If Lee thought things were bad, then before the noon it got even worse. He couldn't see the dark-purple hole across the valley, but judging from the increased traffic the invaders had in the distance, it seemed that more and more children were brought away.
He was thirsty and hungry, but didn't intend to check out where the wagons with kids were brought. Even if there were brief moments without an invader in sight, it was clear that the capital and it's surroundings were swarmed with them.
Only after another night passed, Lee noticed that more invaders were leaving than arriving and could heave a sigh of relief. Judging by the flow of wares, they had gotten most of what they came for. Wagons and carriages still contained either food supplies or children, and Lee prayed to all known deities for the children to not become the former.
Up until now he had not seen the faces of the invaders and since they all wore helmets, under those easily could be hidden wolf fangs, vampire teeth or shark jaws.
For ridiculous thoughts like these Lee blamed the dehydration and the hunger, but since invaders were leaving, most likely it was not that long before he finally could climb down. He had no clue what the capital looked like after a raid like this, but no matter what he intended to rush to Freeda's place first, to see how she was doing.
***
It was around noon when Lee was about to finally risk it. He hadn't heard or seen the invaders for a while, but just as he stretched his leg intending to climb down, he heard several horses galloping his way.
In an instant he became weary, because in the last couple of days the only horses he saw were cut up in large pieces and pushed in wagons in the direction of the dark-purple hole.
He deeply wished it wasn't some kind of a group of heroes that the remaining empire forces had gathered, otherwise the smart-asses could draw unnecessary attention his way. It turned out to be even worse.
The group of seven people on horses, but dressed in the armor the invaders had, rushed in the farm. After stopping next to the well, they dismounted and one of them took off the helmet while loudly complaining.
"How in the world are they breathing in these things?" He said, "And to think they push all those carts and wagons!"
Lee immediately recognized the guy. It was minister's of agriculture youngest son, Deen Farcry. But he was more shocked to recognize two of the horses – the snow white Zeus and Hera!
"Put it back up, you moron!" Commanded the most disgusting melodious voice Lee had heard in his life, "You all, go look for a carriage or a wagon, or something! This is a farm, there has to be one somewhere!"
"Your highness!" Deen said while staring in the distance, "It looks like the scourge is falling back! Are you sure we have to do this? For the last two days the portal is appearing and then disappearing again – I have a feeling it will vanish pretty soon."
Victoria took off her helmet and Lee could clearly see the hateful bitch's face. Her skin was as pale as it has ever been and the eyes were as red as always.
"We are the last hope the empire and the entire world has! We have to make sure the portal to the Netherworld is closed for good!" She heroically said, then drank from the bucket one of the guys just pulled from the well, and continued, "We'll go and close it, even if it costs our lives! It doesn't matter if we have to climb over mountains of corpses, we will make sure that thing never opens again!"
While Lee was happy to hear she was going to do something that'll cost her life, it was obviously incredibly stupid. If Hera was here, Edward also had to be here, and according to everything Lee knew about the guy, he had to be kind of clever. Couldn't he reason with the red-eyed bitch?
On the other hand, it was none of his business. It was good to hear she was about to sign her own death verdict.
"Found something!" One of the guys pulled out a shabby looking cart from the barn Lee spent the first night in.
There was still some hay on it, and it was in such a bad condition there was no wonder the invaders, or how the princess called them – the scourge, didn't take it.
"Great!" Victoria said, "Put in few planks or something so that the meat doesn't fall though the gaps while we push it!"
Lee was amused seeing their efforts, but when the cart was ready, he paled in realization. There was no meat!
And then his fears came true. The group quickly gathered the horses who suddenly became rowdy, but the next moment three, including Hera were decapitated.
Zeus kicked one of the guys in the chest and got free, but Victoria, covered in flames, suddenly appeared in front of him, and Lee lost another friend to her hand.
Lee's vision swam, but not from the concussion he got at the New Year's event. He had never felt such deep hatred and the levels of desperation because of his own weakness. The two white steeds where the most majestic creatures he had ever seen, and they were friendly and kind.
But the damned albino didn't even bat an eye and turned them into a pile of meat.
And then the worst part came. When the group began to load the remains of the horses in the cart, Victoria said, "Leave the white ones! They might attract unnecessary attention! Let's go, hurry up! And leave Steward behind, he's probably dead."
Lee couldn't remember when was the last time he cried, but it was impossible to hold back the tears. There were no words to describe the excessive cruelty, and even Freeda would run out of curses if she was here.
Ignoring the risk of getting spotted, Lee half climbed, half fell down the pine tree and went over to Zeus and pondered how to properly bury him and Hera. But while looking around he noticed the so called portal to the Netherworld on top of the distant hill.
Right, he will bury the guys, but first he had to take the front seat and watch the bitch getting killed. With this thought Lee grabbed the half-full bucket of water, greedily drank from it, and afterwards rushed over to the hillside where he met the elderly farmers two days ago.
The valley was still littered with corpses of the imperial soldiers. Lee didn't notice the smell of blood and rotting flesh – he was already used to it after spending two nights on the tree.
But the lack of invaders was baffling. He could see a pack around the dark-purple hole, and there were few rare carriages and wagons pulled and pushed towards it. It was safe to assume there were at most three to four hundred scourge remaining and it was clear they were all retreating.
The princess's group became smaller and smaller in the distance, and once again Lee complained to himself about the poor sight the humans had. But he really wanted to see how she died, so he measured the distance with his eyes, assessing the positions of the invaders, and rushed down the hill.
After witnessing Zeus's and Hera's deaths he was ready to risk his life to catch a glimpse of agony Victoria will find herself in.
While pushing a cart full of meat over a field of dead bodies was rather slow, Lee ran almost unimpeded. He made sure the princess's group was in his sight at all times, and when he crossed probably a third of the valley, he sat down on the ground, preparing for the show.
The princess and the rest had covered almost half of the hillside and were about to reach the place where the largest remaining group of invaders was gathered. But no matter how Lee stared, he couldn't believe his eyes. When the group arrived, the present invaders seemed to shout and wave at them and then … the princess and the rest stepped though the dark-purple hole. They were gone.
It's impossible to describe the feeling of emptiness Lee suddenly felt. It didn't matter how the princess died on the other side – he was not going to witness it. And contrary to the princess, he was absolutely certain that the invaders were retreating to never come back again.
In two days they had cleaned up the largest city in this world and brought everything away. The scourge … it was a proper way to describe them.
But Lee couldn't care less about the problems of the world. The person he wanted to strangle with his bare hands basically escaped and he couldn't do anything about it! Or could he?
A craziest idea sparkled in his mind. What if …?
Lee jumped to his feet, quickly assessed the last few wagons in the distance, then looked back at the farm on top of the hill, and smiled.
'Surely the two elderly will bury them.' Lee thought to himself. Obviously there were thousands of soldiers that also needed a burial, but someone will take care of his friends.
Afterwards there were no doubts left. He rushed forwards in order to intercept the last wagon, one with captured children inside. There was quite a distance to the hill, but after training for two months under Prides's guidance and fueled by the hatred he felt, Lee wasn't even out of breath when he was captured by the completely baffled invaders.
They stared at the calm boy, who willingly surrendered, but then one of them said something in a foreign tongue, and Lee was thrown in the wagon filled with desperate and crying kids.
He barely made it on time. It was clear that the scourge were wrapping things up, and Lee with his group was the last wagon to get pushed in the dark-purple hole.
'Let's see if you can escape me in the Netherworld, bitch!' Lee snickered to himself, clenching his fists.
He wasn't scared of trouble and even less scared of death. In fact, death was the thing he was the least scared off.