Chapter 39 - A Sad Ending

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“The Essence… they are both a blessing and a curse. Unable to destroy them, we have tried to quarantine the more malicious ones that come across our path with minimal success. It saddens me that we have not found a way to completely dispose of the more evil versions of these creations, because when their hosts die… the essence still remains. The ones that are aligned with us have over time become items of worship for my people, creating heroes from those they bind to as they are indeed pieces of the original god... when there was only a single god… back, in the beginning of time. Different and more malicious Essence have become hated enemies, gifting the black magics to their creature of choice and setting loose chaos after warping their hosts. Each essence is a unique and alien being that slowly changes and tinkers with the host it chooses, each time after binding to a new host: a new version of manifesting appears. We knew there to be a hundred thousand of these… strange artifacts. But that was then, and this is now. We have been proven wrong in our original assumptions, and now we have absolutely no idea how many of them actually exist. As the number continues to grow throughout the ages, we begin to doubt what we truly know about them… and there has been recent proof indicating that there are many, many more than we had even thought possible.

Throughout this great stage of time, with the rise and fall of countless civilizations, we of the Oralmius Heaven’s Empire have stood watch over creation to maintain balance. We keep record of the significant happenings over the eons and pride ourselves in the vast trove of knowledge we have accumulated since the beginning of the eternal war between the Heavens and the Hells. Despite regular internal squabbling between different nations of Heaven, we have for the mostpart come to an accord for the sharing of information. Despite the undeniable proof we have found of their existence, we cannot locate the other Essence outside the realm of the original hundred thousand. Is it not strange? Is it not strange that well over half of them have not shown themselves for so long? Even the enigma of the singular Essence of Time that has quarantined itself in a shadow realm for the past three million years has at the very least shown itself to be present within our universe. But we do not even know the names of these others… Perhaps it just means that creation is far greater in extent than we expected it to be. Or, perhaps, they are all hiding. But in my mind something seems off. I do not believe that it is merely a coincidence that these other Essence are not present within life’s theater, but I am unsure if I will ever be able to see the day that the questions I have are answered... for I am going to march into war this very day against a bearer of one of these very Essence I am speculating about. Satan, the greatest of the Lords of Hell, has threatened us for too long... massacring our people and razing our holy cities. For what? Pleasure? Slaves? It is time to send him back to the pits of Hell and cast him from Heaven forever. May we strike him down and burn away his soul so that he never returns to curse our lands. May we lock the Essence he bears in a box and shut it away so that it never sees the light of creation again. But even as I write these words... I grow increasingly anxious for the time that I do meet him in battle, for he surely will be looking for me. He is no easy foe to overcome. And even angels can die.”

• Excerpt from Michael’s journal, High Commander of the Oralmius Heaven’s Empire

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Name: Trey Bon

Level 8

Class: Infernal Summoner

“Why don’t you guys take a break... Maybe go exploring or something? Get to know one another!”

That's what Trey had said to his minions Rivia, Willow, Napoleon, and Atharost. He’d gotten salty looks from Rivia, but the other three had taken his words to heart as they’d all gone off on their own little adventure to god knows where.  Willow had even stopped to give him a goodbye kiss and spanked him of all things, to which he chuckled at and shooed her off.

In the meantime, Trey used that opportunity to talk to Jason some more. He was becoming fond of the other Earthborn guy and he’d suggested that they take a walk through the woods to the Mehre Forest Runestone and back. On the way, they could pick herbs for Jason to either use or digest to improve his alchemy.

Jason had promptly and excitedly agreed to the idea, but by the time they’d reached the runestone - the wind and snow had picked up again. So they didn’t stay very long, immediately making their way back to Vork once they’d arrived.

Unfortunately for Jason, he’d sprained his ankle badly on the way back when he tripped over a large rock. Unable to walk completely by himself for the last stretch of traveling, he had asked Trey for assistance… he hadn’t expected Trey to pick him up though.

“This has got to be the most homosexual thing I’ve ever done.” said Jason who was being carried at this point.

“Only for you, baby girl.” said Trey with a wink and laugh when Jason scowled ferociously back. “It woulda been like watching the grass grow if I would have had to wait for you to get there. Being carried was the logical thing to do my dude.”

“Hmph.” snorted Jason.

Trey snickered, and set Jason down on his feet when they were near the village again.

“I won’t embarrass you in front of everyone else, go ahead and walk yourself again. Or, you know, hobble back.” Trey smirked and received a punch to the shoulder. He patted the tight fitting battle robe, and started off behind Jason with his tail flicking back and forth behind him. “Hey Jason, I think it’s about time that I started looking around for work.”

Jason adjusted his posture and looked back at his friend. “Still set on mercenary work?”

“Yeah, probably.” replied Trey with a shrug. “I may change it up a bit. But I was wanting to know if you’d come with me?”

Jason laughed and then smiled. “I’d definitely like to come with you, but I don’t see myself as a mercenary. It just doesn’t fit who I am. You’re more than free to come visit me and Elise whenever you want to though.”

“AND Elise, huh? So that’s why you’re staying.”

Jason didn’t say anything in reply.

“Can’t say I blame you man.”

The two men had just come across a dirt path that led to the village, and upon recognizing it they stepped up their pace. Jason was still hobbling but did his best not to make it obvious as Trey chuckled at the failed attempts. The sun blazed down on them that day, it was unusually warm compared to what the weather had been like over the last month. Fallen leaves of various colors sticking out of the thin layer of snow crunched beneath the soles of their boots, and a couple squirrels darted across their path.

‘Master, hostiles have been detected up ahead...’ stated Sithis coolly.

Trey put a hand on Jason’s shoulder and slowed to a halt. “Sithis, you always see things that I don’t. Like the many times those arrows or bolts of magic were coming my way and you blocked them while I was completely unaware. Now this? What, do you have some sort of super senses that I don’t have?”

‘Yes.’ Sithis replied simply.

“Oh. Ok then. What makes you think they’re hostile?”

‘They are waiting in ambush and staring directly at you two. There are three of them, one above in the trees and one on either side of the path hidden behind bushes.’

“I see. Well they picked the wrong guys to fuck with today my man.” He looked at Jason. “You stay here for a bit, pretend you’re going to take a piss. I’ll continue ahead.”

Jason nodded and headed into a thicket as Trey continued casually on. Even with being told ahead of time, Trey had trouble spotting them. They were concealed quite nicely, and Trey was actually impressed with their camouflage.

“Thank you Sithis…”

The men on the ground drew their bows and waited for Trey to walk into position, but Trey stopped right before the spot where the net was supposed to fall. He stared at the ground and smirked, standing there for about 30 seconds.

“Three versus one isn’t very fair, don’t you think?”

The net was thrown forward and four arrows zipped towards Trey, but by the time they reached Trey’s previous location… he was suddenly gone.

***

King Hethemon shifted uncomfortably amid the wreckage of the camp as screams continued to echo out of the nearby forest. He sat atop an armored stallion, alongside two of his most capable champions: Xaltare and Jin. The men wore enchanted armors and wielded Epic tier weapons, looking rather intimidating in their full plate mail. Only the eyes could be seen of the men, and a jeweled crown adorned the helmet of the king. Hundreds of cavalry stood in wait in the trees behind him, a little over a hundred stood immediately adjacent to him, and even more were stationed further away behind a hill.

Unfortunately, Yosemar had a rather… Well, a terrible standing army would be one way to put it. Their soldiers were generally of poor quality, not well trained, and lacked experience. In fact the only reason why they were still a country was because of their standing alliances from generations past, otherwise they’d have been invaded and conquered long ago.

That being said, they still should be able to handle a single summoner without any problems.

That’s when one more high pitched scream rattled out into King Hethemon’s ears before being abruptly silenced.

Then there was nothing but the whistling wind to grace the king’s ears.

King Hethemon sat there, waiting for them to come out. He knew they’d come, the interrogation of Elise’s family had made it clear that Trey and Jason were very invested in the well-being of that peasant family.

And if he was wrong and they chose to flee, those men who’d waited in ambush were only a small fraction of the people encircling his targets even now. They’d be flushed out, one way or the other, directly into King Hethemon’s cavalry.

“Come out, little summoner!” the king yelled out from atop his armored warhorse. He spurred the animal to trot forwards, knowing full well that the two Earthborn were likely watching him from the cover of the forest. “I want to speak to you, as man to man.”

There was still no answer.

The king sighed and shook his head as the horse came to a stop a couple yards out from the military formation. His handsome features bore a stern gaze as he tried to pierce the foliage before him. “If you do not come out, we will kill that peasant girl along with all of her family. The redheaded one? You have one minute to come out, before I give the signal.”

King Hethemon raised a hand skywards, and none other than Elise was brought forward from the ranks. Thrown unceremoniously onto the ground, she didn’t move a muscle.

Her face was bruised and bloodied, and her arm was mangled in a swollen lump of flesh. Cuts riddled her body, and none of her family was anywhere to be seen.

***

“Elise!”

Jason broke cover and rushed forward brazenly before being tackled by Trey right outside the treeline. Jason struggled against his friend, tears welling up and streaming down his face after seeing the girl he’d come to care so much about in such a state. However, Trey held him there in an arm lock as he whispered quickly into his ear - trying to talk some sense into him.

“Jason, you need to calm down and think straight.” Trey tried to keep his cool, looking around quickly from left to right before setting his sights on the king who was casually joined ahead of the formation by a couple other men on horseback. “Elise is already dead, Jason. Look at her. Her chest isn’t moving up and down, her body is broken. That’s just a corpse.”

Trey’d seen his fair share of corpses over his lifetime. It was blatantly obvious to him that she’d passed into the afterlife, but Jason was unwilling to accept it. It was a sad ending to a good and underserving person.

Jason sputtered something unintelligible and coughed as Trey let loose on the hold around his neck, then barely made out a: “I DON’T BELIEVE YOU! HOW CAN YOU EVEN SEE THAT? DON’T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT WHEN YOU DON’T REALLY KNOW!”

Trey’s grip tightened again against the larger man, bringing his futile struggles to a minimum until he let up for a second time. “You need to run. Get the fuck out of here. They likely just want me, because they only called out for the ‘little summoner.’ We don’t have time to argue this…”

And that’s when Trey saw the others.

“You don’t know that!” Jason begged, tears flooding onto Trey’s arm. “We can still save her! Please let me go! Let me go to her!”

The king loudly cleared his throat and cocked his head to one side. “Ahem. Trey and Jason, I presume?”

Trey ignored the asshole and just gaped at the family he’d come to befriend… or, what used to be them. “He killed them all… not just Elise.”

Trey glared at Jason as another tear fell down Jason’s right cheek. “Look.”

He pointed off to the far right, away from where they would have expected their friends to be. Jason couldn’t make out what Trey was pointing to at first, but as his eyes adjusted to the darker area of the forest he gasped and almost vomited. Hanging from the branches with nooses around their broken necks were Amaia, Nommen, Borthome, Estela, and lastly… the pregnant Corela.

They were all dead, with their defining red hair blowing about in the wind as they swung from the branches.

Jason stood unmoving, not knowing what to say or do… and simply began to sob. He dropped to his knees, sobbing even harder and clutching his chest as he let his head hit the floor.

No.

Why?

What…

Why would someone do this?

***

Yosemar’s leader turned to his nearby Identifier questioningly.

The man was scrutinizing Trey's status page, as well as the status page of the sword he carried on him. Identifiers had the key abilities to look beyond what normal people could, and were able to see a full status instead of the normal name / level / class and bars. This not only went for living beings, but also gave further information on items as well - hand his identifier was one of the best. Even though Corela had told them about how this summoner had obtained a speaking, chaos-imbued greatsword, King Hethemon could only guess at what its true identity was. He needed his hired identifier to make sure it was really what he thought it to be, and now that they'd laid eyes on it.. within seconds he would know.

“The woman was telling you the truth before she died, sire. That is indeed one of the lost living weapons. Talsh’Noc’Un, the Sword of Ruin... to be exact.” The hooded man looked a little shaken and tilted his head as if in thought. “It also seems she was correct in identifying him as an Earthborn. It appears that he somehow was able to acquire a Void Essence of all things as well, though I’m not sure which one. He currently sits at level 8, which is utterly ridiculous considering what he possesses. Accounting for his level it should only take a couple of our men to detain him, we came overprepared. Still… it bothers me. Something is wrong about this situation, one should not be able to acquire an essence and the sword at such a low level…”

King Hethemon was taken aback by the knowledge that not only had this man acquired the sword, but an essence of all things as well. He tried not to let it show, but he was suddenly a little less confident than he'd been a couple seconds ago. Just as his identifier said, something about this situation was very off. Things like that were not just coincidences, not when the two were paired together, and it gave King Hethemon an uneasy feeling in the pit of his gut.

The two men on horseback continued to chat, eyeing the weapon Trey had and muttering low so that others present couldn’t hear them. The rows of soldiers were at ease, joking with one another and laughing atop their mounts as they waited in formation in front of the place Trey and Jason had come to call home.

Jason managed to get ahold of himself long enough to yell out one, lone question. His body shook violently with suppressed emotions while he took in the sight, and he nearly dropped to his knees. “Why did you have to kill them!?”

The king did not respond, but dismounted instead, and his two heavily armored champions followed suit - as did some of the other men in the clearing. They stood in a roman wall formation behind the king and awaited his orders, steel tower shields bearing the symbol of the wolf facing towards Trey.

“Give me the living weapon, monster, and I promise your days confined to a cell will be more hospitable than those of your fellows.” King Hethemon said confidently, unsheathing an intricate longsword that sparkled with energy. The two champions both drew their weapons and stood with shields at the ready. The sun glistened off the metal and shimmered as small clouds passed over, only to let the rays of the sun shine once again.

[Human Dialect] “May I introduce my champions, Xaltare and Jin.” The king nodded to either champion on his right and left. Neither moved, but Trey did have time to Identify the one called Jin.

Name: Champion

Race: Human

Class: Weapons Master

Level: 86

HP: ???, MP: ???, SP: ???, DP: ???

“Corela was kind enough to give you two up… believing you to be aligned with demons? I wasn’t exact on the details, but it had to do with you being a summoner.” The king raised an eyebrow with a taunting expression. “Are you upset? We did what we would do to any others who would try to shelter your kind from divine justice. All those hiding Earthborn from the crown are to be executed without funeral.”

Tears began to well up in Jason’s eyes again, with his lips curled into an angry snarl. “WHAT DID THEY EVER DO TO YOU?”

‘Jason is being a fucking idiot,’ snarled Sithis as a wave of rage and hunger spread through Trey’s body. ‘He’s already sentenced us to death by giving us away, we should leave him.'

Trey couldn’t agree more that Jason had been a moron for not trying to run when they still had the chance, but now that their cover was broken… Those cavalry could easily run any of them down. The only chance Jason had was to try to flee while the others focused on Trey, and even that was a long shot.

Trey on the other hand, he knew he wasn’t getting out of this one.

He briefly considered summoning that overly-violent fallen angel, the one Talsh'Noc'Un kept within its blade. Would he be able to do it? The people he cared about were already dead, and although he may die along with Jason - at least he'd take the king out with him. Perhaps even the village would be caught up in the destruction, but it would be worth it to see that fucking smiling asshat of a king wiped of the face of the planet.

The only problem with this plan was that, just like when he'd summoned Atharost from the blade for the first time, it would take time and an obvious application of magic. If he'd been a betting man, he'd have wagered that the'd try to stop him immediately upon activation of the blade's soul stone compartments. Not only that, but the blade would be useless if he continued to channel it that way.

Might as well get this over with and give it a try. It was the only shot he had.

"I don't understand why you'd kill them, some king you are." Trey said in a loud and angry tone. He activated his sword's storage, and black lightning rocketed out behind him to collect midair. "Did it feel good? Hanging your own people, hanging a family just for being kind to others?"

The channeling would last a little while, and Trey was sure that if he could bullshit enough to make it to the point where his impromptu and angelic suicide bomb came out... he'd be able to see this asshole killed. The problem was maintaining that channeling long enough, stalling the king long enough for him not to interupt.

The two champions activated a series of buffs, the enchantments glowed hot red and bright yellow intermittently in a series upon seeing Trey's sword activate.

The king on the other hand just sighed, grimaced and shook his armored head. "So we're doing this the hard way then. Jin, Xaltare, don't let him finish that channeling."

Trey saw the two Yosemar champions shift stances a split second later, and he cursed upon realizing that he really wasn't going to be able to finish calling the fallen angel - not even close. So instead, he'd do what he could to harm them as much as possible before the fight's conclusion.

The sword's channeling was canceled. A chaos ball and roar of the banshee were cast by Sithis instantaneously as Trey shot out two more chaos balls to his front-right and left. Crimson hellfire burst forward from his mouth to make direct contact with the king, the identifier - who was immediately charred to a crisp, and the two champions of Yosemar.

Pieces of bodies scattered into the air as scraps of metal, dirt and flesh. An arc of lightning pierced Trey’s right shoulder that stunned him for just a moment and took his HP down by 10%. Whoever had thrown that magic his way must've somehow resisted the silence of his roar.

Jin and Xaltare materialized out of the air onto either side of Trey with swords glistening in the sunlight. They were already on top of him, and his eyes went wide. Trey activated the on hit obliterate as he threw the greatsword to strike Xaltare with an explosion that ripped his right arm off into little pieces and sent the king flying backwards after he was caught in the explosion.

Though Trey hadn’t come out unscathed. Xaltare had managed to bear the pain and continued on to sever Trey’s right hand in a counterstrike while Jin had cut out Trey’s achilles to cripple him.

Trey was gushing red liquid profusely from both sites and pain erupted across his body. He cried out in agony and grasped his arm while simultaneously dropping to the ground after he couldn’t support his weight on the right side, a frantic look written upon his features.

He wished his minions were here, though even if they were… he didn’t think he’d be able to beat a small army of professionally trained soldiers. He was already getting his ass kicked by just two of them.

“You are bleeding, this is a damage over time effect.”

A horn sounded from around a nearby hill, and another sounded from somewhere back in the trees. He didn’t need to glance over his shoulder to know what that was, but he did it anyways to clarify just how truly fucked he was.

His eyes betrayed his fear, and acknowledged his doom. Warriors bearing the wolf flag of Yosemar were making their way towards them in the not-so-far distance, encircling his position at a rapid pace.

Trey’s cries of pain intensified as three more arrows pierced him through the chest, abdomen and left thigh. He went from a kneeling position to land on chest, heaving with exertion and coughing up blood. He hadn’t stood a chance. He’d been defeated so absolutely, and in an instant. Rage flowed through him but it wasn’t enough to do anything with, and he felt a steel boot ram into the back of his neck to keep him down.

Trey’s vision went in and out of focus. As he lay there, bleeding into the snow, he vaguely saw Jason struggling with two other soldiers at the edge of the clearing. He was saying something, but Trey couldn’t tell what. Jason’s face still let tears fall like a river of pain as the man caught a last glimpse of Elise’s limp corpse laying broken in the dirt.

“Sorry… Jason…” coughed Trey with sadness evident in his words, but no one could hear him. His voice was too weak, and he was fading. His breathing became labored, his body was berated with pain, and soon his world went black.

***

Hethemon screamed at the healer next to him for being so incompetent, slamming an armored fist into the man’s face before turning to another priest and ordering him to take the man’s place. He’d only taken splash damage from the hellfire but he still had burns and they hurt like hell. Xaltare was injured, his right arm missing completely, but otherwise there hadn’t been much of a fight on the summoner’s side. However, if it hadn’t been for the relic he carried around his neck... Hethemon would have easily been burned alive.

He briefly cradled the necklace and then felt a soothing feeling overtake him as the next healer achieved success curing more patches of burned skin. The king’s face was missing pieces of the nose, and a cheekbone was fully exposed. He would probably have to undergo many weeks of stringent healing to completely recover, but it had been worth it. He took another look at the broken Earthborn men who were being chained together by the wrists with anti-magic metals and sneered.

“Do NOT let that fucking Earthborn die!” ordered the king while angrily pointing to Trey. “The sword is bound to him as a minion! If he dies, the sword will likely follow him to whatever runestone they’re bound to, and THAT would be an immense problem. I want him kept alive, but cut off his hands, feet and tail. Keep him chained and take him with us. I’m guessing his other minions that redheaded bitch talked about are in their respective nether realms and we didn’t give him a chance to summon them. Just in case they aren’t, keep a lookout.” Hethemon turned to look at Jason struggling. “Shut him up and bring him too. They’ll rot in prison until Neheren has set up the ritual to kill these things permanently.”

Xaltare stood nearby, panting. He’d taken off his visored helmet and Hethemon could see that aside from the missing arm, Xaltare was afflicted with the burns too. Though to a much worse extent than the king had been. Healers were attending to him as he stood up and took a look at the foe that had nearly taken his life. “Unbelievable. He almost got me… a level 8…” Xaltare shook his head. “That sword is indeed powerful. I see why you want it so badly.”

Hethemon spat. “The sword isn’t just powerful, it is a key to the beyond. A place called The Abyss, that is the true value behind it. And even without the sword, the ability these Earthborn creatures have to be reborn… it enables them to grow brave and strong without death putting a stop to it. A normal man would have run or begged for his life.”

Xaltare nodded in agreement. “I hope Neheren is right about that ritual.”

“He’d better be.” The king straightened and smiled widely as he walked to where Trey lay being tended to by healers. They were surgically removing his distal limbs but healing him to the point where he wasn’t dying from blood loss either. Meanwhile the greatsword King Hethemon wanted lay nearby, the chaotic power once rippling through the weapon having gone quiet.

Hethemon reached down to pick the huge weapon up, but screamed and clutched at his hand as the Greatsword reacted to the grip. Black chaos fire burned away a large piece of his hand, and the king cursed over and over again before going to see the healers again for tending.

“I want that sword taken back with us. Have guards attending it at all times.” barked Hethemon at a group of nearby soldiers, cursing inbetween bouts of healing. “Put it in the container we brought, and try not to touch it with your flesh if you value your limbs.”