Maxwell stumbled a little as they walked back to the castle after he reawoken himself without the dark powers. It was clearly apparent that the ritual had really tired him out so his body was mostly running low on energy, so he wasn't able to balance himself well. Marz made sure to stay by his brothers side as to make sure he didn’t fall, and was cautious of him just because he was still worried after what he had seen, since that was such a foreign ritual to him. He still couldn’t get over the awe in what he saw, seeing Maxwell glowing with energy and seeing Saria and Lynx destroying the energy he had expelled. Lynx was keeping guard as they walked back into town, knowing the Bael was around made him really unnerved and he didn’t want to have to fight the assassin, but was ready just in case he had to. The town was more quiet than when they had left it, which made Saria a bit curious as the town plaza was usually very lively into the night, and it wasn’t even that late. “Curious, why is everything so quiet and deserted?” she asked as she looked around. It was almost like a ghost town around them and that made them all really uncomfortable and uneasy.
There discomfort was quick to become even more as they were all suddenly surrounded in a cloak of darkness, Lynx and Marz grabbing their weapons and readying themselves for whatever was happening. Saria grabbed her dagger and a small bottle as she looked around, a bit of sweat welling on her brow in worry as she wasn’t ready for a fight but was going to do what she could if she needed to. Maxwell wasn’t nearly as worried as the other three as he gripped his blade, looking off into the distance to see a figure walking towards them, not with a hostile aura but instead didn’t seem like the fighting type. He had a hood on and it was almost impossible to see his face, all the while he made his way over to Maxwell, everyone watching with their weapons drawn as Maxwell was ready to swing. “Who are you?” Maxwell asked, aiming his sword as the being approached. Without a word, it placed a scroll in Maxwell’s paw and walked right through him, as if he wasn’t even there, causing Maxwell to gasp as he felt a cold shiver down his spine, as if he had just seen a dead body.
“Only you can tell what is true, and what will lead to destruction.” Was all Maxwell could hear as it echoed in his head a dozen times over as he fell to his knees and gripped his head, while the darkness suddenly vanished and everyone looked around in panic, Saria making sure Maxwell was okay as he shook in confusion.
“What was that? Was that the same place as the kingdom?” Lynx asked, but was cut short by the fact the entire kingdom was suddenly very active again, no one saying anything as if they never even saw the person who just approached the royal family. Maxwell stood and shook his head as he took a look at the scroll in his paws, carefully unraveling it and looking at the content inside the scroll. Maxwell showed a look of confusion as he examined the scroll, seeing an image of Inferno, with the words ‘Save this soul, save the innocent boy being held by abuse.’
“Isn’t that Drazernon’s youngest son? The one the kingdom has known as the tortured child?” Marz asked, seeing the picture of Inferno and having a look of sympathy as he examined it. Everyone in Elderitch knew about Inferno, and how Drazernon abused him just to make him a tyrant of a ruler to take his throne when he died. Inferno was a sweet person with a heart of gold, and Drazernon knew that, wanting to break him down and force him to be a entity of darkness to take the throne. “Drazernon is such a cruel person, how could he hurt a child who only ever cares for everyone else?” Marz asked as he sighed.
“Drazernon deserves to be ended, the fact someone has reached out to give me this shows that someone wants Inferno safe. I can’t turn my back on this request knowing that someone else out there wants to protect him. When we go and take the fight to Drazernon, I want to make sure we save him, like mom and dad saved us. Saria, please make sure that everyone that we take with us knows that he is the priority to save and protect.” Maxwell said as he rolled up the scroll and put it in his pocket, getting a nod from his sister as she rushed to the castle to give the team they had decided on the news. It was apparent now that nothing would change Maxwell’s mind on this, his heart had decided that it wants to fight Drazernon and free those suffering under him, and nothing would stop that. His anger and hatred for the man had built up so much, but he wasn’t allowing it to take him over, he was taking his mission with pride, and a with a sense of leadership. Both Lynx and Marz looked at the wolf with admiration at his leadership, respect in their eyes as they watched their leader prepare himself.
Maxwell nodded softly to himself as he walked over to the castle to go and meet up with his parents, Marz and Lynx looking at one another nodding as they rushed behind him. As they walked away, the being stood outside the city gates and watched them ascend the steps to the castle, lowering his hood to show a dalmatian with crimson blood eyes, and a bit of a darker aura surrounding him. His aura seemed to have hidden him well as no one in town was aware of his presences, but he seemed to be on the side of Elderitch. The dalmatian nodded as he watched the royal prince head into the castle and he turned to leave the area, he wasn’t going to stay in the kingdom but he was going to offer his help whenever possible.
Maxwell walked into the throne room of his parents after putting his stuff back in his room and getting a new shirt on, since he had gone to the waterfall shirtless, bowing as he entered the throne room. He was about to say something before he noticed that his parents were talking to a small group of humans, as if a council of a treaty. “Oh Maxwell, just give us a couple of minutes and we will be with you. We just need to finish out talks with the leaders of the kingdom of Sanctuary.” Nomad told her son and smiled as the human group turned and bowed with smiles, Maxwell returning the favor.
One of the humans walked over and smiled as he held out his hand to Maxwell, his skin was a bit tanned and his eyes were a light green color. His hair was a dark blue, and he was clad in white and golden colored robes, showing he was of royal status. “Good to finally meet you Prince Maxwell. I am Prince Ashford, I am here on behalf of my kingdom to bring peace between our people. The war between humans and anthros has been raging for centuries, and your parents and I have finally come to an agreement that it is time to put an end to it.” He smiled gently. Ashford was much older than Maxwell and had the looks of a gruff and more powerful general, if it wasn’t for the royal garbs, one might just mistake him for a human general.
“I am really glad to hear such a thing your majesty. If you really want to make peace between our kingdoms, I will gladly welcome you into Elderitch, and even show you around if you would like.” Maxwell smiled, showing he was eager to make things work if it meant preventing a war between two very powerful kingdoms.
“I would like that, but for now, it is best we focus on peace and focus on the true enemy. What brought me here in entirety is the fact that we all have a common enemy, Drazeron. I want to bring and end to him just as much as you all do, and I would appreciate it if you would allow us to work as one force, humans and anthros, to dethrone the demon lord Drazernon.” Ashford said turning back to Nomad and Drax, bowing again to show what he was serious about. Nomad and Drax nodded as the two walked down from their thrones to stand before Ashford. “My ancestors may have caused a big grievance to your kingdom and your kind, but I want to amend what they did. All I want is to bring peace to the kingdoms all around us.” Ashford sounded sincere as his guards watched their prince. It wasn’t common for a royal to do something like this, but Nomad couldn’t help but smile, seeing as he was sincere enough to face a rival kingdoms royals and make a promise like this.
“Well Prince Ashford, I am more than happy to bring peace to our kingdoms, and I am sure King Drax feels the same.” Nomad smiled gently as she placed a gentle motherly paw on the humans shoulder, looking him in the eyes “What your ancestors did do not describe who you are. Only you can set your own life and what you want and believe.” She said smiling softly, slightly glancing at Maxwell knowing that he had learned the same lesson, and that he had even made the attempt to show such. Just by looking at her son, she could tell that he had gone to that waterfall she had enchanted with Verius, given that his fur was now a lighter grey than it was before.
“I appreciate that your majesty, thank you Queen Nomad, King Drax.” Ashford bowed again and dismissed himself after shaking their paws, heading off to bring the good news back to his kingdom.
As Ashford left, Maxwell watched while Nomad smiled and walked over to her child with Drax. Drax smiled gently at the prince and rubbed his shoulder gently. “Glad to see that you are okay after what we had told you son.” Drax said and hugged the teen closely, feeling happy to see that his son okay and better than when he was upset earlier. “I was worried we may have hurt you when we told you, and wanted to give you the space you needed so that you didn’t feel pressured to accept such a truth.”
“I was upset and feeling down when you had told me this, but I just needed to go and take a moment to clear my head. I went to the waterfall and removed the dark energy from my body. Like you two had just told prince Ashford, what our ancestors do don’t decide how we live, and so I decided that I am going to forget who my true father is, as my real parents are right before me. Drazernon doesn’t deserve to be my father, and I removed all lingering traces of his power to ensure it. I am a new person.” Maxwell said, Nomad smiling as she hugged him close, proud that her little wolf prince had learned such a wonderful lesson. “But thats beside the matter now. I have a matter I need to discuss with you two. I have a brother that we need to save, Inferno is tortured and abused by Drazernon and I want to free him from that cruel bastard. Will you help me?” he asked taking the scroll from his pocket and showing them.
Drax took it and looked it over, sighing as he nodded “Yes, you’ll have my help, no child should have to go through what my brother puts him through. We will help you stop Drazernon and save this young man.” Drax nodded, smiling seeing Maxwell showing determination in his new goal. All that was left was for them to take the fight to Drazernon, which was sure to be happening very soon.
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