Chapter 33 - Paladin (Patreon)

Echo felt his stomach roil with rage. He glared at Rickard with unbridled wrath. An anger he hadn't felt since he saw Malvir in the arena. He burned on the inside, desiring nothing more than the death of this man.

You'll pay for that!

When the beam vanished, he leaped to where Rose’s body once was and scooped her rings and scepter - the only surviving parts of her - into his pocket dimension.

Fumi leaped toward Rickard who - quite surprisingly - parried her blow and swung the hammer into her stomach in one smooth, swift motion.

Echo felt the pain crash through him, but even though Fumi didn't suffer the injury she was still knocked back and flew towards him. He stood up and caught her in one arm as the pain receded.

Rickard trudged forward, laughing madly, "I'm going to smash you two to bits. First your undead bitch, and now two monsters. You can't fight the power of Lux!" He closed the last few meters in a flash and Echo was immediately put on the defensive, parrying every powerful strike that sent vibrations down his arm. His shield was hammered into and he was pushed back from the powerful swings he blocked.

He gritted his teeth and attempted a riposte only for his hand to be broken. He grabbed his falling sword with his shield hand and swung it, barely nicking Rickard's skin with the awkward strike. The cleric didn't bleed though, as a small flash of white light cured the wound.

Fumi had maneuvered behind him and unleashed a powerful flurry; all of which he was able to block with the handle of the massive hammer - without even looking at her. Fumi sped up even faster and unlocked Overcharge for Alacrity, her green Quintessence pouring out of her in an aura crackling crimson, empowering the Ability to a new level rivaling Echo's own.

Rickard had to turn to deal with the intense assault, "Fine! You die next!"

Fumi scored hits and wove around his sweeping strikes with ease. Echo took the chance to activate his Overcharge and released a cavalcade of blows that wound about and slashed Rickard.

As fast as they injured him his wounds would heal faster than their regeneration.

"Enough of this. Shatter them upon thy bastion, Holy Nova!"

His body exploded with a white light that burned Echo with radiant energy, the shockwave knocking the two monsters back in opposite directions and searing their flesh in third-degree burns.

Echo took the damage for them both and his Quintessence was beginning to dwindle as he made eye contact with Fumi, who struggled to her feet.

The two shared a silent thought and ran in opposite directions.

"Wha! Get back here, you coward!" Rickard began running after Echo, but with Alacrity there was little hope of catching him.

He had to turn off Overcharge but was confident he had made a good distance when a beam of light shot past him and Rickard was suddenly in front of him, swinging his hammer like a baseball bat.

Echo felt it crunch into his torso, knocking the breath out of him, shattering ribs and organs, and catapulting him a few meters back until he was prone on the ground. He coughed up blood and barely rolled aside as the hammer cracked down right where his head had been.

The hammer came down again and again, and Echo held his Titansteel Shield in front of him, feeling the stone crumble under him as he was quite literally pounded into the dirt. He couldn’t catch his breath as the shield was pinned to his torso, his lungs trying to regenerate while he hid under his shield. Rickard used a sideways blow that caused the shield to be pushed aside, Echo’s hand snapping as he yelped in pain.

Rickard stood over him with a wild grin, raising the hammer high, "You die here, you monster!" The hammer flashed with gold and yellow.

Thoughts of Fumi flashed through Echo's mind. He saw her gorgeous smile, her red hair, and those deep green eyes.

I'm not dying again!

He wouldn’tdie. He had to live. For her.

He activated Overcharge once more and rocketed up from prone to a standing position, grabbing Rickard by the neck with one hand as his broken arm regenerated and held the hammer.

Echo created a spell, screaming in a rage against a certain death, rage against this scum that hurt Fumi. Rage at the betrayal that caused him such pain. Rage at the bitch of a Goddess that empowered the traitor before him.

"Immolate!"

Rickard's body became a burning beacon as his skin ignited and began to char and melt. He used his free hand to throw Echo back as he continued to burn, flailing about as he screamed – making no noise as the fire consumed all of the air around him. His eyes even melted from the heat and he collapsed to the ground.

But then, a flash of divine white light flared out. The flames were instantly doused, and he was fully healed. Save for his eyes, which were blazing yellow orbs.

"Why you-" Rickard flashed with white Heat. He rolled his shoulders, "You bastard, you almost got me there. Taste Lux's might- ''

A black line appeared above Echo. Fumi's Spatial Sever.

Rickard coughed up blood as his torso began to separate from his lower half; but chains of light shot out and reconnected him, pulling his body together as he coughed up more blood.

That was enough of a distraction for Fumi to leap in, grab Echo, and drag him in the other direction before Rickard could give chase. This gave them a moment to plan; communicating at incomprehensible speeds due to Overcharge.

"I'm almost out of Quintessence."

Fumi nodded, "I can hold him off while you recover."

Echo glanced back as Rickard ran after them.

Why isn't he using that light bolt thing to catch up?

Then it struck him.

And he smiled.

"We just have to outlast him. He's burning through Lux’s power." He looked to Fumi, "We take turns; fight, then switch when you need to heal. I'm turning off Bulwark."

He glanced back as Rickard was almost upon them, "We just outlast him. And we win."

Fumi wheeled around and engaged with Rickard whose movements had slowed slightly. She had deactivated Overcharge but with just Alacrity she was easily able to keep up with the divine warrior. She suffered several blows herself; her bones crushing and crunching; having become used to being reckless as Echo had been taking hits for her.

As she began to slow and waver Echo ran forward and engaged Rickard. He screamed a battle cry, unleashing all of his hatred, anger, rage. The coward that abandoned them. The thief who stole from him. The servant of a Goddess who hated Echo just for what he was.

Echo used the fullest amount of strength possible as he crashed his blade into Rickard over and over. He was wild, striking constantly with a hail of overhead blows. Rickard could do nothing but defend against the barrage. Echo’s silver-tinged-crimson Quintessence billowed out of him and lashed out alongside every swing, as if his monstrous nature was fighting against the epitome of its antithesis.

Panic began to set in Rickard's face as his hammer was pushed closer to him with every manic swing from the monsters in front of him.

"Echo! Move!" Fumi yelled. Echo jumped to the side.

Fumi had activated her strongest offensive Ability, and her green Quintessence flowed up her blade. "Rift Strike!" The green exploded upwards into the sky, shaped with crimson sparks of fury. It pierced the clouds above with its projection.

“DIE!” She brought the space-rending blade vertically down onto the holy warrior.

Rickard held up his hammer and the weapon along with his body was sliced clean in two as he gasped in pain. Light flashed once more and his form repaired itself, but he started to bleed from where his body was cut in half, and one side sagged more than the other.

Echo immediately re-engaged the tiring cleric and was able to keep the upper hand, scoring blow after blow. Carving away at him little by little, chipping his armor and beating him to a bloody mess. Echo screamed in rage and brought all of his power to bear in killing this man.

Rickard was panting and slowing even more from blood loss, backing up and barely able to defend against Echo's barrage as he began to carve away at his armor. The blood racing down his body and making his grip falter on his weapon.

"Goddess! Lux! I need you! Please!" He called out in between blows that carved away at him.

"Your God isn't here," Echo stated matter-of-factly. Without knowing much about her, he knew that she wouldn’t tolerate weakness. And Rickard showed weakness.

But more than that, there was a shroud over the scene. Echo couldn’t see it. Fumi couldn’t see it. But Rickard could.

A shadowy figure hovered, enormous over the battlefield. The one from the tunnels so long ago. The one that made him flee.

The shadow of Tiberius was above the battlefield.

And it prevented Lux from reaching him.

That scared Rickard more than anything, and he screamed in horror.

"You didn't deserve your allies," another strike and more blood. Echo carved another chunk of flesh away.

"You are just a coward hiding behind fanaticism." Echo reversed his sword and slashed Rickard's hammer out of the way as he held the tip against the disarmed man's throat.

"You should have focused on getting stronger yourself instead of relying on someone else.”

Rickard growled, "My faith is strength! Lux! Hear me! Let me smite this monster!”

Echo gritted his teeth and pushed his blade toward Rickard's throat, pushing him backward. As he did so, he tripped the cleric. The once mighty warrior now a shell without the power given to him by someone else as he lay prone.

“I was tortured. I paid a price for my power. You have no idea what I did for. Any more I gain from here on out is because I earned it.”

He brought down the sword onto Rickard's leg, slicing clean through it and eliciting a howl of agony as he cut off the limb.

"You're a poser, borrowing strength from a bitch of a Goddess."

He cut off the other leg, and the crowd began to slowly return to watch the carnage.

"You stole from your allies. Abandoned them.”

Echo cut off his right arm.

Rickard was whimpering and muttering prayers as Echo pointed the sword at his throat once more, the blade a hair's breadth from the skin.

"And you abandoned me, left me to die. Left us to die."

Echo chopped off the remaining arm.

Rickard babbled incoherently from the pain, the golden glow leaving his eyes. A torso and head, rapidly bleeding out, wiggling uselessly on the floor as his limbs twitched. A truly gory sight.

Echo huffed in rage, preparing to strike a final blow, but paused as he sensed Fumi behind him.

She limped up behind Echo, using her katana's sheath as a crutch, and stood next to him. Fumi leaned down, whispering in Rickard's ear. "Traitors should die." She stood up and nodded at Echo.

He raised his blade and stabbed it downward, through Rickard's stomach, and into the street below, twisting the blade as the man went limp.

Echo looked up and smiled at Fumi who took up a ready stance as guards approached them from all sides.

Rickard's body glimmered gold before dissolving in front of them, leaving nothing behind save for a large volume of blood on the ground.

Rickard died. He knew that. He should have been returned to Lux’s glory. That’s what he was taught his whole life.

But he found himself standing in a queue. In a vast space. In front of a white temple with an orange flame flickering.

The rage flickered inside him, but quieted as the absence of his Goddess’ power allowed his mind to become his own.

She let me die. Why didn’t she make me stronger to face him? I was too weak.

“Yeah, no shit.”

Rickard looked up, not expecting to hear any voices in this place.

A small drone beeped next to him as a voice came out.

A youthful voice, but bored.

“Cleric, eh? Alright, off you go. No judgement for you.”

Rickard’s world vanished in a white glow.

He felt the light of his Goddess once more.

A harsh, judging light.

"Halt! In the name of The Queen!"

Echo sighed and held up the royal seal, "He attacked us. He killed my ally."

The guard gulped, "B-b-but you killed a chosen of Lux! You have a death mark from the Lightbringers!” He held his large sword with trembling hands, terrified of the two monsters covered in blood and shimmering with their Quintessence and crackling, red sparks.

Echo glared at the guard, and he withered as the monster in human form looked down upon him.

"Fuck Lux."

Echo put his gear back into the pocket dimension and picked up Fumi, leaving the guards in a state of stunned stupor at his blasphemous statement.

He went straight to the Guild Hall as Fumi wrapped her arms around his neck. Both had almost completely exhausted their Quintessence, clothes scuffed and bent at odd angles due to the smashed armor plating and covered in blood. Even the Quintessence they had stored in their rings and armor was completely tapped.

Other patrons who were finishing celebrating the holiday gave them a wide berth as they began to ascend the stairs, muttering and whispers following their every step.

Guards began to chase them into the Guild Hall but were stopped in their tracks as a green glow began to envelop the room.

Isaac was at the top of the stairs and looked at the two monsters with an eyebrow raised. He spoke in Gori/Japanese, "Got into some trouble?"

Echo nodded, speaking the same, feeling the sadness begin to well up. "We killed a Cleric who killed our friend."

Isaac nodded and ran a hand through his beard, "You two are under my protection in the Adventurer's Guild. I'll go investigate and see what I can do…get some rest."

Echo nodded and thanked the Guildmaster, opening the door to his apartment.

I'm sorry, Rose.

He looked at Fumi and she hugged him tightly…and felt tears on her face as she pushed herself into him.

Isaac sighed and waved a hand as the guards from Crux Omega were banished from the extradimensional space that was his Guild Hall, returned to their city by his divine power.

He focused his will and manifested his heat, opening a rip in space and stepping through.

“Lux! We need to talk!” He shouted.

He was in her throne room. On The Sun. Her bastion of power.

The goddess was standing in the light of a window, staring out, concealed until she spoke.

“Isaac Grovesward. The Guildmaster…to what do I owe the pleasure?

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