Escape

I gulped nervously as I stood at the edge of the balcony, green walls of energy took shape like stairs that led down, courtesy of my magic.

I had ransacked the entire palace and had taken whatever money and jewelry around then had put them in a bag I had found. I wore the simplest clothes there was in the closet with a cloak I had found, every royal always has a cloak somewhere.

'There is nothing to be done. Let's go.' I thought to myself and took the step, the ether wall was stable. I hesitated for a moment but then, my stomach rumbled in anger and commanded me to get food.

With a deep breath, I climbed on the ether wall and then began carefully descending the steps made from my magic.

It was early morning, the sun was slowly coming out from behind the mountains in the distance. The light seemed to follow me.

In a minute, I found myself on the ground, all the steps vanished in an instant as I willed it.

'It was easier than I expected,' I smiled and hid my face with the hood of the cloak then made more stairs to descend from the mountain to the city.

I had planned the route long ago when I had observed the city from the balcony of the palace. I quickly reached the alley I had chosen to go to. The sun came out and its light reached the city.

I sighed in relief and turned to look at the distant palace with a look of resentment.

'The princess of this kingdom dies today, officially at least.' I thought and gathered magic power.

I didn't want people searching for me, so the only solution was to make sure they thought I was dead and then move on to Fiore. And how was I supposed to do that? With my magic of course!

I summoned a lot of magic power. The rush of power made me feel confident as I guided the energy. It took me nearly 30 seconds to do what I wanted, it was very hard, after all, I was putting most of my magic power into something.

A ball of nearly super dense Ether formed in my hand, it looked just like a green Ki ball. I made sure the energy inside was very chaotic, if it were to collide with anything solid, it would explode.

I had never experimented on explosion more than once, and that was a low-density pebble-sized thing. I had no idea how strong this was going to be. But I needed the palace of the princess to be destroyed so I didn't hold back.

By the time the kingdom reacted and began the search for the cause, I would be out of the capital and go to Enca, from there I had to take a ship to minstrel and then another to Fiore. They would never find the cause and the princess would be presumed dead.

I took aim and threw the ball as hard as I could, I could barely control the constructs with my mind and I used that little control to make sure it went where I wanted.

It went just I had planned it, vanishing in the distance. I waited for a few seconds and nothing happened, 'Did I fail?' just as I wondered that a blinding light lit up from where the palace was at.

My eyes widened as a tremendous explosion engulfed that part of the mountain, with it, a terrifying shockwave began spreading in all directions.

I quickly ran toward the nearest building and the moment I took cover, an extremely loud boom disoriented me, my ears began ringing due to the intensity of its sound. Then, the land began shaking as if a great earthquake had hit, the shockwave passed by and I felt as if a train had hit me. The building I had taken cover behind was instantly reduced to rubble, if I had not been blown away a single moment sooner than the building due to the weird angle, I would have been crushed there.

My body hurt but it wasn't as bad as I imagined it, I was very disoriented though, I could barely see and hear what was going on.

A few minutes passed and I managed to barely get my bearing together, I recovered enough to see that dust and smoke were everywhere, I coughed as I stood up and began walking away, 'That was much stronger than I thought it was going to be... I need to get out of here. It's best if I don't do that again when so close to the site...'

I rushed as fast as I could, moving through the streets and alleys based on the route I had planned before. The more I walked, the better I felt and less dust and smoke could be seen. The People were all in the streets, paralyzed by shock, or were panicking like headless chickens.

I realized something, 'I should have taken much more damage... The B-Class Stamina probably makes me more durable than I thought. It's shouldn't be a surprise, in the show, everyone tanked damage easily..'

Just as I was passing a simple shop, my eyes caught sight of some bread. I made sure to take them in the chaos. Not just that, I stole a decent chunk of food and fruits putting them in the available space in my bag.

I stopped it when the bag was filled to the brim. I then sped up, I knew the army of the kingdom would soon react and put the city under martial law or something, I had to get away before that.

I quickly ran through the city with my hood on, thanks to my stamina, I didn't grow tired. Dozens of minutes later, I reached the outskirts of the city.

I saw the guards were starting to slowly organize already. They had blocked the exit of the capital. Since the city was surrounded by a redirected river, there was only 1 gate.

I didn't hesitate, I summoned my ether swords and ran toward them.

They noticed me and attacked, they all had spears with gems on top. Some aimed the top of the spears toward me then dozens of blasts were fired in my direction. The others chose to get closer to meet me head-on if I survived the blasts.

The Blasts of magic met a green construct that suddenly appeared in front of me, they exploded but they only managed to make the wall shake a little.

I couldn't help but smirk as I made the ether wall go away then charged at the closest guard. Mid-way some hesitation appeared in my heart, 'These are innocent people, just doing their job... I shouldn't kill them.'

But that vanished instantly, 'They have seen me, I don't need any witnesses, complications are dangerous. Especially since I blew up half the fucking mountain. If they somehow realize it was me, I will be hunted down and killed. At least, they wouldn't have a clue to search by if these people die.'

I put the ether swords in killer mode with my will, they began buzzing like lightsabers.

The guard didn't see what was coming before my swords cut thorugh his spear and body like a hot knife through butter, I didn't even feel any resistance as if there was just air there.

There was no blood or anything, just a body cut in 3 parts falling on the ground. The smell of burnt flesh was the only thing besides that; I couldn't help but think, 'An elegant weapon for a more civilized age, indeed.'

I didn't wait around, I slashed at the other guards nearby, it wasn't a battle at all; They couldn't stop me or even defend themselves, in a manner of seconds, all the guards that had come to fight me head-on laid on the ground in pieces.

I did feel sympathy but I didn't have the luxury to be a saint. 'I have to be ruthless, or I will die. I can seek redemption later...' I decided and killed the last shred of doubt within me then dashed toward the guards that had fired at me earlier.

I heatlessly swung the ether swords, killing any guard I saw, every slash split a guard in half, every swing another.

I felt something hit me in the back, it blew me forward and made me lose my balance. I crashed onto the ground but stood up instantly after, I tanked it easily.

Turning around to see what it was, I saw dozens of guards approaching, I didn't think before the right ether sword switched to Destruction mode, the energy inside becoming chaotic.

I threw it at the coming guards then turned around and ran toward the gate, there were only 2 guards on the top of the city wall, everyone else had died. The gate was closed but I knew that wouldn't stop me.

I heard a strong explosion behind me but I didn't look back, I used the sword in my left hand to quickly cut a triangle in the gate and kicked it. A second later, I was on the other side and began running.

The shockwave reached me but I knew it was coming so I jumped, it helped me by blowing me forward. From an outside point of view, it seemed as if I had jumped dozens of feet. My stamina had made me very durable.

After I had moved a little away, I turned to look back and saw the explosions had wiped out the group of incoming guards. Fire and smoke were raging on the site.

The last guard that stood on the wall seemed to be in shock as he looked at everything, when I focused a little more, I realized he had pissed himself or maybe his pants were wet due to sweat? It was hard to see from such a distance.

I didn't care really as I aimed my remaining ether sword and threw it at him, I manipulated the direction it went off with intense focus to make sure it headed for the guard. That much I could do.

The guard didn't even seem to realize what had happened as the ether sword moved past his neck, severing his head from his body. The corpse fell down from the wall, the face on the head had an expression of terror and disbelief.

I felt guilt when I saw how young the guard was but I couldn't wait around, I turned around and ran toward the nearby forest as fast as I could. I had spotted some stables to the east of the forest from the balcony, my eyesight was great.

The plan was to steal a horse and ride off...

That day the capital of Pergrande was thrown into chaos, the princess had died per the records, and the kingdom began to prepare for war with the kingdom to the north. Thinking it was an attack from there, meaning to assassinate the king.

Prince Arthur of the kingdom to the north of Pergrande was taken as a political hostage and a very complicated cold war started between the 2 kingdoms.