Chapter 645: The Treaty does hold here.
Chapter 645: The Treaty does hold here.
"It doesn’t matter what happened, what I see is my soldiers imprisoned by another force, a force that shouldn’t even have left their grounds in the first place—
To me, you were the ones who broke the Treaty first.
And—
That gives me the right to act."
Astrael spoke with a cold look on his face and Kael—
"Right to act?"
His face turned colder.
"Is that a threat?"
He asked directly as the air around him began to change.
Aurelia noticed that change and the tone he was using and she was horrified.
No.
This couldn’t happen.
If Kael went against Lord Astrael here, the relationship between him and the Sky Kingdom may never recover.
She needed to stop it—
She needed to do whatever was in her power to stop these two from fighting.
But just as Aurelia was thinking all of this, trying to find a way to solve this without a battle—
"I am not here to threaten or destroy anything, Hero Kael."
Astrael spoke up and those words made Aurelia pause.
For the slightest of moments, in her desperation, she believed him.
Kael did not.
"Is that so...?"
He spoke, looking at the army the man had brought with him.
Those numbers made it difficult for Kael to believe his words. Astrael did not care whether Kael believed him or not—
"I am here to solve this peacefully."
He said what he wanted to say.
"Oh? And how do you propose that?"
Kael asked, giving him the slightest benefit of doubt.
And Astrael—
He looked at Kael, then at Lavinia, then at the rest of the people standing beneath him, before turning back towards Kael again.
"Return Aurelia and the other Sky Kingdom Soldiers."
For a moment, Kael’s expression changed.
If that was the only thing he wanted...
Then this wasn’t a ba—
"Return everything to how it once was, how it is supposed to be."
Before Kael could finish, Astrael continued.
"Aurelia and others come with us, you come with us."
"Me...?"
Kael raised an eyebrow.
"You do not belong here, Hero Kael.
This place is beneath someone of your stature. Nerathis needs you, so come with us, together with Princess Lavinia.
Set everything right, return things where they are supposed to be.
You do not have the time to be playing in the outskirts like this."
He spoke and Kael’s face turned colder.
"And if I don’t?"
He asked.
And Astrael shrugged without any significant change in his face.
"Then you will leave me no choice but to use force.
One way or the other, you will come with us today, Hero Kael. I’d rather you take the easy, more peaceful, less bloody way."
"You cannot take me, I am part of the Velmourns now.
The Treaty specifically stops you from targeting the Velmourns.
If everything that happened before wasn’t part of the Treaty, this definitely is.
The Treaty does hold here and taking me by force is the Sky Kingdom breaking it."
Kael announced.
"That is correct."
That was when Morvain raised her voice as well, looking right into Astrael’s eyes with a calm, authoritative look on her face.
"Kael is a Velmourn now.
And you cannot do a thing to Velmourn, not when we are in the Heights.
That is a direct breach of the Treaty.
If the Sky Kingdom has somehow misplaced its copy of the Treaty, I would be more than happy to provide another."
"Velmourn Matriarch."
Astrael looked at Morvain, finally acknowledging her existence for the first time since he came here.
"You should know that this is not how it works. Velmourn is not a cloak one wears because it is convenient. It is not a name given because a crowd agrees.
It is blood, lineage, history and birth.
And I shouldn’t be the one teaching you that.
I understand the state you are in is embarrassing, I understand that there is nothing left to your name anymore—
However, that still doesn’t make it right for you to discredit the name your ancestors once declared proudly."
At those words, Morvain’s face changed.
Anger.
"You stand above our land and are telling us who belongs to us and who does not?"
"I am telling you what the World recognises."
Astrael countered.
"What your world considers does not matter inside the Heights."
"It does.
It should.
Since my world can destroy yours in a matter of a few minutes, and we wouldn’t even shed a single drop of blood doing it."
There it was.
A direct threat.
Kael’s face turned even colder but then—
"Lord Astrael, please. This is a mistake. Kael is not our enemy, if you force him now, you will ruin every chance we have of—"
Aurelia tried to say something but...
"General Aurelia."
Astrael interrupted her.
"You were captured and then compromised.
You will speak once you are recovered."
He commanded and Aurelia...
She froze.
Those words were... insulting.
Her own soldiers around her stiffened as well.
Kael’s eyes shifted to Aurelia, he had already thought of it before, but as he saw her lower her head in frustration and embarrassment, he couldn’t help but believe her more.
It wasn’t her.
She didn’t call them.
That, at the very least, was good.
"This is my final warning."
That was when Astrael spoke up as the pressure around him grew heavier, the Sky Army reacted to that, they all checked their formation one last time as the clouds around them twisted.
"If you and Princess Lavinia do not come with me willingly, I will use force."
Astrael warned as he looked at Kael, completely ignoring Morvain, then, his eyes moved all over the battlefield.
"And during forceful action... accidents may happen."
Another threat.
This time, not just to Kael, but to all the people standing beneath him.
The Velmourns who understood him clenched their fists, the Tribesmen did not understand the language, but they could sense the tension, they could sense Flying Man’s mood and—
"Flying Man with us."
Gruumak spoke as he tightened his grip around his weapon. The rest of the Alliance army did the same. They were exhausted, wounded and had just survived another war.
But even in that situation—
Even when an army capable of crushing everything they held dear stood in front of them—
They looked back with their weapons in their hands, ready to face the threat.
Kael noticed that and that made him smile.
Then, he too, clenched his hand around his sword as he looked at the man standing in front of him.
"Very well then."
He announced.
He had had enough.