Boom!
The menacing black warship exploded into a fireball before everyone's eyes. Jervis and the conversation no one else had heard burned with it, falling in fragments onto the land of the Azoth Kingdom, where they would remain forever.
Doka was bound from head to toe. Even if he had been free, he had lost his reason to fight. He had thought he feared Lord Jervis's power, but when he saw this, grief welled in his eyes.
He lowered his head, dazed. "Lord Jervis..."
"Rest in peace."
He slowly closed his eyes and breathed out, smiling as though he had finally let everything go.
Crown Princess Jimiya gripped the Golden Scepter tightly in her fair right hand. It represented part of the Lord Chamberlain's authority, and the last vestige of an earlier age.
A weight unlike anything she had known settled over her heart. From now on, everything in Azoth would rest on her shoulders.
She took a deep breath. This was no time to be lost in grief. For Azoth's future, she had to bring this story to its conclusion.
A gentle smile spread across Crown Princess Jimiya's face. She took Magearna's cold yet comforting right hand. "Magearna, from this day on, you're free. Azoth will always stand behind you."
Then she turned and placed a hand over her chest, bowing to the battered Volcanion. "Volcanion, thank you for protecting Magearna all these centuries. Please continue to look after her."
Jimiya bowed again as she spoke.
Beside her, Lakel kept turning Jervis's last two sentences over in his mind...
"Prince Lakel died today."
"As for that Mystery Cube..."
Beneath the clear blue sky, his once-innocent face suddenly seemed older, steadier.
Prince Lakel dropped to one knee without hesitation. "Volcanion, Magearna, I bear responsibility for what happened too. When I