I'll probably repeat this one in my next proper, but I find it funny enough that I should start now: Does anyone else find Chreydo weird af?
He has so far been the only character who is not Linkara who got shit done and has yet to be put in his place by Linkara
I'm pretty sure he has killed more Dark Knights in his single fight than Linkara has all book
He also took out multiple Dark Sorcerers, and I'm not sure Linkara could handle even one of the guys on his own (more on my musings on combat magic in my next proper post)
He's so badass that the literal messiah who is literally prophecized to defeat the Darkness has to use his exploits to rally the troops, even going so far as to invent a holiday in his name (though that was probably because the author insisted on appropriating that one Shakespeare speech)
Despite all of this, his grand bloodbath has only been told to use in an abridged version after the fact, and even when he actually meets Linkara the whole scene is very abridged and passive. Chreydo hasn't actively said anything so far.
I feel like this is pretty close to the halal way to include a certain prophet in your literary work.
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
Book 1, Chapter 15 - Army of Light II (Or: The Magi Chreydo Magi Show) (The author seemingly uses "magi" as both plural and singular)
It's on, fellow Linkarans. What I assume to be the big dumb battle that every fantasy story is mandated by law to feature at least once.
Will Linkara's "genius" triumph over the forces of evil? Or will he once again get his shit kicked in, only for some Deus Ex Machine to swoop in and rescue his ass?
RecapShow
In what has become an annoying trend, Linkara and his party get once again curbstomped.
The Dark Knights once again do that weird thing where the go out of their way to capture everyone alive and unharmed, and then start arguing over how many they should kill. This is extra weird here because we know their boss only cares about getting Linkara alive (for some reason), and this group right here instantly agrees to kill everyone.
A Deus Ex Machina once again comes to the rescue, this time in the form of General J'Vok and his "division" of about 200 devout Linkarans. The general's name is stupid and makes him sound like a Vulcan, made all the worse by it being one of the few NPCs names that the narration actually keeps bringing up (instead of just going "The General").
Really this is at least the second time I feel like a chapter is a reboot of a previous chapter or something.
Despite this suicide mission having been an umitigated disaster, Linkara plans to ditch his newfound warband ASAP (and get curbstomped a third and hopefully last time). Fortunately for him, the general finally explains to him that being in an active warzone means there's an entire army's worth of enemies around.
In what I assume to be another failed attempt at comedy, Linkara displays Dull Surprise at common medieval etiquette he shouldn't actually be surprised about - what with his extensive knowledge of "the time period", his even more extensive knowledge of TV stuff, and him having spent what must be multiple weeks in this world
Linkara is suddenly annoyed at being refered to as "my lord", once again failing to understand medieval etiquette. Personally I'm more annoyed that "lord" is one of the few person-related nouns the book doesn't capitalize.
Apparently "rumors" have spread about Linkara's world, which must've been spread by himself off-screen when he was talking to the catgirl-fucking barkeeper, or the blokes at the king's court
Linkara claims to avoid talking about the bad shit that has happened on Earth, despite almost every on-screen instance of him talking about his world involving him channeling the power of the Holocaust to win arguments for him.
Turns out that when the king had the brilliant idea to have most of his forces retreat into castles and fortresses, he left the border defense to multiple smaller divisions like the one that rescued Linkara, who will likely get overrun if the bad guys ever decide to actually amass an army and invade in earnest.
Also turns out that the bad guys have decided to actually amass an army and invade in earnest, leading to a dramatic "They're gonna be here in 2 days, but our reinforcments will only arrive in 3" moment.
There's really no reason given why they can't just do a strategic retreat to meet up with the rest of their forces, aside from Linkara thinking that being "a coward" is gay pussy shit.
Despite no longer wanting to be seen as some kind of messiah (except to win arguments), Linkara decides to get his warband's attention by pulling off some kind of acrobatic televangelist stunt following a magical light show. It's like if Jesus had to do a professional wrestling entrance to get his apostle's attention.
There's a weird subplot regarding a Linkaran sorcerer (later promoted to magi; no it doesn't look like the author is aware of the singular being "magus") known as Chreydo, who got wounded during a revenge killing spree where he easily took out more followers of the Darkness than Linkara has done all book.
Chreydo is handled very strange, in that all of his exploits and interactions are handled very passively and abridged. Dude has yet to actually say anything.
In order to rally the troops, Linkara appropriates the St Crispin's Day speech from Shakespeare's Henry V, which is somewhat dumb since he had to literally make up a holiday in Chreydo's honor to make it work.
Imagine if you're The Chosen One (tm) destined to defeat The Darkness (tm), talking to people whose entire religion revolves around your coming, and you have to parade around the accomplishments of someone else to boost the troop morale.
One reason for the speech is apparently so Linkara can make a joke about copyright infringement, which leads me to believe that Linkara (the author) has watched some Henry V movie adaptation without realizing that it's based on a Shakespeare play, and/or that Shakespeare is about as public domain as you can get.
He should've just copied Aragorn's speech from Return of the King, honestly.
We get an "exciting" 2 day training montage, where Raven teaches the archers to aim for gaps in the armor, and the thief Lithmenar educates the knights about fighting in heavy armor
Indow becomes head spellcaster for no other reason than cronyism.
In a display of quality scouting, the actual size of the enemy army (about 3-4 thousand) only becomes clear 2 minutes before the start of the battle
Now for what I like to describe as plot points that are brought up, but go nowhere despite the fact that 2 days are more than enough time to find time for them:
One of the knights recognizes Lithmenar, and vaguely alludes to him being some kind of noble from a different country who likely got exiled or fucked off on his own. This is never elaborated upon.
Linkara is both surprised and disappointed that slavery is a thing on Sin (but makes no effort to abolish it). He also makes up some bullshit about US chattle slavery being the only kind of slavery that ever existed on his world, probably so he doesn't have to admit that the slavery at display here is perfectly normal for this time period.
Also I'm not sure he knows the difference between "slaves" and "servants".
He also keeps claiming that Sin is some kind of misogynistic hellhole, and I keep waiting for at least one instance of women being portrayed as second-class citizens
There's some paranoia about potential traitors to explain all those groups of Dark Knights wandering inside of Ai (instead of it being a side-effect of the king replacing the regular border patrols with a skeleton crew). I'm not even sure they've tested everyone yet, because that plot also got kinda put on pause.
Also the soldiers got offended at the mere idea of having to do a test vs evil more than once in their lifetime. Note that the "test" is literally "being near a glass of water".
And here's something that should have been brought up: Raven. Indow instantly recognized here and is still very much pissed off that she's part of Linkara's entourage, and yet none of the 200 Linkarans seem to have an issue with here. Then again she has pretty much become a glorified background character at this point.
EXTRA RAMBLINGS: Warfare in the World of SinShow
Here are some autistic observations regarding warfare in the wonderful world of Sin:
It appears that all armies of Sin are made up of knights, archers and spellcasters (mostly "sorcerers", with a few higher-tier "magi")
No, I have no idea where the levies, yeomen etc. are. I can only assume that "knight" is actually just a generic Sinnian term for "warrior/soldier", because they make up the lion's share of any army
It doesn't appear that the knights carry shields, despite being it being the only bit of protection that could withstand attacks from Linkara's Protoss blades
Speaking of protection: Armor is pretty much worthless - unless the protagonists - usually Lithmenar - have to lose, then the enemy's armor suddenly starts working.
For whatever reason, arrows are capable of ripping off hands and even entire heads.
Despite Rain's diverse display of attack spells, most spellcasters appear to be content with casting alignment-coded shield spells, which make the target pretty much impervious to all damage and magic
The main reason for alignment-coded shield spells appears to be that opposing shield spells cancel each other out, which has so far been the only way to dispel a shield. It very much seems like having more spellcasters than your opponent is pretty broken due to this.
The only other major flaw of these shield spells is that the spellcasters are morons who keep forgetting to protect themselves, each other, officers and really any important bad guy that the narration feels like killing off.
Now the good guys are outnumbered about 1 to 15-ish, and they're in a valley. Not sure how useful beneficial ground is considering magic wins the day.
Linkara has said multiple times that they're gonna win using "strategy", but considering he's an idiot who keeps overestimating his own strength (and underestimating his enemy's), I think they're fucked without a Deus Ex Machina.
ChapterShow
It should've been an easy victory for the Dark Knights. Their Generals had conspired and planned for over two weeks, looking at strategic emplacements, known patrol routes, and troop positions. They'd constantly send messengers from one group to the other, coordinating their attacks precisely for any time they made a brief offensive against the limited forces on the Ai border. And then, when the time was right, and when they finally found a potential weak spot, they would take advantage of it and pool all of their forces together for one massively powerful assault. And they had found it at the Third Ai Division.
According to intelligence information, their patrols only went out so far, which meant they gather their forces just outside of their patrol range without anyone knowing. Also, their Division was the smallest of all Ai Divisions, with only a garrison of approximately 200 soldiers. They were outnumbered fifteen to one, the Dark Knights having an army of 3,000. And so, they had retreated on all fronts and gathered their forces in one place, knowing that reinforcements for the Third Division would not arrive for another day or two. They only needed to slaughter the Third Division, and in a matter of hours they could be marching into Ai itself. It should've been an easy victory for the Dark Knights.
That's what they had been telling themselves before they saw what was coming out of the Encampment. Instead of seeing only a few hundred Knights trying to exit the Encampment and engage an army that numbered in the thousands, they saw something a lot larger than a few hundred. The Generals on horseback who managed to see more of a top view of the Linkaran soldiers estimated that their opponent's army was ten times the number of Knights they had previously thought, numbering well around 2,000.
What made the situation worse was that the Knights seemed so well organized. The Dark Knights hadn't known that a scout had managed to reach the Third Division so quickly, giving them information about the attacking force to some very nicely accurate details. Because of that, the Dark Knights were totally unprepared for the large assemblage of warriors that came out of the Encampment. And in the lead of all of the Knights was Louis, who grinned with a strangely sadistic glee.
"It worked, Chreydo! I can't believe it worked!" Indow exclaimed.
"I'm quite surprised by that, too, young Priestess. I had heard it was your idea in the first place to use a Mirror Spell." Chreydo stated.
"I am aware of that, Magi, however it worked more effectively than I could have hoped. Of all the strategies that we thought of during this, the Mirror Spell was merely an idea to help improve our chances against the Dark Knights. We'd use it to create more Knights that would last for a short amount of a time, as we used as many ways as possible to keep the number of Dark Knights to a minimum. But to make so many... This may be the key to our salvation!" Indow explained.
"'Tis indeed a wonderful thing, young Priestess. How long do you think the spell will last?" Chreydo asked.
"Forty-five minutes at most. At least twenty. It may be short, but it shall do quite a bit of damage to those vile beings." Indow replied.
Chreydo nodded. The two of them stood on the left hill along with all of the other Magi. All of them looked a little wiped out, and they sat upon the ground, watching the battle as they recharged their energies. Standing on the opposite hill were all the Archers, minus White Raven, who was still within the camp itself. The Archers looked over to Indow and Chreydo for instruction as they waited for White Raven to join them, and the two nodded, giving the Archers the order to being launching their attack on the Dark Knights. The Archers immediately took aim and began firing dozens of arrows at the Dark Knights below, aiming primarily for the Generals.
However, the Dark Sorcerers within the army responded with their own defensive move. The Dark Sorcerer pooled all of their energy together and erected a huge Chaos Shield around the majority of the Dark Knights. However, to keep such a thing so large intact and powerful, it kept all of the Sorcerers from doing anything else except maintaining the Shield. To make matters worse, Dark Knights were constantly traveling in and out of it to try to engage the Third Division. Also, arrows were shot constantly from the hill against the shield. Although a few arrows managed to get through every once in a while, the shield held strong.
"Ready catapults! Position them for long-distance fire! Go! Go!"
Lithmenar was barking out orders to the servants and slaves, making them rush through the work assigned to them. Groups of them would be pulling the catapults into lines so they could be ready when the Chaos Shield fell and they could do some major damage to the Dark Knights. Lithmenar smiled as he watches them running about, ready to do whatever they were called to do. It almost reminded him of his earlier days when he was a-
No. he thought. I'm not like that anymore.
He shrugged off any remembrance of his past, growling as he remembered the knight that had almost 'blown his cover.' He sighed as he looked out past the entrance perimeter of the encampment. The two armies were fighting one another with everything they had, whatever weapon was at their disposal. He almost wanted to join them, to fight valiantly and win for a greater cause, a greater purpose.
But then, he wouldn't be much of a thief, would he?
He chuckled a little at the thought, then turned and saw White Raven crouching nearby behind one of the tables. Lithmenar growled and walked over to her, but before he could yell at her for not going to help with the Archers, White Raven's hand shot up and grabbed Lithmenar's collar. Lithmenar, taken completely by surprise, was suddenly and unexpectedly pulled to the ground. He landed on his face and made a silent yelp of pain before White Raven pulled him back up and held a finger to her mouth, indicating that he should be quiet.
Lithmenar readjusted his position into one of crouching, and looked to where White Raven was now pointing. Lithmenar saw a group of slaves and servants moving slowly across the chaotic area, ignoring those around them who were trying to get things ready for the attacking army. Lithmenar found this especially curious, because if they were attempting to desert their masters, they would be running out the back entrance, not cautiously moving across the area and not trying to draw attention to themselves.
White Raven turned to Lithmenar.
"We shall follow them." she stated.
And they did.
*
Louis roared as he used the quarterstaff in his hands to block the sword that was bearing down on him. He almost laughed inside, remembering how weak he had been before he got here. Sure, he had been perfectly healthy mentally and socially back on earth, but physically he was appalling. He never became overweight, but he ate a lot of junk food, though he really didn't want to, and didn't exercise as much as he would've hoped for. However, this place was doing wonders for his health. Back on earth, he would've never been able to fight back so well against the sword, even with the quarterstaff.
Louis winked playfully at the Dark Knight, then pushed himself back, letting one of his legs fly up and slam into the Dark Knight's crotch. The Dark Knight let his sword drop to the ground because of the pain, allowing Louis to move forward once again and slice the Dark Knight's head off. The decapitated body fell to the ground along with the head, and Louis sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow. He looked over and saw General J'Vok successfully stab two Dark Knights with the swords he held in his hands, and walked over to him.
The General turned to Louis with a look of glee on his face.
"'Tis a good [day] to die, my lord!" he exclaimed.
Louis smirked. "It's a better day to live, General. And that is what we shall do!"
"My lord, look!" J'Vok shouted, pointing in the direction of the Chaos Shield.
Louis turned and looked at it. Glowing white cracks were starting to appear throughout the shield. They were spreading quickly as hundreds of Knights were slamming their weapons against the shield in an effort to shatter it. And the Knights finally succeeded when one of their swords slammed straight through the shield, and one final crack went through it. In an instant, the shield broke apart like glass, falling down and dissipating before it hit the ground. Louis smiled and turned to the General.
"How much time do we have left before the Spell wears off?" he asked him.
"I believe another ten minutes, my lord." J'Vok replied.
"Then let's make the best of them!"
*
"The Chaos Shield has fallen!" Chreydo exclaimed.
"You heard the Magi, Archers! Begin constant fire!" Indow ordered.
The Archers all nodded, and stopped precise aiming. They just took out arrows and began firing them at the Dark Knights, aiming generally for their heads. Indow then turned and walked to the opposite side of the hill as the Archers continued their constant barrage. She looked down at the line of servants who awaited orders. She put her hands in a circle around her mouth to enhance the range of her shouting.
"Fire catapults!" she commanded.
The servants nodded and pulled on the levers attached to the catapults, which sent their cargo flying over the hills and straight at patches of the Dark Knights. The cargo was actually rocks that had been soaked in ligalce powder. The powder had a similar effect to that of gunpowder, in which it explodes when set on fire. A small section of the rock had been set on fire just before it was launched, and by the time it fell back to the ground and hit a group of Dark Knights, it was more than ready to explode. Whole Assault Groups of Dark Knights were blasted apart as the catapults continued to launch the rocks at them.
*
"A hidden cave all the way back here?! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Lithmenar asked.
"Indeed. The only explanation is that this is the way that Dark Knights have been secretly entering Ai." White Raven stated.
The two of them were slowly moving throughout the cave, illuminated only by the torch that the slaves and servants carried through the cave. The cave itself was not damp or humid, it was actually quite cool and dry. The ground was made up of rocks and sand, most of it colored a bright tan. The cave was shaped in a circular pattern, and almost seemed artificial in its formation. There were few rocks that extruded themselves from the cave walls, which were mostly smooth. The walls reflected several strange shadows that were being caused by the light from the slaves and servants' torches.
Finally, up ahead, the slaves and servants stopped, which forced Lithmenar and White Raven to halt their own approaches and merely wait. They waited a minute, then heard a heavy clanking, like that of heavy armor moving through the hollowed cave. The echo traveled for another several seconds, then stopped when White Raven looked up ahead and saw about four Dark Knights standing in front of the slaves and servants with another group of slaves and servants tied up in ropes being dragged along by the Dark Knights. One of the slaves approached the lead Dark Knight.
"We have assisted you several times over these past few weeks. We now demand that you release our families at once." the servant stated.
The Dark Knight stared down at the slave. "Although it is true, your services to the Darkness have been exemplary, it has been decided that your assistance is no longer necessary. We shall take this area within a matter of hours, and therefore have no need of a secret passage into your pathetic little land. The Darkness has decided that these slaves can assist us. You, however, shall die here."
The Dark Knight unsheathed his sword and prepared to strike down the slave in one fell swoop. Lithmenar, however, had heard enough. He immediately stood up, pulled a knife from his side and tossed it at the Dark Knight's hand. It struck home, piercing his skin and cutting a hole through it from the palm to the back. The Dark Knight dropped the sword in pain, black blood gushing from the wound. Everyone in the cave turned and saw White Raven stand up and stand beside Lithmenar.
*
"Ah, shit in a basket!" Louis exclaimed after bashing two Dark Knight heads together.
Louis had been fighting alongside about three other warriors, and it looked as though time had run out for the Mirror Spell. The Knights that had been created were destabilizing in a similar fashion to the Chaos Shield. Glowing white cracks were appearing all over their skin, and the Knights were losing strength, energy, and overall focus. And then, suddenly, the Knights just shattered. Like hitting a mirror with a sledgehammer, the Knights collapsed into shards that faded before they hit the ground. And in that instant, Louis gave an order:
"RETREAT!"
The Knights didn't need any more. Without the Mirror Spell to help them, the Knights were outnumbered vastly. The remaining Knights turned around after killing whoever they were fighting and began a retreat to the encampment. Louis looked up to the top of the hill that Indow was on, and waved his hand at her. Indow waved back, then went over to the Sorcerers and Magi, who stood up and got themselves ready. The Knights flooded into the camp with Dark Knights at their coattails, and when they were finally all inside, the Magi and Sorcerers closed their eyes and joined hands. The group's clothes actually began to glow a bright white, and their feet barely touched the ground as the magical energy surrounding them lifted them off the ground. Then, all of a sudden, in unison, the magicians threw their heads back.
"PROTECTION!" they all screamed at once.
The entrance to the camp suddenly sparked with energy as some of the Dark Knights tried to cross the threshold. A white energy barrier shot up, slicing the Dark Knights apart. Some of the lead Dark Knights that were on horseback galloped up to the shield and raised their swords. They began swiping the blades against the Protection Spell in a vain effort to try to shatter it. When it became apparent that such a feet was not going to be accomplished anytime soon, the Dark Knights merely stopped their assault and waited to make new plans.
"It appears your plan was successful, my lord." General J'Vok stated to Louis.
"The best part of this is that since the Dark Sorcerers already used up all of their energies with the Chaos Shield, we don't have to worry about them using another one to shatter the Protection." Louis replied.
"What now, my lord?" J'Vok asked.
"We wait. Now, let's just see how badly we were hurt." Louis replied.
*
After announcing to the Dark Knights that on no uncertain terms were they going to allow the Dark Knights to harm the property of the Knights or the lives of the servants, White Raven and Lithmenar charged into battle. At first, they managed to deflect the throwing knives that Lithmenar constantly threw at them, but then one managed to get through and pierce one of the Dark Knights' heads. Another Dark Knight fell thanks to White Raven slamming her sword through their back. Another Dark Knight was defeated after Lithmenar managed to evade its sword slashes three times, then got behind him and slashed his knife across the Dark Knight's throat.
The only one that remained was the lead Dark Knight. The servants and slaves had already fled after freeing the others who had been bound by the Dark Knights. White Raven attempted to fight the lead Dark Knight, but despite the injury sustained to his hand, the Dark Knight managed to knock the flat side of his blade against White Raven's chin and face, sending her sprawling to the ground. She attempted to get back up, but she was met with the Dark Knight's blade, which stabbed into her leg, and the Dark Knight proceeded to punch White Raven and have her head knock against a rock, knocking her unconscious.
Lithmenar, kicking himself after his better angels had convinced him not to abandon his friend, reached for his remaining blades and prepared to do battle with the Dark Knight. He proceeded to throw two throwing knives at the Dark Knight, but both were deflected by the Dark Knight's armor. The Dark Knight moved in closer and punched Lithmenar, sending him flying across the cave. Lithmenar growled and charged at the Dark Knight, but was only met by a sword that stabbed straight through his left shoulder. Lithmenar, running solely on adrenaline, grabbed his last remaining knife and tried to slash it across the Dark Knight's cold, merciless face. When he failed to come close, the Dark Knight punched Lithmenar and sent him to the ground once more, his body and bones broken.
Lithmenar stared up at the Dark Knight, one of his eyes not opening due to an injury sustained to it. The Dark Knight raised his sword up above his head for the final strike.
"Any last words, insolent dog?" he asked.
"Yeah..." Lithmenar said, coughing up some blood.
He grinned as he summoned up as much strength as he could into his right leg.
"Here's a little trick... that the Linkara taught me..."
And with that, Lithmenar kicked with as much force as he could between the Dark Knight's legs, hitting his crotch instantly. The Dark Knight fell backwards, screaming in utter pain. Lithmenar then yelled happily, grabbed a throwing knife that had fallen to the side and slammed the blade through the Dark Knight's neck. The Dark Knight struggled momentarily, shaking rapidly as his body started shutting down from the injury, then collapsed. Lithmenar did likewise, falling to the side and closing his eyes as darkness washed over him.
*
"Where the hell are Lithmenar and White Raven?!" Louis screamed as he walked through the chaotic encampment.
Chaotic didn't actually begin to describe the area. Louis was trying to find Lithmenar and White Raven for their help in training more Archers and evasion tactics while they were protected, but he couldn't find anyone who knew where they had gone. Slaves and servants were traveling from area to area trying to work and prepare themselves for the Dark Knight army that soon, more than likely, would find a way around the Protection Spell and into the camp. The medical area was jammed with wounded, some of them so critical that they were being held together with medicine and Healers who had limited magic knowledge. Also, General J'Vok was being swamped by reports from all sections of the camp about their statuses. The simple fact was that they had plenty of weapons but not enough people to wield them.
Louis growled and was once again about to shout for White Raven and Lithmenar when Indow approached him.
"My lord, I feel that I should speak to you." she said.
"Fine. What do you need?" Louis asked in response.
"My lord, I believe that we should do something about morale. The troops feel as if they not only failed you, but also failed themselves with the fight before, despite the fact that they managed to slay almost a third of the enemy's forces. Our medical supplies are wearing thin because of the heavy casualties sustained, we're sitting ducks because of the Protection spell, and reinforcements won't arrive for another day." Indow stated.
Louis looked at Indow, blinking. "Indow, we're under siege by an enemy that outnumbers us ten to one, we may not last the next hour much less the next twenty four hours we need to get reinforcements, this planet is about to be overrun on all sides by an enemy that wants nothing more than to destroy us, and you think that morale should be our primary concern?!"
Indow winced. "Then perhaps, my lord, it might become necessary to initiate the backup plan we discussed."
Louis shook his head. "Last resort only, Indow. If it becomes necessary to use the plan, you guys are going to need all the mystical energy going for you."
And then, suddenly, Louis' mood changed when he heard a loud whistling sound. He looked up and saw a flaming rock come down from the sky, falling from the direction of the Dark Knights, and collide into one of the empty barracks. The barracks tent exploded into flames and collapsed quickly, and Louis began to see more flaming rocks coming in their direction. He once more turned to Indow.
"They appear to be launching things with catapults. Initiate the backup plan." Louis ordered.
Indow smiled and nodded, running away to inform the Sorcerers and Magi. An idea suddenly flashed into Louis' mind, and he called for Indow to stop. She complied, wondering what Louis was about to tell her.
"Before you tell the others, round up all the servants and slaves into the main courtyard. I think I may have an idea about buying us some time."
*
Once again, the Dark Knights thought that victory was theirs to be claimed. The Protection spell, unlike the Chaos Shield and Mirror Spell, didn't shatter, but merely faded away. Thinking that they had finally defeated it, the Dark Knights immediately began to pour into the encampment in an attempt to finally invade into Ai and destroy everything the Linkaran religion stood for. However, when they were within twenty feet of the encampment, they stopped in utter shock and surprise. Standing before them were about a hundred men, women, and children. They were dressed in dirty brown rags, and looked tired and worn out beyond belief. They all had a look of unbridled hatred upon their faces.
They were the servants and slaves. And each one of them was armed.
The hundred slaves that had made up the working class of the camp now stood between Ai and the Dark Knights. They were dived into three lines. The first twenty-five slaves and servants were kneeling on the ground and holding crossbows in their hands, aimed straight up at the Dark Knights. The next twenty-five also held crossbows, but this group was standing. And finally, behind the two crossbowmen and women, fifty slaves and servants tightened their grips around swords, axes, pikes, and/or basically any weapon they contained in their hands.
A few Dark Knights decided to take the initiative and try to attack the 'puny' slaves. They were met by a volley of arrows that launched from the crossbows of the kneeling slaves that pierced their armor in several places. They immediately fell to the ground, dead and covered in arrows. Another group of Dark Knights, angered by the deaths of their companions, tried to charge the slaves and servants once again. The standing servants shot at this group as the kneeling ones reloaded their crossbows.
"An excellent plan, my lord! Convince the slaves and servants to fight alongside us using the promise of freedom from their bondage, then let them take the hits for us!" J'Vok stated next to Louis, both on horseback on the farther part of the camp.
"General, order any troops that are battle-ready to come in and join the fight against the Dark Knights at the front of the camp." Louis commanded.
"But, my lord, that would mean that we would be saving the slaves and servants, and thus fulfilling the deal of freeing them of their slavery!" J'Vok balked.
"Exactly. General, these so-called 'slaves' are in this war as much as we are. They're willing to fight to gain their freedom, just like any of us would be. We're honor- bound to protect them and fight alongside them. Now come, my friend! We must rally the troops and give time for Indow and the others to complete their spell!"
*
It is said that good things come to those who wait.
It is also said, however, that good things will come faster if you cheat.
Close to three hundred soldiers serving the belief in the land of Ai, the prophecies of the Linkara, and their own freedom from servitude fought tooth and nail against an army that numbered close to two thousand. Some hadn't had much battle experience, some had just been given a sword and told to fight, but still, they held their ground. In a matter of minutes, the battle-hungry fighters had reduced their opponents' forces down to 1500. However, even with that incredible feat, it was more than evident that the Third Division was failing. They were retreating more and more, and the body count on their side was rising too fast. Even Louis was beginning to feel the heavy weight of battle fall upon him as he had to take on five Dark Knights at once, sustaining several different injuries and having to resort to using the electrical properties of his armor to defend himself against the onslaught.
They should've fell [sic] to the Dark Knights. It seemed inevitable.
However, the one thing that the Dark Knights had not been anticipating was if the Third Division cheated. The cheating became apparent when a soldier unknown to both the Dark Knights and the Third Division suddenly slammed his lance through the chest of one of the Dark Knight Potents. The symbols on the Knight's armor indicated that he belonged to the Ai Seventh Division, and he was only the beginning. All over the camp, where there had been no soldiers or Knights before, new Knights from varying divisions and classifications were popping out of nowhere. Within thirty seconds, the number of good guys had jumped from three hundred to a thousand. In another thirty second, that number jumped to 2500.
Louis, now off of his horse and engaging the Dark Knights in melee combat, saw this and clapped his hands in exuberant glee. General J'Vok, however, could only gasp as more and more Knights were appearing everywhere, even on the hills. And those on the hills were soon given bows and arrows or crossbows. Louis turned and saw Indow running towards him, and he quickly embraced her and spun her excitedly, hugging her happily.
"You did it, Indow! Bravo!" Louis complemented.
"I live to serve the Linkara!" Indow laughed in response.
"What is happening, my lord?! How did all of these Divisions get here so quickly?!" J'Vok asked.
"Magic, my dear General, magic! A Teleportation Vortex, to be precise!" Louis answered.
"But even that seems strange, my lord! Teleportation Vortices are small, one-way portals that transport one person, maybe even a few more people, from one destination to other! How could you get thousands of soldiers here?!"
"By having twenty-five highly experienced Sorcerers and Magi with extreme magical skill, creating a wide dispersal pattern to distribute the troops, and by warning the troops in advance about it so we'd know where they were when the spell was activated!" Indow explained.
"This was the backup plan in case all else failed. And it worked, J'Vok! IT WORKED!" Louis screamed happily as he unsheathed his blades and charged into battle with the rest of the newly arrived Knights.
*
Lithmenar growled at the Healer who bandaged his ribs. The Healer, on the other hand, merely smiled contently at his patient, who kept yelling about how he was going to personally split the man's throat if he made the bandages as tight as he had on his leg. Lithmenar heard someone call his name, and leaned upwards to see Louis and Indow approaching his part of the medical area. They smiled happily, and Louis even put his hand on Lithmenar's shoulder.
"How is he, Uryiv?" Louis asked.
"Well, besides for a terrible temper, two broken ribs, a broken leg, and a serious wound to his leg, he's fine. Everything else was basically just some minor bruises to several parts of his skin." The Healer, now identified as Uryiv, explained.
"And White Raven?" Louis inquired.
"Now, she took a direct blow to the head and sustained a mild concussion and a broken jaw, but both of your companions should be ready for travel by tomorrow morning." Uryiv said.
"Very good. Now, if you don't mind, we'd like to be alone with Lithmenar." Louis stated.
Uryiv nodded and walked off. When he was gone, Louis smiled once more.
"I'm told that they're treating you with some of the Illician dust I brought along with me. They were low on stores of it. That's some potent stuff, dude, and you'd better be ready for tomorrow." Louis commanded.
"Why, kid?" Lithmenar asked.
"We're heading for L'Sol, capitol of Ünaré, tomorrow morning. After that, it's straight on to the Zlad Delta to finally defeat the Darkness." Louis explained.
"Speaking of which, what happened to the Dark Knights' Army in the last few parts of the battle? I know about the backup plan to bring the Knights that were on their way here, but after they arrived, I'm not able to get a straight answer."
"We managed to whittle their forces down to about five hundred, all of whom fought like hell to finally run from the battle."
"HA! And here I am, stuck in this forsaken bed while the rest of them celebrate the victory. This may be the whole turning point of the war, and I'm lying around allowing my bones to mend. And to make matters worse, I cannot join in any of the last- minute parties that shall no doubt occur tomorrow morning when I'm healed because I will be stuck with you on a suicide mission!"
"Well, shit happens, Lithie. You shouldn't have been off fighting Dark Knights in a cave. Speaking of which, what the hell were you doing in there, anyway? A group of servants found the cave and you, as well, unconscious."
Lithmenar paused and sighed, resting his head back.
"White Raven and I discovered the cave this morning. It leads right to the other side of the hill. It was from there that the Dark Knights were entering Ai. There was no spy like Danlor." he explained.
"Well, that should smooth the General's furrowed brow." Louis chuckled.
"What do you mean?" Lithmenar asked.
"Well, it seems I caused quite a ruckus when I freed all of their slaves. Well, I'm going to leave you to get some rest, Lithie. I'll see you tomorrow." Louis said, walking off with Indow.
Lithmenar sat up a bit more.
"Hey, Indow!" he shouted.
Both Indow and Louis turned around.
Lithmenar smiled and said, "I heard it was you who came up with the idea of the Teleportation Vortex. Good job."
Indow nodded. "To you, as well."
Lithmenar grinned, thinking for a change that maybe Indow wasn't such a temperamental priestess after all. He then fell back against his mattress, only to feel another person next to him again. He opened his eyes and looked over at the person now standing over him, recognizing him as the slave who had been demanding the freedom of the servant families in the cave.
"I overheard your conversation with the boy. You had an opportunity to reveal that it was we who allowed the Dark Knights entry into Ai. I wouldn't blame you if you had." he stated.
Lithmenar chuckled and closed his eyes. "White Raven and I both understand that you were blackmailed into doing what you did. We shall not have you punished for something outside of your control. Now go, enjoy your newfound freedom."
*
The skies turned a deep orange color as the sun set off in the distance. Louis sat upon a hill watching it, his legs scrunched up against his torso and his arms wrapped around them. Louis suddenly felt a hand upon his shoulder, and he looked up and saw Indow standing behind him. He smiled and turned back to face the sunset.
"The worst is yet to come, my lord." she stated.
Louis shook his head. "I disagree, Indow. Today, we saw the miracles of freedom, the sheer belief in faith and the use of magic, and an army of light conquer an army of darkness. Indow, it's not the worst that's coming. The best is yet to come, and it's going to be fine."
Next Time: Indow's dad returns. Get ready for the face of an ANGRY GOD.
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
I think this was the lamest fantasy battle I have ever read. Also bullshit magic can pretty much do anything.
RiffingShow
It should've been an easy victory for the Dark Knights.
Don't narrate like this. It pretty much gives away that the bad guys are fucked.
Instead of seeing only a few hundred Knights trying to exit the Encampment and engage an army that numbered in the thousands, they saw something a lot larger than a few hundred.
Good to hear that the armies of Ai have clown tents.
What made the situation worse was that the Knights seemed so well organized. The Dark Knights hadn't known that a scout had managed to reach the Third Division so quickly, giving them information about the attacking force to some very nicely accurate details.
Do you mean the scouts who have heralded your coming 2 days ago, or the one who spotted you literally 3 minutes before the battle?
And in the lead of all of the Knights was Louis, who grinned with a strangely sadistic glee.
That's just his regular expression.
"I'm quite surprised by that, too, young Priestess. I had heard it was your idea in the first place to use a Mirror Spell." Chreydo stated.
Holy shit Chreydo speaks! He's a real boy after all!
"I am aware of that, Magi"
You are aware that people have heard this was your idea?
Also it should be Magus, FFS.
We'd use it to create more Knights that would last for a short amount of a time, as we used as many ways as possible to keep the number of Dark Knights to a minimum. But to make so many... This may be the key to our salvation!" Indow explained.
Near as I can tell these mirror knights are full-on magical clones, and not just cheap illusions. Why they needed Indow to come up with what appears to be an obvious force equalizer, I have no idea.
"'Tis indeed a wonderful thing, young Priestess. How long do you think the spell will last?" Chreydo asked.
"Forty-five minutes at most. At least twenty. It may be short, but it shall do quite a bit of damage to those vile beings." Indow replied.
You do know that these kinds of battles can last hours?
Chreydo nodded. The two of them stood on the left hill along with all of the other Magi.
So they're fucked if they get flanked.
(Spoiler alert: it never happens)
Standing on the opposite hill were all the Archers
See last remark.
The Archers immediately took aim and began firing dozens of arrows at the Dark Knights below, aiming primarily for the Generals.
"Dozens of arrows" sounds kinda lame for this grand, epic battle, but bear in mind they have only 25 archers.
However, the Dark Sorcerers within the army responded with their own defensive move.
Literally this:
However, to keep such a thing so large intact and powerful, it kept all of the Sorcerers from doing anything else except maintaining the Shield.
Well, they don't tend to do much else in these battles, anyways.
To make matters worse, Dark Knights were constantly traveling in and out of it to try to engage the Third Division.
Just stay inside the shield, nimrods.
"Ready catapults! Position them for long-distance fire! Go! Go!"
A siege weapon in a non-siege battle? Sure.
Groups of them would be pulling the catapults into lines so they could be ready when the Chaos Shield fell and they could do some major damage to the Dark Knights.
So those shield spells do have hit points to reduce. Shouldn't the catapults help with that, what with most of your army ceasing to exist in like 20 minutes?
Lithmenar smiled as he watches them running about, ready to do whatever they were called to do. It almost reminded him of his earlier days when he was a-
No. he thought. I'm not like that anymore.
Nobody cares about your tragic backstory.
He almost wanted to join them, to fight valiantly and win for a greater cause, a greater purpose.
But then, he wouldn't be much of a thief, would he?
You haven't really done much thievery.
He chuckled a little at the thought, then turned and saw White Raven crouching nearby behind one of the tables.
Okay, Raven's being weird again.
White Raven's hand shot up and grabbed Lithmenar's collar. Lithmenar, taken completely by surprise, was suddenly and unexpectedly pulled to the ground. He landed on his face and made a silent yelp of pain before White Raven pulled him back up and held a finger to her mouth, indicating that he should be quiet.
Really weird.
Lithmenar saw a group of slaves and servants moving slowly across the chaotic area, ignoring those around them who were trying to get things ready for the attacking army. Lithmenar found this especially curious, because if they were attempting to desert their masters, they would be running out the back entrance, not cautiously moving across the area and not trying to draw attention to themselves.
I'm not entirely sure why you two have to be so sneaky about this when these potential traitors have seemingly no interest in being unsuspicious.
*
Louis roared as he used the quarterstaff in his hands to block the sword that was bearing down on him.
Why are you fighting with a stick all of a sudden? How's that gonna help against a dude in plate armor?
He almost laughed inside, remembering how weak he had been before he got here.
Don't worry, Dear. You're still a loser.
Louis winked playfully at the Dark Knight...
... then pushed himself back, letting one of his legs fly up and slam into the Dark Knight's crotch
I was beginning to wonder when this classic would make a return.
*
"The Chaos Shield has fallen!" Chreydo exclaimed.
"You heard the Magi, Archers! Begin constant fire!" Indow ordered.
Aren't they already doing this?
The servants nodded and pulled on the levers attached to the catapults, which sent their cargo flying over the hills and straight at patches of the Dark Knights. The cargo was actually rocks that had been soaked in ligalce powder. The powder had a similar effect to that of gunpowder, in which it explodes when set on fire. A small section of the rock had been set on fire just before it was launched, and by the time it fell back to the ground and hit a group of Dark Knights, it was more than ready to explode.
So you soak a rock with effectively blackpowder and then set part of the rock on fire.
*
"A hidden cave all the way back here?! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Lithmenar asked.
"Indeed. The only explanation is that this is the way that Dark Knights have been secretly entering Ai." White Raven stated.
Boy, it sure is nice that the Dark Knights didn't send a detachment of their army through here to outflank you.
"We have assisted you several times over these past few weeks. We now demand that you release our families at once." the servant stated.
Ah, this must be the exposition servant.
The Dark Knight stared down at the slave. "Although it is true, your services to the Darkness have been exemplary, it has been decided that your assistance is no longer necessary. We shall take this area within a matter of hours, and therefore have no need of a secret passage into your pathetic little land. The Darkness has decided that these slaves can assist us. You, however, shall die here."
The Army of Darkness - we treat our enemies better than our allies!
*
The Knights didn't need any more. Without the Mirror Spell to help them, the Knights were outnumbered vastly. The remaining Knights turned around after killing whoever they were fighting and began a retreat to the encampment.
Quick question: Did the real knights have to fight along with the mirror ones? If not they should've kept the real ones back and let the disposable clones do the entire first wave.
the Magi and Sorcerers closed their eyes and joined hands.
The entrance to the camp suddenly sparked with energy as some of the Dark Knights tried to cross the threshold. A white energy barrier shot up, slicing the Dark Knights apart.
Another quick question: Are the spellcasters still on that hill? And is it included in this barrier?
"What now, my lord?" J'Vok asked.
"We wait. Now, let's just see how badly we were hurt." Louis replied.
So after blowing their load on making short-lived soldiers and creating a force field, they're just turtling up.
*
After announcing to the Dark Knights that on no uncertain terms were they going to allow the Dark Knights to harm the property of the Knights or the lives of the servants, White Raven and Lithmenar charged into battle.
I'm starting to get annoyed at you just summarizing dialogue you don't care too much about. Sure it would've probably annoying, but they are golden opportunities to extend your epic book.
At first, they managed to deflect the throwing knives that Lithmenar constantly threw at them, but then one managed to get through and pierce one of the Dark Knights' heads.
Holy crap, these knights ain't fucking around.
Lithmenar, kicking himself after his better angels had convinced him not to abandon his friend...
I thought he's atheist.
"Here's a little trick... that the Linkara taught me..."
And with that, Lithmenar kicked with as much force as he could between the Dark Knight's legs, hitting his crotch instantly.
Should've taught that one to the rest of the army. Victory would've been assured.
*
Chaotic didn't actually begin to describe the area. Louis was trying to find Lithmenar and White Raven for their help in training more Archers and evasion tactics while they were protected, but he couldn't find anyone who knew where they had gone.
What in the ever-loving fuck does this mean? The barrier will likely be down in couple of paragraphs. What good is training gonna do now? This ain't some RTS game where you can crank out a few more units.
The medical area was jammed with wounded, some of them so critical that they were being held together with medicine and Healers who had limited magic knowledge.
Should've let the fake people do all the fighting.
The simple fact was that they had plenty of weapons but not enough people to wield them.
Why do you have so many weapons?
Louis looked at Indow, blinking. "Indow, we're under siege by an enemy that outnumbers us ten to one, we may not last the next hour much less the next twenty four hours we need to get reinforcements, this planet is about to be overrun on all sides by an enemy that wants nothing more than to destroy us, and you think that morale should be our primary concern?!"
I don't think the entire planet has too much to fear if this is the entire Army of Darkness.
And sure, who cares about morale? It's not like battles in every period of human history have been lost by the side that broke first, not the one that had smaller numbers
Indow winced. "Then perhaps, my lord, it might become necessary to initiate the backup plan we discussed."
Louis shook his head. "Last resort only, Indow. If it becomes necessary to use the plan, you guys are going to need all the mystical energy going for you."
What's the main plan, actually? Having White Raven teach the slaves and servants how to hold a bow?
And then, suddenly, Louis' mood changed when he heard a loud whistling sound. He looked up and saw a flaming rock come down from the sky, falling from the direction of the Dark Knights, and collide into one of the empty barracks.
I take it the barrier is gone?
"Before you tell the others, round up all the servants and slaves into the main courtyard. I think I may have an idea about buying us some time."
*
Once again, the Dark Knights thought that victory was theirs to be claimed.
JFC again with this shit.
However, when they were within twenty feet of the encampment, they stopped in utter shock and surprise. Standing before them were about a hundred men, women, and children. They were dressed in dirty brown rags, and looked tired and worn out beyond belief. They all had a look of unbridled hatred upon their faces.
The mighty hobo army.
Also it sure is nice that the enemy catapults have apparently run out of rocks to throw.
They were dived into three lines. The first twenty-five slaves and servants were kneeling on the ground and holding crossbows in their hands, aimed straight up at the Dark Knights. The next twenty-five also held crossbows, but this group was standing. And finally, behind the two crossbowmen and women, fifty slaves and servants tightened their grips around swords, axes, pikes, and/or basically any weapon they contained in their hands.
"They wielded the weapons they were wielding."
Riveting writing there.
A few Dark Knights decided to take the initiative and try to attack the 'puny' slaves. They were met by a volley of arrows that launched from the crossbows of the kneeling slaves that pierced their armor in several places.
Crossbows fire bolts, not arrows.
"An excellent plan, my lord! Convince the slaves and servants to fight alongside us using the promise of freedom from their bondage, then let them take the hits for us!" J'Vok stated next to Louis, both on horseback on the farther part of the camp
Remember when Linkara was convinced of the king's goodness because the dude was too honorable to be evil?
"But, my lord, that would mean that we would be saving the slaves and servants, and thus fulfilling the deal of freeing them of their slavery!" J'Vok balked.
Someone better bring a glass of water to the general.
(Spoiler alert: Nothing happens. He's apparently still a good guy.)
"Now come, my friend! We must rally the troops and give time for Indow and the others to complete their spell!"
Didn't you just say you don't give a fuck about morale?
*
It is said that good things come to those who wait.
Looking at Spoony, I kinda doubt it.
They should've fell [sic] to the Dark Knights. It seemed inevitable.
A typical Linkara battle, then.
However, the one thing that the Dark Knights had not been anticipating was if the Third Division cheated.
Apparently the forces of evil prefer a good, clean fight.
All over the camp, where there had been no soldiers or Knights before, new Knights from varying divisions and classifications were popping out of nowhere. Within thirty seconds, the number of good guys had jumped from three hundred to a thousand. In another thirty second, that number jumped to 2500.
Apparently the bad guys did not expect that an enemy with about two dozen magic-users would, in fact, use magic to even the odds.
"You did it, Indow! Bravo!" Louis complemented.
"I live to serve the Linkara!" Indow laughed in response.
Indow sounds like a RTS unit here.
"What is happening, my lord?! How did all of these Divisions get here so quickly?!" J'Vok asked.
"Magic, my dear General, magic! A Teleportation Vortex, to be precise!" Louis answered.
So you could've teleported the other divisions at any time, and this was your backup plan? Why even waste mana on short-lived clones if you could just get the real deal instead? And what the fuck was your main plan? Hope that a few extra minutes of training from Raven and Lithmenar would turn the tide of battle?
Also note that this isn't even the full force of the kingdom of Ai. I have no idea why the Darkness thought this would be a big enough army to conquer the whole kingdom.
And those Dark Sorcerers must really suck if they run out of juice after one spell. Meanwhile the good guys have been casting one tide-turning spell after the other.
*
They smiled happily, and Louis even put his hand on Lithmenar's shoulder.
This better not be the shoulder that got stabbed.
"I'm told that they're treating you with some of the Illician dust I brought along with me."
I had a hunch when you took her staff, but I'm not aware you looted Rain's corpse this thoroughly.
"We're heading for L'Sol, capitol of Ünaré, tomorrow morning. After that, it's straight on to the Zlad Delta to finally defeat the Darkness." Louis explained.
I wonder who will have to rescue you this time...
"Speaking of which, what happened to the Dark Knights' Army in the last few parts of the battle? I know about the backup plan to bring the Knights that were on their way here, but after they arrived, I'm not able to get a straight answer."
"We managed to whittle their forces down to about five hundred, all of whom fought like hell to finally run from the battle."
So the grand battle has become uninteresting enough that the narration just skips the rest. Okay.
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
Figured this might be too much text/autism for the next recap, so I'll make a separate post about it. Just in case I feel like writing the Unofficial Angel Armor Sourcebook (compatible with Shadow of the Demon Lord, Maid RPG, and FATAL).
I'm pretty sure Linkara (the author) did not know the difference between slaves and servants, or if he actually meant "serfs" insteadof "servants". They're effectively always brought up as a single group ("slaves and servants" or "servants and slaves"), almost like how "Sinti and Roma" is just a politically-correct phrase for "gypsies". They also seem to be doing pretty much the same kind of work, appear to be in roughly the same social class, the knights seem to think just as "highly" of both, and they can both be enticed by promises of freedom.
Now giving a (historically medieval) slave freedom might not always be a "good" idea. Depending on the time and place you had certain obligations to feed and care for your slaves, which again depending on the time and place might get as far as giving them priority when it comes to food during famines. At least the Romans had the fun little life hack of "freeing" slaves that have become too old and/or sickly to be of use, thus making them no longer the owner's problem.
Not to mention that general J'Vok pointed out that all slaves of Ai are either spoils of war (funny how the Honorable Good Guys are basically vikings) or notorious criminals. Freeing either is a bit iffy IMO, as they probably hate their guts, and likely own nothing aside from the weapons you just gave them, which makes it pretty easy to guess their future profession.
As for the servants, if they actually are servants then "freedom" effectively means getting fired, so that's a bit weird. If they're serfs they're effectively fucked, as I don't think their lord will be willing to also give them the patch of dirt they're farming on.
If Linkara wanted to make this less weird, he should've just included actual camp followers.
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
Book 1, Chapter 16 - Signs and Portents (Or: Virtues and Signals)
It's time for Linkara to cash in on the emotional manipulation he has put Indow through. Get ready for another "Face of an ANGRY GOD!"
RecapShow
So this grand battle between the forces of Good and Evil left me wanting, to say the least. Let's break the problems down a bit, shall we?
Spellcasting Disparity
So the Dark Sorcerers literally blow their load in a single spell and effectively vanish from the battle afterwards. Meanwhile the good guy spellcasters manage to pull off pretty much the same spell inbetween casting other shit, with no signs of running out of juice.
Are the good spellcasters just better? No idea. In the previous skirmishes they seemed about even. Did the good guys just have more spellcasters? Fuck if I know how many Dark Sorcerers were part of the battle.
Bullshit Magic
The battle was pretty much won because Indow (and/or Muh Boi Chreydo) remembered there were other spells besides the omnipresent shield spell.
Naturally those were spells that have never shown up before, and will probably never show up ever again:
Mirror Spell: This one apparently creates temporary clones? I have no idea if there are any limitations besides the duration, so they're probably just as good as the original. Teleport: Pretty straightforward, though apparently you can just teleport dudes form a distance to your location, which is the opposite of how this usually tends to work.
Teleporting is always nice, but that mirror spell would've been very useful in previous fights. I mean, more Linkaras can only mean more crotch kicks.
Linkara is useless
I wish I was joking, but what did he actually do in this battle?
He fought with a quarterstaff - because why use the finest blades in all the land when you can whack people with a stick?
He had a weird rant where he claims that trying to rally the troops is pointless is beneath him because the fate of the world is at stake and that's more important.
He turned camp followers into literal murder hobos. It was described as some cool and triumphant moment, but really? 100 untrained troops are just a drop in the bucket if you're this outnumbered. Realistically, they would've only been good for a crossbow salvo or two.
Quality Tactics: The Army of Darkness
You know how good fantasy battles have the bad guys pull off all sorts of dirty tricks and/or secret weapons? Not so much here. They basically just attacked like NPCs or something, made all the worse by not having any kind of prominent general or other major character.
One baffling omission is that they never actually made use of that tunnel they used to infiltrate the kingdom of Ai. Even a smaller detachment of the army could've wrecked havoc in the enemy camp, but the whole tunnel just never interacts with the battle itself. It's just segregated as part of the lame "Is there a traitor?!" subplot.
Even more baffling is the one spell the bad guys cast: A giant shield.
Why? They're the aggressor, and they know that enemy reinforcements are about a day away. So why waste time? They blew all their arcane load on a defensive spell that forced their army to effectively do nothing (lest they move out of the protective shield).
This move was only mildly useful in hindsight since it ate up a chunk of the mirror spell's duration. But why not use attack magic? Or summon some giant monster so Linkara has actually something to do?
Quality Tactics: The Good Guys
What in the ever-loving fuck was Linkara's Plan A for this battle?
Seriously, I'm drawing a blank here. He knew the mirror clones wouldn't last all battle, so turtling up under the shield seems to have been part of the plan. But then what? For as much as he kept going on about how they're gonna win with "strategy", I have no idea what this strategy was supposed to look like.
I know that he did get triggered that Raven and Lithmenar were off having their own little adventure, because they were supposed to "train" people. What was that supposed to accomplish in this short a time?
And why the fuck was Plan B the backup plan at all, only to be used in the most dire emergency?
I get that one even less. Not only did the teleport plan go off without a hitch, but they should've used that one from the start. Why waste magic on creating temporary soldiers that can only cancel out your numbers disadvantage for a bit when you can just teleport the real deal in, thus eliminating your one major handicap?
It's not even like the downsides of this plan made sense. The whole discussion basically goes like this:
"We can't teleport in reinforcements. You can't teleport an entire army with one spell!"
"Then how about we just keep casting spells until we've got everyone we need?"
*SurprisedPikachu.png*
ChapterShow
Much to the disappointment of the Third Division, Louis and his companions left the encampment the next morning. Within twenty minutes, they crossed the Elana River and entered the land of Ünaré. Ünaré had a total land area that equaled about double to Ai's, and took up nearly a fourth of the continent. This had been the result of previous wars throughout the past 1,000 years in which the armies of Ünaré would conquer all the other surrounding lands. However, the most famous war, known throughout the history of Sin as the Hundred-Year War, was the most famous. This war had not only sparked the return of the most hated enemy of Ai, the Terafell Arbiters, but had also been the bloodiest.
The Terafell Arbiters began as a religious movement within the land of Ilkjem, and over time, overthrew the Ilkjem government. Believing that it was the will of their God, Terafell, to go throughout the world and force the people to obey the will of the creator of the world. When they had begun to spread to Ünaré, the leading religion of Ünaré called the Church of St. Nal retaliated. Brief skirmishes ensued, but eventually, the Arbiters managed to conquer Ünaré. They then proceeded to conquer Ai using subversive tactics to incite revolt in Walsz, overthrowing the monarchy and allowing the Terafell Arbiters to conquer it. Everyone within the monarchy, with the exception of the prince and princess, were executed. The prince and princess managed to be sent away to the Shadae Islands, home of the Anakos. They would later return home to Ai after the formation of the Linkaran religion forced the Arbiters out of a majority of Ai cities.
And so, the Arbiters were forced back into Ilkjem once more. However, roughly twenty years later, the Hundred-Year War began. The Arbiters had been spending the past twenty years planning, preparing, and readying themselves for a full-scale invasion of all the five lands. After conquering Ünaré once again, the Arbiters unexpectedly launched a full-scale invasion of Ai, taking Walsz in a matter of days. This time, the entire royal family managed to escape unharmed into neighboring Kien. When the end finally came, and the Arbiters were defeated, Ilkjem was annexed into Ünaré, and the maps were redrawn to allow Ünaré a little more territory than previously owned.
Anyway, the group continued on their journey unimpeded for several days. The best part of the trip, for them, was the fact that they only encountered one Dark Knight on the way to L'Sol. The Dark Knight was a survivor of the attack on the encampment and the only remaining member of his Assault Squad, and instead of trying to fight Louis, had fled away in terror. Louis chuckled at this and confiscated the camp that the Dark Knight had left behind when he ran away. And by the next morning, Louis, Indow, Lithmenar, and White Raven arrived in L'Sol, capitol of the land of Ünaré.
News of the Linkara's arrival spread quickly within the large city. Even though the primary religion of Ünaré was the Church of St. Nal, many had decided to come and see the so-called 'Boy from another world' that supposedly fulfilled the Linkaran prophecies. And so, when they entered L'Sol, large groups of people were already gathering to see him. Louis' popularity did not only spawn from his religious symbolism, but also from the victory again the Dark Knights at the Elana River with the Third Division. People were crowding all around the four, talking amongst themselves, asking questions to them. Louis chuckled and was about to answer one of them when he suddenly saw a sign nearby. It was, of course, written in a language he wouldn't normally understand. However, after looking at it for a moment, the shapes and characters within the sign began to reshape themselves. His smile faded when he looked at it. It said, 'This Way to Lake Vonal,' and had an arrow pointing to the left.
Louis turned to the others and said, "I'm going to the lake. I'll meet you at the church when I get back."
Lake Vonal was the largest lake on the entire continent. It went as far as the eye could see, and shimmered with a deep luminescence during both the day and night. And it was here that a huge stone obelisk stood. It was shaped like a pyramid and made of something resembling marble, standing twelve feet tall. Inscribed in the language of Ünaré were one thousand two hundred and fifty-six names listed on all sides. Written at the top of the pyramid was an inscription. Louis read it aloud:
"This spot shall forever be remembered where 1,256 loyal soldiers of Ünaré sacrificed their lives in battle to fight off an army of Dark Knights. Although they all lost their lives, their victory shall forever be remembered through this monument of the battle. May their names never be forgotten. Beautiful. Now I just have to look for one last name in a thousand..."
It took Louis three minutes to finally locate the name he was looking for. It was two feet off the ground on the first side he attempted to look at. He never knew the first name of the man; he only knew that Rain had mentioned him in passing when he had been with her back at the ANM. She had told him of her brother who had fought a battle against the Darkness at Lake Vonal. And now, Louis was looking at the name.
Oro Vendre.
"Hello, Oro." Louis greeted.
Louis only heard silence on the wind. He licked his lips and continued speaking: "My name's Louis Williamson. I believe that you would better identify me as 'Linkara,' however, given this little faith you guys have."
Louis started walking around the obelisk.
"You know, since you're dead, I don't think you're going to have to worry about me talking to you about this. Honestly, Oro, I don't really believe this Linkaran crap. It's not like I was raised Christian, I chose that religion when I was ten years old. But then, all of a sudden, I get transported to an alternate reality where supposedly some crap about a mystical armor is supposed to be the truth. I've heard stuff about angels, demons, and heavens, but not once have I heard anything about God, and supposedly I'm the Jesus of this damned place. I honestly don't like war. However, I do know that the only way to stop this evil is to wage war."
Louis stopped in front of the side with Oro's name upon it.
"Your sister's dead because of war, Oro. Rain Vendre was killed because she tried to protect me. And I'm an instrument of war. 'The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren.' said Thomas Paine. As strange as it may sound, I truly pity and love the Dark Knights. I learned a long time ago that my enemies are still people. Even the Orcs chose the path they're on now. However, because of the choices they made, I must fight them."
Louis narrowed his eyes.
"They are evil now, and evil must be opposed. It doesn't matter if I fail or succeed, as long as I stand up and face it head on. If I'm going to run into walls, I'm going to run into them full speed. Your sister is dead, Oro. Thousands of people have died because of the Darkness and it's servants. I will stand up to it and fight the Darkness. No longer will I allow the evil to hurt people that I care about, or anyone for that matter! I fear no evil."
*
"My own daughter a whore!"
Oh shit! Louis thought as he came riding up to the Linkaran church within L'Sol.
The voice he had heard a moment ago had been from a male within the church. The church itself wasn't actually very large, measuring only a sixth of the total area of the church where Louis had first met Indow. And because of it's small size, the echoed voices from within traveled even outside of the church. And Louis was quickly getting off of his horse in order to calm the man who he knew was inside.
He needed to stop Garik Chyprea before he did anything drastic.
Louis swung open the doors of the church and winced, seeing Garik's fist collide with Indow's face, sending her sprawling to the ground. Louis winced and began running over to Garik in anger. The look on Garik's face was a strange mixture of hatred and surprise. Lithmenar was on the ground, as well, clutching a wound to his face sustained from Garik punching him. White Raven stood near the back next to several priests and priestesses. Some of them looked afraid while others were smiling in approval.
"'Tis bad enough that you travel alongside a thief and a mass murderer, but you are also a whore!" Garik shouted, and kicked Indow in the stomach.
Louis growled as Garik was about to kick Indow again and got between her and him. Garik tried to push Louis aside in his rage, not recognizing him as he continued to shout at Indow.
"You are BANISHED! Not only from the Linkaran religion, but also as my daughter! YOU ARE NO LONGER MY DAUGHTER, YOU WHORE!"
Louis balled up his fist and slammed it against Garik's face. The impact sent him to the ground, and before he could get up again, Louis put his foot down on Garik's chest.
"Listen to me, you stuck-up son of a bitch! She is your daughter! Biologically, socially, and by name, she is Indow Chyprea, daughter of Garik Chyprea and a Priestess from the First Church of the Linkara! You don't judge my friends by the company they keep and you don't hit someone you love!" Louis shouted.
White Raven looked around herself, seeing the other Priests and Priestesses put shocked looks on their faces, totally surprised by Louis' reaction to this. Garik stared up at Louis, who still had his foot on his chest.
"But, my lord, she sold herself off for sex! She has worked in worked in a Warrior's Rest! This sort of activity warrants only one course of action: exile!" Garik shouted up.
Louis took his foot off of Garik's chest and pulled him up.
"Don't give me that 'we have to be so fucking pure' bullshit, Garik! I don't know who the hell's been writing your prophecies, but you've got a lot of shithole ideas about this religion and me! You think I give a damn if you screw like horny jackrabbits?! Yes, I'm concerned that you might catch syphilis or some other sexually transmitted disease, but in this world, we have the choice to do with our lives what we want to do with them! On my world, one of our greatest leaders in history, John F. Kennedy, promoted traveling to the stars, helping our country out, and making Americans proud to be Americans again. The only problem was that he was a womanizer! But you know what? What other people do in their bedrooms ain't my business. That girl down there is your daughter. She was made with your DNA, bucko. There is no such thing as purity, Garik." Louis spoke.
Garik gulped and shivered, trying to reclaim his composure.
"But, my lord, she has committed conduct unbecoming of a priestess. The only acceptable punishment is exile!" Garik said.
Louis rolled his eyes and walked around the floor of the church, especially in front of the other priests and priestesses.
"All right, you primitive shit heads," he began, "listen up. As the Linkara, AKA, all-supreme Jesus figure in this stupid fucking religion of yours, I am making this following decree. We are adopting a new catchphrase and motto for the Linkaran faith. It's called, 'Lover the sinner, Hate the sin.' You know what that means? It means that instead of punishing someone for something they've done in the past, we love them for who they are now."
Garik turned away and shook his head. "But they are deplorable acts, my lord..."
"You think they're deplorable acts? So do I." Louis stated.
"You do?" Garik asked.
"Yes. The problem is that she used such deplorable acts in order to acquire a healing potion that saved my life, Garik. She did something that both she and I think is altogether wrong so that others would not suffer. Garik, she's your daughter. She doesn't want to do the things she does, so instead of trying to be a complete dickhead about this, why don't you go over there, hug your daughter, and try to help her through a difficult phase in her life. Okay?" Louis suggested.
Garik blinked and looked over at Indow, who was still on the ground, but sobbing now. He quickly ran over to her and took her in his arms. She pressed her face against his chest as he pulled her in tighter, apologizing for his actions over and over. And she, in turn, started weeping and apologizing for all her actions in the past. Louis then tapped Garik on the shoulder.
"Oh, and by the way," Louis stated, "you dare hit her again and I'll slit your throat from ear to ear. Get it?"
Garik nodded. Louis then turned and faced the other priests and priestesses, who took a step back when he pointed his finger at all of them.
"And don't think you assholes are off the hook, either! I saw you smirking when he was beating her! Now my friends and I are tired and hungry, and we've got a big thing of evil to slay, so let's get this show on the road!"
*
"After you and Indow left the church to journey to Walsz, I quickly arrived in Col, capitol of Kien and designated point for which the gathering of Priests and Priestesses was being held. It was decided that in order to quell the Darkness, all who serve within the Linkaran order, Priests, Priestesses, Magi, etc., should converge on the Zlad Delta to finally take up arms to eliminate the Darkness once and for all. Already Linkarans from hundreds of churches are massing for war, meeting at prearranged places and preparing for a full assault against the Darkness." Garik stated.
"This isn't what I'd expected, Garik. I was thinking that I'd be fighting the Darkness alone, or at least have my companions alongside me." Louis said.
"That brings me to the next topic, my lord: the third piece of the first scroll of the Linkara." Garik replied.
The group was gathered around a large table in a side room to the main chamber of the church, upon it was a single strip of paper, appearing old and torn in a few places. Louis picked it up and examined it, squinting to make out the words that were slowly forming together as the ancient language that the scrolls were written in slowly came together.
"'The wielder of Chat-Najil shall be from a province where millions exist, but does not exist to the eyes of those on Sin. Woe be to the inhabitors of Sin, for the hour of judgment is at hand! Yay, cast thy gaze upon the skies, and thou shall see fire and death sweeping across the clouds. Life will fall down upon the streets, upon the castles, upon the land and the life giver, and it shall fall as if bitter tears, as though the heavens themselves cried with tears of life. Woe be to the wielder of Chat-Najil, for the evil shall summon a horse with five heads, and the horse shall cause him great pain and anguish. Woe be to those who fight alongside the wielder of Chat-Najil, for the evil shall deceive and trick them with his talents. Woe be to the kings that support him, for snakes that wield swords shall pierce their hearts with livid steel. And when the blood of the wielder of Chat-Najil spills upon the evil, it's strength shall be renewed, and the Angel that wields Chat-Najil will suffer greatly.' Again with this Chat-Najil crap. Doesn't anyone know what the hell it's supposed to be?" Louis read.
Everyone, including white Raven, stared at Louis with shocked expressions on their faces.
"What?" he asked.
You just read off a prophetic text that says that fire and death is going to be going through the sky, snakes are going to stab kings, some sort of horse with FIVE heads, and you're worried about some word that can't be translated?!" Lithmenar exclaimed.
Well, for all we know, 'Chat-Najil'' may be the key to defeating the Darkness. Until we can translate what it means, there's nothing to say that a lot of the prophecy stuff isn't just a load of crap." Louis responded.
"That is true, my lord. Still, I do not believe you should take it so lightly." Garik stated.
"On the contrary, Garik, I take this very seriously. Unfortunately, in my experience, I have learned that grace under pressure works rather well to ease tension. Whatever the hell this prophecy is talking about, it's coming soon and there's not much we can do about it. Now, I'm feeling a might peckish. Is there anything to eat?" Louis asked.
"As a matter of fact, my lord, the King himself wished to convey his wish that you and your companions attend a dinner in his homestead at the castle." Garik said.
"Well then I believe we should get ready! Jeez, two kings in a matter of weeks. I just hope this one isn't making any kind of secret deals with the Darkness to set a trap for them. I've had my fill of those..." Louis responded.
*
The castle Dæn was known the world-over for its magnificence. It was the one castle on the entire planet of Sin that actually allowed tourists to enter and look around. However, such visitors were forbidden from entering areas like the King's office or the main hall. The castle stood ninety feet up, containing a total of twenty stories, and each room contained its own importance in the entire hierarchy and continued management of Ünaré. The main hall was the largest room of the castle, going thirty feet into the air and made of smooth white bricks. A long red carpet extended out in the center of it, patterned in royal symbols. Upon the walls in the room hung pictures of former kings and banners of various houses and clans that worked for Ünaré's military, royal guard, or were just considered noble families.
The one stereotype about medieval times is that Kings spent most of their days on their thrones. If that was true for earth, one cannot say, but for Sin, especially in Ünaré, the King only sat upon the throne for legality's sakes during trials, formal declarations, etc. The King of Ünaré, King Êinhart, spent most of his time in his office, handling political and military matters concerning Ünaré. His personal faith was of the Church of St. Nal, as the majority of people in Ünaré were. He wasn't married or had an heir, so the line of succession had actually been the primary talk for the past several weeks. However, something new had come around roughly a month before: the arrival of the Linkara.
"Ah! At last, the Linkara himself finally arrives! Tell me, do you prefer to be called Linkara or some other name, my young friend?" King Êinhart asked.
Louis smiled, doing a light bow with his head. "I prefer to be called Louis, your majesty. Tell me, do what do I owe the honor of being summoned to the castle of such a prominent man?"
King Êinhart was a little on the chubby side. He wasn't exactly fat per se, but his once youthful looks and appearance had been given away years ago as he had to deal with his position as ruler of an entire land. He chuckled as he took in Louis' response, and stood up, walking down to him.
"My young friend, news of your victory against the Dark Knights at the Elana River spreads far and wide! Tales of you personally facing, in hand to hand combat, an army of 3,000! Whether it be true or not is of no consequence, only the fact that you were indeed at the battle and fought in it! Thanks to your battle with the Dark Knights, the majority of Dark Knight forces and activity within Ünaré has practically ceased! This is giving the Ünaré Army a chance to regroup and ready ourselves for the coming invasion of the Zlad Delta itself and the final end to the Darkness! It brings me great honor to have such a figure before me!" Êinhart explained.
"Well, then, your majesty, we are both honored! Come, I should only hope that you have some food ready for us! If you don't, then you should get some ready immediately! That way, I can regale you with tales of my adventures after landing in this happy planet called Sin." Louis said.
*
Louis yawned and brought his arms into the air, stretching his muscles. He proceeded then to arch his back a little as he moved out of the castle and onto the front steps of it. He brought his fingers together and cracked his knuckles, looking up at the evening sky and smiling. Louis walked down a few steps and sat down, twiddling his thumbs in circles as he shivered a little from the slightly chilly weather. He looked from left to right, seeing about two or three guards in front of the palace. For a moment, Louis wondered what was preventing a group of people from simply passing by in a wagon and shooting both guards with crossbows, allowing free entry into the castle by whatever force would deem fit to do so.
"I thought you wished to spend time with the King, my lord."
Louis turned his head around, seeing Indow approach him with a cloth bag in her hands. Louis smiled and chuckled a little.
"Well, I can only manage so much eating and talking at the same time, Indow. Telling the same stories over and over again to the same person can be quite annoying. By the by, who is entertaining the King now?" Louis asked.
"Lithmenar has the King's attention by talking about how he uncovered Danlor's treachery. By the time we go back in, I suspect he'll talk about how it was him who saved White Raven from her own mind, and not you." Indow laughed.
Louis giggled a little and sighed happily. Indow smiled and sat down beside him, holding her knees in her arms.
"My lord, I realized that I never thanked you for what you did back at the church... My father's a very powerful man within the Linkaran faith. There are few who would oppose him on anything. Thank you for stopping him." she said.
Louis turned to face her. "I would've done the same for you had you have been a complete stranger and not my friend."
Indow blushed a little, then pulled up the bag she held in her hands. She opened up the cloth covering for it and reached in. What she pulled out of the bag was a book with a leathery cover. The pages inside looked a little yellow and worn out, but they seemed to hold themselves together quite well.
"I know it is has been a few weeks since the Aliamas festival, but I feel it was necessary to get such a gift for you." she said.
Indow handed the book to Louis, who opened it up and began looking at the pages. Each page was personally inked, including a few pages that had pictures upon them. The pictures were mostly of maps, but some contained pictures of people whom Louis didn't recognize.
"What is it?" Louis asked.
"It is a book on the history of Sin, my lord. It contains all known history of each of the five lands on this continent, and also includes some bits and pieces on Aigol, the second continent of Sin where the Elvin people dwell. I thought that since you were so interested in this world's history that you might take a liking to such a book. Do you like it?" Indow inquired, almost itching to know if he did.
Louis smiled and closed the book, putting it down and hugging Indow tightly.
"I love it. Thanks, Indow." he said.
Indow blushed and returned the hug, closing her eyes a little as Louis held her a little tighter.
"Indow... I'm going to make a promise to you. I'm not going to let the Darkness or anyone else hurt you. This promise goes to the others as well. That damned thing has hurt too many people, and I'm not going to let anyone else be harmed or die by its hands. I care too much for you to let it." Louis stated.
Indow smiled, and the two backed away, but still kept their arms near one another. Louis and Indow opened their eyes so that they could meet one another's gaze, and their eyes stared into each other. They blinked a little, then, on instinct, their heads began to slowly come closer to one another. Both stopped breathing as they just continued to come closer to each other. Their lips were almost an inch apart at this point. They were about to kiss one another.
However, the romantic moment ended before their lips could touch. A screeching sound filled the air, breaking the two out of their moment and sent their heads upwards towards the sky. They gasped and continued to hold each other as they saw the darkness of the night sky give way quickly to a deep red that was quickly filling it. It was not the sun's doing, but something else altogether. The two's pupils shrunk as they stared in horror as something began to fill the red sky. It was fire encompassing it, and the flames were traveling through the unnatural sky like clouds on an open day. Louis and Indow looked at one another once more, and quickly leapt up.
The two ran inside, still holding hands as they moved past the guards, who, for a change, were too amazed by what was occurring in the sky to care about Louis and Indow at that moment. Louis and Indow didn't need to run far, because the entire group was already moving in their direction to get a better view of what was occurring in the Ünaré skies.
"Did you see it, too, kid?! Are we insane?!" Lithmenar asked.
"To my horror, I'm afraid I did!" Louis responded.
The others stopped advancing forward and began to talk amongst themselves.
"How could such a thing occur?!"
"Is it some twisted spell?!"
"A curse from the Darkness, perhaps?"
Louis turned around to face the outside.
"We must consult the highest mages!"
"No, we must look upon the ancient texts. Surely they can bring some insight into this."
"First a vast army of conquerors, and now it would appear that the Darkness can control the weather!"
Louis blinked as he stepped outside.
"I almost feel sick from such a sight..."
"We must do something!"
But do what?! This is beyond anything that we've ever encountered!"
Louis felt something hit the palm of his hand.
"I must call back all of my generals!"
"Do you think this is happening all over the world?!"
"It must only be here. Ünaré always gets such short luck."
Louis stared at the red droplet of liquid that had fallen onto his hand.
"We cannot surrender to the Darkness!"
"No one is suggesting such a thing!"
"I must call to the other Priests and see if I can't-"
Louis' face went pale as he looked up into the sky.
"It's like Ünaré has fallen into the fire pits!"
"Let us hope that has not occurred."
"Could this be what the prophecies-"
"Oh my God." Louis interrupted.
Everyone suddenly shut up and when they heard Louis speak. They all turned to look at him as he turned to face them all. Each one of them felt shivers run up their spine as they saw red liquid flowing down from the red sky that had come to them. Louis held out his palm that still had the red droplet in it.
"The skies," he said. "THEY'RE BLEEDING!"
Next Time: Just how lame will this apocalypse be? With Linkara at the pen, the dark abyss is the limit!
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
"Oy fuck-face! I'm the bloody Linkara, the bloody Jesus of your bloody religion..."
This must be Linkara at his most euphoric.
RiffingShow
Much to the disappointment of the Third Division, Louis and his companions left the encampment the next morning.
"They died shortly after when the ran into another Dark Knight squad. Because good is dumb."
However, the most famous war, known throughout the history of Sin as the Hundred-Year War, was the most famous.
"The most famous war was, in fact, the most famous."
Tolkien must be jealous at this quality writing.
And do we really need some history lesson about shit that doesn't matter?
The Terafell Arbiters began as a religious movement within the land of Ilkjem, and over time, overthrew the Ilkjem government. Believing that it was the will of their God, Terafell, to go throughout the world and force the people to obey the will of the creator of the world.
Holy shit, a religion that has an actual god.
The prince and princess managed to be sent away to the Shadae Islands, home of the Anakos.
>they managed to be sent away"
Either they "manage to escape to" or "were sent away to" to the Catgirl Islands.
When the end finally came, and the Arbiters were defeated, Ilkjem was annexed into Ünaré, and the maps were redrawn to allow Ünaré a little more territory than previously owned.
But Ünaré was conquered. Why were they allowed to keep shit conquered by their conquerors?
Anyway, the group continued on their journey unimpeded for several days.
So they managed to not get curbstomped through sheer luck. Good.
His smile faded when he looked at it. It said, 'This Way to Lake Vonal,' and had an arrow pointing to the left.
This is were Rain's brother is buried. We migth have some Oscar bait at our hands.
Lake Vonal was the largest lake on the entire continent. It went as far as the eye could see, and shimmered with a deep luminescence during both the day and night. And it was here that a huge stone obelisk stood.
If the lake is really that big, you might have to be more specific about the obelisk's location.
Louis read it aloud
Why? Have you forgotten that you can think again?
"Hello, Oro." Louis greeted.
"Shut up, Louis."
"Honestly, Oro, I don't really believe this Linkaran crap."
"But it sure is handy when it comes to literally lording over religious nutjobs!"
"It's not like I was raised Christian, I chose that religion when I was ten years old."
I'm pretty sure Rain's dead brother has no idea what "Christian" means
What the fuck were your parents? Agnostics?
But then, all of a sudden, I get transported to an alternate reality where supposedly some crap about a mystical armor is supposed to be the truth.
If you have a more "rational" explanation for why you have the Chosen One Armor 3,000, then go ahead.
"... not once have I heard anything about God, and supposedly I'm the Jesus of this damned place."
It's probably not a good idea to bring up how little sense these religions have been making so far.
"Your sister's dead because of war, Oro."
"And because I suck."
"I learned a long time ago that my enemies are still people."
They bleed black stuff and are literally incapable of certain emotions.
"Even the Orcs chose the path they're on now."
How do you know that?
"It doesn't matter if I fail or succeed, as long as I stand up and face it head on. If I'm going to run into walls, I'm going to run into them full speed."
Ah, so being a suicidal idiot is part of his stragegy.
No longer will I allow the evil to hurt people that I care about, or anyone for that matter!
Spoiler alert: LMAO.
*
"My own daughter a whore!"
Oh shit! Louis thought as he came riding up to the Linkaran church within L'Sol.
*grabs popcorn*
He needed to stop Garik Chyprea before he did anything drastic.
Maybe you should've told Indow to wait with her confession until you're back, but I guess this setup makes for a "better" knight-in-shining-armor moment.
Lithmenar was on the ground, as well, clutching a wound to his face sustained from Garik punching him.
LMAO, what a loser.
White Raven stood near the back next to several priests and priestesses.
This is a bit weird because...
"'Tis bad enough that you travel alongside a thief and a mass murderer, but you are also a whore!" Garik shouted, and kicked Indow in the stomach.
... they know who she is. Yet they're just chilling out with her. Seems Indow truly is the only one who gets triggered by the Butcher of Bumfuck Nowhere.
"Listen to me, you stuck-up son of a bitch! She is your daughter! Biologically, socially, and by name, she is Indow Chyprea, daughter of Garik Chyprea and a Priestess from the First Church of the Linkara! You don't judge my friends by the company they keep and you don't hit someone you love!" Louis shouted.
"I don't know who the hell's been writing your prophecies..."
Not that it matters, since a good chunk is unreadable.
"On my world, one of our greatest leaders in history, John F. Kennedy, promoted traveling to the stars, helping our country out, and making Americans proud to be Americans again."
What does this have to do with anything? You can't expect them to be impressed by people they know nothing about.
"The only problem was that he was a womanizer! But you know what? What other people do in their bedrooms ain't my business."
That's like the opposite of what Indow has going on.
"There is no such thing as purity, Garik."
Spoken like a true Amerimutt.
"All right, you primitive shit heads," he began, "listen up. As the Linkara, AKA, all-supreme Jesus figure in this stupid fucking religion of yours, I am making this following decree. We are adopting a new catchphrase and motto for the Linkaran faith. It's called, 'Lover the sinner, Hate the sin.' You know what that means? It means that instead of punishing someone for something they've done in the past, we love them for who they are now."
Ah, his ultimate power move, here at last.
Also you do know she's still a nymphomanic slut?
"You think they're deplorable acts? So do I." Louis stated.
"Except when she stripped in front of an audience. That was a true delight!"
"Garik, she's your daughter. She doesn't want to do the things she does"
Except for that bit where she admitted to fuck people for fun.
"Oh, and by the way," Louis stated, "you dare hit her again and I'll slit your throat from ear to ear. Get it?"
Sure, why not round things out with a threat of violence? What a swell guy.
*
"Already Linkarans from hundreds of churches are massing for war, meeting at prearranged places and preparing for a full assault against the Darkness."
If anything, the arrival of the Linkara has finally convinced people to get shit done.
"This isn't what I'd expected, Garik. I was thinking that I'd be fighting the Darkness alone, or at least have my companions alongside me." Louis said.
"That brings me to the next topic, my lord: the third piece of the first scroll of the Linkara." Garik replied.
Boy, I sure am glad that our dear author hasn't forgotten this wonderful fetch quest!
'The wielder of Chat-Najil shall be from a province where millions exist, but does not exist to the eyes of those on Sin. Woe be to the inhabitors of Sin, for the hour of judgment is at hand! Yay, cast thy gaze upon the skies, and thou shall see fire and death sweeping across the clouds. Life will fall down upon the streets, upon the castles, upon the land and the life giver, and it shall fall as if bitter tears, as though the heavens themselves cried with tears of life. Woe be to the wielder of Chat-Najil, for the evil shall summon a horse with five heads, and the horse shall cause him great pain and anguish. Woe be to those who fight alongside the wielder of Chat-Najil, for the evil shall deceive and trick them with his talents. Woe be to the kings that support him, for snakes that wield swords shall pierce their hearts with livid steel. And when the blood of the wielder of Chat-Najil spills upon the evil, it's strength shall be renewed, and the Angel that wields Chat-Najil will suffer greatly.'
Aka "Everything will suck forever".
"Again with this Chat-Najil crap. Doesn't anyone know what the hell it's supposed to be?" Louis read.
Your fucking armor mayhaps?
"Well, for all we know, 'Chat-Najil'' may be the key to defeating the Darkness."
You don't say!
""Well then I believe we should get ready! Jeez, two kings in a matter of weeks."
This one better have an actual name.
*
The castle Dæn was known the world-over for its magnificence. It was the one castle on the entire planet of Sin that actually allowed tourists to enter and look around. However, such visitors were forbidden from entering areas like the King's office or the main hall.
"Main hall" sounds like something that is hard to avoid when walking around the castle.
The castle stood ninety feet up, containing a total of twenty stories
Either most of those stories are subterranean, or the people of Ünaré are very small.
Upon the walls in the room hung pictures of former kings and banners of various houses and clans that worked for Ünaré's military, royal guard, or were just considered noble families.
They're just "considered" noble?
The King of Ünaré, King Êinhart
Holy shit, he has a name.
Also why the circumflex?
He wasn't married or had an heir, so the line of succession had actually been the primary talk for the past several weeks.
This guy sucks as a king.
Thanks to your battle with the Dark Knights, the majority of Dark Knight forces and activity within Ünaré has practically ceased!
I get the distinct impression that the strength of the Army of Darkness has been greatly exaggerated. 3,000 dudes is fucking nothing as far as proper medieval warfare is considered.
*
"Indow... I'm going to make a promise to you. I'm not going to let the Darkness or anyone else hurt you. This promise goes to the others as well. That damned thing has hurt too many people, and I'm not going to let anyone else be harmed or die by its hands. I care too much for you to let it." Louis stated.
Spoiler alert: LMAO.
Their lips were almost an inch apart at this point. They were about to kiss one another.
However, the romantic moment ended before their lips could touch. A screeching sound filled the air, breaking the two out of their moment and sent their heads upwards towards the sky.
Cockblocked by the apocalypse!
The two's pupils shrunk as they stared in horror as something began to fill the red sky. It was fire encompassing it, and the flames were traveling through the unnatural sky like clouds on an open day.
Boy, it sure is convenient that the shit your read from the prophecy is starting right now. Would've been weird af if this happened a few hours earlier.
"Is it some twisted spell?!"
"A curse from the Darkness, perhaps?"
Or he fucking prophecy you just heard: Yay, cast thy gaze upon the skies, and thou shall see fire and death sweeping across the clouds. Life will fall down upon the streets, upon the castles, upon the land and the life giver, and it shall fall as if bitter tears, as though the heavens themselves cried with tears of life.
"We must consult the highest mages!"
"No, we must look upon the ancient texts. Surely they can bring some insight into this."
Dude, what did I just say?
First a vast army of conquerors, and now it would appear that the Darkness can control the weather!"
I wouldn't exactly call 3,000 guys "vast" by medieval standards...
"Oh my God." Louis interrupted.
Everyone suddenly shut up and when they heard Louis speak.
What makes Linkara suddenly more interesting than the literal sky burning and literally bleeding?
"The skies," he said. "THEY'RE BLEEDING!"
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
Book 1, Chapter 17 - Horsemen of the Armageddon (Or: Horsema'am of the Rapegeddon)
Shit's apparently getting real. I'm sure our dear author won't fail to disappoint, but it's the who that I care about.
RecapShow
Our fellowship heads out alone again. Luckily narrative convenience shields them from getting curbstomped again. They only run into a single Dark Knight, who they promptly scare off so they can steal his stuff.
Linkara visits some war monument that contains the name of Rain's brother so he can have a rather OOC Oscar bait monologue about his doubts and insecurities. I swear Rain and her dead family only exist so he can do this - because heaven forbid he ever shows his weak side in front of someone who isn't a corpse or an inanimate object.
Also this "hobby" of his is a tad bit hypocritical, considering the shit he gave Raven for talking about her PTSD. I guess angsting is okay as long as you only pester the reader with it.
Indow confessing her slutty ways goes off according to keikaku. Linkara gets to summon all of his messiah privileges to force the priesthood to adjust their beliefs to his taste.
Also he brings up a very odd tangent about JFK, which I guess was supposed to convey "Even great men had flaws". Unfortunately, not only does nobody aside from himself have any idea who JFK is, but I'm pretty sure that "I'm a habitual prostitute because nothing will sate my craving for more sex" is less of a flaw and more of something worthy of an intervention.
Also he threatens to murder everyone who doesn't relent to his divine power. What a hero
They meet another king. His only interesting qualities are that he has an actual name (as opposed to the king of Ai), and that he somehow managed to cram 20 stories into a 90 foot building.
Apparently Linkara never thought that this great war between the force of Good and Evil would actually involve the good guys invading the bad guys in full force.
The prophecy fetch quest is back on the menu. This time around it's pretty much just misery porn, describing some kind of apocalypse and how everything will suck for everyone.
Also apparently everyone has forgotten that this Chat-Najil that this and the last prophecy mention refers to Linkara's armor. I say "forgotten" because the last prophecy literally goes "golden metal shaped into an armor", and then lists all the individual parts that match with Linkara's rocking.
Linkara's attempt to kiss Indow gets interrputed the apocalypse they just read a few hours ago decided to start. Talk about timing.
ChapterShow
"Are you certain that I cannot convince you to stay a little longer, my lord? If anything, this gives us more of a reason to study the other parts of the text once they arrive." Garik suggested.
Louis looked around his room and found his plaid over shirt, seeing it freshly cleaned from the Ünaré palace's workers. He placed it on over his T-shirt, and proceeded to place his gauntlet on his right arm. Louis had just discovered that instead of having to remove all the pieces of the armor, he could simply send a mental command for all the armor to melt back into the gauntlet, and could re-summon it at will, much to his happiness. He sent the command now, feeling an odd cold feeling move through most of his body as the other gauntlet, greaves, and hauberk formed within seconds.
"And as much as I would like to stay here and review the text, Garik, we've run out of time. Whatever the hell the Darkness did last night, it pretty much showed us one thing: it's serious about its intentions. So now, it's falling to us to finally deal with the son of a bitch." Louis stated.
"Well, I do feel a little better since the King's Champion is going along with you." Garik stated, assisting Louis with his bags.
"Oh ye of little faith, Garik! You know, I managed to defeat the King's Champion in Ai. And he had a really long name. I don't trust anybody who has a really long name. They just seem too snobby and moronic to me. I'm just rambling now, aren't I?" Louis asked.
Garik shrugged and merely walked out of the main entrance to the castle where a group of horses stood on the road. Indow, Lithmenar, White Raven, the King, and a group of Knights stood near the horses, tying baggage to the saddles. Garik placed Louis' bags on hooks on the second horse to the left. Garik and Indow hugged briefly and smiled at one another.
"When this is all over, my daughter, we are going to begin the process of chaining these odd desires of yours." Garik stated.
"I look forward to it with great anticipation, father." Indow happily replied.
Louis smiled and climbed on top of his horse. He sighed when he looked out onto the streets of the once beautiful city of L'Sol. Most of its magnificent buildings and plant life had been covered in blood, which was now drying. The streets themselves had a more reddish tint to them, so needless to say, Louis wasn't exactly at his most chipper of moods because of the destruction caused by the blood. He wondered what kind of magic could the Darkness have implored to create such a sight. Louis shrugged and decided to not think about it any longer.
Indow got up on her own horse, as did White Raven and Lithmenar. The last to get atop his horse was the King's Champion, named Pulmeth. Pulmeth was a bit young to be the King's Champion, being seventeen years old. He had a light beard growing out of his chin with no moustache. He stood about 6'1, and he had a broadsword strapped to his side. His hair was long and brown, tied into a ponytail in the back using some kind of silky ribbon.
"To save time we'll travel through the forest southeast of here. The place is swarming with Orc activity, so caution is greatly advised. We'll have to transverse it in an entire day if we hope to avoid any serious encounters with Orcs. Then it's a clear path to Cooc, which is going to be our staging ground for the assault on the Darkness." Pulmeth stated.
"Is Cooc the capitol of Jilad?" Louis asked.
"The thing you have to understand about Jilad, Linkara, is that it's really not that much of a country anymore. Three hundred years ago, the Darkness suddenly appeared at the edge of the Zlad Delta. Within a matter of days, it gained a group of followers and attacked Soyah, the original capitol of Jilad." Pulmeth explained.
"What about Jilad's army?" Louis asked, moving his horse along.
"Jilad's problem has always been for well over a thousand years that it doesn't have a very strong military. They are a society of scientists and magicians, working only to better all races upon Sin. Their army was crushed in a matter of days, along with Soyah itself. The entire royal family was slaughtered, and ever since then, the remaining cities have fended for themselves. Jilad has no central government and the remaining cities have become city-states. However, because of their common histories, they all retain diplomatic ties to one another." Pulmeth explained.
"What's going to happen to them after we defeat the Darkness?" Lithmenar inquired.
"According to my father, the issue was addressed by the meeting of the Priests. They say they'll hold a special election to determine the next King since all of the Royal family was killed and there's no noble blood remaining." Indow replied.
"Fantastic! See, this is politics in action. This isn't some cheap-ass system in which the media and public relations is all that matter, this is Democracy at it's best." Louis laughed.
"And I'm sure the royal families of all other lands greatly appreciate that, Linkara." Pulmeth said sarcastically.
*
"My religious beliefs are simple, Pulmeth. On my world, one of the many thousands of religions that exists is called Christianity. In Christianity, we believe that a savior called Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, and was the literal Son of God. Now, he went about doing miracles and generally helping everybody out, but the Romans, the ruling empire at the time, weren't exactly the biggest fans of Jesus. Also, some of the other Christians at the time didn't believe that Jesus was the one who had been sent by God, so the Romans had Jesus arrested and they crucified him! They hung him up on a cross and mocked and spat on him until he died. Then, three days later, he came back to life." Louis explained as he ate a sandwich he had prepared for himself.
The group was sitting around a campfire, exchanging conversations and insights with one another. It was now late at night, and the stars were in full force thanks to the lack of light pollution in the sky. Everyone was also enjoying a hardy meal consisting of animals that they had hunted and some of their supplies from L'Sol.
"The only problem is that over the past 2000 years on my world, there've been so many differences in opinion about Jesus' message and the interpretation of the holy book called the bible that there are hundreds if not thousands of denominations within the church. Hell, no one really even calls themselves Christian anymore! And if they do, they're immediately asked afterwards what denomination they are. And so many of these people are so absolutely stubborn about their beliefs that they're unwilling to accept any kind of open-mindedness about new ideas or beliefs. It's become more about judging people by their belief structure than about the real message, which is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins." Louis explained.
"And what about my world called Sin, Linkara? Is it mentioned in your 'Bible?'" Pulmeth asked.
"No, it's not." Louis responded.
"Then obviously your beliefs are wrong, child." Pulmeth stated.
"Not true! It's possible that they're wrong, which I admit. But one has to realize one tiny little thing: if God is all-powerful, wouldn't creating alternate realities fall within the realm of a simple finger-snapping?" Louis asked.
"I suppose so. But isn't this Bible of yours the word of your God?"
"See, that's where most people screw up. God never wrote the Bible, it was written by men. The men who wrote it either had a direct or indirect communion with God, or they had seen other people have that communion with God. Either way, they both tried to interpret all they saw and put it down on paper. And the next problem is that a lot of stuff in the Bible reflected the ethics and beliefs of that time period. In that time period, slavery was okay, homosexuality was an abomination, and working on the Sabbath day was punishable by death. Some people in my time take the Bible to be the absolute word of God, and because of that, they become arrogant tight-asses. To them, it's become more about judging other people for their religious and/or personal beliefs instead of about Jesus' love. What should it matter who or what a person is screwing as long as both God and Jesus loves them? Hell, God loves even terrorists! Of course, with them, he takes more of a 'tough love' approach in which he sends them to Hell, but that's a different issue altogether. The point is, anyway, that so many people in my time are focused on the book and the words in it instead of the message."
"And what is the message, Linkara?"
"That Jesus died on the cross for our sins. That he loved every single person living or dead, and maybe instead of acting like we're 'holier than thou,' maybe we should start trying to teach people about why our religion is great. Jeez do I hate stupid people that are on my world..."
Lithmenar swallowed some of the stew he was eating and laughed.
"Religion: ha! A bunch of superstitious fools trying to believe in something bigger than themselves. I learned that lesson the hard way. Sure, it's possible that there are superior beings to us that created everything that we see around us, but I have no desire to start up a faith with one of them." Lithmenar stated.
"Ha! One such as you would never last anywhere near the Church of St. Nal, thief!" Pulmeth exclaimed.
"Tell me, Pulmeth, what does the Church of St. Nal believe in?" Louis asked after gulping down some water.
Pulmeth chuckled and sat back. "The Church goes back over a thousand years. It is older than your Linkaran faith! Within the Church, it is believed that dozens of Saints have existed to shape the future of Sin. The first was St. Nal. He introduced the idea that it could be ordained from on high that it is the destiny of all beings on Sin to one day fly among the stars. With that kind of inspiration, news of his sermons spread for and wide, and many people converted to his faith to see for themselves the man who could inspire hundreds of people to see beyond this tiny world and out at the stars. No Saint to come after Nal has been as rousing as he was."
"Intriguing, Pulmeth. Perhaps one day the inhabitants of Sin shall be traveling off to a galaxy far, far away. They could boldly go where no man has gone before!" Louis shouted.
Pulmeth jumped to his feet. "YES! We shall do those things! The vision of St. Nal shall come to pass! It shall-"
Before Pulmeth could continue, the sound of a horse galloping filled the area.
Everyone looked around, trying to discern where the sound was coming from. It seemed to make the very grass around them was falling to the ground as winds started surrounding the group. The horses that the group had used were starting to jump up and down, neighing loudly in an attempt to break free from their reigns that kept them tied to a nearby tree. White Raven was the one to finally spot the horse. It was black as the night sky, with dark silver reigns made of some form of steel. The grass near the horse looked brown and dead, quickly evaporating into the wind. And as the horse continued to approach the group, the grass within a few feet of it started to die.
The group soon saw that it wasn't the horse itself that was causing the death, but actually the rider upon it. The rider's hand was outstretched towards the areas that were dying, as if the rider's very presence caused the plants to shrivel and dehydrate. The rider's helmet was rounded and had a shroud covering the front. Both the helmet and shroud were colored black, along with the rest of the rider's armor. The rider brought its hand back to its sword, unsheathing it as it approached the group.
"Ready weapons!" Louis commanded, and instantly his golden armor flowed over him like liquid and solidified.
White Raven grabbed her bow and stood beside Louis with an arrow aimed at the rider. Pulmeth grabbed his axe from a nearby tree stump where he had embedded the weapon and got on Louis' other side. Indow's hands started to pulse with energy as she stood next to Pulmeth. Although the light display she gave was only for show and did no real thing to enhance or prepare her magic, it did create quite a formidable appearance for the priestess. Lithmenar stood next to White Raven and pulled two throwing knives from his belt. He flipped them around his fingers effortlessly with a grin. And finally, Louis' blades slide out of the gauntlets as the fourteen year-old took a defensive stance.
The rider approached quickly against the line of varying people and tried to slice [them] down with its sword. Louis immediately blocked the weapon with his gauntlet, causing the rider to leap off of their horse. They landed gracefully upon the ground and threw a dagger at Lithmenar, who just barely managed to evade it. Pulmeth roared and charged in with his axe, bringing it down upon the rider. However, the rider merely blocked it with a segment of their armor, and the axe bounced right off of the armor and back up again. The rider did a low kick to the side of Pulmeth's legs, knocking them off of the ground and making Pulmeth fall to the decaying grass.
Indow closed her eyes and sat down, blue energy balls swarming around her. Winds formed up and swirled around her, making her hair rise and fall to the blowing. Indow suddenly leapt into the air from her sitting position, floating momentarily. She then opened her eyes, which had turned a blue hue and were flaming with red energy. She opened her mouth and screamed the spell name:
"BURNING LIGHTNING!"
Indow then quickly aimed her hands at the rider, and her fingers shot out constant electrical bolts that slammed into the rider and exploded on contact with its armor. The explosion sent the rider back twenty feet, landing back in the pile of grass it had killed earlier. Indow returned to her sitting position, shook herself a little, then stood up. The others stared at her in shock. Indow blinked and tilted her head to the side.
"What? I picked up a spell book in L'Sol. Some fascinating spells in the Jilad- written section." She stated.
Louis grinned. "A little souvenir for yourself?"
Indow winked and replied, "I'd never been to Ünaré before."
All of a sudden, they heard something they hadn't been expecting: laughter. The five all turned and saw the rider getting up off of the ground and heard the laughter coming from within the helmet. The voice that was emitting the sound was female, and it was definitely making the five scared. White Raven was the most shocked, thinking that this being could not be a Dark Knight considering that she was laughing. However, that all changed when the female rider took off her helmet.
The woman's long black hair flowed out of the helmet and fell down her backside only to rest above her buttocks. Her skin was just as pale as any other Dark Knights, and the eyes had the same cold, dead look in them. However, the only difference was that this Dark Knight was smiling. She was grinning with some satanic glee, like she had just thought of something purely evil. Her laughter soon subsided, as did the shock of the group. Two among the party in Louis' company recognized the woman. And one of those two had her blood drain from her face and shivers run up her spine.
It was Myrrha, the lead Dark Knight from the Leaping Ghost Tavern and Inn.
"Well, hello, Indow Chyprea! So nice to meet you once again. 'Tis a small world that we live upon, is it not?" she laughed.
"Indow, who is that woman?!" Pulmeth asked.
"She... She's Myrrha, Potent First Class of the 28th Dark Knight Assault Squad." Indow replied.
"You know her?" Louis inquired.
Indow bit her lower lip, not responding. Louis and the others looked at her.
"Well, do you?" Pulmeth inquired.
"Yes, she does! She knows every part of my body, because she touched every part of it." Myrrha stated.
The group blinked, not understanding her meaning at first. Pulmeth gasped at the sudden realization he had.
"You shared the bed of a Dark Knight?!" he gasped.
Myrrha grinned while Indow's face flushed and turned away. "That's right, warrior. I had sex with a Linkaran Priestess! It was part of a deal in order to acquire a healing potion for a friend of her's."
"Yeah, that was me, bitch." Louis said, stepping forward.
Myrrha stared at Louis for a bit, then gasped, stepping back.
"The Linkara?!" she exclaimed. "I assisted in saving the life of the Linkara?!"
"That's right, Myrrha. Now, tell me, what are you doing out here, alone? Are you a scout? Or are you the only survivor of your Assault Squad that attempted to invade Ai at the Elana River?" Louis asked.
Myrrha chuckled, once more, sending shivers down the group's spines.
"Nothing so mundane, Linkara. I spread my tale of having sex with a Linkaran Priestess far and wide. The Darkness got word of it, soon enough. He recalled me to the Zlad Delta and asked me for the specific details. I informed him of everything I had done, and he decided that I was in need of a little promotion. The Great Darkness has been looking through all of his ranks for five Horsemen to be his Personal Guard. He has chosen me to be one of his five Horsemen of the Armageddon!" Myrrha proclaimed.
Louis narrowed his eyes. "'The evil shall summon a horse with five heads...' Guys, the five-headed horse is actually those five Horsemen!"
"But didn't the prophecy say that the horse would cause you suffering?" Lithmenar asked.
"Oh, but I shall, simple little thief. For we of the five Horsemen do not only serve as the Personal Guard for the Great Darkness, but also his messengers. And the message we carry is simple: DEATH." Myrrha stated.
Louis growled. "You've all been sent out to kill the Kings, haven't you? With the Royal lines in chaos, the Darkness could begin systematic invasion of all five lands at once!"
"I was on my way to 'execute' the King of Ai when I detected your presence, Linkara." Myrrha laughed.
"You're smiling."
Up until this point, White Raven had barely spoken at all. And now, she had just stated the one thing that everyone was most terrified about Myrrha at that moment.
"And you're laughing. How can you be laughing and smiling?!" White Raven hissed.
Myrrha grinned and replied, "The Great Darkness, in it's eternal wisdom, has decided that his Guard shall have special dispensation to express the inferior emotion of happiness as to not make the ordinary Knights jealous and contemptuous towards us. Still... These sensations are quite astonishing! I see why the Great Darkness would want to suppress them. And also why he discharged you, Blood Raven."
White Raven growled in reply, "That name, that thing died when the evil that you serve exiled me. I am the Raven that serves in light. My heart is colored white now, instead of the blackness that has consumed yours and the hearts of all Dark Knights."
"HA! And you have joined the Linkara, it would appear! Still, 'tis interesting a thought that if I had slain the Linkara and his Priestess Companion back at the Inn, you would not be here with your failed attempts at insulting me. If I had known that it was you who Indow wanted me to save, I would've killed both you and her." Myrrha stated.
"Could've, should've, would've, didn't. But I'm here now, bitch, so come get some!" Louis balked.
Louis clenched his fists and readied his blades with a grin on his face. Myrrha shot back her own grin, and began to charge towards Louis. Louis responded in full, running at Myrrha with blades raised. However, just as they began to get close to each other, Myrrha leapt into the air and flipped in the air twice before landing behind Louis and continuing to run, much to Louis' surprise. Louis turned to see where she was going, but it was quite apparent. Myrrha had grabbed Indow by reaching around her neck and arms. Myrrha took the glove off of one of her hands and put it close to Indow's face.
"Try no feeble rescue attempts, Linkara! My mere presence has reduced the plants of this area to decaying weeds. Imagine what my touch will do to Anako flesh!" Myrrha shouted.
Louis winced and clenched his fists tighter. He was now facing the dilemma so many protagonists of TV, movie, and literature had faced so many times before. It was the paradox that never had a true answer: whether to go in and attempt a rescue and risk Indow's life, or to wait and allow her to be taken away by the villain anyway. Before Louis could make any choice, Myrrha began to walk away from the group and towards their horses. Everyone stayed exactly where they were, not wanting to risk Indow's life. Myrrha let her hand go away from Indow's face briefly to touch each of the horses that the group had used to get this far. Within seconds of the touch, each horse fell to the ground, dead, and began to rot away in a quite disgusting display.
Indow was placed upon Myrrha's horse, followed by Myrrha herself. She immediately began to ride off away from the group. Louis growled and yelled, soon running in pursuit of Myrrha. However, within thirty seconds, Myrrha was already too far off for Louis to even try to catch. Louis sighed and stopped, falling to his knees. Lithmenar, White Raven, and Pulmeth soon followed up behind him.
"My lord, it is too late for Indow! We must continue towards Cooc!" Pulmeth shouted.
"We could not hope to, Champion! Cooc was days away on horseback, now it is weeks without horses!" White Raven exclaimed.
"The nearest city aside from L'Sol is Sarin. I say we go there, find some horses, and try to continue with the original plan." Lithmenar stated.
"NO!" Louis shouted, standing up.
Everyone turned to face him.
"We go to Sarin after we get Indow back!" Louis stated.
"My lord, they are on horseback; we will never catch Myrrha!" Pulmeth replied.
"You won't, anyway. I need you to get back to L'Sol and warn the King about the Horsemen of the Armageddon. The rest of us are going after Indow." Louis proclaimed.
"Kid, we can't get her-" Lithmenar started.
"I MADE A PROMISE!" Louis interrupted.
The three stared at Louis, dumbfounded. Tears were beginning to well up in his eyes as his teeth grinded against each other.
"I made a promise to Indow that I would not let any harm come to you, her, or anyone else! If you want to continue on to Sarin or Cooc or any Goddamn thing you want, go right ahead! I'm going after Indow!"
Next Time: Rock-kun is in da house. And by "house" I mean "pussy".
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
Remember how the last chapter ended on a cliffhanger where the sky was literally burning and bleeding and shit?
Yeah that never goes anywhere.
RiffingShow
"Are you certain that I cannot convince you to stay a little longer, my lord? If anything, this gives us more of a reason to study the other parts of the text once they arrive." Garik suggested.
Bloody hell. So you could've just summon all the pieces of the prophecy to one place the whole time? Why now and not weeks before?
"And as much as I would like to stay here and review the text, Garik, we've run out of time. Whatever the hell the Darkness did last night, it pretty much showed us one thing: it's serious about its intentions.
So the sky just bleed for a bit, and now everything's back to normal? Worst. Apocalypse. Ever.
And maybe it's just salty that its army got wiped out.
So now, it's falling to us to finally deal with the son of a bitch." Louis stated.
As if you ever needed an excuse to blindly walk into your next blunder.
"Oh ye of little faith, Garik! You know, I managed to defeat the King's Champion in Ai. And he had a really long name. I don't trust anybody who has a really long name. They just seem too snobby and moronic to me. I'm just rambling now, aren't I?" Louis asked.
I think he's trying to be funny.
It doesn't work. Fucking nameist PoS.
"When this is all over, my daughter, we are going to begin the process of chaining these odd desires of yours." Garik stated.
"I look forward to it with great anticipation, father." Indow happily replied.
Boy will she be pissed when she finds out that chains aren't actually involved.
Louis wasn't exactly at his most chipper of moods because of the destruction caused by the blood. He wondered what kind of magic could the Darkness have implored to create such a sight.
Looks like something Yahweh would pull off to troll people. Seems this world is closer to the Megami Tensei multiverse than I anticipated.
Louis shrugged and decided to not think about it any longer.
Fuck being curious, I guess.
"To save time we'll travel through the forest southeast of here. The place is swarming with Orc activity, so caution is greatly advised.
They're fucked, aren't they?
"Jilad's problem has always been for well over a thousand years that it doesn't have a very strong military. They are a society of scientists and magicians, working only to better all races upon Sin."
Those nerds had it coming.
"The entire royal family was slaughtered"
Lithmenar's gonna turn out to be some Bootleg Aragorn, isn't he?
"Fantastic! See, this is politics in action. This isn't some cheap-ass system in which the media and public relations is all that matter, this is Democracy at it's best." Louis laughed.
It's a bunch of priests deciding who the next king will be. The bribing, pressuring, blackmailing and backstabbing is gonna be through the roof.
*
"My religious beliefs are simple, Pulmeth. On my world, one of the many thousands of religions that exists is called Christianity."
*sigh* This is gonna be painful.
Now, he went about doing miracles and generally helping everybody out, but the Romans, the ruling empire at the time, weren't exactly the biggest fans of Jesus.
Pontius Pilatus did nothing wrong.
Also, some of the other Christians at the time didn't believe that Jesus was the one who had been sent by God
No idea if he's just dumb, ignorant, or part of some weird Burger church with very strange ideas regarding Moses' people.
Also it occured to me that the reason the Linkaran faith revolves entirely around the Linkara is because that's what Christianity does according to him, too.
The group was sitting around a campfire, exchanging conversations and insights with one another.
Naturally, we have to listen to the worst one.
The only problem is that over the past 2000 years on my world, there've been so many differences in opinion about Jesus' message and the interpretation of the holy book called the bible that there are hundreds if not thousands of denominations within the church.
I'm pretty sure they're different churches at this point.
Hell, no one really even calls themselves Christian anymore!
"Instead they call themselves 'Westons'!"
And if they do, they're immediately asked afterwards what denomination they are.
Makes sense. You just said there are "hundreds if not thousands" of those buggers.
It's become more about judging people by their belief structure than about the real message
Like thinking that being a slut is a bad thing?
"And what about my world called Sin, Linkara? Is it mentioned in your 'Bible?'" Pulmeth asked.
"No, it's not." Louis responded.
"Then obviously your beliefs are wrong, child." Pulmeth stated.
I can't quite follow the new kid's logic, but I like him already. Dude sees right through Linkara's bullshit. I think.
Also who the fuck cares about an extradimensional dimension? The various religions of this world don't appear particularly compatible, either.
"See, that's where most people screw up. God never wrote the Bible, it was written by men."
And the next problem is that a lot of stuff in the Bible reflected the ethics and beliefs of that time period. In that time period, slavery was okay, homosexuality was an abomination, and working on the Sabbath day was punishable by death.
Next you're telling me it's bad to sell your family into slavery if they don't respect your authority enough.
Some people in my time take the Bible to be the absolute word of God, and because of that, they become arrogant tight-asses
As opposed to people who become arrogant tight-asses because they are Literal Isekai Jesus.
What should it matter who or what a person is screwing as long as both God and Jesus loves them?
This must've been written before Linkara (the author) found out about bestiality.
At least I hope so.
Hell, God loves even terrorists! Of course, with them, he takes more of a 'tough love' approach in which he sends them to Hell, but that's a different issue altogether.
That "issue" better not be that they end up in hell instead of heaven.
"And what is the message, Linkara?"
"That Jesus died on the cross for our sins."
He really modeled the Linkaran faith after his perception of Christianity - except it's even "better" because there's no Old Testament delaying the appearance of the main character.
Though there's still the issue that the New Testament is about shit Jesus has allegedly done, whereas the Linkaran faith is all about shit that will maybe happen (except we can't be sure of it because nobody has a complete view of the entire religious text).
Lithmenar swallowed some of the stew he was eating and laughed.
A real atheist would've interrupted them way earlier.
"Religion: ha! A bunch of superstitious fools trying to believe in something bigger than themselves. I learned that lesson the hard way. Sure, it's possible that there are superior beings to us that created everything that we see around us, but I have no desire to start up a faith with one of them." Lithmenar stated.
So he's actually an apatheist who still makes fun of other people's belief?
"Tell me, Pulmeth, what does the Church of St. Nal believe in?" Louis asked after gulping down some water.
Of, fuck me. Get on with it.
Within the Church, it is believed that dozens of Saints have existed to shape the future of Sin. The first was St. Nal. He introduced the idea that it could be ordained from on high that it is the destiny of all beings on Sin to one day fly among the stars.
LMAO it's a UFO sect.
(Tbf this might actually make for neat worldbuilding if their obsession with the stars led to the invention of airships, but we can't have nice things I guess.)
"Intriguing, Pulmeth. Perhaps one day the inhabitants of Sin shall be traveling off to a galaxy far, far away. They could boldly go where no man has gone before!" Louis shouted.
"I hope they live long and prosper. For a long, long time. In a galaxy far, far away!"
And what? No smug speech about how the people of your Earth have already been to the stars (not very far, but they don't need to know the full details)?
Before Pulmeth could continue, the sound of a horse galloping filled the area.
Xenu be praised, we're done with the religion nonsense.
The horses that the group had used were starting to jump up and down
It was black as the night sky, with dark silver reigns [sic] made of some form of steel.
So it's a chain?
The group soon saw that it wasn't the horse itself that was causing the death, but actually the rider upon it. The rider's hand was outstretched towards the areas that were dying, as if the rider's very presence caused the plants to shrivel and dehydrate.
Did Young Linkara predict Lupa?
Pulmeth grabbed his axe from a nearby tree stump where he had embedded the
weapon and got on Louis' other side.
What happened to your broadsword? Dude just changed his signature weapon between scenes.
Also I'm pretty sure embedding your weapon into trees for shits and giggles is a great way to ruin the edge.
Indow's hands started to pulse with energy as she stood next to Pulmeth. Although the light display she gave was only for show and did no real thing to enhance or prepare her magic, it did create quite a formidable appearance for the priestess.
Somehow I doubt Mr. Horseman of the Apocalypse Armageddon over there is gonna shit his pants at the sight of your 0th level spell.
Also I love the reminder that she could have use her time preparing actually useful magic.
Lithmenar stood next to White Raven and pulled two throwing knives from his belt. He flipped them around his fingers effortlessly with a grin.
So we're back to Dark Knight armor being effectively paper?
They landed gracefully upon the ground and threw a dagger at Lithmenar, who just barely managed to evade it.
Why does he have an easier time evading edged weapons than the fists of some old bishop dude?
Pulmeth roared and charged in with his axe, bringing it down upon the rider. However, the rider merely blocked it with a segment of their armor, and the axe bounced right off of the armor and back up again.
Ah, the Dark Knight armor is currently all the way over "Get fucked, Lithmenar".
Indow returned to her sitting position, shook herself a little, then stood up. The others stared at her in shock. Indow blinked and tilted her head to the side.
"What? I picked up a spell book in L'Sol. Some fascinating spells in the Jilad- written section." She stated.
Everyone's shocked and amazed that the spellcaster is actually useful for once.
I wonder how long it'll last.
Also that spell doesn't sound that useful. You hav to go through an entire transformation sequence worth of buildup before you can shoot anything.
All of a sudden, they heard something they hadn't been expecting: laughter. The five all turned and saw the rider getting up off of the ground and heard the laughter coming from within the helmet.
So the Dark Knigth is laughing (which I guess counts as smiling) and he's as tanky as a DBZ villain. They're fucked.
However, the only difference was that this Dark Knight was smiling. She was grinning with some satanic glee, like she had just thought of something purely evil.
Also gee, I wonder if this is the only female Dark Knight we've met so far.
It was Myrrha, the lead Dark Knight from the Leaping Ghost Tavern and Inn.
Yay~
"You know her?" Louis inquired.
Indow bit her lower lip, not responding. Louis and the others looked at her.
"Well, do you?" Pulmeth inquired.
Time for more Indow suffering!
"The Linkara?!" she exclaimed. "I assisted in saving the life of the Linkara?!"
"That's right, Myrrha. Now, tell me, what are you doing out here, alone? Are you a scout? Or are you the only survivor of your Assault Squad that attempted to invade Ai at the Elana River?" Louis asked.
"I'm the only Dark Knight in this story with a name, so I have unwarranted amount of importance in the plans of my master!"
Myrrha chuckled, once more, sending shivers down the group's spines.
I spread my tale of having sex with a Linkaran Priestess far and wide. The Darkness got word of it, soon enough. He recalled me to the Zlad Delta and asked me for the specific details.
LMAO.
The Great Darkness has been looking through all of his ranks for five Horsemen to be his Personal Guard. He has chosen me to be one of his five Horsemen of the Armageddon!
"You fucked a catgirl?! This calls for a prrromotion!"
The Darkness is Robotnik confirmed.
(Also any chance those four other chucklefucks will show up?)
Louis narrowed his eyes. "'The evil shall summon a horse with five heads...' Guys, the five-headed horse is actually those five Horsemen!"
This prophecy really can't decide on when it should be obtuse for no reason. Not that it'd help being more clear, seeing the nimrods we have to deal with.
"You're smiling."
Up until this point, White Raven had barely spoken at all. And now, she had just stated the one thing that everyone was most terrified about Myrrha at that moment.
Personally, I don't think doing a hime laugh is quite as terrifying as being apparently indestructible.
"The Great Darkness, in it's eternal wisdom, has decided that his Guard shall have special dispensation to express the inferior emotion of happiness as to not make the ordinary Knights jealous and contemptuous towards us.
"My heart is colored white now, instead of the blackness that has consumed yours and the hearts of all Dark Knights."
When did this turn into Kingdom Hearts?
"HA! And you have joined the Linkara, it would appear! Still, 'tis interesting a thought that if I had slain the Linkara and his Priestess Companion back at the Inn, you would not be here with your failed attempts at insulting me. If I had known that it was you who Indow wanted me to save, I would've killed both you and her." Myrrha stated.
No good deed goes unpunished.
"Could've, should've, would've, didn't. But I'm here now, bitch, so come get some!" Louis balked.
He's so gonna get his ass kicked.
However, just as they began to get close to each other, Myrrha leapt into the air and flipped in the air twice before landing behind Louis and continuing to run, much to Louis' surprise. Louis turned to see where she was going, but it was quite apparent. Myrrha had grabbed Indow by reaching around her neck and arms.
This little circus performance must've been so jaw-dropping that none of the other characters tried to stop her.
Seriously, why was nobody guarding the spellcaster? She needs to power up like a DBZ character to cast a spell, and this crazy knight bitch can throw knives.
"Try no feeble rescue attempts, Linkara! My mere presence has reduced the plants of this area to decaying weeds. Imagine what my touch will do to Anako flesh!" Myrrha shouted.
Or you could just slit her throat.This is pretty much the exact same situation Indow found herself a couple chapters before, just this time it's an actual hostage situation. Do Dark Knights have like a weird code of honor where they can only take advantage of a hostage when they have weird magic powers in their hands?
Louis winced and clenched his fists tighter. He was now facing the dilemma so many protagonists of TV, movie, and literature had faced so many times before.
You were in this situation before. You just didn't give a shit that time.
It was the paradox that never had a true answer: whether to go in and attempt a rescue and risk Indow's life, or to wait and allow her to be taken away by the villain anyway.
That's not really a paradox. One of these choices has a much higher chance of Indow dying. Also those many protagonists generally go for the latter choice because good is dumb they're not sociopaths.
(Unless the daring rescue is part of some plan and it turns out the hostage taker has been outsmarted.)
Everyone stayed exactly where they were, not wanting to risk Indow's life.
So much for a dilemma.
"I made a promise to Indow that I would not let any harm come to you, her, or anyone else! If you want to continue on to Sarin or Cooc or any Goddamn thing you want, go right ahead! I'm going after Indow!"
Good luck without a horse.
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
Inside the Mind of the Author - Religion is all about the Messiah, right?
Time to counter last chapter's inane religious ramblings with religious ramblings of my own!
So it appears that the reason the Linkaran faith is dumb, doesn't make sense and is effectively a fan club for some messiah dude is because that's what Linkara (the author) thinks Christianity is.
"Christianity is all about how Jesus died for our sins!"
"The Linkaran faith is all about how the Linkara will save us!"
Am I making sense here? If not, it sucks to be you!
So aside from the major issue of the Linkaran faith (the entire religious text afaik being a glorified piece of prose poetry that is effectively incomplete due to translation issues), there are many, many more:
Chronology: The adventures of Jeebus are a retelling of past events. In fact pretty much all religions are very focused on the past (for reasons I'll get to in a bit). The Linkaran faith on the other hand is all about shit that will (probably) happen I swear. That's not a religion, that's some weird cult.
Lack of Divinity: So far there has only been one confirmed Sinnian religion that believes in a god, and it's not the Linkaran one. Why did he have to be so weird about this? Why didn't he just make up some standard-issue fantasy pantheon? Was he sufficiently Christian back in the day that he equated this with heresy (probably shouldn't have made your self-insert the messiah)?
No Hook: What do the followers of the Linkara even get out of this deal? It's a relatively new religion, it doesn't appear to be enforced by royalty or anything, so what's the hook? What makes people want to see the light?
As far as I can tell, it's really just misery porn.
Some Big Bad Evil Thing will appear, everything will suck, then things will suck even more, but then the Linkara will fix everything. Probably. We haven't gotten to that part of the prophecy yet, and who knows in what kind of dead language that part was written.
No Motifs and Fables: One might say the main point of a religion is to explain shit to its followers. Storytelling and worldbuilding, if you will.
You have your creation myth that explains where everything comes from. Your Chaoskampf as an allegory for the triumph of civilization over nature. Multiple stories to entertain and educate the masses on their place in the cosmic order.
What does the Linkaran faith have? A fucking prophecy that no one actually knows much about. What the fuck is the deals with those "angels" that keep getting mentioned? Are there more tales about the "Linkaran Man" besides the one where he makes that prophecy? What are the ethics of the Linkaran faith, where do they came from, and how do they make the followers tick the way they do?
Who the fuck knows. Certainly doesn't seem to be a high priority for our author to explain.
Fuck, considering that the religion came to be relatively late, most of the work should've technically already been done for it. But no, the Linkaran faith didn't even do what Christianity did and appropriate shit from some older religion.
Overall there is no context given to the future tales of the Linkara. But what is your religious text (if you can call it that in this case) without a proper context that elevates it above mere prose?
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
Book 1, Chapter 18 - Secrets, Bargains, and Lies III (Or: Between a Rock and Wet Place)
Today, we will learn why "object insertion" and "ryona" are the thinking man's doujin tags, in this most cerebrally stimulating chapter of Angel Armor.
Content Warning: There is no con like noncon.
RecapShow
Remember chapter 16's big cliffhanger? Where literal blood rained down from a literally burning sky? And where even Linkara pissed his pants in existential horror?
Yeah, apparently that was just the Darkness pulling a prank or something. It eventually just stopped, with no lasting damage outside of maybe some crops being ruined.
I'm not entirely sure what the bad guy's grand plan was here. Does he have a weird tic that compels him to do shit because it is mentioned in the prophecy? Or is he a huge fan of the Gosebumps books, which also have an obsession with bullshit cliffhangers that don't actually matter? Who knows.
Nothing much of actual plot value happened last chapter, so Linkara and the boys wasted time musing about religion - which can be summed up thusly:
Linkara (the character and/or author) believes that Jews are Christians
Despite having only been Christian for 4 years, Linkara sees himself as the ultimate authority on proper Christian behavior
He is also incredibly butthurt over hypocritical assholes appropriating religion for their own selfish goals
This is of course nothing like when he appropriates the Linkaran faith to win arguments and/or bully people into submission
The Curch of St. Nal turns out to be effectively a bunch of Trekkies. Mostly so Linkara can make Star Trek jokes that literally no one but him can understand.
If you make a joke, and you are the only one who can understand it, is it really a joke?
Then they run into Myrrha again. Aka that Dark Knight chick who forced consent from Indow in exchange for a healing potion. Aka the only Dark Knight in this entire book to have a name (aside from maybe that Gritsnak guy who got killed by a storm or tornado or something as part of the prophecy, not that he ever mattered).
Turns out that she bragged far and wide about her sexual adventures, which even impressed the Darkness enough to promote her into the most upper of echelons: The Five Horsemen of the Armageddon.
Just like with this cliffhanger sky bullshit, I don't tink these horsemen have anything to do with any kind of end-of-the-world scenario. They're basically elite henchmen / messengers / assassins, currently assigned to kill themselves some kings (not that this explains any of her behavior shown here).
Also these Horsemen (or rather Horsepersons) have been cursed by the Darkness to be able to smile and even laugh - to prevent the other Dark Knights of becoming too jealous. This is like if the US Army indulged in forced feminization on their generals to keep troop morale in the green.
Long story short, Myrrha is now rocking a suit of armor that makes her invincibile, and she can Level Drain the fuck out of anything with but a mere touch, like some kind of high-level undead.
She manages to take Indow hostage, and unlike an entire squad of Dark Knights a few chapters ago she actually realizes this, so our heroes have to stand around like idiots as she proceeds to kill their horses and fucks off with the catgirl on her own steed.
Everyone decides to head to the nearest bit of civilization to get themselves some horses - all but Linkara, who throws a childish temper tantrum because he MADE A PROMISE! that he would protect Indow from bad stuff, so he just fucks off on his own despite having already shown that he can't keep up with a horse.
I assume this is where he gets wings? I seem to recall his armor having wings when he teamed up with Lightbringer. I guess it's better late than nothing to hand out upgrades that feel even halfway related to what is going on.
ChapterShow
"Get up."
Indow cringed as she felt cold water hit her face and begin to drip down her skin. When her eyes opened, she could see quite clearly that the water that was coming off of her skin was pitch-black thanks to its close proximity to Myrrha. Indow winced as she felt pain rush through her arms and gut, a result of Myrrha's recent beatings over the past two days. Throughout the entire process of being dragged north across the landscape of Ünaré, Indow had not spoken, but her actions spoke enough. She had glared at Myrrha at every opportunity, and just the last day, Indow had managed to steal a bladed object and kill Myrrha's horse. That had also resulted in a beating, although not as long as some of the others Indow had suffered from her company with Myrrha. Myrrha hadn't been so concerned with 'punishing' Indow for her resistance that one time because she was more worried about the fact that she was being followed.
It hadn't taken Myrrha long to deduce the fact that they were being pursued by the Linkara. His presence had been approaching closer and closer each day. It seemed as though he never slept, never rested, never sat down and ate. Of course, Myrrha neglected to mention Louis' coming to Indow, attempting to break her with an unending sense of hopelessness. However, much to Myrrha's anger, Indow had shown nothing but brazen anger and disdain for Myrrha, and to add to that, a few successful resistances to her. Indow had already been caught twice by Myrrha while attempting to escape, even with the ropes that Myrrha had tied to her. Indow wanted desperately to use her magic to escape, but such a feat would require her hands separated from one another, lest the mystical energies she tried to summon up would burn her skin off along with the ropes.
Indow merely sat up and glared up at Myrrha, who in turn, slapped Indow harshly. Indow growled and once more pulled herself back up, in spite of the pain. Myrrha suddenly reached down and took Indow's chin in her hand and pulled her up to face level. Indow was tempted to spit at Myrrha, but decided that she had enough pain on her cheeks was it was.
"Listen to me, you pathetic little Ko. It has been two days since I have captured you, and you have not spoken a single word to me. As you can probably guess, my patience is wearing thin. Normally, I could wait weeks and months before you said anything, but I'm afraid that my timetable does not permit that. I still have to kill the King of Ai, and the Great Darkness is very impatient! Added onto that is the fact that I can't just abandon you somewhere or kill you, because I need you alive. So, allow me to get to the point: start speaking or I shall be forced to further discipline you." Myrrha stated.
Indow smiled and spat at Myrrha, deciding the slap would be well worth it. However, instead of slapping her, Myrrha threw Indow to the ground and slammed her foot into Indow's gut. She kicked her twice more before finally allowing Indow a chance to breathe. Unfortunately, after she had taken one breath, Myrrha pulled Indow up once more and held her jaw together.
"Obedience will be rewarded, resistance will be punished. Do you understand, whore?" Myrrha asked.
Indow's anger suddenly skyrocketed. She freed her jaw from Myrrha's grasp.
"I am NOT a whore!" she growled.
Myrrha smiled and punched Indow's cheek, sending her flopping to the ground.
"Finally, I illicit a response from my wary prisoner! Of course, I think there's another thing I can do to make a sound more pleasing to my ears."
Myrrha brought her foot back, then slammed it straight between Indow's legs. The pain that suddenly raced through her crotch forced Indow to scream loudly. Myrrha laughed happily at the reaction, then placed her foot upon Indow's chest.
"Now that I have your attention, I have decided that you need a new name for your current status. You shall now address yourself as 'Myrrha's whore.' Do you understand, my whore?" Myrrha asked.
Indow growled and tried desperately to push Myrrha away. However, Myrrha responded by jumping up and slamming her armored foot down on Indow's chest. Indow yelped in pain as Myrrha suddenly turned her over onto her back and brought her hand down to the back of her robes. Myrrha ripped open the back of the robes, exposing Indow's tired backside. Myrrha took a leathery whip that was held to her belt and let it fall free from its former circular position. Myrrha brought the lash down upon Indow's backside three times, each time bringing a louder scream from Indow's throat.
"Now, tell me, my whore, who are you?" Myrrha asked.
"M-Myrrha's whore..." Indow sobbed.
Myrrha grinned.
*
"Raven, please say you have some good news for me." Louis begged.
Louis stood over White Raven, who was examining the ground. She moved the palm of her hand across the soil where some type of indentation had been made. She then brought her hand up to her nose and sniffed. She then moved away from the mark in the dirt over to a bush where a few of its leaves had been pulled off along with a snapped branch or two. White Raven smiled.
"We're definitely getting closer. That dead horse we found down the road seems to be a good indication that Myrrha and Indow are now on foot, which will slow them down. Indow will be able to put up a much better struggle against Myrrha now, as well. Some other signs of struggle seem to be the indentation in the ground and the snapped twigs in these bushes. Both signs point to Indow attempting to get away, but Myrrha managing to stop her. However, there is one thing that concerns me, my lord." White Raven explained.
"And what would that be?" Louis asked.
"The indentation has a drop or two of blood. Its scent carries that of Indow." White Raven replied.
Louis yelled a profanity and kicked a nearby tree in anger. Lithmenar sighed, sitting down and laying against another tree close by to the one Louis had kicked. He closed his eyes, trying to think of how wonderful sleep would be when he finally got it. He wanted to sleep, to rest and try to continue the search some other time. As a matter of fact, he didn't want to search for Indow at all. Lithmenar had wanted to continue on towards Cooc to defeat the Darkness, but Louis had insisted on continuing on after Indow, and for some reason, White Raven had decided to help with all her abilities as a tracker. The three of them had been traveling for two days straight with very little rest and no sleep. Needless to say it was taking its toll on all of them.
"Then we must continue the hunt! I think we may- we may... um..." Louis began.
Unfortunately, do to the fact that his body had finally alerted Louis that he couldn't keep up the pace he was at, Louis collapsed down to the ground, breathing heavily as he shut his eyes and embraced sleep.
*
Indow slowly opened her eyes, shivering as she felt the cool interior of the cave she was in sting her cuts and wounds. Indow would've been able to take such pain a little better if her wounds had been covered by anything. However, not only were her wounds untreated and uncovered, but also her whole body was uncovered. She also could feel very little from her arms, which were suspended above her head thanks to a rope tied to the ceiling of the cave. By now, all the blood had drained from her arms, making her feel all the more powerless to stop Myrrha. So far, prior to being tied to the cave ceiling, Indow had been stripped naked and now cut in addition to the blows and whippings delivered by Myrrha. Myrrha also still insisted that Indow call herself 'Myrrha's whore,' which only added to her humiliation.
Indow shivered and tried to focus in an effort to once again try for an escape. She knew attempting to harm Myrrha using her free legs would be pointless because of the thick armor she wore. And even if she wanted to, she couldn't gather up enough strength to lock Myrrha's head in a vice grip with her legs and snap her neck. All that would do is leave herself starving and captured within the bonds of the ropes. Indow needed to find some sort of tool that she could use to her advantage, but currently anything that might be of little use was well out of reach. Indow then winced as she heard the demonic cackle of Myrrha from behind her. She swallowed any kind of pain that she was feeling and tried to ready herself for whatever Myrrha was going to do or say.
"Tell me, Priestess, do you know why the Darkness goes out and conquers other lands?" Myrrha asked.
Indow didn't respond.
"It's because, young Priestess, the Darkness wants to help this world. I know you think that's incorrect, considering the fact that the Darkness does indeed send off it's forces to sometimes exterminate lesser beings, but you have to understand: it's for the greater good. Those people have made the incorrect choice. They wish not to better themselves by joining with the Great Darkness, but to live in ignorance and stunted growth." Myrrha explained.
Myrrha circled Indow slowly, continuing to speak as she did so.
"I want you to honestly look at the world we live in. There's war, death, famine, just name it! There are acts of deep sexual depravity, and morality is all but dead! We are ruled by monarchs and kings who look down on us not as equals, but as 'peasants' or 'commoners!' Within the Darkness, the only hierarchy that exists is within the army! And even then, once the Darkness' conquest of this world is complete, there shall be no more need for an army. We shall disband and be as we were. Within the Great Darkness, there is peace." Myrrha stated, stopping in front of Indow.
Indow growled and bared her feline teeth. "But in the Darkness, there's no joy, no happiness!"
"Happiness?! Joy?! HA! Do you know what those bring? They bring corruption. Happiness brings about jealousy in others. Joy causes lust and desire. Do you think I'm enjoying what I'm doing to you? As a matter of fact, I AM. That's what your precious happiness and joy bring: sadism! This happiness that I feel from watching you in your suffering and humiliation is sickening. Don't tell me that living in a world of smiles and joy makes things better." Myrrha balked.
"You're wrong, Dark Knight." Indow stated.
"Oh, really? Tell me, Priestess, is there even one person in this world who can handle happiness and joy? Who can show some restraint in their activities? Someone who doesn't allow their happiness to destroy them self?" Myrrha inquired.
Indow's lips curled into a smile. "The Linkara."
Myrrha balked in response, "The Linkara?! He can't even find the courage to pursue you and assist you in your greatest hour of need! Do you see him charging to the rescue like some prince in fairy tales? Face it, Priestess: the Linkara has abandoned you. Your so-called savior no longer even thinks about you. Why? Because he cares more about his mission than about his 'friends' and 'companions.'"
"I refuse to accept your viewpoint on the matter. The Linkara merely has decided that my life is meaningless in comparison to an entire world that is threatened by the Darkness. What good is saving one life if it means saving the lives of so many people?" Indow asked.
"Wrong answer, whore." Myrrha stated, and promptly slammed her knee against the space between Indow's legs.
Indow gasped and yelped in pain as she shivered against her bindings. Myrrha grabbed a knife from a nearby table and tested the edge of the blade against her own finger. A single drop of black blood fell onto the serrated edge. Myrrha walked back over to Indow and began to lightly trace the blade around Indow's breasts.
"The correct answer, my little whore, is 'Myrrha is always correct. The Great Darkness commands Myrrha, so it is correct, also.' Understood, whore?" Myrrha asked.
Indow bit her lip to recover from the pain and narrowed her eyes into a glare. "As the Linkara has been known to say, go to hail!"
Myrrha rolled her eyes and began to further her torturing of Indow.
*
"You should have woken me up!" Louis stated, clearing through bushes to try to get past them.
"You were quite obviously exhausted as the rest of us were. Normal people cannot be expected to travel three days straight without rest!" White Raven responded angrily.
Louis had slept a grand total of fourteen hours, and Lithmenar and White Raven had been happy enough to oblige to this. However, after Louis had awoken, he was in just as bad a mood as he had been in before he had fallen unconscious. He had instantly woken up the two and forced them to once again resume the tracking of Indow and Myrrha, much to the dismay of White Raven and Lithmenar. And so, the group was once more proceeding through the wild hot on the trail.
"All right, fine. We're traveling south again, now. For some reason, Myrrha has become frightened of our imminent approach and stopped her advances to the north. She's steadily trying to move away from the north and back towards Jilad." White Raven stated.
"Anything else you can pick up on?" Louis inquired.
Lithmenar suddenly stopped, looking down at several bushes. He blinked and was the next to respond.
"Well, I think I've picked up on something." he said.
Louis and White Raven approached him, both of their eyes widening as they looked at what Lithmenar had found. It was white robes adorned with gold lining and similar patterns all over them. These had once been Indow's clothes.
Louis quickened his pace in the search.
*
Indow could not have felt any worse at that moment. Not only had the twenty- four hours proceeding Indow's 'conversation' with Myrrha been the worst torture since she had been first captured, but she could now barely open her eyes. And even if she could, she wasn't entirely certain of everything she could see. Lack of food and water had begun to take its toll on the Priestess, who was having a hard time forming coherent thought and focusing on any particular thing. Her body was littered with cuts and bruises, somewhere the bleeding was only now coming close to stopping. Both her vagina and anus were sore from being raped by Myrrha.
Indow considered the rape to be the worst of any of the torture. It wasn't the fact that it had happened that made her so upset, but of the look in Myrrha's eyes when she had done it. She had broken off branches from nearby trees or used long, narrow rocks within the caves. She had been penetrated in both areas multiple times, and had screamed each time it happened, her tears mixing with blood. And there was the look in Myrrha's eyes that had upset Indow so. Despite now being able to laugh and smile, Myrrha's eyes remained the cold, soulless eyes they had been when she had first met her at the Leaping Ghost Tavern and Inn.
"You agree with me on everything I've said."
Indow managed to flutter one eye open, for the other had been forced shut from a direct blow with a rock to that side of her face. Myrrha was standing with crossed arms in front of Myrrha, an expression of disdain and contempt on her pale face.
"You do. I saw it in your eyes, Priestess. You agree with my viewpoints on everything in this world, except for the Darkness' purpose on Sin. However, there is something holding you back, keeping you from joining me on my side of the world. What is it, Indow? Tell me, and I shall stop my torture."
Indow blinked once, a single tear flowing down her damaged cheek. She murmured something that Myrrha couldn't hear. Myrrha told her to repeat what she had said louder.
"LOUIS!" Indow screamed. "I love Louis!"
Myrrha blinked, then grinned evilly. "Of course! The Linkara!"
"Yes..." said Indow.
"You're in love with him!"
"Yes..."
"You want to hold him right now!"
"Yes..."
"You want to share his bed!"
"Yes..."
Myrrha walked in close to Indow and placed her hand on her chin.
"I can have the Darkness make him love you, Priestess. He has compassion for his subjects so that they can respect him back. He may even let you keep your love after you do as we ask. However, it shall require you to do something for us, first." she said.
Myrrha leaned in close to Indow's ear, whispering.
"Betray the Linkara and he is yours..."
Indow opened her eye once more in thought. However, before she could think about any major decision, a thunderous roar traveled through the cave. Myrrha moved away from Indow to see a raging fourteen year-old running in her direction. She winced and ran in the opposite direction, hoping to find a sword to defend herself with. Louis, however, was already too pissed off to let her go very far. Louis continued on down the cave as Myrrha made a hasty retreat from the area. White Raven and Lithmenar soon arrived, gasping as they saw Indow's mutilated body. They turned her around so they could see her face, but were further disgusted by the broken body before them.
Indow once again opened her good eye and saw the two in front of her. She clenched her teeth.
"Well, well, well. It seems that you have found me. I suppose you're both feeling pretty pleased, aren't you? There I was, standing in judgment of you two for your actions in the past, and now I have been tortured day in and day out without any kind hope or rest. I hope you're happy, you sick, sadistic Ackjahves..."
Lithmenar and White Raven exchanged horrified glances.
"For the love of angels, woman, get her out of there and get some clothes on her!" Lithmenar shouted.
Before Lithmenar could do any help himself, he walked over to the nearby cave wall and vomited from seeing Indow in her current state.
"Where are you, you sick fuck?!" Louis called out, his blades well extended and sparkling with electrical energy.
"It seems I have hit a nerve! Tell me, Linkara - why did you chase after me?" Myrrha's voice responded.
"To kick your sorry ass from here to Kingdom Come, she-bitch!" Louis growled, and slammed his blade against one of the cave walls and blasting a large chunk of rock from it.
"Thou art especially angry! 'Tis a trait that we in the Darkness have grown to appreciate." Myrrha's voice said.
Louis growled and once more began to slice at the walls.
"I swear, you little bitch-troll, when I get my hands on you, I'm going to reach down your throat and rip out your lungs with an ice cream scoop!"
"Heh. You truly care about my whore, don't you?"
The pupils in Louis' eyes shrunk.
"SHE IS NO ONE'S WHORE!"
Louis went wild, totally destroying any and all things around him in a desperate effort to kill Myrrha. When he finally regained control of himself a minute later, he stopped and looked around. Myrrha seemed to be long gone, and for all Louis knew, the caves extended for miles in any direction. He sighed and then remembered the fact that Indow was still alive. He quickly ran back the way he came, ignoring the rock dust that he breathed in a few times from his rampage. Lithmenar and White Raven were wrapping Indow in some blankets they had gotten a hold of from the abandoned camp of Myrrha. Indow nodded as Louis fell to his knees before her, weeping in both sadness and joy.
Next Time: Our heroes arrive at Cooc - a city that sounds like some kind of racial slur.
Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.
-Yours Truly
