Atalanta’s bruised face remained expressionless at the beautiful sight of the blue sky above. Having lost the battle against the horned demon, she laid flat on the concrete with a swollen eye and a bleeding mouth—deep cuts covering her face and battered neck. The dying knight gasped for air through her slightly open mouth, her agonizing breaths quivering at the searing pain traveling through her body.
“Is this... really it?” her mind wondered. “I can’t see what’s going on... did we... actually lose?”
Her perfect view of the sky was interrupted by the stomping horde of specters, rushing their way towards the gates of the knight’s district—some of them mercilessly trampling her broken body in their race to decimate the last remaining knights.
“How... how could this?” she couldn’t contain the tears from flowing down her cheeks, fighting her twitching eyes in an attempt to remain conscious. “We were supposed to save the world... to free humanity from the specters... how?” her eyes began to shut against her will, the blood loss she suffered bringing her closer to death.
“I don’t want to die... how?... how did this?... I can’t... I... I did nothing wrong.” darkness consumed her mind, and the blonde knight couldn’t stop herself from fading into nothingness.
“Wake up, please wake up.” a masculine voice called out to her within the dark void.
Atalanta found herself breathing calmly through her nose, blades of grass caressed her skin gently as she lied flat on the ground—the mellow light of the sun illuminating her sleeping face. Opening her tired her eyes, the knight waited for her blurry vision to clear while feeling the soft pasture with her fingers.
“Welcome back,” her vision cleared—spotting a man with a friendly smile on his face.
Her slumbering mind could not comprehend it at the time, but before her stood a gladean knight—severely injured, but alive by some miracle. His face was completely deformed with large scars and burns, both of his eyes were covered with a bandage, as well as half of his body—a large cut ran through his chin all the way to the top of his bald head. He wore a torn blue flowing vest, white pants and a black sash belt around his waist.
“W-who... are you?” Atalanta was able to muster.
The knight smiled brightly at her question, kneeling down in front of her to offer a helping hand. “My name is Ninigi,” he said.
Southern Region of the Deadlands, Heildin’s Border: 936, April 9th, Monday, 3:30 PM.
With a powerful upward attack of its right fist, the horned specter lifted Atalanta in the air by striking at her stomach—forcing the glaive off her hand, and successfully disarming the knight. Before gravity could force her back to the ground, a daemon lunged at her from the side and tackled her away with a violent charge. The Golden Lightning hit the dirt hard as the corrupted knight kneeled on top of her—raising both of its fists in the air.
The daemon brought them back down against Atalanta’s chest and battered at her armor multiple times, shattering her plate after a couple of hits. Refusing to take further damage, Atalanta grabbed the daemon by the wrists and pulled it to her side with all her strength—forcing the creature to the ground next to her. Rolling away in the opposite direction, the blonde knight stood back on her feet with quivering legs and moved her disoriented vision in all angles, observing the horned specter and horde of daemons surrounding her.
“I won’t... let you...” she breathed. “I won’t let you... destroy this world...” she clenched her hands into tight fists—drops of blood flowing down from the punishment she’s received during the battle. “I am ready to die for my oath... but I won’t fall until I’ve dealt with the last of you.”
Sparks of azure lightning radiated intensely from within her artery network, leaking through the pores of her skin and enveloping her entire body. The Golden Lightning raised her sparking fists into a defensive stance, ready to face off the specters.
In a sudden reaction from the daemons, the large group of corrupted knights sprinted towards her in a single charge. The first creature to arrive swung its arm at her head, but Atalanta managed to duck in time to avoid the attack—burying her lightning enveloped fist into the daemon’s abdomen.
Another specter slashed at her from behind with its longsword, surprising her with a vertical swing. Reacting just in time, Atalanta turned to block the creature’s blade by crossing one arm on top of the other—pressing forward to push the daemon away. Their relentless assault continued with the thrusting punch of a corrupted knight from her side, intercepted by the blonde knight with a quick motion—pushing the daemon’s arm aside with her own, giving herself an opening to move in the offensive.
A second attack interrupted her intentions to counter the assault however, with another daemon approaching her from the left side—its longsword slashing at her torso in a horizontal swing. Atalanta bent her knees and jumped in a vertical line to avoid being slashed by its blade, but an abrupt tackle from the horned specter forced her out of the air and into the ground—smashing the back of her head against the scorched earth.
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“Ugh... back off!” she roared—delivering an electrifying punch to the monster’s chin, successfully knocking the creature away from on top of her.
As she stood back on her feet, a daemon already had its blade nearing her neck with a powerful swing of its sword. Atalanta blocked it with her arm and responded with a violent punch to the corrupted knight’s mouth—launching the creature away into a small group of approaching daemons.
Before she could notice, the horned specter recovered quickly and forced Atalanta into a headlock from behind—gripping her neck tightly with its arm. The Golden Lightning reacted with a series of elbows to the demon’s ribs—but no avail, the beast’s exoskeleton proved too sturdy for her weakened state to cause any damage.
A horde of daemons swarmed her as she remained restrained under the specter’s clutches, stabbing her legs and torso with their blades, or punching through the golden plates of her armor. In a desperate attempt to break free, Atalanta gripped the specter’s arm with her hands and rapidly pulled her upper body forward—flinging the demon to the front, and slamming its back on the ground.
While the quick response allowed her to break free from the specter, the swarm of corrupted knights did not seize on its assault. They battered the debilitated knight with one strike after the other, her armor was torn off by the impact of their punches and cuts of their blades, her skin a mix of red and dark purple with bruises and blood. the fissured golden mask concealing her face was torn from the upper right, allowing view of her twitching azure eye.
Atalanta fell to her knees while protecting her head with her arms, but a forceful pull of her leg brought her face first against the dirt. She could feel her body breaking under the merciless onslaught of the daemons, but her spirit remained strong as she gathered a large amount of lightning enveloping her body into her hand.
“...” she opened her mouth in an attempt to speak—unaware of her slit throat. Ignoring the pain, she slammed her fist on the ground with all her strength—causing a powerful ignition that shook the ground, and lifted a screen of dust alongside a massive pile of rubble.
The daemons soared in the air and were hurled away by the electrifying explosion of Atalanta’s attack, burying them under piles of rubble and dirt. Carefully, and with a broken body that shouldn’t be on its feet, Atalanta picked herself back up to stand at the bottom of the massive crater beneath her. The knight’s arm dangled to her side as the magnitude and heat of the impact damaged it heavily—burning the skin in the process.
Her mask crumbled into tiny shards of gold, revealing her worn out expression filled with dirt and blood. She observed the desolated area surrounding her, and plummeted to her knees in an instant—her long golden hair laying gently on the burnt ground.
“...” Atalanta’s shoulders dropped as she struggled to grasp for air through her mouth, the sparks of lightning enveloping her body began to lose momentum—her divine pathway dying slowly like a fire in the rain.
The worst hadn’t come to pass for The Golden Lightning however, as the bodies of the surviving daemons emerged from the dirt like the undead—effortlessly fixing their broken limbs. Her disappointed eyes could only stare in astonishment at the monsters raising back from the dead—her mind and body tired beyond reaction. The calcinated bodies of the creatures began to mutate into a spectral appearance, their skin hardened into tough black leather, their hands grew razor sharp claws, and their fallen teeth were replaced with stinging fangs—crimson energy traveling through the multiple fissures running through their skin.
The horned specter emerged from the red fog at the top of the crater—looking down at the dying knight with the crimson sky above. Its desire to put an end to her life urged the specter to jump down into the pit, encouraging the daemons that broke into a mad rush towards her. Following the corrupted knights’ lead, the demon accelerated its stride with every step taken—eventually breaking into a sprint of its own.
Atalanta felt her consciousness fade slowly, accepting her fate as now only two options laid before her. Burning with the desire and commitment to maintain her oath and protect humanity, the knight—who was once honored with the title of ‘The Golden Lightning’, gathered whatever strength she had left at the center of her chest—causing her eyes to glow with an intense azure light.
“...” she opened her mouth once again, unable to speak as her throat remained open. “...” she attempted a second time.
The daemons lunged at her and clung to her body with their sharp claws, slashing and biting at her while ignoring the electrifying sparks burning their skin. The horned specter planted its feet on the ground and put a halt to its own furious approach—cautiously observing as the sparking noise from within the mountain of daemons grew louder, its glowing crimson eyes widening once it grasped the severity of the situation.
In a blinding flash of light, with such speed that became impossible for the specter to react. A powerful lightning bolt collided with the earth at the center of the crater, striking the daemons with the explosive energy of Atalanta’s power—digging a deeper crater in the area. The demons’ painful screeches were drowned under the earsplitting sound of the lightning bolt, thundering across the region while burning their bodies into ashes. The impact of such magnitude generated a violent earthquake that lasted for about a minute—a minute that felt like an eternity in Atalanta’s mind.
She had no intentions of becoming a daemon herself, but escaping the Deadlands only meant the sacrifice of the innocent people in the outside world. Offering the last remnants of her power, the knight disintegrated the daemons into dust in a desperate attempt to protect humanity.
“...” she lied flat on the burnt earth with a stoic expression. Her eyes were set in the crimson sky above, the burning temperature of the region combined with the steam of her attack hurting her skin. “This is all I could do... if only I listened when I had the opportunity.” her watery eyes glimmered as the thoughts came to her mind. “I’m sorry... Ninigi... I wanted to believe.”
The sudden noise of footsteps snapped the knight out of her own thoughts, she couldn’t lift her head to check on the noise however—simply listening as the sound of steps grew closer to her.
“...!” the steps came to a halt suddenly, and Atalanta’s eyes shot open in shock.
Before her stood the horned specter, surviving the destructive attack by a miracle. The creature was not unscathed however, with half of its upper body missing, and a chunk of its head completely severed. Its glowing crimson eyes furiously stared down at Atalanta while stretching out its remaining hand towards her—ready to finish her off once and for all.
END OF CHAPTER