No rest for the wicked. While I would be more than happy to practice forbidden magic either on myself or my reborn volunteers, I “woke up” yet again to the sound of banging at my gates.
I stood up from my desk where I was reading Buscalpaun’s [Fleshcrafter] grimoire and went to the gate to see who was bothering us this time. I knew for a fact it wasn’t the [Emperor] because I had an enchantment that would react to his presence and warn me even if I was in the underground Secret Garden.
As I phased and went through the gate, I found a rather large army, about six times bigger than what Bertram brought. In the front row, riding a white horse, was a woman in half-plate armor.
> > [Concubine-Queen] Level 57 female human [General]
Probably Bertram’s mother, Besariel. Things would go south in 3, 2, …
“YOU MURDERER!” She shouted and wept. “Why did you kill my son?”
Before answering, I glanced up. I counted three dozen magical scrying sensors watching the scene unfold before I gave up trying to tally them all.
“Greetings, Your Majesty,” I bowed. “I’m sorry but you seem to be mistaken. I didn’t murder my brother. [Prince] Bertram challenged me to a duel to the death. He set the terms of our duel, not me.”
That flummoxed the woman. I didn’t know what she expected from me. Maybe she thought I would be intimidated? But she must’ve seen what happened here a few days ago, didn’t she?
“I kept his body and personal effects preserved. He is here, in his storage ring,” I said as I removed the borrowed jewelry from my finger. “I believe you wish to give him the last rites. Here, take it.”
She was grinding her teeth but I could see she was a calculating person. Her previous outburst might’ve been a ploy to goad me to commit some mistake. After she nodded to one of the knights next to her, that knight rode next to me and took the offered ring.
“I hope that soothes your mind, Your Majesty. If you may excuse me, I have my morning business to attend.”
“{Wait!}” She attempted to use some Perk of Ability on me.
> > Contested Charisma + Willpower test won.
I glanced askew at her and shook my head. Turning around again to face her, I asked, “what is it?”
“You killed my son.”
“My brother died with honor, in a duel between [Princes]. Do his memory a favor and do not tarnish his memory.”
“You cheated.”
I crossed my arms.
“There’s no way a level twenty-six would defeat my Bertram!”
And that’s exactly why he died. Because he stuck to the numbers and ignored all the signs. The fake ones. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
“Well, it happened. Amuse me, Your Majesty. What sort of cheat could I have used in a duel to the death?”
“You had outside help! Someone, an [Assassin], was unseen near you and that’s what killed my son.”
I did use {Death Contract} and some skilled [Assassins] could have sensed it.
“I’m locked up in my palace preparing for my maiden expedition to the Labyrinth and training my guards to escort me into the depths. Pray tell, when did I have the time to hire an [Assassin] if I only came to know brother Bertram was at my doors with an invalid Imperial order when his battering rams started knocking?”
She didn’t reply. I had the advantage. “You gave offense, my Lady.”
The knights tensed. I continued.
“By accusing me of cheating without proof, you tarnish this [Prince] and your own son’s reputation. If you wish, I can prove my martial prowess right here, right now. Send me your champion, set the terms of the duel. Sword, dagger, spear, spell, or fist. Choose one among those, and send me your challenge. Otherwise, I beg you to stop wasting my time.”
> > Contested Charisma test Won.
She fell for it. “Sir Califrey! Avenge your master!”
The same knight who took the ring from me dismounted and drew his sword and cavalry shield. I took the [Dead Thinblade] from my item box and flourished it.
> > Level 75 [Rose Knight].
“What are the terms?” I asked him.
“To the Death,” Califrey roared. “No magic, only swords.”
> > Sir Califrey wishes to challenge you to a duel to the death. Do you accept?
“I challenge you back. To the death, no magic or outside interference, only swords.”
> > Contested Charisma test won. Contested Ego test won. Champion’s Challenge engaged.
Gallifrey came rushing with his sword in the descending eagle guard. I held mine in a classic Olympic fencing stance. He brought his weapon down, I struck the blade pretending to be parrying, aligning the edges so they hit each other.
> > Sunder Weapon
My matte blue fencing sword sliced his silvery steel weapon like it was made of plywood. I felt a magical disturbance as the enchantment on the weapon was disrupted by the magic-draining Adamantite, leaving him with a mundane broken piece of metal in his grip. I kept my weapon pointing down in the burrowing gopher guard.
“Shoddy,” I remarked courteously. “You might want to procure another weapon, Sir Gallifrey. Please.”
Besariel was livid. “That was [Benelux’ Pride], a magical national relic!” She exclaimed.
Benelux was Besariel’s home nation. Differently from Raswaria, they were still standing, fierce vassals of the Empire.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I picked up the broken blade from the ground and examined it. “Seems like a forgery to me. Mundane steel, through and through. The guard too, I don’t sense any magic from it, but please have your [Wizard] see to it. If I had to guess, someone swapped the real [Abaelux’ Pride] with a forgery and sold the original.”
She stared at Califrey with the eyes of a cheated wife. Ten gold they were sleeping together. The knight, ashamed, requested another sword from his fellow horseman.
“Since you are no longer using your enchanted heirloom weapon, Sir Califrey, I’m going to swap my weapon as well. Please, kindly ask one of your brave companions to hand me a sword.” He came back with a dented, battered, rusted shortsword. I took it in stride. “Thank you. We may proceed whenever you want. But it strikes me as odd, Sir Califrey, that you would allow your honor to be so tarnished as to be defeated on such an inferior weapon.”
“Don’t blame the weapon,” he smirked.
“Exactly,” I grinned. “You should tell your [General] to stop buffing you too. Now, who’s having external help with their duels?”
> > Contested Charisma test won.
He got enraged by my taunt and rushed to attack me. He brought down the sword from his favored descending eagle, aimed at piercing my heart through my collarbone. I parried and riposted, pulling back on my offensive perks and dealing only about twenty thousand damage. Gallifrey paused to read the damage notification.
That gave me enough information to know what was happening. The guy was trying to measure me by reading my modifiers. As he frowned, my smile widened. I had a Perk to mask the detailed modifiers on his damage notification, instead only showing him a lump multiplier.
I estimated his HP pool at around three million. As he came to strike me and probably gauge my HP as well, I accelerated my strikes. I dove underneath his shield and stabbed his shin right where his poulains ended. Then I circled around him counter-clockwise, forcing him to either follow or expose his back. Given how Bertram died, he decided for the former. It put his sword at an awkward angle to strike and he had no leverage to perform a shield bash. His only option was to disengage.
He readied himself but didn’t move. I {Charged} and he lowered his center of mass, bracing for impact. He brought his sword to strike me and I dove underneath his shield.
> > Blurred Afterimage (allows stealth mid-combat).
Leaving his line of sight, I hid from him as I activated my stealth. Then I circled around him and slashed behind his knees, severing the tendons. I kicked him down, making him lose balance and fall on all fours. To the observers, it was as if he had a lapse and stuttered while I went around and attacked.
“No!” Besariel shouted.
“He’s...”
> > Cosmos Within
No, sir. You’re not revealing my secrets. Keep your System notifications to yourself and your attention on me. I shoved the rusted shortsword up his ass, to the hilt.
“It’s over!” Besariel shouted. “He yields!”
“My Lady, it’s a duel to the death, I said. According to Imperial law, there’s no yielding. ‘On a duel to the death between two knights, only if one of the combatants dies shall the duel end’,” I quoted the law. “He’s the one who challenged me.”
Gallifrey was trying to crawl away from me. Then he froze as my {Champion’s Challenge} perk forbade the enemy from fleeing the duel unless he could beat me on an Ego test.
I grabbed the hit of the rusted shortsword and pulled. The weapon came together with a noxious stench and a spurt of contaminated blood. I swung it to remove most of the grime from it and stood.
“Stand up and fight, Sir Califrey,” I commanded.
The two alleged lovers stared at each other. Besariel then glared at me with a burning hatred. In her mind, I had cost her a son and a lover.
“I demand the right of Second!” She shouted.
“Are you taking the floor in his place, Your Majesty? You’re his second as none else was appointed before the duel started.”
Gallifrey remained unable to move, unwilling to stand and fight, a prisoner of his hubris and bleeding wound. He wouldn’t die as his debuff would end soon, but he had a crippling wound that required extensive surgery or potent magical healing. But the moment the duel ended I would make his wound permanent with Flesh magic.
“I’m not his second,” Besariel said. “it’s--”
“Nobody else was appointed a second before the duel started,” I reaffirmed. “Therefore, as the only who manifested themselves before the duel, the second is either you or nobody at all. Make your mind, Your Majesty.”
> > Contested Charisma test won.
She liked the crippled hunk but not enough to die in his place. And by the way, she was twisting her nose to the noxious smell of perforated bowels, she wouldn’t come to hug him either.
“Imperial Knight Dueling Code, article thirtieth seventh, section two-point-one subsection B. ‘A combatant that refuses to stand up or engage after being allowed to do so by his opponent forfeits the duel, with all the implications,” I said to her, then down at Gallifrey. “Stand up. I’m allowing you to.”
Gallifrey grunted in pain.
“The right of Second was called. Sir Califrey is excused from the duel without any loss of honor. The [Concubine-Queen] [General] Besariel now takes his place. The terms of the duel remain the same. Dismount, Your Majesty, and fight me.”
> > Contested Charisma test won. Contested Ego test won. Champion's Duel is active.
“Someone get a healer for Sir Califrey,” I said as I helped lift him from the ground. I flooded him with my magic as a Flesh spell made his damage permanent. It would be worse than an old injury to heal.
“I’m an [Queen] of the Empire! I have no obligation to--”
“DISHONOR!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. My voice reached hundreds of meters.
I discarded the rusted and bloodied shortsword and brought the thinblade back. “[General] Besariel of Abaelux, you refused to take the ground during a duel when given the opportunity. As my right of victory on a duel to the death, I hereby strip you of your honor and titles, as determined by Imperial Law.”
Royalty titles had a bunch of issues attached to them, most of which were subordinate to the Dynasty rules. For example, a [King] who abdicated or abandoned his Kingdom would lose everything tied to Royalty. He could be deposed, killed, conquered and he would walk away with everything he had. But should he disobey the Dynasty rules, he would be stripped of everything. Titles, Perks, Status. It almost happened to me once.
By invoking Imperial Law, I made Besariel willingly violate the Dynasty Rules and now she was stripped of her title. She was no longer Royalty, not even a knight.
> > Flash Step
I refrained from using the Ethereal version as I didn’t want to show that ability in public yet. Flash Step was rare but not unheard of. I appeared behind her and with a swift swing of the [Dead Thinblade], her head came off. I waved a hand to collect my loot, grabbing the two storage rings that fell from the vanishing body.
> For killing Level 57 [General], you gained 13.6 billion Exp (Base 1,461,182 x1,000 Fast-Learner x3.05 Favored Enemy, x3.05 duel x2 Rarity x0.5 Rank).
The army assembled before the gates of my Palace stared at me, some wishing to avenge their master, some wishing to go away. None had any sympathy for me. All the sympathy I needed was inside these walls. This rabble could die for all I cared. But I didn’t have due reason to do so, and the scrying sensors up above were watching my every move.
I still had a loose end. I jumped down from the warhorse and walked to where a [Healer] was desperately trying to heal the jagged hole in Sir Califrey’s bottom.
“You dare give an [Imperial Prince] a rusted weapon? You have no honor, Sir Gallifrey. And you soiled the ground before my gates. That’s two offenses.”
I beheaded him as well. It would be frowned upon as he was a knight, but he lost his liege and a duel, not to mention the humiliation. He would be dishonored, disenfranchised, and probably expelled from his knight order. Dying with his knight status was considered by many to be better than the alternative.
> For killing Level 75 [Rose Knight], you gained 97.1 billion Exp (Base 4,246,360 x10,000 Fast-Learner x3.05 Favored Enemy, x0.75 Rank).
>
> I lost the duel bonus because I let him go.
> You reached Anima Lancer (4th rank) level 8.
>
> You gained 2 Attribute Points.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser Granted you 4 Attribute Points.
>
> You gained 1 fourth-rank Perk.
>
> You gained 1 Strength, 2 Dexterity, 1 Endurance, 1 Mind, 1 Willpower, 2 Magic, 1 Ego, 1 Luck, and 1 Soul.
“Is there anyone present who has pressing business with this [Prince]?” I shouted at the army. “Speak now or forfeit your case. I’ll consider no arguments about the events that transpired here at these gates. I came out to meet in amicable terms, received countless offenses, and had my right to a fair duel smeared like the dirty Sir Califrey bled on. No more. If anyone wants to fight, we’ll fight. A war it is. Let me find glory in taking you all at once!” I shouted trying to sound like a madman.
Headless, the army disbanded. I went back inside my Palace, hoping it was the last time some haughty idiot with an army came knocking on my door.