The war rages from all sides, in the West, the pleiades are dominating the battlefield, in the North, a group of flying dragons started their fight, on the south, various rebels joined the conflict, yet they faced against stone soldiers, and in the east, Yorna with fighters from Chaosflame were taking care of their side, with Arakiya as their opponent.
"You truly are foolish, Arakiya!" Priscilla shouted as she held the yang sword in hand, and with a flaming eye, sign of her mother's love, and a small bump on her head, Yorna standing next to her, with a smile unfit of her age.
"Lady Prisca, I was born to make you empress!" Arakiya shouted while sending down a fireball, which was blocked by Yorna.
"You are my daughter's milk sister, right? I thank you for taking care of her for such a long time." Yorna took a step forward and charged against Arakiya, starting their fight anew, Yorna jumped in the air where Arakiya was, she punched in her head, sending her to the ground.
As Arakiya fell, Priscilla tried to attack her with her red sword, the strike almost landed, the spirit eater got hold of herself and moved with her flames sideways, dodging the hit.
"Prisca, can you feel it too?" Yorna asked as she looked at the West, Arakiya was going back in the air, as mother and daughter looked away.
"That fool of my brother, uh?" Priscilla added as she looked to the west, where a light shone as bright as the sun.
"We sure had a lot of work to do, but we shaped him into a king, didn't we?" Yorna smiled as she bathed in the light of those flames, with a wide smile on her face.
"At first he seemed like a jester like any other, trying to make people look at him, and trying to fuel his pride, but now, he fights with the pride worthy of a king." Priscilla put her fan over her mouth, she then faced Arakiya, and clashed with her.
A few minutes earlier the battle between Goz and Subaru was coming to an end, with the winner being…
"This is the end, child of war!" Goz shouted as he held Subaru down with his foot, it being as big as Subaru's chest, the small boy tried to move out without success, as the pleiades tried to help him.
"Subaru!" Halibel shouted as he fought off his assailants, he was driven away by the two fighters, and now he was too far away to reach him.
"Boss!" The other members shouted as they tried to attack Goz, he mercilessly struck them with his hammer.
"Child of war, you will never be the emperor of Vollachia!" He then placed it over the boy's head, and brought it down.
"Next!"
The world was brought back, Subaru's eyes opened as he gazed upon the golden opponent, he held his sword forward once more, and clashed blades with his opponent once again.
He rushed towards him, as Goz brought down his hammer, he created his wings, making Goz slow down his hit, preparing to move it upwards, yet he slided under the hammer, narrowly dodging the hit.
Subaru then flew upwards and tried to hit Goz, yet the golden armor was too thick for the boy, and Goz didn't budge.
As Subaru flew upwards, the warrior held out his hand, catching him mid-flight, he burned his hand as he clenched his teeth in pain, and he prepared his grip.
"Next!"
Subaru remained still for a few seconds, wondering his next moves, as he thought about it, someone else spoke.
"Golden lion, make way for the king!" Weilz shouted as he charged forward, Subaru Next to him, Subaru glanced at his friend in surprise, the group fought against the golden lion.
His strikes were too much for even Gustav to take, his armor was too thick to attack normally, his strength and skill was far beyond that of the warriors facing him.
Yet the group attacked, the fight raged, Subaru thought about what Weilz said being emperor of Vollachia, did he truly want that?
"Next!"
Subaru remained silent and slightly lowered his weapon, his expression serious while looking at his friends.
"Guys, do you want me to be the emperor?" He asked as they faced their opponent, the group looked at him and smirked.
"Brother, you are our leader, the greatest we could ask." Weilz answered with a smirk, Goz remained still as he waited for them, respecting his adversaries.
"Indeed, lord Subaru is the leader of pleiades, far greater than a mere emperor." Gustav smiled as he held his shield up, Goz looked at the group talking, he did not interrupt them out of respect.
"Yeah! You are always doing your best, fighting with us, caring for us, I doubt there's another leader who would do the same." Hiain smiled as he patted Subaru's back, at his question, other members of pleiades joined.
"You are a man I would follow even to hell!" "Your eyes would scare even monsters." "Your ideas are always surprising!" "You protect as many people as you can!"
His soldiers all spoke their mind, Subaru found some tears falling down his cheek, then, he raised his sword, his pride in full display, he walked forward.
Within Subaru, who has walked forward thanks to the pride of being Kenichi's son, a new flame overtook the first one, his pride in Pleiades, each one of them followed him out of respect, admiration, friendship and gratitude, and each one of them wished to witness the might of the child of war, they wished to open the path for him, they saw him as the king.
And so…
"I love you guys."
Subaru's flames increased more and more, as bright as the sun, melting all that stood next to it, except for his friends, his people, Natsuki Subaru's greed, the power of "little king" resonated with Subaru's pride, and the yang sword, weapon worthy of a king, started drawing power not only from the king, but from his people as well, reuniting their strength into one.
The flames grew hotter and hotter, Subaru now fought with his people in his heart, he walked forward, Goz admired the dancing flames, as the armor slowly melted away.
"You stand before Natsuki Subaru, leader of pleiades, kneel." Subaru's voice echoed in the flames, with an unimaginable amount of power, everything was being covered in flames.
Halibel admired his boss, he immediately took the distraction caused by Subaru to attack his opponents, he summoned his clones, two kicked away Groovy, making him go near the flames, while he forced Olbart in a swordfight, slowly making him go near the flames, for then forcing him to jump with an explosion.
Subaru brought down his sword, his flames engulfed all that stood in front of him, the three fighters had nowhere to go, Olbart was midair, as the ground beneath him melted away.
"Damn boss, this is stupidly taxing!" Hiain shouted as he fell to his knees, the mana required for this attack was immense, so great that the members around him quickly lost their mana.
"End this quickly, Su-san!" Halibel shouted as he too had his mana being quickly taken away, Subaru was burning all in front of him, the walls of Lupugana were melting away, as his enemies were getting their mana burned, their bodies were weaken immensely, and slowly, each divine general lost consciousness, being overwhelmed by the heat, by the lack of mana and lack of oxygen, as Subaru burns what he wishes to burn.
In a single minute, the divine generals were all on the ground, the walls melted away, and many other vollachian soldiers fell, even if a quarter of Subaru's army was on their knees, without a drop of mana in their body.
"Good job boss!" "That was great!" "Hey can someone help me out?" "Hey, mind if I sit this one out?" The pleiades around him were all on the ground, smiling even if completely weakened.
"Alright, 3000 troops will take care of the injured, Halibel, make sure no one attacks them, the rest with me!" Subaru shouted as his flames vanished, immediately the troops moved and the field was cleared, Halibel took care of the divine generals.
Subaru looked at the sky, there he saw Cecilus fighting, the dragon was covered in wounds, Cecilus gave another cut to the dragon and fell to the ground next to Subaru, creating an immense cloud of dust.
"What was that boss!?" He appeared next to Subaru and shouted in his ear, Subaru almost jumped and turned towards him.
"Oh, don't worry, you won't see it that much, it costs far too much mana, as you can see." Subaru looked at the 5000 troops lying on the ground, all of them depleted of their mana.
"Still, a flame worthy of my boss, but now it's time for the leading star to take the spotlight!" Cecilus smiled as he jumped in the sky, there he kicked Mezoeria in the head with enough strength to move the clouds, Mezoeria fell to the ground, the impact powerful enough to be felt by everyone.
Cecilus stood in front of the dragon, in the hole Subaru made with his flames, there the fight began anew, the dragon stood in front of the boy, he brought down his claw, which Cecilus dodged, he jumped over the claw and slashed his sword, cutting the face of the dragon.
"Ahahah! This really is a great stage boss!" Cecilus shouted as he fought the dragon, meanwhile pleiades were running inside the city, taking over the walls.
"That boy sure is strong, I'm glad he's with us." Weilz smiled as he looked at Cecilus, who was literally kicking Mezoreia's ass, making him fall face first on the ground, Cecilus then slided down the tail and jumped from the dragon's head, landing in front of him.
"All may admire this star actor's performance!" Cecilus shouted while turning around, raising his hands as everyone turned around, Mezoreia raised his head and stared down on the boy.
The dragon prepared his divine breath as he stared down upon the boy, who had his back towards him, raising his hands to call for attention.
"Seshi! Don't destroy the city, dammit!" Subaru shouted as he got close, Mezoeria used his breath on the boy, who was engulfed in flames, everyone looked at the spot where the boy was, melting away the stone.
Within the fire a blue shadow could be seen for a brief moment, then the flames were scattered as the dragon had his mouth shut, the boy stood there with the sword in the air, Mezoreia brought down his claw trying to smash Cecilus, who dodged slightly
The claw was powerful enough to make a crater, yet Cecilus stood next to it, perfectly fine, he jumped on top of the claw and ran on the arm, for then jumping in the air, started spinning at incredible speeds, so fast to make it seem like there were 20 of him, Mezoreia tried to stop the attack with his claws, the two collided, Cecilus stopped his spins, prepared his slash, and he managed to cut off the dragon's claws, and the arm too.
The dragon let out a shout of pain as the arm fell off, Cecilus stood in front of the dragon while taking off the blood from his sword with a swing. The dragon looked at Cecilus with heavy breathing, then as it prepared to attack again, Halibel arrived with someone in his arms.
"Stop that dragon." Halibel asked at the small girl he had in his arms, Subaru looked at him with a surprised face. The dragon immediately stopped and flew away as Halibel brought away the child, Subaru recognised her as Madeliyn.
"If you get your arm cut off, where do you feel the pain?" Subaru asked as he looked at Gustav, he merely shrugged as the group walked forward.
"Hey boss, you saw me, right!?" Cecilus shouted with a smile, the two ran towards the castle at top speed while making way with the army, Subaru gave a thumbs up.
"Also, What is that supposed to mean, boss?" Cecilus landed next to Subaru, sheathing his blades while tilting his head.
"I mean, you got your arm cut off, where do you feel the pain?" Subaru pointed out while scratching his chin, Cecilus looked at him dumbfounded.
"In your ar-m…" "See!"
"If it was cut off,"You can't feel pain in your arm!"" The two spoke in unison as Gustav facepalmed, the battalion entered the city. The group fought off some soldiers as they went, the city lacked any resistance.
Pleiades were evacuating the city, taking the civilians to safety, they made a path from the hole Subaru made.
They fought off some soldiers, rescued as many civilians as they could, with many of them being surprised by the treatment, and soon enough they were closer to the castle.
"Stop!" Subaru shouted as the group advanced, they were reaching a big square, quite close to the Palace, the group did as he said.
"What's the matter brother? Is it a trap?" Weilz asked as he held his hammer, Subaru looked at the square with suspicious eyes, it was completely empty, no statues, no merchant stands, nothing, just solid stone.
"This place is made to be destroyed, Cecilus, Halibel, be ready." Subaru spoke as he walked in it, his sword ready as he murmured, he walked until he was in the middle, nothing happened, Cecilus and Halibel right next to him.
"Either something explodes or we get crushed." Halibel smoked from his pipe as he looked around, the trio almost reached the other side, as they heard a strange sound.
"What's this sound? It's like a steam pot!" Cecilus shouted as he looked around, the three then went silent, all of them gripping their swords.
"Shields upfront! Fighters ready to the sides!" Subaru shouted as he turned towards pleiades, the soldiers did as told, ready to fight with their weapons in hand, and a wall of shields was placed in the street, ready to fight.
Subaru then placed his sword down as Halibel and Cecilus got behind him as best as they could, a few seconds of silence, the acute sound got louder and louder, and a great explosion, taking place at the center of the square.
The explosion was calculated to not destroy surrounding buildings, Subaru took the hit head on, 'reality break' active, Halibel and Cecilus were shielded from the shockwave, while the shields held by the soldiers managed to stop the already weak blast and various debris flying around.
"What's that!?" Shouted a soldier while pointing at the castle, where a giant of metal took shape and was bringing down his hand on the square, all while from the crater, golems were taking form.
"So this is Mogro? He is surely befitting of the leading actor." "This will be interesting." "And there goes my mana… reality break!" The trio spoke one after the other, Cecilus and Halibel jumped away, as Subaru raised his sword over his head, burning bright, as Mogro's shadow covered the sun, the only light was from Subaru himself.
"Halibel, didn't you say explodes or crushed!? Cause this seems like both to me!" Subaru reignited his flame, covering himself with fire, two great wings spread out from his back as the soldier shouted their chant once more, their mana all fueling Subaru's flames.
"Pleiades, attack!" Subaru ordered his men, as the golems got closer to them, the pleiades raised a shout, and charged forward, meeting their enemies head on, as the groups clashed, Mogro's giant hand landed over Subaru, instead of crashing, it was blocked entirely, not moving any closer to the ground.
"Seshi! Hal!" Subaru called out to the two, Cecilus jumped on the arm and ran around it while cutting it, in a flash the arm was severed in a hundred pieces, meanwhile the other arm was cut on a joint as a shadow jumped down from Mogro's shoulder, and the two arms fell on the ground, destroying buildings and raising dust.
As the two destroyed the arms, the light that blocked the hand raised from the ground, and flew towards Mogro's chest like an arrow of flames, passing right through, as the heat Subaru produced was surpassing the sun itself, the metal was melted on contact, and the child of war flew towards the crystal Palace, where the emperor of Vollachia sat on the throne.
"We have lost, this kid is surpassing me." Vincent spoke as he looked at Chisha, the two had weapons in hand, one had the yang sword, the other a normal sword.
"If we manage to kill him now, we might be able to turn the tides of the battle." Chisha spoke as he cleaned his sword, the two were surrounded by guards, the soldiers stood in line, ready to fight.
"You fool, he just melted Mogro, it will be a miracle if we manage to touch him, we will die today." Vincent spoke in a resigned tone, accepting his fate as he faced this mighty adversary.
The doors were kicked as a child entered the room, his eyes were filled with pride, as the guards surrounded him, all of them prepared their weapons and pointed those at him, Vincent sat on his throne.
"We finally meet, child of war, you who have defeated my armies, and destroyed each one of–"
"Yeah, yeah, I don't care, you, hum, who are you again?" Subaru shrugged while shoing with his hand as he looked at the emperor with complete ignorance.
"You, how dare you speak like that to the emperor!" A soldier shouted as he got closer with his weapon, Subaru smiled as he pointed at the sword.
"Tsk, that's not how you threaten people, you know? When you point that out, you only put your life on the line." As Subaru looked at the sword, the guard flinched at the kid, immediately the emperor stood up.
"What is your wish with this foolish rebellion?" Vincent asked as he looked with hatred at the child.
"I wish to make this a land where the strong no longer trample on the weak, but where the strong put their power to use, to protect those weaker! Where the weak become strong." Subaru smiled as he expressed his wish, Vincent glared at him.
"You, footman, take your sword and chop off your head." Vincent immediately ordered the soldier that flinched.
"Y-your majesty…" The soldier stumbled as he heard the order.
"I won't repeat myself." Vincent repeated once again, the soldier immediately pointed the sword at his neck, and stabbed himself.
"So, you dumb fuck, care to explain who gave you the right to ask people to kill themselves?" Subaru spoke with clear anger in his voice, his aura overthrowing that of everyone in the room, even the emperor, who was overwhelming everyone with his presence, so great to silence even the proudest soldier, was brought to nothing in front of the manifestation of war itself.
The soldier was completely surprised as he found his weapon to be melted on the ground, as he only had the hilt on his neck, same for the rest of the soldiers, all their weapons turned to melted steel, which did not even burn them.
"Fear is a sickness, that soldier showed fear in front of all of us, we can no longer make use of him." Vincent spoke standing proudly in front of the child, the two exchanged death glares.
"Fear is the proof of one's will to live, you feel fear when you realize your life is in danger, and you feel fear to fight back." Subaru remarked, silencing the emperor, who took a deep breath.
"One's fear is born out of weakness, for a person knows that the person standing in front of him is superior, weakness is not accepted in the empire." Vincent raised his voice, Subaru then smirked and relaxed.
"So I guess weakness isn't contemplated in this room, uh?" Subaru smiled as a few of his soldiers entered inside, Vincent flinched and sat back down.
"Citizens of the empire be strong, this is the rule of this empire, you think you can destroy this rule so easily?" Vincent crossed his legs, he put his hand over his head, with Chisha standing in front of him.
"Destroy it? Nah… Yet, what is strength? Is it only power? I've seen many times that pure strength is futile, I've defeated many enemies far stronger than me. Is it wisdom? To outsmart your opponent and defeat him through trickery, yet people will rely too much on reason, and never take risks."
Subaru was surrounded by his troops, who just entered inside the room, all remained silent while facing this child, not being able to talk back, for all those points were proven by himself, through all the action he took during this long war.
"Both are ways to be strong, you managed to defeat us by being better than us." Vincent spoke as he got closer to him, with the eyes of a man ready to die.
"What the empire does not understand is courage, the courage to fight for those weaker, the courage to overcome one's fear, the courage to wield a sword, the courage to do what's right. The courage to face fate itself, and shout…"
"INEVITABLE FATE, BRING IT ON!" The pleiades shouted together in victory, as the city was taken over, the enemies defeated, their flags being burned, and changed in the seven stars of Pleiades.
"Ypu earn your courage, but you, you're just a coward who can't protect a single life, just because they are still earning their courage." Subaru pointed at Vincent, the two weren't that far in age, but Vincent was quite taller than him, and they stood in front of one another.
"I am fighting to protect Vollachia from things you cannot imagine, if you want the throne, come and take it." Vincent said as he took the yang sword in hand, the two faced each other, Subaru summoned his sword too, the two stood one against the other, as their soldiers were around them.
The two crossed blades of heavenly steel, as the mere heat coming from them was far too great for any living being to survive, the first strikes were to merely test each other, Vincent striked from above sending various slashes towards Subaru, who blocked them all, in the room various people entered, Halibel, Cecilus, Yorna, Serena and lastly Priscilla, who looked at the duel.
The two fighters weren't all that great, for their skill at least, any decent fighter could probably defeat them, for their hits were swallow, uncontrolled and lacked any form of experience.
"It is a sad display to witness such a one-sided fight." Priscilla sighed as she looked at the two, Yorna looked at her with a curious look.
"They are exchanging blows, isn't it a bit hasty to call it one sided?" Yorna crossed her arms as she looked at the duel, neither of them seemed to be winning.
"Subaru, he is a jester, but he has been slowly developing the will of a king, to the point of surpassing even Vincent." Priscilla spoke those words as Subaru sighed and took away his sword with an annoyed look.
"What are you doing!? Take your sword and face me!" Vincent shouted in anger as he looked at Subaru, with eyes that held no killing intent, surprising all the vollachian soldiers in the room.
Subaru walked forward, uncaring of the sword pointed at him, Vincent then slashed from above, but before he could hit, Subaru took the hilt of his sword, launched it away, and punched him in the face, sending him flying in the throne.
"You want to fucking die, asshole!?" Subaru shouted, not as a threat, but with pure disgust and anger, Vincent coughed a bit, as he stood up to look at Subaru.
"I'd rather die emperor than live with the shame of being shunned from the throne." Vincent spoke up those words, Subaru then slapped him so hard that he lost a tooth and bounced on the ground.
"You're that much of a coward!? You're so scared of losing that useless pride of yours that you'd rather die!?" Subaru shouted as he walked towards Vincent with eyes letting out a red light much like flames.
"That's how it works! If you wish to be an emperor, then you'll have to kill me!" Vincent shouted as he tried to stand up, only to get repeatedly kicked by Subaru.
"WHO DECIDED THAT!?" Subaru shouted as his flames manifested all around him, the scene was completely pathetic, but the emotions of those two were clear, one represented the vollachian empire and its rules, while the other was beating the crap out of the first. Both metaphorically and physically.
"I'm not going to kill you for some shitty old custom…" Subaru stopped as he looked at Vincent, he gave him a hand to stand up, Vincent looked at it with a surprised expression, he sighed and took that hand.
"BUT YOU'RE GOING TO FEAR DEATH!" And as he said that he launched Vincent out the window, as his wings sprung out as he jumped with him, everyone was surprised as the two fell.
Vincent screamed as he fell to the ground, the emperor of Vollachia now found himself approaching his death, and in his heart there was fear, Subaru then took his arm and stopped his fall as he almost touched the ground.
"Are you insane!?" Shouted the emperor, Subaru was laughing like a madman as he looked at Vincent's face, who was gripping the arm of his enemy.
"How does it feel? To want to live, that is." Subaru smiled as he flew back to the throne room, where everyone waited for him. Subaru launched Vincent into the room, who landed with his face on the ground in front of Priscilla.
"Prisca." "Vincent." The two siblings were face to face, after almost a year, the two remained silent for quite a while.
"Pftttt, ahahahah! You are in quite the predicament, brother." Priscilla bursted laughs with a fan over her mouth, a few people laughed with her, as Vincent stood up and cleaned himself.
"So, how does it feel to no longer be the emperor?" Subaru gave a cheeky smile as the pleiades gave a shout of victory, the group immediately began working to repair the capital, they treated the injured and the leaders all reunited in the crystal Palace.
"What are you going to do, now that you've won?" Vincent asked as he sighed, he was all beaten up, with his dress being covered in blood.
"This is just the beginning, we have many things to do." Subaru smiled as he walked to the throne, he looked at it, then he turned towards his troops and kicked the throne away.