Paladin 4: Prelude (Patreon)

One after another, heroes emerged in the Sacred Seas.

In the Northern Trade Union, a man in a ragged cloak stood along the shore. His sword was a bent and rusty thing plucked from the sand, forgotten during the great battle for Salsroth not too long ago.

Now, he fought the remaining demons in the area and rescued those who didn't leave for Limedeep. Of all the warriors who'd fought here, he stood alone. And yet he alone was enough to repel all the remaining demons as the people of Salsroth rebuilt.

Giant lobster-like demons crawled from the sea in ravenous hordes, claws and pincers snapping at the men and women gathering clam shells. If there was anything else to eat they would not have dared come to these demon-infested waters for food, but there were hungry mouths to feed and few pickings in the forest or the half-destroyed city.

"Ahhh, demon!" A young woman cried out. She backed away a little too hastily as one of the giant lobsters ambled toward her, and she fell on her rear. Now she was even slower to scurry away, and the demon would soon be on top of her.

But the man in the ragged cloak arrived first. Sword raised, he cut the demon in two with a single swing. Though he was only a third order paladin, he had the experience of someone of a far greater level, and foes at the third order like himself were no challenge to him.

"Thank you, hero! You've saved me again. I don't know how I'll ever repay you..." the young woman wrung her hands together, blushing furiously.

"No need," the hero replied. He turned, already looking for other demons to slay. The ragged cloak and the battered sword cut a sharp contrast to the man who wore them. With eyes as vast as the sky, hair like strands of gathered sunbeams, and strength to hold up the world, he cut a figure like no other. All who had been in Salsroth during the demon attack knew his name. He was Darren Heavengrace. The man who fought both the Seven Heavens and the Seven Hells and saved the lives he continued to guard even now.

His return to them had brought a celebration that lasted days. But he had not been content to sit back and enjoy the people's adoration. He had begun cutting the trees around the city and sewing the fields himself, doing the work of a thousand men all on his own. When the first plants began to grow, he brought hope to the hopeless masses huddled in the ruined city, and turned them away from despair. Many gathered here now saw him as more god than king.

They placed their entire hope for the future on his shoulders. But little did they know, elsewhere many others thought the same.

***

On the road between the Blackwind Empire and Limedeep, a carriage raced along.

"There are bandits! Run!" A woman yelled from her carriage. "If we can make it to Limedeep's borders, their guards will save us!"

Her carriage driver ushered the pair of horses pulling them ever faster. While Limedeep was now safe, the same couldn't be said of the Blackwind Empire. The demon attacks, the takeover by the Order of the Rod, and the death of the old emperor had sent the Blackwind Empire into a tailspin of self destruction.

Roads that were once well managed were now filled with bandits, and cities had fallen to lawless chaos. Many middling merchants had to close their shops and sell off the last of their goods due to constant robberies, and most packed up their bags to head to the few stable cities in the Empire. But the most ambitious of those merchants were heading to Limedeep, just like this woman and her carriage driver. Many had perished on the road, just like this woman and carriage driver might, if not for someone rushing to their aid.

A man arrived, covering ten paces with every step. Though he appeared to only be walking, he caught up with the carriage and its pursuers in moments. He was tall, built to massive proportions with golden hair and piercing eyes. Tiny scars lined his body, a tapestry of the many fights he'd been in over the last few weeks.

He wore a ragged cloak and carried a battered sword that looked like it had been looted off a battlefield. Beneath his cloak, he shared the same handsome face as the other Darren Heavengrace, for this was him as well.

"Hey, you're not one of our men!" One bandit shouted when he spotted Darren.

A few bandits turned their heads to look. More turned when Darren split the bandit in half with one swing of his sword.

"It's a paladin! Charge him as one!" another of the bandits yelled.

Arrows flew at Darren, and he deflect each with the side of his blade. Three men on horseback bore down on them, but he leaped and twisted, beheading all three in one swing of his sword. Six more followed close behind, but when they saw what he did to those ahead of him they turned their horses around and fled.

Darren chased down the slowest two, cutting them down and leaving the rest so terrified the just might leave their life of crime behind.

"Are you alright?" Darren asked the woman and her carriage driver.

"Y-you defeated them all so handily?" the merchant woman blushed, heart still beating fast. "Wait, I've heard descriptions of a man with your features. You wouldn't happen to be... Darren. As in the Darren Heavengrace? I thought you were in the capital!"

"I am, and I am," Darren replied. "The rest of the road should be safe from here. The guards of Limedeep patrol it daily."

With those words, he turned and left the two to continue their journey to Limedeep while he searched for more demons and bandits to kill.

***

In the eastern half of the Blackwind Empire, another Darren stood on a citadel wall. For once his proportions seemed normal, for dozens of other paladins stood beside him shoulder to shoulder.

"Are you certain an attack is coming? I heard the rumors that the paladins of Whiteguard have actually drafted fiends into their ranks, but--" the commander of the citadel of Goldenvale began.

But Darren spoke before he finished. "I am certain. And those are no rumors."

The commander harrumphed. "Well, I'm not seeing anything..."

Darren shook his head. "Don't see. Listen."

Wind fluttered over the trees lining the valley the citadel guarded. The warriors who protected this place had grown lazy as of their last generation, and the forest had crept closer to the citadel walls accordingly. Through the dense leaves, they wouldn't be able to spot the demons marching for their position until it was too late.

But marching they were. The Sinful Servants had broken their leash, and now they were cutting a swath of destruction across the countryside. Who knew what damage they wrought in Whiteguard, but now they were headed into the Blackwind Empire. The best place to stop them was here, in the very citadel constructed to guard the heart of the empire.

"Heavens above, I do hear something!" One paladin on the wall said.

"Arrows!" Darren shouted just as the first rank of Sinful Servants broke past the forest. A dozen fourth order fiends and hundreds of third order fiends appeared. They had ladders prepared already, scaled exactly to the height of the citadel.

"Heavens above, where did so many demons come from?" Another paladin panicked. Darren kept his face stiff. He'd already told these warriors exactly where these demons had come from. They'd come from Whiteguard.

Darren supposed he'd grown soft working with the men and women of a different era that he'd rescued down in Hell. The holy warriors of the Sacred Seas had been strong, once. They'd been ready to fight demons at a moment's notice, each wanting to be braver and more honorable than the last.

But these paladins had plied their trades against imps and undead all their lives, never facing greater foes and never truly needing to push themselves to the limit. But that would change today.

"They outnumber us four to one," the commander said. "We have to retreat!"

"No. Keep their ladders off the walls and we can hold," Darren replied.

The other warriors looked between Darren and their own commander. One had despair in his eyes, and the other the easy confidence of someone who'd done this many times before. They turned to Darren for leadership.

The demons washed against the walls, and as they climbed their ladders Darren and his new allies shoved those ladders off. When any demon actually made it up the walls, they found themselves surrounded on all sides by third order warriors who would stop at nothing to cut them down before a real breach opened up.

When any of the fourth order fiends showed themselves, Darren made sure to deal with them himself. This body of his was only at the third order, but he had beaten such long odds before.

They hacked and slashed as the demons attacked, each man and woman on the citadel had wide eyes and the focus that only comes when your life depends on it. The battle lasted an hour before the fiends retreated to regroup. That gave the priestesses in the citadel time to heal the wounded paladins and clerics guarding the walls. Meanwhile, a few of the clerics continued to fire arrows into the huddled mass of demons licking their wounds.

The second attack came that evening just after sunset. The demons had eyes to see in the dark while the humans had to strain their vision. But the builders of this citadel knew this, and they had lined the walls with hundreds of torches. The pitch in them had long since dried out, but Darren had seen this attack coming and ordered them all replaced with great haste.

When the demons climbed the wall the second time, they were blinded by the light. The human warriors fought with fury redoubled now that they saw victory closer at hand than ever. Under Darren's leadership, they could and would persevere.

By the time morning came, the demons had turned tail and fled.

"Retreat! Retreat! These humans are too strong!"

The men on the walls beside Darren cheered, yelling his name and clapping each other on the back for surviving the greatest battle of their lives. But for Darren, it was just another day. He focused a moment, making sure to let his real body know that there were still plenty of fiends on the loose.

***

While other versions of him fought against demons, completed quests, and secured the Sacred Seas from the forces of evil, Darren's real body sat on a dusty old chair. The Blackwind Empire's throne was undersized for him, and he was very tempted to snap the arms off the chair so he could sit properly. However, the woman seated in his lap cherished this chair like no other, and it was very important to her that he be seen sitting where he was.

"We're almost done, Darren. I know greeting wedding guests probably isn't the most interesting thing when you lead the life you do, but it will solidify our hold on the Empire and return peace and stabilitiy to these lands," Princess Thalia said, patting Darren's arm.

"And since we're having two weddings, we need double the guests!" Cassandra said as she tugged on Darren's other arm. She stood behind the throne just to Darren's right.

When Princess Thalia declared her intent to marry Darren, Cassandra said that she was already first in line. She'd become his fiance months ago, after all. So before Darren could marry Princess Thalia, he had to marry Cassandra. He supposed it was better to put on the big stuffy suit and get all the prancing like a peacock done with at once. Perhaps he could sneak in his weddings with Morgana, Sasha, and Asuriel all in at once as well?

He scrapped the idea when he saw the excited looks on Princess Thalia's and Cassandra's faces. This would be their day, and they deserved to have it just the way they wanted it. He could do with being a little bored, now that he had his new skill.

His ability to control multiple bodies had evolved by leaps and bounds when he enhanced it with Limitless Evolution, and now he wasn't just limited to one identical copy of himself. He could create many weaker copies instead, and those were far easier to control. He could mostly forget about them, and they would pilot themselves. They weren't quite as good as when he was controlling them directly, but they were about as capable as he'd been when he was at the third order.

The memories they sent his way were exciting, and the fact that he could fight and complete quests whenever he wanted was the only thing making all this sitting around bearable.

He thought having mere third-order bodies would prove troublesome, but in truth it had been the greatest thing he could have hoped for. With his current level of power, only the Prime Sins or Laura herself could cause trouble for him. Slaying demons in his current form was simply too easy. Reducing his power down to the third order made it a challenge again, especially when he ran into a fifth order demon lord. The fights got his blood pumping like they used to. And the fact that he could complete that many more quests just added to his enjoyment.

So all in all, he was content to stand around in the capital, feeling like he wasn't accomplishing much of anything. Because with every hour, his other bodies were completing quests left and right while inspiring awe from people everywhere.

"Just bear with a it a little longer, Darren..." Cassandra whispered as she clung to his side. "And remember, after the wedding day comes the wedding night! I can hardly wait!"

Darren rolled her eyes. Knowing Cassandra, she wouldn't even be able to hold out another ten minutes. Fortunately, the guests were winding down and their duties waving to them as they walked in were coming to a close.

"Oh fine, I suppose were done for now..." Princess Thalia said.

"Yay! Waiting's over! We did our wedding day rehearsal earlier. Now we need to do our wedding night rehearsal..." Cassandra said. "You're coming too, Thalia!"

Cassandra held up her hands, and Darren scooped her up in his arms. Then he turned to Thalia and scooped her up as well before the princess could say anything further. Unlike standing around waving at people, this was something he could enjoy.


<Note>

If you are interested in that short story I mentioned that we skipped, the kickstarter for the anthology is up here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1817836998/dragons-and-damsels

The short story will be exclusive to that anthology. The anthology will eventually go to KU.