My Raphtalia, My Queen (Raphtalia x male reader)

Chapter 24: An audience with the king

The glimmering ambience of moonlight crept through ancient cuts between the curtain fabrics. Everybody else was asleep, their snores filling the air with quiet tension. There you stood, equipped for combat, looking down at a sleeping tanuki in a soft slumber. A smile crept along your face as you admired her beauty for one last time. Your lips approached hers and gently planted a kiss onto them before vanishing in a spiral of blue lights.

The light-blue streaks of lasers shot through the curtains and refracted through the glass until they bounced around outside. Then, without warning, they shot upward and danced with the stars and raced against the moonlight itself. To many, the lights could've been a fallen star, or maybe a meteor shower. Perhaps an anomaly of light? A sign from the cosmos? A gift from God? However, no matter the theories and debates that took place the next morning of what this strange apparition was exactly, none would succeed. For the truth was that this glamours spectacle of majesty and power was, in fact, a figure very few know of now, but ALL will know very, very soon.

The lasers twirled through the air and spun around clouds, pacing and pushing forth across the night sky. The phantom lines of magical prowess that stained the night sky would be held as a reminder of what was to come. The streaks flew across aimlessly until a beacon of corruption came into view. A castle wider than many cities, and a city wider than many countries. A capital larger than thousands of kingdoms, and streets that held more wickedness than the armies of Hell.

Those blue-streaks correlated together, just outside the gates. The fluorescent webbing wrapped and tangled together to form a figure. Broad but agile. Tall yet undetectable. Tough yet charming. The blue light was washed away and was replaced by a hulking mass of black. The darkness floated across the stone road into the city, bringing with it a scent of destruction. Its hollow head looked down at the supposed night watch. All were lying down on the floor with splashes of red on them. The strong stench of alcohol wafted into the darkness' nostrils, which made it cough and sneer in disgust.

"Tch. Pathetic drunks" it mumbled. The black mass drifted onward, creeping along across the abandoned city streets with ease. It saw all the worse kinds of sin uprear its ugly head. Shadows whispering in black market dealings. The rattle of slave chains. Zombies flirting with young girls with slurred speeches. Demi-Humans beaten and taken advantage of. A red glow from the hulking darkness made a rambling fool twist violently into pitch-black spectres, who all moved to rid the streets of this plague.

The colossal shadow swiftly made its way along the streets in an increasingly timely manner. All it needed was to chose one road, for they all eventually made their way to the castle gates. Its movements were soft as it approached the gates. The guards this time, however, were on full alert, and no bottles of wine or tankards of ale were in sight. However, the cheer and bustle of a royal banquet could be overheard through thick stone walls, and the taste of roasting meats was salivating on the creature's tongue. It slowly made its way towards the doors of the castle, and pushed them open with outstretched arms.

The smiles and music and festivities were cut short by the sound of the doors creaking open. The royal dining hall, where hundreds of guests mingled and gorged and drank themselves away, was disrupted by a broad black figure, possibly male, walking coldly along the centre of the room.

"Halt!" cried out a guard, who stuck out his halberd at the figure. Before the others knights could rush over, though, the figure flicked his hand to the side and with a flash of blue, the guard was tossed aside and crashed into a table full of roasted pork and beef.

"What nonsense is this!" cried out the King, gripping his goblet of wine with anger and his teeth blaring bloody murder. The figure looked towards the second-floor balcony to see the King jerking like a wild dog. Beside him, it saw a familiar red-headed princess and a blonde 'Hero' gripping his spear in anticipation of confrontation.