36. The Warzone
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L backed away from the Champion of Darkness, and the now vomiting specter that stood in front of him, attempting to navigate toward V. Several shadow clones had engaged the newly arrived Champion of War, L was hoping they might make their escape from the manor while Darkness's attention was on War and the dead that were now accosting him. V was still barely holding off the sword wielding shadow as L made it to his side. Although being pressed hard, V was calmly assessing the situation. "We need to get out of here, help me destroy this shadow, and then take Eika and get out of here, I’ll be right behind you. I need to grab something before we leave." L responded, breathing heavily "Are you certain you are going to have the time? It seems as if there is no limit to the amount of shadow clones being generated." Even through the desperate defense against the sword wielding clone, he had not failed to notice the ever-increasing amount of shadows starting to form humanoid shape. He hoped there was a limit, but even if there was not... "It’s important!" V gestured to the Champion of Life's corpse, which had made it halfway across the room, and was latched onto one of the shadow clones. "I just need to grab something off of her!"

Shrugging internally, L knew there was not really enough time to figure out what in the world he was talking about. She focused her efforts on defeating the clone before her. The two of them working together was too much for a single shadow clone, and L quickly found an opening to behead it. However, this only seemed to delay it. Its head was already regenerating. V sighed "Figures, look just go!" he pushed Eika toward L and dove into the absolute chaos before him. As he struggled to navigate the battle going on between the shadow clones and War, he noticed that T was commanding one of the shadow clones to fight for him? Although, it looked darker than the rest of them, somehow? There was not really enough time to think too deeply on that at the moment. As he neared the Champion of Life's moving body, a woman suddenly appeared floating above them, resting her hand on one of the remaining chandeliers. "You are all quite lively. I was just enjoying my day, when suddenly I get a bunch of messages. A God, then a few blessings. I just HAD to come look! I would have been here sooner if the city was not on fire, but it is just as bad out there as it is in here. Although... I assume the one with all the shadowy figures who look like them is the one marked for a bounty?" The women wet her lips and dodged an arrow shot at her. V assumed it was from one of the shadow clones, but who really even knew anymore. V had made it to the Champion of Life's body, it had resumed dragging itself slowly across the floor, the shadow clone it was holding seemingly rotted into dust. Which was weird, on account of it being a shadow. He was hoping that L had left, he did not want her to see him rummaging through a dead women's silk clothing. As he had hoped, the Champion of Life payed no attention to him. He searched folds and folds of draped silk clothing, after a moment, a thought did occur to him. Wasn't uh, the Champion of Death the specter in the forest that would not stop screaming? Welp, that problem seems to not have resolved itself as much as V had hoped.

L had maneuvered Eika only a few feet toward the part of the manor that had been destroyed by the Champion of War's arrival. L could not afford to carry the girl, she needed to be able to wield her sword, so she ended up just sort of pushing her. "Come on girl, I’m sure if you die again, this situation will become even worse. Somehow. Me and V are going through a lot of trouble to try and save you right now..." Eika blinked a few times and looked around "Eh?" Eika seemed confused, but she suddenly started looking around, "Oh, this place is a mess! Ohhh look at all the shadowy guys! Eika thinks that is very cool! And the man in armor, we saw him before... right?" L really did not have time to deal with Eika's apparent confusion. She slapped Eika across the face "Go! Run! We need to get out of the city! Or at-least out of here!" The stinging and L's sharp command made Eika nod and start running away. This was not, in-fact, as helpful as L would have liked as she was simply running with little heed to what was going on around her. She tripped several times over the rubble and mess of the ruined manor. None the less, they managed to get into a position to see the city fairly quickly. The sight was not encouraging. Green flames were roaring through the city, almost literally. From her current vantage point, she could only see over the top of a few houses, as the noble quarter was raised only slightly above the rest of the city. Nevertheless, it was enough to see what L could only explain as green fire tornadoes of various sizes ripping down streets. One passed down the road directly in front of them, the heat blinded L for a moment as she protected her head.

"Eh? Why is the street not on fire?" Eika was dazedly pointing in front of them. It was true, the green fire had left everything unsinged. The only damage to the street was caused by the movement of the fire. A cart was swept along, a carriage was turned on its side, but there was no actual fire damage. Whatever the case, L looked behind them for a moment. "We need to get out of here, either to the front gate of the city, or to T's hiding spot..." L placed her hand on Eika's head and guided her out of the manor, into the street. L had started to notice that the blood loss from the wound Darkness had provided her with was starting to make her light headed. She knew that if she did not do something about the wound soon, she would be in serious trouble. "Wait for me near that overturned cart, I’ll be right back." Eika nodded and obediently wandered over to the cart. She had obviously not regained all of her faculties yet. Meanwhile, L returned to the front of the destroyed manor. She grimly smiled to herself, who would have thought the Champion of Life's ostentatious lifestyle would come in handy? L dragged one of the curtains that had been covering the large glass windows of the front of the manor out of the rubble, before retreating to Eika's position. Eika had, by this point, realized she was not wearing any clothes. "L! Why is Eika naked?! Can I have some of that!?" Eika pointed toward the mass of curtains L was carrying. "After you help me bind my chest to slow the bleeding, you can have whatever is left." L started cutting the curtain, to remove a manageable piece from the mass of cloth. 

V had found what he was looking for, and was looking for a safe way to escape the manor. On one hand, most everyone here was ignoring him, probably due to the fact that he was relatively powerless compared to everyone else in the room. On the other hand, the massive ballroom had turned into a massive dance of chaos. A seemingly infinite number of shadow clones were fighting the Champion of War, who, for his part was doing rather well against them. At-least in the sense that he appeared unharmed. The women who had arrived a few moments ago was shooting some form of red lighting at nearly every target in the room. T had acquired command of another shadow clone, but for some reason it looked like the women who had just arrived. The champion of darkness was dealing with the never-ending vomit specter. Which apparently was difficult, as the reddish sludge vomit seemed to both burn and harden the moment it touched any part of Darkness's body or equipment. In theory, the safest rout out of the manor would be to retreat past T, however, he was no longer sure that T would not attack him. Their partnership, such as it was, only existed to kill the Champion of Life. She was dead now. On the other hand, T had expressed a certain level of concern for him and L in the past, and perhaps would let him escape unharmed. Eh, risking T's dubious friendship was safer than trying to navigate across the absolute mess of a situation. He quickly retreated to the doorway T was standing in. For a moment, V saw hesitation in T's eyes. Whatever he was considering however, ended up in V's favor as he let him pass, nodding at him.

As V made it out onto the street, he saw L leaning up against a cart, Eika was milling around, sizing up rocks, perhaps looking for one she could throw. Eika was draped in the curtains of the manor's large front facing window. V was relieved to see that Eika was not brain-dead or some such awful condition. However, out of nowhere a whirlwind of green flames tore down the street at breakneck speeds. L was off to the side of the street, and was able to avoid it. Eika however, was hit straight on. "AWHWWWW Eika is on fire!!!" Eika screamed as the flames passed over her. "EIKA IS BURNING... Eh?" as the flames passed and continued down the street, Eika patted herself. "N..nevermind? I don't seem to be on fire. Eika is immune to fire now?!" V slowly nodded, apparently, she was? Eika cheered as he walked toward her "Oh! You made it!" Eika ran over and bounced up and down, her ears flopping around. "Eika is very happy, we are all together! I cannot remember what happened very well..." she tilted her head in thought as V guided her back toward L. "No, you are not immune to flames, I suspect that fire only effects champions." L chided Eika as they approached, she did not want the girl jumping into a campfire at the next opportunity. "Just being close to the fire caused me to become unbearably hot. However, neither you nor the street seem affected." Eika looked around as V nodded. "Also, I’m guessing your world did not get this far in science, but fire uses the air we breathe as fuel" V paraphrased, he had no time to explain what oxygen was. "If it was burning like a normal fire, Eika would have been entirely out of breath at the least. Considering the amount of fire that seems to be whipping around the city, it’s probable the air would be very thin in the entire region. I suspect that it only burns its targets, in this case, probably champions. L nodded "If it’s true, what you said about fire and air, then when I found Eika's body, I should have suffocated, the entire market square was a raging green inferno. "Eika's body?! What happened to me?!" Eika looked around in confusion for a moment. "Oh.... right, I remember something! Eika was hit!"

"We can talk about that later, right now we really need to find somewhere safe." L nodded in agreement with V's words, before adding her own. "The only way out I know is the front gate." V shook his head "If the champions in the city intend to get something out of this, I suspect they have the city gate being watched, or perhaps whoever is controlling this fire simply will have the front gate in flames. I suspect we are either going to have to hide inside of our inn and hope. Or, take refuge in T's hiding place." L crossed her arms, or rather, tried to, but the pain in her chest stopped that. "I do not like either of those options, but given the fire, T's underground hideout will work better." V looked around, trying to judge if any fire spouts were going to be ripping by anytime soon. "We should get going, but we need to be cautious, those fire spouts will make it difficult to move through the city. Which, I assume is the point." Eika silently looked around as the other two formulated the quickest way through the streets. Her ears straightened up "Isn't this really bad? Eika can hear all sorts of fighting and crazy noises all over the place." V looked over toward her, it seemed as if her mental state was returning to a more helpful working order. "Yes, that is sort of what we have been talking about. Can you hear the fire tornadoes before they get to us? It would help to have some advance warning." Eika listened a moment "Maybe, but Eika is hearing all sorts of crazy things. It might be hard to hear the differences between a fiery wind gust and everything else. I will try!" Eika's face screwed up in concentration. "Well, it’s now or never I guess." V looked at L who nodded, they set off, Eika trailing closely behind.

As they cautiously exited the noble quarter, Eika pointed upward. "It's too early for the moon, right?" Following her gaze V saw that the moon, in fact, had rather strangely appeared in the sky, it was a pale golden color. "Eika, does that color of moon mean something?" Eika shook her head "If it does, Eika does not know! It cannot be a new age already! But the moon is called the face of the gods, so it must mean something!" Quickening pace, V grabbed Eika and picked her up. "Just try to tell me if we are about to run into any fire, we are going to run now." L and V quickly navigated the streets, only narrowly dodging two intersecting green fire tornadoes. Suddenly, a voice called over the city, it emanated from the cathedral behind them, in the center of the noble quarter. "Have no fear citizens! In this Age of Champions, the Gods have not forgotten the common man! The Champions have decided to wage war in our fair city, however, thanks to the grace of the Gods, any citizen who remains inside of their homes will remain unharmed, the light of the Golden Moon will keep safe those that have no business in this war the champions have waged!" That was slightly surprising, V had, so far, figured that the God's cared very little about this world as a whole. Although, that still might be true. Perhaps rather than helping the citizens out of actual worry or consideration for them, the gods simply want to keep the citizens from interfering in their game... the most likely option was that it was both. There were so called "good" and "bad" gods after all. "Well, that works out for the people, and it keeps the streets clear..." L nodded "There is honor in that at-least. But I doubt the God's have done this for honors sake..." They continued moving, a massive shadow passed over them, V looked up, but whatever it was had already disappeared. He stuck his hand into his pocket gingerly, assuring himself that his acquisition from the body of the Champion of Life was still there.

"Eika hears something crazy!" V and L halted their brisk moment. "We need more than that Eika. Give us something to work with." V set her down, and she stood quietly for a moment. "AH! I think everything ahead of us is freezing! You know the noise when ice covers something? That crispy crackling noise?" L turned around and started searching for a different rout while V examined the street ahead of them. "I think this alley connects back to a road that will put us roughly back on track!" L called back to V.  As he started to turn, he saw the air itself turn white at the end of the road they had been running down. The moisture in the air had frozen instantly. He nodded and ran down the ally with L, picking Eika back up. As they ran, V looked at the walls of the buildings on either side of them. Something was wrong with them. Too smooth, too dark. "Stop! L Stop!" He called from behind her. She slid to a halt, gripping her sheathed blade.  "Oh, come on! Just a few more steps!" A male voice emanated from the walls. "Well, either way, you are in my grasp now!" A man "melted" out of the walls. Short, shorter than Eika. Bald with a bright blue beard. He bowed "I’m sorry to take advantage of you like this, but not all of us are blessed with amazing combat abilities, or blessed with being sent here in the first waves. Some of us just have to scavenge for what we can get. L dashed toward the man, unwilling to wait for him to finish. Her blade, swift and true, slid through the man’s neck. However, instead of decapitating him, all that was left was a small red line. "See? this is what I mean. If I had simply attacked you head on, I would be a head down!" He laughed as he danced backwards slightly. Behind him, V noticed that the other end of the alley seemed as far away as it did when they first start running. This was not great, facing an unknown enemy, clearly a Champion, after falling into some form of trap. "Eika cannot hear the city anymore!" V put Eika down "Be careful, this is clearly the work of a blessing, but I don't really understand exactly what is going on." As he said that, part of the wall next to him flew out and tried to smash him into the opposite side of the alley. Luckily he was able to dodge, as he suspected something like that might happen the moment he saw the strange smoothness the walls had taken on.

——————
The Blessing of Good has been activated!
In the interests of cooperation, The Champion of Good has sent a message to the local participants!

"To those Champions who have turned the Capital City of Kolzar into a battlefield.
The chaos and, in his words, "Excitement" of the battle has attracted the attention of The Champion of The Mad God!
For your own sakes, abandon this foolish endeavor and flee the city!"

A message from the Champion of Good.
——————

"Oh. I’ve never met that champion, but that SEEMS bad" the small, blue bearded man spoke as he draws a small dagger from his belt. "However, I am sure I have more than enough time to kill you and be done with it!"

 

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