CHAPTER 89: TOO LATE

XENON WINGATE

5 MONTHS AGO

It's been months since I last saw Alphonse and Z, and I conclude that nothing has changed about them that much. All that transformed about them are their behavior, in which they seem that they don't have any personality at all. All they have is this cold glare on their eyes. Not hearing swears and curses from that blonde guy's mouth is really a relief for our ears, but I don't prefer him this way. I prefer the old Alphonse, as this new one is tasked to kill us.

"Senor, the one responsible for controlling Alphonse and Z is no other than Sakuradrop. You need to find and kill her in order to release him from the mind-controlling effects." Danielle said through our earpiece.

"Sakuradrop, huh…" I muttered. I looked at the grand castle of Elysia and saw it towering on the skies. It has about fifty floors and as wide as ten city blocks, so it really would stand out. I'm just two kilometers away from that castle, and to continue our siege, we need to fight Alphonse and his Elemental Dragon first.

"Sir Wingate, you go ahead!" Mark Anthony Octavius said as he approached my side with the help of his flying Gladiator Dragon. "If that Sakuradrop girl is the one responsible for altering the mind of Sir Alphonse, then you have to go find her. Sir Estoff Wraith and I will buy time and hold him."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked my allied dragon knights.

"You can count on us, Sir Wingate." Estoff Wraith said with his calming manly voice. "Sir Mark Anthony Octavius is a general-class dragon knight, and I am a Pentagram Knight candidate. I've heard that Sir Alphonse Faradeiss is a Pentagram Knight candidate like me, so we will have the upper hand. Trust on us."

"Here he comes!"

The Elemental Dragon immediately flapped its wings, unleashing colorful sprinkles with random elemental magic effects. To counter such attack, Mark's Gladiator Dragon raised its halberd up in the air, and a ripple flowed outwards the atmosphere.

"Negate!" Mark Anthony Octavius said. At that moment, all magical attacks of the Elemental Dragon disappeared like a bubble. 

Now that I have seen a glimpse of my allies' power, I think they really can hold Alphonse off. My allies even have the negation magic that can repel any mystical attack in a blink of an eye. They're not lying if they are on the same level as Pentagram Knights, so I'll trust them to take care of my mind-controlled friend.

Suddenly, a set of fast-maneuvering tanks approached below us. When the hatch opened, Danielle revealed herself together with some of the finest foot soldiers as her bodyguard. There's also the medic team, so I immediately landed with my dragon and delivered the fatally-injured dragonoid Emy that is suffering from third-degree burns.

"Take care of her, Danielle," I said. "Take care of our troops too. I'll be going on ahead and find the people we're looking for."

"Si Senor," Danielle said. "We will be right behind you. Sir Jerick Fachias already garrisoned the castle and he's storming his way through inside. I know he's strong, but he might need your backup."

I nodded and then turned away. Now facing at the Elysian castle, I poured my magical energy to my Nexus Booster Dragon for her to use as her nitrous and fuel. Blue jet flames were released from her boosters as we surged forward with extreme speed.

We left the battlefield as we rushed in midair with a speed breaking the sound barrier. It only took us eight seconds until we finally reached the Elysian Royal Castle. From above, I can see that Jerick Fachias and his Quasar Dragon has dug up a hole, probably using a Quasar Blast. He went straight to the dungeons to rescue his friend Kevin. 

"Activating Partial Dragon Form," I muttered as I held my chest. At that moment, my Nexus Dragon immediately reshaped herself into her human form Serena, who is still equipped with dragon wings and tail. Serena caught my hand before I could ever fall from a height of fifty meters. "Serena, wait here. I'll go with Sir Jerick and we will siege the castle from underground up to the top. You take a watch on whatever or whoever may flee from the castle."

"Roger that, Master Senpai Xen!" Serena made an energetic salute. Then her grasps on me loosen, dropping me towards the foot of the castle.

At the very foot of the royal castle are regular Elysian soldiers armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers. When they saw me dropping from above, they immediately and indiscriminately fired their weapons towards me. 

But with the help of my futuretech glove, I spawned a wide shield to serve as my landing gear and barrier from the bullets and rockets. I crashed at the foot of the castle with an explosion, wrecking the cemented soil and launching all weak soldiers up in the air. There are three unlucky soldiers that were splat due to my awesome drop crash, and now there's blood and flesh all over the area.

A large metal door is the very entrance of the Elysian Castle. There are fully-armored royal guards watching all over the place, but they are no match for a dragon knight like me. All it took for me is to snap my fingers, and swords magically stormed towards them, obliterating them all. Tomato sauce painted the very entrance of this castle.

"Knock knock!" I shouted with a smile on my face as I reshaped my futuretech glove into a gigantic gauntlet. I used this weapon not to knock at the metal door, but to punch it. The metal gates went flying as I made my explosive entrance. "I'm fucking home!" 

The moment I made my first step to my home country's castle, I was caught by a surprise attack. Three White Ghosts wearing heavily-armored Eskimo suits and tower shields rammed to me. These guys are killer Juggernauts, one of the three main branches of White Ghosts. They surrounded and triangulated on me that I got my body squeezed by their pinning shield.

"Surrender now, terrorist!" One of the juggernauts White Ghost said. "You are now... wait, Xenon!?"

This voice, I remember him as fine as he remembers me. "Wait, are you perhaps Wilber?"

"Xenon!?" The other juggernaut muttered. "Is that really you!?"

"Dante, I knew you'd be stuck as a White Ghost!" I answered back to the familiar face.

"Xenon, it's me, Rusty!" The third juggernaut introduced himself. "It's been so long!"

"Yeah! Nice to meet you again!" I happily said. I noticed that their ramming and pinning on my body loosened, so I'm all free to move now. With a single snap of my fingers, sword spawned from the part of their shields that were pointing at them, making them suffer from multiple ruptures. 

"Ack!" One of the juggernauts cried in pain. He tried to talk to me as he endured the injury of having his limbs impaled by swords. "They... They are right about you, Xenon… You really are a traitor!"

"You will pay for this Xenon!" The second juggernaut said.

"I'm going to kill you and give your head to His Majesty! You have millions of bounties on your head!" The third juggernaut protested.

"Yeah, right. Bye-bye." I waved to my Ex-Co-White Ghosts as I rushed towards the staircase leading to the underground. I carefreely left those three dragonoids to bleed to death without the intention of helping them out. Those thee idiots are the big bullies among the White Ghosts and they used to mouth badly of me and my friends. I don't have any slight intention of sparing them at all.

I feel bad that some of my acquaintances really do think that I'm the villain here. I can't blame them for thinking that way as I really am the villain, but they should have known that the greater evil is the emperor and empress that they served.

The underground part of the castle has so many lefts and rights, but I already familiarized myself in this place since I was a child. I could still remember clearly that I and that fucking Eldritch used to play hide-and-seek in this gloomy dark place, not knowing that this is the home for all torture activities. We also used to play with skulls not realizing that they're actually real. This shit is so fucked up that I wanted to redo my childhood.

When I reached the dungeons, I finally saw one of the things we were looking for. At the very front cell, there is Major General Valesmith, completely malnourished and full of skin injuries. Beside him is a rotting skeleton that has a familiar set of rockstar clothes on it. I don't want to think about it, but that remains must be of Rius'.

Jerick and his dragonoid wife Colly is attending Kevin, treating his wounds with a first aid kit. However, Kevin's status is not going well as he's lost all his strength. His eyes are barely opened, and it gives a sign that he'll be dying the moment he closes it.

"Kevin, stay with me. Don't try to sleep! You're looking good!" Jerick lied to comfort his friend. 

Even with his sugar-coated words, anybody who gets a sight of Kevin Valesmith would immediately conclude that he's a dead man. His arms and limbs are crushed, his skin is rotting even if he's still drawing breath, and all he can mutter is a weak whistle from his mouth.

"Xenon! The fuck are you doing!? Call for a fucking medic!" Jerick shouted, venting all his anger to me. Then he immediately pressed his face to his best friend and pampered him with convenient words. "Kevin, hang on. You're doing good, okay! You're doing good. Help is on the way."

Mustering all his remaining strength left, the dark-skinned Major General smiled at his best friend, with his eyes blazing with willpower. He tried to answer, but his vocal cords have completely rotten.

Suddenly, Kevin started to cough out black blood. The dark ooze started to crawl out from his nose, ears, and eyes, and then the last flames of his life faded as his heart stopped beating.

"No, no, no, no!!!" Jerick cried out loud. "Kevin! Hey! Kevin! Wake up!"

Kevin is not waking up. Jerick knew that, but he's in denial. I can't blame him for that as I would react the same way if it happens to my best friend too.

"Jerick, let's go."  Colly gently grabbed his husband's arm and tried to pull him away from his best friend's corpse. Even Colly knew that there's already no hope for Kevin to survive. All persons who can use magic will conclude the same if they saw what was going on in Kevin's body.

Kevin Valesmith was already affected by the Heartstopper Curse when we arrived, the only difference is that its effect is delayed. His heart already acted as a timebomb for himself, and it is destined to go off the moment somebody tries to rescue him.

This kind of dark trick, I only know one person who can do this. Michael Eldritch.