At one part of the forest, near the occurring relentless slaughter, where the majority of the fleeing remaining members of the Hive mind legion were forming while moving away.
With his opened mouth and enlarged eyes. Captain Joran could only stare in great horror as the consecutive explosions occurred from a distance, one after another, annihilating the troops trying to flee. Cries of despair could be heard from afar that apparently put great horror on the faces in the group.
“What is happening? Whoever that is, that person doesn’t want us to leave this place alive. Is it Tanya?” Captain Joran shook his head. “No… even the Shadow fairy is not that cruel.”
“Captain Joran!” One of the knights arrived with an entire troop behind him.
“Captain Ulis.” He gestured his hand towards the path where the other troops were fleeing. “Follow the other troops and move quickly.”
“Where is your troop, Captain Joran?”
Captain Joran paused for a second while staring in the direction of the explosions slowly traveling in their direction. “I sent them first.”
Captain Ulis who was wearing full body armor and helmet nodded. “I see.” He gestured his arms at his troops. “Go on first, I will join Captain Joran here.”
“You don’t have to, Captain.” Captain Joran immediately replied.
Captain Ulis shook his head. “It is my duty to. Besides, 2 Captains could buy more time than one.”
Captain Joran shook his head and wore his helmet. “Just say it, you just want to fight side by side with me.”
Captain Ulis laughed. “That’s one. But you can’t blame me, you are a very respectable Captain after all.”
However, the smiles on their faces instantly vanished when they felt something falling from the sky.
Captain Joran raised his hand and stared at the thing in his hand. “Black snow?” He looked up and what greeted him was a massive thunder cloud forming in the sky.
Before they realized it, something landed in front of them and engulfed Captain Ulis’s entire troop in a massive black cloud devouring everything in its path.
The face of horror instantly occurred on Captain Joran and Captain Ulis’s faces upon seeing the instant annihilation of the entire troop right in front of their eyes.
No sound, no cries of despair, just pure silence. All of them died even before realizing what hit them.
“No!” Captain Ulis’s face filled with rage as he stared at the massive cloud in front of him. He raised his sword while gritting his teeth.
“Prepare for battle Ulis.” Captain Joran raised his sword.
From the dark cloud, a pair of red glowing eyes slowly emerged and traveled towards their location. And in one wave of his wings, he was revealed. An eerie image walked out from the dark cloud while his wings were spread. He was expressing an unnerving smile as he wandered his eyes throughout the area, finally revealing his black crystallized horns that instantly put tremendous fear in the eyes of the ones who saw them.
“It can’t be true!” Captain Joran repeatedly shook his head. “A meruem!”
“Meruem? I thought they’re no longer around, Captain?” Captain Ulis asked with audible confusion in his voice.
However, Captain Joran didn’t answer and tightened his grip on his shivering sword.
Casimir walked towards them with his frightening smile still intact on his face. “It’s not enough… I’m not satisfied yet.”
“Captain!”
Captain Joran’s attention instantly shifted towards the direction of the 2 people running towards them. He clicked his tongue. “You 2! What are you doing here?”
A man wearing a blue robe who was a mage, and a woman wearing a white robe who was a healer arrived at them and stared at the person standing right in front of them.
“A… meruem?” The healer said while staring at Casimir with her enlarged eyes.
“We have come to aid you, Captain Joran. After all, we are members of your troop. We’re just the first ones who arrived, but the entire troop is already on their way here to aid us.” The mage said with great determination on his face. “And it seems, we have a tough enemy here.”
Captain Joran shook his head while sounding a delighted chuckle. “You people really are stupid, I have told you that it’s a direct order. I’m telling you now, once we survive this, you all will get your punishments… and it will be very harsh.”
Their attention instantly shifted when they heard a lighthearted chuckle coming from the person standing in front of them.
With a gentle smile on his face, Casimir walked toward them. “That’s honestly heartwarming… but I’m afraid… none of you will survive… and you 4 are already dead before they arrive.”
“Assist us.” Captain Joran and Captain Ulis said as they walked forward and raised their weapons. Unlike before, their swords were no longer quivering and their eyes were full of determination.
“So you know, I am Joran, the second in command of Hive mind legion. Second most powerful Captain, second only to Captain Teivel. I won’t underestimate if I were you.” He raised his sword and a blinding light started to form next to him. “Rise! Guardians of Milana!”
The entire place was engulfed in blinding light for a second, and as the light disappeared, what emerged in front of them were 15 3 meters tall white living armors that resembled an angel, their six wings waved as they raised their white lances.
“Begone spawn of darkness!”
At once, Both Captain Joran, Captain Ulis, and the 15 Armored angels moved to assault Casimir while waving their weapons. At the same time, the mage behind the formation started to conjure a spell.
“How tragic.”
Multiple beams of black light materialized around them and instantly obliterated the armored angels faster than the 2 Captains could react. And before Captain Joran could do anything, a horrifying face instantly emerged right in front of him.
“How?” He said while stunned in his position.
Casimir grabbed his face and slammed it to the ground. While his hand was still in Captain Joran’s face, a smile emerged on his face. “I see. Just like I thought, for some reason, I can’t imitate any living entity summoning and taming skills. What a downer.” He stood up and raised his hand.
Instantly, a black massive ball of fire materialized above his hand, preparing for a devastating attack.
“Captain Joran!” Captain Ulis rushed to save Captain Joran but fell to the ground as his body slowly eroded starting from his feet upwards. In a matter of seconds, his body instantly turned into ashes, leaving nothing behind.
“Fire dragon’s rage!” The mage shouted while aiming his staff at Casimir.
A dragon-shaped fire emerged and rushed towards Casimir. But Casimir just responded by just smirking and instantly brushing off the incoming fire attack.
“Run!” Captain Joran screamed as his body slowly got covered with black stones rendering him incapacitated.
Once more, 15 armored angels emerged around them and rushed towards Casimir while their lance was brimming in blinding light. But before they could reach him, they got sliced into pieces by the powerful wind current that easily destroyed them all.
As his last resort, Captain Joran activated his Light magic and filled his entire body with blinding light, but instantly disappeared before it could even do anything.
With despair in his eyes, the only thing Captain Joran could do was stare at Casimir. “Run! Save yourselves!”
“There’s nowhere to run.” Casimir waved his hand down and slammed the massive black fireball into Captain Joran, instantly obliterating him. His unnerving final groan resonated before he turned into ashes.
A massive hole was formed in front of Casimir. Completely erasing everything that was caught in the attack.
“N- no!” The healer fell to the ground while staring at the scenery with her shivering eyes.
With his irritated eyes, the mage stared at her. “What are you doing? Stand u-“
His head instantly fell to the ground, leaving the healer in great despair while chasing her own breath. With her hands on her back, the healer crawled back while screaming. The gentle demeanor in her beautiful face could no longer be found. Her blonde long hair started to brush on the ground as she struggled to escape from the person casually walking toward her.
However, she instantly stopped, when one of her hands flew out and rolled to the ground. She screamed upon realizing that her left arm was no longer there and starting to bleed. She healed herself, the bleeding wound instantly healed. But the decapitated arm never regenerated back.
Casimir stopped a meter away from her and stared at the group on their way to his position. “I think your reinforcement is finally here.” His head held up and pointed towards the much larger group fleeing away. He revealed a gentle smile while staring at the fleeing army. “Look at them, they really think that they can escape, don’t they? So you know, If I have to chase them all the way to Milana just to kill them all. I will.”
“You- you can’t kill me! It’s against the universal law of war!” She screamed with a cracked voice.
Casimir tilted his head sideways. “Universal law of war?”
The healer laughed with her voice full of desperation. As if she saw a glimpse of hope in Casimir’s reaction. “Ye- yes. I am a healer. I am a non-combatant. Killing me is against the universal law of war!”
Casimir nodded. “I see.”
Suddenly, the healer’s decapitated hand started to regenerate, putting her in great awe while staring at her hand.
“However.”
The healer raised her head and despair once more shrouded on her used to be an elegant and composed face.
Casimir raised his hand. “Tell me.” A sword with a blue handle suddenly appeared in his hand as he stared at the healer with a smile on his face. “Do I look like I care?”
He swung his sword and instantly decapitated the healer. Her head rolled to the ground as her body fell while still shivering.
The sword disappeared from Casimir’s hand as he walked forward while staring at the incoming army from a distance. “I’m not satisfied yet… I want more. I want to kill more.”
However, before he could take another step. A certain someone landed behind him from the sky. With great speed and stealth, a swift chop lunged at unaware Casimir’s nape, knocking him down before he could even react.
“Mehr-” He fell to the ground while his wings slowly vanished into thin air.
“Tanya told me about the possibility of you doing this, and I’ll be lying if I say that it didn’t surprise me to see your true nature.” Mehrad stared at the army from afar. “You finally decided to show the inner meruem hiding inside of you.”
He grabbed the unconscious Casimir and put him on his shoulder. “But don’t get me wrong, I would definitely love to watch you wipe them all out, even though I know that you won’t stop there and would probably fly to the nearest human kingdom after. However, the issue is, Tanya asked me to stop you once you end up rampaging. For some reason, that girl adores you so much that she couldn’t bring herself to stop you on her own and hurt you in the process.” He exhaled. “Hmm. I shouldn’t have agreed to her favor.” He walked in the direction of the town while a phoenix was slowly shaping in front of him.
“Maybe next time, but for now, take your rest… because the war is over and we’ve just won, Casimir.”
