Meanwhile, in the grand reception hall, Kenji sat across from King Karui, nursing a glass of spiced wine. The atmosphere was stiflingly quiet until a sudden, deafening volley of enchanted mana-bullets shattered the stained-glass windows, peppering the stone room in a blinding barrage of explosive light.
"Your Majesty, down!" Kenji shouted, instantly springing up to shield the monarch.
To his horror, King Karui remained seated, a wide, grotesque grin splitting his pale face as the bullets whistled past him.
A trap!
Kenji's instincts flared. Possessing superhuman reflexes, the Hero effortlessly ducked beneath the volley of magic-enhanced rounds. Slamming his fist into the marble floor, he raised a massive cloud of dust and debris to blind the unseen gunmen. In the same motion, Kenji lunged forward and delivered a heavy, open-palmed strike to King Karui's chest to knock him out of the line of fire.
The impact sent the monarch crashing violently into the stone pillar behind the throne.
CRACK!
Kenji froze. King Karui's neck had snapped at an impossible angle, his skull caving in against the masonry yet no blood pooled on the floor. The skin tore like dry parchment, exposing a horrific lattice of wood, iron gears, and glowing mana-wires beneath. It was never the real king; it was a sophisticated puppet construct.
Realizing they had walked straight into a death trap, Kenji drew the Holy Sword, smashed through the outer palace wall with a single heavy slash, and leaped out into the courtyard to find his companions.
At that exact moment, Hegemon and Lily were hurrying down the outer corridor toward the reception hall to warn Kenji.
"Hegemon! Lily! Fall back !" Kenji bellowed from across the courtyard.
He was too late. From the elevated battlements, a squad of hidden Frost Sentinels unleashed a synchronized, zero-second barrage of heavy armor-piercing mana-rounds. Before Hegemon or Lily could even raise a barrier, the high velocity projectiles tore through the air.
THWACK! THWACK!
Kenji's eyes widened in absolute, agonizing horror as both Hegemon and Lily were decapitated instantly, their bodies collapsing limp onto the snow-covered cobblestones.
SNAP!
Hegemon's soul was violently dragged back through the temporal stream.
He collapsed onto his hands and knees in the narrow service corridor, gasping for breath as a phantom agony seared through his neck. Blood pounded in his ears, and his vision blurred with tears of raw, lingering pain. The death loop had shifted his new save point was set merely thirty seconds before the ambush, just down the hall from the courtyard.
"Hegemon?" Lily asked, catching his arm as he stumbled. She immediately recognized the horrified look in his eyes.
"The courtyard... is a kill zone," Hegemon choked out, forcing himself to stand despite the agonizing ghost-pain racking his nervous system. His teeth gritted so hard they bled. "Kenji is fighting a puppet king. The Sentinels are waiting on the battlements with heavy mana-rifles. If we step out there, we die instantly."
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and looked at Lily with fierce determination. "No time to explain further. Follow me we're taking the underground utility tunnels to flank behind Kenji!"