Together, they began to speak out the words.
"We, the representatives of the Kingdom of Eldinor, do hereby swear fealty to His Majesty, Daneel Anivron. No matter what lies in the Path of our Kingdom, we will stand by him until the end. Now, and forever more, the Kingdom of Eldinor is his to command, and his to rule. As the representative of the citizens of the Kingdom, I sign my name to stand true to our word."
Saying so, they signed the document that had been printed on a sheet of solid gold in a flourish before handing it to a waiting mage, who teleported to the reptilians right away.
The reptilians had decided not to let anything stop them, but when they heard a familiar voice, they couldn't help but look up.
A horrifying sight awaited them. The rest had already become transfixed by the gruesome image: the King, in the form of the Divine Cockroach, was lying on the ground in 2 pieces. He had been cut cleanly in half, with both halves leaking golden blood freely on the invisible floor.
What was even more disconcerting was that from the leftover signs of the wind blades used by the Windlord, only one attack had been needed to make this happen.
Thus…the truth was that the King stood no chance.
"SPEAK!"
Joselyn's shout even startled the sovereigns and the Heroes of the Order, who were perhaps the most silent bunch among those who were watching everything, as they were busy reaching conclusions like these which they were not willing to accept. The people had already started praying to the Heavens or cursing the Church, and as the reptilians finished the oath, Vohler landed on the ground.
Even as the Queen of Arafell used a teleportation formation to speak the words and sign, Vohler reached the King and pointed at the two halves of his body, which were separated by a few meters between them, as it seemed that the force of the wind blade had made them fly apart.
He cast a spell to make immense pressure weigh down on them, and a second later, unable to bear it anymore, the King returned to his human form.
"I…was right. A force of 30 Peak Heroes was just too strong to face up against. Even he has no option but to fail. What did we expect? What did HE expect? WHY DID HE EVEN START THIS FIGHT!"
By this point, Faxul couldn't take it anymore. For all these years, he had always been the silent, brooding friend who tended to keep his thoughts to himself.
Yet, seeing the face of his best friend which was fixed in an expression of unwillingness and pain, the realization that this might finally be the end made him erupt.
Robert and Elanev were stuck in the camp of denial. They could be heard, murmuring under their breaths.
"There must be something else. There must be something else…"
"Any second now, he'll pull some plan out of his pocket. He always does. Any second now…"
The three commanders, Aran, Cassandra, and Luther were silent.
Aran and Cassandra's minds were frozen from what they were seeing, and Luther knew that there was nothing to say at this point.
As for Robert, he seemed to be praying silently, but among them all, it was Kellor and Eloise who had the most measured reactions.
They…simply kept faith.
They didn't speak, but their eyes were filled with calm confidence.
The same couldn't be said for almost all the Heroes.
Except for the Head and the Mother of Healing, the rest seemed to be convinced that it was over.
Quite a few remembered the King's bold words that had resounded in the cavern just a few minutes ago and scoffed. A significant portion felt sad and hopeless, as they really had been hoping for a miracle that would save them.
There were also a few who felt happy, and even as the Mother of Healing noted their names down in her head, Vohler began to mince the body of the King into the tiniest of particles.
He started with the lower body. As the King's legs started to disintegrate, he almost let out a scream, before stopping himself and looking at Vohler defiantly.
Many screams did sound from the people below. They looked like they were wishing, no, praying that this was all a bad dream, but as Vohler finished turning the King's lower body into the most basic particles possible to ensure that no amount of Fighter prowess would be able to allow him to regain it to use in a counter-attack, they started to fear the worst.
Thousands of pleas started to be heard, all begging for the King to be left alone, but of course, Vohler had been ignoring them since quite some time ago.
Joselyn was probably the only one still going about her business. She was at the last representative: the lady from the council of the Black Raven Kingdom already had the writ in her hands, but just as she was about to begin reciting the oath, ghastly screams that were much louder than any that had been heard over the battlefield so far erupted from everywhere around them.
Looking up, Joselyn took in a deep breath as she saw that Vohler had continued to disintegrate the body of the King, until there was barely a bit of his chest left.
The rest of him was gone- vanished, into the wind, and clearly, the same fate was about to befall what was left.
With a gulp, Joselyn found it harder than ever to focus on her task. Still, looking down, she pushed the old lady to read out the words.
At the same time, Vohler had paused the spell, before lifting the King's bloody head by his hair.
It was the image of him doing so that had elicited all the screams, and as he displayed the head of the King like a trophy to all those present, the old lady from the Black Raven Kingdom continued saying the words of the oath.