Dark Fact, Chapter 48 (Patreon)

Chapter 48 – Hidden Master

My eyes narrowed as I recast my [Shadow Armor]. Maybe it wouldn’t do anything. Maybe that sword was also some kind of spellbreaker weapon. But maybe it wasn’t.

The fallen angel continued speaking, wrapped up in his own grandstanding. “Those shadows won’t do you any good, you know. Those bolts I hit you with? They were coated in Angelkiller poison. This idiot may have been a broken-minded mess, but he was a skilled Alchemist, for his level. Actually was able to make enough enough for five bolts in such a short time. Pity he made me waste three on him, but two should be more than enough for a Tier 1 Lesser Angel like you, right?”

Angelkiller was a poison I was quite familiar with. Made from the alchemically treated blood of an angel or other celestial being, it was a nasty poison against any creatures who came from those planes. How it worked was by cannibalizing the victim’s own mana to burn their health. There was an antidote, but it was rarer than Angelkiller itself.

The only other way to defeat Angelkiller was to drain away all a person’s MP. If their MP hit zero, there was no more mana to use to burn HP, and the poison’s effect was ended. Simple enough, if nothing else was going on. But in the middle of a battle? Where people were actively trying to kill you? Running out of MP meant you were pretty much a dead man.

That put it firmly in the realm of battlefield poisons, and it was rightly feared because of it. Oh, sure, there were deadlier poisons out there, and faster-acting ones. And the rich and powerful had defenses against them, and other assassination tools.

But no normal angel would ever be targeted by Edax Animae, the infamous ‘soul eater’ poison that could slay even a Tier 4 Archon in under a minute unless an exceptionally talented healer who knew how to counter the poison was at hand. Such weapons were too rare, and too expensive, to be used against anyone but the elite of the elite. Angelkiller, on the other hand, was one that targeted the rank and file as much as the general, and that made it universally feared and loathed by celestial beings.

Of course, this was balanced by the fact that the Angelkiller poison only worked on angels.

James Masters

Lesser   Fallen Angel Male

Level   10 Paladin / Healer

Market   Value: $25000

[Appraise Value] gave me the answer I was expecting. It seemed that my ‘old buddy’ James had gone and made some changes, as well. Instead of picking the pure-support Priest, he went with Paladin, which was an all-arounder. Just freaking great.

“Ah, James. I take it you’re still pissy that I wouldn’t just lay down and die after you betrayed me? What did you promise the little nutjob to tag along with him, hmm? Give him some angel booty, or just heal him up when he was trying to feed on men?”

The angel glared at me. “Leave the witticisms to those who have wit, instead of only half, ‘hero’. You ruined everything when you went and blew yourself up! I was going to lead the crusade to new heights, with you as the martyred figurehead. The fucking world was mine, and you went and destroyed everything instead of playing your part like a good little toy soldier should!”

He started pacing back and forth, words spilling out like a dam had been broken. “Of course, the moment you didn’t show up for your shift at work, I knew that you had retained your memory of last time, and were working to change things. But knowing how much you were obsessed with being the hero who saved the day, I knew you would still come here, eventually. You wouldn’t have left this idiot to his own devices forever.

“But don’t worry, once you die, I’ll use the potions this useful idiot made to make your little friends forget about everything. And then I will be the hero this time. I won’t need a martyr if I become the new messiah!”

I shook my head. “Right, that’s about enough of that bullshit. I think it is time I clipped your wings, angel boy.”

The angel smirked, and readied his sword and shield. “And what are you going to do about it, Black Knight-kun? You don’t have the black armor yet, and you haven’t even revealed your wings. And what is with that ridiculous scythe? What kind of Swordsman uses a scythe as his weapon?”

Laughing, I said, “Oh, I see. You think the only changes were that, what, I decided to level up a bit before facing the guy who handed me my ass last time? Sorry to disappoint you, ‘old pal’, but I’m no Swordsman, not this time.”

James’s eyes widened as the first cracks broke in his smug expression. “What do you mean? You had to be a knight, like last time!”

I grinned at him, and said, “I chose a different path, you see. If the world didn’t want me as a Black Knight, I figured that, this time around, I would be a Warlock. Tell me, have you picked up the Paladin’s ability to resist spells, yet? [Affliction of Weakness]!”

“Gagh!” James cried out, as the curse hit him like a truck. He fell to one knee, dragged down to the ground by the weight of his own armor, for I had just reduced his STR by my CHA, and I doubted he had over two hundred points in STR by this point. A very useful spell, even if it was only really useful against living creatures.

Gritting his teeth, the angel called out, “[Purge]! [Resistance]!” Golden light flashed once, and then settled into an aura about him, his spells first purging the curse, and then layering on some protection against future curses. “Cheap trick, you bastard, but it won’t work again. I might not be a full magic-caster class, but I can keep my spell going long enough for the Angelkiller to finish you.”

“Oh, James.” I sighed, shaking my head. “James, James, James. You think my class is the only thing I changed? [Hellfire Blade].” As I spoke, I caused [Hellfire Blade] to layer on top of the [Spellblade] I was using on Chimamire.

“Hellfire? Even as a warlock, it is impossible for an Angel to use hellfire! What did you do?!”

I laughed again as I saw panic replace the smugness on his features. “Didn’t I tell you I decided to change things up, James? Surely, even a vainglorious bastard like yourself had to have noticed by now that I am not exactly suffering from a double dose of Angelkiller. No matter how high one’s pain tolerance is, that isn’t something that can be faked, not with you knowing me so well, right, James?”

I took a step forward, and as I did so, I allowed my true form to emerge. White skin became grey, and my wings and tail emerged from where they had been hiding. Short-cut brown hair became a flowing black mane, with my horns rising out of the mess. Holding my scythe at the ready, I said, “I’m no angel, and no knight. Not again. Now, James, lets see if you actually know how to use that blade!”

“HIYY!” James yelped, as I lunged forward, scythe slashing at him from his sword hand side. The paladin barely managed to block, bringing his shield into the scythe’s path. But that left him out of position to strike me, as I began moving to his shield side, looking to get around to his back.

James snarled, before batting my scythe back with his shield, only to then spin to his sword-hand side, bringing his blade in a wide, sweeping arc like something someone would have seen in an anime where sword fighting was… let’s call it ‘exaggerated’. Of course, a blade swinging like that had plenty of power. But that only mattered if it hit. I wasn’t going to let him score another point if at all possible.

Doing that, naturally, was going to require more than just thinking mean thoughts at him. I wasn’t certain, but it was clear that James had come back in time with at least some of his abilities intact, since he was able to move almost as fast as I could, and his attacks did not seem weak. That meant I had to take this absolutely seriously, with no slacking off. This was a foe that I felt could actually kill me.

As the staff end of my scythe swung around, I jabbed it out, the butt end connecting with James’s forearm, hard enough that it froze his incoming blow in its tracks, as well as dealing a pittance of damage to the man. My blade went low as it came sweeping around, hooking James’s forward leg. I didn’t have the speed or leverage on the hit to take the leg off, not with the clearly enspelled armor he was wearing, but that didn’t matter, not at the moment.

My blade skipped off the plate guarding his calf, found the crease at the back of his knee. Pulling forward, I forced James to decide between falling back, or being pulled out of position, perhaps losing the leg in the process if he fought with too much weight or force behind it. I felt Chimamire drink as the blade drew blood, and James cursed out loud, throwing his leg up and out to escape the blade. The paladin fell back, but rolled upon his shoulder in a clatter of metal meeting concrete, his momentum carrying him up into a fighting stance once again, before his leg almost failed him.

Through grit teeth, he called out, “[Minor Heal].” Golden light flashed around him, and he was able to put his weight on that knee again. Of course, Hellfire had scorched him, as well, but right now he was more concerned with getting his body through this, than what damage I might be doing to his soul.

“You’re going to pay for that, Greene. I’m going to enjoy killing you. Those women are your harem, right, mister incubus? I’m going to enjoy showing them the ‘light’. They’ll forget all about you when I’m done with them.”

“Oh? It looks to me like you’re the one who’s in a bad position, James. Maybe if you surrender, I’ll only kill you a little. Maybe I’ll turn you into a living bust, without arms or legs, and put you in a museum somewhere? I know you like the attention, so that should be just perfect for you.”

James snarled back at me, as we traded insults, all while circling each other, waiting for the other side to give us an opening that we could exploit. “You think you can win, just because you’re an incubus? I may be a ‘fallen’ angel, but I’m still an angel and a paladin! I’m the perfect foe for striking down upstart demons like you!”

The paladin kicked back, gaining a bit of space so that I couldn’t interrupt his casting. “[Holy Wrath]! [Blade of Judgement]! [Aegis of Light]!” As he spoke, he unleashed a trio of paladin spells that I knew well from some of my colleagues during the long crusade against the warlords that had claimed the region, his hair growing out and becoming golden, along with his black wings turning to gold, while both his sword and shield were wrapped in a thick aura of holy light.

[Aegis of Light] increased the user’s defense, and reduced the damage they took. [Holy Wrath] increased the user’s abilities temporarily. And [Blade of Judgement] caused one’s attacks to deal triple damage to someone who was a proven enemy of your faith, which was increased again if they were weak to Holy damage. On top of that, Angels of any sort did extra damage whenever they dealt Holy damage. Of course, he could only sustain the spells for a couple minutes, but when an angel paladin used them together, few creatures of the same level could stand up to that assault.

This could be bad.