Vincent finally reached the outskirts of the village, he had mostly every villager with him, to his side was Brandon, and a group of knights. They heard another explosion go off, and the ringing of the church bell going off again.

“Alright Brandon, I believe that is mostly everyone from the village, what should be our next move?” Vincent asked.

“I need to head back towards Sierra, she needs all the help she can get, the hybrid that she must be fighting must be someone at least on par with her, otherwise she would have killed the hybrid by now.”

“I don’t mean to insult you, but would you be joining in the fight even matter? I heard hybrids with marks can only be defeated with blessed knights.” Vincent said.

“I don’t mean to defeat the hybrid, just by being a distraction that can help Miss Sierra is more than enough. If I die, then so be it. The other knights will stay here, and defend all of you, as a last line of defense, hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but that is all we can do at the moment.” Brandon said.

“Very well then, will you leave right away.”

“Yes, don’t worry I am the only one going, I will leave the knights here, I will go get the other knights who are still trying to put out the forest fire, from the looks of it, it is mostly contained, I will tell them to come here so you have more protection, in the case another hybrid shows, up, can I suggest moving them to your home?” Brandon asked.

“Yes, don’t worry, they will be staying outside my home, there is enough space for everyone, now go on, I’ll be sure to tell the villagers what is going on.”

“Ok, I’ll go tell the other knights, take care of yourself Mister Vincent.”

Vincent waves at Brandon, and watches him as he is talking to the other knights around the group. Brandon started running off towards the church.

“All right now for the next part, hopefully he attacks him, so I don’t have to worry about him anymore.” Vincent whispered to himself. “Villagers! Villagers, please listen to me.” Vincent screamed. Vincent was waving his arms, while moving in front of the group of villagers, until he had everyone's attention.

“Everyone Brandon has just left us to go back towards the village, we are on our own, we only have the six knights he left us, if the worst comes to pass, and another hybrid shows up, we will head back towards my home. Do not worry, I promised to be here next to you, I won’t leave, even if it cost me my life, let us hope everything will soon be back to normal.”

The villagers seem to agree with Vincent nodding their heads, as they spread Vincent word to the back of the crowd.

“Once everything is done, I can promise you that we will rebuild, even if it costs me everything we will stand once again, I give you my word!”

***

The smoke from the destroyed church building was finally dispearsing, Ray could see some of the knights removing the rubble, while others were trying their best to heal their wounded.

Ray saw Roger bandaging up Sierra, she seemed to have burn marks where Ray managed to cut her.

{I see that’s how she is still alive, she burns herself to keep from bleeding out, well it doesn’t matter, she still lost a lot of blood, and she must use most of her strength when she sends that ball of energy towards. Though I am almost in the same position, I already feel exhausted, healing that poison took a lot from my body, best to end this before more unnecessary things come my way.}

Ray ran towards the group of knights, as he was close he jumped as high as he could, and prepared his legs for the impact, aiming for Sierra, and Roger, striking the ground as hard as he could.

Sierra saw Ray heading towards them, she grabbed Roger's collar and flung him back, before jumping back in time, when Ray landed near her. Ray uses the force of the landing, and jumps towards Sierra, not giving her a moment to breath. Hitting her as fast as her as fast as he could.

“All of you get back!” Sierra yelled, as she tried her best to dodge.

Sierra was getting pushed back, trying her best to deflect the killing blows, but with only one hand, she was getting overwhelmed. She took a misstep, Ray saw his chance, and aimed his hand at her heart, his hand managed to pierce his skin when he tackled on his left side.

Ray tumbled to his side, he saw it was Roger who tackled him, Roger pulled out a small knife, and swung it at Ray, Ray grabbed his hand, and bent it backwards, then punched Roger in the face.

Roger hit the ground with a tud, Ray put him on his back, putting his foot on Roger's chest, forcing it down.

Roger struggled to breath, trying to remove the foot off of him, Ray saw Sierra throw another blast at him, Ray easily moved out of the way before sending a stronger one at her near her feet, as it exploded sending her back, Ray focused on the knight under his foot.

The other knights wanted to intervene but Ray held out his hand, ready to send another blast towards anyone who tried to attack him.

“If you attack me, you will die, simple as that!” Ray yelled towards the knight.

Stolen story; please report.

“Don’t come any closer, it is not worth the risk!” Roger managed to yell out to his comrades.

Ray let out a sigh before looking at Roger.

“You know, from every knight in the village, you were the last one I wanted to kill, but I guess that was foolish of me, Brandon was right about you, you had the ability to become a great knight, if only you had stayed back, you would have lived this night.”

Roger took a gulb, as he listened to Ray words.

“If only there were people like you, and Sierra at the top, this would have never happened, but what is done, is done. Nothing can change that now, and nothing can change this.”

Ray quickly aimed his hand above Roger's head, and shot a beam that went through his head, killing him. Blood spatter hit Ray clothes, and his mask.

{Now then, only one more left.}

Sierra forces herself up with her hand, the hand where Ray cut off, has burn marks, forcing the wound to stop bleeding. She looked at her wounds, her blessing can barely be seen, she finally noticed the body of Stevan, without its heads, and saw Ray, slowly making his way towards her, while the body of Roger, was behind him, with a puddle of blood coming from his head.

“No more, no more!” Sierra yelled.

“That is entirely up to you Sierra.” Ray said.

“These people have done nothing to you!”

“No, but the people in charge of them have, and I am ordered to get to them, if I have to kill regular knights to get to those at the top, then I will do that.”

“What will you do after that, do you honestly believe you will be allowed to live a normal life, after everything is done!”

“If I can’t live a normal life, then I will just get stronger, I will not allow anyone to take anything else from me.”

“So you will kill everyone before you lose anyone.”

“That is correct, if someone were to take away someone I cared about I will make sure that person loses everything.”

“I heard enough, as long as I am alive you will stay here correct?”

“Yes, since I have killed everyone who has attacked me, once you die I can go back, I don’t have much energy left, so what will you do?”

“What I was trained to do, Ray, fight until the end.”

“Hmmp. That’s all you can do.”

Ray stood tall, while she looked paler, her armor covered in blood, and mud, her blessing no longer on her body. She watched Ray as he got closer, so she decided to use the last of her energy one last time. One last attempt at protecting the village, and her knights.

Sierra did what she could, ignoring the rules that were set for the blessed knight, she used her anger and ignited her body in a bright crimson aura, her blessing covering her body instantly, her line shining as bright as Ray first saw them. Sierra charged at Ray, while Ray did the same, using all his strength, he charged at Sierra.

Ray and Sierra clash in front of the destroyed church, the ground underneath them cracking, and shaking. Ray blocked all her blows, with only one good hand left, Sierra didn’t have a lot of good chances, her anger made her sloppy, using all her energy more quickly.

{She burning through her energy faster, I can still keep going, I just have to hold on until she completely-}

Sierra managed to punch Ray in the face, his mask cracking at the force of her punch, he quickly got ready.

{Dammit enough already! Just die!}

Ray felt his mark burning through his skin, as the pain kept going up his arm. It felt like a burning snake was slowly making its way up his left arm.

{I have to finish this.}

Ray rushed at Sierra, throwing more punches at each other, rubble, and dust was going everywhere, Sierra was gradually losing speed, Ray forced himself to go faster managing to get more hits on Sierra, before grabbing her good arm, and pushing her backwards Ray released a bolt of energy towards her face.

Sierra managed to cover her face with her bad arms, though the blast sent her skipping through the ground, her wounds opening up again, she got on her hands, and puked up blood, her face covered in bruises, and blood. Anger filled her eyes.

Ray ready another bolt of energy, when he saw Sierra look to Ray's side, looking wide eyed in surprise. Ray turned to where she was looking and saw Brandon staring at him, with a bow, and an arrow aiming at him.

“No! Do not shoot him! Brandon, that is an order!” Sierra forced herself to yell.

Brandon slightly lowered his bow in confusion, he started running towards Sierra, but Sierra held up her palm signaling him to stop.

“Well look at that, you did manage to save a life tonight, you should be proud.” Ray said, turning his attention back to Sierra.

Sierra forces herself to stand, and slowly walk towards Ray.

“This is for the best Sierra, it will be a quick death, after that I promised I will leave them alone.”

Sierra got in front of Ray, Ray ready his hand, Sierra started falling, Ray extended his arms to catch her, but Sierra set her other foot, and pushed herself towards Ray, grabbing his stomach, she pushed him away.

Ray took some steps back before fighting back against Sierra.

“What the hell are you doing? Let go of me.”

Ray tried unclenching himself from Sierra, but Sierra put all her remaining strength into the lock she had on him. Pushing him away from the church. As they reached the end of the clearing Sierra body started to glow.

“Wait! Wait! What the hell are-”

“Everyone! Get away from here!” Sierra yelled as her body started to glow even more than before.

{She’s going to explode!}

“Let me go you crazy-”

“I will protect this village, until the end!”

{Dammit, harden your body, remembered what Viola taught you, don-}

Sierra's body exploded, the sound can be heard by everyone in the village, the last thing Ray saw was multiples of color blinding his eyes.