The Twenty-Fifth Knight
Chapter Twenty Five
380 HEC, Twenty Fifth day of the Fifth month
Eugeo rose into the air, his back to his comrades frozen in ice below. Shame flowed through his mind. Even with his memories still partially suppressed by the Piety Module embedded into his head, he remembered enough to recognize the faces of his friends.
"I tried to kill them… Kirito… Alice… Mateo and Katherine…" he thought to himself. "With my sword, I wished only to end their lives… There is only one thing I can do to… to redeem myself."
Thoughts such as these echoed around his mind as the platform floated up to the one hundredth floor. With the cloak from his crystal clean Integrity Knight Armor billowing behind him, he took a step off of the platform after it seamlessly fused with the floor of the uppermost chamber of the Central Cathedral.
As he removed the armor and delicately set it down just outside of the Pontifex's bed, behind him, a burst of strange and insidious laughter sounded. "I trust you took care of those despicable traitors, number thirty two," asked the Prime Senator, Chudelkin. His tattered and patched blue and red clothing clashed in a way that was just as much of an eyesore as he was, but Eugeo kept such thoughts to himself. Right now, he needed to keep up appearances.
Sighing quietly, he took a deep breath and reconstructed the false image of himself that the Pontifex had established. "I have all four of them trapped in ice below, Prime Senator, sir. They can't go anywhere," he answered in a monotonous tone.
Chudelkin spun around. "You don't say! That's all well and good m'boy, but did not finish them off, did you?" he asked, extravagantly pointing at Eugeo.
"No, Prime Senator, I did not. My orders from the Pontifex were to stop the traitors, not to kill them. Additionally, they're all skilled swordsmen and swordswomen. I decided m'lady would appreciate the opportunity to add them to her side as more Integrity Knights, so I imprisoned them in the ice from my sword."
Chudelkin scowled. "No that won't do, that simply won't do! You are just a puppet knight. You are not meant to think about such things. Just do as your told! And when you speak to me, you are to call me your excellency!" he demanded. "Do not forget that again, number thirty two!"
"Understood. I will not make such mistakes again, excellency."
Chudelkin grinned. One more Integrity Knight was under his thumb, but it was time to retake his status from this impudent child. "I'll finish them off, and show her eminence who's more loyal!"
With that, the Prime senator laughed and bounced over to the platform and floated down to the ninety ninth floor. "My friends… be careful," Eugeo mentally prayed, before letting out a deep breath and kneeling. With one hand, he felt through his shirt and checked for Cardinal's dagger. Sure enough, it was still there, and with hidden confidence, he announced, "I have returned, M'lady."
"Welcome back, Eugeo. Did you complete the task I gave you?" Administrator asked, and Eugeo nodded, expertly hiding his true desires behind a facade that showed nothing but a wish to love and be loved.
"Yes, I did," he lied.
"Well done! You deserve a reward. Come, climb into bed with me," Quinella praised. Unclipping the clasp near the neck of his shirt, Eugeo winced as he climbed into bed. The wound from Kirito's sword was still fresh, and it caused him pain whenever he moved his left arm. Kneeling on the bed, for he knew the Pontifex would not appreciate him getting the debris from his shoes on her linen sheets, he approached her with his head low, hiding his eyes from sight.
"Now, as I promised, I shall give you your heart's greatest desire: Love for you, and you alone," Quinella told him.
In a simple, monotone voice, Eugeo answered with just one word, hoping his reluctance to speak would aid him in hiding his true desire from the Pontifex of the Axiom Church. "Yes," he said as the flat of Cardinal's dagger brushed against his chest, reminding him gently that he was not alone in this fight anymore. His friends had survived after all. Mateo and Katherine had emerged from their duels with Deusolbert and Edith victorious, and not only had Kirito saved Alice from their fall, but he'd brought her to her senses. And protecting them all was Cardinal, who watched over them like a guardian angel.
His arm slowly inched closer to the Pontifex. Even though he cared not for her, Eugeo had to mentally admit that her body was quite beautiful. In fact, had he not just been reminded of his purpose here, why he'd worked so hard ever since leaving Rulid in order to bring Alice back home so they could live out the rest of their lives in their quaint, rural village, as they were always meant to do, he was sure, Eugeo knew that he might have given in to her radiance and charms again.
But not this time. Now, he knew his friends were not dead, as he'd believed when the Prime Senator had delivered him to his enemy's doorstep. They were alive, and he'd do the only thing he knew he could in order to protect them. "But first, I should do something about that dreadful wound," Quinella pointed out. With a wave of her hand, a series of purple rings appeared around the slash from Kirito's sword, and then as if it had never existed, the wound was no more. "Now, let me have a look at your face again… I found an odd gap in your memory, so that was where I put the module. It was convenient, yes, but it was wrong of me to rush the process," she admitted, stroking Eugeo's bleached blonde hair. "Let me resynthesize you properly, Eugeo. Then, you shall have the reward you so desperately yearn for."
Holding her hand to his forehead, Quinella removed the Piety module as memories flooded back to Eugeo. He could see his younger self running with a still carefree Alice, neither of them knowing what how their worlds would be changed by such a simple decision in the coming months. They came to the foot of the Gigas Cedar, the demon tree, and out of nowhere, Eugeo felt a light slap come across his head. He recoiled, only to see the familiar face of his best friend, Kirito, grinning as he ran past him playfully.
Tears welled up in Eugeo's eyes as all of his sealed memories returned. "Now, be a good boy and stay still," Quinella asked, as she pulled the module from his head entirely, causing Eugeo to gasp in shock from the overloading number of memories which were flowing into him. Quinella held up the module to inspect it. "This module is a vast improvement over the old ones. By bolstering the imagination, it unlocks advanced sacred arts in freshly summoned Integrity Knights, and can even allow them to use skills such as incarnate arms without any practice or training," she explained, resting Eugeo's dazed face on her lap.
"Now, relax and show me your memories. This time, I'll insert it into the memory you hold most dear," Quinella promised. "You can't move, but you may speak. Now, chant the spell I taught you."
Eugeo struggled to move his lips. Even without the Piety module, he'd been unwaveringly loyal to the Axiom Church and its ruler for all his life, right up until he'd set foot inside the Cathedral less than forty eight hours earlier. That alone made it hard to come to terms with what he needed to do. But then, he remembered Alice. He remembered how much she and everyone else had suffered at the whims of the church.
"Go on. Don't tell me you've forgotten it already… Oh, you silly boy. Remove… Core… Protection…" Quinella reminded him with a sly smile. Eugeo's mouth trembled as he decided on his response.
"I gave in once…" he thought to himself. His breathing became staggered as it felt like the seal he'd already broken had returned to haunt his waking moments and dreams once again. "I shall never give in again!"
His entire body trembled, and Quinella gasped, but she was a second too late. "Move!" he exclaimed, revealing Cardinal's dagger.
"How dare you?!" Quinella shouted, and in response, Eugeo raised his arm and brought the dagger crashing down on Quinella's chest. A purple circle intercepted the strike, and Eugeo placed his other hand at the pommel of the dagger to try and force it through. He grunted in exertion, but it was to no avail as the ring sent him flying back, and the dagger shattered like glass before his shocked eyes.
Quinella sighed, and with a wave of her hand, the bed disappeared. "I see you regained your senses then. I can't believe you fooled me…" she said as Eugeo narrowed his eyes. "I assume that brat from the library gave you that knife, yes?" she asked.
"Stab me all you want. I am impervious to it. No metal object can pierce my flesh," she informed the blonde swordsman. Eugeo gasped, and she went on with a sly grin. "You poor child, to reject the promise I gave you just like that… All you had to do was give yourself to me, and I would love you back in return, the kind of love you've sought all your life," she said. "Eternal love, and eternal control. It could've been yours, but you had to throw it away like this…"
Eugeo's gaze darkened. "Eternal Love… and Eternal control…?"
"That's right, Eugeo…" Quinella praised. "If you give yourself to me, that thirst you've been suffering from would be instantly quenched. Think about how nice it would feel to be free of all that confusion and fear…" Eugeo let out a sharp breath. "But I will give you one more chance… Swear yourself to me, and I will forgive you your sins and shower you with the bounty of my love."
Eugeo was silent for a moment. "To love is to control… and to be controlled?" he repeated, and Quinella smirked. But with his next words, the grin quickly became a frown. "If that is how you feel then I feel sorry for you!"
Quinella narrowed her eyes. "Maybe that's how you feel. Starved for love, and affection, looking all over the world and never finding either. But you're wrong," Eugeo explained. "Love isn't about control, and you don't give it to get something like a transaction! You give it selflessly like you give water to a wilting flower." Eugeo stared the Pontifex down, his eyes locked on hers unflinchingly. "That's love. Real, honest love!"
Suddenly, Quinella began to smile, but it wasn't the warm facade of a comforting smile. This one was evil, dripping with malice and disappointment. "What a shame…" she said, trailing off until she continued. "I wanted to forgive you for your treasonous acts against the Church. I would've saved your soul, Eugeo. But then you decided to speak to me like this… How unfortunate…"
Her entire body began to glow with malevolent purple light, and a wind picked up causing her hair to rise upwards. Eugeo gasped in shock. "I could drain your life and turn you into a jewel if I wanted… but that would be wasteful of me. No, I think this time I'll synthesize you by force, just like her."
"You mean-"
Quinella cut the boy off. "Yes, sweet number thirty, the one you're so infatuated with. She also refused to chant the ancient spell. It took the automated senators days to disable her core protection, and I'm sure every moment was agonizing for her… Well, not that I would know. I was asleep."
Eugeo's jaw dropped, horrified by the realization. "You… You monsters…" he breathed, as anger flooded through his veins.
"Oh well…" Quinella mused. "In the end, you too shall suffer the same experience."
With that, all talk was over. Eugeo grabbed the Blue Rose Sword and pulled the blade from its sheath. He charged at Quinella with Sonic Leap, who blocked the attack with the same purple barrier as before. Both combatants narrowed their eyes as Quinella frowned at Eugeo's determination, a feeling she viewed as insubordinate, and Eugeo felt nothing but white hot rage for what she'd done to Alice, to Mateo, and to Katherine.
It was then to the shock of both sides that the barrier cracked, and as Quinella gasped in disbelief, Eugeo's confidence rose. "I… will… break… through!" he cried out, and on cue, the shield shattered like glass. In a last ditch effort, Quinella flew backward and launched a wordless aerial element at the boy, who was sent flying into the wall. Blood leaked from his arm as his instinctive attempt to cushion his flight shattered the bones in his left hand, and the fractured tip of a bone pierced through the back of his hand. Eugeo let out a pained gasp as he held his other hand to the back of the bone, and with a flash of light and a groan of agonizing pain, he repaired the wound and fused the shattered bone back together.
But even with the wound healed completely, his brain was still receiving pain signals, and he clenched his fists as he pushed himself up, supporting himself with the Blue Rose Sword as a makeshift crutch. Quinella huffed at the display. She had to give him credit though, his stubbornness was impressive. To a point, at least. Mostly it was just foolish arrogance for the boy to think he could defy her for long.
"That sword… Oh, now I see…" she said, and then there was a familiar, but still strange laughter coming from a hole in the floor.
Mateo had lost track of how long they'd been trapped in ice since Eugeo seemingly betrayed them. He didn't know why, but he couldn't shake the feeling that in that brief moment where he and Eugeo had locked eyes, his friend had been trying to tell him something. His sword was unsheathed, frozen in front of him, and his eyes were closed in meditative silence.
Through the ice, he faintly registered the sound of someone saying they go and finish them off, and he suddenly knew he had to act. Staring at the sword, he began willing its perfect control to activate, for he couldn't speak while frozen in the ice. The temperature of the ice began to rise slightly, but it wasn't enough.
"Come on… we need to get out of here! Crystal Flame Greatsword… no… Solus's dragon companion… please, lend me your flames!" he mentally pleaded. As if it could hear his thoughts, the sword which was once the loyal and faithful ally of the sun goddess began to glow. It was a soft light at first, but it soon began to glow much brighter, and he could feel the heat of the sword melting the ice around him. "We're coming Eugeo… you're not going to have to face her alone!"
The ice melted down to his waist, and Mateo grinned. Freeing himself from the rest of Eugeo's ice with the sword, he spun around and freed Kirito, Katherine, and Alice with his sword. They all watched wide eyed as the fiery sword melted the ice around them in an instant. "Get to cover, someone's coming!" Mateo whispered, and they all hid behind towers of ice just as the platform began to lower, an all too familiar figure standing on top of it.
"Chudelkin…" Katherine whispered furiously, and her knuckles turned bone white as she clenched her fists around her sword's hilt. Without a word, Alice rested her hand on her fellow rebel's shoulder, and her breathing, which was heavy and angry moments before, slowed down and calmed. She was right. Chudelkin would pay, that much was certain, but right now they had greater concerns than revenge.
Steadying their breathing, the four of them waited as Chudelkin stepped off the platform with an evil grin. He looked around, frowning as he saw the raw power of Eugeo's perfect control.
With a wave of his hand, Mateo signaled to Kirito to flank him from the right, using the icy spires as cover, and for Katherine and Alice to stay perfectly still. If they moved, they'd run the risk of the Prime Senator escaping down to the lower floors.
With silent footsteps, the two swordsmen moved from pillar to pillar, staying out of sight with the aid of their dark clothing. Mateo brought a finger to his mouth, and then pointed away from him and his allies. "System call. Generate Umbral element, mimic user's shape," he whispered, and from the shadows of the corners drifts wisps of dark, smoky tendrils. The wisps converged on the spot where he had pointed, forming a perfect clone of himself, save the coloring, as this one was completely black, even it's armor. "Heh, I can't believe that worked…" he mused in his head, before picturing it stepping forward and towards Chudelkin to get it moving.
In response, the shadowy clone of Mateo did just that, but whereas the real Mateo and Kirito were moving on the balls of their feet to stay silent, the shadowy clone stepped with a very real weight, which thudded on the ground and echoed around the room. Chudelkin jumped into the air and screamed in fright, before casting a massive thermal art that flew right through the shadow and dispersed against the wall behind it. The pudgy clown screamed again, only to be cut off as Kirito walked up right behind him. Mateo then stood in front of him as Katherine and Alice blocked off his escape from the left and right.
Without a word, Katherine glared at Chudelkin and brought her boot down on one of his flimsy shoes. The clown shrieked in pain but was cut off as Katherine landed an impressive punch to his face, which sent him toppling backward with a groan. The girl unsheathed her sword, anger filling her veins as she looked down on the pathetic man at her feet and prepared to plunge her sword through his neck. At the last second though, Chudelkin thrusted out both hands and sent the four rebels flying back with a powerful blast of air, before making a desperate dash for the floating platform.
With a snarl on her face, Katherine jumped to her feet and lunged for the senator. She grabbed onto the back of his shirt with both hands and spun on the ball of her foot, throwing Chudelkin to the floor. But to her surprise, the little clown bounced upward, nearly striking her chin as he grabbed onto the edge of the one hundredth floor.
Chudelkin yelped as he struggled to pull himself up to the top floor, shouting pleads of "Save me!" and "Help me, your eminence!" When he finally pulled himself up, the four rebels below heard him exclaim "You traitor! This little bastard betrayed you, Your Eminence! He said he trapped Number Thirty and those other rogues, but he didn't even-"
The little clown didn't even get to finish the sentence as Kirito jumped off of an icy pillar and grabbed onto his leg, swinging in the air as Chudelkin screamed and flailed to try and get him to let go. However, all he managed to accomplish was getting his shoe pulled off of him entirely as Kirito grabbed onto the ledge with his other hand and pulled himself up. Mateo, Katherine, and Alice all followed shortly after him on the floating pedestal, emerging onto the top floor to find Quinella very much awake, and Eugeo supporting himself with his sword, his Integrity Knight armor discarded.
"K- Kirito… And Mateo, and Katherine…" Eugeo breathed, letting out a sigh of relief that turned into a choked cry of unfathomable hope. "And… A- Alice?" he asked, and the blonde Integrity Knight nodded.
"What's up, Eugeo?" Kirito asked, throwing Chudelkin's discarded shoe behind him. Eugeo grinned as tears welled up in his eyes, and then he looked down at the ground.
"I'm sorry… I gave into Administrator's temptations… I tried to kill you. That's why I left you, to sacrifice my life to atone for it," he admitted, and Kirito sighed.
"Tch, I knew that's what you were going for. We've been friends for so long, I can read you like a book," he replied, and Eugeo laughed.
"You never change, do you?" he asked, and Kirito grinned. With that, Eugeo wiped his eyes with his sleeve and pushed off of the sword. He walked over to his friends, using a simple healing spell to mend the wound in his chest, and then he stood by them as they stared at Quinella.
"Is that her?" Kirito asked. "Administrator?"
The others all nodded. "Yes, it is," Alice answered. "She looks the same as she did six years ago."
Quinella narrowed her eyes as she sized up her foes. "Bercouli and Fanatio were just about due for me to reset them, and I knew all along I'd need to reset Mateo and Katherine as well once I realized what they'd done… But you, Alice. I've only had you for what, six years now? Your logic circuits don't seem to be malfunctioning, so perhaps that irregular unit is influencing you… Hmm…" she said. Alice tensed up.
"What is it, Alice? If you have something to say to me, then just say it. I won't get mad. Please," she invited, stepping forward on the bed as her tone became noticeably more barbed. "Speak your mind."
Alice's entire body began to tremble with nervous emotions. Even though she'd proclaimed that she would not be loyal to the Axiom Church or it's leader anymore, the thought of talking back to the one whom she had faithfully served for so long still made her anxious. At that moment, Eugeo laced his hand into hers, and whereas she'd batted him aside not even three days earlier with the hilt of her sword for attempting such an act, now she welcomed the feeling, as though she'd longed for it all her life.
With his support, she planted her heels and stared down the Pontifex. "I will, your Eminence," she answered, placing her hand on the cloth covering her right eye socket. "As of today, the proud, indomitable Order of the Integrity Knights, has fallen. It's downfall came not from the Dark Territory as so many no doubt feared due to our small numbers, but from the swords, words, and actions of the four rebels at my side, and the deceit and obsession of your rule, represented by this cathedral!"
"My duty is not to protect this corrupt church. It is to protect the people of the Four Empires from all that threatens them, regardless of whether such threats come from outside our realm, or within it. And right now, there is no greater threat to them than you," she said in a strong, confident voice.
"You! Shut your mouth!" Chudelkin demanded, furiously running to stand beside his Pontifex. He ranted and raved about how weak and arrogant they were, how impudent they were for backtalking the glorious pontifex, but all the while, Quinella simply gazed at Alice with extreme interest.
"Fascinating… it isn't a logic circuit error after all. And her Piety module is still functioning… There's no other explanation, then. She's broken the code eight seven one by her own volition, rather than sudden emotion…" Quinella mused. "And now that I think about it, it is clear that not only has Katherine done the same, but even though Mateo broke it through emotional outburst, he too has gone long enough without a reset that his parameters are on their levels too…"
She then sighed, ignoring Chudelkin and his angry words. "Well, I won't know how it happened until I run an analysis," she said, stepping down from the bed and looking at Chudelkin. "Now then, Chudelkin?"
The clown gasped in surprise. "Since I am generous, I shall grant you a chance to restore your tattered reputation. Use your sacred arts and deal with them already!" she commanded, flying away and vanishing the bed into thin air with a wave of her hand.
As she walked away, however, Chudelkin ran after her. "B- B- But your eminence, your gloriousness!" he exclaimed.
Quinella stopped. "Yes, what is it…" she answered in a clearly annoyed tone.
Chudelkin got down on his hands and knees before her, causing the five rebels to let out confused sounds. "For the first and only time in my many years of servitude to you, I would like to present you with a most impudent request!" he proclaimed. "I shall happily risk my life annihilating these traitors, but once I have fulfilled your wishes… would you… would you… would you let me touch your exalted body, and kiss your lips, a- and spend one magical night alone with you? Please? Please! I would be eternally grateful if you granted me such a delight!" Chudelkin begged.
The rebels didn't know what to say or even think, but all five of them suddenly wore different expressions on their face. Eugeo stared at the Prime Senator with a look of pure shock, like he hadn't seen this coming. Alice was more concerned than anything, for even though she loathed Chudelkin, seeing him in such a truly pathetic state was enough to make her feel a twinge of concern.
Behind them, Katherine had her eyes shut tight as she gagged in disgust, realizing that what Chudelkin had done to her sister was not an act of lust, but desperation. Meanwhile, Kirito's face was the closest thing any of them had ever seen to a physical manifestation of the saying "Now I've seen everything…".
But whereas the others all seemed to be experiencing varying degrees of surprise or disgust, Mateo was doing everything he could to not burst out laughing at the Prime Senator's display. "Stacia in Heaven… I knew he was always entranced by the Pontifex… but this is ridiculous…" Mateo thought to himself as his eyebrows twitched in amusement.
And he wasn't the only one who found Chudelkin's request to be pathetically amusing. For the first time, perhaps the only time, Mateo and Quinella were of the same mind. The Pontifex openly laughed mockingly at her servant. "Very well, Chudelkin…" she said, causing the clown to look up with a surprised and excited sound. "I swear to the Goddess Stacia, as soon as you have fulfilled your mission, my body will be yours for the taking. Every inch, for one night."
Chudelkin's eyes and nose watered in excitement. "W- Words cannot express the joy you've brought me, your exalted holiness!" he said, before pushing himself up and balancing upside down on the top of his bald, pale white head. "I swear to you, I will not let you down! I am resolute and energized! I am motivated and I am invincible!" he proclaimed, as the tears evaporated from his eyes into tiny clouds of steam. "System Call!" he commanded, clapping his hands together and then holding them off to his sides.
"Generate! Thermal! Elements!" he shouted, and in response, fiery orbs appeared over each of his fingers, each of his toes, and then in front of his eyes. The last two fireballs, both less than an inch from his pale skin, began to burn and char his face from their heat alone. Then, when anyone else would've been screaming in pain, Chudelkin began to laugh. "Now I will show you my greatest sacred art! Come forth Genie, and burn these traitors to ashes!" he said, spinning around to send the fireballs careening past the rebels. Each orb converged in the air high above them all, forming a massive ball of fire which then grew legs, arms, and a head. Chudelkin's eyes then burned away into nothing, with not even ash or cinders remaining, and in the Genie's head formed two massive eyes which stared at the rebels with murderous intent.
A/N: All right y'all, I really do apologize for this. Originally I intended to end The Twenty Fifth Knight off with twenty five chapters, because "haha, funny coincidence, the number of chapters and the name of the story are the same, isn't that just hilarious?" As a result, this last chapter, or what was going to be the last chapter, has become exceedingly long, to the point that even though it's the grand finale of this series, it just didn't feel right to me when I was rereading it.
So, rather than having the last chapter of the Twenty Fifth Knight be many, MANY times longer than like, any other chapter I've ever written for any series, I'm going to follow the anime's decision and split it up into multiple chapters, because that really seems to do better for the pacing in my opinion. Seriously, I kid you not it was super long. Like, I think my longest uploaded chapter for any series I've posted on FF so far was around 7,800 words, with my average being closer to around 5,000 words per chapter, and on the google docs where I write these before proofreading them in FF's edit document page, the large majority of my chapters are about 4, maybe five pages long. This one chapter was more than double that word count, currently clocking in at just shy of 20,000 words, and as far as the pages go? It's at THIRTY, and I'm still not done with the last bit of it!)
Needless to say, I've got two more chapters of this headed your way today, and with any luck, the last chapter or two (for real this time) will be coming not long after, so I hope you've enjoyed this series!