The sheer size of the red dragon’s fire was double what Damian’s hellfire was — it also hit with a lot of force — but it was flames, no true hellfire. The deep red of the Emperor’s fire was getting pushed back by the much more powerful, concentrated beam of blinding white-gold hellfire that had parts of his own soul mixed in it.
The battlefield had mostly been decided by now, yet many were still fighting here and there. Two of the empire’s three Transcendents abandoned their fights and quickly flew and ran in the giant dragon’s direction. The hellfire had slowly pushed back the most powerful of the Emperor’s flames and landed on its dented red head — burning the most fire-resistant being in the known world. Only then did the Emperor transform back and quickly fly around to dodge the beam of molten fire.
The two Third Rankers of the empire also reached near their Emperor finally. Just at that moment, the hellfire also ended, and the blinding light slowly dimmed down to reveal three silhouettes high above where the hellfire was released. Also, a high mountain had appeared from out of nowhere in the middle of the battlefield. Surrounding all that were five giant men?
The three of the empire could finally focus and see clearly after a few seconds — three smaller silhouettes were flying: Damian in the middle, Sam and Vidalia on his sides. The mountain below was made of ice, on top of which were Lucian and Einar.
All five stared down at the three of the empire, their blades ready in their hands. And the giant silhouettes were five giant golden replicas of Damian, all wielding their swords as well.
What will it be? Will the guy back down seeing some sense, or will the region of Sanctuary expand to become the biggest kingdom among all three?
The Emperor gritted his teeth and looked down. Guess no new land today.
The Emperor sheathed his sword; his left shoulder was scorched, the clothes tattered.
“I apologize for my actions,” the Emperor said. “You can do whatever you want with them.”
Damian did not respond and just kept staring at the guy. The Queen of Eldoris finally arrived with her elf guard, asking Vidalia what was going on. After dealing with the Demon King, she had gone to heal the alliance’s seriously wounded soldiers.
When the silence lingered for the better part of a minute, the Emperor finally added,
“What will it take?”
“What do you think the value of three lives is?” Damian asked.
“The lives of our enemies you save, even though you know nothing about them, even at the risk of possible war? And my one mistake is death?”
Damian flew down, the others following behind. Landing on the solid land, looking in the eyes of the so-called Emperor, he said,
“The hate for demons has blinded you, Yong Sheng, just as it has blinded all these fools who are dying for no reason. Without their main leaders and their strength, they are done for. It’s over. I told you I will send them away — just cool your head a little. You are afraid they will return for you all? They will if you kill their innocents.”
The Emperor looked down, his face a well of emotions. “They have killed too many of my people. They made the women and children run day and night through this damned desert..”
Damian held the guy’s shoulder gently. “And they have paid for that by losing all their men and leaders. If we drop to their level, what difference remains between us and them?”
The Emperor’s whole body was shaking, but finally he calmed down, exhaling, then nodded in acknowledgement of his words.
Most of the fights had already stopped, the alliance army gathering all around them to see what was happening. Still, some men away from them were still going at it. Damian controlled his five light golems to lift their swords up and then loudly buried them back in the ground. The loud sound pulled the attention of all to the five light giants, if any still had not noticed them.
Damian flew high up till he could see all of the battlefield clearly; all the demons had either died or been captured. Only three were still alive — two whom Einar and Sam had spared and restrained, and one that was faced by Mindseer and another beastmen transcendent. That female demon was also in the big steel handcuffs.
Enhancing his voice to the maximum he asked,
“Is there still any point to this? Stop this nonsense — all who put their weapons down and surrender will be spared of their lives — on that I give my word. All those who fought today will be punished, but your people don’t need to go through that.
Surrender and accept the punishment for your crimes against the laws of mankind. Your people will not be imprisoned or punished — I am Runebreaker, the second Keeper of the Sanctuary. For us, all those who come to seek shelter are always welcomed, even if it is the followers of chaos.
Surrender and your families here and from the island shall be relocated to a place free of any humans, elves, or beastmen. There they can live in peace; there no one from us will ever harm them. There you can start again — this time free of the shackles of your past.”
He was no politician and had no idea how speeches were given, so he chose to say the truth, simple and clear in a way they could understand. It seemed to work, as one by one thousands of demon soldiers, looking from the dead and rotting remains of the chaos dragon to their own Transcendents, finally stopped pushing forward and let their weapons go. Their fate was sealed, but if there was hope for their people to survive, even if it was a lie, they would have to take it.
Such was the cruelest mistress of them all, called hope.
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