Karil set off from his palace in a different direction than the one his son and granddaughter had taken, thinking about who would come to chase him after what he had done. He was certain he would be pursued from every side, but he did not know who would take on the task of capturing him.
He only wished that it would not be Forn. True, she had failed to capture Zeus, but that did not affect her position much inside the Empire, for she had been sitting on the crown princess's throne for years, and none of her siblings had been able to displace her from her position. This alone proved the level of power she had reached, and rumors say that she had reached the strength to fight a young dragon with her own power.
When he thought about that, he prayed in his heart that he would not meet her on his escape route.
A few months after he left, moving in the opposite direction from his son, he sensed something strange around him. He stopped moving forward, gripping his sword's hilt, ready for any stealthy attack. But time passed without anything happening, so Karel spoke aloud:
"Come out, I already know that you are here."
And after a few moments of saying that, he looked to his right, and a few meters away, behind a huge tree, a person he knew well appeared. As soon as his face fully showed, he spoke and said:
"How is Elena doing, Karil?"
When Karil saw his face and heard his voice, he knew that it was his in-law, Loran, the duke of the Duchy of Ezmaril, which is famous for using magic. There had been great enmity between him and Karil long ago, when his sister—whom Karil had married—died while giving birth to his son. He always believed Karil was the reason for his sister's death, and since that time he had harbored hatred toward him.
When Karil saw him, he knew he must fight a big battle to get rid of him.
All he replied to his question was:
"You never even saw her before, so how can you ask about her?"
When Loran saw the sword in his hand and heard the way he spoke, he smiled and said as he raised his hand toward him:
"Do you think you have become able to face me, old man?"
And as soon as he finished speaking, a huge ball of fire shot toward Karil. But Karil did not draw his sword from its sheath until the fire was about to touch him. Then he drew his sword, reinforced it with his aura, and cut through the fireball that was about to hit him.
And he did not stop there, but strengthened his whole body with aura and charged quickly toward Loran without speaking to him, for he sensed that Loran was trying to delay time until the rest of the pursuers arrived.
Loran saw Karil rushing toward him, and he knew that the latter had realized he was trying to buy time so that he and his group could surround him. But Loran did not care about Karil's advance toward him, for he used his magic to fly high and create distance between them.
While he did that, he asked him the question that puzzled him, and said:
"What made you act with such foolishness, Karil?"
And when he saw that Karil was not focusing on what he said and continued to attack him, he knew he would not get an answer, so he focused on escaping from him and delaying him until the others arrived to capture him.
But Karil's attacks continued to increase, and Loran could no longer evade them. He raised his hands toward the sword approaching him and summoned strong winds with his magic to deflect the sword off its path. But he miscalculated the strength of the sword and the aura around it, and the aura touched his chest, leaving a long wound in it.
When he felt the pain in his chest after moving away from the sword, he touched his chest with his hand and felt the wound the aura had left. He was shocked and surprised that Karil still possessed such power.
And when Karil saw his distraction because of his wound, he took advantage of the situation and raised his sword high, filling it with aura to his maximum limit, and then launched a cutting strike that pierced through everything in its path—ground, rocks, and trees.
When Loran saw the incoming attack toward him, he knew he could neither block it nor avoid it, so he took out one of the jewels he had and crushed it angrily while saying:
"You will not be able to escape, Karil!"
And he disappeared after leaving his words behind, and the cutting aura struck the place where he had been just moments earlier, leaving a deep scar in the ground he had been standing on.
Karil saw Loran disappear and heard his last words before he did so, but he did not care about that, nor did he care about Loran escaping from him, for he knew it was extremely difficult to kill one of the four dukes of the empire, as each one of them possessed secrets and trump cards up their sleeves.
He looked briefly at the place Loran had been in, then set off on his way to escape from the pursuit that would follow him. For after using his power, he knew that all those who were chasing him must have sensed his battle with Loran, so he hurried to another place immediately to be able to slip away from his pursuers.
And while he was running away, it crossed his mind that as long as the Duke of Ezmaril was here, then surely there were also people from the other three duchies. Karil began to speculate who could have come from the other duchies, and how many people had arrived using tracking and teleportation magic.
But he quickly snapped out of his thoughts, for he saw in front of him four young people who looked young in age.
The archduke stopped briefly behind a huge tree to process what was happening, for from their clothes, their hair, their eyes, and the aura around them, he knew that they were from different duchies.
He never imagined that the duchies would send youths whose strength was not yet complete to capture him, so Karil grew very angry at what he saw, and he drew his sword in anger and decided to teach the duchies that he had not become an old man yet.
When the youths — three males and one girl — were talking and discussing being sent to capture the archduke, the girl with golden hair spoke and said:
"Do you know why Princess Forn ordered us to search in this area?"
A young man with red eyes replied to her:
"That is not important, what matters is that she ordered us to capture the archduke."
Then a young man with purple hair spoke and said:
"Right, what did the archduke do for the empire to turn against him like this?"
And when the purple-haired young man wanted to continue talking, he was interrupted by the warning of the black-haired young man that frightened them, for he was the only one who sensed the danger, and he said:
"Be careful… enemy attack!"
When the purple-haired young man heard the warning and wanted to look around, he couldn't see anything before the sword pierced his chest.
When the young man saw the sword penetrate his chest, he was unable to do anything, for the aura stuck to the sword had destroyed him from the inside.
And when he felt that, he knew he would die, but he wanted to see the face of the person who stabbed him with the sword. But he could not see, for the sword lodged in his chest moved quickly upward, piercing through his spine and reaching his head, and he died before seeing the face of the person who killed him.
All of that happened in a matter of moments.
When the black-haired young man saw what had happened, and looked around to see the others not moving from fear, he shouted loudly and said:
"Be careful… he is coming toward us!"
When the two young men heard him, they regained some of their composure and stood behind him, taking defensive stances.
When Karil saw what they were doing, he laughed and pointed at them with his blood-stained sword:
"Do you think you can withstand my attack?"
As soon as he finished his words, he rushed quickly toward the black-haired young man, and when he reached him he attacked him with his sword, but the sword was not strengthened with his aura.
When the black-haired young man saw the fast attack, he tried with extreme difficulty to block it with his sword, but he managed to survive and stopped the sword that would have cut off his head.
When Karil saw that he blocked his attack, he said:
"Good job, boy, you managed to block my attack but—"
As soon as he said that, he strengthened his sword with his aura a little, making the young man in front of him fly away and crash into a large rock.
Then Karil said, mocking his weakness:
"You haven't even awakened your strength yet, and you want to block my attack!"
And he focused on the other youths and said to himself that he must hurry and finish them off before someone else arrived.
He didn't care about the black-haired young man, for he had been severely injured, and Karil knew he couldn't escape, so he decided to get rid of his companions first. He walked quickly toward the boy with red eyes, coating his sword with aura and heading toward him.
But he felt something in the sky, so he looked up and saw giant eagles wanting to attack him. Karil smiled and said:
"Oh, boy with the red eyes, it seems you're from the Duchy of Astragard, and you have indeed awakened your strength, but unfortunately your fate is to die with them."
He raised his sword high and strengthened it with aura, then rushed toward the red-eyed boy, launching a cutting aura toward him. While it wasn't as strong as the aura he had sent toward Loran, it was enough to get rid of the boy in front of him.
The boy in front of him had used his power of controlling creatures and controlled the eagles in the sky and any other animal nearby to block the attack, but he couldn't stop the approaching aura. Any animal he controlled to protect him was destroyed by the cutting aura, and he could not withstand the attack.
When the aura reached him, he shouted:
"Damn it, I—"
He didn't finish his words, for the aura cut him in half, and his deformed corpse fell to the ground.
Karil smiled and looked at the girl, finding her trembling in fear and crying in terror, and he said to her:
"Sorry, little one, you must die with them."
When he said that, he sheathed his sword and walked toward her without caution, for she was a member of the Duchy of Valera. The duchy was known for their holy power and healing ability, and it was rare for any of them to be skilled in combat. So he approached the girl calmly without being wary.
When the girl saw Karil approaching, she wanted to run away but couldn't move from her place until he stood in front of her. And when she saw him before her, she wanted to beg him to spare her, but she was a step too late.
Just as she wanted to plead, Karil raised his hand and pierced the girl's chest with his hand, reaching her heart, and the girl died instantly without showing any expression or defending herself.
When the girl died, Karil finally looked at the black-haired young man who was dying, and moved toward him to kill him and leave. He reached him quickly, and looked at the dying young man on the ground who was struggling to survive.
When the young man saw Karil, he said to him while looking into his eyes:
"Don't worry, boy, I'll spare you from the pain you're in."
Karil drew his sword and raised it high to end the young man's life, and he was truly about to kill him, but a strong feeling of danger beside him made him instantly abandon that and take a defensive stance.
But he was a little late, for a sword from his side filled with golden aura pierced his chest, creating a large wound.
When Karil felt the wound, he used all of his aura and strengthened his body with it to survive the sudden deadly strike, and he shifted a few meters away.
Then he breathed heavily and looked at the one who made the surprise attack, and his face trembled as he recognized him, and he said to himself:
"Damn it… it was a trap!"