Chapter : 64
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Chapter : 64
Now that she knew the terrible truth, the scene looked completely different. She looked closely at the desperate commoners standing in line. She saw the truth hidden beneath their dirty clothes. Their skin was pulled too tight over their bones. Their hair was falling out in clumps. Their faces were hollow, gray, and decaying. They were not just sick addicts; they were walking corpses who had been tricked into giving away the very end of their lives.
These were her people. These were the citizens of the Belmontia Empire. They were the people she had sworn to protect if she ever took the throne. And Vane was treating them like disposable batteries to fuel his dark magic.
Princess Iris’s hands gripped the concrete railing so hard her knuckles turned completely white.
Ken watched the Princess. He saw her shoulders trembling, not with fear, but with a deep, overwhelming rage. He saw the soft, kind-hearted Royal totally vanish, replaced by a fierce, protective leader.
Iris slowly reached up to her neck. She grabbed the clasp of her rough, itchy brown cloak.
With one swift, determined pull, Princess Iris tore the heavy cloak off her shoulders. The brown fabric fell to the dusty floor, instantly revealing her striking, brilliant silver hair and her elegant, deep blue Royal uniform. She was no longer hiding in the shadows. She was no longer pretending to be a poor traveler. She was the 13th Princess of the Empire, and she was absolutely furious.
"Princess, wait!" Sayma whispered frantically, reaching out. "If you reveal yourself now, the mob will attack!"
Princess Iris did not look back. Her violet eyes were burning with a terrifying, righteous fire as she stared down at the grotesque machine and the thugs operating it.
"I do not care about the stealth plan anymore," Princess Iris said. Her voice was no longer soft. It carried the heavy, undeniable authority of a future Empress. "I do not care about the twenty points for the Succession War. I do not care about the Emperor's game."
She drew her personal weapon, a beautiful silver rapier that gleamed in the dim light.
"This is no longer a mission," Princess Iris declared, her voice echoing with absolute resolve. "This is a massacre. And we are going to stop it right now. Vanguard! With me!"
The B-rank mission had just escalated into an all-out war, and the 13th Unit was about to step directly into the light.
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"Destroy that machine right now!" Princess Iris shouted. Her voice echoed across the massive, cavernous lobby of the Doom Tower. Her violet eyes were blazing with absolute, righteous anger. She pointed her gleaming silver rapier directly at the grotesque, pulsating tank in the center of the room.
Laxmi did not need to be told twice. The hot-headed fire user had been waiting for this exact moment. She slammed her fists together. A massive, roaring ball of bright orange fire instantly ignited between her hands.
"Gladly!" Laxmi yelled, a fierce, excited grin spreading across her face. She pulled her arms back and threw the fireball as hard as she could.
The fire flew across the room like a shooting star. It slammed directly into the thick, fleshy roots wrapping around the base of the machine. The impact was deafening. BOOM! The roots caught fire instantly, burning and snapping away from the glowing green tank. The machine shuddered violently, letting out a terrible, mechanical screech.
The moment the fire hit, the quiet, zombified atmosphere of the lobby was completely shattered.
Loud, blaring red sirens began to wail from the ceiling. The noise was incredibly sharp and annoying. Flashing emergency lights spun in circles, bathing the dusty lobby in a chaotic red glow. The mindless victims who had been standing in line suddenly broke out of their trance. They screamed in panic, dropping their tiny bags of drugs, and scrambled blindly toward the front doors to escape the fire.
"Get the civilians out of the way!" Sayma commanded, pushing her thick glasses up the bridge of her nose. She threw her hands forward, creating long, smooth walls of golden light. Her Absolute Hexagon barriers gently but firmly pushed the panicked, sickly commoners toward the exits, keeping them away from the center of the room.
But the real problem was just arriving.
The loud alarms had alerted every single member of the Curse Organization inside the building. The heavy metal doors on the ground floor burst open. The stairwells leading down from the upper levels overflowed with people.
Over a hundred heavily armed thugs, gang members, and dark magic users poured into the lobby. They were shouting, swearing, and waving rusty swords, heavy metal pipes, and glowing magical staffs. They flooded out of the shadows like a swarm of angry hornets. They completely blocked the stairwells, cutting off the only path to the top of the tower.
"Intruders!" one of the gang leaders screamed, pointing a heavy crossbow at Princess Iris. "It's the Royals! Kill them all and protect the machine!"
The massive mob charged forward all at once. The sheer number of enemies was absolutely overwhelming.
"Form up!" Naomi shouted, stepping directly in front of Princess Iris. Her green wind magic flared up around her combat boots. "Do not let them touch the Princess!"
The battle erupted instantly. It was a massive, chaotic brawl.
Zinia stomped her foot on the hard tile floor. "Earth Spikes!" she roared. Sharp pillars of solid rock ripped out of the ground, creating a jagged barricade that tripped up the first wave of charging thugs.
Ira, calm and graceful, summoned two long whips of highly pressurized water. She moved like a beautiful dancer, spinning around and slashing the water whips through the air. The heavy water knocked swords and axes right out of the thugs' hands, sending them crashing to the floor.
Laxmi was laughing out loud. She loved a good fight. She ducked under a swinging pipe and punched a thug square in the chest with a flaming fist, sending him flying backward into a group of his friends.
Meanwhile, Ken Eliot was putting on the absolute performance of a lifetime.
While the elite girls were fighting with perfect coordination, Ken was running around the edges of the battlefield, flailing his arms wildly in the air. He looked like a completely panicked, terrified civilian who had accidentally wandered into a war zone.
"Oh no! So many angry guys with bad haircuts!" Ken yelled at the top of his lungs, ducking dramatically as a completely harmless piece of debris flew past him. "This is way too much math! I only have ten fingers, I can't count all these bad guys!"
A large, ugly thug with a heavy wooden club spotted Ken. Seeing the messy dark blue uniform, the untucked shirt, and the crooked tie, the thug assumed Ken was an incredibly easy target. He raised his club with a nasty grin and charged right at him.
"I'm gonna smash your head like a pumpkin, kid!" the thug roared.
Ken stopped running. He gasped loudly, acting perfectly horrified. He quickly put his hands on his cheeks, widening his sleepy eyes as far as they could possibly go.