The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 62: Side-Story, Part 2.

Being in the presence of the king, none of the teenagers dared breathe too loudly. they didn't want to be seen as disrespectful after all, and they were all very timid, with the exception of Ella and Arduin. Even though they both showed due respect, they were not really afraid of the king, he needed them after all.

Deep down, Arduin didn't want to kneel before this old man, but there was nothing he could right now.

"Rise young heroes, no need to dirty your clothes!" The king said with a deep and profound voice. But even though he said this, he didn't really mean it, these people had just been through a tough battle, kneeling on this floor only dirtied the floor, not their clothes. They all stood up respectfully nonetheless, not daring to be slow.

The prince chatted for a while with the king and told him about their encounters in the dungeon, as well as some reports he had gotten from soldiers stationed at the front lines. After a while, the teenagers were dismissed, and they all split up and started walking toward their living quarters.

As they arrived at their living quarters, they all went about their lives like they usually did in this new world, before the moon slowly crept its way up into the night sky.

During the dark hours of the night, the guards of the palace were going on their usual patrols, inspecting every nook and cranny of the palace, making sure no one could make their way inside. But, during this particular night, multiple silhouettes could be seen flitting their way through the large number of shadows created from the dark of the night.

These shadows kept making their way through the courtyard of the palace, before arriving inside of a small toolshed stationed just inside the main gate of the entire palace.

Once inside this small toolshed, the silhouettes revealed themselves. Sitting in a circle on the floor of the toolshed, were ten youths. One of the youths had striking red hair and a confident smile plastered across his face, this youth was Arduin. This red hair of his that looked like it wanted to incinerate the heavens, was actually something Arduin had gotten when he awakened his class.

Originally his hair was actually light brown. As they had all gathered out here in the middle of the night, only God knew what they were up to.

"Are we really sure about doing this?" One of the youths said as he fidgeted around a little bit, obviously a little scared of the whole situation.

"Look, none of you have to do this, but if you're too scared, then I suggest you back out now before it's too late." Arduin said with a stern look in his eyes, this wasn't the time to be playing around!

Even though a lot of the youths were scared and uncertain, none of them decided to back out! This place was way too suspicious after all, and they couldn't just go to war for no reason. Besides, why would they listen to someone who kidnapped them from their original world in the first place?

These people who had summoned them had also ruthlessly thrown away their classmate Leo when they discovered that his class was useless.

Even though none of the people present stood up for him at the time, could they really have done that? Arriving in a new world, faced with people holding immense power, would you really stick your neck out for someone who you barely knew? Not only that, but almost no one had any time to react before they were teleported to the castle.

Leo wasn't actually disliked by his classmates, he just didn't fit in with the class, and after a while, everyone just kind of ignored him. And Leo wasn't really that bothered by it, but he was really bothered by the fact that he was left behind, alone, in the forest, but that is a story for another day.

"Since none of you are saying anything, I take it as though you are all on board!" Arduin said, grateful that there were at least some people in his class that had managed to notice how strange their situation was.

"Breaking out of this place shouldn't really be that hard, but just to be safe, I will be the one to knock out the guards, and distract anyone if things go a little south."

As the other youths heard this, their eyes showed looks of admiration for this leader of theirs, he could have just given this risky job to someone else, but he took it upon himself instead! They had already discussed their plan before meeting up here, and it was actually pretty simple, therefore they all quickly left the shack after having their little meeting.

Even though Arduin said that he would be the one to knock out the guards, he wasn't talking about the guards stationed at the gate, since that was the job of one of their assassins. The guards he was talking about were the ones who would be pursuing them as they made their escape. Arduin would be the one to bring up their rear.

They couldn't be entirely sure that they would actually be pursued, but they all had a faint feeling that this place was pretty disturbing. And staying here would probably bring them all to their doom. Funny enough, they had no idea how correct they were...

As Arduin gave one of the youths a signal, he instantly vanished into the shadows, before abruptly reappearing behind one of the four guards standing at the gate. The guard didn't even notice anything as he slumped over onto the ground with a thump. The other guards noticed this, but the youth had already shifted beside another one of them and knocked him out as well.

After taking out 3 of the guards in the span of a little over a second, the last guard managet to roar at the top of his lungs before being taken out.

"ENEMIES!!!"

The youths all instantly ran as fast as they could toward the gate, with Arduin a step behind. But just as they all took a step outside, a whooshing sound could be heard an inch or two behind them, before something slammed into the ground.

SLAAAMMM!!!

A big cloud of dust rose from the ground, before enveloping the youths. Even though some of them panicked, one of the youths kept his cool and summoned some wind to clear the dust. As the dust particles in the air were swept away, the youths' hearts almost dropped to the ground as they could see a giant portcullis made entirely out of dark-steel dividing them from Arduin.

The youths panicked as their leader was suddenly caught on the other side of the portcullis without any way to get to them. Arduin thought about destroying the portcullis, but before he could get the chance to. He could hear the rumbling of footsteps behind him. As he turned around to look, he could see the 3rd prince arriving with his royal guards in tow. A visible sneer plastered across his face.

Before the prince and his guards arrived, he issued a loud command, loud enough for both Arduin and the other youths to hear.

"Hahahaha, catch these impudent rebels for me, I'll make sure they regret their decision of running away, as well as regret ever being alive!" This accompanied with his slightly sinister laugh, sent a shiever down the youths' spines.

They all realized that their decision to escape was sound, but this discovery only made them panic all the more since Arduin was still separated from them. Arduin hardened his resolve, before shouting a command at his classmates.

"Everyone, run, run as far as you can!" He said, his fighting spirit ignited.

"What?"

"How could we escape without you?"

"Yeah leader, we won't leave without you!"

Even though Arduin was grateful for their loyalty, this wasn't the time.

"I SAID RUN!"

As Arduin shouted this, he started to emit some slight green flames from his body, namely his flames of samsara!

This shout also brought these youths back to reality, what would they accomplish by staying behind? Wouldn't that just waste their leaders sacrifice? As these thoughts crossed their minds, most of them let a few tears escape from the corner of their eyes, before they turned around, and ran.

Arduin, seeing this, let out a sigh of relief before turning around to face Oscar and his guards again. Seeing this youth bathed in green flames before him, Oscar sneered.

"Take care of him quickly, don't let the others escape!" After having barked these orders, he gave Arduin a look of disapproval, before turning around.

Arduin had already come to terms with his fate, and he wouldn't let them catch his friends, not after coming this far, and especially not considering that this prince had shown them his true colours. As these royal guards quickly approached him, Arduin only smiled faintly and mumbled a few words.

As the words left his lips, his aura surged, and his eerie green flames exploded out from within his body with expressive splendor. Engulfing everything in their way.

As the other youths turned back to look at the palace after running a long distance, all they could see was green flames snaking their way towards heaven, Encapsulating the entire capital in their radiant light...