Meanwhile…
"Joaquin!" Ismael roared as he navigate through the entrance of the inner palace. Behind him were the royal knights, who pledged loyalty to him. After a tiring task of forcing his way in with the help of the Valiente Group, who were still resisting the knights outside the Imperial Palace, he had reached this far.
Ismael hadn't seen Roman since he escaped the guillotine, but he was certain with all the commotions heard from inside and outside the imperial palace, Roman had already made his way inside. He and his entourage halted when another unit of royal knights blocked their path.
His eyes glinted, holding his sword tighter. "Where is Joaquin?"
"Impudent!" a knight howled back. "How dare you, a lowly criminal, address His Majesty so shamelessly?"
"Tch." The third prince snorted, stretching his neck from one side to another. "That's right… he's the emperor now."
Another wave of weak chuckles that sounded a bit sarcastic escaped his mouth. His eyes glinted dangerously, forgetting all the fatigue seeping into his muscles and pumping adrenaline into his veins. Being locked for days and eating barely enough was deterring his movements, but his will to fight forced him to carry his sword and march through the capable knights' head-on.
He couldn't fall now.
This was now or never; the day that could be his last day in this world or the day of regaining liberty from the shackles that had been plaguing their land.
Ismael raised his sword up and yelled. "Take down anyone who gets in our way for freedom!"
The knights behind him roared with their swords up, and without a moment's notice, they all leaped forward. The sound of metals and roars from both parties erupted in the already deafening air. Specks of blood continuously splashed on the floor and walls, but the fierce battle raged on.
No one wanted to back down because this was a kill or be killed situation.
Only one victor would rise in the end, and both forces aimed to be the victor for their own greed or for their people.
****
On the other side of the Imperial Palace…
THUD!
Roman kicked a knight's body that landed at his feet. The hallway he came from was filled with bodies lying on their own pool of blood and ahead was slightly clean since he just executed the last knight who tried to stop him. Aside from him, no one was around, almost making it unbelievable how a single person could cause all these disasters without gaining a single scratch on his armor.
He came in as silently as a storm and everywhere he stepped foot, the traces of disaster were the only proof left. Yet no one knew his destination.
The blood dripping from the tip of his sword sounded overly loud in his ears while the other noises coming from all directions where a fight broke out slowly sounded distant. Roman closed his eyes and drew a breath. When he reopened them, his eyes behind his visor glinted dangerously.
'In the name of freedom…' he uttered in his head, resuming in his heavy steps. '… I will end you, Joaquin.'
*******
[ The emperor's audience hall ]
Joaquin sat down on his throne while Hernan and a few ministers, who had been by his sides since the beginning, stood before the raised platform. His eyes were on fire, letting the silence reign over them.
"The Valiente… breached the imperial palace?" he repeated under his breath, making everyone's throat bob nervously. Joaquin laughed with a smirk, shaking his head mildly.
"So they had trained this well, huh? As expected from Roman." His eyes fastened with amusement.
Joaquin had foreseen this coming. On the day of Ismael's execution, Roman would make a move one way or another. Roman didn't necessarily need to move from where he was hiding to deploy his guerrillas and stop the execution.
That was the plan, after all.
To use Ismael's execution to lure out the Valiente Group, where Joaquin planned to end them once and for all. His orders were to keep the Valiente Group at bay and stopped them from setting their foot inside the imperial palace.
However, the current situation proved that their convenient plan had failed.
"But well… it is not like I didn't consider any setback." Joaquin rocked his head mildly.
Fights had broken out within the outer layer of the imperial palace; knights versus the resistance group, and then the knight templars from the church. Two against one… perhaps three, since some royal knights were siding with the third prince.
"Although the fight was still too far from the heart of the imperial palace, one or two will surely manage to sneak in." Joaquin's smirk slowly faded, replaced with nothing but sharpness and wickedness in his eyes. "Hernan, release them."
Hernan's back stiffened as his complexion turned pale. "But — but Your Majesty… releasing them within the palace grounds is risky. They might attack our knights —" He abruptly stopped when Joaquin's eyes fell on him, making him lower his head.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty!"
Suddenly, a knight's voice rang from the entrance on the side, catching everyone's attention. The second Joaquin's eyes fell on the knight's figure standing by the door, his brow arched.
The knight gulped, standing straight with his fist across his chest. "Your Majesty, Her Majesty had resisted her arrest and had slaughtered the knights who were tasked with escorting her out of the palace."
"Tch." Joaquin clenched his teeth in irritation, eyes burning in rage at Aries's nonstop defiance. Did she think she has any other place to go? Even if Aries escaped now, using the chaos to her advantage, Joaquin would chase her to the pits of hell if he had to.
Joaquin pushed himself up from his throne, raising his chin at the people below him. "Hernan, settle everything…" he trailed off when the knight by the door suddenly flew inside, straight to the opposite wall.
For a moment, everyone held their breath, eyes on the cracks in the wall where the soldier crashed into. When they turned their eyes on the door, all they saw was a man in his blood-stained full armor suit.
The side of Joaquin's lips curled up. "Roman, welcome," he called, drawing his sword while the rest stand back.
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