Trying to remain as calm as possible, Arnold did not move an inch. Sighing ever so lightly while closing his eyes for a moment, his heart wasn't even capable of feeling any form of turmoil right now; not because of the alcohol, but because when he took a glance at his friend's body a while ago, something caught his attention in such a unique way, it felt like his friend was trying to show it to him on purpose.
"While I have no idea where such a foolish rumor may have originated", began Arnold, "I guarantee you, my son has died the day of his birth. Rather, making a parent say such a thing", deliberately choosing to display a bit of anger, he placed his hand on Loreus' right shoulder plate, "even I would become angry."
Arnold's voice became colder than most people had ever witnessed and his magical essence generated a pressure where even the knights that accompanied Loreus indoors to carry the barrel of wine, took several steps back as if retreating.
"Is that so!" Grinning from ear to ear, Loreus put his hands on his friend's shoulders, too. "Is that so", then, as if his earlier smile had been nothing but a lie, his grip tightened and even Arnold couldn't help but show on his face just how uncomfortable he was feeling from the strength Loreus applied on his shoulders.
"Then why did your daughter tell us that her brother still lived and was prospering in that tower of yours?"
Huh? Arnold could not understand what had been told to him just now. My daughter? Was he trying to probe his old friend by deliberately picking something that would inevitably rile him up? And what did he mean with "Us?" - could it be-?!
"So, once more, my old friend - and pick your words wisely. Did you kill your son? If not, then your son has to die, right now. If yes, then your daughter will die, here and now, for she would have committed an act akin to treason by lying to me and to His Majesty, and without any good reason to back her up whatsoever."
Loreus' words had been as cold as ice, almost bordering on killing intent. Meanwhile, Arnold was not yet capable of understanding the current situation. Purely intellectually, he understood everything that Loreus said, but emotionally, his mind was incapable of accepting anything that was just shared with him.
Why would his daughter do such a thing? Arnold could not reach an answer; no, he did not want to. As a child, the two of them had been inseperable, but as time passed, Miranda stopped visiting Armalius at some point, only showing her face to him when her parents dragged her along. Other than that, she chose to stay away from her own brother, yet whenever she was asked for a reason, her reply usually had been along the lines of "I just feel so sorry for elder brother, my heart pains whenever I see him, so please do not force me", displaying an expression of sadness so fitting, none ever doubted her words - instead, they understood her all too much. And especially because she was still a young child, did they accept the current situation without trying to pursuade her to change her view for the time being.
"Was it all an act? A lie?" Unconsciously, these words slipped out of Arnold's mouth. Loreus' eyebrow rose a bit, seemingly interested in his friend's words.
"So, your daughter lied?" He concluded, whilst not fully convinced just yet. "My friend", began Loreus, his expression softening a bit, "no matter the truth, as long as you allow me to help you, we can solve the issue." A ray of hope had been presented to the confused Arnold, yet he did not dare to rely on said hope, as he still remembered the object he saw on Loreus earlier.
"Yet be prepared to say farewell to one of your children today, for whatever the truth is, one of them will die, it's the King's Order, after all." His words, his gaze, they turned empty, cold, at the last few words, as if his entire soul had been cleansed from any emotions the moment the King and his order had been brought up.
I knew it, thought Arnold, clicking his tongue internally. "So you, too, lost to that old fossil, huh, pal?" Smiling wrily whilst realizing the truth, Arnold almost felt relief surging up within him.
Meanwhile, Loreus had a vein pop up at his temple while hearing Arnold's words. "What did you call His Majesty just now?!" His voice so low, it almost turned into a growl, Loreus slowly began placing one of his hands on his sword hilt while applying even more force on Arnold's shoulder with the other.
"Nothing, just the same way we two always did whilst making no fuss over how much we hated that relic, which was pretending to be a normal human." Mockingly probing his friend once again, untypical for his usual way of acting calm and collected - aside from when he dealt with his family -, a bright smile appeared on Arnold's lips while his right fist splendidly connected with his opposite's nose, creating a sound that, truly, could not be described as anything besides 'bone-breaking'.
Loreus, a mountain of a man - owning muscles that could surpass steel in hardness and weapons in strength -, groaned and stumbled back, releasing his grip on Arnold's shoulder in the process, who then, in turn, jumped backwards and immediately ordered the surrounding servants to run and tell his wife to flee.
Yes, he did not mention his daughter. He realized that Loreus was telling the truth, for the thing he saw earlier, a small black chain wrapped around his friend's neck, would force him to never tell any lies about nor related to the 'owner' of that chain - thus, what Loreus said earlier, was the truth: While he knew not how she accomplished it, his daughter, Miranda, betrayed them and informed Kheljera's king of Armalius' survival. For what? That, too, he did not know and he had not the luxury to lose himself in theories right now.
"To think he got you so badly, Lori, that's just pathetic", Arnold spat out these words, a mixture of mock and anger interweaving neatly at that moment. "I always believed you were stronger than this, but seems like that guy made you one of his loyal lapdogs quite effortlessly, what a shame!"
Enraged at the words he heard just now, Loreus began ordering his knights. "Inform the troops outside, tell them to surround the mansion and to burn down the tower!"
"I won't let you!" Shouted Arnold, the temperature dropping rapidly at his words. When the knights, who had been shocked over seeing their commander stumble back from one mere punch, snapped out of their short-lasting disbelief, they immediately turned around and tried to run for the door - only to find it blocked by a wall of ice.
"Sir, we cannot leave, the ice---!" Just when one of the knights was trying to inform Loreus of their situation, they saw him shatter a window with his bare hands.
"Then split up and leave through a window! Think for yourselves for a moment!" Loreus didn't hide his anger, shouting loudly at his subordinates for their inflexibility and dependence on him.
"I will handle Arni-", he paused, forcefully. Pain was spreading through his head, it almost felt like his very skull was slowly splitting apart. Loreus groaned and while he was pressing his hand against his head out of reflex, Arnold saw a chance for himself to act.
"I already told you: I will not let you inform them!" Raising his right hand into the air, countless weapons made of ice materialzed and mercilessly rained down on the two knights as well as his old friend. Again and again, axes, spears, lances, arrows, swords, all kinds of weapons kept manifesting - glowing pale blue and releasing icy steam into their environment - and hailing down on the three people.
Blood painted the environment in a scarlet hue, its smaller dots and larger splashes visible in the imminent vicinity. The merciless assault stopped after a while when Arnold lowered his hand a bit. After the icy steam had settled down a bit, a single frozen statue came into view, with some shredded bits of armor and pieces that resembled human limbs and flesh, encased in ice, lying around it.
"Of course that wouldn't kill you." A crack appeared on the statue while Arnold said these words, sighing lightly while shaking his head. "I am not naïve, I've known you for decades by now." The crack deepened and spread slowly across the whole body made of ice.
"But I don't need to defeat you right now, I only need to stall you." In his right hand appeared a pale blue rapier, its basket glittering, its blade steaming from its coldness, continuously manifesting crystals made of ice around it, which, drawn in by gravity, kept falling to the ground - and each time these crystals made contact with the ground, they broke apart like raindrops, only leaving behind droplets of water.
"The Blessing of Blue Ice", one of the two natural blessings Arnold held. Even for the Glaciano Dukedom and Glacies Viscounty, who specialized in birthing and training people connected to the blessings of ice, this was a rare gift only seen once in the entire history of the kingdom of Kheljera.
The wielder could control ice at will and infuse it with the properties of water. Liquid ice could not be broken apart like its solid version, yet one did not simply drown in water either, as one essentially froze to death upon contact when a wave of ice crashed down upon them like a raging ocean wave.
If it was a pure assault of solid ice? A fire user with the same level of ability or above, could melt it - or at least protect themself from its freezing properties by enveloping their body with their own flames. But if they tried the same measures against a wave of ice created by Arnold, their fire would be extinguished by the water properties present within the ice, only to then freeze to death immediately.
Arnold strengthened the grip on his sword and raised his other hand into the air once more. No chant was needed, there were no words to activate his magic, nothing - thanks to a gift he acquired after getting his hands on a Scroll of Chantless Magic many years ago, he only needed to form the image in his mind to project his magic into the physical world; yet to direct his thoughts more adequately, whenever he had the leeway, he often used hand gestures to increase the accuracy of his projected magic.
"Just enjoy taking a swim in a Glacies exclusive pool, filled with the coldest water in existence." Liquid ice filled the whole entrance hall up to the ceiling, - the window broken by Loreus previously, spilled only a tiny bit of its contents outside, before freezing up to the point that nothing could flow out of it anymore.
A bizarre sight had manifested; if one had to describe this: it was akin to seeing the surface of a frozen ocean raging around as if it was in the middle of a storm; waves that should be solid, were moving and crashing around, freezing anything they came in contact with. Arnold's ice was both liquid and solid at the same time, sometimes leaning more towards one side than the other, depending solely on how he desired it to be. And in the midst of all this, stood the splendid statue of a muscular man, unmoving, but with an expression that could rightfully be called as true anger. Ripples formed in the waves of ice alongside the revebration of a loud beat. Cracks spread across the floor, only for the ice to flow in there, filling and freezing them up. This process kept repeating for multiple minutes, whilst Arnold's gaze was locked on the statue in front of him, unmoving just as much as Loreus had been, yet as if not daring to harm its master, his body remained unfrozen.
Fixated on the moment when his opponent would break free, Arnold dared not to lower his sword nor to break his concentration. This was not a battle of strength for him, it was one of endurance - he had to gain as much time as possible for his wife to flee and for Arduo to grab Armalius and run away with him as far as they could. Then, and only then, would he either try to leave this country himself - or if he was unable to, he would, at least, drag his own daughter into hell with him.
I won't let them kill you, thought Arnold. I still love you, so consider it my parental duty to bring your life to an end before Lori or that rotten King do that. That would be much more humane than the torture 'His Highness' enjoys to inflict on others.
To achieve that, he had sent something up the stairs connected to the entrance hall, which had slowly been making its way to the room of his beloved daughter.
I need you to die before my dear Almalia has even the chance to take your side and be fooled by you as well!
In truth, even he did want to believe all of this was a lie and if not for the chain on his old friend's neck, he would be running to his daughter and protect her with his life.
Yet he also knew how easy it was for the heart of a noble-born child, or even an adult, to be corrupted by the upper society it was born into, - after all, he saw this happening many times himself; even his own family had not been free of this until Arnold took over as the head of the Glacies family, but he was not so naïve to believe that simply because he had broken free from the cursed chains of nobility's shameless way of life, that his own offsprings would tread upon the same path he chose so many years ago for himself.
Arnold was, once more, grateful for his blessing, because his ice was capable of freezing any tears his eyes wanted to release all this time. Steeling himself for what was yet to come, he focused himself once again on Loreus and his spell, pushing away any and every thought for the time being. After all, only fools indulged in the luxury of worry when facing a frightening opponent.