Leona trembling hands grasped the ground, trying to crawl towards her father’s severed head, but suddenly she was yanked backwards by Krieg who started to sprint without looking back. Laura darted in with both the knight’s greatsword and her’s one in each hand, Phoebe drew her bow, but the barbarian blocked her with one of the blades.

“You are needed elsewhere, Pho.”

“But Laura-!”

The barbarian let out a warm smile, something rare coming from her in these past couple of days.

“I’m sorry for everything Pho. We will meet again someday.”

With parting words, she furiously charged down Alexander. The elf grit her teeth before quickly turning around to run away. Running for their lives was the last thing Krieg imagined to do.

Both his and the strength of his allies were for naught in the end. Before he knew, everything was going down the drain, both Leona’s life, his lord’s and his honor as a knight.

“Father…! Father! This- this can’t be happening! FATHER!”

Leona cried, her strength was waning with each scream as the clearing grew further behind them. Krieg continued to run through the forest, slamming his right arm through the heavier foliage to open a path as he carried the Princess on his left shoulder.

“Sir Krieg, where are we going?”

Phoebe suddenly appeared running beside them able to keep up thanks to her speed, nimbly dodging through the various branches and foliage in her way. While still keeping his attention on the path ahead of him, the knight replied.

“Out of this place. As far as we can, to the eastern country.”

“How are we supposed to climb down? I don’t think there is any other way other than that cave.”

“There is. Lord Jean had prepared many escape routes in case something like this were to happen.”

“What kind of escape route?”

They ran to the edge of the plateau, to the east a breathtaking sight. A verdant forest that expanded almost endlessly in the horizon, towering above said expanse of trees, was the dwarven citadel of Vargold, it was said that the entire city was built on top of a massive dragon’s carcass, which some take as explanation for the city’s great advances of smithing and construction.

However none of that mattered for Krieg, he only wished to keep Leona safe away from Alexander. For a man to withstand the attack of multiple people who the knight had deemed ‘Capable’, he would’ve had to be on par with the Knight Queen Eleonora, but he was nothing compared to her. Physically, a mere squire could take him on, but with the aid of magic, he seemed invulnerable to anything Krieg specialized in.

The knight clenched his teeth in anger, although he was very different from other knights, who would prefer to die rather than run away, his retreat was nothing if desperate. Witnessing the power of a master spell caster was beyond anything he had seen before, even demons paled in comparison.

“Sir Krieg…”

Phoebe glanced left and right but there was no other way from around the precipice that awaited them just a few steps forward. It was a deadly drop spanning about a hundred meters before solid ground.

“There is no path here aside from the obvious fall. I take it’s not part of the plan to plummet to our deaths?”

“No, lord Jean had prepared many ways to escape from this place.”

He searched the ground by sweeping his right foot until it got caught on a slight bump in the flat terrain.

‘There!’

Upon finding it, he stomped on the seemingly ordinary mound of dirt and for a couple of seconds nothing happened. Phoebe tilted her head slightly, doubting the knight’s words for a moment.

“Sir Krieg?”

“It takes some time to activate.”

“Activate?”

The elf felt a slight tremor underneath her feet, but unlike when they were in the desert, it was much fainter, almost imperceptible for anyone that was not trained in the art of tracking and hunting. Though said rumbling was constant as if something was happening inside the earth.

It didn’t take long for the ground in front of Krieg split open, slowly drifting apart much like ice breaking from an iceberg, this however was planned much in advance should someone have to use it. An escape route devised by Leona’s mother and constructed by dwarves from the citadel.

“Woah!”

Startled by the earth suddenly opening, Phoebe jumped back a few meters.

“It’s our way out. Though until we reach the ground level we won’t be able to close the entrance, so let’s be quick.”

He jogged down the stone carved stairs, leaving Phoebe stunned from what she just had seen.

“Is this normal for you?”

She asked before running after him. The spiraling staircase was illuminated by intricate glasswork carved into the wall, Phoebe hadn’t the slightest idea how it emitted light but nonetheless it helped to traverse through the narrow flight of stairs.

On his way down, Krieg tried to get a hold of Leona as the young woman seemed to be lost in a haze of confusion and despair.

“Father… this can’t- this can’t be happening…”

“Leona talk to me. I need you to be aware of our surroundings.”

His words fell on deaf ears as she continued on with her lamentation.

“Father… father…”

Holding her in a tighter embrace, Krieg frowned his brows in determination.

“I’ll protect you no matter what happens. And I promise you’ll have your revenge, our revenge.”

They spent the next couple of minutes descending the seemingly endless spiral staircase before it came to a stop, while on the surface it appeared to be a dead end, the rocky wall had a small lever pushed inside of it. Krieg stuck his left foot under the lever and with a slight kick, lifted it.

The wall made of rock started to slide open and some of the drizzling rain hit his face. The sky was darkened with clouds, though apparently the lightning had subsided to not be a concern anymore.

“Ah, we’re finally here.”

Phoebe jumped off the remaining steps, landing right beside the knight.

“Phoebe could you pull a lever underneath that salience over there?”

Her eyes drifted to where Krieg was motioning with his chin, beside the unusual opening in the middle of the foot of the mountain, there was a rocky protrusion that stood out after he pointed out. Phoebe reached with her left hand underneath and her fingers caught something that seemed to be made out of wood.

“Found it.”

She pulled it and the moment she did, the entrance of the staircase started to slowly slide to close itself.

“Sir Krieg, wouldn't it have been easier to just climb through here instead of going through the cave?”

“It doesn’t open from the outside, it was made for the only purpose of escaping, not entering. And besides, even if we could manage to break that wall, the entire staircase would be inside the mountain.”

“Ah… it’s much more complicated than I thought.”

“Leona’s mother would never let anything to chance, if she could predict it, she would devise ways to prevent it.”

They both started to head towards the citadel, a few days of travel awaited them before they could find proper shelter. They were close yet so far from their objective, it was much like a carrot dangling from a stick in front of a horse, but there was nothing they could do in order to defeat Alexander so the only logical option was to run away.

“Father…”

Leona stared at her own hands searching for an explanation in her mind of what she had witnessed earlier. Death comes to all living beings but to have her father’s life being taken away with a flick of a hand was something beyond her comprehension, for it was the most precious person taken away from her in matters of seconds. She was in a state of disarray, her only reason to keep going was to see her father to safety, but now nothing made sense anymore.

Her eyes started to tear up, but her voice was nowhere to be heard, if anything she wore no emotion at all on her face.

Phoebe knew that expression, hollow eyes devoid of life or meaning, death at that point would be a mercy. But deep down she knew the Princess had a bigger role to play in Krieg’s life, which in turn affected her own mission, taking him to the eastern country. That of course didn’t mean she could let Leona die, quite the opposite of that since the queen apparently knew her, something much bigger could be at stake than just a mere reunion.

‘She will live, I will make sure of that.’

Phoebe grit her teeth with determination in her eyes as they braved the forest.