“See all these people?” Lucia gestured. “They’re refugees. Some idiots back along the way, led by a guy with a literal halo of light around him, have gone full Mad Max style warlords. Trying to take the women and children hostage. Turn them into second class citizens little better than property. Would you want me to do nothing about that?” They were angry. Justifiably so, if even a fraction of what they were saying was true.
“Luce” I said, trying to sound supportive and comforting in equal measure. But they weren’t finished yet.
“So I liberated them, and I’m bringing them away. Trying to find safety somewhere. But the deranged fuckers are chasing us. Because of course they are! Why wouldn’t they?”
“Lucia, you’re safe now.” I said, “You can take them south to Manchwark. To the burgh of Skipingham. Everyone will be safe there.”
“Dad!” Lucia looked at me as if I was a complete idiot. “You raised me to be more genre savvy than that.”
“What do you mean?”
Suddenly there was a cry from the back of the refugees.
“The riders! The riders are coming!”
Lucia gave me a look that she’d nicked from her mum. One that said I was in deep trouble.
“Everyone across the bridge!”
My little monster commanded and those she led responded without hesitation, My cadre had followed me across, still on Sancreback, and leading Midnight by the reins. The refugees flowed around us, crossing the bridge almost like our small group wasn’t there.
And just in time as two or three dozen riders were approaching fast.
“Open up!” Lucia hammered on the gates. A head poked above the parapet, just as it had when we entered from the other side. I didn’t recognise them, so it musty have been someone else
“There’s a lot of you and you don’t seem to have much to offer in exchange,” said the gatekeeper.
“What do you mean?”
“This is a toll gate. You have to pay to come through.”
“There are people coming to kill or enslave these people, if you don’t let us in.”
“Well why didn’t you say so. That doubles the price. There’s just no profit in getting involved in other people’s drama.”
“Are you dense?”
“Price has doubled again.”
“How about you let us in and I won’t come up there and stab you in the face!”
“If I don’t let you in you can’t reach me.”
“Don’t bet on it.”
“Tell you what I’ll come back in an hour and see how you feel then.” The gate keeper disappeared.
“Fuck!” Lucia swore emphatically. Making their way back through the refugees they began to to play. I had no idea how they managed to get a lute to sound like that. The refugees joined in, crooning to the familiar tune as Lucia began to sing.
“Oh a storm is threat’ning / our very lives today / if we don’t get some shelter / oh yeah, we’re gonna fade away…”
“War, children, it’s just a shot away / it’s just a shot away” The refugees joined in on the hook and as they did so a hemisphere of energy, the same colour as Lucia’s new eyes, rose up to encapsulate them. Only Lucia and their drummers were left outside of it.
“It’s a spell I came up with,” Lucia said in way of an explanation. “Should keep them safe for a bit.
“How long does it last for?” I asked.
“Until dispelled, the sun sets, or rises if cast at night. Or I die.”
“That last one would be bad.”
“Yes.”
At the centre of the approaching cavalry there was indeed a person about whom a powerful halo of light shone.
“He’s going to be trouble,” Chelo said.
“I’m sure there’s no reason for any of us to resort to violence” Lauchlan reassured her.
“They’re not slowing,” Murdo said. Indeed the lead riders had only sped up as they neared us.
The lead pair of riders split left and right around our gathered group. Kirsten got her wind wall up fast enough to block the left hand rider, but not the right. He darted around our group, his charge sending Lucia and her two drummers back onto their arses. Lucia’s lute shattered by the blow. The rider hefted his huge axe and jumped from his saddle with every intent of ending their life.
I saw red.
It’s not like I’d been bottling my anger in or anything but in that moment the dam of my fury cracked and a scouring torrent of wrath drowned out everything else. Including rational thought.
{
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{
{[[Berserk] Fury [Rank 9] [Immovable Object: [Rank 2]; Irresistible Force: [Rank 2]]] Unlocked; All overrides disabled. Combat macro-instructions engaged. Shadow attribute enhancements at full. Targets acquired. Executing.}
As the slaver hurtled from his saddle, great axe raised high to slaughter my beloved daughter where they lay on the ground, I emerged from his own shadow. He had just enough time to see me before him before I swung my own weapon. My free hand pushing him and his weapon off to the left. His head fell to the right as blood sprayed across the flagstones, and Lucia.
But not on me. I had already dropped back into the Cronephere.
I next appeared in the road. Emerging from the shadow of a branch on the flagstone. A handful of riders charging towards me and I reflexively braced for the impact.
{[Immovable Object] specialisation of [[Berserk] Fury] activated at total Rank 11}
The lead Sancre’s chest hit my shoulder. Blood and viscera sprayed across the ground as the poor animal basically exploded from the impact. The other riders struck the fallen beast and rider, tumbling in a maelstrom of bruises, broken bones, and pain. And I was gone again.
During this time Lucia had regained their feet, wiped the blood from their face, and pulled the fallen great axe from the ground. But instead of hefting it to swing they held it upside down. Like a guitar.
“One, Two” they said to nobody in particular. “One, Two, Three, Four! Crank it to eleven and let’s GO!” There was the howl of feedback as lightning played from their fingers, forming guitar strings along the weapon’s length. The axe let out an almighty KERRANG! Overhead lightning and thunder played in the rain laden clouds, almost as if in response.
Fear played across their face as they witnessed the slaughter that I was making. Then they grimly smiled as the first musical note began to fade. They strummed the axe again before they pronounced their dire blessing, and curse.
“Against all the evil Hell can conjure.” They said, “All the wickedness mankind can produce. I will send unto them… Only you, dear father. Rip and tear, until it is done.”
They then began to play a multi-layered guitar piece that tore at the very air and psyche. Shadowy, demonic looking, duplicates faded in and out of existence as Lucia accompanied themself. The music filled us with vigour and focus while seeming to sap the will of our opponents. The closest riders peeled off and raced off back the way that they had come from. Overcome by the greatest fear that they had ever encountered. The Doom music had kicked in.
{Blessings of the Slayer [Spell] has granted [+2] two positive ranks to all allied forces actions for the ongoing duration; [-2] two negative ranks to all enemy actions for the ongoing duration.}
For my part I ripped and I tore.
Irresistible Force made my every blow unstoppable. Shields sundered. Weapons shattered and armour was penetrated. Bones broke, organs ruptured and limbs dismembered. Indeed at some point I had sheathed my assassin’s blade and resorted using my bare hands.
Unmovable Object meant that my body was practically inviolate. Almost anything that struck me would break before I did. I had no desire to find out what the limits of that ability would be, and it would be a thankfully long while before I did.
All this, of course, only when Berserk Fury was activated.
Soon I found myself confronted by the last group of riders. The guy with the halo and half a dozen of his surviving riders.
“How dare you!” The halo guy bellowed. “I am the one point of light in this dark and unforgiving world. Chosen by the almighty as his agent upon this heathen place. Who among you base and demonic lot would dare strike against the Lord’s sanctioned herald?”
I put up my hand. He seemed black affronted. So I put it down again.
{[Irresistible Force] specialisation of [[Berserk] Fury] activated at total Rank 13}
The air cracked. Like a gunshot. The halo was extinguished as most of the guy’s head vaporised. Leaving the stump of his neck, the base of his skull, and lower jaw hanging. His tongue lolled.
Behind him a tree shattered as my throwing knife impacted it. The blade having flown the distance between us at supersonic speeds. His body fell from the saddle and his followers scattered. Preferring the unknown dangers of the swamp to the very real dangers made manifest in me.
Then I was alone and it was done. Lucia’s curse ended and with it the fury ebbed away. I found myself standing on a road drenched in gore. With no idea how I had gotten there. Then everything that had happened caught up with me at once. Anguish tore through me as my very worst fears had been made manifest. I had always feared snapping and lashing out. Now I had taken a life. Lives.
The enormity of what I had done overwhelmed me. I tried to hold on. But it was all too much for me. I fell into darkness.
I opened my eyes to dusk. Camp had been made and my friends were pottering around as I lay in a cot at the edge of the clearing. They ignored me, unaware that I had regained consciousness. But I was not alone.
“Hello.” Merle Sagado sat on a fallen log beside me, cleaning under his fingernails with a knife. He wore the clothes I’d first woken to this world in. He plucked an apple from the air and sliced into it with the blade. Carving out a quarter before eating it.
“Oh this is splendid!” he licked his fingers of the juice. “I wish we had such fruit in my world.”
“Oh God I’ve gone mad,” I said. He laughed.
“Oh yes. I think you’ve been mad a very long time indeed, Mx Dunn. Your seemingly bottomless anger is just a manifestation of that madness. The alienation from your identity, or lack thereof. The burdens and responsibilities of your family. The rampant injustices and inequality of your world that has so much and yet denies it but to a few.
“Oh, think of what mayhem you could produce with my powers in your world. Delightful.”
“Is that what you want? Mayhem?”
“What? No! I am not the monster that you think I am. True, I am a different type of monster, but you and I am not so unalike.”
“You're a cold blooded killer!”
“And you’re a hot blooded killer. Which of us is the better for it?” He ate another quarter of the apple while waiting for an answer. But when one was not forthcoming, I was still reeling from the horror of what I’d done, he gave his explanation anyway.
“I killed with cold and calculated precision. Like a gardener prunes one of those bonsai trees, to get the precise shape of plant that they desire. Or coppicing woodland like they do elsewhere in Lusfell. We don’t have to do either of those things in Tares.” He smiled. “Sometimes something needs to be removed for the overall heath of the organism. That’s what I did. My Lusfell was not as pleasant as yours. Although our inequality was more due to lack resources and sophistication than that found in your world. I mean what you’re doing with the farmland is pure genius. A hundred harvests in a year! Think of who that frees up for other things. I wish I’d thought of it.” He halved the remaining apple ate that third slice.
“I killed because it was the only way to shape the world in the way I wanted. To make it better for everyone.” He shrugged, “Well also to avenge my murdered family. But that was just the icing on my planned revolutionary cake.”
“You can’t have a revolution through murder and execution,” I finally found my voice. “That just leads to counter revolution and failure.” Merle took the opportunity to finish the apple.
“You truly believe that! I wish it was true. But those who slew my parents, destroyed my homeland and scattered my people, have yet to face a counter revolution... Well I guess it’s too late for that now.” He sighed. “While you have not yet experienced the full depth of my power, you are in so many ways stronger than me. You are so full of love and compassion; kindness and trust! Glorious trust! I envy you! You need to surrender to your rage to give yourself permission to do what is necessary. And the pain of doing it has nearly broken you.
“So here’s my gift to you. In exchange for you guiding the inevitable changes you and the people of your world have brought to mine.: You didn’t kill those people. I did.
“I trained my body and reflexes to the extreme. I created those combat macros into a branching tree of contingencies and fail-safes so if I was attacked I could act instinctively. I made sure I had no alliances with anyone so if I had to turn on them I could do so without hesitation. When you went berserk those macros kicked in and took control. Our body killed with precision when you were actually in a state of mind where you had no control. You couldn’t even stop until the berserk rage passed. You are absolved.”