Josephine hunched over her desk as she fumbled with the pliers, breath hissing from between her teeth as the wire slipped from the thin jaws of the tool and curled up on her cluttered desktop.

“Is everything alright, ma’am?” Daniel’s voice crackled and distorted as it came through the radio, and Josephine straightened the antennae before replying.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m fine.”

Behind her came the familiar clunk of a small child swinging his feet against the wooden surface of the drawers he was sitting upon.

“Christoph, dear, you have to be quiet if you want to watch mommy work,” Josephine said. He hummed in reply, and she glanced back towards him. “Take off your shoes inside, honey.”

Straightening his legs, Christoph pushed off of the chest of drawers and leaped to the ground. Hurrying out of the room with a clatter, he returned moments later with the patter of bare feet on tiles.

“Good boy,” Josephine said, swiveling her chair towards him. “Here, you can sit on my lap if you promise to keep still.”

Nodding energetically, he let her pull him up onto her knees, squirming a little before he could get comfortable. Leaning forwards, Josephine rested her chin on his head and wrapped her arms around his body in a hug. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her pliers once more and straightened the wire with both hands before clasping it in the tool yet again.

“Look,” she said. “See this little box? It’s what makes the dolls move.”

Christoph leaned forwards to inspect the small mechanical cube before turning his head to look up at her, reaching out to touch her glasses.

“That’s right,” she said. “My glasses help me move them around.” Smiling, she turned her gaze towards the box again, lights blinking as it activated. Christoph giggled as the toy it was attached to twitched in response, his short black hair tickling her neck as he laughed. He looked back at at her for a moment, lifting a small hand to tap at his own head this time.

“No, honey,” Josephine said shaking her head with a laugh of her own. “You’re not a doll, you’re a boy.” She pulled him into a hug again, planting fluttery kisses on his cheeks as he giggled.

“You’re already perfect,” she said. “My perfect little boy. That’s why I can’t let your daddy take you away from me.”

“Ma’am?” Daniel’s voice crackled slightly over the radio.

“Yes Dan?” she asked.

“The police are here,” he replied, pausing for a moment before he spoke again. “They’re looking for the girls.”

Josephine almost swore, but caught herself just in time. Turning her chair to the side, she set Christoph on the floor, patting his head gently. “Okay now honey, go play in your room,” she said, watching him smile as he rushed out of the room.

“Ma’am?” Daniel asked.

“It’s fine,” she said. “We’ve gone over this many times already. You know what to do.”

Standing, she hurried from the room, turning off the light and closing the door behind her. Sitting on the middle of her desk, the black box continued to blink slowly, a faint red light washing over the subject of her work. Stained crimson by the illumination, a severed arm twitched delicately, wires swaying where they connected to the stump. Back in his room, Christoph laughed innocently as he played with his toys.

…

“Halt!” Gideon’s yell snapped Christoph from thoughts of his past, jerking back into the present as his feet found purchase on the wet moss of the tree root beneath him. Looking up with unfocused eyes, he brushed his matted hair from his face, smearing more blood over his cheeks and forehead as he did so. Blocking his path across the tree root stood a black-armored knight, a large red cross displayed brightly against the dull tint of his breastplate.

“Hello,” Christoph said, mind drifting back to the other world. His mother, and Dan… Shivering, he pulled himself away from the darker memories he harboured.

“I am Gideon, Executioner of the Church of the Creator’s Blessed.” The knight drew a long-handled hammer from his back, pointing the double-sided head in his direction. “Are you Christoph, the summoned demon that slayed the Guardian?”

Christoph started to shake his head before looking down at his crimson stained form. “I guess so,” he said. Right now, the Guardian seemed like the least of his worries.

“Kneel, and we will offer you a quick death!” Turning, he saw that two more knights had appeared behind him, silver armor covered by a white cloth marked with the same red cross as Gideon’s was. One of them, the one who had spoken, seemed to be a woman.

Christoph shook his head again, pushing the thoughts of his mother from his mind. Three knights, two behind and one ahead. He searched the forest for flickers of mana nearby, but there was nothing. Other than the three that had surrounded him, he was alone. Could he get around them somehow? The root stood nearly ten meters off the ground, but if he could manage the fall, then… It had been idiotic to let them corner him like this.

Gideon clanked as he began to close the distance, the other two knights standing their ground behind Christoph as he drew his sword. Stepping forward to meet the Executioner, he swung his weapon around to slash into Gideon’s torso. Despite the speed of the strike, the crystal blade was caught as the knight used his hammer as a staff to deflect the blow. Swinging it wildly, Christoph launched a flurry of attacks at his armored opponent, not willing to give him time to react. The older man was forced back, blocking and dodging each blow as he retreated. They edged along the tree root, the two Templars following along with weapons drawn and shields raised behind them.

Shifting his hands apart along the length of his hammer, Gideon began to counter Christoph’s attacks, striking back with both ends of his weapon and halting their advance down the tree root. Christoph gritted his teeth as a blow caught him on the shoulder, the impact shifting him off-balance for a moment before he retreated, the two Templars behind him shifting back in turn. Catching his breath, he resisted the urge to curse. He had been almost close enough to risk a leap to one of the other roots nearby! Had Gideon seen what he was aiming for?

“That’s enough!” The black-armored knight exclaimed, raising his hammer into the air. “Stellar of the Light, I call you!”

Was this some kind of magic? Christoph dashed forwards. If his opponent was attempting to cast a spell, he would see it coming a mile away! Now that he’d traded blows with the Templar, he knew that he had the upper hand in terms of both strength and speed. If he could keep up the pressure, it would be his win. Because of how he was focused on detecting Gideon’s mana, Christoph almost didn’t notice the Templars behind him taking a step back as Gideon swung his hammer. Swinging already? There’s no way that would even come close to hitting him. A moment later, a pillar of light erupted across Christoph’s vision.

Ducking away, he was able to move under the massive beam by dropping to the root, his feet continuing forwards as he fell backwards. Even so, he could not dodge the attack completely, taking the brunt of the force on his blade as he moved his arm up to block in reflex. Christoph bounced as he hit the ground, a small crater left in the wood as he fought to stay conscious, leaping backwards to avoid the next sweeping attack. There was a thud as he was caught on the Templars’ steel shields, their joint strength pushing him forwards into the next swing of Gideon’s shimmering blade.

The next few moments passed in a blur, flashes of both light and pain stabbing into Christoph all at once, his unnatural reflexes still not enough to keep the Templar’s swords at bay. Finally, he managed to strike back, a satisfying snap of bone reaching his ears as his blade caught one of the silver-armored knights on the shoulder. The knight stifled his scream as he was dragged back by his companion, the two retreating slightly and giving Christoph room to breath. In front of him, Gideon stood ready to attack once more.

“A hammer,” Christoph said between breaths.

Gideon took a step forwards, moving into a stance as Christoph’s wounds began to heal, the flow of blood lessening from where their swords had stabbed into the back of his chest.

“I thought it was a hammer,” Christoph said. Even during their brief exchange before, the Executioner had fought skillfully with the heavy blunt force weapon. Now, an impossibly wide blade of light had appeared at the top of the hammer. The handle, although long, had merely been designed that way to offset the length of the blade. The twin heads of the hammer, although useful for smashing the opponent, were nothing more than the crossguard of the enormous greatsword.

“Saint Stellar’s Greatsword of Light,” Gideon said. “This is the weapon that will take your life, demon.”

“How unnatural,” Christoph said with a wry grin towards his own blade. “I couldn’t see that thing coming at all.”

Turning, he made a dash to where the two Templars stood behind him, angling towards the limp-armed male as he closed the gap. The female knight rushed forwards to meet him, crossing blades with him before he was forced to disengage and receive Gideon’s next attack. Now that he had broken their synchronized combo of strikes it was easier to face the Executioner, but the older man still had a firm advantage in skill. He might be able to heal a wound from a regular sword, but that greatsword would end his life in an instant if he wasn’t careful. There was no way that Christoph could break through the Templar’s guard while Gideon was at his back. To make matters worse, the faint flickers of mana in the distance announced the adventurers as they approached.

Christoph leveled his crystal blade at the Executioner, distancing himself from the other Templars behind him. If there was no way behind, he would have to push forwards instead. “I’ve always detested churches,” he said. “My father once said that they reminded him of my mother.”

“Be silent,” Gideon replied. “I will brook no ill language towards our god.”

“Oh I’m sure your god is a great man,” Christoph said with smile. “After all, it takes courage to completely ruin people’s lives like that.”

Gideon began to reply, but Christoph was already moving, sword swinging around in a vertical strike directly at the Executioner’s helmet. Stepping backwards, the knight leveled a massive swing, the impossibly thick blade aimed diagonally downwards through Christoph’s torso to cleave him in half. The attack hit nothing but air as Christoph dropped to the mossy wood, absorbing his sword so that he could land on all fours and leap up again as the enormous blade swung past. An ordinary swordsman would have lost his sword trying to replicate the manoeuvre, but Christoph didn’t suffer from this issue, the crystal blade flowing from his palm once more and swinging downwards towards Gideon’s shoulder as he jumped.

Taking another step backwards, the knight wrenched his greatsword to a halt, pulling it back to block Christoph’s downward strike with the flat of the blade. Instead, Christoph’s sword vanished again, the crystal flowing backwards until it was little more than a knife. The small blade sailed past Gideon’s own without so much as nicking the gleaming surface, and Christoph grinned wickedly as everything came to a halt for just one moment.

Thrusting his blade upwards again, he stabbed it between the overlapping plates of Gideon’s armor, finding the small area of vulnerability in the otherwise impenetrable surface. With a surge of mana, the crystal sword exploded back into being, shearing through Gideon’s torso and slamming into the back of his breastplate from the inside. Blood surged from the Templar’s helmet as he fell, the Greatsword of Light winking out as Christoph absorbed the majority of Gideon’s mana, leaving his inner flame barely a spark of warmth. The knight crashed to the ground, Christoph’s bloodied crystal blade sliding from his armor until only the tip remained.

“Don’t move!” Christoph shouted, holding a hand out to the Templar as she stepped forwards. Held in his fist was the sacred artifact that Gideon had wielded. “If I wanted to, I could end his life right now.”

“Is that what you did to Brother Henry?” Grace asked, edging towards him.

“I don’t want to anyone to die,” Christoph said, looking away from her helmed visage. “He could still survive.”

The knight ignored his words, closing in on him with her weapons raised.

“I guess that’s a no,” he said. “Is it about the Greatsword? Here, you can have it.” Swinging out his arm, he launched the hammer towards her, the long metal weapon swinging wildly as it flew through the air. Jerking back, Grace took the blow on her shield, dropping her sword to catch the handle of the hammer before it bounced away to the forest floor below. By the time she had looked back across the root, Christoph was gone.