Chapter 416 - The Fall Of Perun

"What's going on?"

Fredek and the soldiers looked up at the ceiling as the ground shook. Light flashed as Perun's purple seal appeared and disappeared like a heartbeat going wild. 

"General! It's dangerous here," Midas informed him as the shaking of the ground became more frequent and stronger. 

Fredek paused. Based on what's happening, he knew that something bad had happened— and it's connected to the king. If not, his seal would never be uncontrollable like now. But if that were the case, it would be tricky to leave the place as Perun was supposed to be the one to teleport them back to the surface. 

He was thinking on what to do when a huge circle bloomed from the cavern wall and he knew immediately what to do. 

"Gather all the wounded and go through the portal. We're all going now!" He raised his fist and signal the captains to usher their teams towards the doorway that appeared. 

Stribog's portal. 

Now, he was sure that something happened to the king and he looked grim. But it was not the time to ponder about things. It was best to get the soldiers out of there as soon as possible before they all got buried alive. 

The captains immediately ordered the troops to mobilize towards the portal with Rubic and Horgall in the lead in case there's something at the other end. Each of them grabbed a wounded comrade and led them towards the doorway towards the surface. Fredek and the rest of Alinea's team remained. They checked out the other areas to see any who had been left behind. 

As for the dead…

Although there were those who had lost their lives in this expedition, it was small in number compared to what was expected. They mostly perished during the fight with the four generals. However, a life lost was still not a good thing. Sadly, since it's an emergency, they couldn't linger to collect the dead. They offered a silent prayer to those who succumbed, wishing for them to find their way to the Elysium Field. 

"How about General Alinea and His Imperial Majesty, Ivan?" Midas asked as he looked at the direction where the two disappeared to go to the Black God's lair. 

"They are on the way out as well. We should take care of the people here,"Fredek answered. 

It was at this time when the tremors increased a notch and the shaking increased and larger and more debris started crashing down. Fredek, Midas, and Lucius started moving to destroy the falling debris lest they hurt the soldiers. 

SMASH! CRASH!

Nebulous clouds of smoke and debris barred their vision and Fredek released his wind to blow them away. They continued on for a while until the last of the soldiers stepped into the portal.

"General, let's go now," Midas called out. 

Fredek was still busy getting rid of the falling stalactites and so both Sven and Lucius grabbed him fast before jumping into the portal. It was so timely since after then entered, the whole place gave in. 

When they emerged on the surface, they were at the makeshift camp just in front of the Black Cavern. The earthquake continued and the cavern looked like it was going to crumble. But that didn't really attract much of his attention. He and the others instead looked at the two forms that were fighting each other in the midair. 

Of course they recognized Kresnik. But their eyes were wide in horror upon recognizing who Heaven's Flame Emperor was fighting against, although fighting was not exactly what they should call it. It was more like the other one was on berserker mode, attacking Kresnik without much thought or strategy. It was as if the goal was just to kill whoever was in the way. But the Flame Emperor was not fighting back. He was mostly blocking and making sure that the attention of the enemy was only on him. 

"No way…"

The shy albeit a little clumsy young lady who was the king's wife now looked like a Goddess of War incarnate. Her hair that she always tied in a neat knot now swayed freely with the breeze. Her eyes glowed with scarlet light while her body was wrapped in a very thick miasma. 

Harbinger of Catastrophe…

In the legends, it was told that the Harbinger or Catastrophe was a woman with eyes the same as Czernobog's but twice his power as she had the blessing of the Goddess of Avarice and Fortune. 

But wasn't that supposed to be the Princess Alinea? 

Something was terribly wrong. Fredek pivoted on his heel to run towards the tent where he knew he could find Stribog and the King. However, despite already expecting that something had happened to Alistair, he was not prepared to see the sight that had welcomed him. 

The King lay in a makeshift bed with an unusual pallor and eyes closed. Beads of perspiration adorned his face and body. The rise and fall of his ċhėst was irregular as if breathing was painstaking. His upper torso was bȧrė except for the bandage wrapped across his ċhėst. Based on how it was done, Fredek reckoned it must have been a serious wound. 

Also…

The bandaged part might have stopped bleeding, but in contrast to the king's white clothes and pale skin, dark smoke festered and seeped out of the dressing on his ċhėst. He didn't need to think as to how the king was injured or who did it. The answered was very obvious as Alistair would never put his guard down except for his wife and child. 

Yuuka— or better yet, Shitara did it. 

"My Lord, what's going on? How did the lady end up like that?" 

Stribog who looked rugged pressed his lips in a grim line before letting out a frustrated sigh. "We were wrong."

"Wrong?" Fredek couldn't understand. It was Perun who had thought about the plans. How could the King of Heaven make another huge mistake?

Stribog let out a sarcastic snort. "We made all the preparations and plans based on Fanya and Czernobog's previous actions," he said as his hands balled into fists. "But we didn't take into account that father was also in this. Rod let this happen. My brother…Perun has fallen..."