"Got you." A cold voice could be heard behind the king as he stared at the weapon that had suddenly penetrated his heart. Golden lightning flickered around the blade while simultaneously wrecking his insides, his heart had been pierced and the lightning only further damaged the other organs, survival was pretty much impossible now.
"You, you're the otherworlder." The king said as he turned his head around and stared at Reign. The power that he could feel from Reign was incredible, even though he hadn't gone through the first evolution, he was definitely incredibly close to being as strong as those that had gone through it.
"I see, it was all- "Cough"- it was all a trap – "Cough" – my, my men, are they?" The king asked Reign as he looked him straight in the eyes. There was no anger, no hatred, nothing could be seen in the man's eyes as it was evident that he had come to terms with the loss.
"Not all, one is still alive." Reign said as he looked to the side, Idrel was laying on his back and heavily breathing, amongst the three top combatants of the kingdom of Older, he was the only one that was still alive as Gardo had succumbed to the injuries Reign had inflicted. The battle at the top of the wall was coming to an end as well, even though Raigon was not in the best shape and didn't have a lot of mana, he was still powerful enough to turn the tides and help Lieara and the others out.
The army leader was killed and so were a couple of other powerful officers, with the help of Raigon they made quick work of them before helping the elites out and killing the enemy soldiers. Raigon on the other hand sat down on the wall and looked at Reign and the king who were both doing the same.
"To think that little bastard had hidden for so long," The king smiled bitterly as he looked at Raigon, the greatest surprise of his life came when he managed to take off the Judge's mask, only to be greeted by Raigon's smiling face behind it. The surprise was enough to make him drop his guard completely for a moment and the explosion that followed managed to deal more damage to him which allowed Reign to take advantage of it.
Reign had immediately used the other weapon skill of his katana to slash down at the king before using everything he had to zoom past him and stab him from behind. The boost was already wearing off and the golden hue covering him was gone. His broken sword returned to how it previously looked and even the mark had stopped shining.
There was no need for Reign to worry about the king, the man had previously used up everything he had in order to break through the giant ball and survive the explosion. Even without the Judge sacrificing himself, Reign was confident that he could have defeated the king, although it would have been a much more dangerous battle. Luckily for him, Raigon spared nothing and even went as far as to destroy his clone.
The reason for the Judge having such a pitifully weak soul was exactly that. As a clone that Raigon had created, there was no reason for him to have anything else but a small part of the original's soul. Mana could be transferred to and from the clone but the portion of the soul that Raigon had used was gone, nobody would be crazy enough to put a larger amount when there was a danger of losing it forever.
"I got no regrets kid." The king suddenly spoke, "I may have lost, but after seeing why I lost, I don't mind it."
"I still remember the days when that kid was humiliated repeatedly by everybody in the area, the black sheep of the royal family, the weakling that had to rely on his powerful father for everything, to think that all of that was a ploy in order to let him amass power right underneath our nose, I can't even complain about my loss."
"He has certainly done a good job with that." Reign smiled as he took out his katana from the king's body. Blood started flowing out as the king looked at the sky sadly, he knew what kind of risk such a war would bring, death could come at any moment, even for someone like him who was amongst the most powerful in the area.
"Yeah, he certainly has, kid, what's your name?" The king asked Reign as he looked back at him for one last time.
"Reign."
"You're strong boy, you'll probably go through the first evolution soon, perhaps you will even be able to go further as well."
Reign simply nodded to the king who smiled one last time before closing his eyes and dropping down to the ground, his heart was destroyed and so were most of his organs, it was actually a miracle that he was able to last this long after Reign's attack.
The enemy army was in disarray, their king, top combatants, and the elite troops were all killed, and the possibility of winning this battle was zero. A lot of them tried to run away, but it was impossible since the area was closed off by the giant gates, the deserters didn't even make it far before being killed by arrows. Most of the soldiers decided to surrender after seeing that, if they continued fighting then they would die.
With the loss of the king and the top combatants, their kingdom was pretty much finished as the coalition or the kingdom of Riplas would try their best to pick it apart. Nothing would stop them as that was simply the law of the jungle where the most powerful lived.
Reign took the gloves from the dead body of the king before making his way to the wall, the other items would all be collected later after Raigon used the array, there was no need to bother and pick them up now.
Reign also picked up Idrel on his way back, the man was barely breathing but he was alive. Since Reign didn't really need to kill more top combatants he decided to spare him and give him to the kingdom as a prisoner. Even though he didn't know how much information the kingdom would be able to get from Idrel, it was still better than nothing.
The healers on top of the wall quickly started healing Idrel, but they only dealt with the life-threatening injuries as there was no need to completely heal him. His survival was pretty much guaranteed as they used special chains and locks in order to bind the man completely and nullify any chance of him escaping or causing problems.
Lieara, Dain, and Ilas were fine, although Ilas had gotten injured by one of the army officers and needed to stay in the infirmary for some time. Lieara on the other hand had injuries, but none of them were serious and she didn't even want healing as there were other soldiers that needed it more than her right now.
Raigon however was sitting on the wall, completely alone. Most of the soldiers were actually a bit afraid to go over to him right now as they had seen what happened previously. Raigon not only used the array to help everyone out, but he joined in the fight near the end of the battle. Seeing him use the same ability that the Judge had was something that nobody expected to see. Not to mention that the words he spoke pretty much confirmed that he was in fact the Judge.
The powerless man that was only known for his intellect and strategic mind was actually a wolf in sheep's clothing. For years he had been shunned by others, ridiculed by his peers, and isolated completely because of his non-existent talent or strength, only to now show that it was all a ploy.
"What should we do with these?" Reign asked Raigon as he sat down next to him. The battle gloves that the king wore were next to him.
"No idea man."
"You're upset huh."
"A bit, my leisure life of staying in the office and acting is finished, I really didn't want to do this, to be honest, but hey, at least this way we have evened out the battlefield, well, we have even done more, to be honest."
"You're going to go through the first evolution aren't you?" Reign suddenly asked Raigon who looked at him with a calm face, a sly smile appeared on his face as he shook his head a bit.
"Can't hide anything from you huh?"
"Not a chance."
"You knew that I was the Judge?"
"Yup."
"How?"
"Your souls were pretty much the same."
"Souls?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I guess."
Raigon and Reign both started laughing a bit before a notification appeared, the battle was finally over and with that, the evolution missions that Reign needed to complete were finished as well. One thing that nobody expected was that the same happened with Raigon who was about to go through the first evolution together with Reign.
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