"Hurry up! Search this place. Check every nook and cranny," the king roared, his eyes wide with rage.
He was recently in his throne room, only for a guard to barge in and tell him that Cronos had gone missing from his cell without a trace.
Currently, he stood alongside his guards inside the cell that should've been containing him. His emerald-green eyes scanned around, trying to find a clue to a secret entrance.
Charlie then turned to Revan, who was also with him in the throne room. They were discussing how Vekas and Augustus should move, only to receive this sudden news.
The man was smiling as he also looked around, his ruby-red eyes scanning every nook and cranny. His black hair was messy and fluttered whenever he moved. His posture and stride were elegant, which his peculiar suit complemented.
Before Charlie could avert his eyes from him, Revan's gaze stopped at a certain part of the ground. With his hands in his pockets, he casually walked to the spot and stopped just a step in front of it.
Charlie looked at the spot, but found nothing special. There was not even a single trace of it having a secret passageway. However, his eyes widened slightly as Revan bent down and stretched out his fingers, which then pierced the ground and gripped it from the inside.
He then lifted his arm, and a perfect square piece of the ground was pulled out thanks to his grip. Tossing this square aside, he gazed at the hole with a small grin.
Charlie and the rest leaned forward, their eyes widening as they found a hidden tunnel. Though it was small, they could squeeze through.
"He must've escaped from here. Let's move!" With that, Charlie immediately dived into the hole. He didn't bother questioning how Revan found this passageway. The man's abilities were too much of a mystery that he was willing to accept almost anything that he did.
Revan jumped in next, and then the rest of the guards jumped in as well.
After a little bit of squeezing themselves forward, they finally arrived at an even larger tunnel that was rich in resources like magiprites. Charlie's eyes widened, not expecting to see such a spectacle.
Revan whistled. "This stuff seems to have been here for at least a hundred thousand years. Pretty interesting."
His eyes shone as he walked around the place, often inspecting or just poking any material he came close to. He would even stare hard at some of them, his pupils dilated as if he had encountered some form of treasure.
Charlie narrowed his eyes. "Doesn't matter. Right now, our top priority is to find Cronos."
Just then, cloaked men arrived from the shadows, surrounding the king, Revan, and the soldiers.
Charlie's heart jumped. He immediately took out his sword. "It's an ambush, beware!"
With that, a battle began. The soldiers fought the rebels off valiantly. Charlie swung once, and several rebels died instantly. Revan was too busy looking at and touching other minerals to care about the ambush he was caught in.
Seeing his guard down, one rebel charged up to him, slashing at him, only for him to flick his sword. The impact was strong enough to turn both him and his sword into entangled mush.
The battle continued for another hour, till they finally achieved victory as Charlie killed the last enemy. Luckily, these guys were mostly ordinary with intermediate control over Vyr.
Revan's peripheral vision spotted a shadow of a cloaked man fleeing the area, but he decided to ignore the man as he turned back to Charlie.
"It seems that something special is going on. I can't wait to find out what it is. Let's go." With that, Revan began walking forward with a grin that showed off his spotless white teeth.
Charlie sighed before gesturing to the guards to follow him. Even though he was disappointed that even now, Revan wasn't helping much in attacking the rebels whenever they appeared, he had already gotten used to it.
Revan did whatever he wanted, and there was no way to stop him.
They continued until suddenly, they stopped midway. Another group of rebels arrived, blocking their path once more. Their numbers were even greater than before.
"Damn it! We will probably encounter even more of these ambushes as we go forward." Charlie gritted his teeth as he readied his sword, but before he could charge, Revan stepped forward.
He snorted coldly. "You're blocking my path to an interesting spectacle."
His eyes shone with a cold light as he waved his hand at them. Suddenly, they all turned into meat paste and were sent flying, as if hit by an unstoppable force.
Charlie and the rest of the soldiers stared tongue-tied; their pupils shrank to the size of a pin. They hadn't expected Revan to act, and for those who didn't know his strength, he seemed absolutely terrifying.
After all, even Charlie couldn't seem to deal with them like this.
Revan turned to them. "Let's continue."
With that, he smiled and continued walking forward. His hands were in his pockets as he walked, relaxed, as if he hadn't just killed off a whole squad with just a gesture.
Charlie's gaze was weary. He had heard of how Revan had once done this to wipe out Broshasa's army. He had even done this in front of him to wipe out a hut, but this was the first time he had seen him do this to opponents.
Speaking of which, why did he do this? Didn't he like to just watch the show?
He talked about watching a spectacle. Does this mean he has an idea about what's further down their path? Does he fully know the details of what awaits them?
He was currently facing Revan's back, so he couldn't see his expression. He couldn't tell what was going on in his mind.
As they walked, they spotted something far away on the ground. Charlie squinted his eyes as he concentrated on what was on the ground.
That's a... body? It's bloodied! Charlie couldn't make out the exact details of the body. However, he felt that whoever this person was, he or she could give them a huge clue to how Cronos escaped or where he is.
Revan chuckled softly. "So this is the spectacle that awaited me. I can't wait to hear the young man's words in his last breaths."
He spoke in an excited tone, which further confirmed Charlie's feeling that this was going to be beneficial to pursuing Cronos.
However, before they could move forward, another group of rebels appeared.
This group was twice as large as the previous two groups that had appeared.
Unlike the previous ones, this one had a leader who stepped forward, his face visible beneath the black cloak that hid his eyes. It was the same person whom Revan had seen fleeing after the first ambush.
"It's over, King Charlie. Even if you get out of here alive, you won't be—"
"Shut the hell up!" Revan snorted coldly once more, waving his hand aggressively this time.
At once, everyone turned into meat paste once more and vanished at an even faster speed. Not even a single trace of their existence remained.
Revan clicked his tongue. "Stupid people always intervening."
Charlie remained silent, his brows furrowed deeply. Following Revan's lead, they approached the body that was lying on the floor, but unlike Revan, they were heavily cautious, the guards readying their swords to attack the body if necessary.
As they reached closer, Charlie's eyes widened. His mouth hung open as his whole body went rigid, his gaze finally catching the full appearance of the body.
"Cronos!"
The bloodied man, Cronos, was in a miserable state. His eyes were barely open, his hair messy and mixed with the pool of blood beneath him. His own blood.
His delicate features were utterly pale. Blood seeped out of the wounds on his upper body, all of which were extremely gruesome. Among these wounds, the most jarring one was a hole in his chest.
Immediately, shock and confusion rushed into Charlie's mind. Cronos was heavily suspected to be the rebels' spy, and only recently did they confirm their suspicions. Why was he heavily injured like this?
Was this a ploy by the rebels? To have him utterly injured so that when Charlie and the rest arrived, their guard would be down and the rebels could ambush them?
That did seem like a reasonable plan, considering the third ambush they just faced, but the problem here was that he was way too injured for a mere ploy.
His entire upper body was covered in several slashes, and there was a gaping hole on his chest; this didn't seem like an injury meant for a mere ploy. Plus, he was barely alive. Had he not had [Appraisal], even Charlie couldn't tell whether he was alive or dead.
Charlie crouched down, his eyes narrowed. He grabbed Cronos's arm and gently shook him.
Cronos, in response, slowly turned his head in his direction, making Charlie realise that he was still conscious.
"Your Majesty..." his voice was faint, barely audible, and heavily cracked.
Charlie's heart sank as he heard his voice. He pursed his lips, seemingly contemplating something, before sighing heavily.
"She gave me a choice..." Cronos continued, his words making Charlie raise his eyebrows.
"She?"
"She asked me to choose... between her and the kingdom..." His body was trembling subtly, a detail only Charlie and Revan were able to notice.
"I... I chose the kingdom... so she... did this." He couldn't move a single muscle of his body, barely keeping eye contact with the king.
"Who is she, Cronos?" Charlie asked. Doubts rose in his mind. At this point, he was nearly positive that Cronos wasn't the traitor, and that they all were fooled.
"She... is the grandmaster... of the rebels..." As he heard this, Charlie's eyes widened to the point where they looked like they would come out of their sockets.
The grandmaster of the rebels had personally visited him? And had also injured him like this? He was now completely clear of the fact that Cronos was, in fact, innocent all along.
"And yet... even as she struck me down... even as she looked at me with those cold eyes... I don't hate her..." Charlie's head snapped towards him, frowning deeply.
Even Revan, who was standing a few steps away, raised his eyebrows at that statement.
"I love her... and I am loyal to my kingdom... truth be told, I don't want to go against either..." His voice revealed a layer of vulnerability as his bloodshot eyes became moist.
"I didn't wish to help her... because she wanted to take down Aethel... Aethelgard..." He could barely speak as blood seeped out of his mouth.
Alert, Charlie immediately used healing techniques like [Regeneration] on him, but for some reason, all were ineffective.
"And yet... I didn't want to go against her... because I love her... so much..." Even as Charlie continued to try healing methods, Cronos continued to speak.
"His body has been tampered with. Healing methods won't work. Even his own [Regeneration] has been disabled," Revan spoke from behind, stepping forward.
Charlie's eyes widened in response, while Cronos continued speaking. "I... I didn't help her... so she wounded me... sending me to the border of death..."
Charlie pursed his lips, but then Revan spoke from behind. "Are you angry that you are about to die because of her?"
Charlie looked back. Revan had a trace of a smirk on his lips. Cronos also glanced at him, his eyes half-lidded.
"Angry...? No... I am just sad... I am extremely sad... I couldn't support her when she asked me to with such sincerity... she never asked me before like this... even as she struck me, she expressed regret over the situation... I regret it... I regret not being able to support her..." Tears escaped his eyes, streaming down like a waterfall.
"I love her... but I also love my kingdom... why couldn't I support both...?"
"Cronos? Who is this 'her'? Other than being the grandmaster, is she someone among us?" Charlie asked, his pupils contracted. Who is it that Cronos loved like this, who also happened to be the grandmaster of a rebellion?
Cronos smiled, though it was faint. "She is the love of my life... she has always been... even as she stabbed me... even as she struck me using invisible slashes... I felt shock, indignation, sadness, helplessness... but not anger." He didn't reveal her name, which worried Charlie.
"Heh... back then, I said... that I'll choose the kingdom... but now, I shall give you a different answer, my love..."
Cronos's heart stopped, his life completely dissipating as he muttered in his last breaths. "I choose both."