The Dustbin

Day 22: Social Studies Part 3


12th of Garland Moon, Morning


"THIS WASN'T PART OF THE PLAN!" Lord Lonato yelled out indignantly as Dark Mages set bales of hay and timber ablaze before the Wyvern Knights commanded their mounts to drop them into the keep from above.

"On the contrary, it is," said the Dark Bishop, differing from the Dark Mages from its hood over his beaked mask, "right after your forces failed to hold off the Central Church insects and leading them knocking right at your front door," the masked man pointed out in a caustic tone, "if you're going to blame someone, either blame the Church for sending their most rabid attack dog unto us or your own men being too incompetent even with our contributions. We're the furthest thing from charity, you know."

"Point being," the Flame Emperor interjected before the two can trade blows, walking into the scene accompanied by a pair of heavily-armored Generals and the masked Black Mage, "circumstances have changed due to unforeseen factors, so we must readjust," the armored figure pointed out before turning to the Dark Mages and the Wyvern Knights, "continue to set the keep ablaze! Destroy all evidence!"

"MY MEN ARE STILL IN THERE!" the Lord cried out as he was held back by the other Mercenaries from behind.

"Their loss, no skin off of our nose," the Dark Bishop apathetically remarked before casting [Fire] towards the fort set ablaze, "if anything, they'll buy us time. I'll make sure to notify my associates and other outsourcers of that."

"Regrettable as is, sacrifices must be made," the Black Mage remarked, "the revolution cannot continue when their leader is made martyr too soon, no?"

All the Lord can do is simply growl in frustration before he made a reluctant retreat with his benefactors.

... I will avenge all of you... Lord Lonato thought as the pain of loss melted in with his preexisting inferno of hatred that smoldered in his very soul, ... may the Goddess grant you all peace o brave warriors!

As the mysterious group and their beneficiary flighted away from the blazing fortress, inside of the tinderbox of stone and timber were those who still fought on inside, either completely unaware that they were all forsaken to their fiery demises or too blinded by bloodlust to even pay attention to the encroaching inferno surrounding them.

As for the Dustbin trapped in the burning halls of the fort, one was still trapped in his own cell, another was on an indiscriminate warpath, while the other three were breaking open a door into the storage room, finding rations and their stolen supplies of [Potions] and [Pure Water] along with their confiscated weapons amongst the other soldiers's.

"On a good day, we would literally clean out the whole base and be done with it," sighed out Byron as he collected only their own bare essentials, "but we have no way to cart them all out..."

"Well shite," Sorcha snapped as she hoisted her [Claymore] off of the rack and slinging the titanic sword around her back as she sheathed Topaz's [Bolo] around her waist, "gotta do what we gotta.

"Right," Selene remarked as she took a [Steel Bow] and a full quiver in place of her own along with taking the Professor's [Crescent Sickle] with her, "but we can replace them with something better in the future."

"Yeah, says the people who can afford to do so..." grumbled Byron as he eyed a giant [Tomahawk] that was just lying there, unable to wield it properly before just taking back his belt of [Hand Axes], "... not even a [Short Axe]. Really?"

But as soon as the three went outside, they've now just noticed that the temperature has spiked upwards at an increasingly-dangerous rate and the air around them was being replaced with smoke.

"... We need to go, now," Byron remarked as he led the other two throughout the fort being slowly devoured by the flames.

As they turned from corner to corner, Sorcha resorting to punching out the Soldiers that got in their way due to her sword being too massive to be wielded indoors, the three try to find a way out but only ends up finding dead end after dead end.

"Bloody hell..." growled out Sorcha as she kicked a Myrmidon between his legs before punching his teeth in, "things cannot get any worse!"

But right as she says such thing, the three turn the corner to find an entire hallway littered with horrifically-maimed guards lying amongst the blaze.

"... Ye were sayin'?!" Selene groaned out.

"... Okay..." spoke Byron upon witnessing the scene straight out of hell, "... Vidar was here-"

A scream was heard ahead right before a severed head rolled into view.

"Nearby too," Sorcha remarked as she covered her mouth and nose with her own clothes, "sis, you holding on?"

"Me eyes are about to pop from the smoke..." she groaned out, her hyperopia not helping matters in the slightest through the smoke and flames.

"You two can jump out if you want," Byron remarked as he pointed to a open vent next to them.

"And leave ye and others behind?!" Sorcha gawked, "yer arse will be cooked alive in here!"

"Not to mention," Selene remarked as she looked down from the hole, only to find nothing but bare earth and a few suspicious-looking men retreating further away from here, "bones heal but we don't have the time."

"Alright, new plan," Byron remarked before he doused the twins with two bottles of [Pure Water] before dousing himself with the last bottle, "don't die," he stated as he handed the bag of [Potions] and the others' weapons to the twins, "stick to that plan, as per usual."

"Agreed," the twins remarked in unison before the three of them traversed towards the smoldering ruins.

Around the same time, at a certain room where Karna himself was still bound in chains, Vidar stood before him, still blind in his flames-induced madness and in the moment of attacking Karna if the latter weren't careful with his words.

"... So uh... you okay?" asked Karna.

"... Professor..." Vidar grunted out, "... you... not on... fire..."

"Wait, fire?" Karna remarked as he sniffed the air, picking up smoke, "... huh, wonder why it felt a little warmer all of the sudden. Can you get me out of here-"

A pained yell was heard from behind Vidar, revealing itself to be a Fighter with an [Iron Axe] that he swung down overhead.

Vidar rolls out of the way with the blow instead grazing Karna's hood before the axhead hit the ground in front of him.

"Hey hey hey! Watch the hood!" Karna remarked as the other two wrestled each other to the ground.

As the two continued to struggle against each other, Karna then began ascertaining the current situation in his mind.

Okay, first, calm down and look around, the Professor thought to himself as he cleared his mind before reopening his eyes back to the present, second, the whole fort is on fire, meaning that either someone got too careless with the lit torches in the dungeons or that whoever's helping them is trying to destroy all evidence of their involvement, casualties be damned, he hypothesized, trying to make heads or tails of the chaos as the Fighter surprisingly held his own against Vidar's own hysterical strength, and finally, whoever's dumb enough to be left behind, either they've volunteered to cover for their Lord's retreat or their stubborn sense of "knight's honor" overriding their sense of survival, Karna surmised as Vidar pulls a reversal in his grapple against the enemy by mounting atop of him, if it's the former, then Lonato is no longer present in this little catastrophe. If the latter, then Lonato's "benefactors" decided to cut and run, the aforementioned former being a possibility rather than a guarantee.

His thoughts were then cut off by Vidar finally finishing off his opponent by driving his thumbs into the Fighter's eyes, the bandaged digits buried into the sockets all the way down to their hilt. After finishing off his opponent, Vidar picks up the [Iron Axe] before slashing through Karna's chains.

"Thanks," Karna remarked before Vidar ran off on his own, "... I should get going too."

As Karna left his interrogation room, he quickly found himself in a smoke-filled hallways of the fortress.

"Thank the Goddess for the place being adequately ventilated," remarked Karna as he ran towards one of the holes in the fortress's inner walls before taking a peek outside, spotting a familiar-looking silhouette of a certain Swordmaster heading towards their way.

"OI!" Karna cried out towards the horizon, "A LITTLE HELP HERE-"

He was then met with [Thunderbrand] nailed right next to the hole where he was peeking out from.

"YOU IDIOT!" Catherine barked back as soon as she stopped running towards the burning fort, "YOU HAD ONE JOB! ONE DAMNED JOB AND YOU MESSED IT UP!"

"I WOULD CONTINUE BUT AS YOU CAN SEE," Karna barked back as he threw back the sword towards the Knight of Seiros, "WE'RE IN A BIT OF A TROUBLE IN HERE!"

"FINE FINE!" the Swordmaster barked back as she retrieved her [Thunderbrand] from the ground, "I'LL GET UP THERE AND SAVE YOUR HIDE-"

"ENEMIES INBOUND!" one of the Swordmasters alerted Catherine, with a company of Mercenaries and Cavaliers coming towards the burning fortress from the same direction where the Lord has retreated.

"On second thought, FIND ANOTHER WAY OUT!" Catherine pointed to Karna before she engaged the enemy reinforcements.

The Professor himself groans at the unfortunate turn of events.

"Brilliant," groaned out Karna as he saw the Swordmasters engage the enemy, among the crowd being Cyrus and Darius mowing through the opposition like a rampaging beast of the apocalypse, "... wait," he remarked as the Professor noticed someone missing from the crowd, "... where's Topaz?"


Elsewhere Inside the Burning Fort...

"Oi, do you know where yer feking goin'?!" Sorcha barked out as she delivered another roundhouse kick to a Soldier's jaw.

"I feel like we've been here before," Selene remarked as she shot her [Steel Bow] at a charging Myrmidon, "for about the third time in a row."

"THIS PLACE IS A DAMN LABYRINTH!" snapped Byron as he shot his [Frost] spell towards a Monk on fire before throwing a [Hand Axe] into his skull, "I DIDN'T SEE A MAP OF THIS PLACE ANYWHERE! ASSUMING IF IT HAS ONE TO BEGIN WITH!"

"SO WE'RE LOST IN THIS BLOODY TINDERBOX?!" Sorcha cried out before she started coughing from the thickening smoke, "... shite, we're runnin' out of time..."

"... Too high up..." Selene pointed out as she looked down from the fort's open windows, only to find nothing but the hard earth below, "we'll die before we reach the ground."

"This is all my fault," Byron growled out in frustration before he clashed with a Fighter with a [Hammer] but its head wrapped in burning cloth, "... you..." he uttered as he saw the burning weapon and the familiar face that once passed by him in Byron's cell, only that his head was malformed like squashed fruit and bleeding all over his brows, "you started this, didn't you?"

"Who the hell are you?" the Fighter with the gnarled face replied, "this isn't my fault. You're in fault for leaving your cells!"

The crazed Fighter then swings down his burning [Hammer] towards Byron, who in turn, blocked the burning bludgeon with a pair of [Hand Axes] covered in [Frost] to keep them from catching fire.

"SORCHA! SELENE! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Byron roared out as he held on, "I'LL HOLD HIM OFF!"

"YOU IDJIT!" Sorcha cried out, "DON'T PLAY THE FEKING HERO! YOU LOOK LIKE SHITE DOIN' IT!"

The Fighter with the burning [Hammer] lets out a frenzied cry reminiscent of a certain crazed classmate of theirs as he continued pressing forth with his attack as the fort around him continued to catch on fire.

"... Heh, I deal with people like him for a living Sorcha," Byron grinned as he continued to hold on, even as the flames and smoke encroached the two, "... what are you two waiting for?!" he growled out as he turned his eye towards the two, "FLY YOU FOOLS!"

The twins then run the other way, leaving Byron by himself.

"... So you really do have the blood of Faerghus in your veins..." the Fighter remarked with a maniacal grin, "I was worried that you would use superior numbers to best me..." he pointed out before he kicked Byron in the knees, forcing him to kneel and be put into a disadvantageous position, "ONCE A FOOL, ALWAYS A FOOL!"

"... Pot calling the kettle black, by the way," Byron remarked as he noticed a faded tattoo on the Fighter's neck depicting a skull with a pair of crossed scythes behind the visage of death, "... that is, if you're even from Faerghus anyway."

"Oh?" the Fighter remarked as he pressed down his burning [Hammer], "and who are you to claim to know who I really am?!"

"Tell me where the Death God Bandits are hiding," Byron asked straight, "right after I kill your behind, I'm going to pay a visit."

"Dream on!" the Fighter retorted as he mounted atop Byron, "you and I are going to die here!" he gloated, now completely out of his mind as the sensation of death surrounded them, "just like dear old mommy and daddy-"

An [Iron Sword] flies out of the surrounding flames before impaling the Fighter through his back.

"... About time you showed up," coughed out Byron as he wrestled aside the dead Fighter, spotting Topaz through he flames.

"What you did was utterly moronic, Byron Amadesu Noa," Topaz stated, "what do you have to gain from dying prematurely?"

"... It was a calculated risk," Byron answered as his eyes shifted to the side, the little Hassan not buying his bluff as she narrowed her eyelids, "... okay, it was a flat-out gamble."

Topaz sighs in frustration. "As soon as this mission is over, you and I need to talk, mister."

"Yes ma'am," he replied as he was then dragged out of the way where Topaz originally snuck in from.

In essence, the same hole in the wall that the twins looked down upon.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!" Byron remarked as he tried to struggle but his battered body unable to move as it he wanted to, "also, HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET UP HERE FROM DOWN THERE?!"

"Land on your feet, like cats do," Topaz remarked and implied her method before she threw Byron off the edge as she followed suit after.

Byron himself lands on his side whereas Topaz gracefully lands on her feet despite the high three-story drop.

"Argh... there goes my arm..." grunted out Byron as he felt his left arm being broken in a few places.

"You'll live," Topaz dismissively remarked, "for now, hang back-"

Bursting from the burning front doors stood Vidar, [Iron Axe] in hand, slowly walking towards the direction where the enemy reinforcements were at but his sanity not currently present in his eyes.

"... It's hot..." Vidar heaved out, smoke fuming from his very EXPOSED pores as he trudged blindly towards where the carnage was heard from before he broke out into a sprint, "... IT'S HOOOOTTT!"

Before Vidar can reach where Catherine and the others were, Byron tackles him down to the ground.

"Vidar?!" Topaz gawked out as this surprisingly bold display coming from Byron of all people.

"GO GET THE OTHERS INSIDE!" Byron plead desperately as he held Vidar back from his rampage, "DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME, JUST GO!"

Topaz then runs past the two and reenters the fort in flames.

"VIDAR! VIDAR!" Byron cried out as he tried to hold the flailing boy still, "IT'S ME! BYRON!"

"IT'S TOO HOT! IT'S CRUSHING ME!" Vidar thrashed, "IT'S CRUSHING AND BURNING ME!" he screamed out under the influence of his own trauma-induced delirium, "GET ME OUT! GET ME OUT OF HERE! IT'S TOO HOT!"

Even as Byron tried to cast [Frost] onto both himself and Vidar, the bandaged youth's body heat continuing to increase despite Byron's own body becoming colder to the touch with each successive casting.

Dammit! It's not working! Byron thought as he kept casting [Frost] beyond his bodily limitations, his body is like an open furnace and mine is on the verge of frostbite! Human biology isn't supposed to work that way!

Nevertheless, despite all logic dictating Byron to simply cut and run Vidar as a lost cause, he still held on. Even as steam and smoke surrounded the two, Byron refused to let go. Even as his fingers were starting to turn black and numb from his own body losing their internal temperature, Byron doesn't find it in himself to simply abandon Vidar.

"... I'm not letting go," Byron stated, his sole, unbroken right arm grasping even tighter around Vidar's manic panicked state of mind and body, "... in a world of irrationality... you are my sole rock of sanity..." he declared, "... you and I... are going to get enough gold, graduate at the academy and find a place for ourselves where we can grow old together even as the world burns for all we care!"

"... By... Byron..." sobbed out Vidar, "... help me... it's too hot..."

Byron smile in pain, his resolve strengthened by his friend's cry for help in a brief moment of lucidity in his own torrent of madness.

"... Hang on then," Byron remarked as his [Frost] began to wane from overuse, "let's go back to where we all met..." he said even as his own spells faded in intensity, yet grew colder as it slowly approached expiration, "... [Blizzard]."

A violent vortex of freezing winds engulf the two youths.

"... Remember..." begged Byron as his voice slowly weakened, "... remember everything outside of your own pain!"


At the Incursion Zone...

"These guys just don't quit!" complained Catherine as she cut down a charging Cavalier down from his mount.

"MORE FOR ME!" Cyrus cackled out triumphantly as he charged towards a fleeing Mercenary, "CRUSH EM, DARIUS!"

Cyrus and Darius immediately trample the fleeing swordsman underfoot.

"At least someone's having fun..." murmured Catherine as she offhanded another Cavalier that tried to take her from behind, her [Thunderbrand] slashing through the horse's legs as she crouched below the enemy's [Steel Lance] before sending its rider flying off of his saddle and facefirst into the dirt ahead.

Upon landing, an audible snap was heard, much to the Knight of Seiros's displeasure. "... It doesn't get any easier now, does it?"

"TO HELL WITH THAT! I'M IN WARRIOR HEAVEN!" Cyrus wickedly cackled as he swung his own [Steel Lance] towards another Mercenary, swatting his weapon across his butt and sending him barreling towards the other company of sellswords, knocking them off of their feet upon impact.

"WHAT'S WITH THE DAMNED ALMYRAN?!" one of the Mercenaries cried out as said "Almyran" charged towards them, "I THOUGHT THEY LIVED FURTHER WESTWARD OR WERE CHOIR BOYS IN THE CENTRAL CHURCH!"

"NONE SHALL DEFANG ME!" declared Cyrus as he ran his [Steel Lance] through the sellswords, making way for the Swordmasters to clear out the disorganized opposition.


Back Inside the Burning Fort... Again...

Karna kicks down every door he can find despite the smoke filling up the air. He knew that the scouting mission was already a failure, so the least he can do is to make sure that he doesn't come back empty-handed.

"Documents... documents... any sort of implications of the whole picture..." muttered Karna as he kicked down one door at a time in succession, either finding an empty room or an office with burning papers. Neither of which were desirable at the moment, for obvious of reasons currently presents. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" the Professor cursed he continued kicking down every door he can find, "COME ON! HOW OLD IS THIS DAMN FORT TO CATCH FIRE THIS QUICKLY?!"

Every door kicked down revealing nothing of value was more time wasted. Desperation increased with each minute passed with nothing to show for.

"At this point, we won't be able to cover our monthly expenses in one go!" gritted Karna as he kept repeating the act of kicking down every single door he can find to the point of insanity, "come on, for the love of the Goddess! GET ME SOMETHING GOOD!"

With one last kick to a pair of plated doors, Karna then comes across a modest study, presumably belonging to Lord Lonato or any of his delegates. But with how short-staffed domestically and how much outsourcing there was within Lord's little rebellion's ranks, it could be presumed that the former might be the case.

"And lo and behold..." Karna greedily smiled as he ripped the locked drawers with brute force, musing that there were harder-to-open pickle urns during his travels, "... voila," he declared in triumph as he stuffed the written documents and letters exchanged between the Lord of Gaspard and his "benefactors" into his robes, worrying out their legibility later as long they don't catch fire.

He then brute-forces another cabinet open, taking a [Silver Shield] for himself before he finished looted what was left inside the study. As he turned back, he finds Topaz walking into the room.

"You're wasting time," she remarked, noticing that the Professor's robes looking fatter than usual, "at this point, you'll end up as a suckling pig."

"Eh, not the worst that has happened to me," muttered the Professor as doused himself with bottle of [Pure Water] he'd found along side with his new bulwark, "alright Miss Topaz. Let's bounce."

"I'll lead," the Hassan Myrmidon said as she led the Professor towards the front door.

As the the two braved through the hallways alight with hellish blaze, the sounds of steel clashing was heard from ahead.

"Even after everything, there are still people resisting?!" Karna pointed out in disbelief.

"Hence, I was taught to kill my enemies in their sleep," Topaz replied, "they're more easier to deal with then rather then when they are awake."

As soon as they reached the grand halls were the main entrance was, Karna and Topaz notice two VERY concerning things.

First, there were the McCarthy twins surrounded by crazed and overzealous Soldiers and Myrmidons between the two of them above the stairwell and the broken down front door.

Second, beyond the door, there was a violent snowstorm happening in EARLY SUMMER.

"OI! PROFESSOR!" Sorcha cried out as she wielded her [Claymore] as an improv-shield while also using its wide reach to create distance between them and the hostiles, "A LITTLE HELP ERE'?!"

"YOU IDIOTS! ALL OF YOU!" Karna barked out, finally reaching the limits of his patience upon seeing this scene of utter stupidity before him, "YOUR LORD HAS LEFT YOU LOT, THE FORT IS ON FIRE AND YET YOU STILL STAND RATHER THAN FLEE WITH YOUR LIVES INTACT?! CAN'T YOU SEE THERE IS NO POINT OF CONTINUING THIS CHARADE?!"

"... You've dishonored us," a Soldier pointed out, "... if you've just stayed in your cells and let us do our work-"

"And let us die?" Topaz retorted, "of course I knew that for a fact. It's just that it is more preferable to have you dead than us," she pointed out, "call it bias but yours has reached intolerable heights of selfishness."

"We are just..." the Myrmidon with a severed arm spat back, "... you're all criminal scum who've disobeyed Lord Lonato's laws!"

"This wouldn't have happened..." a one-eyed Fighter groaned out, "... IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" he pointed towards Karna, "IT IS YOUR FAULT FOR NOT DYING LIKE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO, BLACK CAT!"

Karna clicks his tongue before letting out a deep sigh.

"... How unfortunate," the Professor lamented as his gloved hands glowed in deep purple, "alas, it is not the first time I've disposed of WALKING CORPSES! [SWARM Z]!"

A cloud of spectral flies and bugs was unleashed upon the Lord's lost legion, scattering them in mass panic as Sorcha grabbed Selene by her wrist before dragging her across the black fog of smoke and ghost bugs towards where Karna and Topaz were at.

"For ye," Selene remarked as she handed [Bolo] back to Topaz, the latter smiling a bit and nuzzling against the ventilated rectangular blade, "and for ye too."

"Finally," Karna flashed a wicked grin as he was handed his [Crescent Sickle] before twirling it around and striking a modest battle pose, "let's wrap this up."

"CHARGE!" the Soldier cried out, leading the lost legion to bumrush towards the Dustbin.

"Time to die," Topaz remarked as she threw down a improv-dust bomb made of paper wrapping ash and sand inside towards them before blending into the haze, signaling the start of their final battle.


In Delirium...

Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold.

A paradox of two kinds of Hells, each spoused by different beliefs.

The one worshipping one Goddess envisions an endless expanse of flames and smoke. The antithesis of life and love.

The other worshipping many deities claim a world of eternal winter and ice. The withering indifference that kills all.

All Vidar knew were two kinds of Hells. He was born in one and thrown into another.

His soul was too withered to make any memories that defined him. His soul too charred to define his own self-worth.

For Vidar, the world was a special kind of Hell. Of which its evil makes the hottest of flames and the coldest of ice feel pleasant to the kind of torment he'd went through.

You're not welcome here.

Get out of here, you filth.

Hey guys! I found our new target practice!

Your kind are below peasants! You're not loved by the Goddess!

KINGKILLERS! SPARE NONE OF THEM!

What do they know of love? Or filth? Or of practice?

Vidar knew only of hatred. To hate the world so much that he swore to destroy it with his own two hands.

He would be destined to become the empty hole that would devour all light into complete darkness. A world only people like him can be safe and content.

Wait, someone's alive?!

He knew that he was soon to be sent away from his torment. Whoever it was, he begged to be dead.

Still breathing. ... I can use a friend.

... Friend. A word he'd never heard of.

Hey. You alright?

At first, he was angry that he was still subjected to this torment that others called "life".

You look like hell man. Let me help.

He asked why.

I got no friends, like you! And I also have people after my life!

Suddenly, he understood. He understood what friend means. It means more than just him and himself.

Wanna team up and kill em together before they take us down?

He asked for his name.

Call me Byron. Family's dead. Now I wanna kill those who killed them because it's my life goal for no reason! What's yours.

He can't answer.

... How about Vidar? The Duscuran God of Vengeance? Sounds super-cool, right?

The two then smile. Yes, it defined both his rage and emptiness perfectly.

Alright Vidar! the boy named Byron stated as he picked up a rusty hatchet lying flat on the ground, let's take this whole world for ourselves and make it more interesting for ourselves! One kill at a time!

"VIDAR!"

He opens his eyes, seeing Byron fight back against his blazing hell with his own freezing hell.

"IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, SCREAM BACK YOU DUMBASS!"

The air was no longer the choking smoke nor the biting cold.

It was clean. He didn't need to hesitate now.

"BYRON!" Vidar cried out. As soon as he yelled out, the snowstorm along with the inferno peters out of existence.

Around his arms was Byron.

"... You're really toasty to the touch, you know that?" Byron muttered out.

"... You feel nice..." Vidar muttered out, "... like water..."

"Gaaayyyy," droned out Sorcha from behind the two, coming out of the smoking fort with the rest of the Dustbin, all of them completely baked, only for her to be bonked aside the head by her twin sister.

"Sister, behave," Selene reprimanded, "they were having a moment."

"It ain't me fault for the battle ending too quickly!" remarked the claw-tattooed twin, "those bastards died before I hit em with me sword!"

"To be fair, Miss McCarthy," Karna remarked, "the smoke and flames did them in before Topaz cleaned out every single one of them before we had the chance."

"I must stress that we wasted enough time in there," Topaz pointed out, "if I had to go in there one more time, I've done so to kill any of you left behind solely out of spite."

"Oh really now?"

In front of everyone stood Catherine, now sporting an unnerving smile on her face that did EXTREMELY little to hide her bloodlust towards Karna specifically.

"Give me, one reason, on why I shouldn't kill your behinds, right now," the Knight of Seiros asked threateningly, "and write all of your deaths, as an 'accident'."

"... Flagrant abuse of power?" pointed out Karna, to which he was met with Catherine reaching for her sword, "... turning in our own deaths as an advantage too soon?"

[Thunderbrand] crackled and electrified the air around them as its wielder slowly unsheathes the legendary blade. "One, more, try," threatened Catherine, thunder and lightning lashing and dancing about her, "or you're all DEAD MEAT-"

"HEY PROFESSOR!" Cyrus came in riding atop Darius's back like a scion of death and carnage as his blood-splattered uniform and bent-[Steel Lance] around his hands. His sudden entrance defusing all of the mounting tension in the air with his own brand of dissonant jubilations. "Huh? What's going on here?"

Catherine lets out a loud groan before she sheathes back her [Thunderbrand]. "... Forget it," she remarked, her tone being best best described as "done with life", "all of you, explain to the Archbishop, IN PERSON."

As the Knight of Seiros stomped away before kicking a tree so hard that it partially uproots it from the ground, the rest of the Dustbin look at each other in confusion.

"... Mission accomplished?" Karna reassured with a weak smile.


To Be Continued...


Author's Notes: Happy 2022, made a new year's resolution to write a novel to hopefully get into a novel course for college and just picked up Digimon TCG as a second hobby alongside OverDress.

Regarding this chapter trying to expand the context behind [Mutiny in the Mist], yeah, the Flame Emperor would seem like the kind of person who would've dabbled with Lord Lonato just to "test the waters" to see how the Church holds up in combat. Warfare itself can be analyzed and studied to ascertain an enemy's behavior. Sending one of their strongest to deal with a relatively small rebellion is telling of a lot.

Granted, the Western Church, like in canon, are also a part of this little mess but unlike the canon, their role is minimal at best, nominal fall-guys at worst.

With that said, I had to write this chapter in a very short order, so no references this time.

Next chapter, wrap-ups, behind the scenes BS and supports. See you all in a bit.