Chapter 9: Will

Ryder limped down the street, his left leg and right shoulder screaming in agony. What Ryder wanted most was to rest. Just to leave everything be and wait for his normal life to return. It was not like he owed them anything.

The clacking of his cane echoed in the empty street accompanied by the heels of the princess beside him.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay back? Things can get dangerous.”

“If there is one person who needs to stay back right now, it is you. I will allow you to insult me back on the roof, but not now that you’re in worse shape than I am.”

Ryder ignored her and continued to walk. A few moments later, he finally stopped.

He could see the carnage being wrought at the shore: the people screaming and crying while running for their lives, the soldiers being slowly pushed back by the ever-increasing horde of merfolk that were being backed by a Loong. Three nagas followed along, wreaking havoc across the beach. The Knights could handle the nagas, but not a Loong at the same time. The soldiers and Squires had no chance at all.

Dark red clouds enveloped the sky. The sun turned a blood-red hue as the Loong exercised its will onto the world. The red sky began to cry tears of blood.

Ryder clicked his tongue. The shadow spirit would take longer to kill and the merfolk would not die so easily from dehydration. It was as if it was night.

Arulia buckled, her knees scratching against the pavement. She covered her mouth as she lurched from the overwhelming scent of blood.

Her prophecy was this scene before her. An invisible force clenched her heart.

The city of Breen had fallen. Arulia had failed.

“It’s over.”

Ryder looked towards the horizon. Indeed, from anyone’s point of view, this would be the end of Breen. The citizens had nowhere to go. On one side, the Rot was there to devour them. On the other, an amalgamation of shadow spirits was there, attempting to devour the Paladins it was fighting. It was going to be a massacre.

“Is this everything you saw?”

Arulia nodded. Her sky blue eyes had dimmed, her hair and dress were drenched with blood.

Ryder continued to limp towards the coast.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you think? I am going to help.”

“I don’t understand. It is over.”

“It is not.”

“These aren’t your citizens, you know!”

“I do.”

“And those that were despised and feared you with all their gut!”

“I know.”

“All of us caused your suffering. The Empire’s ambitions forced you to fight! The Republic killed everything you love! Even if they are not soldiers, it doesn’t change the fact that we all would cheer the day you die!”

“Yes.”

“So why?”

Ryder met Arulia’s distraught gaze. His two-faced mask seemed inhuman and neutral. Its smile looked forced and fake. He stretched out his left hand before patting her head.

For a while, he saw that girl once more: that girl with silver hair and white dress that seemed to smile wherever she went, the light of the Sun following her every move.

Ryder pulled out his tarot deck and shuffled. He had no more mana, so he would have to borrow it. He drew three cards.

The first had a face depicting a Queen with an ankh staff, the Empress. That should keep his body intact.

The second had a naked woman dancing within a ring of all sorts of plants, carrying two white rods, her privates covered with a long swathe of white cloth. An eagle, a tiger, a tortoise, and a man watched over her from the clouds. The World… It should temporarily give him the mana he needed.

The final card was different from the rest. The image on the face was a lot more detailed as if it was a piece of Ryder’s memory. A silver-haired girl wearing a beautiful white dress clutched a sheathed golden sword with both hands, her skin glowing underneath the radiant Sun atop her.

This was her last gift to him.

“I made a promise to someone: to treat the world with the love that she could not.”

Ryder stood up straight, the pain having subsided. He unsheathed the canesword, revealing a radiant flame beneath. He fixed his mask, the smile glowing in the scarlet shade.

“And I intend on keeping it.”

For a moment, Arulia could see the Sun gazing down at Ryder.

***

Ezra stumbled as he cut down another merfolk. He was exhausted and his muscles were screaming. However, he could not take a moment to catch his breath. As the ground shook, Ezra kicked himself away. A serpentine pillar burst from the ground, snapping its jaws on the merfolk corpse.

The naga’s reptilian red eyes pierced Ezra with malice and bloodlust. Ezra pushed himself off just as the naga charged towards him again. The sharp pointed snout of the naga dug through the sand as Ezra continued to run. He blasted merfolk after merfolk while dodging the serpent.

Unfortunately, the Star could only focus on an opponent that Ezra could see. As the naga was constantly burrowing into the sand, he found himself dodging into a horde of merfolk which he then was forced to kill before the naga burst out to catch him again.

As Ezra attempted to channel his mana into the pistol once more, he suddenly felt a surge of pain in his body as if his blood vessels were popping. Ezra coughed out blood and barely dodged the naga. However, he would not be able to dodge the naga any longer.

Ezra groaned as the naga glared at him, baring its serrated teeth as its lip almost curved into a smile. It charged with its maw opened.

Ezra closed his eyes and prepared to feel the pain of his torso being ripped from his legs.

…

Ezra felt warm, as if he was basking in the Sun. He opened his eyes as he heard the naga crash down around him. Its body was split down the middle, revealing its seared organs for Ezra to see.

That was not what Ezra focused on though. Instead, it was a man with auburn hair tied into a ponytail with an evergreen hair tie. The man was wearing civilian clothing and his wounds seemed to be debilitating, but he was standing normally as if it was not affecting him.

What stood out the most was the two-faced mask, one half white and the other black.

The black and red eyes of the man’s mask turned towards Ezra. The Sun seemed brighter and the world seemed to be bending for this man.

A Paladin. But Ezra knew no Paladin with a mask like this man’s.

“Retreat. I will take care of this,” the man’s voice said in a somber tone before staring at the Loong blocking out the Sun.

Ezra felt himself being pulled away from the man. He looked behind him. It was Captain Merit.

“Captain! We’re saved!”

The captain did not seem ecstatic though. He scowled at the masked Paladin as if he was looking at a new threat.

“Damn us all.”

“Captain?”

“Ezra, have you ever seen a battle between gods?”

Ezra shook his head.

“Well, you are going to see one right now.”

***

A battle between Paladins was not one of skill at first. After all, skill means effort and effort means more energy spent. No, a battle between those touched by divinity starts with a battle of Will.

Whose domain was larger?

Who could bend the world’s laws more than the other?

Who is closer to being a god than the other?

For most battles, a battle was already won at that stage.

The Loong, despite being a slave to the Rot and the Siren Queen, still retained the Will it had before it became corrupted. It had brought rain to alleviate famines and floods to punish insolent rulers. The waters bowed to the Loong’s Will and he could manipulate it as it wished.

Its roar was that of thunder, destroying the walls of the city, the waters were sharpened into blades that cut open insolent humans that had dared to defy it, and the tides slowed the rest for the others to slaughter.

It was a Loong, a son of the Embracer, and had embraced the Waters themselves. What could pesky mortals do against one of the primordial elements?

Those mortals had retreated. However, so did the rest of Her Majesty’s subjects. One man stood between the bisected remains of one of those impostor species. He was alone, facing a Loong: a fool.

A chill ran down the Loong’s spine. How could he feel… fear? It was just one pest and he dared make the Loong feel fear?

Thus, the Loong’s pride that had remained despite the corruption and his subserviant nature to Her Majesty spoke.

“Who are you to stand before me?”

It was a booming voice, almost like thunder. Mortals would find every orifice bleeding from hearing his voice, their knees would buckle from the added pressure. However, this fool continued to stand tall.

He looked up at the Loong.

“Who are you to speak?” the fool asked.

The Sun that the Loong had blocked out so easily now scorched its back. The water began to recede, no, it was evaporating.

The fool raised his sword at the Loong, a radiant burning sword. The Loong felt its mother’s presence. To see her being wielded like a toy, the Loong burned with rage.

The Loong opened his four jaws. The water around the Loong began to coagulate into a sphere, whether it be from the sea, blood, or sweat. The fool would perish. It was by the Loong’s Will, honed for millenia, long before this fool had his first life.

Know only regret.

The Sun became brighter. The Loong felt weaker as water leaked from the sphere and evaporated.

The radiant flames had grown immense, turning the sand into molten glass. But that was impossible. Such flames should have incinerated the fool, even if he was touched by the Sun. That was when the Loong felt it: two Wills.

One was the Will of the Sun, to burn the darkness away.

And the other was a Will that the Loong had never seen before, something far older than that of the World’s, something that stretched farther than Fate, blending reality with that of legend.

Perhaps the Loong was the fool. After all, what could a primordial element do against the very concept that defined its nature and gave it its name?

The world closed its eyes as a blinding light streaked towards the Loong. Even the darkness of closed eyes was burned away. When the darkness returned, the world opened its eyes.

Ezra blinked as he stared at the bisected clouds and a bright blue sky. Then, he looked at the ocean and his heart stopped. The ocean had split in two, a noticeable burn streaking through the barren soil where the waters would not touch. Eventually, the ocean reluctantly rejoined itself, but it was exhausted and still.

The masked Paladin knelt on glass. His sword fell as the Paladin lost consciousness. The day grew dim and the Sun began to set, its light diffusing into a soft twilight blue. The confused stars blinked awake.