Chapter 1211 (1/2)

Lady Iellaya couldn’t control her own mouth. Despite the fact that she made serious efforts to close it again and again as she drifted down from the battlements to the ground below, it remained open. Her will seemed to be split into two portions, the primal mind and the thinking mind. She continued to release a mixture of shock and terrible grief in the form of a keening wail. The primal mind was slowly collapsing as she looked at Abiodun’s body. Landing on the ground, she took several staggering steps forward to his side.

There had been a moment when the Nether King attacked that Lady Iellaya had felt a bit of existential dread; even while relying on Randidly Ghosthound to take care of some of the load, they had been very close to being overwhelmed by that attack. They simply weren’t the same tier of existence as the Nether King. Some quick calculations had informed her that even with Randidly’s impressive resilience, it would not be enough.

They would be overwhelmed. They would die.

Yet, at that moment where the Great Rift was rolling swiftly forward and the stone ground beneath them was cracking, there had been an inexplicable sense of comfort that touched upon Lady Iellaya. The weirdest certainty that everything would be okay had been there when she needed it. With that certainty, she had found the resolve to continue. Her image had held against the Nether King.

Now it was clear that the sudden bit of space she had sensed wasn’t a coincidence. Someone had forcibly inserted their body in order to buy a little bit of time for her camp. Even as that terrible noise ground against her senses, she had noticed the slight effect that individual had.

And who else could it have been but Abiodun? The man who had been her first and strongest supporter. The man who she had, ages ago, told that she would conquer the world for him. And he had believed her. The man who would know when he needed, more than anyone else could ever hope to rival.

Why did I send you away? Why didn’t I think about your safety when the Nether King’s attack came? That primal mind inside of Lady Iellaya continued breaking as she arrived at his side and kneeled beside him. His stony exterior was cracked revealing internal organs that were reduced to a soup-like mixture. With trembling hands, she reached down to lift him up off the cracked ground. The Great Rift loomed ominously above them, shedding no light on their final moment together.

Abiodun’s eyelids fluttered. Of course, Lady Iellaya knew why she had not thought about Abiodun in those chaotic moments. He should have been away from the battlefield and retrieving the representative of the Xyrt Brigade. There had been so much distance to cover to fulfill the important mission that would finally give her an advantage over Lord Miln. So why was he here…?

Yet before Lady Iellaya could ask the question, Abiodun stirred again. Even as his stone body cracked and oozed far too much blood for Lady Iellaya to doubt how this would end, his eyes focused immediately on her. A smile slowly stretched across his face, revealing shattered teeth. “I’m glad… I made it back. It’s selfish but… even if you no longer need me by your side… I wanted… to see you. At least for me, you always were…”

“Of course I still need you,” Lady Iellaya leaned forward, the words tumbling out of her throat and across her tongue faster than she could speak them. Her hands were trembling as her instincts screamed for her to tightly grip hip, yet she forcefully restrained herself from worsening his wounds. “You were always my-”

“If you had truly needed me… you wouldn’t have sent me away,” Abiodun spoke with a gentle bleakness that left Lady Iellaya unable to reply. There was a dark finality there that was so large that Lady Iellaya didn’t dare to face it. Not when her emotions were already so chaotic. And sure, she had grown in strength recently and she had sacrificed so much to reach this point, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t need him.

“Your wounds…” Lady Iellaya licked her lips. “If Randidly comes down quickly-”

“Even now… you cannot lie to me, my Queen…” That strange, bleak smile remained on Abiodun’s face. It filled her will dread.

Lady Iellaya pressed her lips together and looked at Abiodun’s broken limbs. It was honestly a miracle that he had managed to receive only these injuries after enduring the Nether King’s attack. It was because his body could only block a small portion, and hadn’t attempted to spread itself out and cover an entire fort like they had. Yet that small portion became just enough for them to endure.

And the thought of losing Abiodun filled Lady Iellaya with fear.

At the same time, another part of Lady Iellaya whispered that what she was feeling now was just sentimentality. With her current power, how could Abiodun truly be of use to her? Losing him would actually change very little of her capability.

Some things aren’t all about capability, Lady Iellaya bit her lip hard enough that she tasted the coppery tang of her blood. It’s about the promise I made to the people who follow me. And this is a failure. I failed to protect my greatest supporter...

As she was engaged in this inner struggle, Abiodun spoke again. “...yes, exactly. You see it too. How your future… should be much brighter than this. You need to move on from me. But still… My Queen… Hey… do you… remember… that first day we met…?”

There were tears in Lady Iellaya’s eyes. This couldn’t be happening. She was sobbing, her voice once more slipping out of her mouth before she could control it. So she could only nod to Abiodun’s question.

So many lives had been sacrificed to raise Lady Iellaya while her world was in the vast gap of time of the Third Calamity, where energy was extremely difficult to find. At some point, there weren’t enough villagers to sustain her any longer. As a teenager, she had led her few remaining tribe members in a crusade against Abiodun’s tribe in order to plunder enough energy to grow.

It had been a civil affair, all things considered. They had picked champions. It was simply the way of there world. All understood this. If they did not fight, both would die. At least they would save one village. So the fourteen-year-old Iellaya had stood opposite a forty-six-year-old Abiodun in a circular sand arena. Right before the match started, Iellaya had perfunctorily made attempts to press her unruly feathers down so they didn’t stick up in every direction.

Abiodun had smirked.

They had fought without pulling their punches. Their blows were aimed to maim and tear.