CHAPTER 3- WRATH OF THE ARCHER

Jacob, Akane and Alcia are still running through the thick forest but the sun is about to go down.

"Let's stop here." Jacob told the girls before they came to a halt.

"Phew! That was fun." Akane exclaimed as she pat herself down, she had noticed that her body had become stronger and opened a bottle of water before drinking.

"How are you so fast? Even with all that weight? " Asked Alcia, who was seemingly out of breath.

"....."

"Alcia, takes the sword."

"Huh? Why?" she asked as Jacob placed his hands on his knives.

"I was getting a bit worried, I had been waiting for a while now, even thought you had all gotten to the kingdom before us?" a voice spoke as a familiar silhouette emerged from behind a tree.

'With this many, I won't be able to protect the two of them.'

Jacob thought as he sensed the presence of multiple individuals.

"Hey, I could tell. There are a lot of them out there. This could get dangerous if we fight them blind." Akane whispered while she positioned herself besides Jacob. She then continued to whisper something very quietly, as she knew Jacob would hear her.

'I won't allow that to happen.'

He thought as his eyes dimmed.

"Guys, they're all around us." Alcia said as she held Altia and started to turn around in a circle.

"Isn't it great to have friends?" The figure asked, stepping out into the light.

"It's you!" Akane recognized the man. It was Ulceier, the fake Arcane knight.

"How are you still alive!?" Alcia shouted.

"Now now, you can't ask a magician to reveal their tricks now, can you? Although I didn't quite dodge that last attack, it was enlightening. I took some time to think and found your weakness." Ulceier stated as he placed his hand on the wound given to him when Jacob used Altia.

"Ohh yeah? And what's that?" Jacob asked.

"Close combat." Ulceier grinned as Assassins by the tens appeared out of the shadows. Completely surrounding them.

"Assassins?" Akane exclaimed.

"Now then, you won't be able to use your bow in this kind of situation. That means, you're wide open."

"Stay close to me." Jacob told the girls.

"Let the slaughter, begin." Ulceier with a devilish smile, raising his hands and quickly lowered it, signaling the assassins to attack.

Jacob clashed blades with two of the assassins before kicking one of them away, he then dodged a swing from the other and roundhouse kicked him into a tree.

Meanwhile Akane is taking on 3 Assassins at the same time, she clashed swords with one before slamming him into a tree. One of the other assassins used stealth to appear behind her and cut her with their sword, she then dodged another attack and counterattacked, cutting off the head of the other. She then clashed swords with another and sliced open his stomach, but to no avail more assassins surrounded her.

At the same time the princess is being cornered by 8 assassins as she backed up into a tree.

'Tch! There are too many of them.'

She thought as she held up the Divine sword.

"I think it's time we leave this place." Ulceier came out from behind the tree, catching her off guard before knocking her out with a punch to her stomach. "Go, kill the other two." Ordering the assassins before he disappeared into the darkness.

At the same time Jacob was surrounded by 12 assassins.

'This is Really just a waste of time.'

Jacob thought as he took a stance with knives. He swiftly maneuvered between two assassins, kicked one of them away, then cutting two others, dodged an attack by ducking then cutting another from his stomach up to his neck. Another two are sliced while a kick make another immobile, dodged another attack and countered with a slash to the stomach.

'Damn it.'

He thought as 15 more appeared.

Meanwhile Akane is fighting with all she's got. She has taken quite a few hits but she is still standing, then she realized. The princess was gone and yells for Jacob to notice what was happening.

"Huh!? So is that pale bastard. Go, I'll deal with these guys. Find her." Jacob ordered Akane.

"Right." She replied before running off deeper into the forest.

"Tch!" He exclaimed as he faced the assassins. Then he remembered what Akane had whispered..."He's right isn't he, fine then, if push comes to shove, use me as a distraction and take the princess home." Then more ninjas appeared and Jacob faced all of them with nothing but his two knives.

Meanwhile, Akane is running through the forest, she stopped and looked around for any sign of the direction that Ulceier had taken the princess in. Then she saw broken twigs and a trail of footsteps heading to the west. She sprints off in that direction and as she continued to run, noticing light at the edge of the forest.

Coming out of the dark forest and into the light of the moon on an open flat of land where sight of Ulceier is caught, holding the princess in a hostage position as he held the Divine sword with his right hand, blood running from her mouth.

"Release the princess at once!" Akane yells as she clutched her sword.

"I see, so the Arcane knight decided to take on the assassins by himself and send you here to save the princess. Such poor decision-making skills." 

"Just let her go." Akane cried as she dropped her sword.

"Akane..." the princess mumbled.

"Please, I'm begging you, you're doing this for the money right? We could pay you twice as much as the prince is offering. So please, let her go." Akane dropped on her knees.

"Twice as much?" Ulceier asked for confirmation.

"Yes! Please, please just let her go." Akane jumped up.

"The prince is offering 10 thousand Gold coins." 

"Then we'll give you 20 thousand!" Akane instantly replied.

"Hmmm? Okay." Ulceier agreed before pushing the princess away from him.

Akane then drew a secondary blade from within her boots, sprinting toward Ulceier. Using Alcia as a cover, the cross on Ulceier's forehead began to glow. The sound of flesh being pierced echoed as Akane's eyes opened wide before she stopped. Blood began to drop on the ground as the princess stumbled. 

"Pwaa!" Blood gushed from her mouth.

"Prin...cess?" Akane mumbled as she saw the Divine Blade Altia embedded in the princess's chest.

Alcia then dropped on her knees and looked towards Akane in tears as her eyes turn dim. "Princess!" Akane screamed as she ran towards her, Ulceier then walked up behind the princess and pulled out the sword from her back, leaving a hole in her chest.

Akane then kneeled down hugging her, she tried to stop the bleeding by blocking the wound with her hands, "It's okay, it's not that bad. Jacob could heal you. Right, he'll heal you right up so don't worry." Akane cried as she hugged her tightly.

"Akane.... It's okay, it doesn't hurt. I will die here tonight...but....you.....you have to...live...your life." The princess whispered as she clung to life, then the light in her eyes vanished.

"Princess?....Princess....Ah...Ahhhh! Alcia!" Akane called for the princess her grueling screams echoed throughout the air as she realizing that Alcia, lying in her arms, had passed away.

At the same time, as Jacob fought off the assassins, he heard Akane's scream and instantly knew that something had happened and something awakened in him. His heartbeat began to race as his right eye shined brightly...casting a shadow over the other half of his face.

"Hmph. It seems like I always have to do everything myself." Ulceier spoke, but it was not his voice.

"You?" Akane instantly recognized the voice and looked up towards Ulceier.

"Hello again, Akane." The voice greeted her.

"Prince Ammenadiel." Akane grunted and mumbled. "Princess Alcia is dead." She turned away.

"I know." The prince's voice spoke through Ulceier.

"Why would you do this? Why? She was your sister!" Akane yells as she was infuriated.

"Because she was a boulder in our path to ascension and now, you are too." He said before raising the Divine sword above his head. Then, in an instant, going through the forest at an incredible speed, heading towards the sound of Akane's voice, it came out into the light. Jacob.

"Hmm? Who are you?" The prince asked but Jacob did not answer. Then Akane turned around and looked at Jacob with tears in her eyes.

"No matter, I'll just-" Jacob vanished before the prince could finish speaking, then Ulceier's severed head flew through the sky as Jacob stood behind him. Ulceier's body then dropped to the ground headless, twitching as if still alive. 

Somewhere in a dark room. The prince opened his eyes and stood up.

"Akane. Stay here for a while, don't go back to camp yet. I will be back soon." Jacob spoke his voice, seemingly heard in doubles, spoke before taking up the Divine Sword.

"Where are you?-" Akane asked before turning to Jacob, but he was gone.

Jacob darts through the forest with incredible speed. '

'Faster....faster.....faster.'

Jacob thought as he clenched his teeth, then he broke the sound barrier and ripped apart the ground whenever his feet landed.

Meanwhile, Akane is walking back to the camp with Alcia in her arm but upon arrival, she saw a gruesome scene where over 50 dead bodies laid on the ground.

'Did Jacob do this? Even without his bow....'

Akane thought as she could not believe her eyes, then she became aware of something.

'Liars, fakes, those who would kill their own family for power, kill for money and fame. I will kill them; I will kill them all!'

Jacob fueled his rage with his thoughts and dark memories of being betrayed as a child by everyone who knew about his abilities, even almost losing his right eye to his own father. Then he ran out into an open area and stopped. Purple aura then began to seep out of his body as he stood in front of the walls of the Kingdom of Altia.

"He...he's going to kill him. He's going to kill the prince." Akane realized before tying the princess to her back and started to walk through the forest.

Meanwhile, outside of the Kingdom of Altia.

Two guards at the entrance of the Kingdom became aware as they saw a figure walking towards them. "Who goes there!?" the guards asked as they saw Jacob carrying the Divine sword, his two blades strapped to his side and his necklace dangling from his neck. The guards severed heads then flew though the sky as their bodies dropped to the ground. 

Something blasted through buildings with immense speed before finally flying into the castle.

"Ugh!?" The king exclaimed as he sat in his throne and the Divine sword Altia, was embedded into the wall behind the king, a little to the right of the throne.

"My king!" A villager in the presence of the king called out.

"What just happened!?" A knight standing in the throne room shouted.

"That's..." the king recognized the sword.

Jacob, walking though the city, unknown by those around him, began to see the kingdom in the image of his past. Memories of him as a child being coddled by his mother, his father, a violent drunk who would beat him and his mother, other adults who would take out their frustrations on him, his father receiving funds from the army in secret as Jacob held onto a child's hand, before his father appeared and lunging toward him, taking a knife to his eye, cursing and slashing at him aimlessly before finally slashing at his eye. Feeling threatened, his right eye began to glow, before his father was stabbed through the chest by a spear, it was a crowned figure, then reaching out to him with a menacing grin.

In reality coming down the hill toward him, are the royal guard, brandishing their weapons toward him, before suddenly their armor and limbs begin to separate as if they've been slashed. Jacob continuing on, leaving behind bloody footprints.

The door to the Royal hall, opens, revealing Jacob, walking toward the Throne before being stopped by the Royal guard. 

"She's dead." 

"Hmmm?" The king wondered before turning around and seeing Jacob, standing in front of the entrance to the throne room.

"Sire! This man...he killed all the guards!" A knight ran into the room, behind of Jacob.

"What!?" The knights exclaimed in shock of the news.

"Jacob." The king wondered.

"She's dead....the princess is dead." He mumbled.

"Ugh?!" The kings eyes opened.

"Wha- You bastard! What did you do to princess!?" The head knight demanded an explanation.

"Who are you!?" Another knight shouted before Jacob began to walk forward.

"Don't take another step!" The knights held spears to his head.

"Stand down. This man is not an enemy." The king ordered the knights.

"Wha- Sire!?" The head knight became confused.

"I said stand down! Jacob....I am sorry that this development has affected you in this way. But I assure you, your title does not mean you can walk around killing my men. You?" The king ordered his men before they lowered their spears.

"I'm sorry, but the princess is dead. I should've protected her; I shouldn't have held back, but, your highness, people die when I don't hold back." As he finish that sentence the kings heart began to pound through his chest, as if he was standing face to face with an indomitable superior being.

"Jacob, this matter is above you, there is no need for you to be rash." The king became defensive. 

"I left them in the forest, Alcia and Akane."

"I see.....Alcia." the king became distorted, but Jacob knew that he was not sad.

"Your highness, I have a request."

"A request? How dare you!?" The head knight became infuriated.

"Silence! What is it?"

"There is someone I want to kill." 

"You're asking the King for permission to kill someone!?" The head knight shouted.

"Who is it?"

"The Prince." Jacob replied.

"Ugh!?" The knights exclaimed.

"The prince!?" The head knight wondered.

"Why?" The king asked, but he did not seem to be fazed by Jacob's request.

"Your highness!?" The head knight mumbled, wondering why the king is allowing such a request to go on any further.

"He was the one who killed the princess."

"What!? The prince killed the princess." The head knight became distorted and confused, but the king did not seem to be fazed by what Jacob had said.

"What!?" The knights wondered.

Step Step Step

"Did someone call for me?" The prince appeared, standing at the secondary entrance to the throne room.

"The prince!?" The head knight exclaimed, then everyone in the room began to feel uneasy.

"Ugh!? What is this!?" The knights wondered as they felt an ominous presence, it was Jacob. Blue aura began to seep out of his body and spread throughout the room.

"Jacob!?" The king wondered.

"Let me kill him."

"I cannot." The king refused.

"….." Jacob became silent before the light in his eyes rekindled and the dark aura surrounding him dispersed.

"I was the one who deemed it so." The king said leaving everyone besides him and the prince confused.

'What? What the hell is going on here?'

The head knight thought.

'The king, told the prince to kill the princess.'

The other knights thought.

"Why?" Jacob asked.

"Why? Because Ammenadiel is my true successor, it was unfortunate for Alcia to be the first born and she will be sorely missed, all of the money I spent for her for those experiments, such a waste." The king replied.

"Experiments?"

"You see Jacob, I've known that you were an Arcane Knight ever since that thing in your eye first appeared but before that, I knew about another Arcane knight, "the one closest to the sun", is what they called him. He was the first Arcane Knight to be discovered. Then we found out that Arcane knights cannot be trained, they were born but...the kingdoms had another idea. If Arcane knights cannot be attained through other means, then why don't we just make them?"

"What?" The head knight became confused and Jacob stood and listened.

"Blood was the key, such miraculous creatures you are, beings whose blood could heal the very wounds they inflict. We would all be fools to not harness that power!" The king stood up.

"I see. They way my father died.... my mother..." Jacob responded.

"My first gift to you! They were filth! Born of the very gutter this kingdom scorns, you would have shared the same fate if it weren't for me and it was worth it. After I took you in you gifted me with the very thing all 6 kingdoms wage wars for. I experimented on Ammenadiel, he doesn't have your physical prowess or mastery of the bow, but he has something else." The king explained before Jacob felt a similarity between him and Ammenadiel. "Power." the king finished before Ammenadiel left eye began to glow brightly and in the center of his pupil rested the symbol '♐'.

"Ugh!?" Jacob became distorted stepping backward as his strength fled his body, as if his power was being drained.

"The power to manipulate the minds of anyone he has encountered and another to completely pass on his consciousness to another body. These knights for example." 

"Ugh!? I can't control my body!" The knights began to raised their spears.

"You cannot win against Ammenadiel's power. Now, contribute more to this kingdoms, continue to live for me and become my sword to end the other kingdoms." The king ordered Jacob, but he did not move.

"I had always known, what you had been doing. As a child "born in the gutter" I wanted nothing more than to be of use to someone else. The anesthesia never worked, the pills never worked, being drained, and fed repeatedly, it became a normality but you have exceeded your limitations. I am going to be the end of you all."

"Ha! The end of us!? You and army! Everyone in this kingdom will be waiting for you when you leave this castle, women, children, the elderly. Everyone in this Kingdom is under my control!" 

"....Then I won't have to hold back." Jacobs right eye began to glow and the king knew that he had doomed himself by saying what he said.

"Ugh!? Kill him! Hurry!" The king ordered the knights before Ammenadiel swiped his hand to the right.

"Ahhh!" The knights released a battle cry before thrusting their spears towards him, but he vanished.

"Where did he go?!" the king shouted before pebbles fell from the ceiling, Jacob had jumped thought all 6 floors of the castle.

"Outside!?" The king wondered as he looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling. 

"Arcus!....Third Form: Blast....." Jacob chanted as he levitated above the castle grabbing hold of his necklace. It then transformed into his black bow, but it was different, the design of the bow had changed once again. "Brighten the night sky with you pure untainted light..." a shining light appeared in the center of the bow before Jacob reached out with his other arm and drew an energy arrow. "Light Of God." he finished chanting before releasing the arrow, the arrow shined brighter than the sun as it descended towards the Kingdom of Altia before finally hitting the castle. A massive silent explosion then engulfed the entire area.

Later that night, Akane continued to thread through the forest with Alcia's body tied to her back.

"Huh? What happened here?" She wondered as she came out into the open, then her eyes opened wide. "Altia, it's gone." She continued as she saw a humongous crater where Altia was supposed to be, beside it was Jacob, standing in front of the crater with the Divine Blade Altia stuck into the ground beside him.

'Unfazed.'

He thought as he saw that the fake divine weapon, was unchanged.

"What did you do?" She asked as she walked up behind him.

"I ended it."

"But it was only the prince, why did you kill everyone!? My parents!" Akane asked as she grabbed his collar.

"They were all being controlled...by the king." he replied.

"What? The king?" She asked.

"He king was the one behind it all, everyone in the kingdom, under his control."

"Did they suffer?" She finally asked.

"No." he replied truthfully.

"I see." She came to terms with the unfortunate outcome. 

Later that night, Akane and Jacob buried Alcia's body in front of the crater where Altia once stood.

"She would've wanted this." Jacob said to ease Akane's sadness.

"Yeah. What do we do now?" She asked.

"The Kingdom of Solaris."

"What's in Solaris?" She asked.

"An Arcane Knight." he replied as he looked towards the big red moon after strapping the Divine Blade Altia to his back.

END OF CHAPTER