HP: The Arcane Thief

Back in Atlantis, the whole Kingdom was stunned as they digested the news they had just heard.

King Atasis the Second… has surrendered to the Entity. It could be imagined just how big a blow this was to their morale. The King is the figurehead of a Kingdom, leading everyone by example. It is a given that the citizens can depend on the King to make the right decisions for the Kingdom and prevent it from any harm.

But forget protecting the Kingdom, the King... instead joined the enemy?

They were still trying to figure out how the Kraken got control over the Royal Throne, but this? This is how they got it? By taking over the king himself?

"I cannot believe this!"

"The King? No way!"

"This… cannot be!"

King Atasis had always been a wise and benevolent ruler who has always opposed Kraken and served the Kingdom with an unwavering devotion, to the point of even fighting and punishing his own brother for supporting the Kraken.

So, they couldn't understand how such a ruler could possibly give in to the Kraken.

Atasis whose face was filled with wrinkles, sighed. "Tila, my daughter. I know you're watching this. I have something to say to you," he said, his eyes looking into the camera.

"Princess, that's not your father." said the General as he made to close the screen. The blue markings state that the King has already been taken over. Whatever he is saying is right under the influence of Kraken.

And the Princess really, genuinely, has already suffered too much. She is not in a state to handle more.

But like always, Antilla stopped the General. "This might be important," she said, her face completely emotionless. She might get hurt again and again and again. But…she will never run away.

As if knowing that Antilla was listening, the King continued speaking. "I am really ashamed, my daughter. For giving in. But the pain was too much. Losing my wife and brother was painful enough, but my damaged soul was making every living moment a hell for me."

"I thought joining them would lessen the pain… and it did, temporarily. I was starting to feel much better. I was even recovering. But… the price was too steep. I lost control over the Throne, I lost control over myself, I… I ended up killing my own daughter."

Antilla suddenly looked up in confusion, wondering if she'd heard it right. She was still alive, right? But when the King continued, she got yet another shock.

The King sighed. "I had no control over my actions. I didn't even know how I ended up at the Kraken's base. Before I knew it, I was seeing my brother, who should have been dead, fighting Atlana, and then, having no control over my actions, I actually help him! I subdued the Royal Trident, long enough for her to be cornered and forced into a suicidal move."

Antilla just stood there blankly, her head in a whirlwind of chaotic thoughts.

"Princess, it can't be true. They're just trying to confuse us," said the General, though, for the first, even he sounded uncertain.

But Antilla shook her head, recalling the memories. And now that she added this new information to the past events that had always seemed strange to her, suddenly, everything was making perfect sense!

Why her sister suddenly started to behave oddly around the Royal Father, why he had miraculously begun to recover, why he lost control over the throne, why sister left, and why even hid away the dangerous and mass-destructive weapons of the Kingdom that could have been so handy in this war.

It is true. It has to be. There is no other explanation for it. So, her uncle killed her mother and Nephew, and her father… killed her sister?

"S-So… this whole time…" she murmured, her voice shaking.

The King continued, not having heard Antilla. "I was also responsible for poisoning you, thus making you incapable of bearing a child, and so was I responsible for the Royal Throne not acknowledging you as we had to start the corruption process," the King sighed. "I am really sorry for that. I know how much you've blamed yourself for that, never even marrying anyone and also trying to be better to one day get the acknowledgement from the Throne. It must have been really frustrating."

?!?!?!?!

King slammed the Throne's armrest. "But... you know what's more frustrating? It's the fact that right after I had fulfilled my usage, they locked away these memories and took back most of the powers given to me, only leaving enough for me to survive. Now that they've completely corrupted the Throne, they've returned my powers and unlocked my memories again, like a seashell." said the King in frustration, but Antilla was no longer listening though, her hand resting on her belly.

She didn't even realize, but she was once again having difficulty in breathing.

So… this was the reason?

Not because she was born with genetic defects or because she was incompetent? Antilla's brain had lost all function, so stunned was she after getting all the information.

This… this was too much! This really was too much.

She had been poisoned to be infertile, and the Throne had been too corrupted to acknowledge her. So no matter what, she was supposed to fail anyway. This whole time, she was just a chess piece too useless to even get rid of.

All those years of blame, self hatred, self pity, brutal training, hard work… it was all for nothing? Why? Because she was betrayed by her own father.

A sense of hopelessness enveloped her. Royal Father had been suffering for a while. And Antilla had sort of made peace with the eventuality of losing him. She had thought the worst that could happen would be her being left alone.

But this? This she could have never imagined in her worst nightmare.

Betrayal from the person she had been taking care of for the past 10 years. And such a huge betrayal. She now felt like her whole life was useless.

"Princess! Get yourself together! Distracting you is exactly what they want!" Exclaimed the General, closing the screen. He really regretted not clearing it sooner.

But, what could he do? He was too shocked to think about it. He had been childhood friend with King Atasis. And then his Royal guard, before eventually rising to the rank of General.

And he had never imagined that the King would actually do something like this. Now he was blaming his incompetence for not noticing it. So blinded by loyalty and friendship was he that he never saw all the glaring signs that something was wrong.

Now he regretted it deeply. Had he been more cautious, none of this would have happened.

The King's broadcast really did achieve its purpose. Everyone was currently in a deep state of shock, comprehending everything that had been said.

And, as if waiting exactly for this moment, the Kraken army chose this exact moment to attack.

A huge army began to swarm through the portal which had been left completely open now that it was under Kraken's control.

Grotesque humanoid figures, Giant Creatures, Air ships with pseudo relic wielding warriors and Forced Relic Wielder, everything came in huge droves, showing that the Kraken had been conserving its strength for this moment.

And if the size, the time, and the Kingdom-wide control wasn't enough, each and every warrior was now supercharged with the Entity's power, blue markings glowing brighter than ever before.

At the same time, the artillery and laser cannons that had always been aimed towards the Portal, were now turned around, to aim towards the kingdom.

The General was the first one to react. Putting away everything going on in his mind, he went straight to do his first and foremost duty: Protect the Kingdom.

"ATLANTIANS! PREPARE THE DEFENSES!" He roared, raising his giant sword with one hand.

"DON'T FORGET! THIS FIGHT TO PROTECT OUR KINGDOM! OUR HOME! AND LONG AS I AM STILL STANDING, NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM US, BE IT THE KING HIMSELF!"

His battle cry was infused with magic, traveling throughout the Kingdom and filling everyone up with strength and vigor.

It was a skill that came along with his Relic, the Proeliator.

Suddenly, everyone snapped out of their negative thoughts, battle-intent rising in their hearts.

The war cry reminded them, even if they had lost the king, even if they had lost their defenses, and even if they had lost many warriors, there was still this giant on their side, who has always shown his overwhelming might on the battlefield.

The Defensive Spell casters invoked their magic together, and a huge shield appeared in the air, leading all the way to the army. There were no cowards or amateurs here. Everyone present had fought and survived numerous wars in the past 6 months, so when the General gave the orders, their training and instinct took over, replacing the fear and confusion.

The cannons and artillery hit the shield, most of it managing to hold up. At the same time, the General rose up in the air. There was a flash of light, and a hundred of the incoming Kraken creatures were split in two, including many Altantian canons.

The General's sword slash brought hope to everyone. He then pointed the sword at the enemy. "Ranged Attacks ready! Set!.... FIRE!"

A huge volley of spells were released from Atlantis side, as everyone who had the ranged spells and weapons attacked. But, a super-charged shield was erected on the Kraken's end too, protecting them from most of the damage.

"Cast the buffs!"

Each of the warriors was loaded with enhancing spells, making them temporarily stronger, faster, and tougher.

"All units! Icarian Formation!" He order, calling for a pre-planned formation which involves both attack and defense.

"CHARGE!!"

"AVENGE THE FALLEN!!! CHARGE!!!" The General roared leading the charge on his chariot.

""""""""AVENGE THE FALLEN"""""""""

All the riders with shooters on their back flew behind the General while the ground units were led by the Commander-in-chief.

The Kraken's army also charged, fearless of the incoming army.

The two forces clashed in the middle, starting the battle for real.

Lightning fell from the sky, taking down 4 to 5 giant creatures at once along with the Kraken warriors they were carrying as Ender entered the battle.

The rest of the Relic Wielders followed as high-speed wind blades cut through the army like grass, a large number of enemies burst into flames, a huge creature was lifted up and throne over the densest part of the army, etc.

But at this moment, the forced-relic wielders, who were comparatively larger in number, attacked the Relic Wielders at once, at if on command.

??

"Evade!" Ender yelled out, sensing something amiss as he created a Lightning forcefield to buy time. The rest of Relic Wielders quickly moved from the area just as the attack landed.

BOOOOOM

A huge explosion shook the whole area where the Relic Wielders used to be, attracting the attention of the rest of the armies too.

"What… was that?"

"W-What kind of power is that?!"

"How?!"

Sylthia's lips parted in shock. "Such a huge increase?"

The Seal is mainly sustained by taking slight amount of magic from each Atlantian. And since they had just lost a lot of soldiers and civilians in the surprise attack just now, they had definitely expected the Entity to now be able to supply more energy to each individual. But, by such a large amount? It was out of their expectations.

"It wasn't only the power increase," said Ender, his mind working furiously. "Those attacks were well coordinated, designed for each one of us."

Had they opted for simple defense instead of extreme caution, they might have been in trouble right now. "This is not good. They've come prepared this time."

Similar results happened when the melee armies clashed. The power increase was something astounding. In most clashes, it was the Kraken army that was coming out on top.

It seems that all the fights before this were simply sacrifices in which they didn't use the tactic they had been developing this whole, saving them for this day.

If that wasn't enough, Cravix, the Sixth Overseer and the Space Relic Wielder, who had been hiding this whole time, suddenly appeared in the space as if he owned the place, another one of the Dimensional bombs in his hands.

The space beside him opened and a huge Biomaton appeared, which was being controlled by the 5th overseer Karlock, who had the Biotech Relic.

"This is going to be too easy," said Cravix as he dropped the bomb over the Atlantian army.

"You sure about that, cervix?" Though, before the bomb could reach down, it was swallowed up by darkness, and then released into the Kraken army.

"Did the party start without me?" Darkness began spreading over the sky as Kyrin appeared in the air. She had the same look on her face as the one when she went on the killing spree, only stopping after she had killed three overseers.

Because she had just come back after witnessing the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians just now. Needless to say, she was not in the greatest of the moods. And the current atmosphere happened to be just right for her to vent.

The warriors of the Kraken army began to get nervous. Not only because of Kyrin though. But what comes with her.

An aura death began spreading throughout the area. And then, she appeared.

Black Lightning radiating from her, and eyes having a strange pattern of pupils encircled by black circles. She was wearing a dark Armor that emphasized mobility, and an aura of death and darkness of oozing of her, causing her surroundings to literally lose light and life.

She appeared in the densest part of the battlefield, and the Kraken warriors fell down like waves, being claimed by death.

Seeing Kyrin and her protege, Cravix decided to flee, but Kyrin expanded her domain, trapping him inside. But it was not big enough to trap Karlock's Giant Biomaton, which escaped and started to attack the Atlantian army.

"Akiko, don't go too deep!" Martina said through her comms, as she flew over a huge aircraft flew over to the battlefield.

In the past few months, Martina had also changed a lot, having experienced loss and war. Her hair had been cut short and her eyes contained more maturity and intelligence. She had discarded her pretty attires, instead choosing a Full metal armor, and she had also put on some muscles.

And surprisingly, her armor had 5 stars, signifying just how high she had risen in just four months.

Looking at the Giant Biomaton which was attacking the Atlantian army, she was not surprised at all, having researched all about Karlock.

"This is Tech mage. I've got the handle on Karlock, over," she said over the comms and she began adjusting the controls of the aircraft.

"I've been waiting to try this." Martina pulled on a liver and the whole aircraft suddenly vibrated, every part of its framing beginning to move.

The wings folded, and the main body opened up as the Aircraft started to fall. It made impact with the ground over the Kraken army, crushing many and causing an earthquake. When the dust cleared, a robotic giant was stood there with a railgun in hand and a blade in the other.

"Gundam transformation complete. Guardian Knight Axe, online," came the Ai's voice.

"What's this abomination? It's not artistic at all!" Karlock, who had been trying to crush a bunch of soldiers stopped in the process, offended by the presence of another mechanical humanoid like his.

Martina wasted no words, directly firing the railgun at him.

With this, the final war had truly started in full swing, death and destruction spreading everywhere.

From a high vantage point, a man with a head made out of metal looked at the battlefield with a slight smile on his face. "Peculiar." He muttered, calculation running through his eyes. "Start implementing phase 2."

…

A.N.: Powerstones! Take me to the Top for no delays!

Next: Battle of Atlantis II: A Hero's Return

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Edit: These chapters have been written a long time ago and I don't clearly remember which chapter will have what content so I get confused. next is definitely the Return