Everyone within the Royal Capital just stared at the castle tower where Julius and Licht were fighting. They could see flashes of light; they could not know what was happening, but judging from the noises, it sounded like a battle.
"Hey, look, the castle tower!"
"What, all those flashes?"
"Something is going on up there."
Julius and Licht were still fighting one another, moving so fast that no one could see them with the naked eye. Fishlegs heard the commotion and immediately rushed to the nearest window to find out what was happening.
"Over here," said a member of staff, leading them towards the window. "Look, sir."
Fishlegs looked out the window, and his eyes widened at what he witnessed. He saw Julius blasting Licht with some energy blasts, but he dodged them with astounding speed.
'That power, it's Julius,' he said as he tried to understand what was happening. 'He must be fighting someone.'
He then saw that conjuring up some sort of light and sending them flying towards Julius.
'A Light Magic user strong enough to be holding his own against the Wizard King,' he said as Licht tried to attack from behind with a sort of light. 'Who else could it be that the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun… Licht.'
Licht tossed his light sword at Julius, who froze it in place and fired a beam of time at him. Julius then quickly created a bald time, changing the direction of his attack, and had it follow Licht.
'Except the Royal Knights are supposed to be out on a mission to eliminate him right now.'
Realising he couldn't outrun Julius's attack, Licht flew straight towards him instead. At the last second, he veered off so that you listen. The attack was heading towards him instead, but he quickly got out of the way. He continued the attack until it finally struck Licht, but he quickly created a shield of light, saving himself.
'How did he get into the castle? Is the Midnight Sun to blame for the communication breakdown between me and Julius?'
Julius then tried to capture Licht in one of his time spheres, but Licht recovered and dodged the attempt. Julius created more by following the path of Licht, who could only stay ahead of them.
Fishlegs could only watch. 'There is so much that we don't know.'
By this point, the battle had caused a large audience to gather.
"What's going on out there?"
"Is Sir Julius fighting somebody?"
"What can we do to stop this?"
"Please remain calm," said Fishlegs. "Our metal may be tested in times like this, but we'll never be able to defend Clover Kingdom if we let panic overtake us."
Fishlegs was panicking himself on the inside. 'That's right, stay calm. Now more than ever, my duty is to keep a cool head. If any of us got involved, the difference in skill would only hold Julius back. I don't expect he'll be defeated. If it came down to it, the only Knights fit to join the fight would be captain calibre. Similar to all Magic Knight headquarters.'
With that in mind, he opened his grimoire and sent a message to all the Magic Knights squad bases.
"What the heck?" said Leo as Fishlegs' projection appeared in front of him.
"Hey, Astrid," said Terra.
"A transmission spell?" said Astrid.
"And it's from the capital," said Heather.
"A call from the Royal Capital, sir," said Axel, looking at Dagur.
"This is an urgent message to all captains!" Fishlegs announced. "The Wizard King of the Clover Castle fighting someone who appears to be the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun. As with the previous assault on the capital, they may plot multiple attacks. Knights, please follow your captains' orders on where to stand guard. Captains, finish organising your guard squads and assemble at the Royal Capital."
The Crimson Lion Kings looked at one another.
"I don't understand this."
"Yeah, I thought Captain Mereoleona was infiltrating their hideout."
'Their leader is attacking the Royal Capital?' said Leo. 'This is the perfect chance to avenge my brother, but…'
Leo was hesitant but then stood up and faced the others. "What with all those pitiful faces? You dare call yourselves members of the Crimson Lion Kings?"
"Sir!" they said, standing to attention.
"Remember what my brother said to you. It is best to stay calm, and even though my sister isn't here, we will follow the instructions from the capital and attack the enemy on our own."
"He's got a point."
"This is no time for us to falter."
"Yeah, we're the Crimson Lion Kings!"
At the Golden Dawn, everyone there was on edge.
"We were told to follow orders, but our captain is nowhere to be found."
"I sure hope Captain Vangeance gets back soon."
Hiccup stood up. "Don't tell me." He then looked down at Toothless. "Let's do it, Bud!"
Toothless roared and immediately jumped out of the window. Hiccup landed on his back, and they took off.
"Hey, wait for us!" Ruffnut yelled as she and Tuffnut grabbed their broomsticks.
"Yeah, we're coming to!" said Tuffnut as they followed right after him. "What's with all the rash?"
"I have a pretty good idea what's going on, I just hope I'm wrong," said Hiccup.
Julius and Licht were still battling back at the capital, and neither one was letting up. Licht was swinging his blade of light at Julius while dancing around at him as quickly as possible. He then jumped into the air and narrowly avoided Julius's energy blast; he conjured up a giant sword of light and swung it straight down, cutting through the castle.
Julius used his powers to catch the falling rubble and appear directly behind him.
"You're tighter, becoming quite pedestrian," said Julius. "Even without looking into the future, I don't think I'll have very much trouble avoiding them."
Licht then spun, conjured his whip, and swung it straight at him, but Julius could dodge it. Licht continued swinging his whip in all different directions, tearing up the castle in the process, but Julius was able to keep up. However, Licht was finally successfully wrapping his whip around his leg, swinging him around, crashing him against the castle walls, and slamming him down onto the battlements.
Julius quickly recovered and fired off an energy blast just seconds later. Licht quickly dodged it and fired off a volley of light swords, but Julius was able to dodge them. They struck the tower behind him, and suddenly, the light extended like a laser while his back was turned.
Julius dodged the attack, and the laser penetrated the battlement walls. The light formed a platform where both Julius and Licht could set foot. Licht swung his sword at Julius, but Julius easily dodged the swings.
Julius then caught some falling rubble and centred straight at Licht, who quickly cut through them with his light sword. He moved with blinding speed to make his next attack difficult to read, but Julius anticipated this.
Licht managed to stop himself before he fell into Julius's time sphere. 'He can keep up with me at this speed? Just how far into the future is this human able to see?'
Licht then unleashed a volley of light swords, but just like all the other times, Julius was able to dodge them and then caught one of them with his time sphere.
"Is this yours?" he asked, sending the attack back, but much faster.
Licht barely had time to dodge as the sword left to scratch on his cheek. 'He sped out by spell and threw it back.'
He then tried to position himself behind Julius, but he somehow managed to get behind him and reached out towards him. He barely had time to escape before Julius could catch him in his time sphere.
"Wow, close call," said Julius as he landed. "Despite my ability to see into the future, you're too quick on your feet for me to catch up with you."
'But how?' Licht stared, unable to comprehend just how powerful Julius was. 'What is this strength? He's only human; he shouldn't be able to…'
"You know you would be awfully helpful to me if you surrendered right about now," said Julius. "I won't want to cause any damage to Vangeance's body."
'So he won't kill me; he's trying to capture me instead,' said Licht. 'He's holding back against me and my four-leaf grimoire. All right, then what must his be like? And where is it?'
Not once during the battle had Julius pulled out his grimoire, which was rather disturbing.
"I assume you must be getting curious about my grimoire?" Julius assumed as if he was reading his mind. He then pointed up. "You're welcome to examine it for yourself. It's right up there."
Licht followed his thing and saw hovering above the castle was a grimoire, but it was very different from any others he had ever seen. His grimoire had no cover, and the pages flickered around in a circle.
'It doesn't even have a cover?! What kind of grimoire has a bazaar shaped like mad?'
"I'm a Thai Magic user with a coverless grimoire," said Julius. "I never knew if that was good or bad, but I could tell that it meant that I was something special. I thought hard about it and realised that this grimoire and I have much in common.
"Neither of us fits in a particular category, so who am I really? What am I meant to achieve? I've asked myself these questions for years, and the more I learned, the more I wondered. After I made it this far, the path that I had walked was finally clear. I am the Wizard King."
Licht just stared openmouthed. 'Yes, I understand now. What we're planning to do once we have the magic stones will be an attempt to violate the natural laws of this world. So this man, this human, he must have been placed here by fate itself in order to thwart our ambitions. He is the final bastion of reason.'
Julius suddenly appeared behind and reached out his hand to grab him. "And as the Wizard King, I will protect the people of Clover, come what may."
'I knew it,' said Licht as he turned his head. 'That's all the more reason why I must end his life!'
He then suddenly began to glow. "Protect them? Go ahead and try!" He then suddenly flew up into the sky. "Sealing Magic: Release!"
Julius stared as red lines appeared around him but disappeared, and a blinding flash of light began covering the entire country.
'He's expanded his power,' said Julius.
Then suddenly, forming in the sky were tens of thousands of light swords of many that it was impossible to count, all of them aiming straight down.
"Hey, what's that?"
"Look up into the sky!"
"Oh dear, what's going to happen now?"
Julius realised what he intended to do. 'That is absolutely gargantuan.'
"Humans took away everything, all of our happiness, our friends and loved ones, our peaceful days just like that," said Licht, thinking back to the elf massacre. "It may be an affront to reason, but you will atone for your sins. Now die!"
'He's been holding on to another power to cover the entire kingdom,' said Julius. 'Is he going to release all that magic to wipe out the whole populace?'
"I may not be able to kill you, but I can easily exterminate everybody else," said Licht.
Everyone in the kingdom stared up at the swords, both mesmerised and terrified.
Hiccup, meanwhile, was flying as quickly as he could to the capital with the twins hot on his tail.
"What with all those swords?" Ruffnut asked.
"No clue, but it looks awesome," said Tuffnut.
Hiccup had a pretty good idea of who was behind it. 'That's a massive amount of Light Magic. I have to hurry.'
He then picked up even more speed.
Julius just looked up into the sky. 'His spell has already covered everything in sight at this rate…'
"Now, here is your punishment, humans!" said Licht. "Light Magic: Arrows of Judgement!"
Suddenly, the swords were raining down on the entire country, each aiming for a specific person.
'I did have my doubts,' said Julius.
He began thinking back to when he was a Magic Knight; back then, there was far more corruption within the nobility and the Magic Knights, which made Julius doubt everything.
"Honestly, why did the regular folk have such pathetic magic compared to people like us."
"I couldn't agree more. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why peasants exist in the first place; we should share the same country with them."
"I'll drink to that."
Julius listened to two nobles talking, and neither cared who was listening.
'Is that really true?' said Julius.
The nobles then noticed he was listening.
"What are you looking at?"
"Nothing," he said.
'They had strong magic power, and yet the only thing they ever used it for was to selfishly line their own pockets. Why did these useless mages exist?'
"I see you're that Magic Knight, aren't you?"
"Yes, the one with the strange grimoire. Well, no matter." They then continue with their conversation. "Anyway, I was about to tell you there's a merchant who wants me to give his business a leg up."
"Really?"
"Oh, we'll talk."
"I can't wait to hear."
Julia did not want to listen to this conversation any more and left.
'I kept writing in my Magic Knights squad, hoping that I would eventually discover my calling. Then one day…'
Julius had arrived in the town where a bandit was terrorising the place; he had already grabbed an innocent bystander.
"Give me all your Gil, or I'll bash your faces," he threatened.
Julius was about to help when a Magic Knight wearing Purple Orca robes beat him to the punch.
"Hold it," said the mage. "You villains are always disturbing the peace, and I'm fed up with it."
'I met Zara, the very first peasant to be selected to join the Magic Knights.'
"We'll fight if you want, but so you know, my magic is about a hundred times tougher than anything you can throw at me," said Zara.
"A Magic Knight, huh?" said the bandit, releasing the man. "I supposed to be scared of you or something, pal?"
He then fired two fireballs directly at Zara.
"That's a bad move," Zara smiled.
Zara had set a counter trap in front of him, so they were sent flying back at double the power when the fireball struck his trap. The bandit was badly scorched, collapsed to the ground, and was rendered unconscious.
"Had enough," said Zara. He then turned to face the citizens. "Now, go find somewhere safe."
"Thank you, we're so glad you showed up."
Zara then spotted Julius. "Hey, you! Do me a favour, come down for a sec!"
More bandits showed up, and the two of them overpowered each other. Julius then got to observe Zara.
'Zara's power itself was weak, but his strategic fighting style made full use of Trap Magic. It was clear that he worked hard to master it.'
Zara also observed Julius using his magic to heal the citizens, and he was impressed.
"What kind of crazy spell is that?" he asked. "It's almost like you're turning back time or something."
"It looks that way, but that's not exactly the case," said Julius.
"Time Magic, huh? That is impressive; it seemed like a surefire way to prevent casualties."
"You're Zara, aren't you?" said Julius and noticed his injury. "It appears you're injured as well. Sit down and rest so I can take a look."
"Nah, I'll be all right," Zara assured him. "When you're a Magic Knight, you're supposed to put the lives of the civilians first. You agree, don't you, Julius?"
Julius just stared at him; this was the first time he'd seen a Magic Knight prioritising the citizens' safety.
'Unlike all the Knights who are selfishly seeking glory, he was truly prioritising the lives of the people he saved. I still didn't know what a Magic Knight was supposed to be, but even I saw he was the genuine article. Later on, I had learned that Zara had died.'
Julius was making his way to Zara's grave to put some flowers on when a kid rammed into him. He noticed that the boy bore a strong resemblance to Zara and concluded that this was his son, but he looked immensely upset.
"Hey, are you…"
However, before he got an answer, the kid just ran off.
He carried on to Zara's grave and placed some flowers on it; he then saluted the grave, showing his respect for Zara.
'Zara had carried out his duty as a Magic Knight, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I was finally sure of my purpose in life, which was to become the kind of knight he was.'
Julius then discovered that Zara had been killed by his very own squad mates, and no one really seemed to care.
"They're saying he was murdered by one of his own squad members."
"Really? Well, we can't have a nasty rumour like that going around."
"Word is he was diving into things he shouldn't have."
"What's one dead peasant anyway? No one is going to miss him."
They were wrong, as Julius was immensely frustrated and furious by what had transpired with Zara.
'How could this possibly be right? It wasn't just among the Magic Knight, either. It was how the country had always been; the class system made the nobles prideful and the peasants hopeless. There had to be more on both sides of the coin. Magic potential. Human potential is infinite. But to be heard, I needed power, standing and trust. I devoted my efforts to producing results and became the Wizard King.
'Surely magic and people should be more free. It hasn't happened overnight, but I can see now that, little by little, this kingdom and its people are finally beginning to change. After all, the ones I came to trust and respect combined their strength as well as the strength of those that they trusted. As the Wizard King, I can't let it end here! I refuse it too!'
Julius then put everything he had into his most powerful spell yet, and the face of a clock appeared in the sky.
"Time Reversal Magic: Chrono Anastasis!"
His spell immediately stopped time around the swords of light, causing them to float in midair, inches above their targets. The clock face then rotated backwards, reversing the spell as if it had never happened, and the swords vanished.
"Your Time Magic was enough to save them, impressive," said Licht. "Though it would appear used all the time in power you had saved up. You would have seen this attack coming, but unfortunately, you couldn't call off that final Time Magic spell to get out of the way because you're the Wizard King."
Hiccup and the twins then arrived and landed on the battlements, but their eyes widened in horror when they looked up. For Licht had successively plunged his light sword right through Julius' chest.
"And being the Wizard King is your one and only weakness," said Licht as Julius coughed out a massive amount of blood.
He then collapsed to the ground, and as he did, Licht snatched the two remaining magic stones from him. The light sword that had been wedged into Julius's chest vanished, and he lay on the ground motionless.
Hiccup then grasped his sword, looking at Licht furiously. "What happened here? Tell me that, Vangeance!"
