Will of a Prince

Lidia fastened her metallic boots slowly and grunted while lifting her heavy breastplate over her shoulders. Slimo watched her as he was sharpening a long broadsword.

"She’s out there, Lidia. You and I both know her and Jacob would never die so easily."

Lidia sighed and looked out of the palace window.

"It’s been months, Slimo. What could they have possibly gotten into, so they are unable to return after months of being away?"

"Well, we didn’t exactly part on nice terms. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they were hesitant to comeback."

Lidia tightened a small mace that she had in tucked in her belt.

"Maria would still come back. She is my daughter. There’s no way she wouldn’t have returned by now. We have to keep travelling west. They have to be out there somewhere."

Slimo walked over to Lidia and kissed her cheek lightly.

"Then let’s go out and meet Sarah. She’s waiting for us."

Slimo and Lidia walked down a long flight of stairs to a room filled with soldiers donned in onyx armor. Each of their surfaces shone brilliantly in the torch light. The curves and markings on the helmets made their group look all the more intimidating with their demon-like features. On the back of every single armor piece, a small rose was ingrained into its surface.

Every soldier saluted Lidia as she walked by with two fists slamming into their chests. Lidia waved a hand to the crowd.

"At ease. Save your energy for battle. Where’s the Butcherer?"

Most of the soldiers looked in a certain direction of the room where a white cloaked figure with braided blonde hair was sitting peacefully against the wall with two small axes in each hand. Stained blood littered each of their surfaces and handles as they rested on the floor.

Lidia walked over to the figure and crouched down to meet her cold gaze.

"Sarah. How are you feeling?"

Suddenly, the axes slowly lifted off the ground. Sarah stared into Lidia’s eyes with excitement.

"I’m ready for more, if that’s what you mean."

"The enemies Zalo’s are unknown. Do you mind leading the charge once again?"

Sarah stared at the bottom of her feet, which were badly bandaged and slightly deformed.

"I think I can handle it. Just be ready in case things get ugly."

Lidia smiled warmly.

"We’ll be more than ready. Slimo will be leading the guard on a left flank, I will handle the right flank myself."

Sarah slowly stood up off the ground and sheathed her axes behind her back.

"Do you think we’ll find her after this battle?"

Lidia looked away from Sarah.

"Maybe we should simply hope it’s in Squabee’s best interest for her to show up soon. I... don’t know how much longer I should keep searching for her. Part of me even wonders if she wants to be found in the first place."

Sarah put a hand on Lidia’s shoulder.

"She does. Trust me. Now let’s continue taking back some of the northern territory."

Lidia nodded her head and slowly walked toward the exit of their barracks. She opened the doors to view the battlefield out in front of her. Off in the distance, tens of thousands of soldiers were marching towards them. Lidia expected there to be more Zalo users, but there were only three that she could see from afar. She wouldn’t have been able to see them if not for their flashy entrance.

One of them was wearing a wearing a gold and white fleece all the way in the back of the line. Their power was no doubt a blessing, and one that strengthened everyone in their legion. What was strengthened about them, Lidia couldn’t figure out at a glance.

The second person was extra peculiar. He was wearing a strange blue necklace that floated off his chest, as if it was afraid of touching it.

The third one was easily the flashiest, for the sky itself seemed to bend to their will. Right behind the soldiers, a dark storm began to brew. Black, rolling clouds followed the strange woman’s lead and stopped whenever a command to their endless legion was given.

’Weather control, huh? I’m glad she wasn’t who attacked Iron Kingdom with that bastard before.’

Lidia felt a hand on her shoulder.

"I want to talk with you about something later. The more I’m learning about these other kingdoms, the more I’m starting to question the nature of these powers we all have."

Lidia turned around and looked Slimo in his deep yellow eyes.

"Oh? What is it?"

"Isn’t this a little odd that we have hardly managed to find any Zalo users besides ourselves? I heard from Jacob a while ago that his professor theorized that whoever held a Zalo power was destined to hold influence over the world in some way. However, I’m starting to question if that theory is really true or not."

Lidia’s frown deepened, but she couldn’t help but be slightly intrigued.

"Let’s talk after this battle."

Slimo nodded his head and walked leftward while securing a helmet over his head. He grabbed his long broadsword and gesture for some soldiers behind him to follow. Despite not having Zalo’s themselves, these soldiers were the emperor’s most elite fighting force he had. Each one of them has countless years in experience fighting both monsters and humans. Even losing one of them in a fight would be detrimental. Therefore, Slimo and Sarah were put in charge of their own batallion. Lidia’s job was to simply distract or clean up any mess they had left over.

Lidia had been itching to release some energy stored in her being. The emperor made her mark his elite guard with her rose to help them with corruption. However, through every single battle, she had been slowly accumulating more and more energy as their bodies were battered. None of her calculations even included her original group. There was no telling how much power she truly had stored within her. However, it was going to be a horrible day for her enemies to find out.

As Lidia ran off to the right, Sarah flung her white cloak behind herself and grabbed both her axes. She turned around and addressed the soldiers.

"All of you, fight passively. Let me take the majority of the agro as usual. You have all been trained well enough to use your own heads. Don’t make me regret trusting you."

The soldiers saluted her and grunted loudly.

"Good. Let’s go say hi to our friends then, shall we?"

Sarah ran towards the army with her small cohort close behind her. As far as numbers went, they were easily outnumbered a thousand to one. However, there was no denying the strength each of them possessed. Even with such a massive numerical disadvantage, this was going to be a difficult fight for both sides.

A Sarah closed the distance on the first row of soldiers, three hundred of them notched long arrows in their bows and fired. A maelstrom of steel and explosions rained around Sarah. Some of the arrows were no doubt enchanted based on the fallout of where they landed. However, each time they were about to hit her, they would simply pass through her body as if she wasn’t there at all. The faces on the soldier’s faces were the same every time.

Filled with shock, then terror, then desperation.

Suddenly, thousands of soldiers screamed and ran forward. The first victims to Sarah’s assault were meters ahead. She used her axes and swung down at their heads with all her might. Both soldiers blocked with their weapons, but the axe easily sliced through them. A fountain of blood sprouted from the stumps of both soldiers, painting the once white cloak a dark crimson. Drops of blood splashed on to Sarah’s face. She smiled eerily as she looked at her next victim.

"I-It’s the Butcherer of the North! She’s real!"

"Charge her! We outnumber her by the hundreds! She can’t take us all at once!"

Suddenly, Sarah was immediately consumed by the horde of enemies. All of the surrounded her with their weapons drawn. Without wasting any time, Sarah dove straight into the thickest part of the horde she could find. Like a hurricane of steel, she tore through the armor and flesh of her opponents with ease. Screams echoed around the battlefield as Sarah danced around them.

Multiple times, soldiers would try throwing their sword or shooting an arrow at her, but it would phase through her and end up stabbing or killing one of their own. Dozens of swords slashed through her body and into other soldiers. For the most part, Sarah didn’t need to cut down her opponents thanks to the reckless attacks of other people.

To make things worse for the Monlo soldiers, they now had Sarah’s guard pushing through their front force at an alarming speed. Every weapon and ammo that was shot at them effortlessly bounced off their armor without so much as a scratch. The entire battle was a mass slaughter.

It wasn’t until Sarah reach the deeper forces that she ran into a problem. For the first time in all of her battles, her axes were stopped by her opponent’s armor. Looking at the glowing surface, there was no doubt they were all enchanted. However, instead of feeling defeated or hopeless, Sarah immediately tried looking for counter measures. She swiped at their legs, their necks, their backs until finally...

"M-Monster!"

Sarah decided to do something she had never tried before. She would use the thin handles of her axes to get underneath the helmets of her opponents and flip them off their heads into the air. Without wasting any time, she would then immediately follow it up with a devastating cleave to their face. The scene was so horrific after the first few times that some soldiers tried running away, but it was no use. Sarah chased them down.

Slimo’s side was the most normal fight there could have been since no one had any special powers. However, that didn’t mean that his forces were greatly overwhelming the Monlo’s. Slimo’s military tactics were unmatched. His group constantly changed positions and pace at a simple wave of Slimo’s hand. It was as if he was orchestrating a concert of death.

Lidia watched the scene with pride while kicking off the ground. She soared through the air like a phoenix, her body glowed brightly before she slammed into the ground, causing a massive shockwave to knock down hundreds of soldiers in front of her. She stretched her neck and lifted the mace out of her belt with a smile.

"I wonder how many of I can take out with one strike?"

Winding up the steel ball at the end of her weapon, the threw the mace forward. Once it made contact with the first soldier, their body exploded into a bloody mist, not even leaving a single bone fragment left. She had hit so hard that the ball itself also seemed to explode with the man. Both Lidia and soldiers stood frozen in shock. She looked down at the stick that was still in her hands before she tossed it and charged the soldiers using her fists.

’I prefer it this way anyway!’

Her first glowed a bright yellow, steam screamed off her skin, and her arm was sent rocketing forward.

"RELEASE!"

Carnage.

Lidia hadn’t even released a quarter of her stored up energy, yet the battlefield in front of her, as well as the soldiers caught in her attack, were all disintegrated. Thousands of soldiers instantly killed while the earth itself rounded around her attack as it travelled across the battlefield. The sky itself screamed and shook around her body, the clouds travelling close behind them were split into two, and an eerie silence covered the battlefield for a brief moment.

Even after such an attack, Lidia didn’t stop. She continued thrusting her fist through soldiers’ armor like clay, penetrating right through their skulls or bodies, leaving behind nothing but a hollowed carcass. Even during such a short respite, she knew what was being enhanced in each and every soldier: their emotions.

Lidia came to this conclusion by one simple fact: throughout all the battles they have fought so far, there has never been a single army that hasn’t tried to run away after seeing her opening attack.