Chapter 37: Showing Off

 “Execution by combat?” the prince repeated my words as if they were some kind of foreign language.

“She is referring to one of the kingdom’s earliest laws,” Aster explained. “Those who are sentenced to death may choose to instead battle a warrior of their accuser’s choosing. If they emerge victorious, they are spared, and if they fail, they are killed.”

“Why have I never heard of such a law?”

“It was originally established during a time of conflict with our neighbors when strong fighters were needed and highly valued. However, once that period ended and fighters were no longer needed, the law fell out of favor. Any who made such a request were tasked with fighting a royal knight, and very few emerged victorious. After all, what chance does an average person have against a trained knight?”

“Very well,” Leo responded with an annoyed grunt. “Atlas, end this already.”

Atlas stepped forward with a nod, while Aster and I shared a knowing glance. This had all gone exactly as we planned. Technically, the prince could have selected himself to fight, and if he had, I would have been toast. However, by mentioning the law’s history, we managed to plant in his mind the idea that Atlas was the obvious choice, though Aster still looked nervous.

Of course, Atlas wasted no time once he was given an order. He charged forward toward the balcony’s edge and leaped off it into the air with his sword already drawn. If I did nothing, I’d be dead before he hit the ground, so I made sure he didn’t.

“Stop,” I commanded, and he obeyed. He froze at that exact spot in the air and did not budge another inch.

“How can that be?” Aster shouted dramatically. “That’s the advanced-tier temporal spell Stop. Even I have only just recently learned that spell myself. How can she possibly know it?”

Again, it all went exactly as we planned. Aster was not a particularly great actor, but he was still genuinely confused over how I managed to learn such a spell, so he was believable enough. Plus, it helped that everyone’s attention was drawn to the giant of a man whom I had stopped in midair.

“I am curious,” I said from behind my fan. “What happens if he never hits the ground? Do I win by default?”

“Enough of this!” the prince shouted as he struck Atlas with a bit of divine magic. Obviously, he was attempting to eliminate the effect of my temporal magic rather than kill Atlas, but either way, this was a win for me. I had already stepped out of the way of Atlas’ swing, so his sword missed me and instead struck the ground with enough force to shatter it, though it wasn’t the only thing that hit the floor. Rather than performing an elegant landing, as he had expected, Atlas had instead collapsed onto the ground, while letting out a rather horrible scream.

“What did you do?” the prince screamed at me with eyes full of rage and worry.

“Surely you jest, your highness,” I replied with a teasing laugh. “You must know that your divine magic erases any magic it comes in contact with. That includes not only my spell but also Atlas’s own Boost spell, and without the protection that spell offers, his landing was quite a bit harder than he expected. Shall I end his pain?”

“Do it!” he ordered, seemingly on the verge of a breakdown.

“As you command,” I replied with a smile before walking over to Atlas, who, to his credit, was still trying to swing his sword at me, despite his multiple broken bones. I respected that, so I did as I promised. I delivered a swift kick to his head that knocked him unconscious.

“That’s for Sally,” I whispered, still irked that he had knocked her over, even if he didn’t remember it. Then I turned back to the prince and gave a sarcastic curtsey. “I have done as you asked. He is no longer in pain.”

Despite the brutality of the kick, I heard a few suppressed snickers behind me. It seemed the crowd was on my side, especially as the prince continued to devolve into madness. If I could just show off a few more moves and end things with a miracle, victory would be mine.

“That is technically a win on her part,” Aster commented, while attempting to sound as neutral as possible. This, too, had been part of our plan. Even with all my training, I knew that I stood no chance against the prince and Atlas together. However, by turning this into a duel, I was able to defeat Atlas first and then take my time with the prince.

“I don’t care!” the prince shot back. “I’ll find something to charge her with after she’s dead! Wait! Where did she go?”

To the prince, I had instantly disappeared, when really I was now standing right behind him and Holly. Atlas was always standing behind the prince, protecting his back, but with him out of the way, nobody noticed when I used Leap to teleport behind him. Even after taking several seconds to catch my breath, he was still utterly oblivious of my presence until I finally spoke up.

“You know. A king really shouldn’t look down on his people like this.”

The prince turned in shock toward me, but before he could utter a single word, I had already cast my next spell, Matter Consumption. A black, inky substance poured from my feet and quickly consumed the entire balcony beneath us, except for a small portion beneath the prince’s feet. It seemed his divine aura protected even his surroundings from the impact of magic. Still, as that portion of the floor had nothing beneath it, the result was the same. The prince fell alongside me, Holly, Aster, and Roman.

Roman had no warning and so landed hard on the ground beneath him. Nothing seemed broken, but the wind had been knocked out of him. Meanwhile, Aster and I knew this was coming, so we had plenty of time to both brace ourselves and ensure Holly had a smooth landing. She was still pregnant with a royal, after all, and we were desperate to avoid getting hit by the goddess’s curse. However, the prince seemed oblivious to this kind gesture and even to Holly’s entire existence. Instead, he was focused entirely on me.

“I’ll kill you!” he shouted. “Do you really think you can make a mockery of the royal family like that? I’ll kill you. I’ll execute your entire family and everyone your father ever trained. They’re all traitors.”

I won’t lie. Not even I was expecting him to go quite that mad. Was he really threatening to wipe out not only an entire noble line of dukes, but also almost every knight that had been trained in this country for the last thirty years? He must have known how ridiculous that was, especially since that included Atlas’s father, the head of the royal knights. At this point, I barely needed to show off a miracle. I had already likely turned the entire noble population against the prince. That should have been enough to guarantee my safety, but I had lived through this nightmare for long enough to know that it didn’t play fair. The prince would likely still kill me, even if it meant a revolution. To stop that from happening, I needed a shield, which meant I had to put my life on the line once more.

“That’s quite a bold claim,” I said with a casual shrug. “But I do wonder what the gods would say about such senseless bloodshed.”

“Silence!” he barked back. “I speak for the gods!”

With those words, the divine magic that had killed me more times than I could count was fired at me once again. It was fast, but I was ready for it. Using two different types of magic, I fired a rock at the prince. It struck his magic head-on, and then they both disappeared.

A strange silence filled the room after that. Nobody dared move or speak as they all tried to understand what they had just witnessed. The prince’s divine magic could neutralize any spell or kill anyone it touched. That was common knowledge, but I had fired my spell after the prince. He hadn’t been trying to cancel out anything. He’d been trying to kill me, which meant his divine magic should’ve obliterated my spell and struck me dead, but it hadn’t. Instead, I had somehow neutralized his magic.

“What was that about speaking for the gods?” I asked mockingly. My words broke the prince through whatever stupor he’d fallen into after his spell failed and he tried again. The results were the same. My spell struck his and seemingly neutralized it. Even the third time he tried, nothing changed.

“How is this possible?” the prince practically growled. “I wield the power of the gods!”

“So do I,” I shot back as loudly as I could. “Lord Logos has seen my struggles and blessed me with a miracle. Your divine power holds no sway over me any longer.”

“That’s...absurd,” the prince argued, but without an ounce of confidence. He looked scared, terrified of what this supposed power could do and what it meant if he was no longer invincible.

“It is not,” Aster declared as he stepped forward. “I have witnessed the acts performed by Lady Liliana this night, and as the high priest of the Church of Logos, I declare them to be a miracle, enacted by Lord Logos himself, in recognition of her considerable efforts. Such a feat is unprecedented within the church’s history, and so on this day, I am making an unprecedented declaration. Lady Liliana, will you honor my church by becoming our first saint?”

“What?” the prince asked in a shocked whisper that was nearly drowned out by the gasps throughout the room. “This is madness. Your church has no saint!”

“We have never chosen to elect one before now, but our laws are clear and recognized by this country,” Aster responded solemnly. “Should both our church and the people recognize a saint, then she is offered all the same protections and authority as the Saint of Eros.”

“Ha, you fool,” the prince countered. “Who would possibly recognize a lazy shut-in like her as a saint of anywhere?”

I didn’t bother to answer, but instead turned to face the people who had witnessed this entire night and seen the madness of the prince. Even now, there was a significant danger in siding against the royal family, and given how utterly unhinged he had become, they might not even leave this room alive. If they were to join my side, they needed a reason, and I could only hope that I had given them one.

“Who stands with me?” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

A hand raised and then another. One by one, every hand went up all around me. This time it wasn’t just my patients. It was everyone, and there was a good reason for that. This time, I had completed every side quest that this stupid game had to offer.