Desperate Struggle! All-Out Battle Against the Champion of Midas!

Fiona charged in with her war hammer, Meredith sending a spell to the weapon to set it aflame.

Demerius ducked around, bobbing and weaving around Fiona’s assault before grabbing the flaming hammer and crushing it with one hand.

Fiona swung the other end of the hammer to strike with the pommel, only for Demerius to shatter the handle with a single motion.

Demerius then grabbed her horn and yanked her towards him. “My first decree will be farming more soybeans. Roasted soybeans will be the snack of the peasantry. There won’t be a town you or any of your kind can set foot in.”

“Let go of my horn,” Fiona hissed, “and I’ll make sure you die quick.”

Demerius slung her into the ground horn first, leaving her face down in a Fiona-shaped crater.

Meredith spouted an endless wave of flame, engulfing the Prince inside his armor. “I’ll cook you alive, you ungrateful jumped-up mistake!”

The Prince’s ring began firing into the ground, turning more and more of the countryside into gold. With each expansion of Midas’s gift, Demerius looked less and less affected by the fire licking at his flesh.

Demerius calmly stepped forward and grabbed Meredith by the neck. “Just die already and save me the time.” A single punch to Meredith’s stomach sent her careening to the ground.

That was when he saw Kira applying her healing magic to Kyle. She looked to be exerting herself hard, covered in sweat. “Oh, my dear fiancé, do you have eyes for another man?”

He marched towards Kari to put a stop to that nonsense, only for pillars of earth to erupt around him and push themselves in.

Abagail’s wand shook with how hard she was focusing. “I’ll be a dead woman before I let you kill them.”

In an instant, the pillars turned to gold. Demerius leapt out of the earth trap, grabbing Abagail by the shoulders and hip and lifting her over his head. “That will be arranged.”

He brought down Abagail upon his knee, and while he didn’t feel her spine snap he knew she would not get up any time soon.

That just left Kari, who was panting for breath. “Sir Kyle, please…. It is all up to you. I know that god chose you for a reason. You must show us why.”

She leaned in towards his face only to be pulled back by Demerius. “My dear. Tell me. What can a peasant have that I do not already possess?”

“It would take less time to list the things he does not have,” she gasped. “Sir Kyle is a thousand times the man you could ever hope to be.”

Demerius threw her to the side. “And yet he still loses.”

He watched Kyle slowly rouse himself, pulling himself up with great effort.

“Look at you,” Demerius told Kyle. “Pathetic. All of that effort. Those thoughts of defying the system, starting over. My Grand Company has no need for people like you.”

-----

Midas laughed as he watched the scene play out before him, his golden teeth shining with each laugh. “Do you not see, Metis? The power that my chosen possesses? No man can defeat him. No chosen of the gods has a prayer against him.”

Metis was quiet.

“Your chosen put up a valiant effort,” Midas continued. “Not that it would have made a difference either way. But you chose poorly. You should have picked another soul, or another life to give him. He was doomed from the start.”

Metis said nothing.

It infuriated Midas. “Come on. Don’t be a sore loser. At least say something, let me enjoy my victory.”

“You haven't won yet,” said Metis.

Midas didn’t believe her. “Even with my chosen’s army defeated, your chosen’s allies have all fallen. My chosen has yours by the neck. There is no hope for you left.”

“And yet he lives.” Metis bit into a chocolate bar. “As long as he draws breath, I’m still in the game.”

“For all of two seconds,” Midas pointed out. “All he has left is the ring. He can’t cast a spell that will harm my chosen. He has no more inventions to play. You can live in denial all you want, Metis, but face reality – you failed!”

-----

Kyle looked at his surroundings, how so much gold had given Demerius power. Everyone had given so much to give him one last chance.

That was when he did something no one – not the gods, not the women who were barely conscious, not Demerius – expected. He started to laugh.

It threw Demerius off guard. This peasant dared to laugh at him? In his moment of tragedy?

“What’s so funny,” he hissed.

“It’s just,” Kyle wheezed, “I caused you so much trouble. Don’t you really want to let off some steam?”

Demerius raised an eyebrow. “I’m about to. When I kill you.”

“Is it really enough to kill me, though?” Kyle asked. “You killed our mayor ten years ago. I still rose up against you. What do you think you should’ve done instead?”

Demerius wasn’t sure why Kyle was talking, but let him keep shooting off his mouth. What could he do now?

Kyle smiled. “It wasn’t enough to burn him alive. You need to make a bigger example. Go bigger.”

The Prince considered Kyle’s words, looking at his garnet ring. He’d caused him so much of a hassle that this felt too easy. Which meant he wanted to go over and beyond to celebrate this one.

He began blasting the land all around, turning more and more of the land into a golden scene. The grass, the earth, all remade in the image of Midas.

Demerius grinned. “You’re a glutton for punishment, Kyle. But you have a point. Creating this much gold just to kill you and destroy your village. That will put a smile on my face. And add zeroes to my treasury.”

Kyle looked to the sky, then to Demerius. “I think it would.” But he started laughing again.

The laughter. Demerius was becoming convinced that Kyle was either mad or laughing at him. No one laughed at him. Least of all this loser.

“Getting out all your hyucks before I kill you?”

“No, it’s just… something hilarious. See, I know something you don’t.” Kyle grinned.

“What could you possibly think is funny?" sneered Demerius. "Because there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

“I know. You’ve turned the entire area into gold," he sputtered out between laughs.

Demerius grabbed Kyle by the shoulders, shaking him. “Then what’s so funny?!”

“It’s something a friend told me.”

A great roar rent the skies, the beating of wings moving the clouds in the heavens. Something’s attention had been drawn to this place.

“‘The greater the gold, the stronger the smell’.”