The bodyguard leader trembled violently. When his eyes opened and he saw his surroundings, he looked around in astonishment for the duration of a breath. Then, a rapid destruction began in his body; Maria's soul, which had been trying not to drain her child's life force with her willpower for years, was at work.
Before it took thirty breaths, the young bodyguard had turned into a pile of bones inside the leather cover.
The soul, finishing its job in front of the eyes of those watching what was happening with amazement, was slowly gliding over the eight-sided star in the middle. Unlike its first exit from the body, the soul's energy was calm and just as familiar.
"Maria, my darling, this is you, isn't it?"
Niko was the first to react; just as he practically smelled the scent of his wife whom he took into his arms and embraced, the gray-haired man shouted with hope.
"Yes, my love, I couldn't even imagine that I would see you again."
When Niko, unable to withstand the storm of emotions he experienced, collapsed on his knees, Fernandez, who started walking towards Maria's soul crying with sobs, shouted, "Sister!" Every step of the tall man was timid but big; when he approached the symbol, a voice brought him to his senses.
"Don't you dare step inside!"
When Nafız, whose face had turned completely white, looked at him with blood-red eyes, the grieving brother would come to his senses. Although people weren't aware, the female orc maintaining the ritual was having tough times.
"Who did this to you, my darling!"
Niko on the ground was also shaken by Nafız's voice and came running to Fernandez's side.
"Should this have been the first question the man I loved all my life would ask when he saw me?"
Maria certainly knew who the culprit was, but she had made up various excuses not to tell. The soul of the polite woman, speaking with her brother and husband for about a hundred breaths, suddenly turned her back. Her daughter Eftelya was slowly opening her eyes; Maria, unable to overcome her desire to talk to her, left the two men and glided towards her.
"My beautiful daughter, I apologize for what I made you suffer all these years!"
Since Maria bound her soul to her daughter without being subjected to torture, she wasn't filled with violence and ambition for revenge. She had always restrained herself not to harm her daughter, but still, the pains the young girl suffered were quite a lot.
"Mother, you are the person who endured this torture to protect me. You forgive me instead!"
The meeting of mother and daughter was taking a heart-wrenching turn. Maria hadn't spoken to her much while living as a parasite in her daughter's soul. Since every attempt at communication put an excessive load on the victim's mind, the grieving woman had called out to her daughter only in very important moments.
"Say goodbye to your mother, Eftelya!"
Nafız, whose face showed that her life force was being drained, shouted to the young girl with a weak voice.
"My daughter, do not pursue revenge. Living your life is the best gift you can give me."
Maria repeated the sentence she said to her daughter in every fit of rage all these years. Although it gave her pain, the young girl had gotten used to her mother living inside her, and evidently, they were really parting ways now.
"Goodbye, Mother!"
When Eftelya's words ended, Maria's spirit form looked at the tear-soaked faces of her brother and husband, blended into nothingness, and disappeared. While everyone was shaken by the burden of experiencing a great event, Nafız couldn't stand it any longer and collapsed where she stood.
Tonight, the residents of the city had gone to their beds as usual; perhaps none of them were aware of what happened, but the fuse of what would happen in the coming days had already been lit. No matter what Maria said, the minds of the two men burning with anger would not change. The leaders of two of the three largest noble families of the city had entered a path of no return.
In the gladiator school, dinners were eaten, and everyone had retired to their corners after the fatigue of the day. Alyon had moved to the cage rooms with purple alloy bars along with the others after his first fight.
"We made fun of you when you came, but you proved us all wrong; you're tough, orc!"
As Alyon stayed among these men, he started to take the pulse of the environment better. The gladiator school was like a small orc tribe, a place where the strong ruled the weak. Currently, he held the title of the history-making orc and had the right to speak equally with the others.
"No problem, but how much longer do you plan to live in this vicious circle?"
When the question ended, laughter broke out in the wide space where the cages were; the senior gladiators gave the same reaction every time they heard this question. They laughed because laughter was the first defense mechanism humans developed, the only dam standing in front of the despair inside them.
"What can we do, orc? When even your honorable tribe sells its kin as slaves, can you really think there is a salvation?"
When the blonde man with huge muscles sitting next to him spoke, the voices were cut like a knife. While every word of this sentence was true, the pain it gave to hearts was just as intense. Alyon wasn't surprised by the situation; once a man bowed his head, it was very difficult to make him hold it up again.
"I will tell you only one thing. If you want to see good days, hold on a little longer and do not die!"
When the tone of the giant orc's voice reached ears, it involuntarily made hair stand on end. The gladiators who laughed before froze this time, and a sprout of hope fell inside them from nowhere.
When morning came and the gladiators took their usual places for training, their sleep-addled eyes would open wide when they saw the change inside the school. The places that remained empty with the departure of the bodyguards for a while were now filled with soldiers in purple alloy armor and full equipment.
"Morrison, gather the gladiators!"
Quintus, entering through the door with two bodyguards larger than the others by his side, shouted joyfully. After the City Lord's order, he had managed to hire bodyguards from the trade city of Nikonya in the neighboring region for his defenseless household and school. How could he not be joyful?
"Girls, the boss will speak to us; get in line immediately!"
When the gladiators lined up in front of their owners waiting grinning from ear to ear at their instructor's voice, Quintus, gathering the bodyguards behind him, began to speak.
"From today on, I am taking back Morrison's authorities within the school. He will continue to live here only as a simple person!"
The fat man, pausing for a while after his first sentence to watch the shape the gladiators' faces took, continued his words looking down from above.
"Mikhael, the head of the bodyguard unit, is the new person responsible for the Agustus gladiator school with full authority. Does anyone have anything to say on this matter?"
While the short blond man finished his words, he wouldn't neglect to press the buttons of the angry gladiators. His expectation was for someone to lose control and be punished as an example for the rest. Ten breaths, twenty breaths passed, but the crowd formed by the gladiators was silent as the grave.
Quintus was disappointed; he felt obliged to stir things up.
"Morrison, these are the men you protected at every opportunity. It seems it would be better if we changed their training clothes to skirts."
The fat man was hitting the gladiators where it hurt. Everyone had accepted their instructor as a father figure watching over them. Finally, a person who had been in the school for a long time stepped forward, unable to endure it.
"You short-legged fatty, how can you see yourself superior to us despite earning money off our backs!"
Here, what was desired happened! Quintus's plan to provoke the gladiators by using the bond formed between them and their instructor had worked.
"Catch that heedless one quickly! Mikhael, time to prove yourself; I expect a creative punishment from you!"
The environment froze; while a group of soldiers walked towards the shouting gladiator, no one, including Alyon, could decide what to do.