Chapter 15: Sigrid's Sacrifice

Planet Agana, Wynn Empire.

Two years had passed until Archmage Cletus had made his demand on handing over the youngest prince Sigrid Vernize. But king Arthur still persistently kept fighting against all odds and protected his younger son, Sigrid. After all, how could a father sent his own son to receive death? Archmage Cletus also kept his promise. He didn't destroy the Wynn Empire directly but indirectly launched various kinds of vulgar methods in various places to make the residents of the empire turn against the king. From different parts of the empire news of numerous plagues, kidnapping and murdering of children, cruel Arsons, countless assassinations, raping of women reached the king's ear almost everyday. To add fuel on the fire, many enemy empires also continuously kept attacking on the border area of the Wynn Empire.

Gradually it became almost impossible to maintain peace in the empire. In the empire the residents of the capital was on the verge of revolting. At that moment King Arthur was poisoned mysteriously by some unknown source. Although he suppressed the poison with his cultivation but his body became weak as days went by.

Although time was turbulent, the royal family still had their regular morning breakfast together. That day also the royal family gathered in the vast dining hall like usual. Only the atmosphere was not as cheerful as two years ago. The dining table was completely silent. Occasionally the crisp sound between spoon and the fork could be heard. Suddenly King Arthur coughed violently and a few drops of fresh blood stained his white shirt.

Queen Zina, first prince Laszlo, youngest princess Emily ran to their father to give him support and comfort. But Sigrid sat on the seat and silently stared at his family which had changed significantly over the past two years. Laszlo, his always cheerful, talkative elder brother had turned into a expressionless serious workaholic to make up the absence of their father, his little sister Emily had matured beyond her age only in these two years, his mother, besides being a mage of grandmaster realm, aged quite a bit because of excessive stress. As for his father he was poisoned and Sigrid knew who did it... Archmage Cletus.

As Sigrid stared at them, Laszlo spoke, " Sigrid, go back to your room. Dad just has a mild cold. Don't worry. We just have to call the light mage and it will be fine."

Sigrid looked at his older brother and after a while he said, " Alright"

After Sigrid left the room, he sighed, ' Still thinking, you can hide everything from me. '

For the past two years his family had been hiding all the crimes occurring all over the empire by the Archmage Cletus, from him. They were afraid that he might blame himself for this. But what they didn't know was that, every night Cletus would directly transfer him the vivid images of murders, Arsons, many cruel torture scenes that was taking place over the empire. And after each time Cletus would mutter repeatedly, ' All because of you. '

At first he begged and cried to stop all that but at some point he had gradually grown numb to it. Also, no matter how much his family tried to cover up the news, one or two rumours would always fly. In the past two years he had listened to many such rumours from the palace maids, from the guards and even from the knights. At first they would sympathize with him but gradually they began to curse him for their misfortunes. They criticized him for not sacrificing himself for the empire.

As he walked through the wide corridor he heard two guards whispering to each other just around the upcoming turning point. Sigrid paused. He could clearly make out those whispers at such a close distance. The guards probably didn't notice him and continued on their conversation.

"Say, why has the king still not handed over the Prince?"

" Maybe, because of his high talent?"

"Damn it!! His whole empire is suffering and he is still thinking about his son?"

"Well, the king is now also suffering and it's not a secret that the cause is archmage Cletus."

"I heard from the head knight that the eldest prince may have to go to the battlefield to suppress the enemy empires. What if he dies there?"

"Damn it!! It's all because of the youngest prince. If he has a little bit of conscience left in him, he would already have handed himself over the archmage. He is just killing his own family."

"Really, I really pity the youngest princess and the eldest prince. They are just caught in the middle. If the eldest prince dies, who will protect her and the queen?"

...

The two guards continued on their chats. Sigrid turned over and took a different route to reach his room. That wasn't something new. He had heard more vicious words about him circulating in the air like, ' the parasite prince who lives on the empire ', ' the rotten prince ', ' the cursed prince ' and many other. But he came to know something new that day. His elder brother was going to the battlefield.

Sigrid entered his room and closed the door. A voice soon assaulted him in his head. Of course, it was archmage Cletus.

' Have you heard your brother is going to the battlefield? He..he..he...You know I have planned to kill him during the battle.....hmm.... .What are you gonna do? Are you still going to resist? Or, are you willing to come to me?"

Sigrid calmly sat on his bed and gazed at the outside blue sky through the window. Then said in a emotionless voice, " I am willing"

" And if you are not still willing to come then - "

The voice paused for a bit. Then it started to laugh menacingly.

" Oh my god, you are finally willing!! Who would have thought that you could still persist after witnessing such cruel scenes every day for straight two years when just the news of your brother's upcoming death can finally make you give in."

" Ha..ha..ha....I should have done this trick long ago."

"Where is transportation circle?" Sigrid calmly asked, his face still facing the blue sky. His beautiful green irises had long lost their previous shine.

" Ha..ha..you don't have to trouble yourself. The magic circle has been placed just in the balcony of your room. Just drop a little bit of your blood at the centre of the balcony and it will be visible. Stand in the middle of the circle then and in the blink of an eye you will be transported in front of me."

Sigrid approached his balcony and dropped a bead of his blood in the centre. Soon a shining magic circle appeared on it's floor.

Cletus became impatient.

" Hurry and step into the circle. What are you waiting for?"

Sigrid ignored Cletus's impatience and said, " First, vow that you will cure my father's poison. I know it is your doing."

" Yes, yes, maintaining the poison in king Arthur's body takes extra magic. As soon as I got you, there's no reason for me to waste my magic. Anything else?"

" The enemy empires around the border, tell them to stop attacking. And vow to not touch our empire in the future."

" Of course. Those small empires are able to attack because I supplied them some resources. As soon as I can get my hand on you, i will withdraw those resources. And as for your empire why should I bother touching it when I will be busy increasing my cultivation level with you later on? So hurry now!!"

Sigrid got what he wanted. He sighed and looked back at his room for the last time. He took out a letter that he had been preparing for a long time for this exact situation and placed it on the bed. Then he again looked at silk smooth blue sky and thought, " Well I have at least lived smoothly for seventeenth years."

Then he positioned himself in the middle of the circle. The magic circle shone brightly. The figure of the youngest prince of the Wynn Empire disappeared from the palace.

...

....

In the dining room, king Arthur, Laszlo and queen zina were still discussing over the attack on border area. Little Princess Emily had already left long ago.

Laszlo," Father, how can you go in the battlefield in such a condition? Let me go."

King Arthur shook his head, " No Laszlo, you are too young and have no experience in battle. And we don't know what Cletus might do in the battlefield. I am already half dead because of the poi-"

King Arthur paused. Then he stood up astonishment. Laszlo and queen zina tensed up noticing his strange behaviour. They spoke up in unison, " What happened Arthur (father)?"

Arthur said with wide eyes, " I can't feel the poison. It's gone... It's really gone..."

Arthur hadn't finished when the head butler came running and kneeled, then joyously said,

" Your majesty, please pardon my intrusion, but I have good news to deliver."

Although there was good news to hear Arthur didn't feel happy at all. On the contrary he had a bad premonition. He ordered the head butler to speak.

"Your majesty, from the border we just received news from the voice transmission stone that all the enemy empires have retreated for some unknown reason. And the plague entangled areas have started to heal on it's own all of a sudden. The light mages you have stationed there informed that the plague vanished as if it was never there."

The head butler was so happy that he didn't notice the gradually pale face of the king. Laszlo's hand was trembling.

Archmage Cletus had been tormenting them for two years continuously with many cruel means. He wouldn't let go of them unless...unless he had already gotten what he wanted.

King Arthur roared, " Where is Sigrid?"

The butler was startled and said," The youngest prince should be in his room."

Queen Zina also understood the crux of the matter. She ran towards her youngest son's room. Tears almost blurred her vision. King Arthur and Laszlo hurriedly followed.

When they reached the door of Sigrid's room, Zina had already started to knock on the door violently. But there was no reply. King Arthur didn't delay anymore and directly broke in.

But the room was completely empty. Queen Zina's legs gave away. She collapsed on the floor and cried heart wrenchingly, repeatedly calling the name of Sigrid. Laszlo went to the balcony as if still hoping that his younger brother was playing hide and seek with them. But there he discovered the dimmed magic circle, engraved on the floor. He covered his eyes with his hand and shouted out loud, " Stupid Sigrid!!!"

When Laszlo entered the bedroom he saw his father holding a letter with trembling hands. As he approached him(Arthur), his father shoved the letter into his hands, then walked away from the room hiding his face. Laszlo opened the letter which said,

" Dear,

mom,dad,elder brother and my cute little sister,

If you see this letter that means I am already gone. I really should have surrendered to the archmage long time ago. Thus a lot of lives would have been saved. But after two whole years I finally managed to gather my courage to give up my life. Those murders, raping, tortures that was happening all over the empire, Cletus had been showing me everything every night. It's really hard to endure all this, knowing this was all happening because of me. So, just let me go alright? You all will meet a dead end protecting me.

For two years, you have been protecting me. So, this time, just give me a chance to protect you all, alright?

Thank you for giving me such wonderful family mom and dad. Elder brother you really look good when you are cheerful and talkative. This serious look absolutely doesn't suite you. And most importantly you have to protect Emily from those stupid males and find a faithful partner for her in the future. Oh....and please look after mom. It's really heartbreaking to look her cry.

with love,

Sigrid"

A single teardrop fell on the letter. Laszlo's lungs were suffocated. It was as if someone had squeezed all the air out of them. He complained in his mind,

' So, you have been suffering silently the most among us. And we thought we have protected you from everything. Damn!...why didn't you tell us anything? '

Thus, while the clouds of danger was disappearing from the empire, the palace kept shrouded in darkest gloomy clouds all over.

...

.....

One month had past since Sigrid had disappeared from the Royal palace.

At that time in the capital of Wynn Empire, above the temple of goddess of Agana a dimensional hole appeared out of nowhere. Bright golden white runes surrounded the circle in a spherical mannar. From the darkest dimensional hole a figure of a child shot out straight to the sky. The figure was hardly 4 feet tall. He had very long wings spreading from his back - one black and one white. He had long curved black horns raising from his head. A gentle golden white halo was floating over his head. The immense dark and light aura from his body was continuously suppressing each other. Yes, it was Ray, who just arrived at planet Agana.

He looked around and was surprised to see the intensity of red on this planet. Then he spotted the Royal palace from afar and flew towards it at the speed that left afterimages after him.

There was a set of pictures of the client's family on the information provided by the goddess. As he neared the palace he spotted the client's family with his super heightened sight in a large hall, maybe a dining hall. He directly broke through the glass window of the dining hall and entered the room, leaving the four people in it stunned.

Ray elegantly landed on the floor and asked politely facing King Arthur,

" Hello, I am Zero and You must be king Arthur Vernize, I assume? I came by the request of goddess of Agana to save the youngest prince, Sigrid Vernize."

Then he passed a paper to the still dazed King Arthur.

" Please sign here to prove my appearance in planet Agana and acceptation of the mission of saving your son.

And rest assured, I will surely save him."