Chapter 96 - Fighting For Their Lives

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to talk to the sword's soul, because suddenly they heard desperate screams and explosions outside. Making the ground shudder and they almost fell to the ground, several items fell making even more noise around.

"The military and the Rebels are fighting!" someone yelled outside. More screams were heard and the sounds of gunfire and metal hitting metal were heard.

With the disappearance of Mu Liang and the disappearance of Nehand Achebe (retired empress), there was no way Emperor Ade could stand still and he ordered the army to surround and capture one of the Rebel bases that the intelligence agents had sent.

They didn't know if it would be the base of the terror masterminds in the palace's inner garden, but as the lives of Prince Mu and his mother could be at risk, he stepped forward to capture the rebel base and extract more information.

Huang Liang grabbed Mu Liang and Nadira's arm to prepare to flee, but a bomb exploded in the shop door, the Rebels had run to the open market to use the capital's citizens as cannon fodder against the army, so, they were dropping bombs and being careless with the lives of the innocent, while the army had to protect the citizens and fight at the same time.

"There's a spy in our battalion" a tall black woman with short black hair with the sides shaved to show off her white tattoo with the crest of two crossing snakes. Her violet iris eyes glowed brightly and her lips thick and red as blood were in a deadly serious line.

This was Major Haben Aminata, second daughter of Viscount Aminata and a military prodigy, at just her 40s she was already a Major under Marshal Azikiwe, Gyasi's great-uncle and Kayin's younger brother.

They started the operation a few minutes ago and everything was in absolute secrecy, they were supposed to represent a police arrest and arrest the entire rebel base, but somehow the Rebels knew and started all this mess in order to escape.

"Major, I got a report saying they saw Prince Mu in one of these stores," someone reported urgently.

"So indeed the Rebels were with Prince Mu." Someone remarked with conviction and the others immediately agreed.

Rebels: (...)

Hey, we didn't even know Prince Mu was here, okay?!

We are innocent!

Mu Liang felt his vision blur a little, but he was fine and everyone around him was fine, the image before his eyes were strange as it looked like the force of the explosion had frozen in the air. Huang Lian looked around in surprise and met Mu Liang's equally shocked gaze.

Nadira was sweating profusely, she was no longer used to using her powers that way, she spent a lot of quiet time in the imperial palace. As soon as the bomb exploded, she used her mental and telekinetic powers to freeze the effect of the explosion around her, however, the price was quite high as the entire charge of the explosion was received by her mental power.

"We have to get out of here," Huang Lian said in a hurry, the seller was stunned for a moment looking all over his store and his artifacts scattered on the floor some whole and others were already garbage, soon after the Rebels entered and the seller, who always had a serene expression, grew frighteningly larger and his body expanded rapidly.

"Damn, it's Animal Revolt! We need to run now!" Nadira said suddenly, she pulled her powers back and the wind from the explosion became much more bearable, yet it raised dust from the rubble clouding almost everyone's vision.

The sound of an elephant was heard and as soon as the screams of the Rebels started, the seller had become almost some kind of giant monster gone mad and was attacking the Rebels with fury.

"We have to get out of here, when someone enters the Animal Revolt they lose their rationality and can reach their allies too" Nadira despite being tired due to overuse of her mental powers grabbed Mu Liang's arm and pulled him away, being followed by Huang Lian.

The three got out of the rubble and tried to run out of the fairgrounds, suddenly the barrier that was supposed to protect the fairground shook and the barrier disappeared, the military ship of the empire floated in the imposing sky.

"I know a secret way out of here," Nadira said seeing the military ship open fire on the Rebels.

The citizens threw themselves to the ground to show they were innocent, but the Rebels picked them up from the ground to use as meat shields, so the military was at an impasse, but soon a cannon with sonic energy was aimed at the center of the market, this cannon would stun everyone causing them to lose their orientation and part of their hearing temporarily, which will buy time for the military to invade to surrender the Rebels.

Huang Lian saw the sonic cannon and can only agree with Nadira, it wouldn't be any good for them to stay at that moment, it could even deeply injure Prince Mu's body, which doesn't have the best of health.

Nadira quickened her steps and they entered a simple store that sold colorful fabrics of medium quality. There was no one inside the store, everyone had gone into hiding or had gone to get help from the army outside.

They ran through some rolls of fabric that seemed to float somberly through the empty space until Nadira found a heavy adamantium door that looked more like decoration, it was hidden behind some heavy boxes, but it was nothing to the strong power. Nadira and Huang Lian, that seeing Nadira's situation she can only help.

"Let's go this way, this path will lead close to the Palace of the Retired Empress," Nadira said using her mental power to open the door.

Mu Liang was surprised by the mental strength of this woman, he didn't know that mental power could be used to stop explosions in the air and still have the strength to break down heavy doors.

Nadira's coordination and dexterity were impeccable, she definitely couldn't be just an employee of the secret mansion.

Mu Liang and Huang Lian followed Nadira's footsteps who was so fast that sometimes Mu Liang lost sight of her, luckily Huang Lian was trained in tracking, so they didn't get lost and managed to reach Nadira in a few steps, it was as if Nadira could melding into the environment, the path was lit even though they had no idea where the energy was coming from.

"They are Conversion Orbs, they convert the heat of the earth into the light" Nadira suddenly explained, seeing the two of them looking around suspiciously. As the planet has two suns and three moons, it was certainly hot and strong enough to generate a lot of heat on earth.

They had arrived at something similar to a hall where they had outdated plasma weapons and some outdated defense weapons, these tunnels were created two kingdoms ago for an immediate evacuation of the population in case there was an attack on the capital, at the same time, that the army could be restocked with emergency weapons.

The group took a break to regain their energy, Nadira took some pills from her space item and gulped it down quickly with some energy drink. She needed to recover a bit from her last attack.

The hall had three more tunnels ahead and four tunnels behind them, Mu Liang's group had come from one of the back tunnels.

Mu Liang leaned against the wall and sat down, his body was a little shaky from so much physical exercise, at least he didn't feel like he was dying, which showed that the training was having an effect.

Huang Lian looked around and kept looking, Nadira and Mu Liang were resting side by side, they would wait just 10 minutes before continuing their way through the tunnels.

Unfortunately, the Rebels accessed these tunnels through another entrance and Mu Liang's group found a group of ten men in mecha armor who were taking some hostages with them.

"Kill them" the Rebels ended up throwing the innocent citizens at Mu Liang's group, they then pulled out their energy guns and started shooting. The citizens screamed and threw themselves to the ground with their hands over their faces to avoid concussion to the head and rolled to the side to avoid being stepped on in the confrontation.

Nadira raises her mental barrier and once again used her telekinesis to create a barrier around everyone, including the citizens. However, for every bullet of energy she received, Nadira felt an excruciating pain in her nerves making her hands shake.

"Prince, I'll help, now," Huang Lian said quietly to Mu Liang, she donned her mecha armor and hid in the shadows of the tunnels, she started attacking the group, unfortunately, she only managed to kill two when the group realized what was happening and activated the mecha armor defense mode.

Mu Liang wanted to help, but Nadira's barrier prevented him from using his special attack, as the blue fire would tap into the woman's mental power and corrode it, thus hurting Nadira in the process.

Now Mu Liang could only passively watch everything.

"WATCH OUT A BOMB!" Huang Lian suddenly yelled, when one of the innocent citizens stood up with a crazed smile on his dirt-smeared face, in his hand was just a small white ball that began to glow profusely.

"FOR THE NEW EMPIRE!" the man said wildly just before the explosion took place.