While Zack and Emma were on their respective quests, things had reached their peak back on the eastern continent.
"So now that they are gone, what are we going to do?" Eva asked as she couldn't contact neither Zack nor Emma.
She was able to tell that they had vanished but as to where. She had no idea.
"We have to make sure that these undead don't pore out. You guys should go to the palace and talk to Jonathan regarding this and ask him what we should do." Hayden suggested as the rest of the team, including Jules and Ken, nodded.
Though the two of them were still fairly new, they seemed to be connected with the other team members and understood the situation.
Furthermore, Jules had also managed to learn many things through the recent fights as his level had went up by a shocking margin.
The other team members had also made such a terrifying growth that their levels were no longer shown on the leaderboard.
No information was provided about this either as the Hikari game developers had went silent.
Eva had a feeling that they were silently controlling things from the sidelines and that something big was about to happen soon.
She released a sigh while flying towards the palace and instead turned her gaze towards the other members of the team.
She didn't remember anything about them in detail but still had brief flashes of the past. Eva wanted to remember everything from the past but she knew that it was not possible for the time being.
'At least I am not as clueless about the past as Ken and Jules. The two of them only know what they have been told by us.' Eva thought before turning her attention to Lisa.
She knew about the blond girl's current life thanks to Zack and that was the reason she had called her to live with them in the house.
She had no idea that it could have turned out to be such a thing.
The group of four then entered the palace as they looked around the halls and directly made their way to the throne room.
They were surprised to see Pearl standing outside of the room on her feet. The girl waved at them before pointing them inside.
"Duke Hark is here as well. Go inside and join the discussion." She said with a tired expression as the group moved inside.
"Where is Zack?" Hark immediately asked as Jonathan and him were standing around a digital map of the kingdom floating in front of them.
"He and Emma went somewhere on a quest," Eva said smoothly. "We have no idea when they will be back but once they will return, they will be ten times stronger."
Eva had no idea that her words were actually true as she had only thought of them on the spot.
"What a time to go away," Jonathan muttered but he knew that Zack would have only went away due to a specific reason. "Anyways, we have some things to take care of in the meantime."
Jonathan then pointed towards the map as all of them could see the Eizenburgh kingdom's outline on the map.
He then shrunk the map a bit and they could see the outlines of the other kingdoms and Lelisawol.
"The Abasmoth kingdom, the Julius empire, the Heridor kingdom as well as Lelisawol," Hark said while pointing at the boundaries of the kingdoms. "All of them are now under the control of the dark faction and they have managed to infiltrate our kingdom too."
The boundaries of Eizenburgh kingdom lit up as two red lines stretched from the edges of the boundaries towards the capital of the kingdom.
"This means that they have started conquering our kingdoms and what little intel I have tells me that they take all the people from the dead villages and revive them using necromancy."
"They have an Archmage helping them…" Eva muttered as Hark and Jonathan paused.
The red-head then explained how things were while leaving out the points that connected the entire team to the past and with Xelor.
"So that means that if we want to protect the kingdom, we have to make sure that the undead army doesn't overrun the capital because once this place falls, the morals will fall too and the entire kingdom will follow suit." Hark sighed as Jonathan raised his eyebrows.
"If he is an Archmage, then so am I," He said in a clear voice and took off a ring he had been wearing on his index finger. "I have kept myself under control for long enough."
The moment the ring came out of his finger, Jonathan's body was surrounded with bright orange flames. The flames covered his entire body like an armor as he released a sigh.
"Yes, I am the first Archmage of the kingdom and these flames will remain around me as long as I don't wear the ring to suppress my powers. As for why I did it, no comments. Any other questions?"
Jonathan said as he looked at the shocked expressions of the people around him. Even Hark had no idea that the king had been an Archmage.
"Then why did you act so weak?" Hark asked despite Jonathan telling them not to ask.
"No comments," The king replied in a stern voice as he wore the ring on his index finger again and walked towards the entrance. "You guys go and handle the war, I will handle the…"
Jonathan's voice suddenly trailed off as black pillars of light descended on top of the people standing inside the throne room.
"Oh great, we are about to be teleported somewhere now…" Eva muttered while facepalming before she realized one thing.
There was no pillar of light on top of Hark as the duke stood with a frozen expression.
"No…" He muttered as he immediately started running towards the entrance of the palace. "No matter what happens, don't die! I would be there to help you guys soon!"
Hark shouted as his hair suddenly split into half black and half white. He pointed his hand in the direction pf the group and marked all of them before they vanished.
'I wonder what new evil we have to face…' Eva thought as she prepared all of her metals and called upon Gajeel.
The dragon directly combined with her as two wings appeared from her back. She looked around the moment she felt land around her feet and was left stunned.
"What the fk…" Eva's jaw dropped down when she saw that she was standing alone in the middle of a dessert while an entire army was standing a kilometer or two away directly in her line of sight.
She had no way of saying anything as she was left speechless. She couldn't even count the amount of people on the other side, all wearing the same set of armor from head to toe, etched with the symbol of a golden sun on the chest.
Their faces were covered with helmets too as a black aura surrounded their body and emitted an evil aura.
Eva was alone against such a huge army but before she could think of what to do, she heard a light cough in the back of her head.
[ All alone? ] Gajeel asked as Eva smiled despite the situation.
'Well, not alone but its two against hundreds of thousands. If my guess is right, we are on the border of the Julius empire and Eizenburgh kingdom.'
Eva then remembered Hark's words as she raised her hand and pointed it in the direction of the army.
She felt an odd sensation of deja vu pass through her body as though she had done the same thing before.
The next moment, she had a set of her old memories playing in her head as Eva blanked out for a second.
*
"That's me?" Eva echoed as she saw her older version standing in front of a similar except they didn't have any symbol on their armor.
Her older version looked much cooler then her as the past Eva stretched her body and smiled.
"I see that you guys are cowards. But then, its fun to fight so many people." She said in a cheerful and excited tone as she raised her right hand forward.
Eva then released her metals towards the army and started massacring them.
The current Eva blanked out once again as she appeared inside the world of Hikari.
She glanced at the army and started chuckling. She had just seen her past self casually laugh and attack the army and if she had been able to do that back then, she could do it now too.
'Gajeel, you know what to do?'
[ Cover your back? ] The dragon guessed as he remembered that was how Zack and Lance fought.
Eva nodded her head as she waited on her spot for the opposite teams to make a move however they didn't move.
'Do they want me to make the first move so that I become the one who attacked them first?' Eva thought silently before she sat down and waited there.
The humans in the army stood straight in one place without moving one bit. This continued for one minute before the entire army parted open to allow someone to come to the front.
"Nice to meet you Eva but I would prefer it if you were a bit more closer." A voice suddenly echoed inside Eva's head as a figure walked in front of the army.
Three more men followed the figure and their faces were on full display. Eva was then able to see that their eyes were completely black and they skin was ghostly pale.
She understood it then and there that the three people as well as the rest of the army was solely composed of undead.
"Come forward, queen of metals. Its time for you to meet the dukes of the Heridor kingdom as well as its entire population."
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