It wasn't the fact that Ophelia betrayed me which hurts, no no, I didn't even trust her in the first place. It was the fact that her influence over the people made them agree to her words, the same people which I saved.
I was being taken to the capital of Vrontí in order to have my punishment decided and to be dealt with.
By that time I had already lost faith in everyone. Ray would probably be disappointed in me, that I would even do such a thing, even though I didn't. Besides, if I were put up for execution, I couldn't even do anything. I'd rather kill myself than go face to face with 4 royal guards. In fact, why are there even 4 royal guards here, couldn't one be enough since they're so powerful?
One our way whilst passing through the forest. A tree fell on our path, a good amount of time went into getting it out of the way. Later, whilst moving through the mountains, a boulder was in the way.
The guards were yelling at each other "Didn't any of you notice this big boulder? Is this what the capital pays you for? get to work!"
But to me, it was pretty strange as the road has been blocked two times. Is someone behind this?
It wasn't of any use, since the only person who could help me was Jian. I didn't know anything about Adonis, he just vanished completely.
By the time the boulder was out of the way, it was almost evening. They couldn't break the boulder itself because it would still leave the rubbles there, and if any moves or techniques were used it would've caused a landslide.
These mountains were sensitive. So the best option was just to roll the boulder ahead until they found a place to shove it aside.
When the royal capital came in sight, it was already evening. The path was clear so the horses ran at full speed and we reached the capital in time. Upon reaching the capital, I was sent to see the king. Suspicious, since normally the king wouldn't be interested in seeing a criminal like me, instead he would just let an assistant handle it.
I didn't question the guards and went to the King's lair. When the doors opened, I saw Jian, the King and the man sitting at the window.
My eyes widened with rage, but doing anything right now was a bad idea.
"So, young man, you're the one who is responsible for the incident in Alterio High School?"
The man who was at the windows answered
"Yes my king, I saw it with my own eyes, the boy strangled his classmate, a girl to death, when my guard decided to fight to save her, this boy almost killed him."
What? That's entirely wrong! In fact I was the one who saved her! That bitch, she has to be responsible for all this, I will get her somehow.
"I see. Jian, do you have any objections to his story?"
"No sire, I believe this heinous criminal should be dealt with in a fitting manner."
"Very well then, I order that tomorrow, 17th April, shall be the day that Ruven Ryder gets executed."
"No! Please! Jian, you know I didn't do this! Please stop him" I pleaded to Jian, but he just stood there, looking at me like I'm the lowest of all.
"Jian, do you know this boy?" Asked the king
"Yes, I once rescued this boy from death. It's a shame things turned out this way." Jian said.
I-
My jaw dropped, I felt like everything dear to me was being taken away. It felt like I lost everything. I was betrayed by the ones I held close, now I'm in my way to meet death, before even learning that my parents are alive or not.
I was taken away by the guards to a prison under the castle.
I was thrown in the cellar, with a guard outside it in case I escaped, but I couldn't do that even if I tried.
The abilities I used today took a huge toll on my body, and with so much happening in one day, I'm too exhausted.
Jian, Ophelia, the students, too many people to kill, it's not worth it, since I'll be dying anyways.
It seems like I've made peace with my death already, this is as far as I go. Tears rolled down my eyes, as I accepted reality.
I spent some time remembering the good memories of my life, memories with mom, dad, Chris and Tony, Adonis and Jian.
And so I fell asleep. By midnight, I heard a loud crashing sound. The guard outside my cell was now lying on the ground. As I tried to look around to see who did it, bullets were shot at the hinges of the door.
Then, my vision cleared up, and I could see who did it.
Standing before me were Jian and a boy I could only guess was Adonis.
"What's with those lifeless eyes? Come on, we're busting you out of prison, try to catch up." Said Adonis.
As he said that, Jian held up his sword and Adonis pulled me behind Jian. He ran forward and broke down every single wall in the way until we broke out of the castle.
Of course, the sounds we made didn't go unnoticed, we were all followed by the other guards and arrows and bullets were shot at us.
They tried to use magic skills but we swiftly dodged it. In the end we decided to go through the civilizations as they wouldn't try to shoot their own people.
I was again carried by Jian, this was so uncomfortable. I almost got hit by multiple projectiles, I was screaming the entire way.
I had so many questions to ask. Why is Adonis here? Why is Jian saving me? What the hell's going on?????
Once we got far away, Jian dropped let me got off of his back and I was laying on the floor for a minute straight, that ride was so uncomfortable, but my rest couldn't stay till long because the window guy followed us here
"Gabriel, you decided to follow us till here huh?"
"Ohoho, isn't this just a pleasant surprise? You're helping that criminal escape?"
So Gabriel is his name huh, and why am I the criminal? I was literally fighting to save my life against that beast of a guard?
"If I have to fight you, I will. We are sufficient enough to beat you, it doesn't matter if you're a magistrate candidate or not, I'll beat you. Do you really want to make matters worse?" Said Jian.
"Do your very worst."
"Very well, so be it."
Jian manifested his sword and threw it at Gabriel with great speed, it may have even surpassed mach one, and Adonis ambushed him from behind with his two swords.
But Gabriel stopped both of the attacks, and smiled.
"Is this the best you can do? You're pitiful."
Gabriel manifested his weapon, a battle axe and swung the axe so that the rear blade hits Adonis then leapt in order to kill Jian, but since the axe is so heavy it slowed him down by a considerable amount.
At this moment, the three of us were under a lot of pressure. On one side he's slow, but we know that one hit could knock us down.
I want to fight but I can't, if Jian and Adonis together are struggling then I have no chance.
An idea struck me. What if I use my shock ability to stun him for a bit? I could open a small enough window for Adonis and Jian to strike him.
Adonis must've sensed what I was thinking of, and moved back from the fight. I started charging up my shock ability, and Jian continued to fight him. Their clashes were sending shockwaves through the air, standing on toe to toe with gabriel.
"It's done." I blasted an extremely strong bolt of lightning towards Gabriel, which he couldn't dodge. He tried to but Jian kept him locked in place. Jian leapt away as soon as the bolt hit him, which paralysed Gabriel long enough for Adonis and Jian to cause significant amount of damage.
But it wasn't over yet, even after all those hits, Gabriel still stood, and ready to fight. "Is that really all? I expected more from you guys, it's a 3 against 1! Well, 2.5 against 1 since that weak boy is crippled. Is this all you ha-"
As he kept on monologuing, I could hear running sounds, which kept getting closer by the second.
Gabriel stopped his yap to look around, maybe he also sensed something?
Gabriel suddenly fell down, it seemed like he got dropkicked.
As for the one who dropkicked him? I could only see a witch hat, a trench coat, and glasses.
"Oh Gabriel, has the Aqueogon fallen so low? They sent a magistrate candidate to fight highschool kids? What a joke."
I like her.
Wait I'm not supposed to do that after what happened with Ophelia.
"Tch, don't meddle with us, I could kill you if I wanted to!"
"Yeah yeah, who's on the floor though?"
At that time she manifested a staff and said "Teleport" and Gabriel was teleported somewhere else.
As soon as she said that she just disappeared, as if nothing ever happened.
We were all left looking at each other, dumbfounded.
I had enough energy to walk, and so we did into a deep part of the forest.
We found a cave and Jian told us to stay outside whilst we waited.
"Hey dumbass, where have you been for so long man? I used to wait every year thinking we'd hangout again and fight like we always do, it's the only thing I used to look out for man." I said to Adonis.
"Yeah, me too, I've always wanted to meet you but there's some things I gotta tell you. I've been trained under Jian to be an assassin, and I've been in hiding and trying to find out what the Aqueogon is upto. They've been doing shady stuff recently, including your school attack. That guy we faced orchestrated it all and has the King of Vrontí under hypnosis. Me and Jian are here to fight from the shadows, but I guess it won't work out anymore. We're officially gonna be outlaws."
"That aside, what's with you? You seem annoyed at everything right now, even your eyes seem like you've got a mental scar" said Adonis.
"Yeah, it's a long story. So that's the story of why I almost got executed huh?"
"Executed? What for? Jian did call me to save you, was it from your execution?"
"Yeah, you see, there's this rich girl who's name is Ophelia, everyone thinks she's an idol of some kind and are in an unhealthy obsession with her. That day during the attack I fought off some off the intruder and that Gabriel guy's assistant or whatever. After the Royal Guards arrived, Ophelia framed me and since she's the daughter of a rich family at Alterio, everyone went along with her and I ended up being framed for everything."
"What a bitch. But hey, we're here now, we're gonna help you get your name cleared. Tomorrow morning we'll head off somewhere far and begin training for our battles to come. From what I heard from a little bird, you manifested a weapon? That's awesome man, that makes things easier."
"Yeah, I did. I manifested it for a bit, but it must have been because I went in overdrive. For some reason, my electricity's colour has been red instead of the regular yellow, which I had before."
"That being said, Adonis, I need to do something before we head off to train. I need to visit mom and dad before we go. Atleast once."
"Sure thing, I'll talk to Jian and see what we can do. Jian should be getting back soon, we all have a lot of catching up to do." Said Adonis.
"That's definitely true, speaking of Jian, where is he?"
"Here I am, looks like the cave is all clear, we can spend the night here."
"Hey old man, you almost got me executed back there, that's so not cool!" I yelled.
"Haha yeah, sorry Ruven, but I couldn't help it, otherwise we both would get executed and I wouldn't be able to contact Adonis."
"Yeah, he told me, thanks."
"I assume he also told you about the training part, before we leave tomorrow, do you need anything to say?"
"Yeah, although I'll explain that to you later, where are we going to train?"
"Oh, we're going to Aerogon, the magistrate is a friend of mine, we'd get a good amount of help from him."
"I see, well then, before that...."
I went on to explain about what I wanted to do. Although there a lot of things I want to ask, there's one thing I am pretty curious about. Who was that girl? Is she a bad person? She didn't harm any of us, I didn't get so see her face clearly, but I feel as if something's going to happen, and I'll see her again.
Oh well, that's something I'll have to worry about later. As of now, I got a reality check and I need to get stronger. It's us against a whole nation, and we'll reach victory.