find Marius for us. She sent filolials all around the world looking for him."
"Finally."
"She also says there as been trouble going on about a wagon thief."
"What's that got to do with everything?"
"She says that the culprit behind it was the Spearguy. And she also said that he has filolials with him."
"Motoyasu again. What's he doing now?"
