As I arrived on the bleak and darkened plain of Devlin, I saw with my own two eyes the destruction and death that this duke has caused to his people. I continued down the blood-soaked dirt path that leads to the duke’s castle and it took all my focus to keep from vomiting and clenching my mind in pure disgust and panic. Bodies of women and children were left to bleed in the grass, bodies decapitated and heads put on pikes to send a warning to all who came to help. Limbs were scattered along the side of the road, babies had been slaughtered or cut out of their soon-to-be mothers, the sight itself made me gag and fill with rage. As the horse continued forward, the only thing keeping me from stopping to bless every dead child, brought me towards a house on a desolate and scorched patch of land and as I came closer, I could hear the motion and yell inside. I dismounted and ignored the decaying wasteland around me and walked towards the house and listened, only to hear the sound of men, four of them by the sound of it, and what seemed to be at least one woman. I knew too well what happens in this kind of situation, so I unsheathed Redemption and blew the door off its hinges using what power I could muster, and stared into the eyes of one of the men standing there with a bloody dagger and a dead damsel on the ground, he looked at my armor and knew immediately what I was and fell to his knees as the rest of them in the room followed suit. They pleaded for God’s mercy but he has no mercy for murderers and rapists, I stepped forward and swung the mighty blade through the head of the first as the others stood up to fight back. I simply looked at them in their sniveling courage and threw them through the walls of the house without lifting a finger as the last remaining marauder stood there in awe, I sheathed my blade and stepped towards him and made him face the deed he has done to one of pure blood and soul, he cried at the sight but I did not hear it for some reason, for I still do not know but I slammed his head in the dirt and walked away excommunicating him as I left.

As I rode away, I heard the screams of mercy coming from the dead man’s mouth, but I did not care, and I turned towards the duke’s castle and galloped towards it. Praying to God, he knows the deed he has done. As I finally reached the castle gates, I wasted no time kicking them open and sprinting towards the throne room where of course the duke was sitting, with his guards behind him as he wrote letters to an unknown enemy of his progress. I walked down the corridor, enraged and revolted to see the bodies lying in the hall still with spears and swords placed through the decaying bodies. As I got closer the duke’s guard stepped forward to defend their ruler and I simply used my magic and tossed them aside like leaves in the wind, stunned the duke stood protesting my insolence to assault his ‘highnesses, as I continued towards him, he unsheathed his sword and swung but was frozen in mid-stance as if held by some invisible force. I lifted my head and stared into his dead, black eyes and he understood what was to come and called upon his three-hundred guards to aide him, six of them ran in and the original four stood up and charged, in a matter of seconds I had unsheathed Redemption struck down the first four, blown back another two, skewered three of them together with the claymore, only to take the last man by the neck and snap it in my cold grasp. I retrieved my claymore from the fallen bodies and stood up to see two hundred and ninety men staring at the blood I have spilled and ran at me, I turned around and ran too… towards the door that leads outside, so I can take them on there. I break the last door open and wait as I feel the rumbling of footsteps coming from the short hallway a stand in front of the opening, sword tip in the dirt, one hand clenched and the other holding a silver knife, as the first man came through the door, I threw the knife into his awaiting heart as he dropped to the ground. You can hear the clamor of the guards about who should go first and I make the choice for them, I rip out the wall with magic fueled by rage and wave to them and yell in pure anger “who to test their mettle?!”

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The first wave of guards charged and I easily cut them across the midsections with the mighty blade of Redemption and they continued to charge me I struck down every one of them. This continued for hours as the now shaken and fearful guards tried to continuously strike at me but to no avail. As their numbers dwindled, my strength did not, and I kept on killing them with steel as well as magic. Three of them charged me at once and I greeted them with a claymore through all of their abdomens, dropping the blood-soaked claymore, I unsheathed my sword and drew up my shield, and charged the quivering mass of pale-faced guards. The slaughter continued without a hitch as the sword bit through the plates of armor and flesh, the shield smashed through helms and bones as the spiked handle ripped through faces and chests. As the battle closed onto the last four of the guards amass the piles of dead bodies, I finished them swiftly, lunging on the first and driving my sword through his chest, drawing out the sword and throwing it like you would throw a knife as it bit into the other guard’s helpless helm. The third guard charged me and having no sword I could not strike him down so I smashed him with the shield and broke his neck, the last guard begged me to yield but I could not yield. I punched him in the face with the spiked guard upon the blessed shield and decapitated him with the sharpened edge. Dragging the bleeding body of the guard with his stricken head brought it before the still frozen duke. I threw the head at him and dropped the body on the floor, I told him he had two choices, either come quietly or die like his guard. The duke, believing he could defeat the wounded paladin raised the sword above his head and brought it down but again was frozen in place. I rose my hand to level with his face and said “fine have it your way,” and with a simple flick of my finger, the sword jolted out of his hand and swung in a perfect arc, slicing through the neck of the corrupted ruler. As his head hit the floor, I picked it up and retrieved my weapons, and made my way towards my horse so I can return to my land of Camelot. As I passed the house I left before I confronted the duke you could still hear the screams of a broken man, pleading before his God’s eyes. As the hoofs of the horse clacked upon the cobblestones of the King’s court, the knights around the table stared in awe at the blood still stuck to my armor despite the crosses carved into my shoulder plates. I bestowed the head of the duke on the king’s table and simply said, “I could not save this one, my king…” I returned to my monastery to rest and heal, but more importantly, to bless every one of the dead that lay in the decaying city of Devlin.