Chapter 4

Centuries of so-called “immortality,” and I’ve never been so tired.

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Kai stood, dumbfounded as the Shadowy Minotaur pointed its axe at him. Expectant. Waiting.

The Minotaur lowered the weapon, then stepped toward the villagers, who had sought shelter near the rear of the village. The remaining fighters protecting them closed ranks, gripping their weapons and glaring at the Shadow. It chuckled.

“I could crush them without a second thought,” the Minotaur said, its voice echoing, wisps of darkness flowing from its pierced lips as it spoke. Its eyes flicked to Kai once more. “You wouldn’t want that weighing on your conscience, would you?”

“What do you want with him?” Brannick demanded.

“That doesn’t concern you,” the Minotaur said, sneering. “But if you insist on interfering, it will cost you. Your village, perhaps?" It's glowing eyes narrowed. "Your family?”

Panicked, Kai looked to Lydia, who met his gaze as she hid in her mother’s embrace. The villagers all trembled, with some trying to shuffle away. The Minotaur huffed and took another, almost miniscule step forward, and a few of them fell as if from a shockwave of terror.

Kai felt that terror. Hell, right now he wanted more than anything to just get away.

True, he might survive, but knowing what he had condemned them to, living with it, could he truly call that being alive? Kai’s lips quivered, but he dipped his head and stepped forward.

Then a firm, muscled arm reached out to hold him back.

Kai looked up, blinking as Brannick withdrew his arm and gripped his halberd with both hands, himself stepping forward. “No.”

“What are you doing, Brannick?” Kai asked. “He’s going to kill you. And everyone!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Brannick said. “He won’t have you.”

“You barely know me,” Kai said with a frown. “Isn’t it better that I should die instead of everyone here?”

Brannick fell silent for a moment. Then he clenched his jaw, gripping his halberd. “I’ve spent most of my life trading a greater evil for the lesser. People that make those choices try to soothe their ego by telling themselves that it was the only choice. But really, it's all the same. They end up with a hell of their own making one way or the other.”

He stopped to take a breath, glaring at the Minotaur, who almost seemed amused. “If there’s anything I learned during my time in hell, is that there’s only one way to escape it: to do my best to do what’s right. No matter what it costs me.”

Over by the crowd, Kai could see Lydia, wiping a tear from her cheek with a small, hesitant smile. Brannick returned it, then faced the Minotaur again.

“So that's my answer, beast. You can’t have him.”

The Minotaur huffed, then approached, each footstep shaking the ground. Kai backed up slightly, but Brannick stayed resolute. The Minotaur’s thick brows furrowed.

“So be it.”

The Minotaur swept its axe. Brannick intercepted the attack with his halberd, bracing the opposite flat of the blade with his palm, before knocking the axe away and preparing to land a strike of his own.

The Minotaur backhanded Brannick and sent the man flying. The halberd clattered to the cobblestone, and the Minotaur picked it up, imbuing it with Shadow. It turned its burning gaze to Kai and swung it down.

Kai sidestepped, barely dodging the strike. The Minotaur ripped it from the ground, swung it across, and Kai dropped to avoid it, landing on his back and scooting away.

The Minotaur smirked. It readied the halberd one more time, aiming the small, shadow-infused point at the top of the blade directly at Kai.

It struck, but strangely, Kai didn’t feel it puncture him. He looked up, eyes widening as he saw someone else hovering over him.

Brannick had taken the blow for him.

The Minotaur yanked the tip of the halberd out from Brannick’s back, leaving the man standing, eyes wide. Those eyes met Kai’s, and Kai began to see Shadows creeping from behind him, slowly taking him over.

“NO!” Lydia screamed, trying to run but being held back by her mother.

Brannick looked over to his family, tears streaming down his eyes as he mouthed something. He turned back to Kai.

“Promise me something.” The corrupting Shadows reached his cheeks and were crawling their way into his eyes. “Protect my family…like I protected you. Please.”

Kai swallowed and barely nodded. Brannick’s eyes unfocused until at last, the Shadows took him completely, and those unfocused eyes became a glowing, sinister red. The now-corrupted Brannick took a step back, head bowed.

“Fool,” the Minotaur hissed. “Do you see what happens when the Shadows are defied, Kai? It can’t be stopped. It can’t be resisted. If you try, it will take everything from you.” The Minotaur gripped the halberd and approached the villagers. “A lesson Brannick here will soon learn. For all his bravado earlier, now he can do nothing but watch.”

Kai’s throat tightened as the Minotaur stood in front of the terrified crowd. One of the defenders screamed and charged with a pitchfork but was picked up and easily tossed away. A second swung with a shovel, but it merely clanged against the muscled leg of the Minotaur and snapped at the shaft.

They were running out of people to defend them. They were going to die, and Kai couldn’t do a damn thing.

No, he could do more. But that would mean Kai would probably die too.

A third and fourth member of the group attacked the Minotaur but were smashed aside. A fifth struck with her staff but was promptly crushed.

After that, nobody else challenged the Minotaur. The group was wide open. The Minotaur scowled, and raised the halberd to strike down Brannick’s wife first. Kai closed his eyes.

I’m sorry. I—

Kai.

Kai froze. That voice. Emily’s?

Remember, Kai.

“Remember what?” he whispered.

Remember who you are….and who you always wanted to be.

Images of their early days flashed through his mind, the ones spent doodling, writing, fantasizing about their other lives in Astraven, one where they were heroes—protecting the weak. Guarding against evil. Of course, they were kids back then. That had just been in their imagination. Pretend.

But what if it didn’t have to be?

Time seemed to freeze as the Minotaur held the weapon aloft. This was it. This was his moment to act. Gritting his teeth, Kai charged and planted himself in front of Brannick’s family and the villagers, strange particles of blue light beginning to form around him.

He didn’t focus on that. Right now, that halberd was swinging down, and Kai knew that if it did, someone would die.

Kai readied his blade and swept sideways with his sword, meeting the Minotaur’s weapon mid-strike. The pressure worked against him, sending his own blade back toward his head.

Kai put everything he had into pushing the strike away. That mysterious blue light grew stronger, then it solidified and began to take shape around his blade. His body surging with strength, Kai managed to force it back, little by little as the Minotaur’s red eyes widened.

With a scream, Kai shoved the Minotaur and his weapon, sending the behemoth stumbling back. When it managed to recover, it stared at him in disbelief, before stomping its foot and shattering the air with a deafening roar.

Kai’s almost flinched. His arms stung, and his knees threatened to buckle. That block had practically taken everything out of him.

Even so, with his sword raised, his arms quivering, he stood.

His HUD flashed as the rest of his stats finally filled out:

<<Class Unlocked: Paladin>>

<<Constitution +8>>

<<Bravery +9>>

Bravery. He stared at it for a moment, slack jawed, before shaking his head and turning his attention back to the Minotaur.

No. This can wait. Right now….

The Minotaur charged again, halberd raised. Though his body wanted to give out, Kai bent his knees, grit his teeth, and readied himself.

The wind whistled sharply, followed by the sound of clanking metal, and suddenly a figure with glowing silver armor, a red cape, and long amethyst hair that trailed down her back was in front of Kai.

Before the beast could even react, a whirlwind of flame and light erupted from the side and engulfed the Minotaur. They vanished and the Minotaur’s head snapped toward the direction of the attack. A blonde-haired man in simple, dark blue robes with white linings emerged from between two of the buildings, hand raised, glowing arcane symbols hovering and spinning in front of him.

The Minotaur growled and gripped its weapon tighter as it sized up the two newcomers.

“Go on, Vielfiend,” the man said, smirking. “Try your luck. Between a Battlemage and one of the Realm’s Champions, your odds don’t look very good.”

The Minotaur growled, but ultimately shrunk back, turning away and sprinting out of the village. The corrupted Brannick moved to run after it but briefly stopped and stared at Lydia and Rosalina.

“Father…” Kai heard Lydia whisper behind him, gasping for air between sobs. “Please.”

The Shadow-Brannick briefly froze. Then, body shaking, it turned and ran after the Minotaur, disappearing into the darkness of the night.

Lydia collapsed. Kai knelt next to her and drew her in for a hug.

“I’m sorry, Lydia.”

Kai released her. Her mother knelt and rested her chin on the top of her daughter’s head.

His fists clenched. It didn’t seem fair that Lydia should lose her father all for the sake of a stranger who wasn’t even from their world. Maybe if he’d just been faster than Brannick and let himself take that blow and be corrupted by Shadow.

Lydia continued to sob along with her mother. Kai clenched his jaw, feeling his own tears begin to fall.

Damn it. Damn it! I—

A thought came to him. He remembered just before the battle, when Brannick had first been telling him about the Shadows.

It seems like nothing aside from the Light of the Goddess herself can truly purge the shadows from a host. And even that’s just theoretical.

Theoretical, sure. But possible.

“I’ll get him back,” Kai whispered.

Lydia blinked. “What?”

“Your father,” Kai said. “I’ll find a way to free him.”

Lydia exchanged an unsure glance with her mother. “Kai…I don’t think…”

“I swear it, Lydia!” Kai said. “I’ll purge the Shadows from your father and bring him back to you!”

Lydia stared at him, wide-eyed. The crowd began to murmur, with something looking at him with doubt, others with pity.

A gasp rolled through them.

Kai looked up at them quizzically before he finally noticed. Around him, that blue light that had come to his aid was swirling around him, with some sinking into his body, healing his wounds and rejuvenating him. Eyes narrowing, Kai studied it.

What is this?

A glow brighter than the others shook Kai from his thoughts. He raised his sword, staring at the blade as it brimmed with that same light, only a thousand times more focused. Kai stared at it, then saw his HUD flash.

<<Achievement: Oathgiver>>

<<Subclass Unlocked!>>

Kai’s eyes widened, and the swirling blue lights began to orbit him and the blade faster. Under those words, another set began to slowly materialize as if etched into the air by a pen with ink made of light itself. He focused on it, trying to make out the word as it formed.

SP…

SPELL…

SPELLBLA…

“Spellblade,” Kai whispered. He turned to the villagers, seeing the looks they were giving him. Some regarded him with wariness, though others eyed him with something else: Disbelief. Awe. Hope.

As the glow of the arcane faded from Kai’s hands, something within him solidified—like a weapon being tempered in fire. This wasn’t just a step forward; this was rebirth. He could feel the energy humming under his skin, and for the first time since arriving in this world, he felt more than the wretch he was before.

For the first time in a long time, Kai felt like a warrior.