Era was still too stunned to speak, which Akilah delighted in as she had developed a much harsher hatred towards him because of his mannerism and behavior over the past months.

“I know you're shocked, you're probably thinking ‘what is this crazy lad even saying” Akilah said with a chuckle and continued “the thing is Sir Era I wasn't always this crazy you know. I was just a normal person, that is until you and your men and your king and that bastard came in and you took, you took everything from me.”

“I- I don’t know” Sir Era managed to mutter.

“Oh no no no you're not supposed to talk yet” she said and gestured her hands in a way of zipping up something, subsequently Sir Era’s mouth was zipped up.

The force field that Akilah had created was one of a magical realm, everything that Akilah said, gestured and called upon materialized and happened. In here she was in control, which was something she had lacked for the last two months, flailing around as a foot soldier being careful of catching Era’s eye yet simultaneously following his every lead. It was infuriating.

Especially while Akilah and the rest of the soldiers had to live like rats while Era was living lavishly as if they existed in different worlds. They ate porridge and bread well Era ate a feast. These past few months had not only added fuel to the blaze of hatred that Akilah had towards

Era, they had also started a new fire within her, anger towards the upper class. The rich privileged parasites that are sucking the resources from the working class and selfishly using it to add another stake to their plate. She was on fire, consumed with feelings of disgust and anger.

“You see Era, now it’s my turn to talk and you’re gonna sit there, shut up and take it all in” Akilah said “You see I know you love the sound of your own voice and think that you're always right in every stupid dumb decision you make, but you're not. You’re a cowardly little weasel that's what you are Era, nothing more.”

Akilah paused and said in a lower tone “maybe that's why you just betrayed all of your soldiers getting slaughtered out there” before going back to her tangent

“You see, you have caused me enormous pain. Of course not the you standing in front of me the past you, however it's still the same you.”

Akilah huffed “You see for these past few months I thought maybe it's different, maybe he's a different guy. I tried to reason with myself I mean, you got a new chance; unbeknownst to you of course; but still you had another chance to be better. To not make the same mistakes of your past, but you haven’t changed, you are still rotten to the core, a rotten apple” she said as she walked up towards him.

By this time she had also restrained him using magic, so he was just sitting on the ground helplessly at her mercy and the look of fear in his eyes was something that Akilah took pleasure in. She place her hand close to his face, with her index finger touching his temple “And do you know what we do with a rotten apple?” She said and looked gleefully in his eyes before turning her gaze over at her other hand that she had materialized an apple in, making sure Eric's gaze also followed. Before looking back at him and saying “Well we have to take it out before it spoils the bunch” while crushing the apple with her bare hands, seeing the fear rising in Era’s eyes.

Akilah chuckled and walked back to where she stood, she began to sit and a chair materialized under her, a chair that was a carbon copy of the one that Era had sat on everyday while eating his feasts.

“I feel like you've been quiet for a while now, speak” she said and motioned for a zipper to be unopened

Era screamed at the top of his lungs as soon as his mouth was opened “YOU’RE CRAZY! YOU'RE INSANE! YOU'RE A LUNATIC! WHAT ARE YOU?!” he shouted at her

“Oh my, how fired up you are, wish you were as fired up when your men we're getting slaughtered but oh well-” Akilah was interrupted.

“what do you want from me you lunatic” Era shouted at her again

Akilah’s eyebrow twitched and she let out a single laugh “Just because I let you get away with calling me lunatic once” she said, while lifting up her right hand in clear view of Era “doesn’t mean I will do it again” she said as she motioned her hand as if crushing something. And in an instant Era’s right hand had been completely crushed, the same way Akilah had motioned. Era roared and curled up in agony while cupping his hand

“Don’t try to be smart with me rat, I will crush you” Akilah said with black haze over her eyes and a aura of malice piercing every word, before quickly regaining her composure.

“Now where were we?” Akilah asked in her usual tone “Right I was just about tell you about my plans for you” she said while pressing her hands together in front of her widening smile.

“You see I need you to go back to the other team and tell them about the horrible massacre that had occurred and I’ll go back to tell them how much of a coward you are, this part is fairly easy to follow since it's pretty much what happened” she said mockingly.

“Then we argue back and forth and you challenge me to a duel, one with a large audience, one that will be overseen by the king. It will be a spectacular sight to see me absolutely obliterate you. Of course I by no means want you to lose, in fact I want you to give it all that you've got, because the harder you try the harder you’ll fall. That's all I need from you.”

She clasped her hands together laying her head on top “Of course I'm no monster, I'm not gonna force this task on you. You can either follow my plan and fight for your life at the duel or you can die now, what will it be Era” she said with a wide smile

Era was still on the ground crying over the pain of his crushed up hand, not giving Akilah an answer, this agitated Akilah but figured she’d get nothing out of yelling at him again. Akilah snapped her fingers and Era’s hand turned back to normal, it had been fully healed and the pain had gone away. Era just sat on the ground looking at his, now fully healed hand that was completely crushed just seconds ago.

After a while he looked up at Akilah and murmured “What do you want?”

“What” Akilah said and cupped her hand around her ear “I can’t hear you”

“What do you want” he said in a louder voice

“I-“akilah sighed irritably “I just told you what I wanted, were you not paying attention?!”

“No! Why are you doing this! What do you get from this!” Era said in a screeching voice.

“That's really none of your business I'm doing this for me. Now answer my question” Akilah said.

Era struggled but got up from his sitting position and looked at her with disgust in his eyes and yelled “Never! What are you even, a magician?! Those filthy bastards were killed out a long time ago, how did scum like you even survive?! I would never-”

“I’ll take that as a no” Akilah interrupted and chuckle “Well too bad it was never really your decision to make”

With a swift motion of the hand Akilah dragged Era down to his knees, before he even had time to react, she placed her hand on his head, smirking before uttering the incantation “oboediō”.