After the events that transverse during the quest of the duke, I isolated myself in my monastery hoping to never come across a sight so gruesome and vile ever again. Something told me though, that it was never going to be like the old days of simply blessing or exorcisms, but now has turned to shedding blood to fix the problems of the countryside instead of diplomacy and trust. Alas, I must embrace the times if I wish to stay alive long enough to see the future change for the better. As I was praying for a soul I have slain, the familiar sound of a small hand rapping against the cold oak door of my home, stirred me from my daily prayer. I opened the door to see another small hand give a sealed letter, thanking him for his service I closed the door regrettably knowing the contents of the letter were another ‘holy’ quest favored by the king. I grabbed one of the many wooden stools that lay across the floor and brought it towards a counter, I sat down and unsealed the letter and began to scan the contents. It spoke of a damsel going missing in the northern part of Devlin, I threw down the letter not out of the ending of the letter but the fact I must go back through Devlin to achieve my goal. I picked up the crumpled letter and read it again and found that this ‘damsel behind the gate’ is the daughter of some belonged Irish king and is being held for ransom. Understanding my mission, I had no choice but to set out to find the damsel and rescue her and her father from misery. I once again buckled my silver armor, sheathed redemption, and strapped on my shield and sword, which still had dried blood in the seams and cracks that reminded me of that dreadful day. I fetched my horse, leaving the monks to look after the monastery while I am gone, and rode out onto the all too familiar path to the north. As I arrived in Devlin the horrific sights still lay silently in the grass crying for help, for salvation, but now they are plucked clean of their eyes and ears, and smiling skulls lay where the bodies of women and children used to be. I try my best to focus on the road ahead and not look towards the decayed piles of flesh but towards the damsel, I must save from this place. I rode ever faster towards the crowded villages and in hast searches looked for any sign of the damsel, but to no avail, I kept up the pace for days but there was still no sign of the lady. I finally came across a small hut of a hermit and asked him for any information but having none, I simply added if I could lodge in his home for the remainder of the night so I may continue my search tomorrow, he agreed and I slept upon the humble ground and let my mind flow into my surroundings as I thought of how I could find her.

I woke to the sounds of the hermit lighting a fire and the smell of seared meats and smoke, he was chanting a simple rhyme, “Oh porcelain lady, so pale of skin and pure of soul, your hair lights the room aflame so that’s everything glows. You hide in the hills, behind the gate guarded by fiends, beyond the fields of green.” I asked him where he heard the rhyme and he told me the story of the rhyme and explained that there is a gate in the hillside towards the east that no one knows what it is for, feeling like God have given me a favorable turn I gathered my weapons and after eating some of the humble food the hermit did prepare, I traveled east. After what seemed like days, I finally saw in the distance the gate on the hillside that the hermit spoke of and I dismounted my horse and started walking quietly towards the wooded area of the gate, it was getting close to dusk so I had to move quickly and silently. As I got closer, I saw that five guards had taken post along the entrance and were arguing about the reason they are here instead of home. I snuck up on the first guard as he was relieving himself on a tree and snapped his neck thrice; I turned to face the other guards and blew the first two into a boulder, which I then picked up and dropped on them and picked up the sword from the first guard and threw it into the chest of the fourth and beat down the fifth with my spiked gauntlets. I then ripped open the gate as I felt the rage fill my bones again, I searched what looks to be the central building which was much easier than expected because ten soldiers were standing in front of it. I could tell that these were no ordinary guards for they were clad in shiny red armor and had inscriptions carved into their chest plates, seeing there was no other way I unsheathed Redemption and wielding it like a blood-soaked feather of death charged at the group and beheaded the first two soldiers as I dodge an attack and ran him through with my underarm blade. The next three charged me and I make a cross with my hands and a wave of concussive force threw them at the surrounding buildings leaving me on a pedestal of dirt surrounded by a crater, I floated over to the other four and waved them on and within a few seconds I had skewered two of them with my claymore and the third got greeted with a blade through the eye and the last one was kicked in the gut and curb stomped so his brain was splattered on the ground. After gathering my weapons, I moved towards the building which I scanned with my magic to find that there was only one knight and a damsel in the room, so I gathered my strength and blasted the door off its hinges and stared at the fearful captain of the guard staring at my in pure horror and question, “you are a paladin, why do you shed so much blood? You are supposed to be a holy man!”

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He held the damsel closer his dagger edging her throat and my cold eyes explained the reason I have killed some for so few. I threatened to kill the lady and I motioned to her to cause a distraction so I may slay him, she threw her head back breaking the knight’s nose and moving to the side, which gave me a few seconds to grab one of my daggers and throw it into his neck. I walked over to the bleeding body and retrieved my dagger; I then turned to the lady who was much like the rhyme had said she was pale of skin and hair the shade of fire and she spoke with a voice that sounded like the gust of an Irish wind “Thank you, kind sir, have you been sent by my father?” I told her I was not here for her father but king Arthur and there was no time to talk because we still needed to escape the dark village. She said her name was Fionna and was glad to know me but still had many questions, her questions would have to wait because no sooner had we gotten past the gate and into the wooded path did a group of thirty knights clad in the same red armor as the ones in the village and halted our progress. I could tell they wanted me because they had already killed my horse and set traps for us if we do get past them. I could tell this was not going to be an easy task, but I had to muster all my strength and press forward. As I stepped towards the group one of them stepped forward, he looked to be the commander he spoke with words covered in loathing and hatred “My name is Sir Irek, commander of the Crimson Lance I have come to avenge my fallen son who you slay to save that Irish rebel.” I responded to him with just a look of pure cold, and a feeling of rage seeped into me through the ground I stood on, to the top of my helm and I spoke with an icy rage that would make a dragon quiver in fear, “You believe that this damsel is a rebel, well by the grace of God and the blessing of King Arthur I stand in defense of this damsel of Ireland, and if you wish to harm her you will have to kill me first…” As the last syllable left my mouth, I was already crossing the twenty feet separating me from them and unsheathed Redemption as the mighty blade cut through three of the knights. Another two rushed me from behind and were greeted with my claymore through one and my heel in the face of the other, which sprayed his brains all over the now red grass. The next three took stances at me to strike but I dropped three of my daggers into my hand and threw them at the unsuspecting goons, each one hitting its mark. The two that were left were picked up and impaled by tree limbs as they were thrown through them. The next ten knights all charged at once and again I made the holy cross along my armor and blasted them off their feet into the rocky face of the hillside smashing their skulls under the impact. The only ones left were the commander and his nine knights, as I stood in front of their blood-soaked and enraged, Redemption stained with blood mixed with mud sat resting with its tip in the dirt, Irek stepped forward and applauded the show that I had conducted as his archer shot an arrow into my thigh which dropped me to the ground in pain, as I tried to pick myself up, Irek tried to go after Fionna but I used the last of the magic I could muster and turned the knights against their weapons and killed five of them. By that time Irek had stepped forward and plunged his sword through my lung and into the dirt pinning me down, he then took Fionna and placed her in front of me on her knees and spoke words of pure ice, “If want a mission done right, never send the son, but use the father.” With those words, he raised the ax given to him by one of the guards with me powerless and pinned I tried to pull out the sword but to no avail, the damsel sat weeping as the ax came down in a murderous arc and cut through the delicate neck of the damsel. I screamed in pure rage as I ripped the sword from my chest and jumped at Irek and plunged his sword through the top of his helm down through the bottom of his jaw. Ignoring the pain of my chest wound, I unsheathed my sword and slaughtered the remaining knights, the last one though I had a special treatment for, I picked him up by the throat and sheathed Redemption and my sword, I flung him against a tree as I took his blade and threw it through his abdomen so he was dangling above the ground as the sword dug deeper as gravity pulled maliciously at the dead knights’ legs. Knowing I had failed my mission I gingerly walked over the body of the dead damsel and retrieved the necklace of the Irish royalty as a token of my failure. I started to walk towards the path that leads back to my home of Camelot, but each step was harder than the last as the woods around me started to spin and I fell into the bloodied grass with the rest of the bodies, as the world faded to black.