"Your grace!" His breathing was slightly uneven as he spoke after running to duke Ramsey with a black crystal in his hand.

  "What is it?" The duke turned away from the crowd of cheering man that stood at his palace stairs.

  He kneeled as he reached out both arms holding a black orb "the southern wall has fallen"

  "What?" A knight next to the duke spoke and in that moment the duke gave him a cold side eye "this is the second time you spoke without my command"

  The armour figure kneeled "my apologies your grace"

  The duke gaze turned to the ragged man at his stairs as if to see if they heard anything but judging by the smiles on their faces they heard nothing.

  The duke took the orb and poured his aura into it, an image of a tanned man with a brush cut appeared.

  Screams could be heard behind the man as he ran, the duke gaze narrowed looking at the orb "Don report the situation"

  Don said nothing as he ran in his dark armour glancing back every ten steps but a few wooden houses would appeared on the orb.

  "Its coming!" Don spoke not looking at the orb as a head flew past him.

  "What is?" As the duke spoke Don turned away for a moment and when his face appeared again it was covered in blue blood.

  "An..huff..huff" he tried to speak but his body threatened to collapse as he had ran for several hours with a few figures behind him "huff...huff..an eight star..huff..huff"

  The image went dark as the duke put the orb in back into the knights hands "it seems that the demon kings general is only an eight star"

  "Although we do not know weather its a knight or mage its rank is insignificant before my blade" the duke turned to the knight that spoke earlier "bring me my sword and armour"

  "Yes your grace" the knight stood and turned to the palace doors, the duke turned to the knight that held the orb "bring the artifacts we prepared for the peasants"

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  "Yes your grace" the knight stood and walked to the palace doors, he turned to the knight that stood next to him.

  "Once the peasants received the artifact put them at the front lines so their death do not affect your skills" he walked away smiling at the ragged man that chatted with smiles on their faces.

  "Your grace are we not leaving the city to deal with the demons" the knight he just commanded spoke.

  He stopped "No the demons will come here regardless, instead of wasting time and energy going to them it would be better to wait here and deal with a tired horde"

  "Understood your grace" the knight bowed and walked to the ragged man down the stairs.

  The duke walked to the flower bed of blue roses that lay at the side of the palace, the sun had long passed it's peak then.

  A knight appeared next to him from his shadow "did you find the boy that the church is looking for?" The duke spoke

  "No my liege" the kneeling figure spoke and the duke sighed.

  "You can stop Zen, for now take command of the knights. The boys identity will soon be revealed when the church arrives" the figure vanished as the duke plucked a blue rose.

  He stared at it saying nothing, these were the flowers his wife looked after daily and she would have lived to see them bloom if she had only behaved instead threatening to kill his son.

  Inside the marble palace Vex sat at the stairs that lead to the second floor as he looked around the social circles that had formed in the short time here.

  His gaze would often turn to Leto who sat at one of the leather couches that sat in the center of the room, surrounded by boys that seemed to be nobility judging by their clean and untorn clothes.

  Leto sat at the center chatting about something trivial as he wore midnight velvet suit similar to his father.

  'Its great that he took off the armour but Leto is still an aura user' he sighed 'for now I'll keep observing him'

  Most children were touring through the dukes palace as Vex sat at the stairs then.

  "So whats the plan?" Vex heard a familiar voice behind him.

  He turned and looked up at Dex, who was with Leo.

  "what?" He asked and Dex smiled looking at him.

  Dex sat next to Vex while Leo stood behind them "you see when you asked me what was the plan back in the carriage, I lied"

  Vex eyes narrowed as he leaned closer slightly "what is it?"

  And with that smirk on his face he pointed to Vex and "YOU"

  Vex couldn't help but blink twice "what?"

  Dex smiled as he wrapped his arm around Vex shoulders "you see before my old man left"

  "He said I should stick to you like glue" with a grin he continued "since you tried to run away the last time you were left alone"

  Silence lingered between them for a moment then Vex replied "what are you talking about?"

  A faint chuckle escaped Dex lips "it doesn't really matter if you admit it or not, but what does matter is that you won't be able to do anything unless you tell us what's the plan"

  Vex stared at them for a moment then sighed "fine"

  Dex and Leo smiled when they heard his answer until he said "the plan is to kill Leto"

  They froze as they stared at him and when Leo lips parted Dex jolted from the stairs and covered his mouth, his gaze moving through the room as if trying to see if anyone heard Vex.

  In a controlled tone Dex spoke "are you insane?"