"What is going on?!?" Michael asked, clearly able to tell that something was wrong.
The Elemental Empress was staring at the flames she devoured while expressing her gratitude. The questions surfacing in his mind were simple; who was she grateful for, and who served her?
The answers were just as simple as the questions.
"The Baron of Fire died. He sacrificed himself to grant me his power before it was too late. He hoped that I could survive what's about to happen," The Elemental Empress explained as if it was obvious.
"What are you talking about??" Michael asked, his voice filled with frustration.
Michael was irritated and frustrated. He had a faint inkling of what was about to happen, but he couldn't help but feel irritated.
"Survive what?" He asked, taking a stride toward the Elemental Empress.
While towering above the Elemental Empress, he didn't look like the kind young Lord who wanted to give his utmost to rescue her. Quite the contrary, his eyes and presence were eerie. The Elemental Empress shuddered in fear when she looked up at him.
"I…was not the only one under the influence of a Soul Pact," She said, not daring to answer Michael's question directly.
"What do you mean?" Michael asked even though he could clearly tell what was about to follow.
The Elemental Empress hesitated for a moment. However, the True Link of Loyalty forced her to answer Michael's question even if she didn't want to.
"The strongest Elementals I've created were also forced into a Soul Pact. However, their Soul Pact is different. It was much simpler to ensure that they won't die from the aftereffect when the Soul Pact was established," The Elemental Empress explained, "I…forgot about the Soul Pact and its intricacies since I was too young when I created the nobility…I forgot...until the blazing flames of the Baron of Fire reached me. The flames were shrouded in his memories, so I recalled the Soul Pact applicable to him and the others again."
The Elemental Empress was still sad, but something was different. Michael was not entirely sure what it was, but his bad feeling intensified as more explosions resounded from above. They were weaker and much quieter, but their number was on the higher side.
"Plan B…Of course…If the Elemental Empress can escape the Soul Pacts, someone has to take action to either capture her or finish her off…" Michael mumbled to himself.
The Kitsun Lord was not only sly, but also possessive. If he couldn't have the Elemental Empress, nobody was allowed to have her. He would rather see her dead than with anyone else.
"The Baron of Fire sacrificed himself before the Soul Pact could force him to command the Lesser Elementals to self-destruct," the Elemental Empress said what was on Michael's mind using the flaming memories she had just obtained from the Baron of Fire.
"They were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect you. Why didn't they tell me about their Soul Pacts?" Michael asked loud enough for the Elemental Empress to hear, "...They could have warned me."
"They were scared…scared that you would abandon me. Scared that you would be unwilling to help me after finding out that they were under the influence of the Soul Pacts as well," The Elemental Empress revealed meekly, not daring to look into Michael's eyes. At this moment, the Elemental Empress could feel a tremendously heavy killing intent oozing out of Michael. His eyes were ice-cold and his voice cut through the room.
"So these bastards couldn't tell me that they will turn into suicide bombers after I succeed in rescuing you?" Michael growled, his hand lunging forward. He grasped the Elemental Empress' neck tightly and stared at her like she was dead to him.
"Aren't you lucky to have such loyal subordinates? They were even willing to risk my life, and the lives of my people just to save you," Michael said, slowly losing control of his emotions as he heard the sound of explosions ring through the entire cavern hall above them…alongside the sensation of dozens of links of loyalty disappearing.
"If they knew what was about to happen, they should have killed themselves before the situation escalated," Michael bellowed, his presence shrouding the Elemental Empress, "Your loyal dogs are nothing more than cowards. They sought the help of others, aka me, hoping that I was naive enough to rescue you without asking any questions."
Michael laughed dryly, his eyes still as cold as ice, "Lucky you. You found the naive Lord. Aren't you happy?!"
Michael shouted the last words aloud. They resounded in the room, causing the Elemental Empress to shrink – or so it seemed.
He felt enraged that thousands of Lesser Elementals had been ordered to self-destruct through the Soul Pact of the Elementals' Barons and higher beings, yet the Barons and other nobility hadn't been willing to commit suicide to protect their Empress from the aftereffect of their Soul Pacts. They were willing to sacrifice others, but unwilling to kill themselves. They didn't deserve to live after having pushed his loyal subjects into the clutches of death.
Cursing in his mind, Michael wished them to die. If possible, he would cut his taming bond with the Elemental Empress and crush her core in front of her entire nobility. However, the worst was that he hated himself for believing every word the Baron of Fire had said. He didn't even question anything. Michael believed every word of the Elementals just because they had been chained to the walls and tortured for years.
Therefore, he missed noticing that they had been desperate…desperate enough to leave out crucial information that could lead to the death of thousands of his own…
All they cared about was their Empress' survival. She was all that mattered to them.
The only issue was that his army was still in the same cavern hall as the suicide bombers. They were taken by surprise and died alongside the Lesser Elementals, who self-destructed by unleashing every bit of their elemental energy at once after realizing that their Empress was now free.
"Did your idiotic, ignorant subordinates not even think about the possibility that I will torture you much worse than the Kitsun Lord after realizing that your rescue will result in the death of my people?!?" Michael roared, shaking the Elemental Empress.
She didn't dare to move, and Michael couldn't care any less about her at this point. He cursed under his breath and released the Elemental Empress from his grasp.
He turned around, ignoring the Elemental Empress' existence, and began ascending the staircase.
Hundreds of Links of Loyalty had been cut already, and the tremors caused by the thousands of explosions above him seemed quite dangerous. However, all that weighed on his mind was the desire to rescue as many of his subjects as possible. He didn't want to leave them behind. He couldn't, not after realizing they would die due to his naivety.
"I am sorry…" The Elemental Empress said all of a sudden, appearing in front of Michael through a golden sheen. She shrouded their bodies in a golden light, ignoring that Michael pushed her aside, "They just tried to rescue me. I…am sorry…"
In the next moment, the space around them twisted. Michael lost footing and the world began to spin.
He felt nausea and was just about to vomit when the fresh air of the Untamed Jungle swept past him.
The next time he opened his eyes, he saw the entrance of the Elementals Cave. The Elemental Empress was lying next to him with mere traces of energy left inside her body.
Teleporting them outside the cave had used up the entire energy she absorbed from the Baron of Fire, in addition to her last reserves. Just a faint trace of energy was left behind, barely keeping her alive.
"Fuck this shit," Michael cursed aloud as several dozen more Links of Loyalty disappeared.
Michael received the backlash of hundreds of Links of Loyalty getting cut. A fresh wave of pain and anguish hit him whenever a new link was cut. It spread all over his body, causing his emotions to be in disarray.
All of a sudden, the ground on the surface of the Untamed Jungle began to tremble. A heatwave shot out of the entrance of the Elementals cave, mere seconds before searing flames shot outward. Michael was forced to erupt a large Glacicle which he shattered with a thought of releasing freezing mist in the surroundings.
It was barely enough to prevent sustained heavy burns. Forced to continue manifesting Glacicles to keep the flames at bay, Michael witnessed in terror as more Links of Loyalty were cut. He clenched his fists tightly until his nails dug deep enough into his palms to draw blood.
Then it happened.
The Elementals cave collapsed with a thunderous explosion that reverberated through the surroundings. The ground shook violently…and hundreds of Links of Loyalty were cut near-simultaneously.
Michael stopped conjuring Glacicles. He froze in his tracks and stared blankly at the collapsed entrance of the Elementals cave. His heart skipped a beat and his hair stood up to its end.
Death was all that remained inside the Elementals cave. Out of the 1,500 fighters he brought to the Elementals Cave…no one was left alive. 1500 Links of Loyalty had been cut, the remnants of their deaths lingering in Michael's heart and soul.
The backlash of that many Links of Loyalty being cut for the first time at once was not something that could kill Michael. The pain of his injured soul would heal quickly. However, the searing pain in his heart would not ebb for a long time.
Only his Adventurers, Sun Demos, the Demon Monkeys, and his monsters were alive. The vast majority of the army he built up with painstaking effort had been annihilated. The people who trusted him…just died while fighting for their lord, for him and he had been unable to do anything about it.
The Kitsun Lord lost a lot as well, but Michael knew very well that he would have never touched the Elemental Empress if he had known what was about to happen.
Maybe, he would have helped her after ordering his army to retreat. But he would have hesitated even then.
'Fuck fuck fuck!!!!'
Unable to control his emotions, Michael kept cursing in his mind. The flames around him dispersed in all directions before they died down. The next thing Michael remembered was that he stood in front of the Elemental Empress. He picked her up without a care for her well-being and shook her hard.
"You killed my people!" He screamed, despite being fully aware that the Elemental Empress was not at fault.
Michael knew deep down that the Kitsun Lord was at fault…and that it was his fault as well.
The Elemental Empress didn't do anything wrong. If possible, the Elementals nobility could have killed themselves to make sure that no Lesser Elemental would receive the command to self-destruct. However, then again, the Kitsun Lord was likely to have come up with several other plans as a backup to ensure that nobody would be able to get hold of the Elemental Empress – if he couldn't have her.
Michael was fully aware that the nobility acted in favor of their Empress, hoping that at least she could survive. They were probably not even allowed to talk about their Soul Pact and couldn't warn Michael and his people.
However, none of that mattered. All Michael cared about was the fact that 1500 of his loyal subjects died in exchange…for what? A fragile Elemental Empress?
Michael couldn't care less about the Elemental Empress at this point. If he could exchange her to resurrect his army Michael would do so without a shred of hesitation. He would throw her back at the Kitsun Lord and probably add a few presents of gratitude as long as he could resurrect his army.
But that was not possible, and Michael was fully aware of that.
"...It's all my fault…"
