I have an announcement, not only will I be switching to a fixed schedule of releasing chapters, but I have finished the setup of my P-a-treon. For a small fee, you'll get to read my chapters 48 hours early, a larger one means you're in the running to submit ideas for select fandoms for me to turn into 5-8k one-shots. If you can support me, it'll be great as I want to expand on my writing capabilities as I said in the beginning, this is all so that I can gain enough experience and confidence in my craft to write and publish my own, fully original book.

Also, for those of you who are confused, this chapter will replace the current announcement one.

Chapter 22: Long-Awaited Encounter

'Me.'

That one word, the single-word response rang through the area like the crack of thunder, all conversations ceasing as those on both sides turned to see this sight, a reunion of old friends, turned enemies. Kallen's eyes took in Lelouch's appearance, noting that he had grown taller, with his slim yet imposing frame if his armour's body figure was to be believed. His hair was still midnight black but had hints of red and violet to it much like the mane of the mount he had sent away, his hair unlike when he was younger had been allowed to grow out, styled into a braided ponytail. He was paler than she recalled, but unlike Suzaku who in the few images she had of him after their battle appeared sickly and frail, there was something different to the light skin tone, seemingly otherworldly.

This was all she and the rest of the crowd could see, as he stood with his back faced to them with his full attention on the Dog of Damocles. Because of this, it was only the fallen knight who could make out the rest of his appearance, from how he was clean-shaven, how where Nunnally took after her father, he seemed to take after his mother with his angular chin and sharp eyes that didn't so much as flinch or hesitate despite the situation. And lastly, he saw the man's eyes and his blood boiled as he stared into them, seeing that the violet colour was almost completely gone, replaced with the symbol of a power he wished never existed.

Despite his change in appearance, there was enough of a resemblance for the people present to connect the dots. '…Wait, I recognise him, it's the prince, the one that caused the SAZ massacre!' Cornelia winced at that, her fist tightening at the mention of her sister's masterpiece falling to ruin.

'He killed Emperor Charles!'

'But shouldn't be dead, no one's seen him in years!'

'Lelouch…what are you doing?' The former princess asked herself, hoping that her brother had some kind of plan, much like he did when he freed his men from Guilford all those years ago. With the two former friends, Suzaku kept his rifle aimed square at Lelouch's head.

'Lelouch vi Britannia, by order of Chancellor Schneizel, you're under arrest. However, by his same judgement, your skills and expertise are needed, if you surrender, you shall be given a deal, one that filth like you doesn't deserve.' Zero informed him, hoping that he would give him a reason to fight him, to get some sort of entertainment before he put him down once and for all. He would get his wish as Lelouch kept up his stare at the opposing knightmare, his geass empowered gaze seemingly to pierce through its armour and internal components to the pilot.

'I refuse, the words of a false god mean little to me.' He replied he would have surrendered to his brother once before, but he was a different person, they both were as while he had found his purpose, Schneizel had fallen to his hubris, ruling the world of a man like a God from his flying castle. He had heard many stories of his authoritarian rule, of his cruelty and disconnection from the people he claimed to be leading. It was only now, stepping foot back onto the world in which he had been born, where he had made a name for himself for better or worse, that he could see it for himself, and he was disappointed.

'Then you forfeit your life, demon.' Suzaku told him, smiling as he finally got his shot at him again, with no reason to capture him alive but tightened his grip on his controls, his finger so close to pulling the trigger, Lelouch remained calm even while his grip on his spear tightened as well.

Unafraid of the spectre of death starring him down, he merely sighed like a saddened teacher dealing with a particularly difficult student. His gaze softened if only a little bit. 'It's pathetic how much things have changed, I recall a time when you were better than this, a better man.' His voice was melancholic as he thought back to better times, times when they could be proud to call the other friend when they came to one another's aid in their ways. But it didn't last, as in a flash, that melancholy was replaced with amused superiority as he tapped his spear's end into the earth twice. 'However, you've had me in this position before, if you couldn't capture me at Narita, what hope do you have now?'

Suzaku's ire only increased as he was reminded of that failure, one of his worse thanks to the actions of that damned witch fucking with his head and making him go crazy. 'You don't have that witch with you this time,' He told him. 'And I have no intention of bringing you back alive.'

With his death seemingly imminent, Lelouch was still calm as he drew a small circle in the dirt with his spear's end before he tapped it twice. 'How foolish,' He wasn't able to say more before the Lancelot fired, its VARIS, an improved version of the Albion's main rifle, send a blast of green death towards Lelouch, striking the spot where he stood with explosive force throwing up dirt and dust.

'Lelouch!' Kallen screamed, scared to see him die just like that, but as Suzaku turned his attention away from his most hated person's death, he noted that there was something still standing in the dust cloud. Keeping his rival on it, he waited for the dust to settle, to see with his eyes if this was true. His, and the gazes of the rest widened in shock as instead of being reduced to a bloody mess, Lelouch stood without a scratch on him, having remained in his spot, around him a done that resembled that which protected the people from stray fire faded away.

'What?' Having seen it enough times to recognise a variant, Suzaku wondered when and how Lelouch created a blaze luminous shield. Was it in that armour of his, they hadn't been able to track down Rakshata, had she managed to shrink down Asplund's work to such an extent? Impossible, not even the man who created it had managed that, complaining that it would take him at least another 5 years to get a prototype ready.

Wiping a bit of dust off his pristine armour, Lelouch put his helmet back on, leaving only the ominous glow of his crimson eyes visible. 'You shall find that I don't need my wife to protect those you seek out my aegis, my fallen friend.' As he spoke, his spear's head began to glow, matching the same light emanating from his eyes as he gripped his spear, allowing the power from his body to fuse with that of his sacred weapon. With this gathering and fusion done, he thrust the weapon towards the Lancelot which threw up its shield just in case he was blasted.

What he hadn't known was that Lelouch was performing a mere evocation, but his speciality: conjuration. 'Summoning: Selēnēanaireōpsyche!' A portal appeared behind him, dark and menacing, mere moments after the portal tore itself into being, a ghastly, beaten and dented metal figure came flying out, its Brake Sword swinging into a slash aimed for the Lancelot which its Blaze Luminous blocked, but it wasn't so much the attack that drew his attention, but the knightmare that had done it, a knightmare he had seen destroyed with its pilot.

Having more power than he thought, he found himself being pushed back, him! In a 10th Gen machine being forced back by the unholy resurrection of an 8th Gen, he killed years ago. 'What!' He brought up his VARIS to fire, but the machine broke off to try and gain distance, his shot instead of hitting the knightmare, struck a familiar red pulsating shield as the machine came to a stop, floating before its master.

Chiba wasn't the only one that grasp at the sight of the lost knightmare. It looked different than they remembered, being larger and seemingly carried extensive battle damage which they noticed slowly repaired itself the longer it remained on the field. 'The Zangetsu? But when did he-!' The sole surviving member of the four holy swords asked, her heart tearing just a little as she saw the machine of the man she loved once more, defending someone they had betrayed as it charged the Lancelot once more, proving to be something of a challenge as it kept Suzaku back from both them and its master.

'I bested the real one, do you think that a fake would do any better?' Suzaku yelled as he parried another strike, watching in real-time as the wound he inflicted on the machine, where he impaled it on his blade slowly closed itself off, circuits and wiring reconnecting like a twisted mockery of biological cellular repair. He managed to get a good hit in when he cleaved through its Brake sword, sending half of it flying into the distance as the brought up its radiant wave shielding to protect itself from his shoulder-mounted hadron fire, dispersing the fire across the field in a show of red light and power.

'A fake, yes. But this is no falsehood.' Lelouch replied as he sent more of his power into the summoning, halting its self-repair in favour of rapidly repairing its main weapon, allowing it to go the offensive again as he cast another spell. 'Summoning: Automatos Pezikos!' Another portal appeared, this one silver and fuzzy as a silver and red Vincent construct summoning formed from it, equally as damaged as his first summoning had been when it first appeared. Kneeling, Lelouch took a deep breath as he took a seat on its joined hands and allowed it to carry him off to follow the action as the Zangetsu's ghost forced the Lancelot further away from the people.

With their master engaged in battle, the white cloaks he had brought along continued their assault to finish off the riders before going to try and aid him fight off the most wanted man on the planet. Not sparring them a glance, Lelouch gave an order which was heard despite the fighting reigniting behind him. 'Jeremiah, get the people to safety, I shall deal with the false knight.' Jeremiah, the intended recipient and only person that could his lord's words, nodded his head as he hefted his battle axe, ready to carry out his orders.

'Just what was that?'

'How should I know!'

'Mommy, did he make a knightmare appear like magic?'

Around the disguised rebels, the people asked ever more questions about what they had seen, what they were still seeing in the distance as even the Grey, the largest of the ships turned away from them to focus on trying to kill Lelouch. For the crowd, this made no sense as he was a criminal, the architect of the special administrative zone massacre, an event that was the prelude to the first black rebellion and thousands of more lives lost. He had killed Charles, paving the way for the tyrant that now terrorised the world. He had been called a devil in human form many times, including by several of the rebels present and with the feats they were seeing from him and those who followed him, it appeared that wasn't far off.

But that left a burning question; why was this devil helping them? Why would he fight against the Dog of Damocles on their behalf? No one had those answers as Gino turned to the one that could provide them, the mounted rider who was outside their protective shield, her eyes on the battle, vigilant for any stray fire or attempts to get to them but it seems the rest were going a good enough job of keeping the fighting away.

'What's going to happen?' The blond asked her, the woman turning to him as he reached for the side of her helmet, orders most likely being relayed to her from someone else. Once she finished with the message, she answered his question.

'We're getting you people away from here, we just need to wait for the way to be cleared.' She replied as she pointed towards the mist-covered woods in question, but while it was largely clear, there was still some fighting in their way. One of the Vincents turned to face them but was killed when a knight in white, grey and gold leapt from his horse onto it, taking the form of a large elephant which charged into the machine, its shining white tusks piercing into its side, killing its pilot before it threw the lifeless machine aside, turning its attention to face another foe. Another machine met its end when Jeremiah jumped onto it, swinging his axe with the strength of a giant as it sliced clean through the top of the cockpit, brutally killing its pilot as his head was sliced in two.

With their numbers being stretched thin with the continued losses, the Vincents formed up closer together, but this gave them their opening as the rider-turned-beast turned back from the assault, meeting back with his mount as he shifted back into human form and jumped onto its high saddle. Looking towards the crowd of refugees that they were fighting to protect, he rushed over to their location and reached for the barrier. Chanting in a language none could understand which sounded similar to the spells that Lelouch ha-was using, they witnessed the barrier coming down as the dozens of owls dispersed into smoke, leaving no trace of their presence. 'Hurry, we don't have much time to waste. To the woods, people. We'll cover you.' His orders were short, rough but clear to them as the people started to move as fast as they could, relatives and strangers helping the young, old and pregnant to move as quirk as they could.

Kallen, despite the danger, wanted to remain, she wanted answers to what the hell was happening but she knew that by doing so, she'll probably die if not get in the way, so with the rest of the 600-strong crowd, she turned tail and booked it for the woods where another rider, one in white and green waited for them, acting as sniper support as they fired towards the Vincents with what appeared to be a hunting rifle that shouldn't be capable of anything but seemed to do some damage as they would pull back the bolt, loading another round as the inscriptions glowed as if filling with fire from the butt of the gun to its barrel's end, once that fire reached the end, they pulled the trigger and with a sound more akin to a cannon firing, they would unleash a shot that seemed to be capable of blasting golf ball sized holes in the Vincents they targeted.

Remaining behind, the grey and gold rider clapped his hands together and began to chant something else in the same language, their hidden eyes glowing a similar red to that of Lelouch as they cast another spell, a defensive one as from the earth, a wall of flowery vines bloomed, created another barrier as the attacking force found their fire blocked by it, but this wasn't as encompassing as the earlier defence as it was only for one direction, allowing one of the Vincents to break off and give chase to the fleeing civilians, firing all the while it avoided sniper fire from the white and green rider. The grey and gold rider cursed as he shifted the barrier the best he could, but he couldn't launch any counters in his position, nor shapeshift into a more suitable form to handle the problem.

That curse turned into a yell for the mass of people to take cover as an Vincent leapt over his barrier, its rifle aimed at the mass of people. Gino swore as he saw its sight set on them, but his eyes widened when he saw something behind it. The rider in white and pink had leapt after it, leaving their mount behind as the plates of armour on their person shifted and grew in an instant, turning into a similar sight from the London crater as they brought their hadron weapon to bear, firing on the Vincent before it could harm a single person. To their credit, the pilot avoided death just by the nick of time, but their machine's legs were destroyed in the bean of red death, sending them crashing into the earth where they didn't move.

The rider didn't return to their mount, or the battle but raced to join them, giving them covering fire alongside their sniper as the first of the group made it into the treeline, vanishing within moments in the thick mist. With them, more of the riders broke away from the fight to help the group into the woods or throw up their spells to attack or hamper the knightmares that were trying to regroup to chase them down and slaughter them to the last.

'Good, that'll buy us some time.' One of the guides, the one that knew more than the others breathed a sigh of relief as they leaned on a tree, catching their breath.

'How?' Someone asked, though more out of curiosity than real concern as they all had seen enough to be able to assume that things weren't as they seem, and to be frank, as this forest didn't exist till recently, and was surrounded by mist despite it being a spring afternoon only reinforced that notion.

It wasn't the guide that answered the question though, instead, it was the knight of white and pink that answered, still not on their mount but still leading the beast via her reins. 'These woods are normal ones by any means,' She explained to them as she walked through them, the crowd parting for the knight wearing armour akin to a knightmare. 'It and the mists that surround them will guard our backs but you need to keep moving, there are people still entering and crowding around won't help.'

Cornelia stepped forward. 'Just who are you?' She turned to appraise her, looking her up and down before she answered, having not recognised her.

'We're servants of his majesty, but we can talk more once safe.'

As the people he had come to escort to safety were making their escape, Lelouch wished to pat himself on the back and give thanks to his patron deities for his talent for and ability to use his brand of magic as his legion meant he didn't need to get too close to his foes and still lead his troops as he always preferred to. It also allowed him to keep a good eye on the general situation both with Suzaku and the rest of his knights. His attention was pulled from seeing Anya nearly kill another Vincent back to the Lancelot as it battled not one, but 2 Selēnēanaireōpsyches, the summons made of iron, bronze and magic doing a good job of keeping him busy and allowed him to not have to move around too much, giving him a chance to rest in the hands of his third summoning.

Still, it was getting taxing on him to continue the flow of power to them to both repair damage and keep them fighting as if he wasn't micromanaging the two, they would have been easy pickings to his lost friend thanks to their rather poor combat ability, he could fix that but…no, he wouldn't stoop that low. Keeping at it, he downed a magic stimulant to replenish some of his lost power right as Suzaku fired his four slash harkens into one of the summons he was fighting, tearing through its shoulders and head before he kicked the second in the side, his blaze luminous allowing the white machine to kick straight through the summons but he was forced to fall back as the first one recovered its sword arm fast enough to keep him from attacking Lelouch. Gritting his teeth, he observed as all the damage he had done to them self-repaired as he had already done enough to see both returned to the damn grave trice over and yet, they still flew before him, it was like the bastard had figured out a way to grant his pawns the same regenerative power as his witch and it was starting to annoy him more then he would admit.

'What do you hope to accomplish, Lelouch? Even with your new powers, you can't stand up to me through your dolls.' Suzaku demanded, his ire turned solely on the man that watched his fight from the palms of another of his pawns, how he managed to move from people to machines was a question he would sooner see burned than answered.

Hiding his building exhaustion, Lelouch kept an air of confidence as he laughed off his opponents' fury, even as the Grey closed the distance between them and prepared to fire on him. 'It appears that you've adopted my old arrogance, should I be complimented or disgusted?' In response to his dig, Suzaku saw red.

'Lelouch!' He yelled as he shoved his VARIS into the body of one of the Zangetsu summons and fired at full blast, reducing its top half to nothing as its legs fell back to earth, as he raced for the second, Lelouch rose his spear up, seeing that his foe was in a good spot for him to close this off before he exhausted himself.

'Summons: Sisyphus Metéōros!' Bringing it down to a point where it pointed towards the massive float ship, overhead 15 different portals of swirling blues and yellows formed. From them massive truck-sized boulders fell onto the vessel like meteors, the first struck the forward-facing gun, destroying it before it could fire on him as others soon followed as the ship's point defence has no answer to this as their anti-air cannons and missiles simply didn't have the firepower to do any more than chip parts off the solid pieces of rock as they reigned down on the vessel, causing serious damage.

'Shields, shields!' Suzaku ordered the crew, cursing their idiocy for not doing it later as he saw the damage done to his flagship, his blood pressure ever rising as his raspy breaths come out at an increased rate, his respirator working overtime to keep up. Turning away from his vessel, he filed away the annoyance that will come with getting it damn thing repaired and focused on the source of his present issues, of all his issues who stood there, acting like all the world was his playground as he could ever have the right to judge him, to act like he was better!

'Enough of this, now you die!' In his anger, he threw his blade towards him like a spear, the second Zangetsu intercepting the attack with a parry, through the improved MVS still dug deep into the iron that made up the summon's blade which now didn't regenerate.

Feeling that he had used a little over half his magic, even with the magic stimulant, Lelouch smiled under his helmet as he observed the Lancelot rushing towards him, its second sword in as it fired on his remaining selēnēanaireōpsyche. 'You're right about one thing, it's time we part once more.' He bowed to him as he walked off his summons hands, pointing his staff under him. 'Summons-'

Not letting him have the chance for any more magic bullshit, Suzaku roared in anger as he sped past the Zangetsu puppet in his way, firing on it over the shoulder to destroy it. 'You're not getting away!" He was slowed by the 3 puppets, the one that had kept out of the fight and just carried its master around as it drew its steel lances and parried his strike, but his blades and power overwhelmed it in a moment, cutting through the lance and the machine that used it. it was only a second or 2, but it was enough for Lelouch to cast his spell.

'Potamosthyra!' Another portal formed beneath him, this one pure white as Lelouch fell through it, it closing a moment before the place it appeared in was bathed in hadron fire. Suzaku kept up the barrage for a few seconds, more than long enough to reduce even capital ships to burning wrecks but it was in vain as his target, the person he hated more than anything and everyone was gone, leaving him floating in the air with a damaged flagship, and over 2 thirds of the knightmares he deployed damaged or destroyed. Left with this new defeat, Suzaku let loose a scream of fury.

'Lelouch, I swear that I'll see you burn in hell!'

'Anyone else notice the lack of gunfire and explosions?' Tamaki asked as the large group was led through the winding forest trail, the mist-filled forest that surrounded carried with it the sounds of leaves dancing in the wind, woodland critters and the chirps of birds, but just those things. It was as if it was forever a calm day here.

'It's not just you. Even if we lost them in this mist, they should have been firing on where they thought we were, yet it's silence.' Guilford agreed with him, his eyes jumping from place to place as if he suspected an attack, but none came. One of the riders close to them, moved up. Like Jeremiah, they also wore white and orange armour, but it was smaller to match the rider and came with a sort of skirt.

'The entire place is enchanted, not only can the unwelcome not enter, but it repels most attacks, at least for a time.' She explained to them, gesturing to the area around them where if one looked closely, they could see symbols flash on trees before vanishing as they did their thing no doubt, Suzaku had ordered a bombardment on the forest, but it'll take time for his forces to burn through all the protection wards the forest had laid into its very nature.

'How long?' Cornelia asked her, getting a chuckle from her as he patted her mount's head.

'Long after we're long gone.' Cornelia hummed at that, taking in her appearance before she looked towards Jeremiah, who was further back, having been one of the last to retreat once the last of the stranglers had made it in.

Turning back to the front, she observed the one that seemed to be Anya but also had remained silent even as Gino eyed her with awe and a sense of desperate hope. 'Don't suppose you'll give us your name.' She asked the woman that had decided to speak with them. Thinking about her question, the knight hummed for a moment before she made her choice.

Placing a hand on her armoured chest, she introduced herself. 'I am a member of the Knights of Arthur, Lilicia of house Gottwald.' Cornelia nodded her head at that, filing away the fact her brother seemed to have gone and created another knight to replace his lost one.

'You're related to Jeremiah then?' She asked, getting a nod from the girl as she pointed towards the man in question as he had a conversation with two others, the knight in white, grey and cold and the one that she was reasonably sure was Anya.

'He's my old brother, that's him though you'll have to forgive him, he's not the best with his social skills.' She chuckled at a joke only she found funny, one that they lacked the context to understand. Cornelia took a deep breath here, wondering just what in the hell she had gotten involved with.

'Well, we did go looking for him.' She muttered to herself. Further in, the knight in red, gold and pink noticed that some of the children were staring at her, or more accurately, at her mount. Most of them watched what they would think of as a unicorn with unmasked awe and suspense, but were too scared to make the first move.

'Would you like to ride him?' She asked them, getting them to pause as they pointed at themselves, sure she was talking to someone else, once she nodded her head to confirm it was them, smiles broke out over their faces as they moved closer, her stead being calm as ever and not minding the small humans crowding it as they walked.

'Really?' She nodded as she brought her stead to a stop, dismounting quickly as she knelt to their level.

'Oh yes, he's quite gentle. Allow me,' She helped a couple of them onto its saddle, its size warranting some worry from their parents but she managed to assure them that it was perfectly safe for them. Once she was sure they had a good grip and wouldn't fall, she stepped back. 'Are you comfy, the saddle's made for someone a bit bigger?' She asked them, but neither seemed to care as they were more concerned with losing their minds as they damn near vibrated in place.

'It's fine, thank you! Look at me, I'm on a unicorn!' Her joy managed to spread to others as some adults just smiled at the childish cheer the two had, with other children moving up to see the creature up close now that the danger had passed, even asking if they could also ride the beasts.

'Here, he likes it when you scratch this spot,' She guided their hands to a spot on the creature's side and when they did as she told them, the beast let out a pleased neigh which only made them happier. 'See?' She chuckled as she grabbed the beast's reins and continued to move, leaving the two kids to call out whatever they saw, or how they'll find their unicorns once they were safe as if there were this many, they must be more ready to found. She'll leave out the part where the wild ones were extremely territorial, violent and prone to not stopping biting and kicking till your corpse was a bloody, broken mess, such information wasn't important at the moment and would only bring down the mood.

Near the front, away from this, one of the riders, the one in white and green got closer to a guide. 'You're slowing down there.' She pointed at him, getting his attention as he flinched, seemingly having been lost in thought.

'Yeah, sorry…long day.' She rider hummed, not discounting that as he wasn't wrong, but they didn't have time to sit down and rest, at least not at the moment. However, she picked up on how he was still wearing his mask, despite the fact many others had already removed theirs.

'You know, you can remove the mask. With how much of a mess things went back there, it's not like we can let you return without risking you and others.' She reminded him as the guide paused for a moment, before sighing as he realized his folly as he reached for it.

'Oh yeah, I forgot.' Taking off his mask, he revealed himself to be Rivalz, a fact that wasn't missed by someone close by.

'Rivalz? Is that you?' he turned to see Gino, having turned his attention away from the white and pink rider in time to see him remove the mask.

'Hey, Gino. It's been a while…' He awkwardly waved at the taller man, his eye twitching just a bit as he saw that even with his growth sprout, he was still shorter than the man, who might as well have been a tree with how tall he was. Gino didn't seem to mind as he went over and grabbed the shorter man in a bear hug, laughing all the while in a way only he could.

'I can't believe it man, it's been forever, who would have thought you'll be working for a secret underground railroad? Not me, that's for sure!' Gini laughed as he continued to hug the man, who awkwardly hugged him back. Gino's loud voice drew the attention of both Milly and Kallen, but they opted to not approach their old friend's discomfort and decided to speak with him later.

'Did you know?' Kallen asked the information broker, but Milly shook her head, just as surprised to see their old goofball friend here as she was.

'Everyone involved with this did a darn good job of masking their identities, but I'm glad he's here, even if this wasn't how I thought we'll meet once again.' Milly replied, feeling happy in the knowledge that he was safe, that she could see he wasn't in some work camp if not dead.

'If Shirley and Nina were present, we'll have the whole council.' Kallen joked, thinking back to their times and how Rivalz didn't make a good impression on her thanks to his champagne stunt, even if she didn't hold it over him for long.

'Yeah…'

Some time passed before the group broke from the treeline, the first of them seeing the clearing that had been the encampment of the riders, now deserted. They continued forward, towards the only permanent structure in the area which happened to be a gate-like structure that both Cornelia and Kallen recognised. Before they could ask how and why a Thought Elevator was just in the middle of a magical Welsh forest, one of the forwards raced forward when they noticed the figure seated on its steps, their spear held high with their head hung low. 'Master!'

Lelouch, with his helmet off, looked toward the knight with a smile as he slowly got up. 'I see you all made it, good…' He appraised the group, looking for some obvious injuries that will need to be treated, but he found none, getting a pleased huff from the man as he turned his gaze towards Jeremiah.

'Are you hurt, my lord?' The cyborg inquired of his master, worried for him after he took such a risk to slow down Kurururgi, but the man waved off his loyalist man's concerns, showing off how his armour wasn't even damaged.

'I'm fine, just a bit winded. Never been in such a fight.' He wiped some of the sweat from his brow, having not fully caught his breath from the fight. 'I'll open the door and allow you through.' Lelouch turned to place a hand on the door, but someone else walked up, a knight of red and gold who had been in the middle of the melee, their longsword sheathed at their side.

'I think I can do that; you've done your part.' She volunteered, with Lelouch looking over his shoulder at her for a moment before he stepped back.

'So have you.' He said as he allowed her to dismount and step in, placing a hand on the door, it was silent for a moment before the 2 rams shield that adorned the top of the door glowed brightly before slowly, the great wooden doors slowly began to open, revealing a bright whiteness that prevented them from seeing the other side. With some encouragement, the people slowly started to enter through the void while Lelouch and Jeremiah stood to the side, waiting to ensure everyone got through. Once the last of the group entered, they joined them with the door slowly closing behind them, their job done as it would take hours for Suzaku to finally reach the clearing thanks to the dozens of wards he would need to burn through.

Next update: June 11th with early access for those on my p-a-treon set for June 9th

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