After we got back to Limsa, it didn’t take very long before my parents needed me to conduct another trade. Ironically (and perhaps a bit obnoxiously,) they bid me to return to Ul’dah to make a large wine delivery for the Sultanate. Unfortunately, my master had also ‘requested’ I take the life of someone-- Torotoro. He is a wealthy Ul’dahn who has used Aleport as a tax haven to avoid paying his dues back to the city of Ul’dah, and it means the city struggles to fund its public works, worsening the Ala Mhigan immigration problem.

Needless to say, this creates something of a scheduling conflict. I need to board the boat to leave for Ul’dah by tonight, or I’ll need to wait all the way until the next day to catch the ferry. So, I decide to take my carriage halfway, leave it in the shrubs, and simply take my armor with me. Halone’s Champion appearing in Ul’dah so far away from Anah’to will also help convince the rogue’s guild that he isn’t involved.

So, that’s exactly what I do. I leave the carriage behind near Summerford farms, out of sight. The chocobos-- Gan and Erhi, are well behaved, but only to people they recognize, so I don’t doubt they’ll yell and scratch at anyone who gets too close. I try my best to move quietly, but that’s not very easy in full metal armor. I barely make it fourty yalms away before I run into trouble just as I cross the bridge for the nearby river.

“Champion of Halone.” A voice cut through the night just in front of me. Confidently marching towards me, I saw a Raen Au Ra man clad in white and gray armor with a brilliantly glowing sword and shield; a deep, light blue radiated from his weapons and pulsed rhythmically with each step he took. Similar to myself, he was covered head to toe, leaving only his horns exposed as a means of identifying him.

“And you would be?” I ask, gripping the hilt of my claymore, ready to draw it at a moment’s notice.

“Nophica’s Savior.” He took another step forward. “Nay, perhaps the savior of all of Hydaelyn.” We met in the center of the bridge between us, but I made sure to keep a dozen or so yalms distance. He raised his blade and pointed it towards me. “Your aether reeks of shadow-- whilst the realm lists dangerously towards darkness, no less. Any hero worth their salt would know you must be eliminated.”

“I do what I must to protect this world from the rich and privileged who would exploit it.” I explain, drawing my weapon and holding it defensively. “I will not apologize for my deeds, no matter how radical they may seem.”

“Tch.” He raises his shield up further. “Your actions will plunge this realm into chaos. If you would believe this act noble, then I would call upon you to defend it with your life! Champion of Halone, bringer of darkness, I challenge you!” He rushes me with his sword, spinning it and thrusting it towards me, which I block with my large claymore.

I am immediately forced onto the defensive due to the speed of his strikes, parrying again and again as I search for an opening. When he goes in for another strike, I channel lightning into my blade, causing it to course through his sword and into his armor. This proves enough to stun him just long enough that I feel comfortable taking a large swing with my weapon, aiming to cut his head cleanly off with a single strike.

He effortlessly blocks this with his shield, and does so with enough force that it causes me to stagger. As I try to recover, he rushes and slices through the strap holding most of my stomach plating, creating a much bigger opening for him. Before he can do so again, I kick him in the stomach, shoving him backward a few yalms. I take my blade and slam it onto the ground, releasing a wave of shadows into the air around both of us.

“Is that all?” He mocks, conjuring a small spark of light into the air which immediately explodes, banishing the darkness away and sending me flying backwards. “And to think, you call yourself a dark knight!” I struggle to my feet as I watch him point his blade toward me again. “My Lady, I beseech you-- smite our foe!” Blades of light rapidly form around him and turn directly towards me, zipping through the air.

I raise a wall of shadow between us in a desperate bid to protect myself, but the blades cut through it like warm butter, mincing through my armor and breaking parts of my helmet. I gasp in pain as one sword finds a home in my stomach, and I begin to realize just how desperate my situation is.

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“You do know that Halone commands the element of ice, yes?” He continues to advance closer, confident in his stride. “Yet you wield lightning, and seem to operate on your own schedule. How do you even know her will? Or is that just something you tell yourself so you don’t feel bad for playing judge, jury, and executioner?” He begins to raise his blade towards me again.

I repeat my trick of engulfing us both in shadow, and immediately turn and run back towards the carriage. This ends up being a lot harder than I expected, as the fresh wound slows me down dramatically, each step a sharp pain jolts from my stomach to my mind, causing me to involuntary gasp and my breath to go shallow.

“Have you learned nothing?” He asks condescendingly, once again irradiating the darkness and looking for me. “...Hmph. So you have elected to flee. I should have expected this cowardice from such a villain.” He does not relent, chasing after me much faster than I am able to flee.

Once I get back to the cart, the chocobos begin to panic until I take my helmet off. I try to pull myself on, but begin to choke as my core muscles are well out of commission at the moment. I finally get on, but before I can make my escape, a beam of light strikes the side of the cart and breaks two of its wheels, causing it to collapse on its side.

Gan erupts into a furious scream as The Savior draws closer to us, while Erhi draws closer to me and the cart. I hop onto Erhi’s back and cut the rope holding them both free, causing Gan to lunge forward in anger and Erhi to flee.

“Employing beasts to aid you?” He asks, raising his arm up and unleashing another beam of light. It harmlessly passes around Gan, curving and striking Erhi in the leg, causing her to collapse and cry out in pain. “Your weakness truly is pitiful. May you serve as an example to the world at l--” He was cut off by Gan ferociously chomping down on his helmet, though The Savior seemed more annoyed than threatened.

I took the opportunity to run as fast as I could towards the nearby orchard, seeking cover to hide in. I winced in pain with each step, and tried my best to hold back the tears as I heard cries of anguish in the distance behind me. Using my last bit of spare strength, I once again cover my path in darkness to buy every second of time I can manage. Further into the orchard, I saw the familiar orange glow of a Topaz Carbuncle, and stumbled toward it cautiously.

As I draw closer, I confirm my hopes-- Anah’to is there, awkwardly fumbling to grab an orange from a tree. In exhaustion, I begin to slow to a crawl-- dropping my helmet and sword, pleading for his help. The next thing I know, I’ve lost my balance, and everything fades to black.

I wake up in the Limsan Inn. I turn to my right and see Anah’to peacefully asleep in a cot just a few yalms away, and he looks terribly filthy, at least much more so than normal. I try to get up, but again find my main wound to be more inhibitive than I would’ve liked. My weak grunt of pain is enough to stir Anah’to awake, and I watch out of the corner of my eyes as his ears twitch to life and wakes up in a start. He immediately hops out of his bed and walks over to me, and before I can say anything he hugs me tighter than he ever has before, which admittedly still isn’t very hard.

“Hey, hey...it’s alright, I’m alrigh--” I try to say, but he pulls away and slaps me across the face. When I look back at him, tears are already streaming down his face and he is shaking, somewhere between furious and miserable.

“Don’t ever do that to me again!” He winces as he speaks. I can tell just by looking at him that he is struggling to stay standing. “I was so scared that you wouldn’t ever wake up again, do you understand?! Please, please I am begging you, this has to stop!” He looks me directly in the eyes. “I don’t want you to be a hero or some grand savior of the world! I just want you to live!”

As I try to sit up, I realize that the cloth wrapped around my stomach is the scarf he typically wears, and in that moment I truly come to realize that no, I wasn’t alright, and yes, I am extremely lucky to be alive. ‘Luck’ feels a bit dishonest, though. Anah’to is the reason I am alive, and there’s nothing else to it.

“...Okay.” I promise. “I won’t do...this anymore.” I wasn’t lying-- at least, at that moment. I knew deep down, though, that this was going to be a promise I had a difficult time keeping. Something I knew for sure, though, is that I would try my absolute damndest to keep my word.

That seems to help him calm down a lot, enough that he nearly collapses then and there, so I help him up onto the bed with me where he flops back to sleep. I’m a bit restless myself, as I try to run that last encounter through in my mind a few more times. I’m a bit miffed to learn that there are even more crazy nut jobs in the world besides I’shanta who swear up and down that the state of aether in the world is as important as it is, but my concern doesn’t end there. At the end of the day, this ‘savior’ saw my face, and knows that I at least operate nearby. No matter what, I’ll need to be a lot more careful moving forward.