"In this, I will brook no quarter, grant no mercy, and spare no effort to destroy you and your misbegotten rule!"
Mad God Augurious
The Royal Quarter of the Capital burned in an unholy fire. Royal Knights and Mages sworn to the crown fought a desperate battle against Spirits who never had bared their fangs this openly against the creation of the All-Father. A figure clad in crystalline armor led the greatest host of Spirits down the main road toward the castle and death followed in their wake.
Kaine felt a wave of dark and wrathful emotions inside him. His teeth flared in pain as he tried to hold back the vitriol as another company of disgraced Knights charged him. He saw the mark of the Queen upon their souls and shook his head. These people had willingly given themselves to such a monster, unlike the subtle dominion present upon his own mother's soul.
"Sanctioned...Kill them all and clear a path to the left wing of the castle..." King Jason's voice faded in and out of existence inside his mind as the message lost strength. Spirits of Summer and Autumn tore into the enemy forces like beasts, and Kaine beheld a sight reserved for the very few as these beings warped flesh and singed bones.
His own hands were now stained with blood of vermilion's finest. He had killed entire scores of Mages loyal to the Queen, no Malphas, as they tried to ambush him with Necromancy and Mind magic. They switched to regular warfare and even eldritch attacks and spells when that failed. And when that failed, these cretins felt the true magnitude of his power.
No chants, gestures, or reagents were needed now as his Greater Blessing roared with Divine power so strong that Kaine saw Gwennarius's sleeper form open an eye occasionally. He was using so much Chronomancy at a high level that the Goddess herself had to check things in the material coil. Another group of knights and Mages teleported near his position as he mused over it, and the battle was on again.
Winter Spirits from Lucrezia's domain roared as they transformed into beasts from the Wastes, terrifying feline-looking wild things that tore flesh from bone, Spring Spirits snapped fingers and pointed staves, some even fired darts from their fingers as the enemy forces were subjected to what had to be weaponized healing magicks.
"Kaine! Wrap things up! Lucrezia is down and she needs us!" Kaede's voice boomed inside his mind as he made a crushing motion with his right hand and another score of enemy combatants became dust. The Winter spirits near him trembled and roared, noticing what was happening in the academy. The other spirits all around the battlefield screamed as well and Kaine witnessed true horror again.
Carnage and Gore just like when Lucrezia killed the first prince, and now he led the suicidal charge against the enemy.
His deluge of detection spells flared with such intensity that he was stunned for a second as the Spirit horde bombarded the left wing of the castle with enough spells to level a city. A testament to the builders of yore was being painted right in front of him as the walls and towers held, the people who were trying to halt him on the other hand.
Those were gone.
A towering jackal of blue flame appeared next to him and spoke, his very tongue singing Kaine's ornamental cloth from his armor "The Scion's mother suffers, Son of Faal it is time we end this" his voice had no power but the hatred beneath its words was felt all the same. Kaine felt his heart grow cold as Lucrezia's condition was being broadcasted to the Spirits somehow.
The last squadron of loyal wretches charged them, teleporting right on top of their position as Kaine felt rage flood his system. He grunted with effort as astronomical amounts of Divine-charged mana were dumped into his spell form. A bubble of time slammed into the enemy Knights, he noticed quite a few of those being Royal Knights at that and within seconds they became bones.
The Summer Spirit howled at the skies "Vengeance!"
Walls crumbled and they charged forth, breaking into a magically enhanced sprint Kaine was flanked by Spirits of all Seasons before feeling a familiar form join him at the end of the corridor that led to the wing.
Kaede had tears in her eyes "Hope is losing herself to the madness of the Rage, my Love we must-" and then she was gone, everyone was gone as Kaine felt his body and soul be displaced across time and space via a powerful spell, powerful enough to forestall Gwennariu's divine wards as the Goddess's form raised her hands and head.
Her voice came as a whisper "...The human, Malphas managed to trap us in a realm outside of the river of time. This is not work of mine hands Kaine, she must've had an artifact or a spell" Panick, one of the Strongest Divinities around was feeling panic, and that surprised Kaine in a way he would find it funny, had things not been this dire.
"It matters not how she did it, We end things here and now." He spoke as the form of the Queen appeared, the place they were lit up as purple flames rose from pillars all around them, an arena of circular form and clearly of eldritch make.
"The mage? Out of all that Whore's lot they send the mage and upjumped ghosts? Shameful" Her voice dripped with venom and disdain. Queen Malphas smiled at Kaine with a smirk "Dearest Kaine, you honestly think you can-" Kaine did not wait for the words of the crazed abomination to end, with a slam of his staff he shot forward.
Gwennariu's form grew as she extended a spectral arm, and a shard of pure light grazed Malphas's face, blood-forming as Kaine hopped backward in a defensive stance. His mind worked overtime to layer defensive spells on his person.
"By the Will of Gwennarius Goddess of the river of time, you will die." Cold, focused rage flowed through Kaine as he stood against the strongest being alive, yet he knew no fear.
"Haha, such hubris! Do you believe you are the first Chronomancer I've faced you whelp? I AM the strongest being alive! I AM DIVINE!" Malphas raised herself upwards and opened her mouth once more, ready to taunt Kaine again. Yet a flash of silvery light made short work of the monologing madwoman as Kaine gripped his staff with both hands and conjured forth a massive sword made out of mana.
Stomping the ground with his right foot Kaine unleashed a field of frost spears right below where she would land. Not letting up he conjured spears of light and flame around the area and as soon as she made landfall he sent them towards her. Kaine saw in awe as the Queen soaked all of his magic into herself with barely any visual damage.
Then he felt tremors. Malphas's body shook and twisted before she roared into the air above. "Dog! Your tricks will not work-" a chain of teleports and he was staring Malphas right in the eyes, hatred burning behind them as she was taken back by his rather drastic move, time slowed down to a crawl as the Queen summoned a sword from thin air and moved to chop his head off.
Feeling all of his colossal mana and divine energy reserves wink out of his mortal shell, Kaine fired his magnum opus spell when it came to sheer destructive power, a mere copy of the artifact Richard used against Malphas before at the fields, but strong enough at point blank range that he was mostly sure would put this vile fiend down for good.
Fear, Kaine saw fear in her eyes as the Rage made a last-ditch effort to shield her from the pure beam of energy. "We go together!" Kaine screamed as his words were slowed and pitched wrong as the field of chronomancy around him slowed both of them and then he was back in reality. The plane he was sequestred into vanished into nothing and noise filled his ears.
"I will find you little mage, and when I do you will pay" Malphas's voice came from the air around him but she was no more, Kaine took a knee as he used his staff for support. When was the last time he had used all of his mana in a single spell? He couldn't remember...
Spirits, hordes of Spirits floated around him and he could barely focus on their faces as the feedback from his spell and lack of mana made his entire body and soul feel horrible. Worry, Delight, Rage, and Anxiety plagued their faces as he took deep breaths for a whole minute. A Summer Spirit in the form of a great bird of fire landed beside him and for a few minutes, he felt only tender heat.
Another Spirit, this one of Winter spoke "She lives still, wounded and scared but the Enemy lives still looked at its brethren and spoke "Faal's children will have to be content with her later, we must save the scion" It turned to Kaine and said "Son of Faal, touched by the River of Time, accept mine essence and make haste to the Scion, this will be painful for both of us but we must hurry!" Kaine nodded, feeling the bite of winter slam into his frame and a few of his necromantic wards ping.
With a thought, a slow one at that, he let the Spirit do its grim business. Pain and a cold fire burned into his frame, and he kneeled with both legs this time as Gwennarius's form began to shimmer out of his back. One minute, two minutes went by, and he was back into mostly top form as contingencies against pain flared upon his skin.
"Didn't think I would end up using these" he spoke to the crowd of Spirits who didn't reply, he felt his reserves and it was mostly full but the tinge of it was clearly of Spirit make and that felt odd, like wearing a pair of socks that used to belong to him...
Kaine focused and messaged Kaede. His beloved said the fighting was mostly over, and the insurgents had fallen to the last. Queen Malphas was already being called a Traitor to the Kingdom.
Politics didn't matter for him now, he coordinated with Kaede, and then both performed a long-range teleportation spell chain that led the duo to the gates of the academy, a sight of pure wonder welcoming them as the Sigil of the Mad God flared in the skies above, thunder and lighting raining down the fields as the distinct sound of hammering could be heard from their position.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Kaede didn't utter a word. She stared at Kaine with pure conviction in her eyes, and then they cast a final teleport spell. The last thing in Kaine's mind was a silent prayer to his Goddess, hoping that his countermeasures would work.
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Her mind burned, the world burned as she screamed in a rage so powerful, wrath so ancient the very stones and soil beneath her feet, and the air above her head felt it. In this singular moment in time, Hope was no longer just a powerful mortal blessed by the DIvines, empowered via their energies and cursed with the fell energy of the Rage.
She was an avatar of destruction, and only one entity would answer for her desperate pleas of fury and vengeance now. Fuelled by the powers of the Rage-that-Dwells Hope conjured forth a Divine Sigil upon the air. Augurious the Mad, the First and God of Order felt the plea and came Himself, breaking the stalemate with his Father and Aiding Hope.
The closest enemy near her was the Knight-Commander, and so the ground would be anointed with her gore, Hope vanished upon the cracks of reality and manifested herself to the left side of the woman whose faceplate no doubt hid the sheer shock on her face. One blow in her ribs and she was down. No pleas for mercy or begging for assistance, she knew none would answer.
The world sang around Hope as her mighty weapon, now fully imbued with the Mad God's essence shone a golden light. Three more blows came as the young woman bellowed a roar of rage and fury. Nothing remained upon ending her execution and she soon turned to face the Mage. A leap and Hope floated above the raven-haired woman, her hand brimming with a bolt of golden lighting.
A powerful noise spread itself throughout the Fields as Hope's lightning spear flew true toward her target. Her enemy's magic was not powerful enough to dispel the effect now as Hope once again manifested herself to the side of the enemy. Grabbing Mava by her face with her left hand and raising her from the ground in a death grip.
"I will kill you, your parents, your family will be hanged by the neck and their bodies nailed to the walls of your home. Your souls will burn in the deepest pits of the underworld and you will know no true peace" As Hope raised her hammer to slam it upon Mava's belly she felt something wrong crawling upon her spine.
Both women were engulfed in Dark Flames as Hope acted fast, but not fast enough with her weapon and she only felt the air hissing as the strike passed through nothing, the enemy had teleported away.
A kaleidoscope of emotions threatened to make her despair until she heard the voice of the Mad God "Save Lucrezia, Save Richard." It was a command, an order, and a reminder that her loved ones were about to die if she did nothing.
Another step and she manifested herself near the group. It wasn't just Richard and Lucrezia now, Vivienne and her beloved Arthur were barely hanging on as their position was littered with arrows from Lyndell's fel bow. Hope sucked in air to not scream and got to work trying to stabilize all of them and managing to save Vivienne and Arthur from it.
Richard had lost his arm, he crawled to Ltucrezia and was holding her body as life drained out of his body, whatever was in those arrows and on the bow itself was killing him and Lucrezia, getting past the protective spells that would've otherwise saved them. Hope rushed towards the couple as she heard Richard trying to wake Lucrezia.
"...Please..." Barely a whisper of a voice came from his lips as she tried to stabilize both with her healing spells, and it wasn't working. Hope felt the anxiety build throughout her body and soul like a rising tide, dread made her teary-eyed but she was stronger and would not falter now of all times! With effort and a bit of cursing she began to rapidly cycle through her most strong blessings.
If these Divines were worth something, now was the time to make sure of it.
Pillars of energy erupted above Hope as she bled the bastards dry, her plan was simple in execution but it would only buy time for Kaine to arrive, if there was someone who could unfuck this mess it was him, she was sure of it. And so Hope began her grueling work as a tsunami worth of healing, purging, rejuvenation, and curse-breaking spells and miracles flowed out of her repertoire.
Hope felt a shift in the air pressure to her left side as Arthur appeared, hagged and looking like an ogre had just sucked-punched him. He didn't speak a word to Hope, instead joining in the effort to keep Lucrezia and Richard alive until Kaine arrived, a breakthrough happened once he started casting some sort of Chronomantic spell meant to slow down curses.
"To think Kaine's paranoia ended up being real" Arthur shook his head as Vivienne appeared as well, eyes bloodshot and weapon in hand ready to cleave the enemy in two "They ran away, the entire academy is under some sort of barrier spell but Saa and our army are trying to take it down. No communications with Kaine yet..." she stopped as Richard's eyes opened and rushed towards him.
"...Kaine...Get him and Kaede here...before she..." he could only whisper as Vivienne hugged his head, Hope screamed in impotent rage, her mental faculties slipping by the second as she increased the output of her deluge, the world around them disappearing from her sight and mind at first, sound following closely as she prayed, then begged for help.
Noise, roars of the dead, and static filled her head before a bolt of cerulean blue slammed right in the middle of their formation, Hope's eyes now filled with tears beheld Kaine's disheveled hair, his angular face full of scabs and eyes filled with strong emotion hitherto seen in him. Kaede's form shimmered into existence before fully manifesting it, she was full of wounds as well.
Gwennarius's body radiated divine energies, the Goddess's eyes were wide with fear as she commanded Kaine's mouth "We need to do this together Hope! quick use my blessings at full power! use the bloody Rage if you must!" Kaine fell to his knees "We were ambushed at the academy's gates, shortly before the barrier went up, the Queen, no Malphas has rebelled against the King and gathered her forces to the south of the city..." he struggled to speak, Kaede got him on his feet and pointed towards Richard and Hope.
"..." Kaine couldn't speak, Hope saw him clench his fist in rage "Hope, pray to the All-Father you can master this spell in the next minute" She leaped to his side as Kaine began teaching her what had to be the most advanced magical ritual of chronomancy she had ever seen, short of actual time travel enabled by the Goddess upon his back that is.
"He was not meant to die, Richard has a role to play and if he dies here we will be in for horrible times" Gwennarius spoke after they were done "Hope, Arthur, and Vivienne gather around" They did as Kaede and Kaine finished the sigil around Lucrezia and Richard "Blasted calculations! Stars undivided I curse those curs! Right you three, you will perform what I say to the bloody letter because I will not die today, nor will both of them!" Gwennarius's form got up in what had to be a monumental expenditure of divine energy.
Hope's Greater Blessing of the Goddess roared like a dragon, All-Father be good she was coming to the mortal coil!
Hope's eyes burned, the world shook and the very air around the group stilled as a giant figure burned itself into the mortal realm. Her skin was bronze and her eyes pure silver, a beautiful mane of pitch black hair flowed from her head. Her face was perfection made real. Taller as a giant yet with grace unnatural to the world.
Hope's eyes rolled back into her head, in this singular moment of sheer power being blasted in all directions her reserves of power went haywire. A vision blossomed upon her eyes as she beheld herself holding the God Slaying Spear gifted by the hivemind, at her feet was the divine carcass of Gwennarius, and behind her were Arthur and the others.
"Mortal! This is the fulcrum! Either we save Lucrezia and Richard or I DIE! To me Kaede, Kaine because now I...we will shatter this future we will save them!" The group fell into ranks as the Goddess took charge, with a slap of both of her hands a dome of pure divine power engulfed Lucrezia and Richard, tiny clocks of all sizes and shapes ticking down, and Hope did not need to guess what that meant.
A grunt of power came out of Gwennarius, and everyone fell to their knees as she siphoned their energies "Funnel your life force, your very essence to Richard right now! He cannot will not die!" Arthur, Vivienne, and Hope did as instructed and Hope even felt the very essence of the Rage being taken into whatever piece of Divine spellwork Gwennarius was working on.
Richard's eyes opened and he took a deep breath, Panic set in as the Goddess pulled him with a gesture and placed him outside of the dome. Vivienne and Arthur stared at Hope who gave them a nod, both rushed towards Richard to aid him.
"Now, for the main event," There was a smirk in the way She spoke "To think it would come down to this, Kaine and Kaede get ready, Hope you have already learned the spell correct? stand to my side and place both hands upon my back, once we start casting it you will funnel every single drop of energy you have towards me, you will not die but I can't promise it will be pleasant" the Goddess stared at the eyes of the mortal who in another timeline had killed her.
No Hesitation, no fear.
"I will give you everything" and she did so. With a nod, the group began casting the spell and Hope saw a miracle happen. Lucrezia's body floated upwards and was encased upon some sort of glass coffin, focusing on the spell work Hope began the chants and hand gestures together with everyone, and once they reached the end the Goddess turned her head towards her one more time.
Hope saw those SIlvery eyes stare at her with a mixture of emotion, she nodded back and placed both palms upon Gwennarius's back. Calling forth every single iota of power at her disposal she saw echoes of every divine she had interacted with, the avatar of Rage that Malphas had summoned,d and even the very current of mana that flowed from the center of her universe.
"Faal, it's about time you show up" Gwennarius's voice was the last thing she heard before the world went white, Hope's mind nearly shattering as she channeled enough energy to birth a star into the Goddess back. Seconds stretched into Infinity as she screamed in pain and fury. And then it was over, Hope found herself floating within a void that stretched endlessly.
"Daughter, It is not time for you to die yet" the calm voice of the All-Father washed over her "Apologizes for not saving our dear Lucrezia there, it seems higher forces were at play here and my hands were tied...but a happy ending will not be denied to you, now return to the mortal coil. Much for you and yours to do yet" His voice vanished and Hope felt her body again.
"...Hope, Gods above and below woman answer me!" She opened her eyes, Kaine's face was a mess as tears fell from his eyes, he fell onto the ground next to her "Oh Gods, Oh Gods!" She coughed and extended her arm, Kaine was quick to focus and even with tears still falling helped her get on her feet, the others were staring at a...
In the middle of the spell formation, where the dome of power that the Goddess had deployed was a beautifully done glass coffin, Lucrezia's body lay within it. Hope could faintly see the spell and divine formulas halting time itself to keep her alive, she choked at the sight and tried to rush towards her friend, but her legs were weak.
Kaine helped her move, and she saw Arthur and Kaede holding Richard up. He was a mess, and his face showed telltale signs of crying. Hope felt powerless as she watched the somber sight. "Gwennarius vanished after a while, Lucrezia is outside of the river of time for now until we find a way to purge whatever curse the bow placed on her, Richard will be fine within a few days as his body and soul acclimates to your combined essences" Kaine explained, yet Hope could hear the rage lurking beneath his words.
"War, I will have a war over this, and Gods will strike me down if anyone dares to stop me!" Arthur spoke. We must gather our friends. I will petition Father for support, and we will hunt down that vile woman. The sin of Kinslaying will not stop me!" He felt Kaine's hand hold his shoulder. "Old friend, your father already knows, and as we speak, he rallies the loyal troops. Make no mistake, this will end with Malphas, and those two despicable women's heads on pikes, and their bodies nailed to the walls of the castle" Kaine spoke and everyone nodded.
Hope's core burned, the worst had been avoided at great cost. Within her heart of hearts, she made a promise, that when the time came she would be the one who dealt the killing blow, vengeance would be hers, forevermore.