Chapter 406: Last Stand (2)
"Phoenix..."
Aegon looked toward him, then to Seris, and finally to the corpses of both the princess and Adriana.
He pieced together what had happened in an instant.
"...So my foolish sister is finally dead, huh?"
The prince walked forward calmly, while the others followed, examining the fallen.
All except for Daemon, who silently kept his distance.
Dawn and Selena showed clear signs of sorrow for the comrades they had lost.
The only one who survived that battle was Seris—and even she was barely hanging on.
Staring down at his sister’s lifeless form, Aegon Valerion showed no reaction.
He didn’t flinch. He didn’t look away.
Instead, he lifted his eyes toward the distant horizon.
And after just a few seconds... he let out a sigh and wore his usual smile once more.
"So, Phoenix... what now? What’s your next move?"
Up until now, every decision they’d made had led to disaster.
And now?
What choice could they possibly make when an entire army was closing in on them?
The portal had been placed, quite absurdly, at the very center of the continent’s western side ..
The exact place Beatrice had commanded all her forces to converge upon from the beginning.
As if she knew the final act would unfold there.
The Ultras armies crushed the earth beneath them, marching in from every direction.
The elite students were completely surrounded.
Phoenix and the few who remained standing stared into the distance—at the final enemy they had no choice but to face.
Thousands of soldiers...
All of them against a handful of elite students who had barely survived their individual battles.
The enemy continued to draw closer, and the tremors of their advance sent a chill down every spine.
Then, the others began arriving—one by one.
Lara Croft came first, barely carrying Snow on her back. Then Frey and Ghost—the last to make it.
As they looked at one another, their expressions were a storm of mixed emotions...
Especially when they saw the state of Snow and Danzo...
And Frey—alive, against all odds.
But there was no time to process any of that.
The earth beneath them was still trembling—unceasing—warning them of an enemy they could not possibly withstand.
Among all of them, Frey walked forward, his face darkened beyond recognition.
He passed Snow Lionheart, unconscious after his body had been consumed by dark flames...
Then paused beside the body of Sansa Valerion, the princess.
She looked so different now from the last time he had seen her... so empty, so drained of life.
Frey said nothing. His face remained unchanged.
But his eyes... they said everything.
Beneath that calm facade, something was building inside him.
Something ready to explode.
Only Ghost, standing just behind him, could see it.
As for the elite class, they stood frozen in place, staring at the colossal army that had surrounded them.
"What do we do now?"
Lara Croft, gripped by fear, gave voice to the question that haunted them all.
Terror and hopelessness had seized them...
Until Phoenix stepped forward—and unleashed his blazing aura.
Flames erupted around him, drawing every eye.
"Everyone, group up here. Don’t engage. Not until the end. Wait until I open a path for you."
He stepped forward, fully prepared to fight.
"Our only chance of survival... is to break through one of their weaker flanks and carve a way out. That’s our only hope."
It was a simple plan.
The miracle of the Sunlight bloodline would charge in alone—Phoenix would take on the army himself to open a path for Frey and the others to escape.
Even now, he wanted to protect them.
Which made Aegon sigh.
"You’re seriously going to face them alone? You’ll be dead long before you open any path."
He was stating the obvious.
Phoenix’s plan was suicidal.
But Phoenix didn’t stop. He increased the pressure with his aura, forcing them all to fall in line with his will.
He spoke with cold finality:
"This is the only way. Don’t act on your own."
The Sunlight heir stood as an overwhelming presence—forcing his will upon them.
All but one.
"No."
The voice that answered him carried a weight far greater than Phoenix’s.
A chilling voice, resonating with raw power.
The very air around them began to tremble.
Frey Starlight stepped away from Sansa’s body and slowly walked toward Phoenix.
His aura surged—equal to Phoenix’s own—shocking the Sunlight heir to the core.
He couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing...
Frey, drawing both his dark blades, spoke with unwavering resolve:
"I’ll fight them."
With a shadowed face, a suffocating killing intent erupted from within Frey, making everyone around him flinch instinctively.
It was the killing intent forged through the slaughter of a thousand enemies .. one after another, without pause.
"I’ll kill them all... one by one!"
Frey was determined to spill blood.
After everything he’d been through... after all the horrors and losses that had piled up one after another...
He had finally reached his limit.
Something inside him was on the verge of exploding.
He couldn’t remain still anymore.
He wanted to slaughter the bastards who had done this to him.
He wanted to destroy them all, to feed the raging fire that was devouring him from the inside... to forget ...even just for a while .. all the grief that had shattered him.
He wanted to return to that state... the one from when he killed a thousand men before.
And now, that suffocating aura of death radiated off him like a storm.
This was his escape—the only way to flee the cruel reality pressing down on his soul.
If it meant forgetting everything, even temporarily...
Frey was more than ready to kill. As much as it took.
Now he stood face to face with Phoenix, their chests almost colliding.
With an aura equal to Phoenix’s, Frey made it clear .. there would be no stopping him. Not this time.
Especially not when he was this strong.
"We’ll fight!"
Frey repeated, and at last, Phoenix gave in—realizing that Frey’s strength would be a vital force in the coming clash.
"Then we break through together."
Phoenix sighed, accepting the inevitable.
More stepped forward, ready to join the fight, offering their help.
But the one who moved first was someone no one expected.
"Wait!"
Barely standing, leaning on his sacred sword...
Snow rose, using a single arm, his body burned and broken ...but his golden eyes still shone with unwavering light.
"I’m coming too."
His words sent Lara Croft into a panic.
"What are you doing?! Can’t you see your condition? You can’t even kill an ant like this!"
She yelled in disbelief.
But Snow’s gaze remained fixed on Frey Starlight alone.
And Frey understood him immediately.
With swift steps, Frey approached Snow, his hand glowing with an intense violet light.
"Then prepare yourself."
Placing his hand over Snow’s chest, Frey injected SSS-ranked Aura directly into his friend’s body, reigniting his strength from within.
Snow channeled that power instantly into his blade, covering himself with the radiance of Holy Light.
Then, without warning, his wounds began to close—one by one—and a new arm began forming where the previous had burned away.
Frey had given him a terrifying surge of Aura, fully replenishing the reserves he had drained in his fight against V.
And yet...
It had barely scratched the surface of the titanic reservoir of aura within Frey.
He then turned to face the others.
"Anyone who wants to fight—step forward!"
Now that Snow was fit to fight again, Frey pointed at the army ahead.
"If you want to survive, then fight for your life!"
Unleashing his Aura, Frey began empowering everyone around him, one after another ..those who willingly stepped forward.
Each of them was shocked by the sheer magnitude of power he shared.
But in the end, that didn’t matter.
What mattered... was the enemy standing before them.
With Phoenix at the front, and Frey and Snow by his side...
The elite class advanced, preparing for one last battle against the Ultras army...
An army that had already taken so much from them.