And the world became quiet again. I was walking down the streets with Vivi’s corpse in my arms. Faint heat still lingers within her body. It’s so strange. Vivi is beautiful, even like this. Her soft, long black hair hangs down. There isn’t a single scar on her face. Her eye is closed. If there wasn’t that huge hole in the middle of her back, one could easily think she is just sleeping.
The streets were empty. I haven’t met anyone while I was walking toward the entrance of the Witch Hand’s sanctuary. When I stepped in and I was surrounded by panicking guards, I didn’t even understand what they were saying. A few moments later the Archwitch arrived with the girl who introduced herself earlier as Martell Erika. The Archwitch pushed the others away and quickly inspected Vivi’s corpse.
‘What happened?’ she asked me strictly.
‘Is… is Vivi dead?’ stammered Erika.
I nodded without saying a word. The Archwitch dismissed the crowd around us and asked again:
‘What happened?’
‘I’ll tell later’ I said. ‘Now, can you please free a larger room for me? It is important.’
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘To execute the resurrection ritual’ I said.
This time, it didn’t even take a minute to clear the huge room where I was fighting earlier. The Archwitch decided not to waste any time by commanding someone to carry the tables out and simply teleported them away. She also closed the doors and put Absolute Locks on them. After I carefully placed Vivi’s body in the middle of the room, Erika asked:
‘What do you mean by resurrection? I thought revival miracles work only within two minutes after death!’
‘That is a common misbelief’ I said. ‘Self-resurrection miracles such as Second Chance or post-mortem miracles like Last Requiem or Nine Lives work according to this rule. But the Church has some secret miracles that need dozens of skilled clerics to execute and can bring back the dead within five hours. This is of course isn’t taught at school.’
‘But from where will we get dozens of skilled clerics?’ objected Erika. ‘We don’t have time for this!’
‘This is why I’m going to do this alone’ I said, while I was drawing chalk lines on the ground.
Meanwhile, Scathach came back and found me. When I looked at her eyes, she blushed and tried to avoid my look. She was also shocked by Vivi’s death, but she became more confused when she saw Lugh. She was cautiously looking at her fellow grimoire comrade, but didn’t say a word. And from what I could tell, she tried to put some distance between her and me.
‘Scathach’ I said. ‘Can you create some candles on the marked places?’
‘As you wish, Master’ she said. She started summoning candles from her memories, and Lugh followed her to help her.
When I finished drawing up the lines and the grimoires put all the candles in their places, I looked at the others and said:
‘Now everyone, please leave. If I want to execute the ritual successfully, I need the least possible disturbing sources.’
‘Can I stay here, Master?’ asked Scathach on a small and fragile voice.
Somehow, this softened my heart. I petted her head and gently said:
‘You need to leave, too. Please.’
‘Okay’ she sadly nodded. She left the room together with the others. Lugh stopped at the door, looked back for a moment, then left. The door was closed behind her, and I was left alone again.
‘Okay’ I told to myself. ‘Let’s do this.’
I took down my jacket, covered her body with it, kneeled down and started praying.
I spent two hours continuously praying to God, next to Vivi’s body. This miracle was long and hard. The miracle’s calling started with a long prayer in Hungarian. If my hint is good, it was probably three hundred lines long, and for some reason it was written in Alcaic stanza. After it ended, the next part was a chant in Aramaic and a long anthem in Italian. It might already sound ridiculous, but this was the easiest part. The next part was a reversed chant in Hebrew, which was followed by a chant in an unknown language (it sounded a bit Oriental, but it resembled also to the ancient Greek). The third part was a song; the first was in Latin, the second was in reversed Finnish, but the problematic one was the last. It was written in the strange language of the angels. This was the strangest language I’ve ever heard, and I say this after learning even the language of dragons. It was like it didn’t even have any rules to begin with. Then I didn’t find any vowels, and the sounds n and c were completely missing. The only rule I could realize was that when I spelled a verb in first person, it always started with the sound r.
When the third part ended, the phase of words also ended. Now I couldn’t do anything more than praying from the depths of my heart. I called the name of God countless times, as I asked for His help to bring Vivi back. All the shadows disappeared from the room in the presence of the divine light. The room was filled by Numen, as I opened a tear between our world and the world of dead. Now this is the part where I have to be the most careful. Scientific researches already proved that death has two phases: clinical and biological death. This discovery explained why reviving miracles don’t work two minutes after one’s death, and why necromancy only works five minutes after death. Reviving miracles can bring back the dead because they have their effect in the phase of clinical death. This is why these miracles are 100 percent successful, and this is why necromancy cannot restore a human’s life. If you open a gate to the world of the dead, you won’t know what you will bring to the world of living. I tightly closed my fingers around Vivi’s pink ribbon. This hairpiece is the key which will help me finding her. This miracle I’m currently trying to execute needs a key item from the person you’re trying to revive. As I was tightly grabbing the ribbon, I was focusing on Vivi. I can find her, I know. I won’t fail. I will definitely bring her back to life. This is the promise I made to myself. I will keep this promise, no matter what!
I opened my eyes, and looked straight through the gate which led to the World of Afterlife. Normally, this would drive anyone insane or even instantly kill a person just by looking through it. I can understand this; the world of the dead isn’t for livings like humans. If the dead cannot see the world of living again, it’s only natural that a living would instantly die just by glancing at the world of the dead. But I won’t die. It takes a miracle to survive this experience, and clerics are the men of miracles.
The world on the other side was indescribable. I couldn’t see the sky or the ground, but it didn’t mean that everything was just empty void. Out there, there weren’t any colors which I knew from our world. For a moment, I felt like I saw the Moon. I simply lack the words to describe what I saw there. I read lots of stories about the Underworld in the Greek and Roman mythology, and now I can tell that the ones who wrote them have never seen the World of Afterlife with their own eyes. But even if I’m a living, I will see it. I searched through the horizon for someone, but I didn’t see anyone, not a single soul. Maybe my eyes here aren’t enough to see things? I closed my eyes and focused once again. I know that the souls of the dead are there, right before my eyes. Even if I can’t see them, I know this and this has to be enough to find them. Nothing happened. I sensed the presence of souls, but they looked all the same. So this is no good either. Okay, let’s try something else. I closed my eyes once again and imagined how Vivi’s soul would look like. I tried to imagine a gentle soul with the same radiance she gave to me. Now, I have to bring this image to reality. If there is a soul here which resembles to this image, I can find it this way. As the image slowly formed, the souls of the dead started taking on their forms, too. This is bad. They noticed me, and now all of them were slowly heading towards the tear. I have to find Vivi before things go out of control.
‘Vivi!’ I shouted into the tear. ‘Vivi!’
Suddenly, a soul appeared from the crowd of souls. It was stronger and brighter than the other souls. It slowly started taking on a human form: the form of a young girl with long, black hair, similar the image I made. The other souls stepped out of her way as she arrived to the tear and started looking more like Vivi. I used Check Reality to make sure that it’s her, and when she stretched her arm, I stretched mine, too.
‘Vivi!’ I called her name once again. ‘Grab my hand!’
When she touched my hand with hers, I felt like I put my hand in cold water. But I still managed to get a hold on her hand, and by putting all my strength in my arm, I pulled her to me.
The tear collapsed as I dragged her soul back to our world. She was tightly holding my hand with both of her hands until she reached the border of the worlds. Both the divine light and the Numen disappeared, and I fell back to the ground as I lost my balance. The terrible and inconceivable things also disappeared as reality returned. This is the problem with reality warping. As the original reality returns and everything else disappears, for a moment it disturbs the senses.
I stood up and quickly walked to Vivi’s body. The deep wound, as well as the blood disappeared. I checked her breath: it was all right. The heat returned to her body again. Her heart was beating in its normal rhythm. She was unconscious, but alive.
I quickly thanked God before I inspected her again. I carefully scanned her body for side-effects, and luckily I didn’t find anything. As I sighed, I wanted to wake her up, but I hesitated. This was the question that always troubled me ever since I heard of resurrection. What if the dead don’t want to come back? What if we just trouble their peace and drag them back to this world? What if we don’t do the right thing by bringing them back?
‘G-Gergő…’
Vivi feebly grumbled my name. When I saw that she opened her eyes, in that instant I forgot about all these questions. She reached my hand with hers and looked at me with her beautiful green eyes.
‘This feels really familiar’ she whispered. ‘It’s just like… the first time we met, right?’
She tried to sit up, but she almost immediately collapsed. I caught her body just in time, and carefully placed her back. She smiled at me.
‘Yeah, this is the same situation we were in back then…’ her voice was very weak, but she kept looking at me and smiling. ‘Gergő, was I… was I dead?’
‘You were’ I said. ‘Do you remember anything?’
‘No’ she said. ‘Just… just darkness…’
Vivi looked at my eyes and slowly pulled her face closer to mine.
‘But you are here now’ she said. ‘You saved me.’
‘Of course I did’ I said. ‘You said that I am your hero, after all.’
‘That’s right’ she smiled. ‘You are my hero. And because of that, I’ll reward you with a hero’s reward.’
While she was pulling her face closer to mine, she closed her eyes and…
She placed her lips on mine.
It was an amazing kiss. While our lips were on each other, I couldn’t even take a breath. I’ve already got kisses from Scathach, but this was like a force from a distant, higher world. Unlike Scathach’s lips, Vivi’s were not just hot, but sweet. When she let my lips go for a single minute, she pressed them against mine once more. This time however, she licked my lips with her small tongue, then pressed them against mines once again. After she took a small breath, she kissed me one more time, before letting me go.
When she opened her eyes, I saw they were shining like a pair of polished emeralds.
‘I love you, Gergő’ she whispered quietly. ‘I really, really do.’
‘Me too’ I whispered. ‘I love you too, Vivi.’
Her eyes suddenly got full of tears. She tightly hugged me, and said:
‘Thank you. For everything.’
I didn’t answer, just hugged her back. Her body was soft and warm. Her hair had a pleasant scent. I would have been fine if I could have been trapped in her arms like this forever, but things like this only exist in fairy tales. I carefully let her go, and whispered in her ears:
‘Let’s go back to the others, okay?’
When I opened the door with Vivi’s hand in my hand, for a moment everyone froze while standing. Both Erika and the Archwitch were staring at Vivi like they saw a ghost, then…
‘Vivi!’ shouted Erika. She jumped ahead and hugged her. ‘It’s you, isn’t it?’
‘What’s wrong, Erika?’ asked Vivi. ‘I’m fine, you know. Gergő saved me after all.’
The Archwitch strictly looked at me.
‘Can you explain this, Hex King?’ she asked.
‘Before I start, can we sit down somewhere?’ I asked. ‘I was chanting for hours, and I’m sure Vivi is also pretty exhausted.’
The Archwitch nodded, and we followed her to her office. She sat down behind her desk. I chose a chair in front of it, Vivi sat down next to me, while Scathach sat on my other side. After Erika closed the door behind us, she and Lugh occupied the last two chairs. The Archwitch leaned forward and looked straight in my eyes.
‘So, how did you bring her back from death?’ she asked. ‘Is she even the real Kardos Vivien?’
‘She is’ I said. ‘She is not a fake ghost or a demon in human body. She is the one and only Vivi we all know.’
‘That’s right’ said Vivi. ‘I was dead for a short time, but Gergő saved me.’
‘I’m still waiting for the explanation’ said the Archwitch. ‘Let’s start with how she was killed, okay?’
I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. I didn’t want to talk about this, but Vivi deserves an explanation.
‘During yesterday’s battle, I accepted a duel challenge’ I started. ‘It was a former comrade of mine from the Holy Cleric Academy of Debrecen. His name is Áron Máté. We studied at the same Academy for years. You remember him too, right, Vivi? He was in yesterday’s assault squad. He was wielding a short sword.’
‘Yes, I remember him’ said Vivi. ‘He was the tall boy with the red hair, right?’
‘Yes, it was him’ I said. ‘So, during the battle, he challenged me for a midnight duel, a fight just between the two of us.’
‘Why did you accept it?’ asked Vivi.
‘And why did you tell me not to follow you?’ asked Scathach.
‘I accepted it because he was my friend’ I said. ‘And I didn’t want anyone to follow me because if anyone gets involved in our duel, it’ll be cheating. I respect my friend enough to not to turn down his invitation like this. So when the clock turned to twelve, I was at the described place, just as he. The duel went like I planned, until I was ambushed by the cleric forces. This was when Vivi showed up.’
‘When I saw that Gergő was missing, I went after him’ said Vivi. ‘Just when I arrived to the park, I noticed the gathering clerics. I decided to hide, but when I saw how they ambushed Gergő, I just couldn’t stay put.’
‘This is really like you’ said the Archwitch. ‘And, what happened after it?’
‘As the open fight started, in the beginning we were at disadvantage’ I said. ‘But we quickly turned the chances. Everything went good, until… ‘when I arrived to this part, for a moment, I couldn’t speak, but after I looked at Vivi, I put myself together and continued:’ I didn’t notice when Máté stood up. When I turned back, it was too late. I would’ve been stabbed by him, if… if Vivi didn’t stand in his way.’
I silenced myself. Vivi started glancing at her feet; Scathach was playing with her skirt. Even the Archwitch didn’t say anything. At this part, we didn’t need words to know what happened after it. I tightened my fist as I remembered how Vivi’s lifeless body was slowly falling down with the large wound on her chest. Even now, I was angry. I quickly calmed myself down, and continued my story:
‘After Vivi died, I lost control. You can say that I almost went berserk. I don’t know which spell I activated, but it killed everything living, except Máté. And then… somehow, I activated Divine Conduit.’
‘What is Divine Conduit?’ asked Vivi.
‘I heard about it’ said the Archwitch. ‘It is an extreme rare and powerful miracle. Since it’s this difficult to execute it, as far as I know, no one in the last five hundred years managed to do so. Its user needs to be a strong Paladin who has some sort of connection to one of the eternal angels, am I right?’
‘You know it well’ I said. ‘As far as I know, these angels visit their chosen Paladins in their dream or as visions. Depending on the class of the cleric, Knights may summon Michael, Rangers can call Sandalphon, Orators might get chosen by Raphael, Ramiel can come down and aid Casters and Summoners can ask Sariel for help. Also, there was an example in the history when a Trinity Paladin contracted the True Holy Spirit itself.’
‘He was Gregorius Anicius, right?’ asked Scathach. ‘I remember a Pope with a name similar to yours.’
‘He was the last Apostle’ I nodded. ‘He is the protector and idol of all the Orators. In the orphanage, after I started memorizing chants, they gave me his altered name.’
‘Why?’ asked Lugh.
‘No idea’ I said. ‘It was probably some sort of charm, or a wish for me in the future.’
‘Clerics sure have some interesting habits’ said Erika ironically. I resisted to answer and continued:
‘The angel whom I summoned was Gabriel. Interestingly enough, he is not an angel who chooses contracting partners. He never visited me in my dream or sent a vision to me before, so I had no idea that he’d visit me. Gabriel is not an average angel. He stands the closest to God, and is the Archangel of hope, death and truth. He is the one who watches over humans and if it’s necessary, he also punishes them. As the Archangel who rules death, he has Authorities over resurrection.’
‘What is an Authority?’ asked Erika. Vivi also seemed curious, so I decided to explain:
‘Authority is a power that gives total control over certain aspects of reality to its users. It’s sort of a domain that is valid in both supernatural and normal levels. If I want to put it simple, it’s a weaker version of reality warping. Certain Archangels even have lordship over certain areas or events. Its ultimate version is Author Authority, which is associated with Omnipotence.’
‘Do Spirit Kings have this power?’ asked Vivi.
‘Yes’ I said. ‘They have a lesser version of it, so they are more limited in some ways than the Authority of Archangels.’
‘How are they limited?’ asked Erika.
‘For example, strong Paladins and Saints are completely immune to the effect of their powers’ I tried to explain. ‘Also, the protégées of other Spirit Kings may be immune to them under certain conditions.’
‘And you met the ruler of death, Archangel Gabriel?’ asked the Archwitch.
‘Exactly’ I said. ‘And this is how I could bring Vivi back.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘When we met, Gabriel gave me a gift’ I said. ‘He gave me a complete arsenal of miracles. It contains every miracle that exists, once existed and will exist. I found lots of resurrection miracles between them. This is why originally they were part of Gabriel’s Authority.’
‘So in other worlds, you now have a part of an Archangel’s Authority?’ asked Vivi. ‘You have angelic powers now?’
‘I have’ I said. ‘And you have, too.’
‘Eh?’ said Vivi. The others were surprised or didn’t even understand what I just said.
‘Do you know what Numen is?’ I asked.
‘It’s the energy that angels and Spirits use, right?’ asked Lugh. ‘As far as I know, it’s an energy that only exists in higher dimensions, and because of this it normally doesn’t exist in our dimension.’
‘Right’ I said. ‘It can usually be used by them, but under certain conditions some humans can use it, too.’
‘You mean I can use it, too?’ asked Vivi. ‘How?’
‘It’s a side effect of your resurrection. Since your body received such damage, I had to find a way to heal the damaged parts of your body. I basically made an angel core and implanted in your body to replace the damaged organs. Some of them now are made of Aether’ at this part somehow I blushed and looked at Vivi. ‘Do you… mind it?’
She looked at me, then gave me a beautiful smile. Her cheeks reddened.
‘Of course not’ she said. ‘If you didn’t make these decisions, I wouldn’t be here and look at you. I’m this grateful to you’ she said, and softly kissed my cheek. The others were staring at us strangely (except Scathach, who was mysteriously smiling). I tried to quickly get rid of my embarrassment and continued:
‘Well, thanks to the angel core inside your body, I managed to bring you back. It shouldn’t have any effect on your magical abilities. Sicknesses will avoid you and you will probably recover faster.’
‘So is she still human?’ asked the Archwitch.
‘In half she is’ I said. ‘Well, the term used on half-angel and half-human beings is ˝Nephilim˝.’
‘Nephilim?’ asked Vivi. ‘Sounds fun.’
I smiled on her. So she accepted this pretty quickly. Well, I have one less problem.
‘Is this the whole story?’ asked the Archwitch.
‘In a nutshell, it is’ I said.
‘Then, can I ask something, Master?’ asked Scathach.
‘Go ahead’ I said.
‘I just couldn’t ignore the fact that you have one more grimoire than last time I saw you’ she said. ‘Could you please explain this, Master?’
‘Well, she was a gift’ I said, but somehow it sounded like I was trying to make an excuse.
‘Master’ Scathach crossed her arms and strictly looked at me. ‘You made a promise that I’ll be your only grimoire.’
Scathach somehow seemed disappointed. I tried to say something, but I just simply couldn’t. Lugh looked in my eyes, then turned to Scathach.
‘Your master didn’t break his promise’ she said. ‘I’m still using the Mana I stored from my previous master.’
This answer didn’t satisfy Scathach, but she seemed to calm down a bit. Although I could see how cautiously she was looking at Lugh. The Archwitch pulled out a clock from her drawer and said:
‘It’s still early in the morning. The young ones should return to their beds and sleep at night. Am I right?’
‘Yes, ma’am!’ we said. She nodded, stood up and we all left the room behind her.
After we went back to Vivi’s room, Scathach and Lugh returned into their grimoire form. Vivi sat down on her blanket, and pointed at her side. I sat down next to her and she placed her head on my shoulder.
‘This was an interesting day’ she whispered. ‘And it isn’t even six o’clock.’
‘You are right’ I said. Vivi must have noticed something, as she was closely looking at my face and said:
‘Are you alright?’
I didn’t answer. No, I wasn’t alright. I felt terrible. But I can’t tell this to her. She slipped her hand in mine and interweaved our fingers. Her hand was soft and warm. From this close, I could feel the sweet scent of her hair.
‘Are you angry?’ I asked.
‘Huh?’ Vivi was surprised. ‘Why?’
‘For doing such selfish thing to you’ I said. She was looking at me for a minute, then kissed my cheek.
‘Of course I’m not’ she answered. ‘If I were you, I would have done the same thing. If it’s about you, I’m as selfish as you are.’
For a few minutes, the two of us were just sitting there, saying nothing. Finally, Vivi started speaking:
‘You know, I would’ve never thought that my first boyfriend will be a cleric.’
‘I’m not just a cleric’ I said. ‘I am the High King of Hexes, not just a simple cleric, you know?’
‘I know’ she laughed. ‘I’ve never thought of this possibility either.’
‘But you’re right’ I said. ‘I’ve never thought that my girlfriend would be a sorceress, either.’
‘I’m not just a sorceress’ she said, the same way as I did earlier. ‘I’m now a Nephilim, you know?’
‘I know’ I laughed. She looked at me strangely, then asked:
‘Hey, have you ever thought about … what you will do after you saved the world?’
I remembered what I was talking about earlier with Scathach. Well, it’s now or never, right? I took a deep breath, and said:
‘Vivi, have you ever been in Jerusalem?’
‘Eh? No’ she said. ‘Why?’
‘Scathach said that it’s a nice place’ I said. ‘Although as far as I know, it’s a bit hot during summer. Do you want to pay a visit there?’
‘It sounds interesting’ she said. ‘Will we go there just ourselves?’
‘I don’t think I can leave Scathach here’ I said, which made Vivi laugh. ‘And I think Lugh will tag along as well’ I continued.
‘Then, it’s decided’ she said. ‘I’m already curious.’
‘Uh-hum’ I said. ‘It’s going to take a while, but it’ll be exciting, I’m sure.’
‘But’ said Vivi. ‘To go there, first of all we need to save the world, right?’
‘Right’ I said. ‘But let’s talk about this later, okay? We should already sleep.’
‘Okay’ she said. She blew out the candle, and in the dark, she kissed me on my lips. As we lay down, she got a hold on my hand, and said:
‘Good night, Gergő.’
‘Good night, Vivi’ I said, and kissed her again. She fell down to her pillow, and immediately fell asleep. I stood up without making any voices and started putting on my clothes.
So the sleep spell was working. That’s a relief. I got careless earlier, but I won’t make the same mistake twice. Finally, I put on the Hide of the Leviathan and said:
‘Scathach, Lugh, appear!’
They materialized in two flashes of light. Both of them looked confused. Scathach looked at the sleeping Vivi, and asked:
‘What’s wrong, Master? What happened?’
‘We’re leaving’ I said. ‘This time, I’m going to end it all for sure.’
‘What are you talking about, Master?’
I took a deep breath and said:
‘I will stop the end of the world before the dawn breaks.’
‘Is this why you casted that sleep spell on Vivi?’ asked Scathach.
‘Yes’ I said. ‘I don’t want to get her involved once again. I won’t let the same thing happen once again. This is why I have to do this myself.’
‘How are you planning to do this?’ asked Scathach. ‘The previous assault attempts failed, and back then you had an army with you.’
‘Back then I didn’t want to use my full power’ I said. ‘I thought if I use my full power, it might kill people, but now I don’t care. If this is what it takes to keep Vivi far from the battle, I’m ready to fight.’
‘You already have a plan, don’t you, Master?’ asked Scathach. I smiled.
‘If I can’t attack them head on, I will avoid them while they’re fighting with someone’ I said. Scathach was shaking her head.
‘This plan is wrong, Master’ she said. ‘You forgot about several things. First of all, they have perfect protection. Even if you can break through with raw power, no tricks will work there, not even your hood will.’
‘But miracles will work’ I said. ‘As long as I have my miracles, I will be fine. And it takes a miracle to break through a perfect protection. Also, the Silver Knight’s Sword can cut anything, even the Tablets of the Decalogue. I will have less problems if half of the guards will be concerned with someone else.’
‘And who will be their opponent?’ asked Scathach.
‘Me, of course’ I said.
‘This sounds impossible’ said Lugh. ‘I don’t get your idea, Master.’
I calmed down and slowly explained my plan. After I finished, both of them were looking at each other for a minute. Finally, Scathach said:
‘This is a ridiculous plan, Master. But this is exactly why it may work.’
‘Then, let’s go’ I said. ‘It’s time to save the world.’
I put on my hood, opened the door and left the sleeping Vivi.
The night was cold, even though it was already spring. The moon now was covered by the curtain of clouds, but strangely, all of the stars were out. The night wasn’t black anymore; it took the color of ocean blue. The orange strip of dawn was already running through the horizon. Even if it wasn’t bright, it was still a shining source of light in the darkness. No matter how small it is, as long as it gives light, it can become the last source of hope.
I was thinking about things like this as I was slowly walking through the still sleeping capital. I let off my hood to feel the wind. Even if it was still early, people were slowly gathering on the streets. I wanted to avoid getting others involved, but as long they won’t stand in my way, the situation won’t change. I walked through the bridge above the Danube and stopped for a minute to watch the tram passing by. I remembered how I went through this bridge when I arrived with the same tram. Back then, I didn’t even know that my first stop would be my final destination. Even now, it feels ridiculous.
I looked at the orange light on the edge of the horizon one more time. It was beautiful even from the bridge. Today, dawn will be red, I thought. But before dawn breaks, I’ll end it all. Vivi has already suffered enough from this meaningless plan. I’m going to put an end on it, once and forever.
Just when I reached the end of the bridge, I stopped, turned around and looked at the two grimoires following me. Lugh was looking at me calmly, but Scathach seemed worried. I took a deep breath.
‘So, just to make sure, do you know what exactly you need to do?’ I asked. Both of them nodded. Scathach pulled out a small textile pack from her memory and handed it to Lugh. She carefully opened it, took a look in it and quickly closed it.
‘This is a good plan, but are you sure you want this?’ asked Scathach unsteadily. ‘If something goes wrong, we won’t be able to save you.’
‘I have faith in it’ I said. Scathach nodded, somehow with sad eyes.
‘Good luck, Master’ said Lugh. ‘Do your best.’
‘You too’ I said. I pulled on my hood and started walking up the hill.
The guards in the front of the bastion were slightly tired, a little bit afraid and mainly – bored. They already were warned about what happened at the City Park and the fact that they might get attacked by the same guy. This should have been exciting, but after two hours, even this excitement and fear wore off. Now they were only forty bored guards (and 150 more with the called reinforcement), who were waiting for something they didn’t even expect to happen that night. Most of them felt betrayed for the higher-ups making them excided for nothing, and now they were silently conversing in the shadow and quickly silenced when the others angrily looked at them just to continue later.
Just when some of them were about to fall asleep, a warning world flew through the air:
‘He is here!’
Panic is a great power. If someone underestimates this power, they will surely become its victims before they could even notice. The same thing happened with the guards; when they were just about to forget why they were there, three single words changed the mood drastically. Everyone tried to grab the weapon closest to their hands (which wasn’t always their own one) and tried to get as far from the frontline as possible without losing the sight of the street and not completely abandoning their positions, which was a rather hard task and ended up in complete chaos. When they finally occupied their positions and tried to keep themselves quiet (which only made them hear the panting of others), they could hear the footsteps. Even if they only heard the footsteps, their restless imagination flawlessly did the rest of the job, which was enough to petrify them.
‘Stop right there!’ shouted someone. The middle of the street was covered by reflector spells in an instant, revealing a little girl in white and purple dress. There wasn’t anyone else around. When they finally thought this was only mare’s nest, the red and green light of spells illuminated the street, revealing someone.
Everyone jumped back and grabbed their weapons more tightly, trying not to take their eyes from the black figure even for a moment. But the boy didn’t move, not even an inch. Someone left the closed lines of soldiers and stepped on the street. He fixed his armor, took off the giant rifle from his back and aimed the boy in black.
‘High King of Hexes, Eötvös Gergely!’ he shouted. ‘In the name of the Holy Church, I, Karl Kugel, also known as the Paladin of the rifle, am now putting you under arrest! Put down your weapons, dispel your grimoire and surrender peacefully!’
The boy shook his head. He pulled out his sword and raised his divine barrier. A magic circle appeared under the grimoire’s feet and she raised both her hands.
‘This won’t work, Paladin’ said a voice. The ones who heard it first turned towards it, but the only one they saw was a man in a long, red mage robe who was floating a few meters above the street. He was standing on a crimson, octagonal magic circle. Seemingly, he didn’t have a staff with him, but he had a shining gauntlet-shaped amulet on his right hand. He pointed at the boy with his right hand, and said:
‘Eötvös Gergely, the Council of Magicians decided about your fate. Your punishment for your sins is death! And now I, Alex Lindisfarne, second ranked Saint in the world, shell execute your punishment!’
‘Do you honestly think I’ll let you that?’ asked Gergő.
‘Of course not!’ laughed the Saint. ‘It’d be boring if you’d just give up like this! After all, I’ve just finished upgrading my Phantasmagoria, the Slings of David, and you seem to be perfect to test it!’
Scathach knew what Phantasmagoria means. These are high-level magic items created by Saints, which resemble to mythological or historical items. Both she and Lugh had their own Phantasmagoria (despite they are grimoires) and she was secretly hoping that she could teach her Master how to create one after they finished saving the world, since creating one’s own Phantasmagoria can take a year or more. This is why she didn’t tell her Master about Phantasmagorias, and now she wished she had talked about them earlier.
The Saint smiled at Gergő, but that smile was cold and evil. His look clearly told that he won’t show mercy. The soldiers pulled back as nine magic circles appeared in the air. The Saint’s smile grew larger as he said on an emotionless voice:
‘Slings of David, eliminate the false magician!’
A rain of golden and red light fell down from the circles like a cloud of arrows. After they reached the ground, each of them exploded like a larger hand grenade, burning the cobble stones. Scathach reacted in time, and the lights bounced off from her shield, while they completely disappeared when they touched Gergő’s divine barrier.
‘Nicely done!’ said the Saint. ‘Then, what about this?’
The circles started moving, forming a telescope-like line, pointing at right Gergő. The Saint smacked, and the last one of the circles started strongly glowing.
‘Saint Destroyer Light Spear Level One, fire!’ shouted the Saint.
Saint Destroyer is one of the most dangerous existing spell, since it can manipulate the concept of speed itself. The spell launched on the speed of light. It was impossible to dodge it, and when it reached Scathach’s shield, it pierced through without even slowing down. It stopped for a moment when it reached the divine barrier, but still went through. It could have hit its target if Gergő wasn’t anticipating its direction and lifted up his sword to deflect the ray. After the failed attack, the Saint started recharging his spell, but Gergő was ready.
‘I won’t let you!’ shouted Gergő. ‘Spirit Lance!’
The massive bolt of pure Mana launched towards the Saint, and he managed to block it, but the spell didn’t stop. Gergő jumped with his sword drawn out, but he never reached the Saint.
The Paladin moved faster than any time before. When Gergő was almost hit by the Saint’s spell, he let him out of his sight for a moment, and as a skilled Ranger, he grabbed this opportunity. He previously hid both his presence and himself, but when Gergő jumped up, he acted. Before Gergő could notice him, he was already doomed. The tip of the gun’s tube was almost touching his head. From this distance, the shot would never miss. The Paladin learnt from his previous battle that hesitating or unnecessary moves would be fatal mistake against him, so he decided to just shoot. He calmly pulled the trigger and the High King of Hexes was over.
One hit, one kill. This is what Rangers are told in their first lesson. One bullet equals one life. When you shoot, you have to know this. Usually, the magazines of standard cleric firearms hold 12 bullets. This means they can take away 12 lives. And once the bullet ends the target’s life, there is no turning back.
The corpse of the High King of Hexes was silently falling down, lifelessly. It’s over, thought the Paladin. It’s finally over. I took away the life of someone who saved me. I killed before, but this is the first time I feel like a monster. What a strange feeling it is. I hate it.
But nothing was over yet. The exultation suddenly stopped when the corpse started glowing and disintegrated in the air. The Paladin didn’t believe his eyes. From the ashes, a book fell down. It was shining with a faint light.
‘It’s a grimoire!’ shouted the Saint. The white-haired girl smiled, and she turned back into her book form. They both reached the ground, emitted a voice that sounded like laugher and disappeared. The only thing left on the street’s stone was the remnants of a white shirt. The Paladin and the Saint figured out what happened at the same time.
‘To the bastille!’ they shouted. ‘Quickly!’
I kicked one of the guards on his nose with the hilt of my sword, while I sent a stun spell on another one. My plan was flawless, just as my timing. Even if it was uncomfortable without my shirt, it was needed for Lugh to use her special ability. With her being a decoy and Scathach by her side, she was just like me. The only unexpected thing was that she didn’t have any of my original powers (even she was surprised and couldn’t explain it), but Scathach was with her, making her appearance even more convincing. The fake divine shield made by the almost ˝true˝ illusion of Lugh wasn’t as strong as mine, but at least it looked like mine. Even a Paladin won’t be able to tell the difference unless he spends a few hours with nothing else than analyzing it.
I felt when Lugh and Scathach engaged in combat, as well as when they lost. But inside the labyrinth under the bastille there were less than seventy guards, so I had a relatively easy job getting through them. I kicked out the legs under a mage who was running towards me, and almost cut down the head of a next one.
The tablets were close, I was sure of it. When I stepped through a door, I felt how the invisibility of the Hood of Nyx faded away. Thank God that the Hide of the Leviathan didn’t lose its protection. The Silver Knight’s Sword’s blade was still shining with its usual white light. I’m close. I still have the chance to end this. Even if the guards could see me now, it didn’t change my advantage. I cut through the armor of an armored mage and turned right. I finally arrived to the last door, but when I tried to push it in, it didn’t even move. I stood back, raised my hand and said:
‘Crushing Moon Hammer!’
This gravity-based spell broke through the door without any hardships. The crushed door flew a few meters, then landed with a terrible noise. I stepped in, and finally took a look at the tablet.
This is it. This is the item which caused this whole thing that happened to me in the past few days. I still didn’t understand why they thought I want this, but now I was here, thinking about how to destroy it. What was their plan anyway? Why did they think they can control it?
The stone tablet was floating in the middle of the room, in a giant blue ball of energy. The strange writing on its surface was shining with red light. I tightened my hold on my sword’s hilt, and stepped closer. I was thinking of a spell which could break the sphere, when someone pressed the tube of a handgun against my temple.
‘So you finally got here, High King of Hexes?’ asked my aggressor. ‘Put down your sword slowly to the ground and put your hands above your head.’
I did as he said. Even if I was just listening to his voice, I already collected some information about him.
‘I had no idea that mages like guns’ I said. The man laughed.
‘We need to move with time’ he said. ‘Even if this gun isn’t a regular casting tool, it still can shot through your skull.’
‘I have no doubts of it’ I said. ‘But I’ve come this far. Do you honestly think you can stop me here?’
‘Goodbye, traitor’ he said.
As he pressed his finger against the trigger, I quickly turned around and stabbed him with a blade made of pure light. This blade is an altered version of the miracle Sunlight Blade, just a bit shorter in range and shorter casting time. I found this in the complete arsenal of miracles and decided to use. This blade violently destroys everything related to evil, so much that it even burned my palm, but it left an even bigger hole in his stomach. But he still managed to pull the trigger and I couldn’t evade the bullet. The pain was unbearable as the bullet pierced my head. I fell to the ground and arrived with a loud knock.
When I sat up, even the place of the shot was healed. The bullet was lying on the ground. I let out a really big sigh. This was a nice self-resurrecting miracle. Usually, Second Chance only lasts for two minutes until casting, but this one was different. It recasts itself every two minutes and it lasts for a day. I came prepared, just as I wanted.
Then I heard the sound. It was a high-pitched voice, and when I turned around, I noticed that it was coming from the stone tablet. The writings almost covered its surface and they were violently pulsating. Then it started screaming. The shockwave shook the entire place, and I was sure it reached the city as well. I have no time left. Somehow, I knew that if the writings manage to cover the whole tablet, everything will be over, and not in a good meaning. I wasn’t thinking when I jumped, grabbed my sword and slashed the blue orb. When the blade reached the tablet, it started sparking with the divine light of Numen. I watched how the powerful wave of sacred, divine energy coming from the blade of my sword cut through the Tablet, which was supposed to be indestructable. It was the conceptual attack the Green Dragon mentioned, an absolute attack which cuts the concept of everything I think as obstacle, destroying it completely. I watched how the golden light finally cut the Tablet in half, then…
…the lights covered everything around me…
…and the world became quiet again.
alfabetagregor 