Chapter 35: Stealing The Show
The wretch casually backed off as the two tall men stared at each other, the old silver knight seemed stiff even when covered with his armor, seemingly prefering to wait for the man in dark to make the first move.
The man that had stepped out of a pillar of orange flames, heretical flames, was a bit peculiar looking, apart from being truly tall, not even a speck of his skin was visible, garbed in black from head to toe, everything covered in dark cloth.
Big boots and a long coat that concealed the man's shape was well as the silver armor did for the old man, the only thing giving away his true stature before his wide shoulders, that even the coat couldn't hide.
The only thing that wasn't absolutely black was his smooth and featureless mask, which didn't have any holes for eyes or anything else, putting into question how he could see anything
Cracking his neck with a grunt, the man seemed relaxed, unimpressed by the old knight's presence.
"You are..?" the old knight seemed like he was going to say a name, feeling like the person in front of him could only be one of the well known users of the heretical flame but stopped himself.
Even them, they wouldn't have felt so overwhelming, the old man had encountered one of those, users, driven mad by the power he had sought to conquer, the heresy had taken hold of him and nested into his left eye just like any other victim of the flame.
The heretical fire wasn't something that anyone could truly control without severe repercussions, only smalls doses could spare one of its more devastating effects.
The sane fell into insanity and the crazy somehow experienced even worse, there was no escaping and yet, the figure standing in front of him seemingly had it under his complete and utter control.
"You don't know who I am? You imitate the ginger bastard with your pathetic silver mana but you don't know me? What is this place? You have my flame but not me?" the man didn't quite sound like the other people the wretch had heard before, there was something off about his speech.
As if multiple emotions were silmutaneously being expressed and meshed together into something completely different.
He didn't know it, but this was what a maniac amongst's maniacs sounded like compared to regular people.
He was mad but also laughing wholeheartedly and there was something truly uncanny about it all, his reason had nothing to do with anyone else's.
"You dare insult the Golden Lord? What is your name fiend?" the silver knight was infuriated but still didn't dare step forward and clash with this guy.
"Golden Lord? What a shitty nickname, anyways, I see you people use silver mana, that has nothing to do with him, you know that? It's just golden in color, nothing to do with the material apart from that, but I wouldn't expect a pile of ashes to know that"
'What are they even talking about?' wondered Axio as he watched from a good distance, not even catching the moment the heretic moved forward, trying to grab the knight by his head with a hand in flames.
The hold knight barely dodged back, botching his movement as he was completely taken by surprise, he had been staring at him intensely and still failed to see him even twitch a bit before he was right in his face.
The flame of heresy spewed everywhere as the masked man didn't bother to stop his blow, obliterating the ground as he chuckled sinisterly.
"How good it is to be alive! And yet, all I can do is fight a pale imitation of my last opponent! Where are the women and children, knight?! Is there any fun to be had in your shitty world!?" he yelled out with an amused fury as the knight charged through the wall of flames he had sent forward, trying to bash his brain in.
"Ah, you are so weak it's despicable" a small ball of flame appeared in his right hand but quickly dissipated as he pulled something from it.
Far from a legendary weapon or anything glorious, it was but a machete with cleaved right through the silver mace, rendering it as nothing but a handle as he the heretic kneed the knight in the guts.
"I swear, I don't even get to use my full power these days and I still have the easiest of times, the glory days are far behind me I guess, death truly wasn't kind to me..." he grabbed the old man's arm before he was flung away, the sound of the shoulder bone popping out was clearly heard as the armor melted and skin sizzled.
Pulling him closer, the masked man began repeatedly headbutting him, caving in the great helm with every single blow as blood and bits of flesh oozed out, quickly evaporated by the intense heat the heretic emitted.
Plunging his gloved fingers through the helm and skull of the old knight, he shrugged off the silver shards and waves as if it wasn't even tickling him until it all stopped and all that remained was a blob of flesh wearing liquid armor.
"Now, you are an interesting one" suddenly appearing from flames right in front of Axiolypito, he said casually as he bent his knees to meet his height.
"I never expected one of us to be so small, we are always a bit taller than average at least, you know? Anyways, godspeed... Actually, scratch that, just speed" without explanation, he stood up and seemed to start disappearing as he was consumed by the orange flames.
"Hold on, don't disappear on my person, what is your name?" asked the wretch, feeling the same thing about this masked man that he had felt with the crystal back then, like they had something deep in common.
"Vlasfimia, but people usually refer to me as heretic or something about the flame, when they know me at least..."
"Why did you show up?" asked the wretch, not feeling like his appearance made much sense, he wasn't an inferior like the rest, his help or sacrifice wasn't guarranted or sensical.
"I am not going to answer all questions, especially those that are easy to guess, anyways, I have a library to attend to, bye" he went up in flames and vanished, his presence completely disappearing leaving only a city for the wretch to claim.
"Well, thank you I suppose..." he thanked someone beside himself for real for the first time ever as Faceless was finally able to warp near him now that no one was threatening the integrity of his domain.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone