-49-
[https://i.imgur.com/LoYByv0.png]
“Praise the Goddesses, we’re finally out of that gods-forsaken mess.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as Mei navigated us back to the main road.
“Okay, Specter-Two,” I called her over the comms channel, “I’ve got it from here. Report back in with Seeker-One.”
“Acknowledged, Regal-One.”
My party and I set off through the Maarin district towards the inner gate.
Hanna called me not long ago to approve the use of the runestone weapon again—apparently, they all decided its destructive power was too high to leave something like that in the hands of field commanders.
From her and Julius, it sounded like the Renaultians were employing some kind of barrier magick on the inner gate and we needed that level of punch to get through.
The blast from the weapon definitely helped us navigate out of the Maarin commons, though I’d never mention it to Mei.
When we finally reached the gatehouse, the scene was quite different than I imagined. Julius told me it wasn’t breachable with our force’s conventional spells and would require another runestone blast or intervention from someone like Ikuye.
But laid before me looked like that hadn’t been completely true.
There was a melted mess of stone where there should have been a tower—that made sense to me—but next to that were the dusty remains of the gatehouse and a tower with its top half just… missing.
“Regal-One to Assault-One.” I called Julius.
“Little busy, Regal-One. What’s up?” His voice sounded strained.
“We’re here. I have questions. Where are you?”
“Gatehouse. Could use some assistance.” he replied curtly.
I spotted him as we jogged towards the gates.
A number of our knights were fighting with Renaultian brigadiers. Julius was locked in combat with a lone figure.
“Help who you can while keeping close. We’re going for Julius,” I ordered my knights, “Akari, stay with Knight-Captain Flik for now. If anyone approaches you, cast a barrier.”
“By your command!”
“Okay!”
With everyone acknowledging we closed the distance in short order. A well-placed HOLY BOLT here and there paired with a slew of spells from my knights freed most of Julius’ knights.
“Heya, Julius. Introduce me to your new friend, would ya’?” I greeted my vice-commander while parrying a strike from his opponent, pushing distance between us.
“Don’t know, don’t really care.” Julius said through heavy breaths.
Across from us was a tall and broad-shouldered knight in full-plate armor bearing some Renaultian crest I couldn’t place. I was, however, able to identify the style of their helmet. It had a Renaultian junior officer’s plumage—blue and silver hairs.
“Harbinger of evil!” a deep voice began, the knight pointed at me, “Your reign of wickedness shall end this night. I, Sir Dolain the Hero of Axio, shall put you down by my sword and save humanity from the terrible sins your tainted blood has plotted for centuries!”
I turned to Julius, “He’s been crazy the whole time, or did it start just now?”
“Entire time.” Julius huffed, “I was only an agent of evil. But you get to be. The harbinger. I’m a little jealous.”
“Huh. And the reign of wickedness?” I asked.
“Oh, that part is new.” he smirked.
“Renault must have put out a memo for all his people to insult me the moment we meet. I’m getting real sick of it, to be honest.”
I quickly inspected Julius to see how he was doing and was glad to see he wasn’t too injured, but had to rule him out for this fight.
TARGET
STATISTICS
VALUES
JULIUS
The Silver Bulwark
HEALTH
STAMINA
MAGICKA
540 / 695
0 / 400
70 / 70
If he continued on he’d strain himself and be inflicted with all manner of exhaustion effects.
Okay. What’re we up against. Is the annoying Renaultian going to be a problem—are you kidding me?
TARGET
STATISTICS
VALUES
DOLAIN
Axio’s Hero
HEALTH
STAMINA
MAGICKA
590 / 600
450 / 860
450 / 550
“No way… he really has a title.” I sighed in disbelief.
Julius shrugged.
I could feel Flik’s position faintly by trying to sense her magicka signature, and knew she and my knights were close by. They’d be able to assist if needed, but none of them were strong enough to go toe-to-toe with this guy.
“I’ll handle him for now so cycle out with me. Tell Flik what you know so she can support me if he ends up being tougher than I’m hoping.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“You got it. Stay safe. I’ll have your back after a quick breather.” he coughed.
“You would have been better off retreating, spawn of evil.” Dolain taunted with his blade raised.
“Nah.” I dismissed him, “I won’t yield an inch of this city to Renault. The blood of my people has been shed here. I’ll make the whole place hallowed ground after we take his head.”
“I won’t allow you to step another foot into this city. I’ll fight to my last breath until one of us is dead.”
“Then go ahead and die already.”
I quick-fired a CHAOS BOLT directly at his center mass.
Dolain didn’t even attempt to avoid it, as I expected. His armor had familiar runes etched into them—warding runes, that absorbed magick.
But, you see, apparent 'hero' of Axio, the thing is…
My CHAOS BOLT exploded on impact, propelling small crimson shards out as shrapnel. Chunks of crystal pierced his greaves and neck-guard. The main bolt was embedded into his chestplate in a hazardous way that would definitely obstruct his movement.
…my magick isn’t one that cares much about those wards.
“You foul banshee! What sort of blasphemous witchcraft is this?”
“Tch,” I clicked my tongue, “I had hoped it would’ve pierced your neck. Oh well. I can make as many of those as I want.”
Dolain charged me, angrily shouting nonsense I didn’t really care to focus on.
I unsheathed Dáinsleif and forced Dolain back as my blade’s hungry flames erupted. I activated WILD STRIKE, lunging at the staggering ‘hero’.
“The foul witch bears a cursed blade! O’ Great Darkness that dwells beyond the veil. Come forth and guide this devout soul, T̴̺͖̋ȇ̴̛̲̞ņ̶̍̾eb̷͇̯̾͋r̷̼̂̃is̶͉̎!”
A vortex of dark purple energy spread in all directions as he shouted something unintelligible. The wisps of magick made me feel ill—the instinctive ping I used to track magicka signatures was rapid firing in my mind, screaming at me to get away from whatever this was.
I flooded my mana circuits and pushed away just as a wave of complete blackness consumed the space around Dolain.
“Airis, what in the Aether was that!?” Julius shouted behind me.
“Dunno, wasn’t me!”
“The heck?” he lamented, “I was fighting that guy and he could do that the whole time? Why didn’t he?”
“You only did ten damage to his health, Julius.”
“I only… what?”
Julius’ voice sounded a tad upset, but I ignored it as the darkness was clearing.
A patter of rain began as an unnatural storm formed around us. Streaks of violet energy crackled like lightning above me.
Dolain stood, motionless, in the epicenter of the receding black and purple void-addled street. Tendrils of magick spread out around him and seeped through his armor.
“Raaah!” he screamed, “My Gods empower me! I am a true paladin of my faith. Come, harbinger of evil.”
He charged forward and closed the gap between us, not minding the flames of my sword this time.
I activated WILD STRIKE again.
We traded blows. His blade struck mine and I was almost forced back. Raw magicka filled my arms and Dáinsleif’s flame surged, eating away at Dolain’s weapon.
His blade began to glow red-hot and he dropped it with a swear.
I reeled back to strike at him while he was defenseless—but a plated fist struck me in the jaw.
“Faack!” I tried to curse.
My mouth was sour with the taste of blood and a sharp pain clued me in that I bit my tongue from the impact.
Dolain didn’t miss a beat and started trying to grapple me. My blade was doing me no good, it couldn’t cut through the heavy steel of his armor and he wouldn’t let me swing it with enough force to deal any blunt damage.
Fine! You wanna get your ass kicked, let’s do it.
I wreathed my fists and feet in mana and sucker punched him in the stomach.
Dolain must have thought I couldn’t do much and left himself undefended. I felt the metal give way to my strike and he flinched.
The ground was slick with mud and blood as the rain continued to pour.
I struck him again, and the shard of chaotic magick came loose. I reached for it before it fell to the ground, grabbing it in my left hand.
Dolain slipped in the mud as his balance gave out.
“Well, well. Look at that. The hero of fools is a fool himself.” I taunted as I loomed over him.
“O’ Great Infinite Darkness, your faithful cry havoc—”
Dolain’s incantation ended abruptly as I jammed the chaotic shard through the gap in his neck-guard and helmet.
Between coughs and unintelligible words choked by blood, I caught the man’s last words.
“Your… victory… means nothing," he gasped for air while grabbing at his throat, “my death… will inspire... the Kingdom…”
His head rolled to the side as he went still.
“If inspiration was all you needed, we would’ve beat you assholes when you murdered my father.” I spit a glob of blood and saliva at the body.
I unbuckled the chromasteel bracer from my left wrist and peeled away the blood-stained glove to reveal torn skin and broken knuckles.
The rune on my wrist was flashing and I willed the notifications into my vision.
» DAMAGED TISSUES DETECTED
» REGENERATING WOUND – [■■□□□□□□□□]
» REGENERATING WOUND – [■■■□□□□□□□]
» YOU HAVE GAINED IN POWER, YOU HAVE LEARNED A NEW ABILITY:
» NEW PASSIVE SKILL, MAGICKA SENSE
» NEW PASSIVE SKILL, DANGER SENSE
» YOU HAVE GAINED IN POWER, YOUR ATTRIBUTES HAVE INCREASED:
» TOUGHNESS HAS INCREASED TO 56
» RESOLVE HAS INCREASED TO 54
“Airis!” “Momma!” “Your Eminence!”
Julius, Akari, and Flik shouted as they ran toward me.
“You alright?” Julius asked, eyeing the motionless body.
“Yeah. My hand hurts, though.” I raised my bloodied knuckles to his face, “Look what your empress had to endure because her guardian was too tired.”
He grimaced, “I’d prefer this one stays between us and Hailey never finds out.”
“I’d prefer the same, actually.” I admitted.
My guard knights were initially distressed at my state but once BLESSED RECOVERY finished regenerating the damage my body had taken, everyone relaxed and stopped fussing over me.
I looked past the gatehouse, at the walls and towers further in that wrapped around the Renaultian district.
“It’s almost morning.” I commented idly.
After we secured the gatehouse and got a little rest, our plan was to push on to Renault.
I really wanted to rest.
“Can you wrap things up here, Julius?” I asked.
“Shouldn’t be a problem.”
His response was laden with exhaustion, but it would take less than an hour to get things turned over and report to Hanna or Luke.
“Cool. I’m gonna check in with Luke at the forward base. Call me if you need me.”
I turned to leave—when a cloud of Aethermist appeared in the air above the gatehouse. A projection rune somewhere on the top activated and an image was illuminated onto the mist.
A man with black side-swept hair and blue eyes.
He was dressed in an accessorized white suit with silver trim and wore a blue capelet.
“Renault.” I seethed.
“The escaped convict returns,” Renault’s voice echoed overhead, heavily distorted, “You hold no power in this city. If you pack up and leave with your pretend empire, I’ll consider not wiping out the rest of your people.”
I clenched my fist. “You may hold dominion with some ill-gotten power for now but you’ll find it isn’t enough to keep me and mine out of your palace. You’re playing with something you can never hope to control.”
“Hah!” he sneered, “Says the girl playing hero. You don’t even know the horror of what your filthy bloodline truly is.”
“I know more than you. I’ve spoken to the Gods. Your mind is twisted by the Void. Your family line is the one aiming to deceive us all, not mine.”
Renault narrowed his eyes and leaned in towards the device capturing his image, “You are blinded by your faith. My Kingdom is the only hope for humanity.”
“And you are blinded by ignorance,” I chided, “My people didn’t wish for this conflict. Your damned Kingdom is a blackened stain in the history of humanity. But don’t fear, mad-king, because we’ll be seeing each other real soon and I’ll put you out of your misery like the rabid dog you are.”
Renault stared down at me, “Let us see how tough you are without all those knights of yours.”
Before I could even question what he meant, everything around me went blurry. My knights, Julius, and Akari looked distorted and their voices sounded strange.
The next moment, I was standing in a different street.
Are you kidding me!?
“Arrrgh!" I shouted in anger, "I’ll kill you, Renault! I’ll rip your damned head off!”