Chapter 60:
“What happened to your wife and the child she had.” As the words left Lhikan's mouth, he regretted immediately.
“DO NOT SPEAK HER NAME!!!”
Uncontrollable bloodlust flooded the space, Lhikan on the back foot, hands shifting to a non-existent sword handle as the lizard girl woke up.
Lhikan's jaw dropped, eyes wide. The paladin not even having a moment to recognize he made a mistake before he was lifted into the air by the black-haired man.
Natalie's form had shifted, her soft and delicate features shifting into the sharp and angular form of a man.
Rage.
All Lhikan could see through the fingers gripping his face was the pure unadulterated fury contorting the face glaring at him.
Unlike the doppelganger, this was real. Real emotion, the face twisted into the expression of a demon willing to destroy anything it gazed at.
Unfortunately, that gaze was settled on Lhikan.
“Speak your last words carefully.” The slime in the form Hiroyuki hissed, his grip tightening around Lhikan's jaw with the ends of Hiro's fingertips desolidifying.
“I-I! When word of your party's defeat broke out through the ranks!” Lhikan let out, his fingers unable to find purchase on the slimey arm holding him. “Queen Lidica herself led a counterattack, a spearhead straight into the demon Lord's throne where she lost her life!”
The pressure wrapped around Lhikan's face intensified, a faint sizzling sound as the paladin began to burn from prolonged contact with the slime.
“Die.”
“I SWEAR IT! Lady Lyndis’s body was successfully recovered at the cost of most of the royal guard!”
Suddenly Lhikan was released, the old man hitting the floor with a grunt.
“Revivify.” Hiroyuki muttered, eyes wide in disbelief. “Revivify…”
“Yes.” Lhikan gasped. “At the cost of her life. Queen Lidica sacrificed herself and many retainers to save her friend, to give us another fighting chance with the last System User left alive.”
“Child… You… you said there was a child…” The hero muttered, face melting off as his form struggled to maintain itself.
“Lady Lyndis… she. She gave birth to twins, a warrior who grew up to found a lineage of expert tradesmen and warriors and a chaste magician that remained pure until she died. Men and women who were pivotal in halting Barborall’s second and third invasion and inciting Gisellneia’s rebellion.”
Lhikan caught his breath, the First Hero standing over him and causing the paladin to hesitate.
“Continue.” The man ordered, skin boiling with energy.
“But… after the second invasion, both sides suffered heavily. No one gaining ground for centuries until the Hero Clan suddenly disappeared. Paving the way for the fifth invasion which plagued our world today.”
“So everyone that could validate your claims are conveniently gone is that it?!” The Hero spat, lifting Lhikan into the air once more. “You expect me to believe that?!”
“It's true! For two thousand years the Hero Clan has persevered!”
The man’s eyes went wide, his form shaking, visibly vibrating as if struck by some mighty revelation.
“Two thousand years?”
“Yes! You’ve been buried for two thousand years!” Lhikan exclaimed, feet scrapping against the ground.
“Oh? And how is it this knowledge has preserved for so long?” The Hero demanded, left hand cackling with lightning.
“BECAUSE NATALIE IS YOUR DESCENDENT!” Lhikan snapped, causing Hiro's grip to slacken, the man blinking. “Every member of the Hiro clan is born gifted. More powerful than anyone else. Each one destined in some way to accomplish feats unobtainable to us lessers! Each one, inheriting a mission to reclaim their birthright! None of them can use the system like you and Lady Lyndis can, but they were promised access if they could!”
Lhikan hit the ground once more, catching his breath and rolling his jaw, head held low so as to not draw any further ire.
“My Lord,” Suddenly a new mouth sprung up on the Hiro, sprouting a feminine voice. “Why don't we execute one of his comrades? Torture them to coax the truth out of him?”
“No! I swear I speak no falsities!” Lhikan exclaimed, crawling across the floor to grab hold of the man's leg turning to leave.
“Then swear it on your Oath.”
Lhikan froze at the demand.
“SWEAR IT!!”
“I SWEAR ON MY OATH AS A PALADIN OF DESTINA!! My words are true! If you must kill someone, then kill me! I led them here!”
Lhikan's body gave off a white shine, his words activating an ancient pact.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The Hero glared down at the man no word spoken, only an insatiable bloodlust that made Lhikan nervous.
The paladin closed his eyes, accepting his fate. Moments passing in silence.
“What was Natalie to you?”
Lhikan opened his eyes, blinking several times before his brow furrowed at the unexpected question, his gaze staring at the pair of feet before him.
“A daughter. A savior. I was against her coming here. But the Church allowed it, fearing the threat she posed. It was my duty as guardian to protect her. And I failed.” Lhikan said earnestly, his hand trembling. A new emotion flaring up that made his palm clench into a fist.
Anger.
“Are you angry?”
“I am.” Lhikan hissed.
“Do you want… revenge?”
“I…” Lhikan looked up, meeting the gaze of the man who once was known as the Godblade.
“Do you want revenge?”
“Revenge?”
“I have seen your memories, Lhikan. Your pain. Your anger. Your inability to change the establishment that holds the world sway. Your desperate clinging to a child half your age for salvation.”
Lhikan clenched his jaw at the stinging words.
“You are a failure. A man without hope. One without friends or meaningful allies. A once respected knight long since past his prime and sent to die.” The man seemed to tower over Lhikan who trembled. Every word that caressed his ears akin to honeydew that bore no falsities. “But you still have a place in the future.”
“A place… in the future?”
“Paladin of Destina, do you want revenge?”
“Lhikan dry swallowed, brow furrowed, his heart somehow beating in his ears.
What is this feeling?
“I… I do.” Lhikan whispered softly. Was it wrong? Perhaps. Did he care? No.
Without warning, a shift. Something seemed to change in the atmosphere of the room. Even the Lizard girl was awake and observing the pair.
“Then, would you join my cause? Raise your blade in my name? Dispose of the enemies that stand in my way? Do all that is required in order to uproot the corruption that has taken the world? The real corruption. Not the demons. Not the monsters. But the Humans. The monarchs and nobles? The leaders or perpetuate stagnation?”
Lhikan blinked. This… This was his chance!
“I would!” Lhikan replied earnestly, head down, bowing to the man.
Suddenly, a dagger fell to the floor beside Lhikan. An ordinary iron weapon dropped by a skeleton.
“Then kill yourself.”
What?
Lhikan froze, stuck in his position, pondering the command. The paladin raised his head, locking eyes with Hiro.
“Did I stutter?” Hiroyuki said indifferently. “You said you were willing to do anything. Was that a lie, noble knight?”
The Paladin blinked, the Hero''s savage grin akin to a demon’s.
Was he being played? Lhikan didn't know, but the purity and rage he'd been shown wasn't something that could be faked. No this… this was the real thing.
“With your death, you will become the stepping stone for me to ascend. For me to rise from my imprisonment and wage war against the world to save its future.” The black-haired man now stood behind Lhikan. “Make your choice Paladin. The future, or your life.”
Lhikan closed his eyes, his head held low. Thoughts of Krekka and his thralls that held the church in their palms. The nobles that abandoned the common folk and the knights who sold their honor for women and coin.
He made choice.
“If my death. Can shape the world for the better…” Lhikan said, grabbing the dagger. He took the blade, holding it aloft and eyeing the reflection of himself in the glowstone light. “Then so be it.”
Lhikan took the blade and stabbed himself in the heart, his eyes shut as he embraced death for the world and died…
Or would have, if not for the invisible force that caught his hands.
Telekinesis!
Lhikan opened his eyes, the tip of the blade pricking his skin and drawing blood.
“Congratulations Paladin Lhikan. You passed.” The Hiro said, “I welcome you into the ranks of the Cleaners.”
**** Hiro***
“Thank you. Lord Hiroyuki.” The Paladin said, bowing as the bone door shut to the prison cage.
Possessing Slimey, I walked away, maintaining my stoic posture and expression until I was well out of sight.
WHAT WAS THAT!? WHAT WAS I EVEN SAYING?! OH THAT WAS SO CRINGE! WAGE WAR TO SAVE THE WORLD?! OFFERING REVENGE?! I HAVE GRAND KIDS?! I HAVE GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT KIDS?!?!?!? WHAT DO YOU EVEN CALL TWO THOUSAND YEARS WORTH OF GENERATIONS?! WAIT! LYNDIS SURVIVED?! SHE WAS PREGENANT?! BUT WE ONLY HAD THE LOVEY TIME ONCE AND I…
I…
I…. Lyndis.
Who was I kidding. The memory of Lyndis sprung up in my mind.
As much as I didn’t want it to, as much as I ran from her memory. It plagued my mind like a shadow. A part of my past I pretended didn’t exist. There were gaps, here and there. But her image. Her voice. Her touch and fiery nature was always there.
Even if I wished otherwise. Slimey was proof of that.
I stood in the hallway, minions going about their daily chores as I pondered the paladin’s words.
Revivify could absolutely return a person from the clutches of death. But only if they had died recently, and if the appropriate cost was paid.
And seeing how a Calmity tier Priestess such as Queen Lidica lost her life to pay for my failure…
My face was buried in my hands. An urge I hadn’t felt in… centuries. Correction… two millenniums.
I wanted to cry.
Yet my eyes held no tear ducts. My hands held no warmth. And my body was merely on loan.
Two thousand years… Not hundreds. That was how long I was down in these damn halls! Two thousand years of isolation.
I wasn’t sure what was worse. Knowing that Lyndis had survived and dying thinking I died, or that my children grew without me, never knowing their father.
Did she wait for me? Did she tell our children of our tales? Questions upon questions. Things I wish I wasn’t asking but I was. There was also a… a sense of pride knowing my progeny grew to become so renown. But it was… bittersweet.
Was Adam so cruel to send a descendant of mine to die in search of promised power? Was this all a test? A game of his?
No… the system couldn’t be inherited. Couldn’t be passed on. It was tied to our souls. Lyndis knew this. There was no way that she would tell any… Wait.
Lyndis knew this. If the paladin was led to believe, it was passed on to each member of my bloodline that the system was transferable.
She knew this yet she still sent them… Past it along to charge our descendents to search for me.
“You never gave up on me…Ah. ahhah. AhahahaHAHAHAH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The laughter-turned-scream was out of my mouth before I knew it, a roar that bounced off the walls before my body turned into a puddle, my consciousness back in the shell of my rubber self.
“Lord Hiro.” Slimey said, picking me up off the floor.
Yeah?
“Would you like me to wash you?”
Yeah… I would very much like that. I replied, my mind seeming to get more murky, less clairvoyant. The fog resettling as my thoughts shifted not on my small isolated corner of the world, but on my ascension and plans of conquest.