The Dawn of the New World

All Princess Ceni could do was watch helplessly in horror as the remaining eight blades began to descend upon her position.

This battle was not something someone of her abilities could even spectate without paying a heavy price so this was expected. If it wasn't for the cemetery protecting her she would have long been turned to dust under the immense pressure.

That would also be the case even she was here with her own body.

The lowest realm one would have to reach to even completely physically manifest one's mind palace was the Saint Realm which was two realms higher than hers back in the real world.

And even though there was no way to say this with a hundred percent certainty, the captain was quite obviously still a few realms higher than that. Meaning he was almost at the same level as a True-God and the vice-captain had left him unable to defend.

To even be still in one piece in a battle like this was nothing short of a miracle, although it looked like that miracle was ending soon.

She was pinned to the ground, unable to even raise her head or cry out for help. All she could do was wait and hope it would be over quickly.

She started at the night sky that had been blanketed in red and yellow flames. The atmosphere itself had been ignited under the forceful exertion of copious amounts of spiritual energy from the Mind Palaces.

For a few seconds everything had become brighter. It looked like the sun had risen but there was no heavenly body in sight.

Princess Ceni closed her eyes and began to count backward from ten.

'It's not real! This is just a dream,' she repeatedly told herself as the hair on her head and face began to singe.

All other sounds were drowned out by the defeaning explosions taking place overhead but a few words still managed to reach her years.

"Third Step…heavens…"

The temperature suddenly lowered giving her a brief moment of respite.

"Fourth step…Desolation.."

*GASP*

Gasping for breath she opened her eyes as the unassailable torrent of forces pushing her down abruptly went missing.

The sky was still burning and bleeding red but the swords were not there anymore. Or rather, she was not there anymore.

Princess Ceni took a quick look around and realized that she wasn't in the cemetery but somewhere very far away. Far enough that only a vague silhouette of the 700-meter long sword could now be seen on the horizon.

She had been moved away with such speed that the entire event did not even register with her mind.

'It can't have been teleportation since the space was locked down by the mind palaces but then…did he carry me here?'

Judging by how far she was she must have traveled at several times the speed of light.

'How is that possible?! No human could move that fast and still be able to retain a physical form.'

She checked herself for any peculiarities but found none. Everything was the same as before although it looked like she was still burning up a little.

*TREEEEMBLE*

The ground quaked and convulsed as the light on the horizon was snuffed out, pulling the veil of darkness back on the nightly sky.

The silhouette of the largest sword that was visible a second ago was now nowhere to be seen.

"It's…over?" she muttered uncertainly but the very next second it was confirmed when the vice-captain suddenly appeared in front of her.

More than half of his armor was melted off from the right side and what was left was cracked from various places and falling apart on its own.

A portion of the headpiece was also gone revealing his actual face underneath which was horribly mangled and disfigured. In fact that was the case with most of his naked body that was now on display.

There were huge patches of blotched skin that had not healed properly. There was not an inch of skin left unscarred and none of them were new from the looks of it. It made her stomach churn but she still couldn't bear to look away.

'Is that why he always covered himself?' she couldn't help but think.

He walked towards Princess Ceni waking her from the daze.

"Your Highness, you must leave immediately," he extended the right hand but Princess Ceni subconsciously pulled back.

He looked down and saw that most of his skin was revealed and immediately withdrew his hand.

"My apologies, I did not mean to show you something so ugly."

Tearing off his cape he wrapped it around his body to cover himself before extending the left hand this time.

"N-No you didn't make-you don't- I mean you didn't do anything wrong," she almost bit her tongue stutteringly trying to apologize.

He had just saved her life and she repaid him by acting like she had seen a ghost. She couldn't even look him in the eyes anymore but he didn't notice either way.

"His Majesty has already prepared everything.. Please allow me to escort you.'