Butterfly Kisses Part 1

Chapter 50: Death to the Monarchy

"I'm...almost...there..." Ruina said between pants. She had been running for a couple of hours now, non-stop, her legs about ready to fall off. 

"Father, please...wait...a bit longer." 

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"Wait up!" Anyma was running out of breath unlike the others.

"No way! You've just gotta speed up!" Penna shouted back because he was the head of the group.

"See anything?!" Maisha, sympathetically slowing down a little for Anyma to catch up, asked.

"If you want some very destroyed fields, toppling buildings and a hint of smoke, you're in luck!"

"So no bad guys?!" Gladios asked, sheathing his sword during Penna's respone.

"Nope!" 

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Despite the fact that the champions and Gladios departed for the castle much later than Ruina, they made it there at exactly the same time, just at different places.

"Should we split up?"

"Yes, but stay in pairs. I'll be going alone." Ikari began running to the nearest spire, looking for Ruina.

"What about you?!" 

"I'll be looking for the princess!" 

"Right...Maisha and Penna are a team, me and Anyma are another. Sound good?" 

"Good enough to me." A strange, red substance (not quite liquid, but not fully solid) reacted to their presence and swallowed the castle's walls, preventing any means of escape.

"That's...unnerving." Anyma stuck close to Gladios' side as the two rummaged around the great hall. Penna and Maisha went up a massive staircase to one of the many libraries.

"Gladios, do you think the princess is okay?" Anyma asked as he pulled up chairs and checked under the tables. 

"I'm sure she's fine so stop worrying so much." The knight checked one of the secret rooms scattered around the castle but found nothing. 

"Not my fault I care so much." Anyma pouted.

"Sure, sure, you and your caring." 

"I have a big heart!" 

Bricks suddenly fell from just outside the great hall, which startled the pair. Gladios immediately sheathed his sword and slashed at a small puddle on the ground. It was a human child but it had been corrupted by the same substance that engulfed the castle.

"They could've still been alive!" 

"He technically was but, by the looks of things, this substance," he poked at it with the tip of his sword, "seemed to brainwash him."

"So it made him a puppet?" 

"Yeah." 

"And you think that's a fair enough reason to kill him?!" Anyma's eyebrows flared up, enraged.

"Exactly." Before Gladios had a chance to turn around Anyma pinned him to the ground.

"The hell is wrong with you?!" 

"Anyma, the sludge was inside of him. There was nothing we could do." Gladios explained, somehow unaffected by Anyma's sudden outburst.

"Maisha could've fixed it!"

"Something must be corrupting your mind too." 

"I'm perfectly fine!"

"Your actions say otherwise."