The falling blade stopped just inches above Lorian's head.
Lorian was still completely lost in the trauma of Selena's bleeding form, but his stupor was broken when he felt a warm fluid dropped on his forehead. He wiped it away, his fingers coming back stained in crimson. Lorian looked up.
A heavy claymore was dangling mere inches from his skull. Count Leo was stopping the blade's descent with his bare hands, the sharp steel biting deep into his palms. The warm blood dripping onto Lorian's face was Leo's.
"My Lord, please move away with the Lady!" Leo roared, as his muscles were straining against the knight's weight, "I am holding him!"
Suddenly, Lorian snapped back to reality. A volatile, suffocating rage erupted within him. He glared up at the assassin, a look so venomous it frozen the Paladin's soul in terror for a fraction of a second. Lorian's gaze darted down to Leo's waist, where two mithril daggers hung from their scabbards. With lightning speed, he unsheathed both blades and, with all the desperate might in his body, drove them straight through the Paladin's armored boots and into his feet.
The Paladin screamed in agony, as he collapsed to the floor.
Unleashing a primal, bestial roar, Lorian lunged. He tackled the knight, sending him crashing onto his back. Straddling the man's chest, Lorian pinned him down and began repeatedly, frantically driving the daggers into the Paladin's face.
He struck with such blinding frequency and terrifying brutality, his bone-chilling roars echoing across the square, that the entire battlefield froze in utter surprise and horror. The pure, unadulterated savagery of the act paralyzed everyone. The Paladin's face was rapidly turned to pulp, and soon, the mithril blades began clanging directly against the marble floor; for the head was entirely gone, reduced to a thick, unrecognizable mash of gore.
The entire plaza stood frozen in terror, even Queen Serana Stormhold herself. No one dared to approach Lorian, let alone tell him that the enemy he was butchering was already dead.
Finally, Serana shoved the paralyzed Paladins aside and approached the boy.
"Lorian!" she shouted. He didn't respond.
"LORIAN!" she roared again. The only answer was the rhythmic, frantic clack-clack-clack of mithril blades striking the stone floor.
Moving quickly, she stepped into the bloodbath, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him violently. "COME TO YOUR SENSES, LORIAN!" she screamed desperately.
Lorian snapped his head toward her. Blinded by primal fear and adrenaline, he pounced on her, striking out as if she were just another enemy. But the veteran warrior promptly dodged the unrefined blow and slapped his face hard. The force sent Lorian crashing to the ground, the sharp pain finally shattering his hysteria.
Staring at his blood-soaked hands, he suddenly burst into tears, weeping uncontrollably like a child.
At this point, the remaining Paladins completely lost their will to fight. A sudden, crushing wave of purposelessness washed over them. There was no longer any reason to continue. They had lost the support of the other city states; the citizens of Valoria had never backed the Council to begin with, and the city guards had chosen to stand neutral. Furthermore, Lady Justice Serana was no more going to abdicate the throne in favor of their order. Their holy ranks had already been fractured from the start by internal loyalties, and now, many of their remaining brethren lay dead- butchered in gruesome ways these gallant fighters never anticipated or deserved.
To continue was nothing short of meaningless slaughter. One by one, the Paladins dropped their weapons, the steel clattering hollowly against the stones.
Malakar walked slowly toward the center of the stage. In a heavy, frustrated voice, he addressed the weeping boy, "Young Lord of Veridia, I can guess why you took these steps. But, blinded by your emotions, you have spelled doom for the entire human race. You have no idea what…."
"SHUT UP!" Lorian interjected, his voice cracking with absolute fury, "SHUT THE F*** UP! JUST ZIP IT, YOU DAMN OLD GEEZER! You killed her! And I swear to the Gods in Heaven and the Demons in Hell, I will…."
He couldn't finish. His voice choked on his own tears, a suffocating knot tightening in his throat.
"My Lord," a calm, authoritative voice spoke up from the Veridian line. It was Thaddeus Morn, the High Chirurgeon of Veridia, whom Lorian had wisely brought along with the diplomatic delegation. He rushed forward, kneeling beside the unconscious princess, "If my medical experience means anything, the young Lady can still be saved if we hurry!"
Lorian's eyes snapped to the old medic, his fingers digging into Thaddeus's arms, "Can you really save her? How?! Look at her, Thaddeus, she's drowning in her own blood!"
Before touching her, the old medic looked up and asked in a low voice, "With your permission, My Lord?"
Lorian, realizing what he was seeking, could only manage a numb, desperate nod.
The moment the permission was granted, Kaelen nodded and barked a loud order to the surrounding soldiers, "Throne Guards! Form the Wall! Face outward!"
Instantly, the elite guardsmen surrounding Lorian, Serena, Morn, and Selena snapped into motion. They rotated in unison, turning their backs to the royal family and facing the grand plaza. They created an impenetrable, unbroken ring of gold- shielding the vulnerable, blood-soaked scene from the staring eyes of the surrendered Paladins, Malakar, and the thousands of citizens in the plaza.
Inside that private circle of golden armor, Thaddeus immediately went to work.
He dropped to his knees in the blood, his movements fluid and entirely devoid of panic, unlike the rest of the people in the area. He ripped away the shredded fabric of Selena's cloak, exposing the caved-in blue-steel armor beneath.
With practiced, forceful precision, he pressed his fingers against the side of her neck to check her pulse, then slapped his palm flat against the center of her chest. A wet, rattling, wheezing sound escaped Selena's lips.
"Listen to that sound, My Lord," Thaddeus said rapidly. "That wet rattle means a lung is collapsing. The blade didn't pierce her heart, but look at the dent in this blue-steel- the blunt force shattered her ribs. If I am not wrong, at least two of those bone fragments are currently shifting inward as we speak."
He immediately slid his blood-stained hands down, pressing firmly into her lower abdomen. Selena's unconscious body violently flinched, a low groan escaping her lips as her stomach muscles instantly tightened into a hard, rigid knot.
"Her abdomen is rigid as stone, and her skin here is already turning mottled and purple," Thaddeus diagnosed with a grim face, "That is the signature of massive internal hemorrhaging. The impact has ruptured the deep pelvic arteries near her spine, I am afraid. She isn't just choking, My Lord; she is bleeding out from the inside."
He looked up, "As I told you earlier, My Lord, I can save her, but we are playing a game of minutes. If she were a normal person, I would tell you to prepare her rites. But the Lady has an unforeseen willpower- a strong will to live. That's why her pulse is still fighting, and the armor kept the internal trauma localized. I need a secure, sterile room inside, as close as possible, now, and four guards to carry her on a rigid shield. If her torso twists even an inch, a broken rib will slice her aorta, and she dies before we hit the stairs."
He paused, his hands pressing down harder on her stomach to manually stifle the internal pressure. "But you must understand the cost, Your Highness. To stop a deep arterial bleed in minutes without opening her up, I cannot delicately stitch her vessels. I will have to use a powerful, high-tier sealing art to flash-scar and cauterize her lower pelvic cavity. It will force the bleeding to stop instantly."
"It will save her life, My Lord. It will keep her mind intact", he let the weight of his next words land heavily, "But the sheer, violent heat of that magic might permanently destroy the delicate tissues of her internal organs- namely, her womb. If that happens, she will live, but she will be barren. She will never bear a child. That is the price of her breath. Do I have your command?"
Lorian looked at Serana for her opinion; after all, she was Selena's mother. But the Lady Justice only looked back at him blankly, her eyes were hollow, as if she didn't know how to reply.
Lorian quickly made up his mind. He shook his head fiercely, and spoke with absolute and decisive clarity, "Save her. As long as she lives, and as long as her mind is intact, I don't care about anything else. It does not matter! Save her life!"