Chapter 28

Emeth watched as the knight and the priest fought against each other. There was nothing he could do here, other than freezing them - except he wasn't too sure if it solved the problem. He was sure it wouldn't.

He looked down at Iruna. She was staring at the fight too. Her eyes seemed to be following Valkron more, although she still had a hand to her cheek, where Samaroh had struck her. Emeth felt worried for her too.

He turned back to the fight. The priest had this habit of carrying a massive grand cross mace for quite a long time, but it was only now that he fought with it. And he was good with it - frighteningly good.

Valkron's heavily notched and scratched sword was not a weapon to be taken lightly of, unfortunately. As the clangs coming from the weapons resounded through the bare forest Emeth could see that both were unnaturally unhesitating warriors. He felt so frustrated that he felt like pulling out his hair. Even Valkron would hesitate several times, given his nature.

Sparks flew as metal screeched against metal. Valkron was snarling incoherently as he lunged and struck out viciously. Samaroh was laughing maniacally as he whirled aside, avoiding the sharp point of Valkron's sword by inches. They were complete animals, beasts that were fighting for nothing but dominance, believing that a swing of a weapon would change the world.

Emeth realised, with growing horror, that this was exactly what Argath wanted.

Valkron dodged a vicious jab from Samaroh and swung his sword upwards. If Samaroh hadn't jerked his head away the point of Valkron's sword would have pierced through his jaw and shot out from the back of his skull.

The priest swung out again, only to get a powerful block from Valkron. Both were fighting strongly but Valkron had the advantage because he was trained for close combat. He was hitting out with swift, strong strokes that did not allow any openings for Samaroh.

Emeth had the image of two powerful lions fighting for territory. He shook his head to get rid of the image but the damage was done. With the growing terror in his heart he knew he was watching the future of Rune-Midgard, if Argath's plan succeeded.

And the one they needed badly now was Valkron.

Sagna and Edell rode through the forest at breakneck speed to Prontera, from where the divining spell still shimmered. They arrived at the abandoned city just as the base of the spell began to disintegrate.

In silence they rode through the southern gates. The falcons were sitting on their shoulders, blindfolded to prevent them from taking off in fright from anything. They were not taking risks.

They reached Prontera Plaza and surveyed their surroundings grimly. What was once a beautiful, bustling place had become a desolate, silent and empty graveyard.

Edell's voice broke the silence. 'The spell came from there, in front of that inn. And look - the western gates have been unsealed. Only a wizard could unseal the gates.'

'Emeth must have done it then,' said Sagna. 'They stopped here for a while. I wonder what happened here.'

The crusader nudged his peco to move over to the inn. There he looked around. He did not touch the spell. 'There's a grave here - or what remains of it.'

Sagna joined him. Both of them looked at the makeshift wooden cross sticking out of the snow. The light from the ghastly spell above illuminated their pale faces. It wasn't the grave that was frightening.

There was blood all over the snow. Fresh blood.

And there were footprints in the snow.

Sagna sensed it first and shoved Edell off his peco. The crusader promptly fell off as the knight reined his mount around to face whatever was behind him.

He stared at the black peco. It had elaborate black-bronze armour covering its beak, across its breast and around its legs as well as pitch black drapings. Fire blazed from its eyes and taloned feet, and it seemed more like shadow than anything else.

Astride its back was a heavily armoured man. Sagna felt his blood curdle at the sight of him. He had straight chest-length hair and deep red eyes, as well as the whitest skin he had ever seen. There seemed to be dark liquid dripping from his hair and streaming down his face.

In the man's right hand was a great black sword. Purple fumes wrapped their tendrils around the evil blade.

Edell leapt to his feet and mounted his peco again. The three of them faced each other in apprehension.

'If it isn't Sagna and Edell,' said the man. 'Remember me?'

Edell winced. Sagna cringed, but he despised the man. He knew that dark voice - it had spoken to him before, when he had been humiliated by Valkron.

'Who wouldn't,' he said, his eyes narrowing. 'What do you want?'

'I should be asking you that question,' said the man, raising his massive sword. Edell gripped the reins of his peco tightly at the sight of it.

Sagna felt fear run its chilly finger down his spine. He ignored it and said, 'Get out of here. You don't have the right to be here.'

'Eventually you won't have that right too, Sagna,' said the man, riding around them. 'For this city is a lost hope, do you not think so? No one will stay here anymore except for memory.'

'That won't be happening so soon,' said Edell.

'Really? Can you prove it?'

'Yes, we can, Argath Iruvedla,' said Sagna hotly.

The wind howled even louder at the mention of his name. Argath smiled. 'I see you're not entirely ignorant of me.'

'Who wouldn't be?' replied Sagna angrily. 'Get out of here! This isn't your world anymore!'

'How childish of you, Sagna,' said Argath. 'Just like you had been when you wanted to defeat your teacher.'

'Just leave, Argath,' said Edell, as the knight flinched. 'Don't make me exorcise you out of here.'

Argath turned around. 'Threatening now? It isn't in your nature to threaten, Edell.'

'I'm not threatening, I'm just telling you,' said the crusader. 'I'm being polite. If you want me to be impolite just say so.'

Argath laughed. The laugh was not human - it sounded like many voices laughing together. 'Interesting humans! You seem more fun than the Raulus party! Why, I should have been better off playing around with you instead of them!'

Sagna felt his blood run cold. 'Okay, that's it. Leave Prontera. Even if you think this is going to be your world it hasn't happened yet. Go.'

'You think I'm going to take orders from you, boy?' sneered the Blood Judge. 'If you prove to be better than my master then I will leave gladly, but you aren't!'

'Fine, I'll challenge--'

'No, Sagna,' said Edell, blocking him with his shield as the knight rode forward. 'Leave it. Don't get angry, he'll just play with you.'

'You seem very knowledgeable, Edell,' said Argath. 'But you're too late. Sagna has already challenged me.'

'He didn't say who, Argath,' said the crusader, as calm as ever.

They looked at Sagna. The knight looked between them and noticed that Edell had just winked...or had he?

'I challenge you, Argath,' he said, drawing his sword and pointing it at the Blood Judge.

Argath smiled. 'I accept.'

Sagna charged. The black peco stepped aside and the great black blade crashed onto the silver one. The knight gasped at the impact but held his grip.

Behind him Edell maintained his holy magic on Sagna.

Snow flew everywhere as the two men struggled against each other, their weapons locked in a fierce battle. Samaroh strained against Valkron's strength as he kept his balance on the snow.

Their weapons unlocked and they sprang away from each other. Samaroh gathered energy to him in the form of white light and flung out his arm to point at Valkron.

White lightning shot towards the knight. Valkron's sword glowed with a yellow light briefly, before he held it up and blocked the spell with the flat of his blade, but he stumbled. Samaroh cast spells one after another, laughing hysterically as Valkron blocked and ducked to avoid them.

The knight looked up in between spells. Emeth was sure that his eyes had flashed briefly before the next spell was blocked by Valkron's sword.

Suddenly the knight wasn't there anymore. Samaroh struck out - and just in time. The knight had appeared below him. Valkron shoved him backwards onto the snow; Iruna gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as he raised his sword and took aim.

The priest swung his mace. There was a clang; Valkron pressed downwards while Samaroh shoved upwards. They strained, sweat pouring off the priest's face while a vein stood out on Valkron's temple.

There was a roar. Both of them broke off and turned to face a great bigfoot emerging from the trees, clearly disturbed by the wild fight they were having. Its piggy black eyes stared into the angry eyes of both men.

It brought its foot down. Valkron and Samaroh leapt away; the ground shook horribly as snow flew into the air. The bigfoot bellowed as it focused on Samaroh.

The priest gestured swiftly. The bigfoot opened its mouth to roar but no sound came out from its massive jaws. In rage it brought its fists down onto the priest, who was suddenly frozen to the spot.

Iruna sprang to action. She made the sign of the cross and pointed to Samaroh before pointing to herself and then raising her shield. There was a crash as the bigfoot's fists hit an invisible barrier above the priest and the impact transferred to her shield. She strained to throw it off.

The bigfoot tried to roar again. Khan turned invisible and shoved Samaroh out of the way. Valkron looked up at it, and, as it focused on him and swung a fist down, he jabbed the sword upwards into its flesh.

The monster, finding its voice had returned to it, howled in pain. The Raulus party except for Valkron clapped their hands to their ears; the knight lunged forward and gave the bigfoot a few slashes to its great stomach. As it swiped at him he ducked to avoid it, rolled on the ground and slashed its leg.

The bigfoot lumbered around as it tried to keep up with Valkron's speed. He could be there one moment, plunging his sword in and then somewhere else getting ready to injure the monster. As they watched in trepidation the bigfoot flicked its massive claws out and swiped at the knight in a desperate bid to stop him. Valkron stopped it with his forearm but the claws left a long groove in his armour.

He looked up at it, just as it looked down, and brought his sword up as its claws swiped down.

Everyone stared in shock as Valkron's sword...shattered.

The ground shook as the two men, long since dismounted, charged at each other. The cold air reverberated with the sound of metal crashing against metal, as Sagna battled with Argath. And, ever faithful in his beliefs, Edell maintained his holy spells on Sagna as long as he could.

Sagna was having a hard time. Argath was certainly no stranger to fighting, even if he was already dead. The blood that dripped from him and flew in every direction as they fought was actually black and stank like a rotting corpse. He was sure he had some splattered across his face, but there was no time to stop and wipe the disgusting liquid off.

Still, he found it repulsive and almost threw up several times when the smell wafted past him. Whatever it was driving him to get rid of Argath, therefore, was mainly this reason.

'You fight like a madman, Sagna,' said the Blood Judge, bending backwards to avoid a particularly vicious lunge. 'That is indeed interesting.'

'Shut - up - you - daft - sod,' said Sagna, lunging in between words and trying not to breathe at the same time.

Argath laughed and lunged out as Sagna withdrew his sword for another charge. The knight felt the blade slice into his cheek, but strangely enough he felt no pain, and after the blade had passed there was no blood and no cut.

He turned to see Edell clutching his cheek. Blood trickled out from between his fingers.

'Edell--' he began, but the crusader cut him off.

'Get him first! Don't mind me!'

Argath whirled his blade over his head. Sagna brought his sword up in time and sent the blade ricocheting off his. Then he lunged outwards in a wide arc.

There was a screeching sound, and sparks flew as the sword scraped against Argath's breastplate. The Blood Judge hit his sword away, but there was a long scratch there now.

Argath sighed. 'And I was hoping to keep my armour perfect. Too bad you were the first one to deface it.' He swung his sword around his head, and as it did it began to drone. 'Because now your blood will be the first to be spilled on it.'

Sagna swore under his breath and tried to move, but found his feet frozen. He could feel fear running up his spine. As he looked up the Blood Judge was whirling his sword faster and faster above his head, the droning grating on his ears.

The knight was not too sure if he was ready for a dark version of his well-versed Bowling Bash, but he steadied himself and tried to calm his racing heart. He whispered to himself, 'Assess the situation. Assess the situation. Don't panic. Stay calm. See what he does.'

Suddenly an image of Valkron flashed into his mind. He heard the senior knight's words in his mind's ear as if Valkron was standing just behind him.

'I don't know what you want from a battle, Sagna, but you should know it yourself. Don't let other people decide it for you. Call it selfish, but that's what is known as survival.'

Sagna felt calm and peaceful. He kept his eyes on the Blood Judge and breathed slowly, his eyes watching. He had to get this right.

Argath charged, his heavy armour jangling. Sagna stood his ground and waited. Any moment now...any moment...

Argath leapt forward and brought his sword down. Sagna crouched low, and then shot upwards. The thick stench clogged his brain, but he kept moving blindly.

Blood splattered across the floor, and there was a scream of pain.

The glittering shards of the blade fell around Valkron like a shower of glass, falling as of through glue. Through them Valkron's face could be seen.

He was grinning.

'Thanks,' he said.

The bigfoot swiped low at him, but he was already gone, running up its arm. He reached the shoulder, and as the other fist clamped down over its shoulder in a bid to catch him he somersaulted over its fist.

The world held its breath. Valkron arced gracefully in midair and, as he fell head first towards the bigfoot he twisted over and plunged the broken remnant of his sword into its neck. The shattering had left a sharp spike of his blade, and that was what went in first.

Blood fountained into the air. Everyone backed off as the rain of blood splattered onto trees and the snow. Emeth cast a small fountain of water and fended off the blood from everyone. It seemed endless, as if they would drown in a sea of blood that streamed past them, black against the stark whiteness of the snow.

As the spray weakened Valkron landed on one knee not far from the bigfoot. Several seconds later the broken sword fell into the snow just behind him. There was a pause, and then the bigfoot collapsed with a ground-shaking crash.

The terrified party watched as the knight got to his feet slowly, weaponless. Blood dripped off his white hair and armour, but by the looks of it he had received the fountain of blood face first.

Emeth was the first one to run out from the trees, jumping over the streams of blood. Iruna gathered up her skirts and followed, and then Khan and Nocturne. Eni stayed with Amaru.

Valkron reached up to his face just as Iruna and Emeth got to him, and wiped off blood, flicking it off his hand from time to time. His face was so bloody he was barely able to open his eyes.

'Wait. Wait, Valkron.' Emeth stopped him. 'You're smudging the blood all over your face. Let me do it. Show me your face.'

The knight seemed to consider this, and then turned to face Emeth. The wizard aimed his hand at Valkron and water shot out of his palm and blasted his face. It lasted for a few minutes and then the knight was dripping with water and not blood.

'Trust you to do it for me. Thanks.' Valkron shook water out of his hair.

'Better to have you looking like you rather than looking like that awful Blood Judge,' said Emeth, watching the knight pick his way across the blood to the party.

They shrank away from him as he approached them, but he stopped and gave them an apologetic face. 'It's all right, really. I'm okay now. I don't intend to kill anyone.'

'Like we trust you,' said Eni, peeking out from behind Amaru.

'Trust me, really.' When they continued to look unconvinced he sighed. 'I only fight if I have the urge to kill. I just killed something so it's gone now. I want to see Samaroh. Let me through.'

With utmost reluctance they did so, parting as he walked through them. He made his way to where the priest was slumped against a tree and knelt down beside him.

'Samaroh, are you all right?' he said gently.

The priest stirred and groaned. 'Tyr's beard,' he said, struggling to sit up. Valkron grabbed an arm and helped him. 'I've never felt this bad in my life. Or sick either.'

Valkron knew what he felt. He took the priest by the shoulders. 'Steady there. Everything's over now. I'm not fighting with you.'

Samaroh looked blearily up at him. 'It was my bloody fault,' he said miserably. 'I just...shot my mouth off like that. I had no right to. I'm sorry, I really am.'

Valkron sat back on his haunches. 'Well, I'll be blowed,' he said. 'You're saying sorry to me for the first time ever since we met. And here I was thinking I'd be the one doing the apologising.'

'I was wrong, okay? No need to blame yourself for anything.' Samaroh looked down despondently. His cap had slid off his head and he seemed smaller than usual. 'Just...just being me refusing authority. Like I've always done. For the sake of attention.'

The knight sighed. 'It's over. It always will be. Stop flogging yourself over it, okay? What's past is past, there's no need to bring it up.'

But Samaroh seemed to be drowning in his own depression. 'God, I hated being in a family with four other kids and the youngest. No one ever looks at you or gives a damn about what you do. Wanting to be a healer didn't seem enough, they wanted an exorcist. An exorcist. Said they gave a family a good name...'

As Samaroh kept on talking it dawned on Valkron that he was telling the knight everything. He smiled a little, despite the current situation, and reached out and grasped the priest by the shoulder.

When the man looked up at him the knight smiled and said, 'It's over.'

And Samaroh knew what Valkron meant.

Sagna stared blankly. The ghastly stench had shut his brain down completely. The only thing he knew was that his nose was barely inches away from Argath's breastplate and that there was a black blade biting into his shoulder.

But there was something else he was vaguely aware of, too. If he moved his sword a tiny bit the stinking body of the Blood Judge would twitch involuntarily and a black gloved hand would squeeze his shoulder tightly. He knew, then, that he had won.

Very slowly he moved away. The black blade left his shoulder but there was no pain. His own sword slid out, covered in rotting slime and black blood, and clanked on the cobbles. Sagna backed away, still aware of the frozen figure.

In the light of the spell above Argath was frozen in his pose of bringing his sword down. His deep red eyes were wide open in shock. Black blood splattered out in spurts from the gaping hole in his abdomen.

Sagna turned. Edell was on his knees, clutching his shoulder where his armour had split into two. Blood dripped from his hand and he was whimpering.

'Edell,' whispered the knight. His hand relaxed its grip on the sword. The clang reverberated in the silent city; he ran over to the crusader's side and recoiled in horror at the deep cut in his face.

'I'm...okay,' gasped Edell, but a whimper followed his words and he sagged down again. Sagna looked towards Argath, still frozen where he was.

The cold wind began to blow, and as it blew Argath's cloak disintegrated. It continued to disintegrate upwards, and soon what looked like black butterfly wings were rising into the sly, fluttering their wings helplessly as they were taken by the wind to wherever they belonged. Sagna watched them go with a feeling of relief welling up inside him. The battle was over.

He became aware of a small white light next to him. Edell was slowly, but surely, healing the cut on his face. He was still in pain but he made the effort to close up the wound before moving onto the cut in his shoulder.

The knight waited until he had finished and then, as Edell sat back, said, 'You okay?'

'Yeah, I'm fine,' answered the crusader, passing a hand over his pallid face. 'Just need a bit of a rest.'

Sagna smiled. 'You didn't have to protect me.'

'If I hadn't you would be dead by now,' replied Edell, smiling back albeit rather wanly. 'It was necessary. That was a good bit of fighting there - Valkron would have been proud of it.'

Sagna was surprised Edell had said that, but the effect wore itself away almost immediately. He looked up at the spell in the sky and sighed. 'If Valkron is still alive, that is.'

Valkron had never felt more tired than before. Almost every part of his body ached badly and he was sure he had stretched a muscle or two. Every time he moved something in his back twanged horribly and he was forced to lie back against the tree he was sitting next to.

He looked up when a shadow fell across him. Emeth had set up his usual witchfire again.

'Thank you, Valkron,' said the priest, looking down at him.

The knight smiled a little. 'Sit down. You don't need to thank me.'

'No, I do need to.' Samaroh sat down next to him. 'After you stopped me from talking, look what happened.'

He gently pulled open his robe. Valkron sat up in surprise.

The swirling mark of the Blood Judge was gone from his chest.

The knight laughed. 'You told me everything. You accepted yourself for who you were. No need to thank me, Samaroh - you got rid of the curse by yourself, by making the right decision.'

The priest blinked in surprise, and then smiled. 'Well...if it hadn't been for you...but from now onwards I'm going to try to be an exorcist and help out.'

'What? How can you learn the spells at this stage?' said the knight.

'I can, I've still got the time and I ain't that old. Besides, I think I've almost finished with the Ultima Magna Exorcisma spell, just let me get a few bits done. The only thing I'm worried about is my energy.'

Valkron smiled and closed his eyes as Samaroh continued to talk. He had never felt more satisfied, more peaceful in his life. Gradually, lulled by the sound of murmuring voices as his party discussed the recent events, Valkron fell into a dreamless sleep that worried him no more.

And somewhere in his mind, before it shut down completely, a calm voice said, Well done.