Center of the Deadlands, Ruined Castle: 936, December 31st, Monday, 5:30, AM.
Worn out and heavily wounded after hours of combat, both Sovereign and Loki lied face first on the broken floor of the ruined castle—chasing away the dust around their faces with their panting breaths. Trails of blood painted the dark throne room in every wall, running like a labyrinth that met its end underneath the two knocked down fighters.
Loki was the first to lift himself up, but with the quivering of his weakened arms, he only managed to push his body into a plank position—groaning in between quick and shallow breaths. His drenched face spilt sweat into the floor, mixed with the blood that flowed out of his open wounds. His azure tunic was completely torn, leaving his toned body at full display—now covered in bleeding cuts and red bruises.
“Ready… to die yet?” he taunted Specter through gritted teeth, forcing himself to stand despite the protests of his body.
Quickly after the gladean knight, Sovereign pushed himself off the ground with a stumble, almost dropping back down immediately after. The unbearable pain running through his body was simply impossible to ignore, as the fragility of his body was not mean to endure such brutal punishment. Both his suit and red shirt had been ripped to shreds, but unlike the champion’s athletic composition, his thin and delicate body quivered miserably.
His spectral left hand emitted a faint crimson glow, as the amber ring incrusted deep in one of its fingers sipped away at his powers. Its size was small, and the material used to craft the common jewel was anything but special, yet the ring’s efficiency held the god captive like heavy chains wrapped around his ankles and wrists.
“As if you could kill me…” he growled in response to the knight’s cocky attituded.
“Heh…” Loki chuckled. “Accept it… you’ve reached your limit.”
The gladean knight’s taunts thundered in the ears of his opponent, whose fist shook aggressively in a forceful attempt to break free from the shackles that held him. Knowing that his words had reached the god, Loki launched himself forward against him to resume the battle, materializing an azure sword in hand with the power of his own pathway.
Gulping down with a clenched jaw, Specter bent his knees slightly in anticipation of his opponent’s attack. He was met by an obvious frontal assault, which Loki promptly followed with a vertical swing of his weapon—an attack he was able to avoid with ease by jumping away at the last second. Though already on the lookout for a quick response from his foe, Specter threw his body down rapidly to crouch under a swift slash from behind, as Loki teleported himself in an instant.
On the ground, Specter performed a powerful kick against Loki’s feet in an attempt to break his balance—hitting the champion’s ankles with the bridge of his foot. Succeeding in his assault—as Loki stumbled away while trying to regain his balance, Sovereign jumped back on his feet and followed up with a straight punch against the face of his adversary, gritting his teeth furiously as he planted his knuckles into the knight’s jaw.
“Ough!” Loki’s head rang like a bell as his senses nearly shut on impact with the god’s strike, thrown with enough force to propel him away into the staircase of the throne room. “Ugh…”
He tried to stand, but the fog that covered his vision only worsened by the annoying noises that bounced in his head from ear to ear. Despite his staggered state, the faint crimson glow of the god served as a beacon for the knight to plan his next move, deciding to patiently watch as the light of his foe lurked in closer.
“Gotcha!” he claimed with confidence once the glow of the demon covered his entire vision.
Loki moved his head to the side in a quick motion, feeling the sharp fist of his opponent slice his cheek open as he barely avoided the attack. The magnitude behind Specter’s punch demolished the black spectral structure of the stairs, forcing a large pile of rubble to rise into the air on impact. Having earned his opening, the gladean knight moved both hands on each side of his head before planting them on the ground, lifting his lower body by the waist, and throwing his feet upwards into a brutal kick.
“Grh!” Specter gritted his teeth as the knight’s boots smacked his chin from underneath, the sheer force of his attack lifting his feet off the ground. “Agh!” he screamed as his body was launched into the air, a trail of blood spilling out from his mouth.
Following the motion of his attack, Loki rolled backwards before landing on one knee, quickly catapulting himself upwards against his flying opponent. He clasped his hands into a tight lock, and raised them both above his head as he reached his target. With his stunned enemy on sight, the knight brought his fists down like a hammer against Sovereign’s abdomen, forcing the god back into the ground like a falling anvil.
Specter shattered the floor with his back on impact, fissuring its already broken structure even further. His bones remained unbroken by some miracle, yet it was merely a matter of time before his body collapsed in on itself, still held down by the amber ring that had cursed his existence. He lied down motionless on the floor for what seemed like a minute—as if time itself had come to a halt, his vision darkened, and his breaths relaxed as his mind fell into total obscurity.
“Ah…” the man had lost his senses for a second time, left to wander with nothing but his own thoughts inside the empty void of shadows. “This place…” he could hear his own voice echoing inside his mind. “This might be enough… I just need to find the perfect moment…” he plotted among the silence. “If everything goes as planned… then I will rest in her hands for all eternity, no different than being dead… if not, I would’ve at least bought more time for everyone… but she will most likely be gone by the time of my awakening… Lionheart.”
“Lionheart…”
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“Lionheart?”
A sudden and painful migraine put a stop to the man’s echoing thoughts, forcing a series of agonizing groans and cries out of him. His senses remained dormant still, yet the pain that afflicted him felt as real as the wounds that covered his entire body. Through the torment of his distressed mind, a flash of memories suddenly flowed into him at incomprehensible speeds—accumulating into his brain all at once. The images that he was forced to witness became an unintelligible mess of faces and locations, all of them thrown together into the same confusing mix of events—bringing further confusion to his scattered thoughts.
“What?” he said with a painful tone, nearly losing his sanity over the vivid images he’d suddenly been struck with.
Although unbearable as his mind was filled to burst with centuries worth of memories, the throbbing pain in his head would meet its end just as quickly as it arrived, allowing the man some time to rest from the agitating experience. The agony that lasted no more than a second had completely vanished as if it had never occurred, leaving the man to wander into the emptiness of the void without his senses.
There was no death for a god that had been titled as an immortal, yet the state that he found himself in could barely even be considered alive. Specter’s thoughts became an irrational mix of words, and just like his surroundings, they would eventually fall into silent obscurity. His sense of time shattered, as the hours became days, the days years, and the years centuries, unable to even move a finger through it all.
“Not…” he managed to break the silence. “Not a chance…”
In a burst of a blinding light, parting his vision like the gigantic gates of paradise, Sovereign’s eyes and mind opened to consciousness once again. He gasped loudly while reaching for air, his startled crimson eye widening at the mere shock. His violent awakening would receive a turbulent welcoming however, as his battle with the order’s champion had yet to meet its end.
“Aaah!” he screamed at the sudden pain in his legs, both of them creating a popping sound as they snapped out of place.
“Now you are mine,” Loki claimed with an angry frown.
With his opponent lying on the ground, the knight dropped from above to shatter the man’s legs with an aggressive stomp, restraining Sovereign underneath him while materializing his twin azure swords. The order’s champion wasted no time in crossing both glowing blades around the neck of his foe, forcing Sovereign to grab them both with his hands to prevent them severing his head.
“Stop…” he said while struggling to pull the knight’s swords away from his neck. “You don’t know what you are doing…”
“Trying to negotiate now?” A satisfied smirk grew in the knight’s expression, who crouched closer to his target, applying further pressure on his broken limbs. “End of the line…”
“Wait…” Sovereign growled with lowered brows and a crinkled nose, feeling his hands burn by the heat of the knight’s blades.
“The wait is over…” the grin in Loki’s face widened as he moved his face closer to Sovereign’s, his eager azure eyes meeting the infuriated crimson of the man. “You lose… Specter…”
“Loki!”
Loki tightly pressed his fingers on the grip of his swords, and with merciless intent behind his last blow, decapitated demon with a swift and clean cut that ended the battle in a second. Not a single drop of blood spilled into the floor from the deceased man, whose body glowed faintly with a crimson light instead as his energy prepared to abandon the broken vessel. Sovereign’s silver head rolled on the floor, clear evidence of his defeat at the hands of a gladean knight—a fact that would complicate the god’s resurrection.
It was a quiet, peaceful, and undisputed victory in favor of the order’s champion, who after many years of fighting and searching, had finally achieved the dream of every knight that ever lived. Now acclimated to the pain, Loki pushed himself to stand while dispersing his azure swords, numb and alone among the rubble that surrounded the battlefield.
“Now…” he whispered, watching as the man’s body erupted into a massive cluster of crimson particles. “This should lead me to…"
A violent crushing sound suddenly erupted in the knight’s ears, interrupting his task with a painful sensation in his chest. His eyebrows twitched, and his mouth quivered as he gasped for oxygen through quivering breaths. The gruesome and violent noise that had petrified him in place, was the sound of his own flesh being shredded by a large blade of azure. Its glowing steel broke through his back in an instant, ripping apart his flesh to emerge from the other side through his chest. Unlike Loki’s azure swords, created with the power of his own divine pathway, the blade that had teared a large hole in his body was created by the rare material known as azure steel.
“King…” growled the knight, as large streams of blood began to flow out of his mouth—running down his chin and into his open chest.
“You did well… champion.” The rough and familiar voice of the giant spoke from behind him.
“Agh!” The knight screamed, feeling the blade tear through his flesh from the interior as it was slowly pulled out of his chest.
“Allow me to end this conflict… for all of us.” Claimed the order’s monarch, slamming the back of the knight with his palm to hurl him away from his sword.
Loki hit the ground with his face, quickly forming a pool of blood that expanded uncontrollably across the room. The victorious champion of the order now bled to the death with a gigantic hole on his chest, drowning in his own blood as his body convulsed by the shock caused his many injuries.
King emotionlessly watched as the knight struggled to breath, proudly holding the enormous sword of azure steel in his hand. Its blade emitted an elegant and stunning glow, untainted by Loki’s blood despite having teared through his flesh merely a few seconds ago. His eyes moved towards the trail of crimson particles that escaped through the main entrance of the throne room, guiding him towards the source that would eventually revitalize the immortal god.
“Bastard… you have some nerve…” growled the gladean knight through painful groans.
“You have proven yourself to be the champion of this world, Loki.” Replied the giant. “You will be rewarded with all the fame and renown you’ve been chasing your entire life… as a personal reward from my part… you will not be joining with the rest of your batch as my loyal subjects.” He claimed, referring to the husk warriors of Paradise. “You died at the hands of Specter, but not before landing the final blow… putting an end to the god’s life… and marking the beginning of the gladean knight’s reign on earth. That… will be your st—”
Before King was able to finish his sentence, a bright light of azure suddenly blinded his vision with a flash, forcing him to move away in order to avoid its blazing energy. The giant stumbled sideways, planting his sword on the ground to prevent himself from falling. A displeased and frustrated groan escaped him, casually wiping the blood from the cut in his left cheek—caused by the heat of the knight’s blade.
“You better pray that you are strong enough to kill me…” Loki growled furiously, and though blood continued to flow out of his chest, he stubbornly forced himself to stand with trembling legs and unstable body. “Because I’ll make you suffer for everything you’ve done… King.” The knight’s azures glared furiously at the giant, ready to give their last.
END OF CHAPTER