Chapter 43: Complications

“Damien!” Krista cried as she watched his body fall down and go limp. Raven, having appeared beside him, pulled a finger from the back Damien’s neck and let his sleeve fall past his forearm. There long, colored fingernails that could only be described as claws were revealed. From his pinky, a hot pink, a blood red, dark purple, deep black, and a sea blue. “No!”

Krista rushed over and brought her black blade to her hand, likewise, Dante pulled out his own sword, “Don’t worry Krista, he’s still alive! Raven stop!” Both weapons missed their target but managed to ward off Raven. “I said stop Raven! Listen to me!”

Dante unsheathed his sword and approached his friend, his eyes pleading for Damien’s life, but it fell upon deaf ears as Raven responded, “Dante, had I not intervened, you would be dead. That man came to you with the honest intent to kill. If we let this one live, I’m sure you’ll come to regret it. I’ve let you play your games up until now, but I refuse to negotiate on this.”

Raven pushed Dante away, intending to strike again, but was blindsided by Fierce who ran over and knocked him down, “Good job Fierce! Raven, you should listen to Dante! If you continue, I will stop you.”

When he didn’t listen, Krista ran to intercept Raven, but the ground began to shake. She was having trouble keeping her footing. Looking around, Krista noticed the others were having a similar problem, aside from Cleo, whose green aura strangely seemed to seep out of her body.

Cleo looked furious and held tightly to her bracelets, “Raven, listen to Dante! I can understand how you feel about… him, but Dante needs him. If you kill him now, you’ll ruin everything!” As she spoke, her aura continued to grow larger, and she held tighter to the bracelet.

Raven didn’t mind her words, opting to instead bombard Krista with blow after blow. She could barely keep up with him. This man was skilled, and Krista was protecting someone. Not the most advantageous position. Amelia ran over and tried punching Raven but hurt herself instead, while being closely tailed by Dmitri who tried pulling her away.

“No, I need to help them!” objected Amelia.

“Matilda!” yelled Krista hoping to catch her attention. Matilda is a professor in the study of wattiez, maybe she could help.

“Life affinity, remember honey? I’m more of the supportive type,” she answered back.

“Of course, she won’t-” Krista started thinking. “Ah!” Raven had tripped her! “Damien! Raven sto-”

Raven paid her no mind and was already going in for the strike. Tossing her blade from this distance wouldn’t reach fast enough, and Dante is way too far to help. In a state of hopelessness, Krista could feel a tear streak her cheek.

“Dante said stop!” Shix appeared and warded off Raven’s deadly strike. She saved him! “Raven, back off of Dadd- I mean Damien.”

Raven was left slightly awestruck, “I did not… expect you to come to his rescue.”

He backed away and faced off against Shix, Amelia, Dante, and myself, “Raven, listen, I know what he did and you’re right, it’s not fine, but if Dante says to leave him alone, I think we should. Can’t you compromise? We’ll hold him prisoner until we reach the castle. We have a few pairs restraining braces, right? He should be no problem.”

“Restraining braces?” Krista questioned. “How did you manage to get your hands on those?”

In this tense situation, no one answered her, especially as Raven still held his claws towards them, or rather past them to Damien at this point, “I couldn’t give a damn how you feel Shix. He’s Damien Grayson. A Grayson. You just don’t know how dangerous it is to leave him alive. None of you do! Except Melody.”

With that same satisfactory smile, Melody showed Raven a slow nod before starting to play a slow and gentle tune, far from befitting the tense situation.

“And she’s Kristhalla Knightley, Ani already filled us in.” Raven turned and glared at Animus who promptly disappeared from sight.

“We can’t blame Damien for the fight we had with his parents!” countered Shix.

From here, Krista made sure to keep her mouth shut. She knew that at some point, Damien had started to impersonate his father in the later parts of their war. Apparently, one of his idiotic plans was actually good for something.

Raven moved out of his ready stance and stood up straight. His claws were still pointed at us, but it seems he no longer wanted to come at them to strike. “If you remember correctly, in the war with Acumenos our enemies employed two chief strategies, Jonathan’s Wall and Mariah’s Blitz tactics. They fought that way for nearly two years, never significantly changing their strategy.”

“Course I know that, you’re the one that taught me those strategies,” added Shix slightly confused.

“Utilizing their superior numbers and reliable terrain, they only ever needed to make slight adjustments. Their strategies worked, but with a little more time, Dante and I would have found a way to defeat them. The war would have ended far sooner. Then Mariah Grayson passed, and their armies were sent into disarray. Their tactics weakened, their commander, Lord Chancellor Jonathan, seemingly disappeared, and you all joined Shining Twilight. Everything was in our favor until Jonathan reappeared, yet he no longer used the Wall tactic. In fact, he was employing new, dirty tactics, which prolonged the war, losing more lives on both sides.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Shix held down her head, “That may be true, but you said it yourself! It was his father that prolonged the war, not him.” She turned her head to Krista and smiled. She felt that Shix doing this more for her sake than his.

Phive also appeared at his sisters side riding Bits, “My sister... right. No need to fight. Cause only… more suffering. Damien… keep prisoner.”

The non-combatants, Cleo, Dmitri, and Matilda continued to watch with great interest. Jikan probably just didn’t want to take a side, especially not one against Raven.

“Raven, stop being so pissy and just listen to Dante. You’re usually so good at doing that, what’s with this mood swing?” Helpful words from Cleo, maybe their usual bickering will snap him out of it.

He does glare at her but continued speaking to Shix. “That’s just it, prior to Mariah’s death, Jonathan actually attended the battlefield constantly. Afterwards, his appearance was few in number. He never attended negotiations and refused to ever publicly walked out on the streets to build up morale. He just… disappeared, but apparently he was still leading his armies.”

Krista didn’t like where this was going. but luckily Shix stayed firm. “Raven if you’re trying to make a point, just do so already. Then we can move ahead to kicking your ass. I know I can’t do it alone, but with this many people, even you’ll go down.”

Jikan yelled out from the background, “Yeah, kick his ass!” Internally, Krista thought that Damien would get a huge laugh from the fact that he’s being protected by the people he wanted to kill moments ago.

“Damien impersonated his father and lead his armies in the war,” said Raven flatly.

It was an eerie silence that followed. Shix’s weapon started to wobble a bit, “He. Then how did? But he… Raven!”

Shix wanted answers, and Raven was more than happy to oblige, “After the war, I did some research. I had failed to give Dante a quick and decisive victory, and I wanted to know why. Interestingly enough, not a single soldier below the rank of captain ever saw Jerimiah outside of his quarters, only the high-ranking officials had, and even then, only in strategic meetings. Not only that, but those high ranking officials reported that Jerimiah began to act strangely during the meetings.”

Dante tried to interrupt him, “Raven, maybe you shouldn’t speak any-”

“Now I had a good… chat with some of those officials we captured,” Raven interrupted. “Most assumed it was due to the passing of his wife, things such as forgetting basic military terms and gestures and forgetting the names and duties of people, but two and two together Shix. It was him.”

Shix’s eyes darted to Damien, and she just stared at him. Raven moved close, so Krista struck at him. He dodged the attack and place his foot on the flat of the blade, making Krista unable to move away my sword my blade, while placing a hand on Shix’s shoulder. Fierce also bit on Raven’s leg, and left him bleeding, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Really?!” Krista complained. “This is just ridiculous, get your foot off my sword!” Krista grabbed onto Raven’s shoulder and tried to suck. Though nothing happened, she had forgotten he was untethered.

“Shix, you know that I wouldn’t lie… to you,” Raven continued to say. “I’ve already given Dante this information, and he agrees with me.”

Shix quickly turned to Dante who still had his sword pointed at Raven, and couldn’t even look to Shix as he answered, “How did everything escalate so much? Yes Shix, chances are that it was Damien that led Acumenos in the latter half of the war. In fact, half may be too little of what he actually did. Most likely he was involved ever since his mother’s passing.”

Now it was Shix’s turn to be in awe of what she was hearing, “Dante, h-how could you?”

Steadfast, Dante continued, “Before he tells you, yes, I did order him to withhold this information from you, from all of you. As I felt that Damien could be a huge asset, in the right circumstances. I had planned to tell you when we were in less volatile circumstances, that way you could have a discussion rather than a fight over what happened.”

Shix breathed in deeply and sheathed her weapon, “I changed my mind.” She simply walked away and sat next to Jikan. Phive also walked away and sat next to her.

“Guys!” usually Krista would have loved a one on one duel with a powerful opponent like Raven. However, in the case where a close friend of her’s life was on the line, she’d like to have as many allies as possible.

“I’m being considerate Krista, especially to you,” Shix explained. “It’s taking a lot of self-control to sit here and do nothing to Dad- Damien, but I know how much you care about him. So, I won’t get involved, on either side.”

“That still doesn’t make my life any easier!” argued Krista.

“Propose… contest,” said Phive before he whispered something into his sister’s ear.

“Good idea!” Shix exclaimed. “Raven, if Damien wakes up and says… how about hooray? Then you have to stop attacking him. Until then you’re free to do as you please except hurting Amelia since she’s not a fighter. I don’t think anyone can really complain about these rules.”

For a moment, nothing happened. Dante and Amelia continued to stand over Damien. “I will take a neutral side,” Dmitri held his distance, not intending to help Damien so much as being ready to assist Amelia in case Raven got too eager. Finally, Krista managed to wrench her blade from under Raven’s foot and stared him down.

“Well?” asked Krista.

He looked at Dante who spoke out once more, “Stop, Raven! I keep telling you to stop! Why won’t you listen, this really isn’t like you? What happened to my loyal soldier?”

Krista thought this was the only time she’d ever seen Raven waver, if only for a moment, “I’m doing this for your own good, but I’ll play by your rules. Do you really think that you can suede Damien to see our side, like you persuaded Krista? Unlike her, he’s blinded by his own hate and won’t listen to reason. If you believe Krista could bring him to our side, I’d highly doubt it. To him, she is just a betrayer, and let me tell you, the feeling of betrayal burns hot.”

“Come on man, have faith in me!” Dante responded. “Have I ever led you wrong?”

“Yes, and even so I’ll still always follow you,” Raven countered. “Know that whatever I do, I do for the sake of you and Shining Twilight. Please forgive me.”