“What a fine battle, a way to celebrate my emergence from my own prison,” Cedar felt a swell of pride as he said those words. “If I were still human, you may have defeated me. But alas, I have become more than human now.”

There was no answer from Luke, which made him wonder if the man was still alive. There was a pool of blood forming underneath the felled man.

“Truly saddening. It seems he has passed on, and wasn’t able to hear my speech. Don’t you think it was something to behold a King’s Speech?” Cedar turned his attention to the man with the light brown hair.

The man had waited for the Prince to finish. He stood there with his strange looking green sword that had a clock affixed to its hilt.

“My name is Bell, I am the Goddess’ Chosen Champion.” The man pulled the blade free from the ground. “And today, I shall defeat you.”

“The Chosen Champion?”

Cedar repeated in a mocking tone, giving a little chuckle at the end. Bell narrowed his eyes.

“What’s funny?”

“Do you know how many ‘Chosen Champions’ there are? How many were hand selected by the Goddess herself? Do you know how many of them became a true hero? You’re not the first one picked. You are a mere drop in a bucket. Unlike you, I have been chosen for a divine cause.”

The best insults were the ones that spoke the truth. With aurasight, Cedar was able to see Bell’s Aura erupt from his anger. A piece of his cheek cracked, and Cedar snorted derisively.

“You are a foolish chosen champion to try and fight in your condition. You’re overusing your Gate. You’ve eaten too many spirit keys. Unlike you, I no longer am limited to eat such poison to access my Gate.”

To demonstrate, he opened his Gate at will, allowing his Aura to swirl around him like a swallow circling the air.

But that did nothing to sway Bell.

“I am the Hero,” he said with conviction. In a glow of light, the blade transformed from the blade with the clock, to a hulking slab of iron that looked like a scarred battlefield.

Aura cracked the very air when he summoned the blade, and Cedar was in awe as his eyes fixed on the blade.

“What a beautiful blade.”

It reminded him so much of the villages he burned down.

He wanted that blade. He could feel its power tremble the very air around him.

Bell swung his blade, the air cracked.

His arm was blown away a few feet behind him. Blood gushed from the stump of his arm. His flames weren’t healing him, the pain was excruciating, but even so, Cedar could only marvel at the potential of him wielding that blade.

“I want it.”

A sword made of flames formed in his hand.

#

The fight between them had come to its obvious conclusion. The assassin touched her mask, touching upon a cut that had been made during their fight. She didn’t know what they were planning, but whatever it had been, they had failed.

She stood in the middle of the battlefield, the two men who had fought so valiantly had been defeated by her. The giant had his arm cut off and the oni leaned against the tree, holding a deep cut on his shoulder but still conscious.

“You were valiant.” She spoke the words she thought and looked at the two of them. “I mean that. Even though I said I would kill you, in the end I really am a coward, aren’t I? In the end, I’m the one that didn’t have the conviction to go through with my words.”

“Honestly, I appreciate that you were a liar.” The oni forced a pained smile. “At the very least, you weren’t the one that killed me.”

She understood his self depreciating joke. The thread around his neck was certain death, controlled by the one who manifested it.

The assassin walked over to him, and with a stroke of her sword, she cut the thread from his neck.

Subaru’s eyes widened as he patted his neck to see if his head was still attached. Then he realized what she had done and looked up with a gapping mouth.

“Why?”

She felt the air tremble and turned to the direction she had left the Prince.

“I don’t think you’re a bad man. Take him.” She pointed at Walnut. “And find a way out. I can’t help you with anything else.”

Then, she walked back, steeling herself for another fight.

#

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Even with Doomslayer in his hands, there was a sense of unease filling Bell’s chest. The Prince had definitely changed. If he previously had the eyes of a shonen protagonist, the man in front of him had the look of a complete villain.

There was something genuinely cruel the way light reflected in his eyes. The way his lips crooked when he sneered at Bell.

It pissed him the fuck off.

“How dare you make such a face at me!” Bell yelled in defiance. The prince ducked underneath the cracked world and closed the distance between them in a blaze of flames.

The sword in his hand changed forms, wrapping around him in light. The flame sword deflected at his chest. The sword had transformed into an armor that wrapped around Bell like a protective shell. He had named this one Dragonscale as his master had commended that it was as tough as one.

The prince pulled back, and whistled in awe of his wonderful sword.

“That is something. Truly, what a wonderful sword. It makes me desire it even more. A man such as yourself, deserves none of it,” the prince’s smiled wickedly.

“You will never-” Something within him shook to its core. The armor transformed back into a plain sword that clattered in front of him as he fell to his knees. Molten liquid climbed up his throat, as he retched forward, dying the rocky ground crimson.

“Ah, looks like you finally overused your Gate.”

Bits of his face turned to dust as it hit the ground. He tried to open his mouth to scream, but his tongue fell out. The prince stood in front of him, his shadow covered him.

“Do you understand now? There’s nothing special about you. You are cursed just like any other human. You aren’t a hero. If you stop using Aura now, you will survive. As payment for this lesson, I will take what is owed.”

The prince reached out for the broadsword, and for a moment he saw his shadow tremble, before the the world seemed to blur.

“Step away from him please.”

The prince wrenched back as if he had touched hot iron. In the corner of his eyes, he a pair of brown boots step in front of him. A glowing blade like the sunshine of the new morning was held in her hand.

His bodyguard had returned, and just in time. Bell opened his mouth to reprimand her for leaving him for so long, but no words came out of his mouth. Only garbled sounds did.

“Stay there and don’t do anything.” She did not turn to him. She kept her eyes fixed on the Prince.

#

She had returned to see the outcome of a battle she had hoped she would not see. Luke was sprawled on his back, unsure whether he was still alive and the ‘hero’ she was supposed to babysit stood in front of death’s door. Not only that, the prince in front of her was no doubt more dangerous than before.

With aurasight she could see the blazing strength of the great fire bird known as the Phoenix dwelling in this man’s aura.

“I will ask you only once. Surrender or I will kill you.”

“My, my. I must say, this woman here is certainly someone not to be trifled with. Even with divinity, I can tell how dangerous you are. How about you join me? The church does not deserve a fine woman like you. I can make you a Queen.”

“I have no interest in such things.” She gripped Sunshine, and the blade glowed even brighter. “I desire only one thing.”

“I can grant you such a desire.”

“You cannot.”

There was no more sense talking, so the assassin closed the distance in an instant. Her speed caught the prince off guard as she cleaved through his chest quite easily. His body fell in two. Before it fell to the ground, she divided the body many, many times until it was but a pile of meat.

Flames colored like a shimmering rainbow burst into life, reforming the prince back into pieces. She took a moment to slice the prince again, but the flames made him invulnerable to the damage. She dodged his blade that he had formed with fire. It’s edge scrapped against her mask, and the crack on it finally spread enough for it to fall into two pieces.

The prince saw her face and widened in surprise. She took a moment to take out a spare mask to cover her face.

“Why…no, how are you here?” the prince breathed out.

“Do you know me?” She didn’t really believe it.

A jagged smile formed on his face.

“Know you? Of course I do! I know what you are searching for. Drop your sword and I will grant you-”

The assassin sliced his head off.

“You have the smell of a liar.”

“That’s not nice.” The flames spread to where the head was lying. The prince walked out of the flames with his head back on. “I am not lying when I say I know what you want.”

“It doesn’t matter if you are telling the truth. I know men like you. Nothing good can come out of believing you.”

His face twisted. “Ignorant woman! I can grant you the knowledge you seek! All you’re doing is covering your ears like a child does when they are being reprimanded!”

“I’m sure your brother trusted you before you buried a knife in his back,” she returned a calm response.

Those words stopped the prince. There was sorrow in his eyes.

“Woman! You don’t know anything!” That sorrow turned back into anger. The rainbow flames that cloaked him swelled like a marshmallow hanging over an open flame. “What happened between my brother and I, has nothing to do with you!”

The flames erupted behind him, falling down missiles. The assassin ran towards him, weaving past the flames and explosions. She focused her Aura into Sunshine, and the blade glowed like the morning sun of a fresh dawn.

She sliced his arm off. His eyes widened in shock as he tried to have his flames heal his wound. But it would not. The flames wouldn’t heal a wound that had already been cauterized. Before he could use his other arm to stab his neck, she sliced off his limbs leaving only his head and torso.

"You will come with me.” She pointed her sword sword at him. It was still shining like a beacon of light.

“You’re a fool if you think she will help you. I know whe-”

The assassin stuffed her hand into his mouth, pulling out his tongue. He made some sounds, none that she could ever decipher and stabbed her sword into the ground. With her free hand, she took out her knife, taking no pause before she cut his tongue out.

She tossed it behind her.

“Nothing you say will change your fate. You will be coming with me.”

As she looked around for something to tie him around her back, she felt a change in the surroundings. A high pitched whistle shot through the air. She grabbed her sword deflecting the highly condensed sound. A tree fell behind her.

Why? She wondered. She let him live, and once more they attacked her in a futile attempt. Her kindness had been trampled upon again. These people took it as weakness.

She didn’t like it. She recognized that. It was why she steeled her resolve. She would kill them this time.

The giant came at her in his ogre form. Still injured with one arm intact. She readied herself to slice him in two this time.

She was hit behind her by flames and her balance slipped. While it was hot, it did little to injure her. She had enveloped herself in protective Aura. She peered behind her shoulder for a moment to see Cedar smile in triumph as flames in the hissed from the corner of his mouth.

The assassin swung her sword, and the ogre used the stub of his left arm to protect him. Then, he shoved with his free hand something onto her.

It was a token.

There was a flash, and reality warped and she knew that she had been teleported away from the Well.

When the world came to, she found herself sitting at a table with a bottle of unopened rum, surrounded by men ready to kill her.