Note 11/26/2024 14:12:04

It seemed like forever before the carriage finally stopped moving, but it had only taken a few moments for everything to be upended.

Coughing and groaning in pain, Alexis slowly got to her feet and pushed open the side door, now directly above her head. She climbed outside to find the street was empty, and around her, she could hear the cries of whistles.

"A monster alarm," she cursed.

There were many reasons why Colbrand was built in the location that it was, one of them being the animals that spawned via magic circles. Typically, they didn’t produce anything worse than a wild dog, but every once in a while, something truly dangerous would appear. If it wasn’t the result of a summoning circle, it was either a beast that had wandered in from the country or escaped imprisonment in the city. When the whistles started going off, it meant that a monster had been spotted, and everyone had to flee the area until it was slain.

The setting sun was already clearing the streets, and with the whistles going off, no one was around to see what happened or what was about to happen next. At the moment, the only monsters walking around were on two feet, such as the one approaching the wrecked carriage.

"Sir Reyns, is that you?" Alexis asked, speaking to the long-haired man approaching in full armor.

He was the mace trainer at the academy and, according to rumors, part elf. However, it didn’t look like he was there to help, and as Alexis dared a glance to the horses and the carriage driver, she realized he wasn’t alone. All three had their heads cleanly removed, and their blood spilled into the street. Considering that Reyns was armed with a pair of quarterstaffs, it was clear he didn’t kill them.

Alexis climbed out of the carriage, trading her sword for her bow and aiming an arrow at Reyns. "Hold it, Sir Reyns. Tell me why you’re here."

"You know why I’m here," the man said coldly. "You shouldn’t have interfered, Veres. You should have just kept your head down and let everyone forget you."

"So, the church has you keeping tabs on Ford, do they? You saw me board his carriage? You swore an oath, just as I did, to serve king and country! Instead, you’re just a pawn for the clergy!"

"Shut your mouth!"

Behind Alexis, Ford climbed out of the carriage and dusted himself off. "Ah, excellent timing, Reyns. You made a mistake by coming after me, Veres. I have friends on—"

"Get down!"

Alexis tackled Ford, knocking him to the ground and saving his life. A ring of light, thin as paper, whipped through the air, missing Ford and slicing through the overturned carriage. A moment later, and the captain would have been bisected. Alexis looked over, seeing another figure approaching from an adjacent street. He was glowing with an aura of mana and garbed in robes like previous assassins, hiding his face.

"Wake up! They’re here to kill us both, you fool!" Alexis said as she got off Ford and trained her arrow on the newcomer.

"Reyns, you’d better have a good explanation for this!" Ford barked.

"It’s just as she says. If she knows about you, then Cyrilo knows about you, meaning you all need to die."

"You heard him, Captain," said Alexis. "So which is it going to be? Kneel and die for the church, or follow me to the castle and bring it down?"

Ford aimed his hand at the slain horses, and a blue magic circle appeared around his wrist. "Ocean Armament." Water began to surge from the horses, siphoned from their blood and flesh. The water gathered in his hand and formed a solid shape, becoming a trident. "I’m going to make you pay for getting me involved in this, but at the moment, I have no choice but to work with you."

Alexis and Ford stood back to back, armed and staring their approaching enemies down.

----------

Elsewhere in the city, near the palace, Sophia and Daniel were hiding in an alley.

"Any idea how long it’ll take for them to get here?" Daniel asked.

"I’m not sure, but I feel like they should have arrived by now," said Sophia, holding the bag of evidence.

This was a two-pronged move, in which Alexis was in charge of getting Ford to the palace while Sophia and Daniel lay in wait with the evidence of the church’s subterfuge. Each by themselves could be dismissed; Ford’s accusation with nothing to back it up, and potential evidence that needed to be corroborated by Ford, but once combined, not even the cardinals would be able to talk their way out of it.

"Man, I am not built for this kind of stress," Daniel said as he lit a gonlief cigarette. "I’m just a guitar-player, man. No one told me I’d be doing any of this spy shit."

"Well Lucius is in the dungeon, and Cyrilo needs to stay behind to defend the Knight’s Sheath, so you’re all I’ve got. I really need you to show some backbone."

"I’m known for many things, and backbone isn’t one of them." They waited a few more minutes, and still no sight of Ford’s carriage. "Fuck! This is killing me, man!"

"Listen to me, I’m worried too, but you really aren’t helping."

They kept waiting.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Daniel then asked.

"Hear what?"

"I think there is a monster alarm going off."

Dread gripped Sophia. "From which direction?"

"Over there, in the distance."

"That’s where Alexis should be coming from!" Sophia then shoved the bag of evidence into Daniel’s arms. "Guard this with your life!" She took off running, ignoring his shouts.

----------

Ford spun around with his long coat billowing, fending off the strikes of Reyns’s attacks with his trident. Despite his bureaucratic position, the captain’s strength and skills remained sharp. He was nimble on his feet, avoiding the fellow knight’s attacks and blocking the rest while lunging out with his own.

His trident, though made of liquid water, remained perfectly rigid and absorbed every impact without losing its shape. He could control it with magical dexterity, spinning it around his finger so fast that it became an impenetrable barrier, holding Reyns back. Then, he could stop it just as quickly and lunge forward for a thrust, altering the shape of the trident’s shaft to extend its reach.

Despite the captain’s skill, Reyns went after him with an unrelenting chain of blows, and the continuous colliding of their weapons sounded like chattering teeth in the deathly cold. Reyns’s stick fighting technique was well-honed and deadly, capable of delivering half-a-dozen strikes in a single second. His defense was equally proficient, able to ward off stabs and strikes from Ford and unleash his attack simultaneously. The two dueling knights were living blurs of rapid footwork and swinging weapons.

Nearby, however, the fight wasn’t so evenly balanced. Alexis and her opponent darted back and forth, each launching attacks at the other. While Alexis was armed with a bow, her enemy used wind magic. Rings of glowing air would appear around his wrists, each the size of a dinner plate, and he’d hurl them at her like a razor-sharp discus. They were fast, precise, and deadly, and it didn’t seem like her opponent was restricted by his mana reserves.

Alexis did her best to dodge, but the blood flowing from her numerous cuts showed how well that was going. Worse, her foe would turn his attention on Ford if she strayed too far. As she tried to devise a plan, she saw him swing his arm, and a barrage of rings was hurled at the captain.

"Shit! Scatter Shot!"

Alexis aimed her bow and shot an arrow at the flying rings, launching not one attack, but a whole volley. The bolts, made of compressed mana, destroyed the rings in midair. Alexis then rolled to the side, dodging a ring that carved up the ground where she had been kneeling. She ran around her foe and loaded another arrow.

"Cluster Shot!"

This time, all the mana bolts stayed together, zeroing in with perfect aim, but her enemy dodged with nimble movements. She had to get closer. She loaded another arrow and charged forward, avoiding the rings of enchanted wind hurled at her. The mage retreated, continuing to bombard her with attacks. The glowing circles flew through the air, carving through buildings, carts, stands, and everything else in their way. As long as the buildings were still standing, he didn’t seem to care how much damage he did.

Alexis got in close and aimed her arrow straight at her enemy’s chest. "Cluster Shot!"

She released the arrow at point-blank range, but the mage was ready. He conjured two rings around his wrists, larger and more powerful than the ones he had been throwing before, and used them to deflect the incoming barrage. Alexis didn’t let disappointment slow her down. She rolled past him, dodging his counterattack, and loaded another mana-infused arrow.

"Burst Shot!" This time, rather than aiming for him, she aimed at the ground at his feet. The arrow struck the soil and exploded, sending the mage staggering back, disoriented from the shockwave and the resulting dust cloud. Alexis loaded three arrows. "Scatter Shot!"

She released all three at once, each enhanced with a volley of mana bolts. They flew towards her unguarded enemy, an unavoidable wall of death coming right at him. However, he was faster than Alexis expected, conjuring rings around his wrists and ankles and creating a defensive whirlwind that threw the incoming bolts off their trajectory. He defended against the three arrows and the accompanying mana bolts, but failed to block the fourth, perfectly timed to strike when his guard opened.

Finally, Alexis landed a genuine blow, planting the arrow in his gut and bombarding him with the bolts. Not only did he sustain an injury, but his robe was also shredded, leaving Alexis in shock. It was a woman, her tight-wrapped tunic and trousers giving away her feminine figure. Her shaved head jogged Alexis’s memory.

"You were there at the knighting ceremony. Bojena Landon, gold-ranked knight of Uther," she gasped.

"That’s right, Alexis Veres, expelled bronze-ranked knight," she replied as she yanked out the arrow in her gut.

"Do you even know what you’re doing? You’ve betrayed your oaths and loyalty to the king!"

"My loyalty has always been absolute, but where it truly lies is with the church. The church took me in, raised me, educated me, trained me, just as it has so many others. Kings come and go, nations rise and fall, but the gods are eternal, and I serve them, body and soul."

"You’re defending a crooked organization that wants total control over the nation!"

"I’m defending mankind’s one true path to salvation. You think you’re helping people with those books? All you’re doing is distracting them, leading them astray, corrupting their minds with arrogance. Knowledge benefits our lives, but too much poisons our souls."

"Who are you to decide when it’s too much? Who are the cardinals to decide that for people? No good can come from willing ignorance! You aren’t helping anyone by keeping them in the dark!"

"Humans must be kept in the dark, because only then can they see the light of the divine. Tell me, do you know what the true meaning of prayer is? It is to ask for help and guidance, to admit that you don’t have the answers. It is the ultimate act of humility. Those with knowledge, those with power, they see prayer as something beneath them, something unnecessary, because they believe themselves gods in their own right. They believe themselves the masters of their domain and their destiny, and that belief blinds them. Knowledge is power, and power corrupts."

"And when the church takes control, you think the cardinals will retain any kind of piety? You think with absolute power, they’ll walk with pure hearts on a noble path? No, they’ll just become fat and arrogant, and see the world and its people as possessions to be owned! They’ll keep twisting doctrine to suit their own agendas, and you’ll be left with a ruling class who use the threat of the gods to keep the people in line."

"If that should happen, then I will cut them down, and new cardinals, who wholeheartedly follow the gods, will be instated. If the forest becomes overgrown, then I shall serve as the wildfire that clears the way for new shoots to spring forth, but I cannot allow you to continue your mission."

"I’m trying to help people!"

"You’re making the same mistake as the Enochians. Their great magic and intellect were wasted, used to indulge their own hubris instead of properly venerating those above them. They destroyed themselves, dooming their descendants to a shallow existence. You think you’re aiding mankind, but all you’re doing is giving them the tools to their own destruction. Your books will serve as the foundation upon which mankind will build a monument to its own supremacy, but that monument will inevitably crumble and kill us all."

"I’m not going to give up everything that Sophia worked so hard for simply because you have no faith in people. We have the right to understand the world around us, to understand ourselves. It is our destiny to improve and grow, and if that destiny leads to our destruction, then so be it! That destiny still belongs to us and no one can take it away, not you, not the church, not even the gods!"

Mana began to surge from Bojena, kicking up a powerful whirlwind. "If you refuse the gods, then I will kill you in their name. Cyclone Mantle."

Rings of enchanted air appeared around her arms, legs, and torso. These weren’t the rings she’d throw, they were the kind she used to ward off Alexis’s earlier attack, and she had a feeling as to what would happen if Bojena managed to touch her with them. Her only hope was to buy time until something changed, some variable in the situation. But though she felt fear, it was within her control.

"I didn’t spend my life training just so I could be killed by you."

"And yet you will."

"Go ahead and try."

Bojena then rocketed forward, propelled by an explosion of air from under her feet, and hurled a punch towards Alexis. Alexis dodged, but only by a hair’s breadth, left stunned by Bojena’s sudden speed. Even worse, though she had dodged the punch and the rings of spinning wind, she did not come out unscathed. As Bojena’s hand shot past her face, the enchanted air shaved the skin off Alexis’s cheek like sandpaper.

Alexis tried to create some distance, but Bojena was upon her immediately, swinging her arms and legs like they were deadly swords. It took all of Alexis’s agility just to get far enough away that she could load an arrow into her bow.

"Cluster Shot!" She released the arrow and a barrage of mana bolts, but Bojena simply waved her arm and conjured a barrier of air, absorbing the attack. Alexis loaded another arrow and fired it at the ground. "Burst Shot!"

This time, Bojena was ready for the resulting explosion and lunged for Alexis, delivering a kick straight to her stomach. Alexis was tossed through the air, with her blood splattering on the ground. Not only had the kick been strong enough to wound her internally, but the resulting wind attack left the skin on her stomach shredded. She would have died if not for her battle dress.

Bojena didn’t pursue her; she simply aimed her hand at Alexis and launched a barrage of rings. Alexis didn’t have the time or strength to put up a defense. The best she could do was attempt to dodge the flying saw blades, but that weakness earned her a slash across her shoulder and thigh. She struggled to stand, with her blue dress darkening from her trickling blood.

"Because you abandoned the gods, the gods have abandoned you," said Bojena as she approached. She was still wounded from Alexis’s earlier attack, but showed no signs of slowing down.

Alexis dared a look over to Ford. He wasn’t beaten and bloody like Alexis was, but the battle had turned against him. Reyns had activated his magic, a combination of warrior and fire enhancement that turned his staffs into torches. The magic increased the physical impact of each strike and imbued them with a burst of flame, destroying everything he touched with an explosion.

Though able to dodge Reyns’s attacks, Ford couldn’t block them. Every time he tried, his Ocean Armament would break from the resulting explosion, losing its shape and producing a cloud of steam. Moreover, each impact released an audible shockwave, reinforcing the nonexistent margin for error. Ford reshaped the water into different weapons, from the trident, to a hammer, to twin swords, to even a sickle and chain, but against Reyns’s destructive blows, he might as well have been fighting with a chain of sausages.

The situation was bad, but Alexis wasn’t out of the fight yet. Madam Cyrilo had insisted she take a potion with her, and she was glad she hadn’t argued against it. She pulled out the small bottle and drank the bitterness, with her wounds beginning to close. Able to move once more, she took off in a run around Bojena. She only had a couple arrows left, and her mana reserves weren’t fairing much better, so she had to make this count.

She loaded an arrow and began charging it with mana, causing the tip to glow brightly. Bojena chased her, not wanting to give Alexis the chance to reach a safe distance. She hurled a barrage of punches and kicks at Alexis that, even when dodged, produced a whirlwind of invisible blades.

Alexis remembered sparring with Valia Zodiac, and overlapped the memory with the foe in front of her. Though their techniques differed, both were gold-ranked knights, far superior to Alexis in every way. Valia had taught Alexis how to survive against a superior opponent.

She focused on evasion while she studied Bojena’s moves, looking for patterns and memorizing distances. There was a flow to her fighting style, and instead of trying to oppose it, Alexis had to let it carry her. Her resistance was utterly passive, letting Bojena decide her moves for her. All the while, she continued sending mana into her arrow, sculpting it into a perfect weapon. Finally, Bojena lunged forward for a killing strike, and Alexis fell back, letting her enemy move over her. She aimed with her bow, not that she needed to with her enemy mere inches away.

"Burst Shot!"

She released the arrow, along with every drop of mana she had left, and struck Bojena, center mass. The resulting explosion engulfed them both, with Bojena tossed high into the air like a stone from a sling and landing on the thatched roof of a nearby building. Alexis lay on the ground, her body racked with pain from the shockwave and drained of strength. Her eyes and ears weren’t working, and it took several moments for her to regain clarity.

Unfortunately, when she finally could see, the sight that greeted her was Bojena slowly getting to her feet, far less damaged than she should have been. "It’s a shame," she said while panting and spitting blood, "you would have made an exemplary knight. Had I not been protected by my Cyclone Mantle, that probably would have killed me, but these rings were able to redirect the force away from my body."

"Fuck," Alexis muttered, the only word she could think of.

Bojena aimed her hand at Alexis. "I wish you could’ve seen the truth path to salvation. Though misguided, you are doing what you think is best for the world, and I admire the effort. Alexis Veres, I will remember you." She then launched a barrage of rings, all closing in on the exhausted warrior.

"Blessing of Advanced Thought! Blessing of Agility! Blessing of Stamina!"

A surge of holy mana rushed through Alexis, sending her thoughts racing and filling her with strength. She could see the incoming rings, but it was like they were moving in slow motion, and her body now felt weightless. She moved out of the way without effort and looked over to the side, seeing Sophia with a smile on her face. Thanks to her magic, Alexis’s neurons were firing faster than before, and her nerves were surging with power, letting her body keep up with her heightened mind.

She then pointed her hand at Ford. "Blessing of Strength! Blessing of Resilience!"

Like Alexis, Ford was overcome with power. Reyns tried to strike him with both staffs, and this time, the Ocean Armament withstood the attack. Though the ground beneath Ford’s feet buckled from the force, his posture and stance remained firm.

"You! The traitor to the church!" Bojena hissed.

She pulled back her arm, ready to launch an attack and take Sophia out, but was interrupted when Alexis appeared in front of her, moving so fast it was like she was teleporting.

"I’m not done with you yet!"

Alexis attacked, not with her bow, but with her short sword. Bojena blocked the incoming swing, and the rings of wind deflected the blade, but in the blink of an eye, Alexis had already reset herself and launched a flurry of attacks, swinging and stabbing at Bojena with superhuman speed.

Bojena was forced to retreat, using wind shockwaves to propel her, but Alexis wasn’t going to let her go. She chased after the faux knight and continued her unrelenting bombardment. She was going over every lesson from Valia Zodiac, with her memories of the elf’s fighting style shooting through her brain. Slash, stab, slash, block, slash, dodge, slash—she could picture how Valia would move in response to Bojena, and her limbs moved to match it.

Every time Alexis’s sword met the rings, the enchanted wind chipped the steel, turning the pristine edge into a saw with each collision, and its teeth were now cutting into Bojena’s skin. Bojena was forced on the defensive, unable even to turn and run. She was blocking and deflecting Alexis’s attacks with everything she had, but it wasn’t enough. The wounds were accumulating, and every gap between the rings was being exploited. Alexis was just getting faster and faster without ever stopping to catch her breath.

In a desperate measure, Bojena created an explosion and rocketed into the air, out of Alexis’s reach. Above the buildings, Bojena spotted Sophia, continuing to send her magic into both Ford and Alexis. If she was taken out, Alexis would be good as dead. Bojena swung her arm with a roar and hurled a volley of wind rings at Sophia, all closing in on her with deadly precision. But, before they could reach her, she was saved.

Daniel appeared on the sidelines with his guitar hanging from his shoulder. He raised his arm, howled like Bojena, and struck the loudest chord he could. A directed explosion of mana was set off from his guitar, blasting aside the incoming rings like they were kites in a hurricane. Fortunately, Sophia was far enough out of the way to be unharmed by the explosion.

"Alexis! Finish this!" Sophia shouted, narrowly avoiding Daniel’s interception.

Bojena landed in the street with Alexis appearing right behind her. "I won’t you let get in the gods’ way!" she cursed, unleashing a storm of wind blades at Alexis.

Alexis charged headfirst into the storm, getting slashed from all angles with her blood filling the air, but she emerged from the other end, her will unbroken. With a mighty bellow, she raised her sword above her head, the blade now glowing with mana, and slashed Bojena from shoulder to hip. It didn’t wound her, and Alexis’s sword was destroyed in the process, but so too were the protective rings around Bojena’s torso. Not even pausing, Alexis drew her bow and her last arrow, aiming it at Bojena’s heart.

"Where’s your God now?! Burst Shot!"

Imbued with the power of desperation, the arrow struck Bojena and exploded, knocking her through the air, beaten and bloody. She hit the ground and didn’t get up, and for one brief, beautiful moment, everything was silent and serene, with Alexis basking in the warmth of victory. Then she collapsed.

----------

"And… how many of these spies did you let into the knighthood?" King Leonard asked as he gazed through the windows of the throne room.

"I do not know the exact number, but over the years, it must have been a few hundred, at least," said Ford, kneeling with Alexis, Sophia, and Daniel.

Sophia had healed Alexis and Ford, but their torn clothes and bloody appearances stood out among the advisors and soldiers with the king. All four were in shackles for their fight in the street.

"These were individuals who were trained from birth to be subservient to the church, ready to use the authority of the knighthood to fulfill any mission asked of them by the clergy, and to end their own lives without a moment’s hesitation to keep their secrets from being revealed."

King Leonard looked at the list of names given to him from the pouch of evidence. "This is unwelcome news, Ford, very unwelcome. And yet I am glad, because now I have everything I need to restore balance to this country. Uther is a garden, I am the gardener, and thanks to this proof you’ve given me, I’m ready to do some thorough weeding.

For the church to have planted their own army of assassins, using the authority of the knighthood to kill whoever opposed them, the audacity sickens me. Sir Berholm, rally the troops. I want the cardinals and every priest in the city in chains before dawn tomorrow. Then, we begin purging the knighthood of these zealots."

"With pleasure, Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty, if I may ask, does this mean our friend, Lucius, will be released?" Alexis asked. "He lies in the dungeon for a crime I myself was framed for, on the word of knights who serve the church."

"For the murder of Father Marduel, correct? He will be released, of course. Either you and your friend are guilty of murdering a traitorous rat who subverted my authority, or you’re both innocent. Whichever it is, he doesn’t belong in a cell." The king then pointed to a nearby guard. "You, go to the dungeon and release the man named Lucius. Berholm, undo their shackles."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the guard said before hurrying off as Berholm released Alexis, Sophia, Daniel, and Ford. Alexis and Sophia were all smiles, feeling like they had entered a wonderful dream.

"Rupert Ford, for your crimes of collusion and subterfuge, you are hereby stripped of your title and your position of headmaster at the knight academy. You will not receive further punishment, so long as you cooperate with the investigation."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Lady Veres, Lady Rosege, for your exemplary service in revealing this plot, I and this country owe you a great debt. Despite being expelled from the knighthood, you’ve proven to be more than ideal. I henceforth return your positions in the Order, with an immediate promotion to silver rank. The nation will need individuals of your caliber if it is to overcome this blight."

"My king, what does this mean for the Knight’s Sheath?" Sophia asked.

"As for the Knight’s Sheath, it’s clear you’ve found people worth defending and battles worth fighting. I see no reason to remove you from the place where you’re doing the most good. To you, knights of Uther, I, as king, give this order: you are to protect Madam Cyrilo and ensure her literature project comes to fruition."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" they both happily exclaimed.

Daniel then stood up, raised his arms, and released a celebratory whoop. It led to an awkward silence, in which everyone stared at him. "Sorry, this has been an emotional day."

The king sighed and glared at him in annoyance, and Alexis hurriedly forced Daniel to the floor in a kneeling position.

"My apologies, Your Majesty."

The king once more sighed, but this time, with a small smile. "Gods be with you."

With the king’s blessing, and the return of Alexis and Sophia’s official knight equipment, the three left the palace and began the long walk back home.

Please comment! Tell me your thoughts!

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