I wasn’t nearly close enough when the paladins caught up to me. I knew they’d be alerted when I showed up in Kamenor wielding a black, cursed blade that projected a feeling of dread to everyone that got too close to it… I’d just hoped to reach the Porter’s Guildhouse and get out of town before they found me. The only security normally employed at the Porter’s was the city watch, and I’d run through them like paper. Paladins, though? They were a different breed. Well-equipped, well-trained, and possessed of a zealous hatred of all things “dark” and “evil”.

I still didn’t think of myself as evil, but the paladins had their own criteria for judging that sort of thing. They’d tolerated me for most of the last year as the short, sickly creature from another world that claimed to be something called a “human”, but oddities were only tolerable until they started killing people. The city’s bells were clanging like crazy as a trio of paladins—signified by the three-pointed starburst embossed in gold on the front of their plate mail—formed up to block the street in front of me. I wasn’t crazy enough to think I could take on three paladins by myself, so as soon as I saw them in their shiny steel armor and seven-foot-long swords I turned on my heel to flee. That’s when I knew I was really screwed.

Behind me were three more. I knew I could take a single paladin, but when they fought in their little trio units they were just too well-coordinated. “Halt, foul creature!” one of the paladins in front of me called out. “Openly carrying a revenant steel blade is a crime punishable by death in Kamenor. Drop the sword or we will carry out your sentence immediately.”

I was trapped. My only chance would be to fight my way out. “You know I can’t do that!” I called back. “It won’t let me release it.”

“Then let us remove your hand,” another of them offered. “You don’t have to die here.”

I shook my head. Only paladins would waste their breath making overtures to someone that was on the verge of becoming a mindless monster. “I already died once,” I informed them. “This sword is the only thing keeping me alive.”

“Then you give us no choice…” the first paladin said darkly. He raised his sword above his head and looked to the sky. “In Marketh’s name,” he said. “I pledge my life in battle.”

“In Marketh’s name,” the other paladins echoed, mimicking the battle prayer.

It was more than just empty words. When paladins prayed to their goddess Marketh, the holy armor and swords they carried activated. I saw each of their armored bodies and swords begin to glow with an aura of golden light as they finished their prayer.

Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. Eat their heart! Smash their skulls! The voice of my sword spoke in my head. It hated anything to do with the church, but paladins most of all. Its voice was getting louder, and if I didn’t feed it again soon I was afraid it would start doing more than just telling me what it wanted me to do. My sword hand twitched involuntarily. A bad sign; a very bad sign. I’d been warned to put the thing down and never pick it up again as soon as I heard even a whisper of evil intent in my ear. If only that was an option… The first thing the sword did when it started to gain control of me was clench the muscles of my hand so tight I couldn’t release it even if I wanted to.

While the paladins did their prayer, I used the time to mentally activate the Brand I’d had burned onto my sternum—some Brands required more than just thoughts to activate them, but Fortify Bones wasn’t one of them. I knew how the paladins were planning to kill me and I wasn’t going to make it easy for them. My Information Overlay Brand sent me a pop-up message to confirm what I’d done.

Fortify Bones activated. Skeleton HP increased by 1,000. HP: 86 >>> HP: 1,086 MP: 363 >>> MP: 323

I distantly noticed an intense burning pain in my sternum when the Brand activated. I was long since incapable of actually experiencing pain. It was just information to me. Yes, under the skin of my chest the bones of my sternum currently felt like they were on fire. Yes, it was far more intense a pain than the Brands that were usually burned into my skin. No, it didn’t bother me.

Powered up, the two triplets of paladins swung their massive swords at me in unison. I’d seen this attack before, so I knew what was coming. I held up my much shorter curseblade to try to minimize the damage while I braced for impact. Attempting to try to dodge would have been pointless. Lines of dust streaked across the cobblestones of the street as the invisible sword beams rushed across the intervening distance from each of the six paladins with the speed of bullets.

Breath was forced out of my lungs as I was struck from every direction at once, my ears ringing from the sound of the sonic booms. Blood sprayed: my blood. My skin split open on my chest, my arms, my back… you get the idea—every surface of my body felt some kind of impact as perfectly straight cuts of force chopped into my flesh. I’d seen this same attack sever limbs entirely before, so I imagine the paladins were a bit surprised when I didn’t go down. You see, my bones were basically diamonds. The sword beams battered my flesh, but couldn’t cut bone.

HP: 1,086 >>> HP: 786

My Overlay updated the count of my HP in the corner of my vision. By all rights, I should have been dead three times over. Most rissians would have been. But I wasn’t rissian, I was human. The only human on this entire planet. A series of alerts started to pop up on my overlay. Dozens of them. All flashing red to signify they were significant debuffs.

Brand destroyed. Spectral Hand deactivated. Brand destroyed. Conjure Potato deactivated. Brand destroyed. Danger Sense deactivated. Brand destroyed…

I didn’t have time to read all those alerts in the middle of battle. I dismissed the remainder of them. It was no surprise. I had over a hundred Brands burned into every available inch of my skin, so when it started getting deep cuts it stood to reason a lot of them would get too damaged to remain functional. It was… probably fine. Maybe. At the moment my most important Brand was Fortify Bones, and it was currently protecting itself from being destroyed. If it came down to just that one Brand, my sword, and my natural Skill I could still put up a fight.

My sword used the distraction of my injuries to surge back to the surface of my thoughts. I taste their fear. Give me more! Use me! Edgelord screamed in my mind. Impale them. Impale them on me. Let me drink their blood! When I’d been given Edgelord I’d been told his name was Breaksteel, but with comments like that, I’d decided to rename him to something I thought more fitting.

For once though… he kind of had the right idea. As powerful a combination as it was to strengthen my bones with a Brand burned into them while carrying a revenant steel blade, I still wasn’t invincible. I couldn’t just stand there and let them cut on me all day. If I wanted to reach the Porter’s I’d probably have to kill at least one of the paladins, as much as I hated the idea. It wasn’t their fault they were in my way. They were just doing their jobs.

“He’s still standing!” one of the paladins shouted.

“Marketh save us!” another said with a quaver of fear.

“He’s invincible!”

The usual response to a seraphim sword beam was for the target to fall into several pieces. Six at once, though? I should have been mincemeat. I used the opening their surprise provided to counterattack, starting with their leader. He was the one that had led the others in their battle prayer and had just turned his head to shout at the others. “Another volley! Quickly now,” he said. He was the emotional backbone of the unit. I figured if I killed him the others might lose their nerve and retreat long enough for me to get out of there. I held my left hand out behind me and was pleased to find Force Push hadn’t been one of the Brands that had just been destroyed.

MP: 323 >>> MP: 316

A thunderclap of invisible force shot out of my extended hand, knocking back the paladins behind me while also sending me careening towards the paladin captain. His prayer steel armor was still glowing with a golden aura so I knew I wasn’t going to hurt him, but I also knew that protective aura could only absorb a limited amount of damage. I came at him with Edgelord aimed tip-first at the center of his chest. My sword’s tip jammed in with all my weight behind it, then stopped at the leading edge of the golden aura of light. The captain broke off from trying to organize another volley of sword beams and immediately moved to bloody me with his sword. He brought it down on the top of my head as soon as I came to a stop in front of him. His blade bit through hair and skin before bouncing off my enhanced skull.

HP: 786 >>> HP: 721

I brought my free hand forward and tried to activate Grasping Tentacles, but it fizzled out. That must’ve been one of the Brands that got destroyed in the opening salvo. I slashed with my sword again, still glancing off the protective aura. It was like trying to batter down a brick wall with a butter knife, and worst of all he didn’t even feel the force of the impacts my attacks made. The captain chopped his blade into my upper shoulder.

HP: 721 >>> HP: 685

I tried clenching my fist into a Mega Punch instead. When it came to raw damage output that was usually my best option. It worked. My elbow snapped forward involuntarily and a sound like a bomb going off thundered around the streets as my fist hammered into the captain’s protective aura.

MP: 316 >>> MP: 236

The light of the protective aura weakened but didn’t fade. “To me, men! To me!” the captain shouted. I could hear the other paladins rally with wordless war cries as they charged in to help. The two other members of his triplet would be on me in another second. Once I was surrounded I wouldn’t be able to stop them from hacking me to pieces. The captain tried to remove my curseblade by aiming a blow with his sword at my wrist. It didn’t work, of course, but it did critically damage another Brand.

HP: 685 >>> HP: 660 Brand destroyed. Smoke Screen deactivated.

I cursed my bad luck when I saw that Brand disappear. I’d been planning to cover my escape with it. Something hit my left thigh and started burning it. It felt like acid—some kind of unique ranged Skill one of the paladins behind me must’ve thrown.

HP: 660 >>> HP: 618

Three more Brands were deactivated as my flesh melted. I dismissed the warnings this time without even reading them. I didn’t have time to waste; I pulled back my fist and burned another big chunk of MP to throw another Mega Punch.

MP: 236 >>> MP: 156

Boom!

Another explosion. This time the captain was pushed back and fell on his back. I could instantly see why, as the golden aura protecting his armor was gone. I didn’t waste a second jumping on top of him. I hacked awkwardly at the side of his helmet, the tip of my sword glancing against the cobblestones in the process. I was rewarded by the unsurprising revelation that the captain must not have taken the time to properly secure his helmet before rushing to face the city’s invader. It twisted off and tumbled away, revealing the face beneath. Gray rissian skin nearly the same shade as the cobblestone beneath him surrounded hard, black eyes, set in determination, not fear. He showed wrinkles of age at the corner of his mouth and around his brow, and his head was shaved bald, as was the practice among members of the church.

Feed me, yes! He’s so close. His blood, his blood, his blood, his blood. Let me drink of it, in Fayden’s name, Edgelord spoke to me. He wanted the blood, I knew, but he was just going to have to deal with disappointment. I had other plans for the captain. I reached down and grabbed the man by the forehead.

The two other paladins in his triplet reached me and I felt their blades bite into my back, deactivating two more Brands.

HP: 618 >>> HP: 504

“Get him off me!” the captain shouted, bringing his sword up to chop into the side of my neck. Blood fountained out of the wound, but I was beyond needing blood in my veins to stay alive.

HP: 504 >>> HP: 484

If he’d hoped for a Hail Mary to cut my head off, his last feeling in life would be one of disappointment. It was too late to stop me. I activated my Skill: Consume Vitality. The captain’s eyes went wide with panic, then rolled back into his head. I told myself it was a mercy for him to die in gentle slumber rather than the chaos of battle. I’m not sure if I believed it.

He was a big man—nearly seven feet tall, which was common among rissians—that meant he had a lot of HP to drain. In a matter of seconds, I watched his body go from healthy to gaunt, to desiccated, and finally to dust. His allies stepped back when they saw what was happening.

MP: 156 >>> MP: 279

I’d spent more MP killing the guy than I’d managed to drain out of him, but his allies didn’t know that. There was a certain intimidation factor that went along with literally turning someone to dust. I decided to lean into that by saying something they would find terrifying. I grabbed a handful of their captain’s dust and stood up. The other paladins surrounded me in a circle, blades held up defensively. “Where is your goddess now?” I demanded of them, holding my fist up and letting the dust trickle from my hand dramatically. “Stand in my way and I’ll consume you, too. Fayden’s will cannot be stopped!” The comment about Fayden wasn’t planned, but I hid my annoyance. Edgelord’s influence over me was getting stronger than I’d realized.

“Black magic!” one paladin said.

“Monster!” another shouted.

Yes! My sword spoke in my mind. Let me drink their fear. We will destroy them all!

While Edgelord gloated, one of the paladins stepped forward, not showing the signs of fear the others were experiencing. An orb of green liquid formed in one of his hands and he tossed it at me. I instinctively brought my sword up to block, only to uselessly split the orb in half. Acid splashed on my face. I just managed to turn my head so it only got half of me. My skin and left eye bubbled and sloughed off. A large, flashing red warning popped up on my overlay.

Critical hit. Left eye destroyed. Vision impaired. HP: 484 >>> HP: 439

“We can kill him!” the acid-throwing paladin shouted to his allies. “Come on, men. To me!”

That was bad. If this other paladin took over the leadership role and rallied his men’s resolve, they would have no trouble stopping me from reaching the Porter’s. They were all standing close to me now, so if I used some kind of area-of-effect Brand I still might have a chance to get away. I mentally cycled through my options for something that would fit those criteria but which hadn’t been destroyed. A Brand I’d had burned onto the bottom of my foot occurred to me. It wasn’t designed to be used that way, but it would technically work.

I leaned down and slammed my hand against the cobblestones, activating Water Volcano. Steam exploded out of the ground. I was flung into the sky like a ragdoll. I sailed high above the buildings of Kamenor on a great plume of white steam. The paladins’ armor would protect them from any damage, but it would still obscure their vision and make it harder for them to follow me. A warning flashed up on my Overlay.

Critical hit. Legs severely damaged. Mobility impaired. HP: 439 >>> HP: 349 MP: 279 >>> MP: 219

My flight-capable Brand, Wind Walking, didn’t respond when I tried to activate it. I only had a second until I would start falling out of the sky like a stone, so I grasped for the Brand I used most often to propel myself. Scanning the city skyline, I found the distinctive bronze dome of the Porter’s Guildhouse to my left. I aimed my hand in the opposite direction and blasted out a Force Push. Once, twice, thrice. My body jerked forward with each thunderclap of force, accelerating me faster and faster. The Force Push Brand in my inner thigh burned hotter with each activation. Now wasn’t the time to hold back. I activated it a fourth time, a fifth. Tall buildings whipped past my vision as I launched myself like a rocket towards the Porter’s Guildhouse. The sixth time I tried to activate it I was alerted to the fact that I’d melted it off.

MP: 219 >>> MP: 184 Brand destroyed. Force Push deactivated.

The stone wall of the building rushed forward to meet me. I braced my hands over my head to protect my last good eye and prayed my bones had enough durability left to survive the impact.

Kaboom!

HP: 349 >>> HP: 57

I crashed through the wall, taking a sizable chunk of masonry with me. I heard wordless screams from somewhere in the building. I couldn’t tell where. The guildhouse was on lockdown, unsurprisingly. Aside from the hole I’d punched in the wall behind me everything was pitch black. In theory that would slow down anyone trying to use the Porter’s to try to escape the city. It was a good theory. I rolled to my feet, dusted myself off, and activated Fireball to light my way.

MP: 184 >>> MP: 174

A fist-sized flame formed in my outstretched hand, revealing well-dressed rissian nobles and merchants running for the exits in a panic. “The guards! Call the guards!” someone shouted.

I’d never actually been to Kamenor before, but every Porter’s Guildhouse was set up the same: once inside there was a round, open room with Doorways distributed around the edges. The Doorways themselves were composed of massive tree trunks that had been specially carved to match a cousin somewhere on the other side of the planet. I looked around until I found the one marked for Haemir. That was where I’d been told my target would be. I stumbled over to it on shaky legs only to find that the thick metal security gate had already been lowered over it.

The security gates were only expected to slow intruders down, not stop them. I could see a seam going down the center where two halves met. “Time to earn your keep, Edgelord,” I told my sword. I jammed my black revenant steel blade in the seam, cutting through the mundane metal like it was made of wet clay.

Use me, use me! Edgelord said. I will destroy all barriers in your path of destruction!

I did use him—like a pry bar. Muscling the gate open, I squeezed through the gap and came out the other side into another room very much the same as the one I’d just left. It too was blackened for security.

I’d had my doubts that he would actually be here at the exact time I’d been told, but somehow, impossibly, he was. Standing right in the center of the room, blinking at me in dumbfounded horror was a scrawny human teenager with a shaved head, pale skin, and blue eyes. Everyone else had had the good sense to run away and call for the guards or paladins. Not him. He just stood there. I wondered if maybe he sensed a connection between us; if he’d felt a compulsion to stay behind when the Porter’s network came under assault.

I hobbled towards the kid, legs working only stiffly. “You’re… bleeding,” he said.

“I know,” I said. I stopped in front of him, holding my Fireball out to give us a pool of light in the darkness. “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time. Paladins will be here soon.”

“Are you—were you human once? Like me? I haven’t seen another human since I got here.”

I shook my head. “Sorry to say it, Vince,” I told him, “but I am you. From the future.”

His jaw dropped open and he stumbled back a step uncertainly. “Wha—bu—HOW?!” His eyes scanned my body. I’m not sure how much good that would do him, considering how scarred and wounded my body was. I didn’t care if he believed me or not: I wasn’t here to convince him of anything.

“How doesn’t matter,” I told him. “Why does. I just want the same thing you do—to stop us from dying, to go home. Trust me, if there was any other way for one of us to get out of here I would have taken it.”

He stopped backpedaling. “You know how to go home?”

“No,” I admitted. “I failed. But there’s still a chance… for one of us.”

I dismissed my Fireball, then used that hand to grab his forehead.