Kapitel 43: Chapter 43: His Little Miracle
Inside a scorching home, a man in silver armor, embroiled with gold details was posed and ready to strike down a wailing blonde girl. He hesitated, seeing an already slaughtered family around, a family he had just cut down not too long ago.
"Is this truly what you want… God?" The man thought to himself.
After quickly pondering his choices, he finally sheathed his sword. He bent down to the girl's height, taking his helmet off, revealing his calm and soothing smile.
After a little while the girl stopped crying, her eyes red and swollen, filled with confusion. the man held out his hands, allowing her to make her own choice.
********
The same little blonde girl scuttled alongside that same tall man with brown hair and hazel eyes. His silver armor glowed in the rising sun and a family crest embroidered on his chest became more visible. It was the crest of the Archelion Lordships.
The girl locked eyes with the man, Curiosity now evident with some tears that were still visible on her face.
They both continued to walk across scorched earth of a once prosperous land that has been burned asunder. From a far-off distance, men and women are being rounded up by soldiers, one of which spots them.
"Y-your lordship!" another tall man in armor ran in their directions. "Did you find the source of the light?"
"No." The lord said.
"So What did you find? if you don't mind me asking."
The Lord looked backed at the girl with soft and guiltful eyes. "This little one here. No parents in sight from what I saw…"
With a more stern gaze the lord looked back to the soldier. "This is a sign from God. A sign that he wants me to raise her as my own. I'm sure of it."
"B…But Lord Julius are you sure this is alright? The mistress passed not a month ago, and with child…"
"I know… I know that too well…" Julius smiled bittersweetly. "But Lillian will understand, in fact I'm sure she'll be ecstatic to get a new sister."
The girl looked back at the man a little confused. "Sister?"
"If that is your wish… M-May I ask a question lord Julius…"
"Hmm? Yes, what is it?"
"What's her name?" The soldier pointed to the girl, who still held tight to Julius's hand.
"What is your name?" Julius asked curiously.
The girl looked down shy, unsure if she had a name herself. "I…Don't know…"
"Well, If you don't have a name, why don't we give you one ourselves. Hmm, Let's see." Julius looked around curiously all the while the girl could only watch on, in curiosity.
The girl looked down, finding a pretty pink flower that had just bud in front of them. She reached out to try to grab the pretty flower only to be held by the man's grip.
Julius immediately took notice, letting the girl pick the flower.
"Do you know if that flower there has a name?"
The soldier looked at the flower briefly. "Yeah. A Lot of those grow beyond the hills to the south. Some of the locals here call it the 'Miracle Flower'. It's said that if true love is found just beneath this flower as it blooms, that time itself would stop for an entire day."
"I asked for its name. Not its history, Tilus."
The soldier, Tilus, rubbed the back of his head, chuckling nervously. "O-oh sorry. locals here call it the Kalika flower..."
"Kalika?" Julius looked at the girl curiously, who was now happily waving around the flower. After much pondering he finally knelt down to the girl who was trying to pick another flower that was more burnt.
"Hey."
The girl turns back to look at Julius.
"Do you like that flower?"
The girl happily shook her head. "It's pretty."
"Yes. I can see that." He gently took the flower from the girl holding it up to her. "How would you like to become this flower?"
The girl gave an unsure glance.
"Well… How would you like to be… As pretty as this flower?" He asked.
"Can I really be that pretty?"
"Yes, you can. And all you have to do is share this flower's name."
The girl's eyes Sparkled happily. "Really? Is that really true?"
Julius nodded in the affirmative. He then placed the flower in the girl's hair. "From This Point on, your name is Kalika Archelion. My little miracle."
Kalika now looked upon her father with joy.
********
Tilus's eyes flickered, remembering that day very clearly as the clash of steel in the arena filled with Prisoners and demons reverberated.
"Just tell me already! What is it that you know about my father!??"
Another clash of blades ensued. Kalika kept up the pace with him making them evenly matched.
Tilus readied another magic slash, making a horizontal strike. Kalika jumped over, expecting it to be another feint from Tilus. Once more she had blocked his second attack!
"If you want to know, then beat me first!"
"Tch! You asshole."
"You want to know, right?" Tilus questioned.
"And what if I don't care."
"Then you can just cut my head off whenever you want." Tilus pushed Kalika back some distance.
"What's with him!??? What is it that he wants to tell me about my dad? Did he really know him???"
Kalika dodges another three magic slashes from Tilus.
"Fine I get it! If that's how you want to play it, then I'll just stab you in the heart!"
She closed the distance between them, dodging his first attack and blocking the second. She followed with an attack of her own that stabbed into his arm.
Tilus broke her grip from her blade, sending her flying into the air, surprising her. She attempted to reorient herself, conjuring her dagger back to her hand.
She fell hard on the side of her leg and attempted to get up. Upon looking at her, Tilus looked much more different. He looked bloodied as though he had just come from war. In his hands he held a regular sword laced with blood.
She found herself moving on involuntarily. She attacked, dodged and died many times. After some time, she could tell that Tilus was getting exhausted. His scars and bruises became much more visible and after some time he finally fell to his knees.
Kalika stared at the man with her ruined prisoner's clothes. She stuck the point of her dagger at his neck. Tilus closed his eyes acceptingly.
"So, this is how it ends… By an un-killable woman…," He stated. "Fine…"
"I surrender," Kalika suddenly said, starting to walk away.
Tilus opened his eyes in shock. Watching her leave. He wanted to get up with all had left but could only fall to the ground with a loud thud.
"But why? Why?" He thought to himself.
Right before passing the door, Kalika cocked her head back to Tilus. "Hey you… The next time we fight, can you show me how you did that thing."
Tilus forced a peek back up. "W-what thing???" He questioned hoarsely.
"The one where you deflected my attack with the hilt of your sword." She took a somewhat uncaring glance at her dagger. "It threw me off when you did that."
Kalika turned back, waving good-bye as she left.
"Those eyes… God only knows what she's seen…" Tilus thought to himself.
Opening his eyes back up, Tilus found his attack being blocked.
Kalika had reoriented herself in time, blocking an attack from above. Her dagger became scorching hot.
She deflected his attack, driving her dagger into his side. He punched her off him, sending her skirting across the ground from her back.
She quickly dodged to the side, seeing a magic slash from Tilus the scorched red this time. She felt the passing heat from the strike as it left its mark on the arena.
Bringing her attention back to Tilus, he once more closed the distance forcing Kalika to conjure her dagger for another block. Their two clashed their blades. With each spark echoing the shadows of their long forgotten past together, as they had trained in the arena and sparred together.
Before they'd realized it Tilus started to fix Kalika's posturing as she attacked with kicks and pats.
"Back straight."
"Keep your legs firm"
"You can hit harder than that."
The crowd watching started to slowly become confused watching the two fight as Tilus would periodically try to help Kalika make each strike stronger than the last. Even Kalika started to become befuddled.
Eventually Kalika slashed down with her dagger that was met with a block.
"You're doing well…"
Tilus repelled Kalika and with all his strength slashed back, nearly hitting her! Kalika retaliated, throwing her Dagger and hitting him square in the stomach.
Conjuring her dagger once again she planted her feet to the ground and launched herself towards him. His blade glowed green and without a second thought, sent a green magic slash her way!
"I have to dodge-. NO! I need to push through!"
In that instant, Kalika was sliced in half.
********
Kalika memories arose once more as she witnessed her last fight with Tilus as they were clashing blades once more.
"IT WAS YOU I KNOW IT!" Kalika screamed. "YOU TIPPED HER OFF, DIDN'T YOU!" tears now rained as her anger rose. she clenched her jaw, awaiting for his answer.
Tilus looked at her much more sternly. "Kalika, You have to stop. If you keep doing this, you'll lose sight of who you are."
"SHUT UP!! I DON'T CARE! THOSE MEN DESERVED WHAT THEY GOT!"
"Deserve what they got!! This isn't revenge Kalika! That's murder!!" Tilus glared much more harshly. "This isn't you. You shouldn't-"
"Shut up!" she interrupted.
Kalika became a little teary eyed. "He was right… I thought I could trust you. But you're just like the rest of them!" Kalika pushed off Tilus, ready to strike him.
********
Kalika awoke, stabbing straight through Tilus's chest with all her strength. A blinding yet dark light emerged from her blade, penetrating and gushing through Tilus' body like a stream of blood.
The strange magic pulsing from her blade suddenly ceased.
With that one hit, Tilus fell to his back with Kalika following on top as She found herself now on top of Tilus, stunned. She looked at her Dagger in hand finding it drenched in blood as well as a great big gash in the middle of his chest.
"W…What…?" Kalika became silent, looking upon Tilus somberly. "I… Did it."
Even the crowd was silent and stunned by what had happened. Some chatter even started to arise from the disbelief of what they had just witnessed.
"We have our Winner!!" Rakon suddenly announced with a wide smile.
"And with one life to spare too." Rakon thought to himself, happily.
Kalika could only look on in confusion.
"That last move you made… I would ask you to show me it…." Tilus smiled. "But it looks like we're already at the end of this fight…"
Kalika dropped her dagger from her hand, still in complete disbelief. "T-this can't be it, can it? I-I Don't even know-"
Tilus suddenly grabbed her hand. "That was a well fought Kalika…"
"But I. But -" Kalika began to panic.
"That was a well fought… Kalika…" He repeated, squeezing her arm and taking her out of her stupor. "Don't worry about it…"
Kalika looked to Tilus, seeing his dim eyes. "F…Fine…" Kalika looked away as he released his grip from her.
"You took that on purpose… Didn't you…," she said.
"I have no Idea what you mean." Tilus gave a slight chuckle. "You caught me off guard with that last maneuver you made. No one could guard against an attack like that…"
Kalika got off Tilus, sitting herself right beside him in the silence as it continually grew between them. After a moment of silence, it was finally broken by Tilus's hoarse voice.
"You may not believe this… but when we first met… You looked like the fragile little thing in that delinquent village. Your only guide being Lord Julius himself."
"Shut up," she said softly. "Back then I was a stupid girl. I didn't know a thing that was happening. The only thing that I understood was that a man tried to kill… But…" Kalika stopped for a moment.
"He was a man that had some change of heart and adopted me into his family…"
Kalika gave a light chuckle. "Maybe I would've actually died that day. Who knows, perhaps I would've been worshiped like some god. if I was always immortal of course, But there is no way of telling… For all I know, I could've been cursed with this by God himself…" Kalika gave a much more bittersweet smile.
"Regardless of whether you were immortal or not, I doubt it would've made much of a difference to him. To him, you were always his daughter. A daughter he worried for just as much as Lillian, your sister."
"Yeah. Well, he did an absolutely horrible job at it." there was a subtle hint of animosity in her voice. She softened her tone a little. "For all my life since then he would barely look after me, he would expect me to be perfect at everything. I had to become the perfect daughter all the while Lillian was handed the silver spoon of his affection."
"Kalika… That's because he planned on passing his title to you," Tilus said.
With that simple statement, Kalika's heart started to sink. The world around them started to become white noise.
"Y…Y-you're lying. He always wanted Lillian to inherit his title. N-not me! She was his blood daughter, the Saintess! So don't tell me he was planning to give me the right when I had no claim!!"
"To him it was never about claim through blood… In fact even at a young age he saw you as the daughter that could succeed him. All the while your sister Lillian never showed any interest in learning or succeeding…"
Tilus turned his gaze to look Kalika straight into her eyes. "some years ago, before the demons invaded… He expressed his surprise in finding out that you were given the title of Saintess… He was confused. But proud. Not once did he question it, But that made him all the more concerned about Lillian… He thought she would be jealous and hated your very existence."
Tilus blurted out in a weak chuckle. "Her mother was always an aggressive woman after all…"
Kalika quickly became riddled with guilt. She understood well that this misinformation came from those loyal to her, spreading unjust rumors.
"He feared that Lillian would reflect her mother's jealous and hateful tendencies but regardless…"
Tilus grabbed Kalika arm with his weakening grip. "He wanted you both to have a satisfying life, he was by no means a perfect father. But I could say for certain that he tried his best to keep you both happy. to him... you were both his little miracles..."
"Looking back now… Perhaps I could've protected that dream of his. If only I reached out to you back in the garden. Told you his true feelings when you spoke so sourly about him…'
A memory resurface of Kalika in her teens seeing a gruff man with brown hair and a growing beard. She spoke to a newly loyal follower about her father but retreated upon seeing one of his generals.
Kalika tensed. "Why are you telling me this now…?" Kalika looked at Tilus, much more saddened.
"Because… I fear for you Kalika, and you need to know the truth. I fear that like your father, you're blindly following a path that will lead to your ruin."
"Well, what do you think I should do then??"
"I don't know… I wish I knew the answer to that.. But I simply don't know… But whatever comes next. Follow… your…. gut...."
Tilus's became dimmer, the life in them, leaving.
"Do you have any last words' Kalika," Rakon said.
Kalika glanced behind herself, seeing Rakon standing over her. She turned back to Tilus, grabbing and squeezing his hands tightly.
"Th…Thank you. Tilus. "
Tilus gave a subtle smile as the light in his eyes faded. His hand became heavy and his grasp weak.
Rakon circled around to Kalika's side seeing her somber expression with not a tear in sight. "Don't humans cry when they've lost someone close to them."
It was obvious to Kalika that Rakon was teasing her. She didn't answer, instead stared at Tilus's lifeless body. Rakon gave her time until she finally called him.
"Rakon… When will I face this next opponent?" she asked.
Rakon smirked. You can fight her as early as today if you'd like.
"Yes. Please bring them here."
Guards with chains drag women through the caged door who witnessed the fight. they approached from behind Kalika to present the next opponent..
"But if you want, I can give you another month to fight them, if you don't feel adequate enough."
"No. I want to fight them-"
Kalika gasped, seeing the women in front of her. In front of her stood a woman in a ruined maids dress that had scratches, short black hair with a single pink eye and eye patch. She recognized this woman.
"R… Rhonda???"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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Rangliste 
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Stein