Chapter Twenty Two: Awaken, King of King's

This wasn't a dream.

Nor was it a memory.

I was floating in darkness, unable to move, see or even feel. I was just a consciousness moving around aimlessly. I couldn't quite remember who I was, couldn't quite remember why I was here. But I knew this was important somehow, knew this was something I shouldn't miss.

Then the world exploded into colour.

I was standing in the middle of a forest, The sight and sounds were all so perfect I would think this was reality if I didn't know better.

Directly in front of me was a massacre. Bodies lying on the ground, pale faced and gaunt, horror etched onto every one of their faces. Some had managed to draw their weapons, others hadn't been fast enough.

In a puddle of blood a young girl played, white hair cascading over her face as she smiled, splashing in the small pool, joy etched onto her face. Her pale skin covered in red, her lips and teeth dyed the same colour.

I knew this girl... But who was she? Why couldn't I remember? She must be important, but I couldn't recall why.

Then the scene changed, the world became darker as the sun was covered by the moon and an unending night covered the land.

The bodies on the ground changed into familiar faces. One was the little girl, another a large wolf that had been ripped in half. One was a human man, disembowelled, his face frozen in a state of shock like the dwarf next to him, whose legs and arms were removed, leaking crimson blood onto the ground. Two elves lay nearby, one in silver armour and the other wearing simple leather. Both had been beheaded.

In the centre of this bloodbath, one that filled me with both intense loss and an incomprehensible anger, was a woman, dancing and laughing.

She wore a simple silver dress as her blonde hair fell over her eyes, which shined intensely as she stared at me. Her bare feet covered in blood as she twirled faster and faster, her laughing becoming more and more manic. She was mocking me, knowing I could do nothing to stop her, nothing to stop this madness.

I stepped forward, intent on trying. Fury filled me like nothing I had ever felt before and I reached for the sword that I knew would be at my hip. Hissing filled the air as the blade left it's sheath and darkness surrounded me, at my command.

The woman sneered at me “You can do nothing.”

The scene changed again and I was standing inside of a deserted city. This one was not familiar, I knew instinctively I had never been here before. But the anger remained, filling me to the brim as I stepped forwards, looking for the woman.

In a burst of intense light, four figures covered in white smoke appeared in front of me. I somehow knew they were trying to stop me, trying to save the woman. I would destroy them.

“Father, please, you must stop this” One of the figures said, but I paid it no heed and continued forwards, pushing it aside, my power commanding the world to obey and it did, mana rushed into me from every conceivable source, even the four standing in front of me, who felt their power being taken and fell to their knee's, begging for mercy.

“Alpha, you must stop yourself. This is too much!” One of the figures roared, but I merely sneered and waved my hand, causing the figure to cry out in pain and fade away. I would not be halted, nor would I be sated. I would burn this world to ashes so long as it allowed me to kill that woman.

“Corus, be still! We don't want to fight you!” One of the abominations said, trying to convince me, to plead, but I was not convinced and I made her silent with one slash of my dark sword.

The last figure merely stood in front of me, holding onto something that looked like a blade of shining light.

“Forgive me, it was the only way.” It said, mournfully, before attacking me, bringing it's sword up and down upon me with everything it had.

I destroyed it with a thought.

But then something changed. Something inside me twisted and sorrow became my only thought as I dropped my black blade, looking around me, seeing the blood that decorated the stone walls.

I looked at my hands and then ahead, seeing the woman, laughing at me, once beautiful, she was now a husk, her skin withered and grey, her eyes insane.

“You can do nothing.”

I roared and felt power leave me, exploding outwards as I destroyed the world, turning everything around me into dusk as I became a living conduit for destruction.

Then I felt arms wrap around me from behind.

“This is not you, this will never be. I won't let you become this.”

It was a woman, her voice seemed to soothe me even as it trembled. I had never heard her voice before, it didn't sound familiar like the others, it was different and yet, at the same time, it was like I had heard it all my life, in my darkest nightmares.

“What can I do” I asked, my voice croaking as the world continued to disappear. I don't know why I asked, It just seemed like the right thing to say.

I felt her head leaning against my back, could hear her breathing as she shook against me.

“You fight against fate. You are no one's puppet, nor are you a pawn. You are a King served by King's.”

I felt her turn me around but I couldn't see what she looked like. She glowed with an intensity that made it difficult to make her out.

“You fight, fight until you can fight no more. Save this world.”

I felt her press her hands to the side of my head and pull me down towards her.

“Awaken, King of King's.”

Her lips pressed against my own and I felt myself fall once again into the darkness.

* * *

I awoke with a start.

My body was covered in sweat and my breathing became heavy as I looked around wildly, searching for the glowing woman. But the dream faded fast and I was left alone, nothing but my thoughts and a headache that ripped through my brain with intense pain.

I looked down and realised that I was holding Xolumbrandir, the blade's anger rippling through the tether at being woken up so roughly.

“Sorry, sword... weird dream.” I whispered almost silently as I push off the blankets that were covering me and jumped to my feet, leaving the blade behind on the makeshift cot that I was lying on.

I did a few stretches, trying to assure myself that I wasn't in any more pain. Seems that my nap had helped bring me back to equilibrium. I realised that I was shirtless, my armour was gone and all I was wearing was the rich elven trousers I had taken from the tower, but even those were in a bad way, slightly burnt and showing a multitude of holes. Seems like after I had gone to sleep Ultimate Aspect had taken a minute to shut off fully. Without my aura to protect my clothing most of it must have turned into smouldering rubble. Seems the girls had taken off my armour but had left my trousers, which I was thankful for.

Speaking of Black Tusk, they were all asleep. Ada and Bell were in the bed while Ursula and Leigh were sleeping on the two remaining bedrolls. It looked like at some point Ursula had rolled over in her sleep, wrapping herself around the diminutive elf.

I looked out the window and into the streets below. Seems we were in some kind of town. I could see Scarl Forest in the distance, the red, almost glowing, leaves were a dead giveaway. We were pretty close to our destination, it wouldn't be long now.

I felt myself smile at the thought of seeing Cin again, but then I remembered the dream I had just experienced and my smile faded.

I was still trying to make sense of it, in my head. Vitriss dancing on the corpses of my dead Knight's, the glowing woman who filled me with peace. It was all one jumbled mess and the more I thought about it, the more it faded from memory.

From what I could guess, it seemed to be some kind of warning, perhaps from the glowing woman but I wasn't so sure. She had felt real, like she was actually there. The others weren't, merely players in the game. But I had a feeling that the glowing woman, like me, didn't have any control over her actions, she was merely saying the lines from a script. We were both there, but we didn't understand why.

Questions and more questions.

The most I could take from it was that something bad was coming. Something that I needed to stop and Vitriss was at it's centre, pulling the strings. I had been desperate to kill her, almost to the point where I was going insane. In the dream, she had to die for everyone else to live.

Fuck it, that's what I was planning to do anyway.

It had something to do with Arcana, that much was obvious. I had felt powerful, more powerful than I had ever felt before. But my mind suffered from that power. I felt myself get disconnected. It was only when the woman grabbed me that I felt my mind start to return to itself. So was she what I think she was? Was she the other half of my soul?

I let out a heavy sigh and leaned my head against the window, letting the cool glass massage my throbbing head. It was night outside, but I could tell it wouldn't be long until sun up. Hopefully we can get out of here as soon as possible.

Why was everything just adding onto the constantly growing pile of shit? I wanted answers, not more questions, more niggling little doubts in my head. I'll just keep it simple for now. I need to put down Vitriss, get the answers I want and then take off her head. For some reason, I think that this is only the beginning and more shits going to go wrong before it goes right.

“Hey, you're awake!”

I turned and smiled as I saw Ada standing behind me, stretching her arms and yawning, wearing her trademark smile.

“Hey Ada, yeah, just woke up a second ago.” I greeted the young woman, glad to see she was okay. “Where are we?”

Ada gave a little laugh and walked up beside me by the window, leaning against it.

“Shit, you've been out for nearly six days but you look like you've just taken a nap. We're in a little shit hole town called Bul, in the middle of nowhere. The Red Citadel is just over a day's hard walking, although we could probably get there in a few hours if we use magic. Now that your awake, travelling will be much easier.”

I nodded and turned back to look out the window, seeing a couple of men walking down the street arm in arm and swaying from side to side as they sung a tune.

“Good, I want to see Cinder as soon as possible. Were you guys ok on the road? Xolumbrandir behaving itself?”

Ada looked down at the sword for a second and muttered something about a rabbit under her breath, which I found a bit odd, before she shook her head. “Nope! Sword was fine, nothing really bad happened. Do you want me to wake up the others?”

“No, let them rest, with me up we'll get to the Red Citadel by midday at the latest” I said moving away from the window and picking up Xolumbrandir “Oh... and do you guys have any clothes for me? It seems that mine are... gone.” I finished a bit sheepishly.

“Yeah, we picked some up for you last night. Sorry, but your armour was basically just lumps of metal, it took us a full day to pry it off you. It's a miracle you still have trousers to be honest.” She said raising her eyebrows and lowering her eyes quite deliberately. It took all I had not to cover myself.

I went into a corner of the room and told Ada to turn around, which she did with a giggle, although she kept throwing glances at me over her shoulder, causing me to blush a deep red.

After I had dressed in the simple grey clothes and long black cloak I took my mask back from Ada and attached it to my belt, hidden behind the cape.

It was too my great surprise that she then handed me a scabbard, made of the same black wood as the tree's from Scarl Forest.

“Thought you might need it. Xolumbrandir doesn't look all that special, but the blade gives it away. This way you can hide it from sight.” She said with a smile.

“Thanks.” I said, a little bewildered.

Ada gave an uncharacteristic shy nod before heading over to take the cot apart.

The other girls were up and about a few hours later, all of them surprised to see me awake.

“Thought you would die, good to see you on your feet.” said Ursula gruffly, giving me a thumbs up as Leigh nodded her head in agreement.

“I know you said not too but I tried to heal you a few times. I don't know how you recovered from so much damage so fast.”

I shrugged “ My body works differently from other people. In the one I had before I would've been out of it for a month. I thought that in this one I would recover faster. Thankfully, I was right.”

“Well, now that you're awake, should we be making our way towards Cin?” asked Bell as she put on her armour.

I had learned on the way here that they had left their armour and weapons off to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. With me back there was no need for that, any attention we got would be taken care of with ease.

“Yeah, we'll leave now. The sooner we get the rest of this journey over with, the better.” I said.

The girls all grumbled in agreement and we made our way out of the inn that I learned was called The Blood Tree.

“Good to see you up and about, young master. The ladies here were all very concerned for you.” the innkeeper said, a warm smile on her face as Bell handed over a single gold coin.

“Thank you” I said, returning the smile and we made our way out into the street.

We were mostly silent as we made our way through the streets, it was still early and the sun had just risen so there were very few people out and about. It was quite a small town, you could walk from one end to another in about an hour, so they weren't used to visitors. We received more than a few glances as we made their way towards the gate.

“Redeem yourselves! Fall before the light of the divine! Vitriss watches all and we are but her children, meant to serve her always! Repent! Magic is a sin, one that can only be used for the divine!”

Now that was something I wasn't expecting.

A small group of people had gathered by the gate, with three men standing on wooden stumps, dressed in ridiculous robes and wearing iron bands around their limbs. They were waving their arms and shouting about Vitriss.

“What the hell is that?” I said, surprise on my face. What the fuck? The church was still around? I thought it was fucking destroyed?

Bell walked up next to me and aimed a scathing glare at the group of worshippers.

“This isn't the church, Corus. This something else, a cult really, based off their teachings. They call themselves The Order of the Vitrissian Monk's.”

I stared at the group and I felt something rise inside my stomach, a sickness that I hadn't felt in a long time. It made an appearance every time I saw the church in action. Preaching lies and misguiding the masses.

“Why has this been allowed to continue? Why hasn't any of my Knight's taken care of this nonsense?”

Leigh shrugged beside me, looking at the group worryingly. “From what I've heard, The Knight's tried to stamp them out, but they just kept popping back up. I think it was decided to leave them be, as they were more of a nuisance than anything else. They have no real power in any one country. Although, I hear that Omara is becoming quite the hub for them these days.”

I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my face even.

They had decided to 'let them be'? Do they not remember the atrocities? The struggles? The fucking war we fought to try and protect Vita?

“Ada, hold my sword.” I said to the girl, passing her Xolumbrandir in it's sheath. She looked a little shocked and hesitant before grabbing the blade and holding it as far away from her body as possible.

“Corus, do you really need to-”

“Yes, believe me, I really need to.”

I walked towards the crowd, leaving the girls behind.

While some would say that they were innocent, that they had been merely twisted by the writings of a dead man who claimed to speak to Vitriss, I refused to accept that. The fact that these three men have decided to poison people against magic and everything worth loving in this world, made me angry beyond belief. That was what the church was at it's core. Family turning on family, mages becoming wanted criminals if they didn't serve Vitriss, massacres and genocide all in the name of a bitch who didn't care either way.

“You! Brother, have you come to listen to our latest sermon? We are going to be teaching the people of Vitriss' light and her champion, The Rebel King-” The man was cut off sharply as I snapped his leg with one sweeping hand, sending him screaming off of his perch.

The members of the flock looked on in shock for a moment before a woman screamed and they all began to run, even as the two monks turned to face me.

One pointed his finger at me in rage “Heretic! How dare you harm one of the faithful! We are the loyal followers of Vitriss and she will protect us from your-” I punched him in throat, causing him to fall backwards, spluttering in panic as he struggled to breath.

The last monk gave me a death stare. “You go too far, fool. Vitriss has given me a gift to use in service to her divine grace. I will purge your pathetic heretical filth from this world!”

The monk began to draw in mana, a look of intense concentration on his face, for very little results.

The man was obviously not trained at all, the mana he drew in was a trickle, barely enough to create a flame, but create a flame he did.

“Behold my power, the flames of the Goddess shall purge you from this earth!” He cried before throwing out his hand, sending the small fireball towards my chest.

He must have been pretty fucking surprised when I caught it.

The monk stood there and stared at me, stunned and pale as he began to shake.

“How... how?” He spoke with a stutter, his eyes wild as he stared at the fireball that I was passing from hand to hand.

I merely shrugged and gave him a grin. I liked fucking with these religious nut jobs.

“Looks like the bitch doesn't like you all that much.” I said, a smug expression on my face.

The monk recovered slightly at my words and stared at me with fury on his face.

“How dare you-” I didn't let him finish, sending the fireball back towards him, connecting with his chest much faster than he had sent it towards me. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it did send him flying back a few meters. When he hit the ground, he didn't move. He just lay there, smouldering.

“Fucking fanatics, church or not, you're all the fucking same.” I whispered vehemently before making my way back over to the girls, who looked in various states of shock at my sudden burst of violence.

“So.. you feeling better, killer?” Ada said sarcastically as she passed me back Xolumbrandir.

I gave her a smile.

“Yes, much.”