章 69: The Fall of the Vengeful Knight
Future... A powerful and cruel thing that controls our actions without even existing yet. And when, for some reason, we have a vision of a little piece of this nonexistent and cruel thing, it changes completely, becoming unpredictable again.
But even though it's like that, we're not afraid of the future. On the contrary, because it is unknown, non-existent and inevitable, we ended up looking for it even more.
But there are always those, the ones that nobody wants, some futures that should continue to be non-existent.
Ah~...
Here comes another one of those futures. I will have to wait a little longer.
Athena...
I will remain here, in this dark, waiting for redemption.
***
Veta was in the middle of the burning city that should have been hot, but because of the huge walls of ice, the place was as cold as the worst days of winter.
The knight rescued people from inside houses that were hit by fire when he saw the roof of the palace collapse.
He didn't know what had happened, but his revenge depended on the emperor staying alive and the empire existing. So the man ran as fast as he could to the imperial palace, to the emperor's rescue.
However, this haste became a futile effort. When Veta reached the throne room, all that was left of the emperor was his head, with a hole in the left side of his face.
That head was in the hands of a demon sitting on the throne. He was eating the emperor's head like it was some delicious dessert.
This vision caused the world of Veta to fall. His revenge was gone the moment he turned his face away.
"W-what did you do?" Veta asked, gaining Mammon's attention.
"I ate it." Answered the demon by pulling a strand of black hair out of his mouth. "I prefer younger, tender meat, but this man's tough, ripe meat wasn't bad at all."
"A-ate?" Veta asked in a shaky voice.
He didn't want to accept reality. How can the revenge he spent years craving, go away like this? For him this was inconceivable.
"Did you eat him? The emperor?"
Mammon frowned at the knight's repetitive question. "How annoying. You're going to be the nex..." The demon narrowed his eyes as he looked at Veta. "Are you…are you a saint?"
Veta gritted his teeth and extended his right arm to the side.
Mammon cocked his head to the side and widened his eyes as a greatsword crashed through the wall and stopped at the hand of the man who leapt toward him.
Veta had nothing else. Empire or revenge no longer mattered. Now he just struggled out of frustration.
***
In an old castle in the middle of the desert, Gion looked at his office window. His expression was complicated as if he had just lost someone he loved.
"Goodbye my friend…" Gion said to nothing.
At the same moment, Anemus stared at a bookcase. She couldn't concentrate since Fotiá said that Athena was in a war.
"Ah~" Anemus sighed.
She felt a strange and uncomfortable anguish when remembering Fotiá's words and this prevented her from keeping her focus.
Anemus blinked her green eyes a dozen times and rose from her seat. Her long, greenish-blond hair flowed silkily across the floor as she hurriedly walked, searching for Fotiá.
"I have to know where Athena is..."
Her heart was tight and the feeling of something bad happening grew stronger with each breath.
Anemus wasn't a fairy, but she was an existence one step away from becoming one, and fairies have a strong intuition.
"Athena..."
***
Veta wildly, like a wild beast, rushed with all his strength to kill Mammon who dodged each blow while biting Sued's head again and again.
For the knight, it didn't matter if he got it right or not. He wasn't even paying attention to the battle, he was just a killing machine at the moment.
"Hm...I expected more from a saint of war..." Mammon said with disappointment in his voice, but inaudible to Veta. "The saint of life is stronger than you." Mammon scoffed and deflected Veta's sword with the back of his hand.
Veta activated a skill and the deflected sword that was going away from Mammon, returned with force, creating explosions of air, towards the neck of the demon that felt the danger and for the first time dodged out of fear.
Mammon looked carefully at Veta who didn't stop his attack and fit another skill behind the first and finally hurt Mammon who defended the blow with the palm of his hand.
Mammon pulled away from Veta. On his face a twisted expression of pain, a new pain. He looked down at his destroyed hand and frowned when the wound didn't heal as it should.
"Now I understand. Your qualification as a saint of war is to inflict wounds that lead to the enemy's death..." Mammon said while dodging another blow of the same skill.
But he was wrong. The quality of the war saint was not to inflict wounds that would lead to the enemy's death, but to find ways and gain strength to win battles.
Veta no longer met these requirements since he faced Athena for the first time. He couldn't see a way to defeat Athena in battle and even fled when the emperor ordered the army to retreat.
Veta was no longer a saint of war. He still had the qualities of a saint, but he wasn't a saint anymore. But Mammon had no way of knowing that.
And if the demon knew, he wouldn't accept being hurt so severely by a human who wasn't anything special.
Mammon grew his sharp nails and at a speed Veta didn't match, the demon appeared from the knight's left side and ripped the man's arm along with the armor that protected him.
This made Veta regain some of his sanity.
"Saints are interesting creatures..." Mammon said as he licked Veta's blood from his long, sharp claws. "It's a mystery how a saint arises... In a world far away from here, they arise by good deeds or self-sacrifice... Hm... Virtue?" Mammon looked at the head he dropped when he was injured. "But here, in this world, they have a...um...value? Different. Ah! Yes, authority."
"What are you talking about?" Veta asked with a heavy breath.
"I'm talking about the strength of the saints of this world. You are not dying trying to make the world a better place... In fact, you are miserable and bloodthirsty creatures... I like the saints of this world, but..." Mammon walked over to Sued's head and caught it off the ground. "Having five saints alive at the same time is not good for us, demon lords."
Veta looked confused and filled with pain and anger at the same time. (Five saints? What is this monster talking about? There should only be three... Gion, the perverted elf and I... Who are the other two?)
Veta was beginning to calm down and deepen his thoughts when he heard something that infuriated him again.
"Huh? What did you say?" Veta asked in a roaring voice.
"I said…" Mammon bit the cheek of Sued's head and spoke with a mouthful of meat. "It took a lot of work to get a demon into that king's body to kill Lanar and create a balance of power..."
Without waiting for another word, Veta brandished his sword at Mammon again. This time more furious, violent and destructive.
Veta's heart went completely dark. He had lost one target of revenge and soon gained another. At that point, Veta gained the quality to be a saint again.
Mammon, unknowingly, created his worst enemy. The demon's eyes widened as Veta disappeared from its front and cut its forearm as it reappeared beside him.
The severed part fell to the ground with Sued's head and was left twitching like a lizard's severed tail.
Mammon kicked Veta away and quickly bit his forearm from the ground and tried to reattach it to his arm, but Veta gave him no room. It was then that the demon decided to use his powers.
Mammon pointed one of his broken fingers at Veta and casted {Lamentation}. A demonic magic that would make Veta's soul like the miserable souls in hell.
However, Veta was already touching miserable souls and every time he increased the amount of souls in his weapon, he could feel their laments and being one of those souls made no difference to him.
Of course, Veta felt an intensity of depression, but he was also used to it, and with angry eyes filled with tears, Veta used his most powerful skill. "[Awakening of the Sword]" Veta shouted.
Mana and blood glistened along with the disgusting purple aura of Veta's sword and cracks appeared in the blade.
Mammon chuckled and as he reattached his arm, he also used his most powerful skill. "[Infernal Destruction]"
From the demon's hand came a vortex of darkness and black fire. The skills collided and everything disappeared in an explosion that caused an earthquake and demolished the palace.
The soldiers who were still putting out fires and saving people, ran to the palace and when they looked at the rubble that was left of the building, in the dust, two silhouettes were moving in quick and fierce movements until they suddenly stopped.
Verio used the magic {Tornado} and blew the dust away and was shocked when he saw Veta bloodied on his knees before a demon.
"Veta!" Verio yelled and Mammon looked at him.
Mammon looked into the knight's nearly lightless eyes. His hand was inside Veta's chest and he felt Veta's heartbeat in his hand.
"It was fun... Hmm... Asmodeus would have liked you." Mammon said and ripped out Veta's heart.
***
Upon feeling a slight earthquake, Athena woke up. She had already regained half of her mana and along with the earthquake, she felt a demon-like presence similar to the demon in her [Dimensional Bag].
Athena ran out of the tent and saw all the soldiers and mercenaries looking at Tarna.
"What is happening?" Athena asked Serien.
"Majesty... I'm not sure. There was an intense flash and then this earthquake and then several screams in the city..."
Athena frowned. "Prepare the soldiers, let's evacuate the residents. There's a demon there." Athena thought of the possibilities Serien saw and looked at Oliana. "Oliana, I need a favor..."
クリエイターの想い 
All_J
All_J I woke up in the middle of the night with an inspiration to write and I wrote a lot. Three chapters came out of that inspiration. I fixed this as best I could with sleep tormenting me.
Then I'll post the others.
Aaaah I'm going to sleep!!
Please let me know if you find some error. :)
Cote, add to your library and comment if you like it.
See yaaaaa! Bye! :*
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