The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 121

#121 The Last Fights
As if he had understood his father, the little baby had a very serious frown on and was holding on the little plushie’s tail fiercely. Despite the overall situation, Kairen’s heart warmed up a little at that sight. That child was his son indeed… Brave and strong like his parents. He held him for a little while as if he could learn by heart all of his son’s features. Kairen had never been interested in children, but Kassian was different. 5
He was a part of Cassandra and a part of him. Kairen could remember how his mother had been impatient to finally see her son, hold him. They only had one week together, and Kairen had a week away from his newborn. Fate was truly too horrible. He hugged the baby gently. He had never been trained to carry a baby, but somehow, all the right movements came to him naturally, as if it was his instincts guiding him. Kassian didn’t seem upset to be carried in the strong, sturdy arm. The baby was actually focused on the plushie. He was holding onto it, but it was more like the toy was put on top of him. With his little mouth forming an O, Kassian looked like he was gauging the plushie. His expression was a bit amusing.
Kairen couldn’t help recognizing some of Cassandra’s features in Kassian. His little nose, and the shape of his eyes. His iris had hints of green in them, too, but his skin was just a shade lighter than his father, not nearly as white as his mother.
“Oh by the gods!”
Lady Kareen had just arrived behind him and was staring at the baby with eyes filled with emotion. For once, the Imperial Concubine’s heart completely melted to the sight of the newborn in Kairen’s arms. She seemed at a loss for words, and gently caressed the baby’s hands for a few seconds. In Kairen’s arm, the baby squealed in excitement upon seeing a new face. She kept smiling gently at him, but Kairen’s mind was elsewhere.
“Mother, take him.”
He carefully gave Kassian to his mother, giving a little kiss on the baby’s head before doing so, and took out his weapon. It was unfortunate things were so dire already, but they had very little time for their moving reunion. Shareen was guarding the door for now, but Vrehan’s men knew where they were. Kairen could hear them banging against the doors. It would be a matter of minutes before they broke it and barged in, unless his sister lost patience and went to the other side first.
*Kyun!”
Kairen almost jumped at the little squeal and looked down. Against his leg, a little silver-scaled dragon was rubbing it’s back, and looking at him with big green eyes. The War God smiled once again and leaned down to take the little dragon. Kian immediately jumped on his shoulder, which was broad enough for him to hang on comfortably.
“Oh, by the great dragon, he is… perfect!” Exclaimed Lady Shareen on the verge of tears.
Though she wasn’t wrong, the new grandmother was also a bit blinded by the babies’ sight. With her knowledge on Dragons, she could have seen Kian was clearly a bit different from all the other dragons she had ever seen before. He had a longer and leaner body, and his wings were thinner and shorter, too. It was most likely that unless they grew bigger sometime soon, he probably couldn’t stand long flights or heavy weights like Krai did.
Kairen didn’t have time for this, however. Keeping the young dragon on his shoulder, he turned towards the women from before. They were both scared of the War God, but at least, they did not run away. They were already aware of his relationship to Cassandra and Kassian, but he was still an impressive man to see in the flesh.
“Where is Cassandra? He asked.
*L-Lady Cassandra went to the Imperial Palace,” explained one of the women, who was actually Yasora. “She wanted to find and heal the Emperor.”
“She went alone, like that?” Protested Kareen.
“She went with young Lady Missandra!” Added Yasora. “They wanted to find one of the herbal gardens or medicine there, as we didn’t have time to procure any here…”
“She’s not wrong,” sighed Kareen. “That rat Vrehan must have had all the Capital’s apothecaries watched the second he knew Cassie was back… And then?”
“We… we don’t know, your Highness. The girls left hours ago, and we haven’t heard any news since…”
“Hours ago?” Exclaimed Kareen, shocked.
She turned to Kairen, livid. Hours ago could be bad or good news, it was completely unknown. At least they haven’t found their bodies outside the Palace’s walls… But since then, they could very well have been caught, tortured or killed. There was still a chance the girls were very much alive, but still…
“Let’s go,” said Kairen, determined.
Kareen nodded and followed him, still carrying Kassian. There was no way the War God was going to part with his son for a single more minute, and the Imperial Concubine could very well protect him out. They left the room, and found Shareen and Anour in the garden, both watching the gate, which was still holding against their assailants, though it was obviously having quite a bad day.
“Oh, here’s my nephew,” said Shareen with a smirk, staring at the baby. “Wow, you’re lucky he took after his mom. Even for a baby, he’s cute.”
“That dragon is amazing,” added Anour, his eyes on little Kian. “His tail is so long… He’s even leaner than Roun!”
Actually, all three dragons were quite intrigued right now. Kian jumped down from Kairen’s shoulder and ran to Krai. Though the black dragon looked a bit surprised, he carefully walked closer, his big red eyes wide open with curiosity.
To the side, Roun wasn’t as patient. The green dragon growled, almost jumping on the baby dragon, but Krai reacted immediately, growling louder as a warning. The green dragon retreated, his head low. Between them, Kian looked like he hadn’t even noticed the big green dragon. His eyes were focused on Krai, and he kept running to him, all excited. The black dragon clearly didn’t know how to react, especially as the baby dragon easily disappeared under his big body. He kept trying to look down and all sides, but the excited Krai kept running around him, jumping on his paws playfully, making cute squeaks and chasing the big black tail.6
Finally, the big black dragon growled, and when Kian made another sprint close enough, he suddenly caught the baby dragon under his paw. Kian, surprised, squealed a bit, but Krai tilted his head, and carefully, grabbed him in his mouth. The baby dragon agitated its little paws, unhappy of this new position, but Krai ignored him, walking up to Kairen. He looked like a cat with its pissed kitten, making everyone smile.
“Don’t you hurt him, Krai,” warned Kareen with a frown.
It was unlikely he’d harm the baby dragon voluntarily, but keeping him in his mouth without biting with his sharp fangs must have been a bit complicated for Krai, especially as Kian was quite unruly. However, the black dragon looked like he controlled the situation (and his son) perfectly.
They didn’t have much time to keep observing their cute interactions, however. The bangs were getting louder behind the door. Kairen cracked his neck, and his sister looked even more impatient. All the servants had run back inside the mansion to hide. A little army was surely waiting for them outside, but those people had Dragon Blood and two actual dragons with them! It was a lot of animation for the Residence. After a while, Shareen sighed.
“It’s going to take all day…”
The Princess took a deep breath, stocking as much air as she could in her lungs, and, after a couple of seconds, she exhaled a massive fireball towards the door, sending it and everyone behind flying away. The Imperial Princess smirked.
“Now we will actually get to it.”
She ran into the crowd of soldiers still standing or trying to get back on their feet, a demonic smile on. Kairen glanced back towards him, but Kassian was perfectly safe in his grandmother’s arms. She had even protected him from the smoke by raising her sleeve, and the baby only seemed to care about his plushie.
The Imperial Prince ran to support his sister. Shareen didn’t need much help, but the faster they got rid of those soldiers, the fast they’d get to the Imperial Palace and to Cassandra. There wasn’t a single second to lose.
Behind them, Anour and Krai began jumping to attack the soldiers, too. When Kian started growling at them angrily too, Krai finally let go, and though he was too small to attack, the baby dragon jumped on his head and back, sending growls left and right as if he was the one fighting.
The Imperial siblings fought their way to the Imperial Palace. It was a long, long fight to there as they couldn’t use the dragons on the trapped roofs. The residence was far for the Imperial Palace, and the number of men sent by Vrehan was endless. More importantly, they soon realized the Imperial Army was already there. The colors of the soldiers were codified, and Shareen and Kairen didn’t even need to talk to both realize who they were fighting. They just exchanged glances, and kept going.
Fighting the Imperial Army was not easy inside the Capital, not even with two dragons helping. It was the same as the fight against the Eastern Republic’s Army: they had to be cautious of the locals, the dragons couldn’t use their fire. However, Kareen, Shareen, and two dragons were enough to fight their way through the whole Imperial Army, no matter how slow the progress was. The soldiers were obviously afraid of them but also trained to not retreat. Kairen and Shareen fought one man after another, slaughtering without stopping.
It was a dance of death. Blood flew in the air, and the violence spread terrified all citizens that dared to venture outside at that time. The siblings and the dragons only occupied a couple of streets, but those streets were a horror scene. They had no mercy and no time to lose doing a clean job of this.
“Your Highness!”
Kairen turned to the left, taking his sword out of a man’s chest, and soon, realized they weren’t alone. Many soldiers in a different outfit were now standing or running in the same direction as they did, opposing the Imperial Army. One of the General ran to Kairen’s side, bowing with a military salute.
“Your East Army!” Exclaimed Shareen, surprised. “Already?”
“We came as soon as we got Lady Kareen’s message, Your Highness! We couldn’t sit still, especially with your Highness and Lady Cassandra in danger!”
Indeed, they soon heard the sounds of two armies fighting resonating in all the nearby streets. The fight was now taken much farther into the Capital’s streets. Screams and sounds of weapons striking filled the air. It was a war scene everywhere the eye would stop.
Kairen and Shareen exchanged a smile, despite their tiredness and the sweat and blood their armors were soaked with. With the East Army there, they could finally cut through the small fry and get to the Imperial Palace quicker…
The fight resumed, even more violent. Hundreds of men fighting to get the Imperial Palace or prevent them too kept fighting until sunset. The fight wasn’t over, but the siblings had reached their goal, finally. When the sun touched the ground, they finally presented themselves at the Palace’s door. Both Shareen and Kairen were a bit tired after all of that, but neither of them wanted to stop. They sent people to get Phetra, their hostage, and cleared the area around them, making sure no one would try to catch up. In the streets, the East Army was clearly winning, even establishing a clear perimeter around the Palace. Moreover, unlike the East Army, none of them had been trained to first aid, and they had to watch Kairen’s men help their people while they suffered.
What happened in the streets was no long Kairen’s issue. He was glaring at the doors, impatient to finally get a hold of Vrehan’s neck. He glanced at his sister, who nodded. Just like before, Shareen took a deep breath, and used her fire on the large doors. It wasn’t as efficient, but after that, both siblings only had to use brute strength on the doors for it to finally collapse. 3
Leaving the armies to fight each other outside, they walked in. Kareen was following, a few steps behind, Evin and Anour with her as bodyguards, though she probably didn’t need them.
“Where to, mother?” Asked Kairen, unsure.
“I don’t know… Let’s just head for that rat’s apartments first.”
They kept walking through the corridors, but everything felt quiet. Strangely… quiet. They had to leave the dragons outside, as both Anour and Krai were too big to squeeze through the door, but it was still to quiet in there, dragons or not. They didn’t spot a single servant for a long while. The Imperial Palace had changed a lot since their last time there, and none of them like this atmospher
“Brother.”
Kairen followed her glare. They were still on their way, but something strange was happening to the side. Several Imperial Soldiers were guarding the Lake, their weapons in hand. The siblings exchanged a glance. Men guarding the Lake? They decided to ignore it, and instead, rushed inside. That’s when a long sound resonated. A long, long blow. Kareen froze.
“The Emperor…” She whispered.
All of them knew that sound. It was only used in the event of an Imperial Death. Their blood froze in their veins, and without thinking, Shareen and Kairen started running towards the Emperor’s Hall.
When they barged in, they were welcomed with a hundred soldiers, pointing their weapons at them. The Hall was filled with Imperial Soldiers, but at its very end, facing them, Vrehan was sitting on the golden throne, his dragon sitting behind him. The red beast had both eyes completely destroyed, like two big black holes. He was obviously blind.
However, the Dragon wasn’t their main worry at the moment, neither were the soldiers.
Vrehan was holding Missandra by her hair, a knife clearly held against her throat.