Jae had a word to say to the knights and they all followed him into a secluded corner of the room. Genesis wondered what could be so important that would lead their king to speak to them in private, but he was soon to find out.
"Their lives are more important than yours, don't ever forget that. If you see one of your cohort members dying, then don't hesitate for a second, trust in each other and most of all, try your very best."
"Isn't that what we've been doing this whole time?"
Allus asked from the back of the classroom.
"If it was what you were doing from the start, none of you, maybe except Genesis, would be alive."
Genesis felt honored to be the student awarded the golden star but took Jae's words into mind. He wasn't speaking as Jae when the words fluently flew out of his mouth. He was commanding them, commanding them as their king.
A king's voice is not one to be easily ignored it is to be appreciated, to be honored and followed. You are to be devoted to the king and the king is to give his mercy in return.
That was the only time Genesis felt the need for the king.
Genesis and the other knights left the secluded area. Some left with their heads down and others with higher determination to be better.
The knights savoured the little time they had left, as if enjoying a meal after they were starved.
When it was finally time to say goodbye, it was closer to the last week of the war. Five months, gone in a flash of blood, bone and malice. Five months spent slaving away at a creature that might as well rival the Moon in size. Five months of constant terror and hate, those five months changed every person here and some changes were for the betterment of a person as a character and others were for the desperate need for survival of a person's own self.
After all was said and done, they stopped the fun and headed out to slay the last heart of the White Room. The groups journey was tiring. The distance from the last heart to the brain was unimaginable at the scale a person could perceive, Genesis chuckled out of shock. How could this thing have such a huge head?
The group faced trials across the journey, an army of advanced Agents ambushed them, they were unprepared and caught off guard.
The Agents numbers were not expected. They forgot how fast these things could travel and it costed them. The ones at the back were murdered first, their hands reaching out for some form of assistance, but none came, they were quickly absorbed by the Agents their bodies taken by the betrayal of their own minds. Who knew what they had to go through in the palace of their own safety.
The group was too tense to notice the violent tendencies emerging in those who were taken by the horror of the advanced Agents. It was only until a man in the back row attempted to push someone off the long and winding stairs did they know that something was wrong.
The group stopped and excluded the man. A commander pinned him to the wall with the threat of his spear going through the man's heart, they remembered the power of the shapeshifting, evil and extremely violent Agents and they knew that something was wrong.
While the man was confronted, he gave off an erie smile and the rest of the hidden Agents gave off smile that reached higher than their eyebrows. They all morphed back into their Agent form and jumped onto Genesis, tentacles sprawled and swords sliced, as Genesis was sent tumbling off the edge Agents from the deepest crevices of nowhere waited for him to land at the bottom of the spiral stairs.
Genesis's cohort wanted to jump off to get him, but the king trusted in Genesis and could not risk multiple soldiers dying instead of one. So the entire of his cohort raced down the stairs, crawling over each other to save their captain.
Genesis was having the fight of his life below the spiral stairs. All the advanced Agents lunged at him. The second he landed on the floor, his fate was sealed. Genesis was attacked by many tentacles. They had shaved their tentacles at the tip to make them blades.
"Of course these bastards would do that. They would do anything to kill me, wouldn't they."
Genesis said in a slightly angry, slightly sarcastic tone.
Genesis slashed the arriving tentacles at the right moment, his held his hand onto the tentacles, bent down to avoid another blade and stabbed the advanced Agent, leaving its head to merge with the ground.
The rest of the Agents pierced at his armor most of their sharpened sword hands, breaking past the barricade of the silver chestplate. The tentacles pained Genesis in such a way that his howl shook the ground of the flesh. He became more enraged slashing at the Agents who pierced his chest and filled it with holes he leaped onto them killed them, then used their flesh to put the holes back together, each Agent he used to become a bigger jigsaw puzzle was trying to open into his mind but his sheer hate let him keep going, since Genesis would not let the Agents tentacles get anywhere near his head and his chest was constantly regenerating. So they attacked his legs, Genesis tried to reach out and attach another instrument to his leg, but was too slow as the Agent slashed at his hand cutting it off, his only chance of survival shut off just like that.
In a flash of light, Genesis's army charged onwards, one of the commanders sliced off the sword of the Agent pulling it to him and cut it's head off and let it fuse with the ground. They had done the same move Genesis did. They grow up so fast, don't they?
His army overtook the Agents in number and in power. They were like a swarm of bees surrounding little children, which the threat of their venom flowing into their veins. The armies fought each other in a deadly clash of strength and power. The archers up from above were commanded to stand down because a single stray arrow could kill a soldier.
But the humans remained victorious as they wiped the Agents off the face of the spiral stairs. Genesis was laboured in his breathing. It was heavy and it was slowing down.
Genesis looked up as he saw him comrades holding a pile of flesh from the advanced Agents and they put it inside his leg and arm.
The clash of the Agents overwhelmed his mind, so much that he was trying to take his own head off. The people from above watched and Sephina covered her mouth and turned her head away. She could not bear to watch him die like this.
Genesis was scratching his head and blood spilled out and his nails were painted ruby. His cohort asked him to stop and even tried to pull his hands away from breaking his neck. He was howling in agony and he picked up his sword and attempted to slash at his neck, but a soldier intercepted it with his spear and Genesis lashed out on him.
Genesis slashed at the spear, knocking the soldier off balance. The soldier was tumbling towards the ground, but before his back could hit the ugly red floor, Genesis tried to stab him.
His sword hung high the air and he brought it down. His golden sword almost pierced into the heart of the fearless warrior, but his cohort managed to pin him to the ground and put their swords right to his neck.
Even the slightest movement caught the attraction of blood on the soldiers sword. The soldiers grip was firm, hard and steady, unwavering in the fact that if he was let go there would be mass depredation.
Genesis howled and groaned until he finally stopped. His eyes looked up and he was confused on what happened. He blinked repeatedly, blooding flowing from their sword into his hair. He stated that he was fine and he was let go.
Genesis looked up to the eyeing crowd and protested that he was doing better now. The blue team was in a lighter mood at the fact that he was doing greater than when he tried to cut his own head off.
Genesis and his cohort took their time to climb up the spiral stairs and when he finally reached the top, he saw Jae look at him with sorrow in his eyes. Jae quickly turned around to start the climb again but then looked at Genesis and said.
"I am sorry."
"It was truly fine. Your decisions were for the better of our group and I respect that."
Genesis said with a sort of smile forming on his face.
Jae's mouth opened as if he had more words to say, but he quickly turned around and said.
"Onwards."
***
At the time, they finally saw the room of the heart. They pushed against it but the door was too heavy, barely an entire cohort could make the door move an inch. It took the entire force of soldiers who had trained for 5 months to make the door open just enough for them to all filter through.
They saw the heart of the White Room. It was similar to a child. In fact, it was the spitting image of one. Its hair was a deep red. It's skin a pale, cloud similar and ivory white. Its clothes were off wars and constant battle. Its legging were a deep void, gone with color and filled with black.
Its eyes were a colored ginger. Its eyes scanned the room and betrayed the fact that it was scared but didn't do a good enough job for it. Its legs and arms were constantly shaking and jittery, showing the fear of the child. If it wasn't in the middle of the White Room, then one could have been fooled that it was a child.
The child scarily let the words break past the fake barrier of confidence.
"Don't kill me, please. I know you think that I'm evil, but I was taken here by it. It needs me here to be itself. But I don't need it, just let me leave with you."
Allus was the first one to act, holding spear out to reach the child, but Genesis quickly stopped him and looked him dead in the eye. Genesis's sword loomed over Allus's head and the danger was too large for Allus to ignore.
"Take us to where the actual heart is."
The child nodded while biting his nails timidly. Genesis stood behind the child as if to guard the group from any form of unsuspended danger.
The child led them room after room, corridor after corridor, turn after turn. The journey almost seemed like a ploy to reduce their stamina until when they least expected it they were there. The heart stood in front of them.
It had a human shape but in an ugly way, it's face was a lazy description of what a human should have looked like it's noses were in places of it's eyes and it's eyes were it's ears. The only things that looked vaguely human were the shirt, hair and shorts of the creature.
The creature looked like a male who was obese and the Last Heart of the White Room was drinking alcohol and was lying on the flesh made couch.
The sight was disgusting, Genesis repulsed at it until the child said.
"It's him. He is keeping me here. Can you help me?"
Genesis turned to look at Jae and Jae nodded, so Genesis said.
"Yes."
Genesis was keeping the child in a safe position until the obesity looked at them and gave them an erie smile, it was a smile with it's ears and they expanded until they tore, blood spilling and a lot more to come...