'The heavens truly are smiling upon me today,' Prince Lowell mused as he looked at the hundreds of teenagers that had grouped up together in order to defend themselves from his personal army.

Aside from Henrietta and Iris, there were other ladies whom he had tried to seduce in the past, but all of them ignored his advances. He could not do anything about it because he was afraid that the factions backing them up would strike back at their kingdom, so he held himself back.

However, right now, with his army blocking the only path of escape, and a Ranker by his side, he could just make sure that there were no witnesses that could expose the thing that he was about to do.

"All the ladies, step forward," Prince Lowell ordered. "I am giving you one chance at survival. Me and my men promise to take good care of all of you. Resist, and we will make sure to break your limbs and drag you away by force. Either way, you will be leaving with us whether you like it or not."

The young ladies who belonged to the Six Kingdoms gritted their teeth in anger after hearing Prince Lowell's threat. They had already heard how debauche the blonde prince was. Even if he didn't take them for himself, the men serving under him would take them by force, making them their playthings.

"A-And the men?" a teenage boy with light-brown hair asked. "What about the men?"

Prince Lowell smirked as he shifted his gaze to the person that spoke up.

"The men? Of course we will let you guys go," Prince Lowell replied. "But, that will be on the condition that all the ladies come with us peacefully. If they resist, we will have no choice but to use force and kill all the men. Surely, you girls don't want that to happen, right?"

"Cut the crap!" Henrietta shouted. "Don't listen to him! He doesn't have any intention of letting any of you guys leave this place alive! He won't allow any witnesses to bring news back to our factions!"

Prince Lowell chuckled. Henrietta was right. He didn't really have any intention of letting any of the men leave this place. He just wanted to give them false hope in order to have his way, but due to the Purple-haired beauty's wakeup call, the teenagers whose faith was wavering returned to their senses.

"Dear me, do you need me to help you handle these commoners, Your Highness?"

Esmond, the D-Ranker who was assigned as Prince Lowell's personal bodyguard, stepped forward. His mere presence made the teenagers take a step back due to how powerful the aura he was releasing to suppress all of them was.

He had auburn hair, and seemed to look like someone in his early forties.

"Just make sure that none of the ladies are hurt," Prince Lowell said. "Especially Iris and Henrietta. Do I make myself clear?"

"Of course, Your Majesty." Esmond bowed respectfully before shifting his gaze to the two beautiful ladies that his Master had set his eyes on.

The members of the Serenity Guild all stepped forward in order to protect their Guild Master, and Vice Guild Master from the Ranker who was eyeing all of them with ridicule.

They knew that they had no hope in defending the two important ladies of their Guild, but since they were going to die anyway, they would rather die fighting.

Esmond took slow, steady steps, making the defenders feel their heart tremble inside their chest. The Ranker was clearly taking his time to savor the helplessness and despair of the teenagers.

He wasn't a talented individual, but he was very loyal to Prince Lowell. Because of this, the Prince rewarded him and pooled his resources in order to make him a Ranker. Since then, he had taken part in doing the dirty jobs to ensure that the blonde Prince would be able to have his way with the women he had set his eyes on.

However, just as he was about to massacre the members of the Serenity Guild, he disappeared from where he stood and directly appeared in front of Prince Lowell.

"""Dragon's Breath"""

Lux knew that the Ranker's first priority was to defend the Prince who was mounted snugly on top of his Forest Wolf. Because of this, he decided to aim his deadly attack in the Prince's direction with the intention of killing him.

"Impudent!" Esmond shouted as he blocked the attack using a barrier.

The beam attack tried to push him away, but Esmond didn't budge from where he stood. The Power of a Ranker wasn't something that could be overwhelmed so easily, which made the teenagers who saw this grit their teeth in frustration.

A moment later, the Dragon breath ended, leaving the ground nothing but molten lava in front of Esmond.

"Y-You dare to kill me!" the Prince shouted as he pointed his finger towards Lux in anger. "Esmond. Cut off his arms and legs but don't kill him! I will personally torture him later!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Esmond shouted. "Boy, you should have just stood and watched. I would have given all of you a quick and painless death because I don't like bullying children, but since you dared to hurt, His Highness, I will make you pay for your insolence!"

Without another word, Esmond took a step forward and reappeared a few meters away from Lux.

Summoning a spear in hand, the Ranker slashed towards Lux's arm. Although there were two clones standing beside the Half-Elf, Esmond was able to tell which one was real, making him focus on the red-headed teenager's body, targeting his right arm.

A resounding crack reverberated in the cavern as Edmond's spear delivered a powerful blow.

Lux, who was the target of Esmond's wrath, stood rooted to the ground as a familiar puppet stood in front of him, taking the brunt of the Ranker's attack.

"You don't like bullying children?" an aged voice filled with anger said. "A Ranker targeting children? What a joke. I've seen many people like you, and all of them have suffered the same fate."

Lux's eyes widened in shock as he looked at the old lady standing beside Iris.

"G-Grandma?" Lux stuttered.

Vera smiled as her fingers moved in an erratic manner. Behind her, two puppets charged towards Esmond and delivered two powerful attacks that sent the Ranker flying.

"You old hag! Who are you?!" Prince Lowell asked. "Do you not know who I am? How dare you stand in my way!"

Vera ignored the Prince and glanced in the direction of her grandson.

"Lux, protect Iris," Vera ordered. "I'll take it from here."

Lux, who had mostly recovered from his shock, nodded his head and ran towards his fiance, standing in front of her. He summoned all of his Named Creatures, as well as his Skeleton Army,so they were ready to fight at a moment's notice.

Esmond, who received Vera's blows, frowned because in that single exchange, he was able to know that his opponent was weaker than him. But, aside from that, he had also understood what he was facing.

"You're just an Avatar," Esmond stated. "Your real body is not here."

Vera smiled and nodded her head. "That's right. But, what about it?"

"It means that I will destroy you, and ensure that none of these children leave here alive."

"Oh? Aren't you worried that the Six Kingdoms will find trouble for your Kingdom after I return?"

Esmond snorted. "Since it has already come to this, do you really think we have the option of turning back? Besides, once my Master has played with all the girls and gotten them pregnant, the Six Kingdoms will have no choice but to settle this incident with a compromise.

"That girl over there is the daughter of a Saint. Unless he doesn't care for her life, he will not do anything reckless."

Vera narrowed her eyes because her enemy had guessed correctly that she was merely using one of her puppets to protect Iris remotely from Solais.

"Even if I'm just an Avatar, you will not be able to defeat me so easily," Vera replied as more puppets appeared behind her. "Also, my granddaughter is too good for the likes of your scummy Prince. After I'm done with you, I'll castrate him and feed his body to the fishes."

Prince Lowell glared hatefully at the old woman who was getting in the way of his plan to turn the ladies into his s*x slaves.

"Shut up, you old hag!" Prince Lowell shouted. "Esmond, kill her! The rest of you, kill all the men, and capture the women! I don't mind if they are injured, just make sure that none of them are killed!"

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Esmond replied before charging at Vera with his weapon radiating a deadly glint. Clearly, he wanted to finish the Avatar right away, so that he could help his men in ensuring that none of the teenagers got away.

"Lux, I'll leave the rest to you," Vera said before clashing with Esmond. Her goal was to keep the Ranker away from the teenagers and allow them to mount a counter attack.

A moment later, a free for all commenced between Prince Lowell's army, and the combined forces of the Six Kingdoms.

The teenagers were completely outnumbered, and there were also two Initiates among the soldiers that were attacking them.

Screams of pain, anger, and frustration spread inside the cavern as the teenagers were cut down one by one.

They had no problem fighting against the Apostle-Ranked Soldiers, but the two Initiates were taking advantage of the situation to kill the weakest links in the teenager's defensive formation, breaking it completely.

"Too easy!" one of the Grade-A Soldiers shouted to taunt the helpless teenagers who were getting pushed back. "Is this the best that you can do, you braargh!"

A sharp blade pierced through the back of his neck, creating a bloody hole, ending his life in a heartbeat.

A few seconds later, six more soldiers fell on the ground dead, without knowing how they died.

Beside Lux, an opened black coffin floated, radiating a crimson glow.

'You're not the only ones with Initiates,' Lux sneered in his mind.

During the chaos, he had summoned his two strongest fighters in order to backstab their opponents. Sid and Scarlet were both assassins, so it was quite easy for them to take advantage of the messy situations in order to thin out the enemies that were overpowering the teenagers who hadn't fully recovered from their dungeon expeditions.

Asmodeus and Lux also used their Skill, Animate Undead, raising those who had died in the battle to fight for their side.

"Necromancer!" one of the Soldiers shouted before his dead comrade grabbed his leg, preventing him from moving.

*Clink*

After a resounding clink, the soldier's head fell off his body, as Keane delivered his one-hit attack with great precision.

With the Undead using themselves as the meat shields in the conflict, the teenagers who had almost lost all hope, were slowly, but surely, able to stand their ground, and resist the enemies that outnumbered them in both quantity and quality.

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