Chapter 128: Escape
The night sky had turned ominous, cloaked by the thick curtain of Claude’s mist that bled out of the East Tower like spilled ink. The air was dense, almost too heavy to breathe, humming with invisible tension.
Claude stood in the center of the chaos, calm amidst the roaring storm of magic. His gloved hand extended, threads of mist trailing from his fingertips like living tendrils.
He moved with unsettling grace, as if dancing through the battlefield, while his eyes glinted with a predator’s precision. Within his mist, only one person’s silhouette remained standing.
"Lexie. More enemies are coming. Send a signal to Etienne," he commanded when, beyond the mist he created, another wave of knights approached.
"On it." Lexie summoned a bow and arrow in an instant and shot the arrow through the window. There was no time to be respectful to the dead, for their lives were at stake.
At that moment, the thick mist that covered them was blown away. Claude and Lexie were revealed, along with the countless bodies of knights lying on the ground.
"Damn. Another nuisance," Lexie mumbled. She scanned the group that surrounded them.
A knight commander stepped forward, shouting, "By order of the crown, you stand accused of high treason, obstruction of royal decree, and trespassing on a royal consort’s property. Surrender now, or be struck down as enemies of the Empire!"
Across from them stood five of the royal mages—adorned in gilded robes, their insignia gleaming faintly through the haze. And a battalion of knights led by that knight commander.
They had arrived in haste, summoned by the king’s command. Power rippled around them, but Claude and Lexie stayed calm and unaffected.
"What are we going to do, Captain?" Lexie whispered as she slowly moved closer to Claude. She asked not because she was scared, but because she couldn’t decide what to do. Fight and kill them, or run away?