An Uninvited Guest

We managed to fly all the way to the castle balcony when Ryuu hit the seesaw. Panda and the girl didn't have any injuries. A short time later, we heard the sound of the house being demolished. The plan was working as we thought. The soldiers became alarmed and began to make their way there.

It was really easy to see what was happening from the balcony of the palace.

Lezlie turned to me and asked, "Are we going to wait for Ryuu to catch up with us?"

"We don't have time. We need to get inside and talk to the king as soon as possible. I'm sure Ryuu will catch up with us before long," I replied.

Even though I didn't know exactly what was going to happen, I said these words so as not to leave anyone uneasy.

We headed for the door. The girl leaned over it and used her magic to quietly break the lock. We entered the palace without losing any more time.

It was incredibly large with multiple rooms. Babu was surprised by what he saw and asked, "How do we find out where the King is?"

"The king is probably in his own room, working on some plans. It's his safe place. Even if it's not there, we'll check every single place," I replied.

Lezlie said, "Oh! I just remembered. As we entered the kingdom, I heard two soldiers talking about today's speech. They say the King was preparing to make a public speech in the throne room."

Babu said, "I hope this has nothing to do with the leader's declaration of war. Otherwise, we won't have much luck."

"Maybe," I replied. "But the important thing is that we convince the king. If we turn him against us, it'll be over before the war starts. And we don't know what kind of information he got from the outside. So be vigilant."

After our conversation, we continued to search inside the palace. It was much larger than any other palace I had seen before, with walls made of incredibly hard material.

To tell you the truth, this was the first palace I had ever seen inside.

As we walked down a hallway, I saw five portraits on the wall. Underneath each portrait were the names and titles of the people depicted.

The people in the portraits were the Kings who ruled the kingdoms. But the fifth portrait was scrawled over, with no name or information.

The girl looked at the portraits and said, "This portrait of the five brothers was made when the Kings established their own kingdom."

"So why is the fifth one scribbled over?" I asked.

"I think it was supposed to be Yores," she replied.

"The man who started the war?"

"Yes, that's him. But he was rejected by his brothers because of his betrayal to his father, his deal with the destruction lineage, and the war he caused."

"So who rules the fifth Kingdom now?" I asked.

"No one knows," she replied. "The only known thing is that he no longer had any kinship with the Kings and ruled the most powerful kingdom, The Fifth Kingdom. That's all."

Suddenly Babu called out to us and gestured for us to come over. "Hey guys, the throne room is this way," he said.

When we approached him, he pointed to a large door and three guards standing in front of us. I distracted the guards with a soft whistle. As the guards came closer to me, Babu suddenly appeared behind them and knocked all three out with a swift kick. Before opening the door, I looked around and said, "There's something strange here."

Babu asked, "What do you mean, Hiroshi?"

I responded, "Only three guards in the entire kingdom? This is ridiculous."

"Maybe everyone is preparing for war. After all, the whole kingdom knows it's coming," Babu replied.

"I don't know, but we must be ready for any situation. Don't let your guard down for a second."

We were about to open the door when I suddenly had a bad feeling. I gradually started to think that it was a bad idea to do this, but it wouldn't make much sense to stop now, having come this far. After a moment of thought, I said, "Let's open the door and see what happens."

Babu and I slowly entered the room. It was quite large, and in front of us was a throne. A person was sitting on the throne, but we couldn't see their face due to the shadows. The unknown voice asked, "Who are you, and why did you come here?"

Babu said, "Your Highness, we apologize for the intrusion, but we need to speak with you about an important matter."

"Important matter? What kind of help do you need at a time like this?" the person on the throne asked.

"There's a war coming soon, and unfortunately, we are a part of it. We need you to join the war and support us," Babu replied.

"And who will you be fighting against?" the person on the throne asked.

"Against The First Epic," I answered.

"Do you even know who the First Epic is?"

"I do, but we have already made up our minds," Babu responded.

Strangely enough, the king kept asking stupid questions and interestingly the room was darker than we expected, and in this darkness, it was very difficult to see the king.

"And do you know what he is capable of?" King asked.

"We all know what he can do, that's why we came here to ask for your help!"

Suddenly, the king laughed maniacally. "Let me tell you something important about him, the First Epic is indestructible." What he said made us all nervous. I knew something was wrong.

The person in the shadows showed their face and said, "So you think you can beat me, how pathetic!"

Lezlie screamed out of nowhere, "THIS IS NOT THE KING, IT'S THE FIRST EPIC."

After Lezlie spoke, I immediately pulled out my gun and pointed it at The First Epic. He looked at me through the shadows and kept laughing. I needed to know what I was up against before I fired, so for now I waited with my gun ready. The first epic stood up and began to approach us with slow steps.

"You came here to ask the king for help. A sensible move, but I have some sad news for you. The king has already chosen his side," he said.

Babu replied, "This can't be happening..."

"What can I say, he knows that for the good of his kingdom, it is better for him to be on the winning side," The First Epic responded.

As he spoke, the door to the room slowly opened and the king himself entered. We could easily recognize him as the king by the king medallion on his lapel. The king looked like a king, but he didn't look normal. The King's eyes were empty, like a dead man, his skin discolored and white, and he could barely breathe.

Lezlie looked at me and said, "This is black magic. Only powerful sorcerers can use it. With this black magic, you can easily control a person's mind and body. No matter how strong that person is, the situation will not change."

"Do you know how to break his control?" I asked.

"The spell cannot be broken until you kill the person who cast it," she replied with a serious expression.

Meanwhile, The First Epic continued to laugh, "I appreciate that you are intelligent, but let me tell you directly before you tell me the whole story. The person who cast this black magic was Jixus himself, the elite soldier who attacked the witches' village. And, of course, if I'm not mistaken, he took your precious mother away from you. I was the one who gave him that order. Even if he didn't do a very good job, he helped me a lot."

When I looked back at Lezlie, her eyes became horrified. Tears fell slowly from her eyes and she squeezed her hands with anger. Despite her beautiful and gentle face, her scary gaze filled anyone's heart with fear. She was brimming with anger. The First Epic was just looking at her and grinning.

"I can feel the anger in you. You want to kill me, don't you? Go ahead, try it, come and attack me," he taunted.

I had enough of his stupid words, so I pulled the trigger and fired. What I did wasn't the logical thing to do, but I couldn't let Lezlie suffer any longer. Lezlie and Babu looked at me in surprise. I hit the enemy right in the shoulder.

"All this time I thought I would live a quiet life without interfering with anyone, but I realize that if I don't fight against you and your army I will die in regret, and I would rather die fighting than in regret. You and your friends will be defeated and I will take great pleasure in it," I said.

He was slightly strained by my bullet, but the wound somehow healed in seconds and his disgusting smile returned to his face. He looked at me and said, "Normal people are always the same, they always want to be heroes."

Not seconds later, he suddenly grabbed me by the throat and lifted me into the air.

"The only reason I didn't kill you is because I need you to find out where your friend is. But you are trying my patience too hard," he threatened.

When I tried to resist, he tightened his hand around my throat, threw me against the hard walls of the palace, and said, "This kingdom is mine and mine alone!"