Chapter 204: Fracture In The Heroes' Party

The sight was an unbelievable one. Everyone in the ruined vineyard was dead silent, heads up and eyes locked at the Prince suspended three feet in the air.

Aethelstan kicked uselessly, his hands clawing at his own throat as Corisande's magic constricted his windpipe.

"Princess, stop!" Deron, one of the first to break out of his shock, yelled. He took a hesitant step toward her, his hand hovering over the hilt of his sword. "Put him down! You're going to kill him!"

"Do not take another step!" Corisande shrieked.

She snapped her glowing green eyes toward Deron, her hands trembling violently as she held the magic.

A shockwave of her green mana flared outward from her body. Surprisingly, the dead grapevines were revitalized by the energy as it pushed Deron backward. "Do not dare get close to me! Any of you!"

The remaining members of the Heroes' Party stumbled back fearfully. They looked at the Elven Princess as if they were seeing a stranger.

"How is she doing that?" Stenya whispered, her eyes darting from the suspended Prince to Corisande's glowing hands. "She... she's a Healer Mage. Since when did Healer Mages use telekinesis?"

"Just what kind of Healer Mage is she?" Vadrian muttered, stepping behind Bromm.

Corisande ignored them entirely. Her furious, glowing gaze snapped back to Aethelstan, who was now turning a blotchy shade of purple under his helmet.

"This is your fault!" Corisande screamed at him, the raw emotion in her voice tearing at the hearts of everyone watching. "Your greed! Your sickening, unbearable selfishness! We warned you, Aethelstan! We begged you to fall back, but your pride couldn't take it! You keep competing with the Summoned Hero and dragging all of us down with you!"

Aethelstan thrashed, his eyes bulging as he glared down at her. "Let... me... down..." he choked out, his voice a pathetic, strangled wheeze.

"You rushed us into a slaughter!" Corisande roared, the bright green light flaring brighter with every word, illuminating the tears streaming down her face. "You led them in blind! Steppard! Ugmar! Jorik! Selor! Calarin! Teson! They are dead because of you!"

She squeezed her hands into tight, trembling claws. Aethelstan let out a muffled, agonizing gasp as the invisible pressure around his chest doubled.

"And Corvell!" her voice finally broke, devolving into a devastating, heartbroken sob. "He was my best friend. He was just trying to save your miserable life, and you got him turned to ash! I will never forgive you!"

Nessa, watching the Prince's eyes roll back, realized Corisande was mere seconds away from committing high treason. The Assassin turned to the Great Scholar.

"Master Omares, do something!" Nessa pleaded.

Omares stood perfectly still. He didn't speak. Didn't raise a finger. He only watched.

"Master!" Nessa yelled again, but the Scholar remained as unreactive as a stone statue.

"Let... go... you... wretch..." Aethelstan gurgled, blood beginning to pool in the corners of his mouth as he struggled against the magical vice.

Even now, suffocating on his own arrogance, he tried to command her.

Corisande's beautiful face twisted to complete hatred. The green light in her eyes blazed like a forest fire.

"Ngyahhh!" She suddenly violently swung both of her glowing hands to the side.

Aethelstan was launched through the air like a ragdoll, and crashed directly into the side of the chariot they had used to travel.

The impact was thunderous. The enchanted silver buckled inward with a horrific crunch. The velvet-lined doors shattered off their hinges, and the four golden-maned unicorns reared up on their hind legs, neighing wildly in panic.

Aethelstan crumpled into the dirt amidst the wreckage of the carriage, completely motionless.

The dust slowly settled over the crushed silver chariot, but the rest of the Heroes were still in shock.

They stood frozen, their hands hovering near their weapons or covering their mouths, staring at the collapsed wreckage and the Elven Princess who had put the Prince there.

"I am going to teach you a lesson, Aethelstan," Corisande declared. She no longer sounded sweet and melodic; she was cold, deadly and spiteful.

Gathering magic into her palms, she started to march toward the ruined carriage.

The others exchanged terrified, bewildered glances.

Bromm swallowed hard, his grip tightening on his axe. Vadrian and Dagna backed away. It defied all logic. She is only Level 15! The numbers screamed in their heads. He is a Level 103 Knight!

The stat disparity between them was a chasm. She shouldn't be able to do anything like this. Yet, they couldn't deny what they were seeing.

Corisande truly seemed to be capable of killing the Prince.

But as she stormed past the Great Scholar, Omares finally broke his infuriating silence.

"Perhaps you have proven your point, Princess Corisande."

Corisande stopped in her tracks. She slowly turned her head to look at him, her chest heaving, the vibrant green light still flaring dangerously in her eyes.

Omares turned to look at her, still blank and unreadable.

"Any further escalation—or worse, killing the Hero—will cause tremors of political retaliation that you cannot control," the Scholar warned smoothly. "An Elven Princess executing the Human Prince in broad daylight? Ask yourself, Corisande. Are you truly going to put your entire race in peril in the search of vengeance?"

Corisande glared at him, her hands still curled into tight, trembling fists. But the Great Scholar's words pierced through the blinding red haze of her grief.

She was a princess, so she understood. She understood her responsibility to her people.

Slowly, agonizingly, the brilliant green light began to recede. The suffocating pressure in the air lifted. Her delicate features softened back into the exhausted, heartbroken face of a girl who had just lost her dearest friend. Her natural, sorrowful eyes returned.

The rest of the party let out a breath of relief. Dagna, didn't seem so pleased

From the center of the crushed silver, Aethelstan let out a rattling groan, shifting beneath a buckled sheet of enchanted metal.

Corisande didn't even look at him. She kept her eyes locked on Omares.

"I am done," she said, her voice hollow but resolute. "I am done with this Heroes' Party. The only person who kept me tethered to this farce is dead."

She narrowed her eyes in quiet thought, then continued. "When I was just a princess in the palace, I wanted nothing more than to be free. To use my powers to clear Gate Worlds, to fight like other Awakeners. But I am still bound. Bound by a crown that only allows me to clear the ones they point me toward, under the command of a coward."

She took a deep breath, steeling her resolve.

"I am going to find the Summoned Hero, and I will try to reason with him. I will beg him if I must. But together, hopefully, we can clear the Demon Gate Worlds. Starting with the ones threatening my kingdom."

Omares looked at her for a long, quiet moment. One might have noticed the shift in his expression.

"You have taken the reins at last," Omares said softly. "If you expect me to stop you, Princess... it might be the very first time you've been wrong."

Corisande looked at her teacher for a second, then she nodded. She finally turned away from the Scholar and broke immediately into a sprint toward the edges of the vast estate.

"Wait!" Nessa yelled.

She tried chasing after Corisande, but when she couldn't catch up, she burst into the shadows to try to reach her.

The courtyard was quiet for a few seconds. Then, the shadows near the edge of the vineyard rippled, and Nessa stepped back out into the sunlight. She was alone.

Nessa shook her head. "She's gone."

A sudden crash of shifting metal drew their attention back to the wreckage. Aethelstan kicked a piece of the silver door away and staggered to his feet.

His royal armor was dented, scorched, and covered in mud. The blotchy purple bruises around his neck were stark against his pale skin.

"Ugh! Unbelievable!" Aethelstan shouted. He glared at the surviving Awakeners, his bruised ego instantly demanding a defense. "She attacked me, and all of you just watched! You did absolutely nothing! My own team!"

He limped forward, waving his arms frantically. "Don't you know how Gate Worlds work?! Most of us are going to die anyway! It's the nature of the abyss we find ourselves in! How is their death my fault?! She lashed out her frustration on me, and all you cowards did was stand there and watch!"

He continued to yell, his frantic, defensive rant echoing embarrassingly across the ruined Sunstone Lands. Bromm, Vadrian, and Dagna simply watched him, their expressions caught between exhaustion, pity, and lingering terror.

Nessa watched the Prince throw his tantrum, her lip curling in absolute disgust.

"I am leaving as well," Nessa announced, her voice slicing cleanly through Aethelstan's shouting.

Aethelstan froze, his eyes snapping to the Shadow Assassin.

Nessa didn't flinch. "I am going to find the Summoned Hero. I am going to find out exactly what he knows about these Demon Gate Worlds, and I will use that information to clear them. Hopefully, with his help."

Aethelstan's face turned red. "Then leave!" he spat, waving dismissively at her. "Good riddance!"

"I'll join you," Deron said, stepping away from the Dwarves and moving to stand firmly by Nessa's side. The Human Knight looked at his Prince with profound disappointment.

Before Aethelstan could even process the Knight's defection, another figure stepped forward.

"I'm following as well," Stenya said softly. The human Arcanist wiped her tear-streaked face and stood beside Nessa.

After the plight with the Banshees, Stenya had learned exactly who was worthy of respect in this party, and it wasn't the man throwing a tantrum in the mud.

Aethelstan was entirely flabbergasted. He looked at the three defectors, his jaw slack, before his gaze darted to the remaining who stayed behind.

The sheer humiliation of a fractured party threatened to crush him, but he forcefully buried it beneath a thick layer of royal arrogance.

His expression turned ice-cold.

"Very well," Aethelstan sneered, lifting his chin. "It is better that the betrayers are leaving early. The Heroes' Party will only be stronger without you."