Rage & Guilt
(Adam the mage’s POV)
I am basically at my wits end. I was exhausted, injured, and surrounded by thousands of soldiers. My escape route has long been cut off, and all that’s left for me is to fight this one-sided battle to the end. I have been checkmated, so let this pawn fight to his heart’s content in his last moments. The imperial army is ruthless in pursuing me, the looks on their face are terrifying. So this is how the demons see the humans when they are at war with them. It seems like I am the only one who knew this side of the battle, and soon it will be forgotten in the annals of history. I ran and chase after the escaping soldiers, cutting them down one by one while the bowman, crossbowman, and mages fired their arrows and magic phenomena one volley after another at me.
Everything seems so slow motion in my eyes. Is this what they said the tunnel vision one experience when they are going to face death? But it’s just that the time seems to slow down, I don’t see the revolving lantern that reflects all my pasts. The things around me seem slow enough for me to even grab the arrow in the air, and aim them with my bare hands, throw them back at the soldiers. After several throws back at them that managed to get some of the soldiers, the arrow volleys begin to slow down, and they start shooting heavier and quicker arrows armed with elements. The mages don’t slow down at all at their invocation, and the blast deal area attacks that even I can’t avoid fully. In a jest, because it’s the last moment of my life, I shouted to the army.
“Hey! Do you guys believe in all the stories about me being a devil? The one who once worked with you to fight the Demon Lord’s army?” (Adam)
Most of them looked at me like they have seen a demon themselves. They all shouted and called me a devil that delighted in others sufferings. Only some showed pity eyes, and they are all at the back of the imperial army. There was an interruption in time, and my system screen, similar to when I use appraisal, popped up. It seems I was in a zone of my own, I saw the display in front of me, and everything stops, even myself.
Illegal system entry
Do you wish for more power?
Yes/No
I picked yes. I wish I had the power to destroy everything in front of me.
Will you accept God of War as your master?
Yes/No
I picked yes. I already had a dream where a god has turned me into her familiar. Having one more will just be the same.
Current ownership status: God Loki’s familiar, God of War’s subordinate
You have been granted access to space magic, Inventory – Space available 0, items stored 2/2.
Do you wish to equip the items?
Yes/No
Yes, I wish to equip the items.
Inventory – Space available 2, items stored 0/2
Swords of Rage and Guilt have been equipped. To utilize their full ability, sufficient hatred and sorrow are required.
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Your current hatred: 81.97234 %
Your current sorrow: 67.84571%.
To enable both weapons in the current state, please accept both Gifts of Hatred and Sorrow.
Gifts of Hatred and Sorrow - Temporarily increases your hatred and sorrow to the maximum and allows one to fully utilize the Swords of Rage and Guilt
Do you accept the gifts?
Yes/No
What is the cost or side effects of those gifts?
The gifts are given for accepting God of War as your master. You can store them for later use or use it now. Your current situation requires dire attention, therefore, activating the full power of Swords of Rage and Guilt is recommended. Side effects of activating the gift are a temporary altered state of mind according to the gift. Gift of hatred induce a state of rage and anger, and the gift of sorrow induce a state of guilt and melancholy.
Sword skills
Rage – Rends anything physical the weapon’s owner wish to
Guilt – drowns the target in sorrow, and drains the intangibles of the target of the weapon’s owner
The things I received here seem to not follow the law of causality, which means this is really interference from god. I don’t trust the gods, but I have no choice, for I’m powerless now.
I’m back to the normal time, and the time slowing effect seems to be wearing off. I wield both the swords and hold them up. How do I use these swords? The description earlier said they rend anything I wish or drown and drain the life and soul. I feel really irritated somehow that I don’t know how these weapons works, and also a deep sense of sadness.
A large volley of flame and wind arrows is flying towards me as I was thinking about how to operate my new weapon. The attack is also accompanied by large amounts of magical phenomena aiming to finish me off in one blow. I swing the Sword of Rage while thinking about destroying everything that tries to kill me.
The entire attack that came flying at me turns to ash and crumble. The magical attacks are not much affected, so I swing the Sword of Guilt and think that the magic will be absorbed. The field is bathed with a liquid that refracts the light and glued all the magic in a gooey substance that doesn’t seem to be physical and drags all the magic into it.
The imperial army chief was shocked by the display of power and sends their armoured knight and cavalries to the fore. I swing my Sword of Rage again while thinking of cutting off the imperial army chief’s hands and his dirty crotch. I also think of cutting away the middle of the army’s formation together, where all the knights and cavalries are charging at me. What happened next made the imperial army stunned. The entire field together with the middle of the imperial army has all turn to ash, and crumble to the ground. Even the ground itself crumbled to ash to reveal a large ravine formed as far as my eyes can see. I have aimed it in the direction of the castle in the capital, but I guess it’s too far. I avoid hitting the village though, but the anger in my head won’t subside and wants more kills, even making me think that hitting the village is alright. The imperial army chief in his mana shield suddenly falls down from his horse while shouting and yelling in pain. It delights my heart, but the rage is not quelled, and I wanted more deaths.
I can see the soul and mana floating around the area that I rend with the Sword of Rage, and the Sword of Guilt seems to flicker and is telling me to absorb them. I just mentally allow the Sword of Guilt to do that, and the gooey substance came splattering across the large landscape that has been rend earlier. The souls in bright blue in the shape of people begin to scatter, only to be ensnared in the substance and is pulled into the sword. With a voracious appetite, the sword absorbs all the things that Sword of Rage left behind. The other living soldiers just feel scared of the gooey substance, but since it doesn’t hit them, they just fall into a panic state but not fear. Maybe it’s only me that can see the mana and soul of the dead, like water without a vessel.
Seeing the fallen imperial army chief, the rest of the army falls into disarray. Each of the imperial army section chiefs came to take command of the situation, but they are basically in a messy state. My rage is still not quelled yet, so I continue the slaughter of the soldiers without stopping or care for their pleadings. I hope that if there were any soldiers that are good people, they would escape before I found them. This is because at that time, the rage and sorrow in my heart take over, and I will avenge the death of my parents, and every other people that they claimed without mercy. I made those I knew are terrible to suffer as miserable as they can. I cut off their things just to let them live and suffer in humiliation. My sorrow is quenched by absorbing part of their sanity and soul, making them live a wasteful life of misery. I can make them manaless by absorbing their mana until their mana recovery system is damaged permanently, but it still can’t make me a mage back, as my mana is still in the negative.
I made one here go insane by absorbing away all his love of women (Imperial inquirer), and made another insane by absorbing away all his manliness (Imperial army chief), and left them together for some crazy action. I also set some commands to them so that he would do certain actions when meeting certain people. This would be some revenge against someone if karma ever exists in this world.
The entire thousands of soldiers in the imperial army that’s left have already lost their morale. I use my Sword of Guilt to absorb away all the soldier’s loyalty towards the kingdom. Some tried to run away when the gooey thing came, but they got ensnared in it at the end. After losing their loyalty, they all lose their reason to fight me, but they fear me as the devil mage. I wanted to do more absorption, but the Sword of Guilt has used up its sorrow and couldn’t perform any more large-scale absorptions. It turns into a blade when it has exhausted all its sorrow. I tried the normal absorptions on the soldiers and officers that are known to cause harm to others by appraising their status. I absorb their love for causing sufferings to others, and other things to test out. The blade form can only do three times individual absorptions before they need to rest a day.
The rage in my head is still going strong, and I need to find a way to release my rage, even though the imperial army here is broken by the power of the Sword of Guilt. I get on a horse owned by the army officer and ride it to the capital, intending to strike at everybody there that has put me into this situation.