Chapter 127: The Swordmaster of Destruction
Previously, on "Crowns of Thorns" . . .
"It's the sword! Thraide wasn't possessing my master, he's possessed the sword and is using it as a conduit!" Sarph exclaimed in sudden realisation.
With a mighty sweep of his arms, Erik ripped the chains out of the wall, before smashing his wrists together and cracking the shackles. "Oh, I like this body. Such raw power," Thraide smiled. "And Poison Magic, too. Having Haki was fun and all, but it's no substitute for good old-fashioned magic,"
Erik stood, looking around at the group with a feral smile and bloodlust in his eyes. "Now, who shall be the first to die?"
-[CoT]-
"Release our friend," Sarph commanded, levelling «Tenshi Meiyo» at Thraide with his one working hand.
"Why? You won't hurt him, will you?" Thraide challenged.
Sarph faltered. "Well . ."
"He's not my friend," Yurei growled and Aberforth charged, brandishing a long wooden staff. With a skilful motion, the assassin's body twisted, bringing the weapon around to slam into the side of Erik's head. "No!" Grace protested.
But she needn't have worried, as, with unexpected lightness that he had never before exhibited, Erik leapt upwards and brought his foot down on the stick, driving it into the ground. With a powerful thrust, Thraide brought down Erik's other foot and snapped the weapon into two pieces.
"Aberforth was very good friends with that staff. He's going to be really -" Yurei choked as Aberforth's body stiffened for a moment, before he whipped a poisonous-looking dagger from his cloak and lunged for Erik. "You killed Glider!" the deranged assassin spat.
Thraide again span out of the way of the attack with ease. "This body is so much lighter!" he exclaimed. "I feel like I'm made of cloud,"
"Reality Dragon's Pronged Plumage!" Suddenly Grace was charging him with a magical headbutt. "Let my brother go!" she demanded.
A calloused hand met the back of her neck, and Erik plunged her face into the rock underfoot. "Oh, I like him far too much for that," The momentary distraction dealt with, Erik refocused on the assassin who was still trying to stab him. "What a pain," he declared, easily snatching his wrist and breaking Aberforth's arm like a twig. The poisonous dagger fell to the ground and Aberforth's body convulsed.
Sarph, Pierce, Kit and Tyria watched, paralysed by indecision. Entropy, though, took action. "Thraide! Why are you doing this?"
"Why? After all this time, my mother dearest finally asks why?" Thraide spat, eyeing her with venom in his gaze, twisting Erik's body to point the tip of his blade directly at her. The pink trails in the red blade sparked with malice. "I'm so glad that I convinced you to care!"
There was a click. "Don't move," Aberforth, or perhaps it was Yurei again, hissed. In the assassin's functional left hand was a pistol, whose muzzle was pressed to the back of Erik's head. "I'll give you five seconds to get out of that boy's head or I'll splatter his brains and your ectoplasm all over this cave," His eyes flashed green, and Cal and Pierce recalled what they had heard about Yurei controlling Aberforth's murderous impulses. It was probably taking all of the Prince's strength to stop him from just pulling the trigger.
Thraide snorted derisively. "I have a better idea,"
Yurei and Aberforth's breath caught in their throat.
In less than a second, Thraide had reversed Erik's grip on the sword and plunged it past his hip, directly into Aberforth's chest.
With a swift motion, Erik withdrew the blade, and Thraide shivered in pleasure. "I so love the taste of blood,"
"You bastard!" And suddenly Cal tackled him. The blacksmith had his own sword drawn, and the blade flashed in a twisted manoeuvre that was intended to disarm Erik. "Get your filthy hands off -"
The strike was deflected. "I don't have hands, I'm a sword," the possessed weapon snidely retorted.
"Shut up and die!" Another strike, another parry. "I'm gonna melt you down and turn you into a safety railing!" He slashed again. "Or a light fixture!" Cal wound up for a powerful thrust, having knocked the other sword backwards and knowing he couldn't be deflected. "Or a doorknob!"
Instead Erik used his free hand to shove the boy backwards, unbalancing him and sending him crashing to the ground. "My, how the tables turn," he declared, lazily twirling his sword.
"Well done! Now, if you wouldn't mind freeing me, I'm sure we can make short work of this lot," Calvin requested.
"Free yourself, dipshit. There's no point in hiding your power if we're going to kill all of them anyway," Thraide snorted at the false boy, before turning his attention back to the genuine article. "You know, I can't decide whether to kill you or take you over,"
Pierce, though, was startled out of his trance. He looked at Calvin, and whispered to Tyria, "So just to confirm, this guy we've been travelling with was secretly evil the whole time? I won't feel bad about hurting him later?"
"Exactly," his girlfriend replied.
"Good," Pierce grinned. The cave was too small for him to summon any of his beasts; with so many people present, it was rather cramped as it was. So what was the best way to do this? . . wait. "Kit, why am I still chained up?"
"Oh - sorry! I'll get on that!" Evidently Kit had been just as distracted by the proceedings as everyone else.
"You're not worth the hassle. I'll just kill you," Thraide decided, and stabbed Cal's chest.
A blue hand caught the blade. "What?" Erik questioned, looking up in confusion.
The Swordmaster had recovered, and thrown himself bodily forwards to intercept the strike. Except now he was going limp again, and green mist was coalescing around his shoulder. "That was far too close a call," Yurei hissed, looking slightly ill. "Excellent idea, Kitsunetsuki, possessing the armour. I commend you," With that, he collapsed next to Cal, on the edge of the blood that was pooling around Aberforth's prone body.
The boy in question tugged at the heavy metal gauntlet that was now pinning him. "Could you get this thing off me at least?" he demanded.
"Only a slight delay," Thraide hissed, retracting himself and going to stab Cal's throat instead - but this time his blade vanished into a fold of bent space. "What on Earth Land?"
"Not on my watch," Grace declared, before hissing, "Break!"
With reflexes like lightning, Erik pulled Thraide out of the bent space a millisecond before the distortion snapped shut, which would have broken the sword in half. "I see I'll have to kill you first,"
"Stop! Please! All of you!" Entropy begged. Everyone paused, looking at her. "Thraide! Why are you doing this?"
"You really don't know? You never even recognised me?" Thraide demanded.
"Where could I have recognised you from? I hadn't met you before until you came to me in that body and declared you would help me reunite with Long," Entropy replied, looking lost.
"Oh, mother. I lied," Thraide responded, Erik's face portraying casual disdain. "I'm not a second-generation yokai. I'm not even a yokai at all. And that's your fault," he spat.
-[CoT]-
It had been two hundred years ago. Entropy had, on a rare occasion, passed through a town of ordinary people. She was searching for magic that could free Long and reunite her with him, as she had always been.
She happened to pass a blacksmith in the street, who had just finished forging a gem into a pendant as a gift from his lover. He called it the Shining Sun, because his lover was all that and more to him.
Entropy never even noticed, but her naked thigh grazed ever so slightly against the blade that hung at the blacksmith's belt.
And Thraide came to life.
-[CoT]-
"But I was never freed like all those other things you brought to life, that became yokai. For two hundred years, I was stuck in this piece of metal. Eventually, I became it, used it. I learned to use the body of anyone who touched this cursed sword to gain my freedom, and never cared that their freedom was the price of mine. But it was your negligence that cursed me to this existence, this loneliness. I'll repay you by leaving you lonely for eternity!" Thraide roared. "You will never see your beloved Yokai King again! I swear, he will remain where he is now and you will be lonely for the rest of your miserable life!"
Entropy looked shell-shocked. "I . . I'm sorry," she whispered.
"I'm glad to hear you say that," Thraide snorted. "But I'm far past caring. The best years of my life were after I fully awakened, when Kairos End took me in,"
"How can a dark guild give you the best years of your life?" Tyria demanded.
"Because Kairos End was my family!" In a fit of rage, Thraide slashed at her, but Tyria was far enough away that she could see the blow coming and dodge it. "I spent fifty years with Master Eternity! I was his sword, his right hand! The one he trusted more than anyone! And then one day, in February of X785, I went out on a routine mission, just to check up on some of our subordinates. I came home to find there was no home to go to! Monday, Eurydice and Fred were all dead, Master Eternity, Mordonna and Clockwork had all vanished, and, worst of all, Aberforth had betrayed us! And who was to blame? Phoenix's Eye!"
"At least I could take solace in the fact that Master Eternity had taken you all down with him. Or so I thought for six years. But then, at the Grand Magic Games, I saw you, all of you! You were all alive and laughing and fighting together like nothing was wrong! And Mordonna had also turned traitor, but Eternity and Clockwork were still missing!" Finally at the end of his enraged rant, Thraide had left Erik gasping for breath.
"Really, it's quite convenient that you're all here. I was going to come and kill you all once I was done here anyway, so you've saved me some time, as it turns out," The crystalline blade glinted with menace. "Because you're going to tell me where Master Eternity is. And then all of you are going to die!"
"Well said," There was a sudden flare of red ethernano, and Calvin stood up, the magic-cancelling vengestone chains disintegrating as they fell to the ground, useless.
"You're finally coming to play," Thraide greeted him, making Erik smile.
"They have reinforcements coming. It's time to wrap this up," the boy declared.
A massive, Tectonic fist of blue and silver metal punched him straight into the far wall. "We'll wrap it up alright," Tyria snorted, glad to have someone she could hit. "There's seven of us and two of you. And Boomer will be back any minute. Even if we don't want to hurt Erik, what makes you think you two can take us all at once?"
"Let me demonstrate," Red, smoky ethernano began to play across Calvin's skin. His clothing fragmented, breaking apart into pink particles that were absorbed by his body. His eyes dissipated into dust as his face broke in half, instantly decaying to reveal a gunmetal mask with pink lightning playing over it that erupted upwards. Within moments, there was no humanity left, only a vaguely humanoid form of red and pink ethernano that crackled and hissed with evil magic.
The blood drained from Tyria's face, as Pierce, Grace, Sarph and Kit all stared in disbelief. It was one thing hearing Cal and Yurei's descriptions of the true form of a TFEI. Another entirely to witness it in person.
Entropy and Cal, though, reacted with hostility. They had both seen a TFEI in their natural state before. They were facing one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet. "I-I hope you c-c-can fight th-that thing," Entropy stammered, her fear on the verge of overwhelming her.
"What the heck?!" Grace spluttered.
"So this is a TFEI?" Pierce was on guard. But some part of him was relieved, in a twisted way. Now he could put an image to the threat. This must have been what Kynigós was warning him about.
"Oh, you've heard of us? How flattering," Calvin's voice emanated from the smoky mass. He took a step forward, and the ground sizzled where he touched it. "Know, then, that I am one of many,"
"In service to the Sky Canopy Dominion?" Cal guessed.
"You've done your research," Calvin hissed. "Or, I suppose, your annoying little friend there has," The mask twisted, focusing on Yurei. "I've already killed your partner. Let's finish the job," The red TFEI's smoky arm lashed out, intending to engulf the wispy green snake, who was still on the verge of unconsciousness.
But Cal was quicker. In spite of having his waist pinned under his unconscious master's armour, his arms were free, and he scooped up Yurei's ectoplasm and threw him straight across the room, behind the Phoenixes.
"You wish to take his place? I can oblige," Calvin hissed, sending his magic to wrap around Cal in attempt to suffocate him.
"Keep away from him!" Grace roared, lunging forward and punching the TFEI. His magicallised form, however, parted at her touch. A chuckle echoed, and Calvin's other arm pinned her. Grace immediately struggled, trying to focus on opening a rift.
"Kit!" Pierce called, surging forwards to help Grace. Looking up at his call, Kit leapt into Pierce's back, just as his guild mark erupted into blue flames.
Pierce's form shifted as Yokai Unison overtook his body, and flaming blue claws raked the TFEI - and made contact. Calvin recoiled at the touch. "Oh, that's right, you can invoke the Purging Pyre. How annoying,"
"Is that what this is called?" Pierce questioned as his hair lengthened into a waist-length white mane and red markings appeared on his face to match Kit's, his body bursting with magical fire. "I am learning so much today!"
"How did you learn that anyway? No one's used the Purging Pyre in four hundred years!"
"Beats me. But this is our second time today," Pierce declared as Kit brought back their fists for a double punch, concentrating their power. "Yokai Pyre Blaster!" they roared, cloaking the Yokai Wave Blaster with the Purging Pyre and striking Calvin with the technique, sending his misty form stumbling backwards. Kit grinned through Pierce's lips.
The TFEI was blown backwards. "This isn't fair . . this isn't right. That power shouldn't exist," Calvin growled, more to himself than anything.
"How do you trigger it?" Grace asked her brother, screwing up her face and focusing, trying to tap into the Purging Pyre.
"Strong emotions, I think," Pierce replied.
"Not true," Calvin shot back.
"Like I'm going to believe you," Grace spat.
"There are three requirements for a wizard to use the Purging Pyre," Suddenly, Entropy spoke, as though she were in a trance. "The first is that the user be in a state of heightened activity. Overwhelming emotions satisfy this criteria. The second is that the user has been exposed to sufficiently refined extradimensional magic, of which the Purging Pyre itself is an example,"
"Mum? What are you saying? How do you know that?" Yurei asked, eyeing her with concern.
"The third is that the user be a member, or descended from a member of the guild that created the Purging Pyre long ago,"
Pierce/Kit and Grace paused. "Wait, what?"
But Thraide had had enough of waiting. Erik's body lunged forwards, delivering a slash with Thraide's crystalline blade that would have bisected Pierce - if not for a golden sword blocking it. "It's rude to interrupt," Sarph declared, sweeping upwards in a motion that would disarm Erik of Thraide.
Somehow, though, the boy kept his grip on the weapon, but in doing so left himself wide open for a direct attack. In any other situation, Sarph could have delivered a lethal blow.
But it was still Erik.
And then Calvin surged forwards, his red mist wrapping around Sarph. He was glad to see an opponent who was helpless against him, and plucked the knight from the ground before throwing him bodily into Pierce/Kit. The three Phoenixes were thrown backwards, narrowly avoiding the mechanism that Entropy had built, and crashed into the far wall.
"Pierce!" Grace gasped, but knew not to take her eyes off her opponents. "Reality Dragon's Roar!" The attack surged above Cal and the Swordmaster, catching Erik and Calvin and knocking them both upwards.
"You'd hurt your own brother?" Thraide asked, imitating being hurt.
"Any brother of mine can take a few hits," Grace retorted. She gritted her teeth. "Come on . . Purging Pyre, go!"
Predictably, there was no response.
"Focus on Thraide. I'll handle the smoke thing," Pierce instructed, the hybridised Phoenix sweeping past her and striking for Calvin, who narrowly dodged.
"I'll help!" Tyria added, preparing to cast.
"What? No!" Pierce immediately vetoed the idea. "You need this Pyre stuff to hit him!"
"Naah. You just need a bit of creativity. TechType: Jetpack!" Tyria invoked, dropping to her hands and knees as her two fan turbines appeared, whirring to life. But, rooted to the ground as she was, the jetpack instead began to suck Calvin's smoky form in like a vacuum cleaner. Pierce and Kit watched in amazement. "That's brilliant!"
"Wrong," the red TFEI spat, suddenly condensing his entire form behind the metal mask of his face and diving straight into Tyria's engine. And as her mechanised flesh met the ethernano-infused metal, it shattered like glass.
Pierce's heart leapt into his throat as Tyria screamed in agony, Calvin ripping her jetpack apart from within. Metal splintered and burst, the steel face forcing itself through the strut like a wedge and targeting her back. Paralysed by pain, the Electrian was helpless. And Pierce and Kit both could see that the monster was only seconds away from burrowing into flesh and ripping her spine in half.
He wouldn't allow that.
There was a wave of magic, and the blue flame of the Purging Pyre burst in every direction as Pierce charged, his magic reaching a crescendo. The others in the cave watched in amazement or averted their eyes as Kit's claw reached straight through Calvin's smoky body, grabbed his twisted metal mask, ignoring the pain that spiked up his arm as a result, and bodily pulled the TFEI away from his girlfriend.
Before Calvin could even register what was happening, his mask was being smashed into the rock. Ignoring the fact that he was positively swimming in the evil magic that comprised the TFEI, the Yokai-United wizard bashed his head into the rock, carving cracks and dents into the magical metal. "Y0U W0N'T HURT ANY 0F MY FR1ENDS!" Pierce roared, Kit being almost drowned out by the Tamer's rage.
With a final blow, the crackling mask hit the ground one more time and broke in two.
Calvin's ethereal form went limp, collapsing around the group's feet, as the magical mask fizzed and sparked. With a flash of light, Kit burst out of Pierce's body, and both slumped, drained.
"Well done," Sarph smiled at his teammates.
"Did you . . kill it?" Cal asked, eyeing the torn mask through the mist.
"I thought they couldn't die," Yurei mumbled, inching closer to the two halves of the broken masks, leaving Cal behind.
A hissing, rasping voice echoed through the cave. "Y0U . ." The fog around their feet shifted, moving towards the broken mask.
"What's happening?" Grace asked, panic crossing her face.
"You're all screwed," Thraide smirked, as the voice continued. "ARE . ."
The broken mask lifted into the air, burning with magic. Everyone watched as the fractured edges turned molten and pressed together, welding itself back into one piece. The corrupted red ethernano surged around it, forming once more into the humanoid figure, and pink lightning in the shape of a mouth appeared beneath the mask's eyes. "C0RRECT," Calvin responded to Yurei's claim, looking none the worse for wear whatsoever.
The Phoenixes and assorted allies stared in disbelief. "That's not possible," Tyria mumbled.
"A TFEI cannot die," Calvin smugly explained, his voice echoing through the cave. "Any magic you throw at me is useless. Even the Purging Pyre is a mere inconvenience,"
No one could muster the willpower to respond. Yurei hugged his comatose mother's leg, anticipating the end.
"That said, you did a very good job of trying to kill me," Calvin looked down at Pierce, his electrical lips forming a smile. "It's only fair that I return the favour," He drew back a cloudy arm and focused on forming it into a razor-sharp spike.
There was a sudden noise, like a crashing of metal, and everyone paused, trying to identify the source.
An inhumanly tall man stood in the cave, almost silhouetted against the light from without. All eyes watched as he strode towards the group, clad in form-fitting blue armour reinforced with silver. His head was covered by a smooth mask that bore amber-coloured eyepieces, and protected by three beetle-like spikes that extended from each shoulder and his back, which scraped against the roof of the cave.
He unsheathed a four-foot scimitar, made of the same blue metal with a glistening white edge, and held it up. "I am the Swordmaster of Destruction," he declared in an aged, gravelly bass. "Once the champion of Shogun Shen, until I killed his daughter and was exiled for it. My sword has left a wake of destruction across Alakitasia. Who are you to stand before me?"
Sarph stared at his teacher, gripping «Tenshi Meiyo» with white knuckles, gritted teeth and fierce resolve in his eyes. He whispered two simple words. "He's back,"
"Oh yeah," Cal agreed, hope entering his eyes.
"The Swordmaster of Destruction. Scary," the red TFEI snorted, disparaging. "Surely you aren't so ignorant of your situation as to not know what a TFEI is. Your little wake of destruction ends -" Something flared behind the Swordmaster's amber eyepieces, and suddenly there was a sensation that Pierce, Grace and Thraide knew all too well.
A million invisible lions roared at once, the unmoving warrior radiating absolute power, focused like a laser on the TFEI. It washed over Calvin like a tsunami, and immediately the TFEI showed its effects; he collapsed in on himself, shrinking and condensing as the sparks making up his body fizzled and died.
"Conqueror's Haki," Pierce recalled the term. So TFEIs were vulnerable to this Haki technique? . . He had to learn it.
In a swift movement, the Swordmaster reached behind him and produced a scimitar. Unlike the one that Thraide inhabited, though, this one was twice as thick, with a pearly cutting edge that melted into bronze with blue trim. Its hilt was bound in green leather, and its crossguard curved upwards in a simple but elegant design.
Suddenly, the Haki in the air intensified, and the pearly edge of the sword turned black. With a mighty cleave, the blue warrior struck, severing the mask of the TFEI in two once more.
"That won't -" But Tyria was cut off, as the Swordmaster struck again, splitting the mask into three pieces. Then four. Then six. Then seven. "Quickly. All of you, take one of these pieces," The knight commanded, picking up one of the larger. "We need to keep them separate. It's the only way to stop him from reforming,"
With a blur of reality warping, Grace snatched the pieces up one at a time, handing them off to Tyria, Entropy and Cal, before keeping one for herself. Pierce and Sarph each moved in to take one, and the Swordmaster clutched the last in his own free hand. "Once our business here is concluded, we will bury them in different places. It is the only way to ensure that he will not return," the Swordmaster rumbled.
"I think that you're forgetting something," Thraide hissed, before lunging forward and targeting a seam in the Swordmaster's armour.
With a slight shift of his balance, a retractable metal plate emerged and covered the weak spot. Thraide's blade bounced off. "I forgot about that pesky armour," Erik's mouth hissed.
"You will not catch me off guard again," With impossibly quick reflexes, the Swordmaster twisted and caught Thraide's blade in the crossguard of his scimitar, before raising it and twisting the blade. Acting like a fulcrum, the hilt of Thraide twisted in Erik's grip and his fingers slackened. Then the Swordmaster disengaged and struck at the Dragon Slayer's wrist with the flat of his sword. Had he used the blade, Erik would no doubt have lost a hand. As it was, the shock sent a spasm through his nervous system and forced him to drop the sword.
Thraide clattered to the ground and Erik was released.
The Swordmaster thrust the limp boy away before skipping backwards, ensuring that neither of them touched the sword by accident. Grace quickly caught him, laying Erik, who had immediately fallen unconscious, on the rock.
"Master?" Sarph eyed his teacher warily.
The helmet turned, amber eyepieces glinting. "Edward," The Swordmaster nodded courteously.
"Edward? Who's that?" Grace asked.
Sarph smiled. "That's my real name. It really is you, Master," he inclined his head respectfully.
"Did you at any point believe that pretender was really me?" the powerful warrior asked.
"Of course not," Sarph assured his teacher.
"How about you, Cal? Were you fooled?" the Swordmaster addressed the black-haired boy, who was picking himself up. Cal frantically shook his head. "Of course not, master!"
"Glad to hear it," he responded. "I assume these are friends of yours?" he gestured at the Phoenixes.
"Yes! This is Pierce, Tyria, Grace, Erik and Boomer's gone somewhere," Sarph explained, introducing his teammates. The Swordmaster nodded to each of them in turn. "A pleasure,"
"He's surprisingly nice," Grace observed.
"He can hear you," the warrior cajoled her. He eyed Entropy and Aberforth curiously, then started a bit. "Cal, there is a dead man behind you,"
"What?!" Cal jumped, turning, and looked at what was unmistakably Aberforth's corpse. The assassin's blood was pooling in an indent in the cave floor, and he wasn't moving. Quickly, the boy checked his pulse. "Oh,"
"Don't feel bad for him," Yurei assured Cal, crossing the cave and pausing near the boy's foot. "He was a mass-murderer before I even met him,"
Cal gently picked up the yokai. "Wasn't he your partner, though?"
"Honestly, I wouldn't call him a partner so much as a loaded cannon; I could only ever point him in the right direction and hope to minimise collateral damage," Yurei admitted. ". . That said . . I've been with him for years. I guess I did grow a bit attached . . isn't that pathetic?"
"As far as eulogies go, this is pathetic," Grace piped up.
"He never seemed that bad to me," Cal admitted, reaching across the corpse and sliding Aberforth's eyelids shut.
"He shot me," Sarph interrupted the moment. "I still have the scar,"
"He almost killed Masquerade, too," Grace remembered. "He was actually kind of a crappy assassin,"
"You'd all be dead if I hadn't made him miss," Yurei hissed. "Aberforth, as a partner you were trying, at times. But I wouldn't be here today without you. I'm sorry for deluding you into thinking that your weapons were alive and wanted to be your friends. Rest in peace,"
A/N
A/N
I don't buy it. This is Aberforth the Assassin we're talking about, he'll probably jump up and go "You losers all thought I was dead! TROLOLOLOLOL!" and then kill everyone. Any second now.
. . Any second.
. . . Aberforth, you're making me look bad.
Fine, guess he's really dead. Oh well, he was kind of cramping PoH's style anyway.
Originally, mind, Aberforth was going to go in a really different direction. When I first created him, I had some complex Phoenix-esque reincarnation scheme for the Guild Master of Phoenix's Eye. Master Feng was slated to die during the S-Class Trials, and then 'reincarnate' into Aberforth. Or something. To be totally honest, I never worked out all the details.
You might be wondering why I scrapped that plotline. Well, there's two reasons. First, like I mentioned, I created Aberforth before I even knew that PoH existed in SAO, let alone that I wanted to use him in Phoenix's Eye. Second . . I just don't like Aberforth that much. The direction his character ended up going - does anyone here know Wakfu? I sort of tried to model Aberforth after Remy from that show, a suave, swashbuckling rogue with weapons that were all possessed by minor demons. But . . something got lost in translation, I guess.
Also, he tried to kill Sarph, and that kind of pissed me off.
Still, here's where we say goodbye to Aberforth the Assassin. For now, anyway. Heh. Peace!