The siege continued, the flaming boulders hitting the outer curtain and some even reaching the inner curtain and castle.

At the third floor, Leona and Fredrick was running through the desolate hallways, not a single man in sight. It gave off a vibe of what’s about to come, but soon it won’t be desolate in a few hours.

Slowly, Leona was recovering her strength for her escape from her brother’s clutches. She knew if she went to her father to try and help him, he won’t agree and order Fredrick to knock her out, she then only thought of saying one last goodbye to her father.

“Don’t worry, Leona, we’re almost there.”

Leona place her hand on her brother's back and silently started chanting in the mage’s language.

“Wind Magic! Air Blast!”

This made her brother accelerate forward, which made him release her sister and in the process, making him slip and fall to the ground, it wasn’t powerful enough to give any significant injury, she only used a portion of it to escape.

As Leona stepped on the floor’s carpet, she immediately took off her damaged light armor as it was only going to weigh her down, and ran to the fourth floor, where her father and first brother were waiting at.

“Oi! Leona!”

She didn’t take any attention on her brother’s calls and immediately left him on the ground, only then, he stood up and took pursuit.

***

The King and Julius continued their fight where both went on the defensive, both knew they were tired and both knew that anytime they were to collapse and fall, with their armor weight and sword, getting fatigued was easy.

“Father, come on.” Fredrick said as he was panting and sweating “Don’t make this any harder, the rebels will see us.”

The King, too was sweating and panting, but due to his old age, he got fatigued faster, he was only pretending to make his son believe he was still able to put up a fight.

“Then let them watch.”

Their swords almost lost all of their edge and were severely damage, as for their armor, both were able to do a significant amount to each other, but the king’s golden chestplate and shoulder pads took most of his son’s attack, as for his son, only wearing iron armor wasn’t as effective as his father, his initial plan was to surprise attack him, not for a dragged duel.

“Old man, I can’t believe you, you were able to hold for a good amount of time but this ends now.”

The king held his guard up, but his son, Julius had a different plan, he raised his hand and at his palm a bright light was emitted, but it wasn’t there to blind the king, it was aimed at the balcony, it was aimed specifically at the enemy.

***

The light was noticed from afar and was even seen up to the enemy lines.

“Baron! The prince gave the signal!”

The traitorous Baron was angered as he wasted a good number of projectiles as the bombardment phase dragged for too long.

“Tell the mages and trebuchets to focus on the balcony.”

“Yes, Baron.”

***

Meanwhile, at the room on where the father and son were fighting.

The father, was confused by his son’s sudden move.

“What are you doing?”

The son smirked.

“I didn’t want you to die a coward, so I’ll let you die as a martyr, enough to rally a suicidal army.”

The father was shocked as he heard his son’s plan, his plan would work, as the remaining loyalist had retreated to the western sector and were preparing for a counter-attack If they were to hear the death of their beloved king, emotions would take their mind.

“You really betrayed the kingdom… and your family.”

The king’s face depressed as he looked at the ground, but he looked back up to his son, asking another question.

“What are you going to achieve from this.”

Julius, lowered his guard and answered his father’s question.

“What else, the throne and peace, not only that but an ally, Litos, they really put up a good deal.”

“But do you think they’ll give you your end of the bargain, they have 70% of the kingdom’s land, they can knock you out anytime.”

Julius then laughed at his father’s reply.

“Did you really think, I, too, can trust them, most of the defected nobles are loyal to me, in our ranks we occupy 60% of their army, if they betray us we can wipe them out as quick as they rebelled on our kingdom.”

“Yo-“

Suddenly both were interrupted by Leona’s voice in the hallway.

“Father! Brother!”

This shocked the king, his eyes were wide open, he thought that Julius might take her hostage and even kill her in the process.

“I can-“

And in the blink of an eye, his son’s sword entered his chest, the other end of the sword was seen through his father’s back, covered in blood.

The king was still alive, he felt the betrayal of his own son and the fall of his beloved kingdom, he didn’t want to see one of his daughters get killed by her own brother, yet, he couldn’t do anything, his body was losing strength.

The king laid his head on his son’s shoulder, he released his sword from his hand and it dropped on the ground, releasing a loud clank. But his son, to ensure that his father didn’t suffer anymore pain he pushed it deeper through his chest, before whispering to his ear.

“I’m sorry, Father, but there can only be one villain in the two of us.”

And then as he finished whispering, the king was no more.

And right on time, Leona reached the room’s door, immediately seeing her father’s dead and still impaled body on his brother’s bloodied sword, as it leaned on his brother's armor. Her brother looked at her with a glare and immediately pulled his sword out from his father’s chest, making his father’s body fell to the cold hard floor.

As he fell his blood started dripping on the carpet, she saw his eldest brother covered in the blood of their own father and her father’s lifeless body on the carpet, bleeding and making a puddle of blood.

She wasn’t able to comprehend what happened, but the two siblings looked at each other in the eye. Until Fredrick joined the seen.

“Leona! We need to go! Did you say your goodbyes to father!”

Leona was petrified by what she just saw, she was unable to answer.

“Leona!”

He looked at the inside of the room, to see what Leona also saw, his bloodied older brother and his father’s lifeless body, he too was in shock.

“J-Julian! What is this!”

“What do you think?”

He didn’t understand what his older brother meant but he placed his hand on his sword’s handle and covered Leona behind him.

His older brother gave a saddened look at him.

“Sorry, Fredrick, maybe some other time.”

His older brother then jumped from the balcony, shocking Fredrick, he tried to follow him but as he walked to the balcony, he saw most of the flying enemy projectiles were aimed and on their way at the king’s room.

He Retreated back to Leona and carried her in the process, she was still petrified unable to move. They ran far enough to the stairs, where an explosion that they weren’t prepared for erupted at the king’s room, destroying the insides of the room, the inferno that it resulted in even made its way to the hallways disintegrating and burning any flammable object in the hallway.

The entire castle soon went up in flames.