Home-Field Advantage

When the explosions rocked the town below, Lionel had me join the torrent of soldiers making their way to the armory. The original plan was to walk me personally to the armory to get better arms and armor, but obviously that was no longer an option. He had also dispatched Tonya to retrieve Lucius, that acolyte I saw protecting Tonya at the dinner weeks prior.

Panicking soldiers were running in both directions along the stone hallway, and others in gray tunics were guiding the crowd and pushing soldiers to move faster in both directions. I could see men running that were missing helmets, leg armor, and even their breastplates.

“Come on, man, strap it on tighter!”
“Grab your armor and weapons, and move it back out to the staging area! If you can't get it on in under a minute - leave it behind! Move!”

The chaos of it all wasn't alleviated much when we finally reached the armory. It was a huge, open room with nearly the entirely of the wall lined with open lockers reserved for each soldier of the garrison. Rows upon rows of various weapons and armor sat upon their stands in the middle of the room, with some stands being entirely empty as the occupied ones were being emptied by frantic soldiers. Just as a constant stream entered the room from its various entrances, another was leaving.

I ducked and weaved through the room, avoiding being trampled by the crowd, and eventually found the Armorer that I'd been told about.

“Yes? What do you want?!” The Armorer was flustered, sweating, and was nearly screaming at me to be heard over noise of the room.

“I-I need a set of soldier's armor, a shield, and a short sword!” I blurted out, repeating Lionel's instructions verbatim.

He nodded and yelled at his assistants, which were standing on the far ends of the counter and yelling out instructions to the soldiers below, to assist me with my needs. They hopped down and led me to the various stands that were in the middle of the room.

Bit-by-bit, they took off the training armor that I'd been wearing, throwing it down where we stood, and quickly attached hardier equivalents. They had no time to care about comfort, simply tightening down the leather straps of the pieces and erring on the side of it nearly being too tight. It all came out to be just like my armor during training, except shinier and armor also encompassed my upper arms and thighs. The helmet was different, too: the fins were missing, and composed of a heavier metal and flexible plates covering the entirety of my jawline.

Once the armor was equipped, they gave me a small, round shield and a short sword before pushing me out of the room.

The pace of the outgoing crowd had grown to a run, and I decided to check out the stats of my new equipment while I followed everyone back out into the courtyard.

Common Soldier Armor (Combat) Equipped

25% Physical Defense

Common Buckler (Metallic) Equipped

5% Physical Defense, +1 Agility

Common Short Sword (Sharpened) Equipped

21 Points of Attack Damage

I found out that my natural physical defense rating increases as I level up, and that added another 3% on top of the rating given by the armor and clothes. All in all, it's roughly double defense rating as when I first began training. Plus it gives me an agility boost.

Pretty good.

The sword, though... I don't know how good that damage is, but I'll find out soon.

There was another bar on my HUD, though, with a shield symbol. Apparently it meant that my shield has a finite lifetime, and as it dwindles the physical rating will decrease, going to zero once it empties.

Once we got closer to the courtyard, I closed out of the information windows. There was only roughly a dozen people present when the explosions went off, but there was now a few hundred. I struggled to look over the the assembled soldiers, shoving and pushing my way to my party once I finally saw them. They were along the wall of the courtyard, opposite to a set of large wooden doors that led to the town below.

Once I finally reached them, Tonya also returned from the castle with Lucius in-tow. His hood was up at the time of the dinner, but now it was down. He had a long, gaunt face and seemed somewhat arrogant from first-glance.

“Good to finally meet you, Hero. I am Lucius, First Acolyte of the Cult of the Chosen. Sorry that we had to meet in such circumstances.”

I was going to introduce myself but got shushed by Tonya before I could begin. She pointed at the ramparts above the door, where there was a middle-aged man approaching, flanked on both sides by a Royal Guard. His face screamed life-time soldier, complete with sharp features and a mustache. Apparently he was just as caught off guard as we were - under his highly ornate armor, his baby blue sleepwear was visible underneath. He was followed by a group of what were probably high-ranked soldiers.

“Who's that?” I whispered to the group.

“That man is the supreme commander of all of Aquila's forces, as well as what remains from the outside, Lord Commander Jon Demeter. We got word that General Ari, the commander of the capital's defenses, was killed in one of those explosions.” Lionel responded grimly.

As soon has Lionel finished, the Lord Commander began. The crowd went silent.

“Gentlemen, we are under attack from a Darkness cult! We don't know how they got in, but it doesn't jolly matter!” He yelled out to the crowd, he had a roughness that I didn't expect for someone in his position.

He was speaking fast.

“Those madmen are currently at work burning our town to the ground and killing everything they can! Their forces are concentrating their efforts, however, at three locations: the Cult of the Chosen, the Royal Temple, and they've attempting to seize the front gate and keep our allies out! We are already locked in battle at these locations, and they need reinforcement! Captains!”

Three men with armor clad in blue capes responded.

“Each of you will take your forces to one of these three locations and break the cult's attack!”

He proceeded to assign a location to each of the three men.

Tonya was wearing a helmet that covered all, only exposing her eyes through a narrow slit. But I could feel the anxiety emanating from her. Lucius had lost his arrogant air, and was visibly distressed.

“Hero!” Demeter called out. “Split your party up likewise, and assist with the defense!”

“Yes, Lord Commander!” I responded.

“Good. Time of the essence, Gentlemen! It's already been 10 minutes since the attack began, and they've already made themselves at home! Give them a proper welcome!” The doors leading out began to open.

The army in the courtyard roared to life, yelling in excitement, and began pouring out as soon as the doors opened up enough.

“We need to defend the Temple, brother! We need to save Sanguine!” Tonya cried out in desperation.

“We will, dear sister. We will.” Lionel assured her. “Me and her will go to the Temple, and assist the Royal Guards already in battle.”

“Right then. Me, Stormbreaker, and Nicia will assist in the battle for the gates. I think we'll need little ol' Stormie here if they've already taken the gate controls.” Maximilian laughed dryly, patting the back of the mountain of a man who was glaring down at him.

“I guess that leaves me, Apollo, and Lucius...” I said.

“Don't fret, Hero, Lucius is the best Acolyte you'll meet and I'm not such a bad swordsman myself!” Apollo said, winking at me when he finished.

With ours plans now settled, we followed the soldiers out of the courtyard, running behind them.

Leaving the garrison, we ran as fast as we could down the hill and followed the stone road towards the town. Terrified civilians ran in the opposite direction as us once they saw the garrison doors open. Looking further down the road, we saw what they were running from.

Men in black robes, joined by men who were half-naked with strange symbols all over their body, were torching buildings along that led to the garrison. Some were only armed with fists while others had two-handed warhammers. When they saw the army approaching, they started howling and screaming as they began their sprint in our direction.

As we ran to meet them, a squadron of horse-mounted soldiers ran alongside us on the grass. The Lord Commander and his gold-armored bodyguards led the charge, sword's already drawn, and in an instant, they passed us and ran straight into the mob.

Those lunatics flew aside like bowling-ball pins and were in greater disarray.

If...if I didn't know any better, it almost sounded like the mob reveled in the pain inflicted on them.

“These madmen are nothing, lower than the dirt beneath your boots! Drive them out of our home, men! To battle!” The Lord Commander cried out, as his horse stomped on the cultists and as he slashed away.

The defenders once more roared in excitement, and steamrolling past what was left of the mob. By the time we got to them, they were all already dead or dying.

Further up the road, entering the town proper, the defenders split up, with the horse-mounted defenders proceeding straight ahead. Straight ahead was one of the capital's gates, with a myriad of cultists in the way. Taking a left meant heading towards the Cult of the Chosen's temple, and to the right meant going to the Royal Temple.

In either case, it meant much, much smaller roads.

Wishing each other the best, we all split up towards our decided objectives.

Me and Apollo, with Lucius immediately behind us, started wading through the smaller streets that led to the Chosen's temple. Terrified townspeople were still running opposite to us. Since some of them were looking back to see if they were being followed, they ran into us more than once, and nearly knocked me down a couple of those times.

We turned a corner only find an entire block on fire. We tried to push our way through it, like the civilians had somehow been able to, but I started feeling like I couldn't breathe. I feel to my knees and the coughing got even worse, even though I was underneath the smoke. Apollo took some rags from out of his pockets and Lucius poured water on them. Pressing it against my mouth and nose, they both picked me up and we eventually made it past the fires, and into a now burned-out section of the city.

The Chosen's temple was a considerable distance from the garrison, given the huge size of the capital, but we still covering ground fairly quickly. But the number of fleeing townspeople dwindled as we went on, and the number of dead strewn about gradually increased.

Eventually the streets were deserted of all but bodies in-between burned-out buildings.

I felt sick.

As the streets were now empty, we started running as fast as we could to cover those final three blocks. The sudden sound of a child screaming behind us startled us and, since all the surrounded us was death, we decided to turn back towards the source of the scream.

As we ran back towards the direction of the scream, we saw a teenage boy carrying what was probably his little sister in his arms bolt out of an alleyway on the far end of the long street. About midway, he tripped on a rock and fell over, and the girl's screaming got so much worse.

We were sprinting in their direction when we saw a man in black robes and ragged, black hair casually stroll out of the alleyway. He reached in his robes and he brought a curved dagger to his mouth, licking the flat of the blade.

“Oh...you're a bit old, boy, but you'll make a good sacrifice, nonetheless...” He hissed, as the two desperately crawled away from him. “But you...girl...” He was licked his lips, “...your soft little body...you'll be the perfect...plaything...” He laughed.

I pictured Haruka in that moment.

As we closed in, Apollo grabbed one of the many small blades that lined his breastplate and hurled it straight at the man.

“Play with this, you bastard!”

The man turned to us, his face soured, and threw his hand towards Apollo.

“Ah!” Apollo was frozen in-place, with only his eyes able to move, and the knife that he threw stopped, suspended in the air.

“Take care, hero! Dark acolytes are extremely dangerous!” I didn't pay Lucius warning any mind, and upped the ante on my sprint towards the monster.

“You're a fools! Your souls will know nothing but agony for raising your blade against one favored by the Dark Lord himself!”

I ignored his warning, too.

The intentions he had for those two were beyond foul. Beyond even the cruelest intentions one human could have for another.

For the sake of his other “playthings,” he'll die.

I threw my buckler down, and leaped into the air towards the figure and threw all my weigh into the sword, stabilizing it by the pommel with my now free hand. He threw his other arm in my direction.

I could feel some unseen force pushing against me, but I pushed forward and kept moving. But, I could myself slowing and it seemed like I was about to stop just like Apollo.

“Yes...” He began a smug laugh. “Your cries of agony will feed the Dark Lord!”

No! No, I can't stop!

I screamed. I screamed like I had never screamed before, and began pushing myself forward with all the strength I could muster. All of my focus was on that “man” before me.

I began moving faster.

“No...it can't be! You...!”

He threw all of his power in my direction. I could hear both Apollo and his thrown blade fall to the ground, but in an instant any resistance ceased and I hit him, planting my sword straight through his chest.

“You...can't be...” He gurgled out, before blood began running down from his mouth.

I put my hand on his chest and pulled my sword out. A layer of crimson blood remained on my sword's blade.

I sat over the body, looking at the bloody sword. I tried to stand back up but my legs felt like jelly and I ended up stumbling backwards, right on my ass.

My hands, no, my whole body was shaking once I realized what I had just done.

I...I...I just killed someone! Not just a digital creature or some mindless monster - but a living, breathing human! This wasn't what I was expecting, I wasn't ready to kill someone!

My stomach started convulsing, and I turned over to let out the torrent of vomit that had just risen up.

Once I finished, I saw a pair of leather boots approach. I looked up to see Apollo guiding his throwing knife back into its sheath with one hand and holding his sword and my buckler in the other.

“You did a good thing just now, even if it doesn't feel like it.” He transferred my buckler to his left hand. “As bad as it sounds – it does get easier. Much easier after this. And if that's what it takes to stop the darkness from doing things like he was describing, then you had better get used to it.” He held out his hand to help me up, and I took it. Once I was on my feet, he handed me my shield.

I tried to speak, but my mouth and throat burned. Lucius handed me a glass container with water, and I washed my mouth and gurgled it before spitting it out.

“Th-thank you so much! You've saved me, and my little sister! I can't thank you enough.” The boy meekly approached me, with tears in his eyes. His sister was cowering behind his, holding on his leg.

“What...what he said, that Dark Acolyte...Are you really...?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” Their eyes widened, as if they were seeing the unbelievable.

“Well, don't just stand there and gawk at him! Take yourself and your sister down this road, to the Royal Army Garrison. The soldiers there will protect you.” Apollo got between us, pointed in the direction of the garrison.

“Y-yes, Lord! Thank you, Legendary Hero!”

It felt weird to be called that, even after all this time.

We stayed to make sure they followed our instructions, when we heard another explosion from the direction of the temple. We'd been distracted by this so much that we lost a lot of time.

“They're using explosion magic against the temple! We need to hurry!” Lucius was in a panic.

We sprinted once more towards the temple. We turned the corner onto a much larger road, like the one leading out of the garrison. However we had to immediately get off the street after seeing what was there, instead peering from around the corner.

The Lord Commander was not at all exaggerating when he said that “they were concentrating a part of their forces on the temple.” There was almost a hundred cultists congregated in-front of the temple entrance. The only thing that was keeping them out was a deep blue dome of energy, which had just been erected.

That must be why they were setting off explosions – to breach it.

On the other side, there were numerous brown-robed acolytes frantically maintaining the barrier, with soldiers and civilians wielding weapons in its defense for when does fall. Luckily for us, the cultists hadn't noticed us, because there was no way we could fend them all off alone. Hero or no hero.

“Ugh. How are we going to defend that temple. It looks like they'll just kill us and blow it all up!” Apollo was pounding the brick wall we were hiding behind in frustration.

The situation was about to deteriorate very fast, as there were now cultists floating up in the air with a purple aura around them.

“What the hell do we do now?!” I looked to Lucius for an answer, but he was flustered, lost in thought.

“If they finish that ritual, they'll level half the city!” He frantically said, before a light-bulb seemed to flash in his head.

“Hero, drink this! To the last drop! Do it now!” He hurriedly passed me a glass container with a brackish-green liquid, which I chugged without question.

It tasted absolute vile. What was this?!

My HUD highlighted the bar marked “MP,” which was now completely full.

“No matter! Follow me, quickly!” We both ran out into the street, on opposite ends, and Apollo was told to remain where he was.

“Throw your arms out in-front of you, and focus your attention on that mob!” I nodded.

“Now repeat after me: By the will of Nature – the sky, the earth, and the elements...”

“By the will of Nature – the sky, the earth, and the elements...”

The crowd in front of us was slowly starting to notice us.

“...I ask to bend the laws of Nature to my own...”

“...I ask to bend the laws of Nature to my own...”

The crowd in front of us was now entirely focused on us.

“...as I know the truth of all power...”

“...as I know the truth of all power...”

I could feel my arms becoming weightless, as if they were no longer my own.

That might soon be true soon enough, as a part of the mob as now howling and running in our direction.

“...to consume all before me in holy fire!”

“...to consume all before me in holy fire!”

My arms felt unnaturally hot, and an inferno suddenly appeared in-front of our hands before spilling forth, filling almost the entire street in fire. I couldn't see how large the inferno was or how far it went, as all I could see in-front of me was a torrent a torrent of just fire.

But once it subsided, for roughly a couple hundred meters, the street was blackened. It had restricted itself to the street, where we had focused, and literally nothing was left of the mob.

Not even their ashes. It seemed as if they had suddenly ceased to be, with only the damage they inflicted on the buildings along the street as evidence that they ever existed at all.

For all the damage it inflicted, it only took up half of my magic points. So I was good for two of these blasts if I had to use it again.

When it was obvious that the cultists were destroyed, the Chosen Acolytes allowed the energy barrier to dissipate and promptly collapsed in-front of the temple.

“It seems that to save the temple, my fellow acolytes fueled the Protective Barrier with their very lives when their mana ran out.” Lucius said, barely audible. “We shall have their names carved into the temple's very pillars in their honor.”

“Are they finally gone?!” One of the civilians, who was clutching a hay fork in his hand, frantically asked as he looked up and down the street.

“Seems so.” A soldier came up to the three of us, and began laughing. His face was covered in slash wounds and his armor was caked in blood, but he was laughing heartily. “Honestly, I almost can't believe we made it! Saved by the Hero and his party, no less!” He started laughing even harder. “Forgive me if I suddenly ruin the mood, but we were all prepared to die just now. People don't just start glowing and floating unless something bad is about to happen!”

Some soldiers came out from the alleyways, clearly confused.

“What the hell was that?! We had just cleared out all of the cultists from this end of the city, and all of a sudden it felt like we were about to become baked goods!” One of the new arrivals said. “And where the hell did the attackers retreat to?!”

“They didn't retreat! The hero and the First Acolyte cleared them out single-handily!” The blood-covered soldier announced.

Everyone were ecstatic, and began cheering.

“As happy as we are, Hero, the city is still under attack. The acolytes, me, the remainder of my men should be more than enough for any cultist stupid enough to show their face around here. Go and break the rest of their assault, and give 'em a proper goodbye!”

The three defenders, a handful of civilians, and the Chosen Acolytes remained to guard the temple, while the three of us and about a dozen soldiers made our way to the Royal Temple, on the other side of the city. We figured that they should be mopping up the attackers right about now, and the five of us would support the effort to retake the castle gates.

On the way to the Royal Temple, we ran into more than a few small groups of the cultists. They were no where near the strength of that Dark Acolyte earlier, and were little more than gibbering messes with just enough enough brain power to swing a weapon around. I had practiced with my group so much that I easily parry and block their undisciplined attacks, following up with rapid slashes and stabbing attacks myself. Sometimes just bashing their heads with the edge of the buckler was enough.

Luckily, we hadn't run into groups the size of the group at the Chosen Temple or at the Garrison entrance. They would really be dangerous, then.

In-between the mobs of cultists, my mind went back to Apollo's words from the encounter earlier. On how it got easier after your first kill.

He was right. 

Slashing and stabbing through the rabble, my mind stopping thinking about what I was doing until it became routine. Even as I was sprayed with cultist blood, it just seemed like I was fighting enemies in my old MMO's.

Along the way we also picked up soldiers who were engaging said groups, and civilians who wanted to save their beloved Prince. According to Lucius – as opposed to the Cult of the Chosen, who were seen as suspicious and unnerving due to their strange customs and secrecy, the citizenry in the Kingdom adored Prince Sanguine as he never anything less than completely honest with all he met, and treated everyone, regardless of social status, as if they were, themselves, royalty.

Lucius might've been a bit hurt by the sentiment, but I wasn't going to question it. When we set off, there was only three of us. But now, there was almost fifty or sixty soldiers and armed civilians following us.

The more, the merrier.

When we finally reached the Royal Temple, I was surprised to see that the fighting had consumed the entire block. Soldiers, Royal Guard, and the distinctive figures of Lionel and Tonya were in a pitched fight to prevent them from finishing off the wounded Prince. Tonya was fighting the most desperately, with the speed of her attacks much faster than in our sparring sessions. Her speed was so fast that you would think about blocking her attacks, and find she'd already diced you to pieces in that split-second. The blue plume of hair rising from her helmet was almost entirely crimson at this point.

“Tonya! Lionel!” I cried out, hoping that I would somehow be heard over the yelling and clanging metal. Thankfully, I was and they bade the others to fight harder. With the fifty or sixty of us, and the number of soldiers and guardsmen already present, we were able to squeeze the invaders between the two groups of us like a vise.

They knew it, too.

The cultists began fighting harder, and we intensified in-kind. One cultists at a time, I was able to cut my way through the crowd. An intuitive one decided that if they could get me with a spear, then it'd be worth it even if he had to drive it through one of their buddies.

All he accomplished was killing one of his friends, and getting my sword embedded into his neck when he overran me.

That was a mistake.

I couldn't get my sword back out. It was lodged in the guy's neck and no matter how hard I pulled, it wouldn't budge. When he finally fell, instead of it coming out, I just ended up following him down.

I kept trying desperately to pull it out, and when I finally did, I turned around and got a good smack to the head by a club.

My HUD went awash with static and I had barely enough time to bring my buckler up to block his club before he brought it down back on me. The force of the blow reverberated through the shield and into my hand. I cried out in pain. I wasn't physically hurt, as in I didn't lose any HP but, like my encounter with Tonya, it hurt like hell.

I clutched my arm in pain and got another whack on my breastplate, it dented and I could feel the strike down to my bones.

Now I was losing HP. I couldn't breathe, and I saw my HP drop from 100% to 90%.

I tried reaching out for my short sword, but all I felt were bodies and blood. No sword.

He brought his club for one last whack, and I knew this was going to be a real doozy. I couldn't block it, even if I wanted to. The hit my shield received knocked its health bar all the way from 100% to 40%.

In a flash, I saw Tonya lunge behind the man, with him turning his attention towards her. When he turned to face her, both of his hands fell to the Earth, still clutching that ramshackle club. I'm sure he would've screamed, if he had time to. Lionel appeared and, in one graceful swing of his longsword, the remainder of his arms and head fell separately from his body.

“My friend, you're REALLY going to have to work on your movement.” He took a Common Short Sword out of a sheath on his belt and threw it to me. “Also, you usually can't decapitate a man with just a sword sword.”

Me, Lionel, and Tonya were now fighting side-by-side with the remainder of the cultists.

“Hmph. What are you, an idiot? You should know that by now!” Tonya shot at me, as she sliced a man's chest wide open.

“He hasn't exactly had an opportunity to learn that, dear Sister.” Lionel spoke in my defense.

“R-right!”

“But she is right.”

Aren't you supposed to be on my side?

Within a few minutes, the dozens of cultists had been reduced to a mere two. One of the two believed he stood a chance against a few dozen angry fighters.

Well, at-least he had heart.

The other seemed...a lot more different. He somehow managed to enter the courtyard of the Temple, and he seemed to be fixed in-place as we approached, swords drawn. He jumped with every step we took, and eventually just let out a high-pitched scream and haphazardly threw his dagger at us.

We avoided it pretty easily. When he turned to run away, Tonya took off her helmet and threw it straight at the fleeing cultist, hitting him square in the back. He tripped forwards and onto the Temple's steps. We kept walking towards him, but when he opened the door, Tonya ran inside after him.

He was terrified, and was now crawling backwards while Tonya taunted him by waving the tip of her sword right in-front of his face. Close enough to make little cuts on his nose.

“No, please! No!” He cried out, and he sound pretty young. Maybe a teenager? He kept crawling backwards like a spider until he ran into the armored gauntlets of the Royal Guards that were protecting Sanguine's body. Their halberds were oriented right at his head. He balled up, which caused everyone to start laughing at him.

I got to admit: actually seeing something this cartoonish was pretty funny.

“Pick the bastard up.” Tonya ordered, and the Guards then rested their halberds on the pews that ran up and down the Temple and picked up the robed cultist by his arms. Tonya walked up and threw down the hood, at which Tonya reached behind the cultist's and released a...bun. Long red hair fell down from behind her head after Tonya did whatever she did behind her head.

“What? This 'cultist' is a woman!” Tonya screamed. “Lucius! What the hell is this?!”

“This is not a member of any Darkness cult. We all know they do not allow women as anythings other than priestesses or slaves. And that person is not a magic user, and I don't sense a slave's mark.” Lucius explained.

I mean, I didn't know that. So “we all” don't know, but whatever.

“Who are you?! Why are you here?!” Tonya demanded, holding the edge of her sword at the woman's neck. She was angrier than normal. Could it have all the fighting?

The woman suddenly began bawling, “I-I'm so s-s-s-sorry! I didn't want to fight or ki-ki-kill anyone! While everyone was fighting I just hi-hid! Puh-puh-lease buh-buh-believe me!”

“Liar!” Tonya retorted.

“Well, maybe not, Sister.” Lionel returned from the outside with the dagger she threw in her hand. Except for a little bit of dirt, it looked like just came out of the box. You could even see your reflection in it! When we looked at her robes, they told the same story. And the fact most of the dirt was on her ass pretty much indicated that's where she had spent most of the battle.

But what the heck was she doing here?

Tonya clutched the stranger's robes, and wiped her filthy sword clean before returning it to her sheath. She glared at her for a moment. “Whatever. We'll find out everything about you after we kick your friends out of our town.” She called for a couple of the soldiers, and had them escort her to the jail in the Royal Garrison. After the strange woman was escorted out, Tonya just stood there for a minute before moving deeper in the temple, until she was right in-front of the case containing the Sanguine. Lionel joined her a minute or so later.

Could it be that she was angry, because she was in this place? I didn't know enough to really say anything, and I didn't think it was my business, so I decided to follow everyone else out. We still had a battle to fight, after all.

I walked out and saw Apollo sitting down on the steps, throwing rocks at the ground in boredom. He looked the same as he did before the skirmish, while me and everyone else were all bloodied and dented.

What the hell.

“Where were you, Apollo? I didn't see you in the fight.”

“Oh me? I was in the Temple, defending the Prince.”

“Oh oka-wait what?! How? The first time that door opened since the fight began was when the woman ducked inside, from what I hear!”

“Maybe it was a different door?” He smirked and winked at me. “Oh and nice job handing that man with the club!”

“You saw that?! And you didn't do anything?!”

“Yeah I saw it. But I knew you had it all in-hand, think of it as a learning experience.” He winked again, this time with the other eye.

You...

I was about to say more when I saw Lionel walk out of the Temple, with his beaked helmet in his arms.

“Once Tonya comes out, we should make our way towards the gates. I think we broke the enemy's back, but it's best to make doubly sure. We won't hear the end of it if Maximilian doesn't see us come to help!” He chuckled a little bit.

I peered into the Temple before the door closed. Tonya was on her knees and her head was leaned up against the glass case. Even from where I was standing, it looked like she crying. Lionel frowned when he saw me looking, “Don't worry yourself too much over my sister. She looks up to me, and since Sanguine was one of my closest friends, they were close friends as well. She genuinely thinks she could have saved him if he was allowed to pull out that dagger.” He looked up at the sky, which was full of smoke. “It hurt telling her that it would've killed him instead, and I'm not so sure she believes me. So she still blames herself. But worry not, Hero: she's a strong warrior, and isn't easily led astray.”

He turned back to me, “Also, don't mind all the horrible things she says to you: she's also all-heart, truly.”

“What are you idiots talking about?” She left the Temple and put her helmet back on before we could see her face. It didn't help, even through the slits for her eyes we all could see how bloodshot her eyes were.

“We're talking about you.” Apollo said mockingly.

Ah yes, the smell of kerosene being thrown on a open fire.

Tonya didn't respond.

“Whatever. Let's head to gate and give the others a hand.”

A handful of soldiers were left behind to give the Royal Guards a hand in-case anymore cultists showed up at the Royal Temple, but everyone else followed us to the nearest gate.

“We appreciate your appearance, Hero, but we've already taken this gate. Perhaps the next one will need your help?” The song dance and repeated a few times: we'd roll up on a gate, be told that it was already secure, and to see about the next one.

Occasionally we'd run into a few cultists, which we'd slaughter almost immediately, but we essentially ran into no resistance. I started wondering if the whole battle wasn't already over.

We approached the final gate, and saw nothing but bodies. We weren't too far away from Chosen Cult's temple, so maybe it had been cleared? But where the other three members of our party?

Our question was answered when a body of a cultist fell from the ramparts, which went up quite a distance in the air, and landed on the stone road in-front of us. The sound it produced was something I would be very happy to never, ever hear again in my life. Ever.

“Ah the Hero's party arrives!” Maximilian said jokingly.

We saw Nicia quickly equip her arrow and shoot an arrow at a distant cultist seeking to make a name for himself as she laughed at Maximilian's terrible joke.

“How can you be done? When we left you, there were more cultists between you and the gates than there were soldiers!” Tonya yelled out above, so Maximilian could hear her.

“Ah well this is true! But you see, when the Lord Commander and his horse-mounted escorts arrived, they practically killed everyone in our way all by themselves, leaving only the men inside the walls for us to contend with. We swept them all up in, oh, let's say, twenty minutes, roughly. That would've been around the time the Hero set an entire road on fire with Lucius.”

“You what?!” Lionel asked

“We had to use fire magic to clear-out the enemy cultists, but don't worry! It didn't damage any of the buildings...any more than they already were, at-least.” I explained.

“I see...” Lionel said, confused more than before. “So, why didn't you come to assist us?”

“That's easy. First, not only did we have to liberate the gates, but we were also tasked with ensuring they stayed open so our allies could assist in our defense. Also, we had a running bet!”

“W-what was that?” I asked.

“We were betting that you were going to be knocked down at some point in the battle. I even got more winnings when I bet that Tonya and Lionel would have to come to your aid!” I could him laughing all the way up there.

Wonderful, he saw it too.

“But don't stress to much hero, you did very well otherwise! I definitely see good things for your skills in the future!” He added.

“Maybe he'll finally be able to fight by himself someday.” Tonya snorted.

Hey, now.

While everyone was busy laughing at me, Lionel sent some of the soldiers that followed us to relieve Maximilian, Nicia, and Stormbreaker. The sun was setting, and the battle was finally over.

There were cultists here and there, but only a few, and they were easily mopped by fresh soldiers that arrived from other parts of the kingdom.

Our party were finally able to relax, and we walked back towards the garrison. As we walked, the rewards of the defensive action was finally being displayed on my HUD, as it probably decided that combat was finally over. The Dark Acolyte had net me 150 XP, while each cultist was 20 XP, probably since they were so weak. But I killed nearly a hundred and fifty of them, so 3000 XP. That bumped me all the way to level 9. Great!

Along the way, we stopped by a tavern that had actually survived the battle unscathed. As a reward for our brave efforts, they treated us to free food and drinks. Naturally, we fully took advantage of it.

They learned about me and Lucius using fire magic to clear out a hundred cultists from the Cult of the Chosen's temple, and we learned why there were so many bodies lining the castle walls. Apparently, Stormbreaker had been hitting the cultists's so hard with his axes that, not only were some naturally carved up, but many were flung into the air. Lucius also promised that he would task his assistants to make magic potions that didn't taste like utter death.

After a couple of hours, we started making our way back towards the garrison, where I returned the armor and weapons loaned to me, which meant also putting my trusty track-suit back on. After a bath, of course.

They escorted me to my room, where we talked a bit more, until they bade me a good night. Even Tonya, in hushed tones though, so I could barely hear her. When I asked her to say it louder, I just got an earful of “YOU IDIOT!” before she stormed off ahead of the group. When I got to my bed, I passed out just about at the moment I slipped into the covers.

A few days passed, and the armies remained on alert, and the capital's usual liveliness was subdued, all in anticipation of an invasion.

Fortunately, it never came. A sense of normalcy returned, and people were hard at work to rebuild the damage done by those madmen. Unfortunately, it meant that a second Darkness invasion was closer on the horizon than originally thought, so plans for the massive push outward to reclaim land from the Darkness was greatly accelerated. A staging area had already been set aside, and by the end of the week, the two, ten-thousand men armies and their support units would be ready to march. That also meant my party's quest would begin sooner than expected.

We als figured out that the cultists had arrived with the latest wave of refugees from the other countries, but had attacked and killed their army escorts before making their way here, posing as traveling merchants. That teenage woman at the Royal Temple, who arrived from Estronia and whose name is Shireda Straozek, was one such refugee, and posed as a cultist to avoid the same horrible fate that befell the others.

She relayed a story of violence and debauchery on the part of that cult that should never be told twice. Too many in the town knew her face, however, and she did enter the city as a cultist invader, even if it was a disguise - no amount of genuine begging would earn her leniency. So, it was decided that she be allowed to travel as a new member of my party. She seemed like a good person, and had skills we could use on our quest. It also seemed like she felt the need to make up for her own perceived mistakes.

On the sixth day after the attack, I woke up to find Tonya sitting on my bed. She was running her hand on mine, and was...smiling? She looked more at-peace than I'd ever seen before. She ran her hand up my arm, and chest, and then my face. When her eyes followed suit, and she realized that I was now awake. Her smile turned into a frown and her face got bright red.

Before I knew it, I felt the hot, stinging sensation of a slap across my check.

“Get up, you damn idiot!”

I didn't see “getting slapped awake by the teenage warrior-princess” on the welcome packet.

Please end my suffering.

“As she says, Hero, it's time to wake up. The Cult of the Chosen has a very special gift for you.” Lucius said, turning to me as he sat on the windowsill.

A gift?

“The Armor and Sword of the Legendary Hero.”