Paladin 4: Chapter 62 (Patreon)

“You have done far more than any human ever should have been able to,” Kalaziel said as he approached. Every footfall echoed through the empty streets. Darren stretched out his mind to touch upon Cassandra’s.

[Cassandra, order everyone to retreat now.]

[We can help you!] Cassandra protested.

[Not against him. Save the others. Go!]

“But truly, coming here to my place of power was a mistake,” Kalaziel growled, voice barely containing his anger. “Don’t think that I don’t know what you’ve been doing. That demon witch in the Seven Hells helped you build a Genus Loci to steal power from me. I expected her to undermine my authority, but I hadn’t thought she’d secure a willing agent of such power. You’ve fallen right into her hands, you know?”

“You know nothing of me,” Darren replied.

“Quite the contrary. I’ve been watching you rather closely as of late.” Kalaziel barred his teeth at Darren in something that was anything but a smile. “You’ve come far, but your journey ends here.”

Darren and Horon exchanged a brief nod, fingers tightening around their weapons. They weren’t quite ready for a final confrontation against Kalaziel this soon, but they were ready for him nonetheless.

The two of them charged as one, just as they’d attacked the city. Darren attacked from the front. Meanwhile, Horon descended from above hoping he could take Kalaziel by surprise.

Though he held his familiar Diamondrazor Mace in his hand, Kalaziel tucked it into his belt. The head exploded in a shower of razor-sharp gemstones, which orbited Kalaziel’s body like birds of prey.

With his hands-free, he produced the sword and shield pair Darren had fought against the last time they’d faced off. The Sword of the Setting Sun and its matched pair, the Shield of the New Dawn.

Absolute Analysis: Item Analysis

Sword of the Setting Sun (Legendary)

• Each swing of this sword severs fate itself, defying prophecy and reality manipulation skills. Wounds dealt by the Sword of the Setting Sun cannot be healed except by death, and all bindings come undone at its touch. The sword’s effects grow more powerful the greater the attacks its paired shield absorbs.

Shield of the New Dawn (Legendary)

• This shield defends against all attacks by altering fate so that each blow struck at it is perfectly deflected. As the shield blocks attacks, it stores the power contained within those attacks and uses them to reinforce the shield or empower the Sword of the Setting Sun.

Darren targeted Kalaziel’s legs with Fetters of Fate, but he suspected it would be a lost cause before it even began. Kalaziel gave the ethereal chains a contemptuous snort before cleaving them apart with one swing of the Sword of the Setting Sun. Darren’s favorite new skill would be of no use here.

He watched carefully as Kalaziel’s passive abilities activated one after another. He needed to find an opening.

Absolute Analysis: Skill Analysis

Roar of the Elements (Epic)

• Conjures fire, summons water, harnesses the power of air, and calls the strength of the earth.

Sunlight Storm (Epic)

• Creates blazing beams of light that surround the user and attacks all foes in their facility.

Radiant Armor (Epic)

• Creates glowing golden armor that shields the user from magical and physical damage. When already wearing physical armor, this magical armor reinforces that armor with the same properties, while simultaneously becoming impossible to dispel, as though it were an enchantment.

Champion’s Will (Mythic)

• Increases the damage of all physical attacks based on the user’s resolve, with no upper limit besides the user’s determination.

Kalaziel took one slow step after another, emanating confidence all the while. His neatly trimmed beard hung below his helmet, and he looked for all the world like a rugged, conquering hero, a veteran of a thousand battles. Kalaziel had been fighting since before Darren’s distant ancestors were born, and he’d been a fighter of incredible power for over a thousand years.

The confidence of such skill and endless years of practice showed in his every feature. Looking at him, one would think he was stepping away from a fight already won, not walking towards one that had yet to begin.

Golden light blazed around him like a cloak. Fire erupted and turned the earth, where he walked to molten magma. The wind whipped around him in a swirling tempest, and lighting sparked in the sky overhead. He looked like a harbinger of the end of the world.

But Kalaziel was not the only one with powerful skills. Overhead, Darren sensed Horon activating his passive abilities. Indomitable Will, Soul of the Warrior, Divine Momentum, and Fleetfoot. The Prime Saint of Honor accelerated until he soared downward at high speed. Kalaziel showed no sign of registering the incoming attack, but the Diamondrazor maces drifting around him halted in their flight and took a defensive position overhead.

Darren embraced his passive abilities. Adamantine, Cleasing Presence, Aura of Courage, Agile Movement, Mental Fortitude, Rapid Regeneration, Divine Resistance, and Weapons Proficiency.

He harnessed One with the Universe, borrowing kinetic energy from the rumbling earth caused by Kalaziel’s every footfall and the roiling clouds from the storm he was brewing overhead.

Both went still as Darren charged.

While Kalaziel carried an air of overwhelming power and inevitable destruction, Darren traveled as nimbly as a leaf drifting through a storm. Each movement was precise and graceful. Each gentle twist and turn was like a dance rehearsed a thousand times.

He left no token of his passage as his boots glided over the shattered cobblestones, and he passed so effortlessly through the air that not even a breeze was left in his wake. The serene silence of his charge cut an eerie contrast to Kalaziel’s overwhelming power.

No battle cry echoed from Darren’s lips, but when Darren lifted Melancholy in his hands, the world screamed in answer. The wind, silent moments before, stirred once again as he released all the energy he’d been gathering.

The earth beneath Kalaziel cracked in a spiderweb spread throughout the city block. In the mortal world, that blow would have sunk a chunk of the continent into the Sacred Seas. Here on the Fifth Layer of the Heavens, it was enough to tear bricks from their foundation yards distant in all directions.

He hoped Cassandra had gotten everyone clear by now, for the chunk of the city nearest to them was already little more than rubble. Darren feared that by the time this fight was through, it would be entirely destroyed.

Beneath the dust, the debris, and all the flying rubble, Kalaziel shifted his shield aside. It glowed bright blue and churned with the power it had absorbed from Darren’s recent attack.

Kalaziel raised the Sword of the Setting Sun, and that blue glow soon transferred from the gem in the shield’s center to the gem in the sword’s pommel. He raised that sword in a wide backswing like he intended to cut Darren in half with a single blow.

But Darren smiled in reply, for he’d known Kalaziel would block his blow all along. All he’d wanted to do was create an opening for Horon.

The Prime Saint of Honor dove from overhead as Darren braced himself for Kalaziel’s counterattack.

“For the fate of the Heavens!” Horon shouted as the wind whipped past him. He held his sword before him like a lance, sweeping at Kalaziel’s unprotected back. He shielded his eyes as he flew straight through Kalaziel’s Diamondrazor mace heads. He ignored the deep grooves they carved along his armor as he flew in for a killing stroke.

But just before Horon made contact, Kalaziel disappeared. He turned into a burst of light, and Darren recognized his Starlight Phantom skill. He’d seen this ability before. It was an instantaneous movement skill that Kalaziel had favored in their earlier fights.

Darren turned to Oracle Sight, guessing where Kalaziel would appear. Sure enough, he’d positioned himself right behind Darren so that Horon’s blow would strike his only ally.

But Darren had seen the future and guessed what Kalaziel would do even as he began it. So before Kalaziel could appear behind him, Darren jumped and tumbled backward in a flip to land behind the spot where Kalaziel would appear.

Kalaziel's smug look disappeared when he found Darren behind him instead.

Darren pulled Inevitability into his other hand, moving to strike. The Shield of the New Dawn pulled itself in to intercept. Darren realized that if this shield could block every blow, he threw in Kalaziel’s direction, he’d just need to batter it until the shield stopped working.

The two Legendary weapons met, one specialized for defense and the other specialized to cut through all magic, including the magic of the shield.

Inevitability cut a deep gash into the upper left corner of the shield, cutting deep but leaving no lasting damage.

Kalaziel didn’t even look because he was too busy trying to parry Horon’s attack. With Darren striking from behind, even the supernatural abilities of the Shield of the New Dawn could not block another attack that was coming from the front.

“You...” Kalaziel growled, blood leaking from cracked lips as Horon’s sword punched straight through his Radiant Armor, his real armor, and into the bare flesh beneath. “...Stupid.” He spat out a mouthful of blood. “...Arrogant peacock!”

Kalaziel’s free hand wrapped around Horon’s sword. His gauntleted fingers wrapped around enchanted steel, and he braced against the city streets. He absorbed all the brute force of Horon’s strike with sheer overwhelming strength, arresting the speed delivered by even Horon’s Divine Momentum ability.

But for all the might of his charge, Kalaziel took everything Horon could give. He tore his other hand free of the Shield of the Setting Sun, which was still caught on Inevitability’s edge.

Then, gripping both sides of Horon’s sword with his hands, he crumpled the weapon with nothing more than the strength of his fingers. Horon looked on in shock as his sword became scrap metal beneath Kalaziel’s overwhelming strength.

Just as quickly, Kalaziel tossed the broken sword away and grabbed Horon by the throat. Horon gasped and struggled, but caught as he was, all he could do was flap his wings and struggle. He activated his Celestial Maelstrom ability, the only mythic skill Darren had seen from him.

His wings turned as sharp as razor blades, and thunder, lighting, and white mist swirled around him. His three sets of wings batted at Kalaziel’s arms and face, but Kalaziel shrugged each blow off like they were nothing more than a minor nuisance.

“Good... riddance!” Kalaziel growled as he crushed Horon’s throat with his fingers. Eyes wide and full of agony and fear, all Horon could do was gape in shock and agony as Kalaziel tore his head from his body and cast both aside.

The Prime Saint of Honor fell to the ground, eyes lifeless as his head rolled toward Darren’s feet.

Another man might have stared in shock. Darren’s strongest ally was slain, just like that. For all his power as a Prime Saint, Horon was no match for Kalaziel.

Darren pulled Horon’s head into his Realmvault, reacting just in time to dodge Kalaziel’s next attack.

“Don’t feel sad, Darren Heavengrace. You’ll be joining him soon enough.” Kalaziel chuckled darkly. He raised his hand, and his Shield of the New Dawn tore itself free from Inevitability and flew back to where it had been mounted on his wrist moments before.

The next clash between the two greatest powers in the heavens happened so quickly no mortal eyes could hope to follow it. Darren and Kalaziel seemed to flicker in and out of existence as they each moved in the blink of an eye.

With renewed fury, Darren unleashed a ferocious series of attacks against Kalaziel. His movements were blurry as he darted in and out of Kalaziel’s reach. He landed a few calculated strikes here and there, each designed to take chunks out of Kalaziel’s Shield of the New Dawn.

Under his relentless assault, Kalaziel’s confident smirk slowly started to slip.

Eventually, Darren struck a particularly powerful blow against Kalaziel’s shield, forcing the Prime Saint of Valor to put his new toy away lest he lose it completely. With the shield gone, the sword in Kalaziel’s other hand was suddenly much less of a threat. No longer would Darren’s abilities empower it to become ever stronger.

Kalaziel’s armor was also starting to crack and splinter. Darren thought a few more blows might shatter it completely. There were a few wounds visible through the damaged gaps, and Darren could sense them emitting golden light.

But Kalaziel wasn’t the only one who was hurt. Darren was covered in cuts from head to toe. His Rapid Regeneration meant they were healing by the second, but more were being dealt to him with every passing second as well. The Shapeshifter’s mantle he was wearing, which evolved from the armor he’d found, was starting to give way. It would need serious repairs after this battle if it were ever useful again.

The shockwaves of their fighting sent ripples through the heavens, and now and again the very fabric of reality around them shuddered. Darren had done as much to some of the smaller pocket realms he’d explored throughout the Sacred Seas, but only now was he seeing a pocket realm as large and stable as one of the layers of the Heavens tremble.

Kalaziel used Blinding Radiance several times to block Darren’s vision, but Darren had seen this from him long ago. He’d chosen Manifest Will and Oracle Sight explicitly to counter these abilities. Darren had the edge, and he could sense victory drawing closer.

But then Kalaziel spoke, and what he said wasn’t what Darren expected. Despite his wounds and his battered form, he smiled.

“Is that the best you can do, Darren Heavengrace?” His voice dripped with distain. I expected more from someone who dared to challenge me!"

“You haven’t won yet,” Darren replied.

Kalaziel shook his head. “Just like before, I’ve merely toyed with you. I wanted to take your measure, and now you have. You reached the Sixth Order with the aspect of Vengeance, didn’t you?”

Darren was taken aback. Nobody else had figured out his aspect merely by looking at him. He hadn’t known such a feat was possible. But Kalaziel had powers he’d seen from no other seraph. If anyone could read Darren, it would be him.

Darren remained silent. Answering Kalaziel would not benefit him, but buying some extra time for Rapid Regeneration to take care of his wounds would.

They hovered in the air for a while, staring at one another. Kalaziel was fiddling with something, but Darren couldn’t tell what. There was Divine Aura within him, and Darren readied his defenses to prepare him for whatever attack Kalaziel planned to throw his way.

“I think it’s past time I reunited father and son. Perhaps he has some criticism of your aspect. After all, vengeance seems hardly fitting of anyone aligned with the Divine, let alone the son of the former Lord of Light.” Kalaziel laughed as he spoke, as though chuckling to some joke only he understood.

The feeling that Kalaziel was up to something dangerous grew stronger. Darren wasn’t sure what it was, but he was growing increasingly certain that there was danger in the air. He didn’t like the feeling, so he no longer held himself back. Surely Kalaziel would have to stop whatever he was doing when attacked.

But he was wrong. Oracle Sight went dark as though the future he had perceived with it only moments before had ceased to be. The hairs on his neck stood on end, and a pervasive sense of wrongness filled the air. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was dangerous.

The cloudy sky overhead parted, and the ability that would have slain Darren last time if not for his Pheonix’s Blessing ability activated.

Absolute Analysis: Skill Analysis

Heavenly Purification (Legendary)

• Channeled through the Heavenly Throne, this attack purges all entities not aligned with the caster. When used against seraph or Divine-aligned spirits, this ability purifies their bodies to remove all malice toward the caster, weakening them proportionally to the amount of malice removed.

The beam was far more focused than before. Darren wasn’t sure if Kalaziel was using it differently or if his skill with the new legendary ability had grown.

He’d faced this power before, though, and he’d beaten it then. So if Kalaziel thought he could destroy Darren for good with a trick he’d already used before, he was sorely mistaken.

But then Kalaziel used a power he hadn’t for a while.

“I’ve been preparing this just for you, Darren Heavengrace! And I wanted the perfect moment to use it. Father, meet son!” Kalaziel laughed as the mysterious power he’d been gathering blossomed within him.

Only then did Darren recognize the power he was experiencing. He’d been far weaker when he’d felt it first. Kalaziel had revealed it the first time he’d killed him in Salsroth. Now he faced it again.

Absolute Analysis: Skill Analysis

Intent of a Dead Sovereign (Legendary)

This skill, created from the lingering remnants of a Seventh-Order Being, can alter the fabric of reality in small and subtle ways. The way the intent has been implemented is to shatter the concentration of the target.

“Break his will for vengeance!” Kalaziel shouted. And just like that, Darren felt his memories slipping from his mind. His mother’s face faded until he couldn’t make out her features. The sight of the burning cabin he’d fled with her turned blurry and distant. All those years in the Seven Hells felt like a thousand years in the past instead of just two.

For a moment, he forgot about his need for vengeance, which his brittle power couldn’t tolerate.

It shattered like so much glass, unable to hold him up a moment longer. The third set of wings sprouting from Darren’s back exploded in a puff of shining silvery feathers, which blew away on the wind.

Warning! You no longer meet the requirements of the Sixth Order!

You are now at the Fifth Order! Your skill slots have been reduced accordingly.

<Note>

I think I said earlier that I predicted 62 chapters would be the ending. How mad would you guys be if I ended it here, haha...