Once Draven disappeared from the mountain, Aureus flew towards palace with Erlos. After facing Draven’s strong divine power which destroyed the peak of that huge mountain and using his own powers to protect Erlos and himself from it’s effect by creating a shield of his divine power, Aureus was slower than usual to fly from that far away mountain and to arrive the palace.

Though Draven’s powers were not meant to attack them and he just had to protect them from it’s destructive effects, Aureus could not help but wonder what would happen if the King of Agartha ever used that power to fight with someone. The result would sure be the defeat or death of his opponent.

When they reached the palace, all they could see from the sky was whatever was going in the garden part of the palace.

They saw everyone was using their powers to break that dome shaped barrier. He could not believe his eyes for what he was seeing.

“What happened here?” Erlos mumbled as he had never seen this palace in it’s almost destroyed form.

Aureus’ gaze started to look through that barrier

Ember… his uncle…

They landed where Draven and others were. Letting go of Erlos, Aureus carefully looked inside that barrier closely only to get the shock of his life. His uncle was injured, there was a dagger pierced in his heart and looked like he was on the brink of death.

“W-What happened?” he asked, his eyes utterly shocked and started to get moist. “Morph?”

Draven looked at the shocked young eagle but he had nothing to say and his first concern was his friend.

Erlos put his hand on his shoulder to console him first though he was equally shocked. “First, let’s help them break this barrier.”

Erlos could be calm as he had long been trained by Draven himself through his unexpected ways of teaching which taught him to keep his calm even in the worst situation as panicking would not give any result.

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Erlos even used his magical arrows that contained strongest powers from the young High Elf which could destroy anything in its way, but in front of that barrier everything failed.

When everyone had exhausted their powers and could not break the barrier, Aureus heard others asking the King to use his powers. The King, the almighty Black Dragon who could destroy that huge mountain peak, who he had seen using the strongest divine power he had ever witnessed, Aureus was sure nothing could be impossible for this powerful person.

Just as the hope flickered in his mind, Aureus got to hear something shocking from the King.

“My magic dissipates before it can even touch the barrier.”

Aureus felt terrible and felt like time was slipping through his hands and again he was going to lose his only family. He had so many questions about how all this had happened but first he wanted to reach his uncle and save him.

——

The Head of the Witches, Cornelia Grimm, was the second person to reach the palace after Draven.

However, she came from a different direction, and rather than using brute force, she was using divination spells to see an alternate way to pass through or undo the barrier. Her eyes began to bleed, and she even used her own blood to write runes in order to weaken the barrier.

However, against the divine power of a deity, what could a mere witch do? Her skills were not meant for offense and combat in the first place…

Her heart constricted at the sight of Morpheus lying immobile on the ground. A man important to her, a divine weapon created for the purpose of killing, the raging flames, she had all seen this before.

‘The vision…in the end…’

Tears fell from her eyes, and she cried loudly like a little girl as she fell on her knees, her bloodied hands leaving red prints on the barrier.

‘Morpheus…’

When she realized the King of Agartha was trying to destroy the barrier as well, a flame of hope flickered inside her, but this small flame was quickly extinguished by his helplessness.

‘Even His Majesty could do nothing?’

When others started to attack the barrier under the orders of the King, though she was already bleeding from her eyes from the backlash of failed spells, Cornelia pushed herself to help. Since her attacks were pathetic in comparison, she tried weakening the defenses of the barrier through the use of curses even at the cost of squeezing her magic dry.

As she looked around, many familiar faces held desperation in them as they strived to bring down the barrier.

There was Morpheus’ uncle, Agraleus, and his clansmen. There were the warriors who were once trained by Morpheus, as well as Leeora and the other members of the council. There’s also the two youths beside the King, Erlos and Aureus, who looked as if they too were about to fall on their knees from exhaustion…

‘I cannot let him die. There’s still hope. Since I’m not alone, since many of us are trying to save him, there has to be hope!’

Tears of blood continued to flow down her cheeks as the desperate witch tried to save the man she once loved.

—–

Leeora reached there as well and saw the most powerful beings of this kingdom were altogether attempting to break that barrier. But they had failed. It looked like even if the entire kingdom gathered here and used their powers, it won’t be able to break this barrier.

“Morph!”

She called out in a weak voice as if she had lost all her strength just at the sight of Morpheus being  hurt.

Tears rolled down her eyes as she was going to lose the precious person to her just as it was shown in her vision. She felt pain in her chest. The pain of losing someone she was going to experience once again.

‘You said you will save him. Is this the way you chose? Sacrificing your own life? Why could you not find another way without anyone needing to die? Why….?’