Leona and Krieg were given horses for their transportation. Thanks to the tactician’s newly returned limb, she was able to ride on her own without the need of someone supporting her.

  Within a few minutes of galloping they were already in the outskirts of the capital. By then, the dirt roads worked to their advantage as their rides could go at full throttle and not worry about paved stone beneath them.

  “Krieg! How are you holding up?!” Leona shouted to get her message across the intense gallop of their horses. “Are you able to fight at full strength?!”

  “Yes! I can still go all out! What about you?!”

  “Yeah!” Her eyes had a light blue glint about them. A fiery determination swelled within her chest as she never felt more ready. “Trust me, my knight!”

  “With my life! My liege!”

  She nodded firmly as she focused her mind. Through Avalon, she could feel a tug inside her chest—pulling her towards something dark. It was a hint of recognition similar to the one she felt with Sylphia.

  “He’s close…” She gradually slowed her horse down and dismounted. Krieg did the same. “Watch yourself, Krieg.”

  “Arondight told me.” He unsheathed his frostburnt silver blade. “But at this range, even I can feel his presence.”

  A malicious gnawing dread filled the ambient mana. It felt just like walking into Jakob’s death angel lair again. Leona swallowed dry.

  She raised her left hand and clenched it tightly before opening it again. Mana coursed through her veins like static. It was as if spells and magic became the same thing to her.

  She took the lead with Krieg following closely behind her.

  The forest felt more traumatic than nostalgic in her eyes. All the sacrifices, all the pain, all the suffering she had to go through while in this place. She was determined to finally bury it for good this time.

  As they walked through the thicket, the air became heavier. The lush trees were gradually withering as their steps took them closer to the source of the malice.

  Death. It was the single thing that came to Leona’s mind as she saw it in the clearing. Hunks of black flesh were discarded and the same blobs of meat sizzled the darkened grass around it like acid.

  A dragon. Not as big as her great grandmother, but it was triple the size of a royal carriage. Its vertical ruby red eyes opened as it sat upright, looking down at both of them.

  “You have courage, I’ll give you that.” Akantor’s voice echoed inside their mind. Unlike Sylphia, it wasn’t a disembodied sound of meaning, but an actual voice. “The last ones that challenged me were also bold enough to stand up face to face with me.”

  It narrowed its eyes.

  “But both of you carry my sister’s blood within you, why do you of all people want to stop me?”

  “Because it is the right thing to do.” Leona spoke confidently as Krieg stood in front of her. “You wish to rule this continent again, but I can’t have you laying waste to countless lives and kingdoms just for your own amusement.”

  Akantor growled low, sparks of dark red flames huffed from the sides of his maw.

  “I am Valkahaz’ brood, the strongest dragon to have ever lived. This world should bow down to my might.” Its dark wings opened and it cast a looming shadow above them. “I will forgive your insolence, little one, in respect of being my sister’s offspring. Now… bow down to me and I will spare your little kingdom alongside these humans you are so fond of.”

  “I refuse.”

  “Then you will die, like all the others!”

  He opened his jaws and a violent breath of fire engulfed the forest. Leona raised her left hand and wind crackled around her, creating a violent blast that dissipated the flames.

  Akantor used his claws in order to tear them to pieces, but Krieg intercepted his arm with his shield. The dragon’s hand was larger than the knight’s body and he was sure to be dragged into Leona if he didn’t stop it.

  Krieg clenched his teeth and mana surged from his core, enveloping his body. His mana solidified into a visible bright orange colored armor that resembled dragon scales.

  He firmly pressed his feet on the ground and stopped Akantor’s attack dead in its tracks. With one flick of Arondight’s blade, he unleashed a thin streak of light blue energy that almost severed the dragon’s entire forearm.

  An ear splitting roar of anger shook the earth. Akantor opened its maw to spew fire again in retaliation, but Leona extended her left hand and quickly closed it. The fire inside its mouth suddenly expanded with air and exploded, knocking the dragon back against the dead trees behind it.

  “Now Krieg!”

  “On it!”

  The knight dashed in. With Arondight filled with mana, he swung her diagonally through the dragon’s right hind-leg. Another roar pierced the forest as the dragon took flight.

  “Insolent insects!” Dark red mana gathered around its maw. The flames crackled violently within his fangs. “You can die along with everything else!”

  Krieg ran back to Leona and planted his feet in front of her with his shield raised. The tactician raised her left hand while extending her right to him.

  “Give me your shield!”

  Without even flinching, he gave her the protective piece of equipment to her. With a flick of her left, she erected a wall of stone the size of a small house in front of them. She then held the shield up with both of her arms.

  “I’ll make an opening for you, Krieg. You have to finish this in one strike.”

  “Understood.”

  “Do you think a mere wall can stop me?!”

  Akantor roared as he blasted his breath at full strength against the stone wall. The rock melted revealing a single platinum shield that shined with an unimaginable amount of mana. The dragon’s flames suddenly died after hitting a mana barrier the size of a wall. A few dozen meters ahead of Leona.

  “Hah…” She exhaled tiredly. “It’s far easier to imagine a wall if you’re holding one…”

  “No matter, even if you stop my flames, I can just-”

  In the middle of his speech, he saw a bright glint as if something had been thrown at him.

  “Windshot!”

  Her left arm suddenly changed shape with visible muscle fibers instantly coiling around themselves, forming a massive muscle group that hurled the shield horizontally at the dragon. Combined with her magic, the thrown object was going at such tremendous speed that Akantor didn’t even have time to react. The shield hit the bones in his left wing, shattering the limb, making him lose altitude.

  Leona’s knee hit the forest floor as the dragon crashed into the ground. Steam was coming off her now mangled left arm that was trying to slowly put itself back together.

  “Krieg… it’s… all up to you now…” She reached for her left shoulder and squeezed it lightly with her right hand. “I’m sorry for pushing you two like this…”

  With another deafening roar, Akantor was struggling to get himself up.

  “My wing! You little-!”

  With his upper body now completely exposed, the dragon felt a terrible chill go down its spine. It was as if its body knew what was going to happen next.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Krieg suddenly charged from the forest with Arondight held in both hands. The dragon-aspected knight raised his blade and brought it down against Akantor’s neck.

  Another roar pierced the heavens, not out of pain, but out of fear. Krieg’s blade stuck deep into his flesh through his hardened scales.

  “No! You can’t do this! I’m of your blood!”

  “Haaaaaaargh!”

  The knight’s red eyes had the glint of a predator—a sight only another would recognize.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

  In a bright blue streak of light, Akantor’s flesh was severed down to the last bone in a clear, singular stroke.

  Then, silence. Only the fires crackling from the dead trees filled the air as Krieg dragged his own body back to Leona, who was still with her knee on the ground. Her arm had recovered its appearance somewhat, but her skin was still bright red from the heat.

  “Good work… Krieg.”

  She smiled at him and he returned the gesture by kneeling down and lowering his head.

  “It is done, Your Majesty.”

  She chuckled.

  “You can still call me Leona, my knight.” She placed her right hand on his cheek and ran it down to his left shoulder. “Thank you for staying with me.”

  It took more than just a couple of minutes for the two of them to finally be back on their feet. With a bit of aid from her recovered arm, Leona put out the fires while Krieg went to look for his shield.

  From the back of her mind, the tactician felt a tug. As she finished putting the last flame out, she turned toward one of the blobs that were pulsating on the ground, there was a face in it. Alexander’s.

  He had one eye without its lid and there was an ear where the other one was supposed to be, he was truly an amalgamation of body parts. Akantor’s refuse.

  Leona kept staring at it, until their eyes finally met.

  “Laugh if you want,” He spoke in a disgruntled voice that came from somewhere behind his unusual form. “But know that everything your father had was built upon my family, my father.”

  “I know. Kaeli told me as much.”

  Leona stood tall looking down at him. Before, she wouldn’t have wasted any time incinerating his being down to nothing, but now that she stood with all the means to do so, it just didn’t feel like there would be meaning in following it through.

  “Go on, kill me. Kill the man who killed your father.”

  Leona lowered her head and shook her head slightly. She glanced to her left shoulder and spoke clearly.

  “Sophie. Can you reconstruct his body?”

  Her entire arm reacted violently with her skin breaking apart and transforming back to silver as she heard a voice deep in her mind.

  ‘What are you talking about, Leona? You want to save him?’

  “Save? No, I don’t mean to save him. You absorbed the maids’ memories by consuming them, isn’t that right?”

  That sentence made the blob of flesh writhe.

  “You wouldn’t dare…!”

  ‘But then…’

  “I want you to make an imitation of him so I can execute it in the capital. That’ll be a far more fitting end for someone like him.”

  “I haven’t crawled through the muck only to have some girl use me as a scapegoat! I won’t have it!”

  He shouted but Leona ignored his thrashing and grabbed the blob with her left hand. Silver started to bubble and sizzle around the flesh. The eyeball kept staring back and the tactician as it melted down to nothing.

  With a tired sigh Leona closed her eyes. Memories flooded her mind as she relived Alexander’s life in just a few seconds.

  ‘Leona… why do you do this to yourself?’ Sophie gently asked. ‘You could just leave it all to me.’

  “This is how I want to rule my kingdom. I will try to understand their pain—even if it hurts me.”

  She massaged the space between her eyes before sitting down. Both mental and physical fatigue had taken a toll on her.

  Her gaze drifted toward the sun hanging above the zenithian mountain range. The orange light filtering through the trees eased her heart, if only a little.

  Quiet footsteps approached as she noticed Krieg holding his shield while dragging Akantor’s severed head through his horns.

  “I found the shield and I think this might be useful for the capital.”

  “A trophy?” Leona let out a dry chuckle. “That’ll be hard to carry on horseback.”

  “I’ll manage on my own.”

  “Very well…”

  She attempted to stand up, but her legs wobbled. She fell backwards and caught herself against a tree.

  “Leona, are you alright?”

  “Yeah, just a bit light-headed.” She straightened her posture and steadied her legs. “I’m fine. Let’s go back.”

  She climbed on the horse’s back and led Krieg’s horse while the knight dragged the dead dragon’s head by its horn.

  Throughout the way back, she kept looking at her left palm. She started to recollect everything that happened over the past few months before eventually closing her hand tightly.

  “Thank you, everyone.”

  After a long walk back, Leona and Krieg were greeted by curious citizens and musketmen. While they didn’t see the battle, they certainly heard its echoes throughout the Great Forest.

  With the princess carrying a mantle stained with blood and her knight dragging the severed head of a dragon through the streets, the reactions were anything but mild.

  “Is that, Princess Leona?”

  “Did she and her knight kill it?”

  “That’s… that’s a dragon’s head!”

  “Look! Isn’t that the king?!”

  Behind Leona’s horse, a man wearing rags was being dragged alongside Krieg’s ride. His silence and hollow eyes were enough to sell to the crowd that he had been defeated.

  Some demi-humans boo’ed him while the nobles looked nervously amongst themselves. Leona continued the march back to the castle where she was met with Priscilla and her group of musketeers.

  “Welcome back, Your Majesty.” The fencer knelt.

  “It’s good to be back.”

  Leona dismounted and walked past her into the castle while Krieg dealt with the dragon and Alexander. Priscilla stood up and followed behind her while the musketeers kept the public outside the castle grounds.

  “Is Gunther back?” Leona asked.

  “No, not yet. He must be finishing his rounds now.”

  “Okay.” She exhaled tiredly, but her eyes had a sharp, determined gaze to them. “Priscilla, are you able to do math?”

  “Math? Why, yes I learned numbers.”

  “Twenty four minus twelve?”

  “Twelve.”

  “Nine times eight?”

  “Seventy-two.”

  “Forty-nine divided by seven?”

  “Si- I mean seven.”

  “Alright.” Leona glanced at her over her shoulder. “Do you know how to read and write?”

  Priscilla looked down, shame clear in her gaze.

  “My apologies, Your Majesty, but I do not.”

  “I see. Do you know anyone trustworthy?”

  “I know a few individuals.”

  “Okay, go fetch them for me.”

  “Now?”

  “As fast as you can.”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll get to it at once.”

  Just as fast, Priscilla turned around and broke into a jog. Meanwhile, Leona headed to the back of the castle, where the dungeon was.

  “Please Luke… be alive…”

  Her legs gradually started to pick up the pace until she was jogging. The air in the dungeon felt stale, it was cold and devoid of any sound. A stifling existence.

  Once she reached the last holding cell where she saw her friend in Alexander’s memory, what was left of him was a little more than the husk of her former friend.

  He was still breathing but just barely. Blood was dripping from the side of his mouth and nostrils. His eyes glanced up to Leona’s.

  “Ah…” he muttered, weakly. “You… you won… didn’t you?”

  “Yeah… we did.”

  “Good…” Leona unlocked the cell by melting the lock with her left hand and reached down, helping Luke up. “You know… I always dreamed of this day, the day you’d become queen of our kingdom…”

  “Save your breath, I can still heal you.”

  “No, I… I can feel it inside of me. The silver decay…”

  Leona’s eyes widened.

  “Luke…”

  “It worsened a lot whenever Sophie was away, but it isn’t her fault… I would’ve died anyway if it wasn’t for her help…” He forced himself to smile. “But, if you can, I’d like one last request as a friend.”

  Leona nodded silently.

  “Let’s go to the back of the castle, I… I’d like to show you something.”

  With a heavy heart, Leona agreed. They slowly made their way to the castle’s backyard. The garden only had dead trees and withered grass, but it revealed a beautiful orange tinted horizon overlooking the eastern part of the Great Forest.

  Luke smiled weakly as he asked to sit down. With both of them sharing the same step of the stone stairs, the young man laughed softly.

  “This… this was supposed to look much more impressive.”

  “It is still beautiful.”

  “Haha… thank you, Leo.”

  Her eyes trailed down, her heart ached, there were just so many questions she wanted to ask him, but she knew his time was coming to a close.

  His skin was slowly turning pale with his veins growing darker and darker like frostbite. Nevertheless, Luke smiled—closing his eyes and laying peacefully against the steps.

  “You know…” He started, but his voice often trailed off from his weakened lungs. “I always looked up to you… Leo… I’m sorry, I couldn’t be of any more help to you…”

  “You… you helped me in more ways than you’ll ever know, my friend.” Her left arm throbbed, Sophie’s core wasn’t there anymore but she could still feel it pulsate where she was before. “So, thank you. Luke. For everything.”

  He slowly tilted his head at her and smiled.

  “You’re welcome… I… I think… I need to sleep for a while…” His eyelids were growing heavier by the second as his consciousness was starting to fade. “Thank you… my friend…”

  Leona kept holding his hand until he finally closed his eyes for one last time.