Overcome with the dark aura the scythe radiated, the rear guard immediately closed ranks around Darius and James. Slamming their shields into the ground to anchor them into place, the remaining men immediately charged forward wearing mortified expressions. While I was certain most of these people knew nothing of Darius’ dastardly deeds, I could not excuse them from ignoring the evidence in front of their very eyes. They had brought the children out of the Prime Minister’s home, yet they still foolishly wanted to believe I was setting him up for a crime he did not commit.
“I commend you for your dedication to your country, that does not excuse you from being blind to the transgressions of those above you!”, I shouted, swinging the scythe around and releasing a dark pulse of Death Magic into their ranks.
Watching the power race through their ranks, anyone it made contact with collapsed to the ground convulsing uncontrollably. Feeling something begin to grab their bodies, the guards began screaming in horror as specters began circling over them.
“Stay away!!”, one of the men shrieked, “I do not want to die!!”
“Please do not let them take me, I have a pregnant wife and son back home!!”, another man shouted.
“Who is going to take care of my sickly mother if I die here?!”, a burly guard cried, “Mercy!!”
Hearing their screams of agony, those who were unaffected immediately stopped their advances and began trampling one another to get away from me. While their comrades fled, the affected guards watched the specters dive toward them and cleave their souls from their bodies. One by one the men fell silent causing the men to panic even more because they could not see any of it. As far as they were concerned, they had died without sustaining any injuries.
“All of you, hold fast!”, the Royal Guard Commander shouted, riding up with additional reinforcements, “Mages, prepare your spells! Soldiers, form a wall and buy them time!”
“If you value your lives, now is the time to abandon that bastard Darius and return to your homes. Do not blame me for choosing to protect innocent children over adults who refuse to see the monster they are protecting.”, I remarked, changing the scythe into Spear Mode.
Glancing over to me in confusion, the Commander caught sight of the children I was referring to. Staring at them for a moment, his face was overcome with shock as he quickly dismounted his horse.
“Wait, delay that order!!”, he commanded them, causing the mages to cancel their spells, “All of you, move aside!!”
Pushing through his men, I initially thought he was going to fight me himself to spare his men further losses. Instead of that, he ran right past me and over to the children on the verge of tears.
“Elize, my darling Elize is that you?!”, he asked, falling to his knees just outside the barrier.
“Daddy…?”, one of the young girls said, looking back at the Commander, “Daddy!!”
Leaping through the barrier, the young girl jumped into his arms and began crying. Shakily holding his daughter, the man began crying as well telling her how happy he was that she was still alive.
“I…I do not know how you escaped the bandit attack, but I am so sorry I was not there to protect your mother and you from harm!”, he cried, “Not a day has gone by that I have not thought about both of you, and regretted sending you to your grandparents without me by your side. If I had been there, I would never have lost you both!”
“Mom is still alive!”, she told her father, “We were captured by mean bandits, and they brought both of us here.”
“Where is your mother!? Is she still in the home!?”, the Commander gasped, ready to run into the fire to save her.
“No, she is not here anymore.”, the young girl said, wiping the tears away from her face, “A really scary fat man beat her unconscious, and had his men drag her away. The other mothers were also beaten and taken away too!”
Seething with rage as he heard how his wife was treated, he picked his daughter up and demanded to know if I did it. Shaking her head adamantly, she told him that I had freed them from the basement of the home. Pointing right at Darius, Elize told her father that he was the one who had beaten her mother.
“Not only that…he…he…”, she choked up, looking down in shame, “He did unspeakable things to all of us even though we told him we did not want to!”
Shielding his daughter from Darius, the Royal Guard Commander commanded his men to seize Darius immediately. Turning to face Darius, the City and Royal Guards and Court Mages pointed their weapons at Darius. Realizing that he now lacked the numbers advantage, he began looking for an escape route.
“Buy me time to escape!”, he commanded those on his payroll, “If I go down, I will see that all of you join me on the gallows!”
Reluctantly following his orders, the corrupt individuals within their ranks immediately turned on their comrades and began desperately fighting for their lives. Realizing that almost a third of the men under his command were traitors, everything that had happened to his family fell into place.
“You traitors lied to my face about the deaths of my family!”, he roared, setting his daughter down, “I will see every one of your turncoats die by my hand tonight!”
Asking his daughter to stay with the other children till he returned, I left things to him and went after Darius and James. Both of them had used the chaos to escape into the Noble District hoping to avoid capture while the defense forces were preoccupied. Chasing after them on the rooftop, I telepathically reached out to Ghislaine and Ciri when I realized we were going to run right past the Greyrat Manor.
“*panting* where…where are we going..?”, Darius wheezed, on the verge of having a heart attack from the mild running he was doing, “Damn it, James, if I get captured you know you will go down with me right? I still have copies of all the illegal deals you have done with me to get to where you are now! Moreover, I have evidence that proves you had your predecessor killed because you could not wait for him to retire!”
“Shut up! Shut up!! Shut up!!!”, James spat, wanting to just kill him to remove any trace of his crimes, “If it were not for the guards you always have around you, I would just kill…wait a second.”
Coming to a stop, James turned around with a fiendish expression on his face. Realizing that Darius was all alone now with no protection, he knew his time had finally come to remove the looming threat Darius posed to him and his family.
“It is unfortunate, you must have been injured in the chaos back at your mansion.”, James said, pulling a dagger off his hip.
“What…what are you doing!?”, Darius shrieked, “Guards!! Guards come quickly!!”
“You should have not threatened my wife and children early Darius, now you have to die!”, James shouted, moving to stab him in the chest.
Before he could though, Ghislaine grabbed his hand and twisted his wrist. Dropping the knife as a sharp pain shot up his arm, she slammed him to the ground and told him not to resist otherwise she might accidentally break his arm. Surprised to see her, he demanded to know how she had found them.
“You must be dumber than a bag of rocks, do you even know where you are standing?”, Ghislaine inquired, motioning to the home on his left.
‘The…the Greyrat Manor…I…I must have run here without thinking!’, he thought, realizing how badly he screwed up, “Come now Ghislaine, you work for my family so why are you hurting me? I led this bastard to my father so he could get his revenge for betraying him.”
Watching the front door of the mansion fly open, Hilda came barreling out of the home fuming with anger. Seeing the man who intended to offer up her daughter and herself to the Prime Minister, she ran up to James and kicked his head like a soccer ball. Kicking him with all her motherly anger, she imbedded her pointed, right shoe into his skull causing his body to start spasming uncontrollably.
“My daughter and I are not animals to be bartered for!!”, she spat, yanking her foot back, “You betrayed all of us to further your political position!! Bastard, you have no right to call yourself a Boreas Greyrat any longer!!”
Picking up the dagger he dropped, she told Ghislaine to move as she was going to kill him for hurting her daughter. Barely managing to get out of the way before Hilda came down on him, the red-haired woman began repeatedly driving the dagger into his chest calling him every foul word she could think of. Taking this moment to escape, Darius turned around and ran right into me.
“Going somewhere, Tubby?”, I mocked him, as he fell to the ground, “When I told you that you would not live to see another sunrise, I meant it. Get over here!”
Driving my spear through his gut, I flicked it back into scythe mode and mercilessly flung him into the air. Using his mass to cleave him in half with the blade, I proceeded to hit him with a Helios Faire which incinerated him in an instant. Using the Omega Force to resurrect him again, Darius gasped for air still reeling from his death just a moment ago.
“What…what did you do!?”, he shrieked, “How am I still alive?!”
“I am the Master of Life and Death, you will not die till I say you can!”, I spat, vaporizing him with Omega Beams and resurrecting him again, “How does it feel to be helpless to change your situation? Does it remind you of those poor children you forced yourself on!? Just like you did not show them any leniency when they begged you to stop, you will get nothing from me!”
Tossing my scythe back into my Storage, I grabbed Darius’ face and crushed it like a watermelon. Bringing him back a third time, he immediately tried to run away but I grabbed him by the shoulders and ripped him in half. Pulling him back yet again, my hand gripped his throat before ripped his head and spine out of his body.
“People like you are the lowest filth in existence, if I were the God of Creation I would erase all of you from existence. None of you bring any benefit to society, you only take and leave behind pain, misery, and suffering to the people you touch!”, I shouted, summoning him back a fifth time.
“Sh-top it!!”, Darius squealed, pissing himself and clawing at the roadway trying to flee from me, “I will give you anything you want!!”
“I do not want anything you have to offer!”, I roared, punching him through the roadway and into the sewers below, “Die again you horrid beast! Cruel Sun!”
Igniting the sewer gases beneath our feet, a powerful explosion sent shockwaves throughout the city. All over the place manhole covers were blown into outer orbit while Darius’ screams filled the nighttime air. Yanking his soul back one last time, Darius began speaking gibberish as his mind started showing signs of crumbling under all the trauma I put him through.
“Sht…it…me…hrt…n…mor…”, Darius attempted to say, no longer able to use his mouth properly.
“Begone from my sight shitbag.”, I commanded, using the Omega Sanction to cast him into his realm of ever-increasing suffering and misery, “Good riddance to trash like that, this world just got a whole lot better without his existence ruining the atmosphere.”
Turning back to the others, Hilda was still plunging her blade into the deceased James’ chest while crying her eyes out. Having already lost her two sons, the thought of someone selling her only child Eris was far too much for her mind to handle. Walking over to her, I told her that she could stop because James was dead. Releasing her grip on the blade, Hilda lept into my arms and continued crying violently.
“She is my baby, no one is taking my baby from me!”, Hilda sobbed, gripping my coat tightly, “I cannot lose anyone else, I cannot handle that pain again!”
Holding her closely, I let her cry her eyes while Sauros stood over his son with a disgusted look. Telling him that I would tend to Hilda, before I left the group, I brought back James so Sauros could get closure from his son.
Overcome with the dark aura the scythe radiated, the rear guard immediately closed ranks around Darius and James. Slamming their shields into the ground to anchor them into place, the remaining men immediately charged forward wearing mortified expressions. While I was certain most of these people knew nothing of Darius’ dastardly deeds, I could not excuse them from ignoring the evidence in front of their very eyes. They had brought the children out of the Prime Minister’s home, yet they still foolishly wanted to believe I was setting him up for a crime he did not commit.
“I commend you for your dedication to your country, that does not excuse you from being blind to the transgressions of those above you!”, I shouted, swinging the scythe around and releasing a dark pulse of Death Magic into their ranks.
Watching the power race through their ranks, anyone it made contact with collapsed to the ground convulsing uncontrollably. Feeling something begin to grab their bodies, the guards began screaming in horror as specters began circling over them.
“Stay away!!”, one of the men shrieked, “I do not want to die!!”
“Please do not let them take me, I have a pregnant wife and son back home!!”, another man shouted.
“Who is going to take care of my sickly mother if I die here?!”, a burly guard cried, “Mercy!!”
Hearing their screams of agony, those who were unaffected immediately stopped their advances and began trampling one another to get away from me. While their comrades fled, the affected guards watched the specters dive toward them and cleave their souls from their bodies. One by one the men fell silent causing the men to panic even more because they could not see any of it. As far as they were concerned, they had died without sustaining any injuries.
“All of you, hold fast!”, the Royal Guard Commander shouted, riding up with additional reinforcements, “Mages, prepare your spells! Soldiers, form a wall and buy them time!”
“If you value your lives, now is the time to abandon that bastard Darius and return to your homes. Do not blame me for choosing to protect innocent children over adults who refuse to see the monster they are protecting.”, I remarked, changing the scythe into Spear Mode.
Glancing over to me in confusion, the Commander caught sight of the children I was referring to. Staring at them for a moment, his face was overcome with shock as he quickly dismounted his horse.
“Wait, delay that order!!”, he commanded them, causing the mages to cancel their spells, “All of you, move aside!!”
Pushing through his men, I initially thought he was going to fight me himself to spare his men further losses. Instead of that, he ran right past me and over to the children on the verge of tears.
“Elize, my darling Elize is that you?!”, he asked, falling to his knees just outside the barrier.
“Daddy…?”, one of the young girls said, looking back at the Commander, “Daddy!!”
Leaping through the barrier, the young girl jumped into his arms and began crying. Shakily holding his daughter, the man began crying as well telling her how happy he was that she was still alive.
“I…I do not know how you escaped the bandit attack, but I am so sorry I was not there to protect your mother and you from harm!”, he cried, “Not a day has gone by that I have not thought about both of you, and regretted sending you to your grandparents without me by your side. If I had been there, I would never have lost you both!”
“Mom is still alive!”, she told her father, “We were captured by mean bandits, and they brought both of us here.”
“Where is your mother!? Is she still in the home!?”, the Commander gasped, ready to run into the fire to save her.
“No, she is not here anymore.”, the young girl said, wiping the tears away from her face, “A really scary fat man beat her unconscious, and had his men drag her away. The other mothers were also beaten and taken away too!”
Seething with rage as he heard how his wife was treated, he picked his daughter up and demanded to know if I did it. Shaking her head adamantly, she told him that I had freed them from the basement of the home. Pointing right at Darius, Elize told her father that he was the one who had beaten her mother.
“Not only that…he…he…”, she choked up, looking down in shame, “He did unspeakable things to all of us even though we told him we did not want to!”
Shielding his daughter from Darius, the Royal Guard Commander commanded his men to seize Darius immediately. Turning to face Darius, the City and Royal Guards and Court Mages pointed their weapons at Darius. Realizing that he now lacked the numbers advantage, he began looking for an escape route.
“Buy me time to escape!”, he commanded those on his payroll, “If I go down, I will see that all of you join me on the gallows!”
Reluctantly following his orders, the corrupt individuals within their ranks immediately turned on their comrades and began desperately fighting for their lives. Realizing that almost a third of the men under his command were traitors, everything that had happened to his family fell into place.
“You traitors lied to my face about the deaths of my family!”, he roared, setting his daughter down, “I will see every one of your turncoats die by my hand tonight!”
Asking his daughter to stay with the other children till he returned, I left things to him and went after Darius and James. Both of them had used the chaos to escape into the Noble District hoping to avoid capture while the defense forces were preoccupied. Chasing after them on the rooftop, I telepathically reached out to Ghislaine and Ciri when I realized we were going to run right past the Greyrat Manor.
“*panting* where…where are we going..?”, Darius wheezed, on the verge of having a heart attack from the mild running he was doing, “Damn it, James, if I get captured you know you will go down with me right? I still have copies of all the illegal deals you have done with me to get to where you are now! Moreover, I have evidence that proves you had your predecessor killed because you could not wait for him to retire!”
“Shut up! Shut up!! Shut up!!!”, James spat, wanting to just kill him to remove any trace of his crimes, “If it were not for the guards you always have around you, I would just kill…wait a second.”
Coming to a stop, James turned around with a fiendish expression on his face. Realizing that Darius was all alone now with no protection, he knew his time had finally come to remove the looming threat Darius posed to him and his family.
“It is unfortunate, you must have been injured in the chaos back at your mansion.”, James said, pulling a dagger off his hip.
“What…what are you doing!?”, Darius shrieked, “Guards!! Guards come quickly!!”
“You should have not threatened my wife and children early Darius, now you have to die!”, James shouted, moving to stab him in the chest.
Before he could though, Ghislaine grabbed his hand and twisted his wrist. Dropping the knife as a sharp pain shot up his arm, she slammed him to the ground and told him not to resist otherwise she might accidentally break his arm. Surprised to see her, he demanded to know how she had found them.
“You must be dumber than a bag of rocks, do you even know where you are standing?”, Ghislaine inquired, motioning to the home on his left.
‘The…the Greyrat Manor…I…I must have run here without thinking!’, he thought, realizing how badly he screwed up, “Come now Ghislaine, you work for my family so why are you hurting me? I led this bastard to my father so he could get his revenge for betraying him.”
Watching the front door of the mansion fly open, Hilda came barreling out of the home fuming with anger. Seeing the man who intended to offer up her daughter and herself to the Prime Minister, she ran up to James and kicked his head like a soccer ball. Kicking him with all her motherly anger, she imbedded her pointed, right shoe into his skull causing his body to start spasming uncontrollably.
“My daughter and I are not animals to be bartered for!!”, she spat, yanking her foot back, “You betrayed all of us to further your political position!! Bastard, you have no right to call yourself a Boreas Greyrat any longer!!”
Picking up the dagger he dropped, she told Ghislaine to move as she was going to kill him for hurting her daughter. Barely managing to get out of the way before Hilda came down on him, the red-haired woman began repeatedly driving the dagger into his chest calling him every foul word she could think of. Taking this moment to escape, Darius turned around and ran right into me.
“Going somewhere, Tubby?”, I mocked him, as he fell to the ground, “When I told you that you would not live to see another sunrise, I meant it. Get over here!”
Driving my spear through his gut, I flicked it back into scythe mode and mercilessly flung him into the air. Using his mass to cleave him in half with the blade, I proceeded to hit him with a Helios Faire which incinerated him in an instant. Using the Omega Force to resurrect him again, Darius gasped for air still reeling from his death just a moment ago.
“What…what did you do!?”, he shrieked, “How am I still alive?!”
“I am the Master of Life and Death, you will not die till I say you can!”, I spat, vaporizing him with Omega Beams and resurrecting him again, “How does it feel to be helpless to change your situation? Does it remind you of those poor children you forced yourself on!? Just like you did not show them any leniency when they begged you to stop, you will get nothing from me!”
Tossing my scythe back into my Storage, I grabbed Darius’ face and crushed it like a watermelon. Bringing him back a third time, he immediately tried to run away but I grabbed him by the shoulders and ripped him in half. Pulling him back yet again, my hand gripped his throat before ripped his head and spine out of his body.
“People like you are the lowest filth in existence, if I were the God of Creation I would erase all of you from existence. None of you bring any benefit to society, you only take and leave behind pain, misery, and suffering to the people you touch!”, I shouted, summoning him back a fifth time.
“Sh-top it!!”, Darius squealed, pissing himself and clawing at the roadway trying to flee from me, “I will give you anything you want!!”
“I do not want anything you have to offer!”, I roared, punching him through the roadway and into the sewers below, “Die again you horrid beast! Cruel Sun!”
Igniting the sewer gases beneath our feet, a powerful explosion sent shockwaves throughout the city. All over the place manhole covers were blown into outer orbit while Darius’ screams filled the nighttime air. Yanking his soul back one last time, Darius began speaking gibberish as his mind started showing signs of crumbling under all the trauma I put him through.
“Sht…it…me…hrt…n…mor…”, Darius attempted to say, no longer able to use his mouth properly.
“Begone from my sight shitbag.”, I commanded, using the Omega Sanction to cast him into his realm of ever-increasing suffering and misery, “Good riddance to trash like that, this world just got a whole lot better without his existence ruining the atmosphere.”
Turning back to the others, Hilda was still plunging her blade into the deceased James’ chest while crying her eyes out. Having already lost her two sons, the thought of someone selling her only child Eris was far too much for her mind to handle. Walking over to her, I told her that she could stop because James was dead. Releasing her grip on the blade, Hilda lept into my arms and continued crying violently.
“She is my baby, no one is taking my baby from me!”, Hilda sobbed, gripping my coat tightly, “I cannot lose anyone else, I cannot handle that pain again!”
Holding her closely, I let her cry her eyes while Sauros stood over his son with a disgusted look. Telling him that I would tend to Hilda, before I left the group, I brought back James so Sauros could get closure from his son.
