AURORA BOREALIS:
I had to admit, I was mildly impressed. Not a single knight held a weapon within ten seconds after my demand. Swords and shields were thrown into the dirt, bows, and quivers abandoned, and a handful of knives were freed from the boots where they were hidden.
Gripping Longinus in my hand felt so damn right. Like it was what I was meant to do. The spear felt like an extension of myself. I could feel its power of erasure slumbering beneath the surface of the metal, waiting to be unleashed. It felt like a forbidden fruit to me. As tempting as unleashing it sounded, I knew the erasure would be turned on me. So I ignored the sensation.
"Now then, who is the leader of this operation?" I asked. There were two candidates. The first was the man who offered an impressive sum of money to all the men present. When I first had tea with Amon, I had inquired about the currency of the land. My YGGDRASIL coins weren't recognized. Instead, they had copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins. The local gold coins were about half the size of YGGDRASIL coins according to the Amon. A single gold coin was enough for a family to sustain a family for half a year. Five hundred per man? I wasn't an expert on economics, but that sounded absurd. What was such a rich man doing out here? Was this the only way for him to get his rocks off? He must have been lying about the reward.
The second candidate for captain was the man who rallied the men. One of the three individuals with an open-face plate helmet. Vibrant blue eyes and short light-brown hair were the only features I could make out on his face. He spoke with confidence when ordering them, masking the fear I detected coming from him. At the very least, he was a veteran soldier. A quick thinker too. He also ordered the Vice-Captain. It's possible the vice captain obeyed due to the unnatural situation, but I placed my bet on him being the captain.
"M-Me! Me! I'm the captain!" The rich pervert shouted out while crawling towards me on his hands and knees. Damn it.
"Captain," I spoke the world slowly, contempt rich in my voice. He began shivering from my tone. "You and your wretched group will gather in the northwest corner of the village. You will all remove your armor and leave it in a pile. Anyone who grabs a weapon or attempts to flee will be killed. Do you understand, Captain?"
"Y-Yes sir. Lord. I-I understand c-completely, my lord." He stammered out. The fear radiating from him alone was incredible. I'm surprised he can form words.
With a thought, I summoned a principality of observation and a few low-level angels to coral them to their corner. I was going to interrogate them and learn every last detail behind this slaughter. These men were dressed too finely to be mere bandits. No, an organized group was behind this. And given the insignia they all bore, it was likely that they were from a country. It could only be the Baharuth Empire or the Slane Theocracy. This didn't fit the modus operandi of the bloody emperor's current war strategy. Unless there was something I was missing. My only source of information about them was the chief of a remote village, after all. The Slane Theocracy? I have no idea why they would attack a human village. Well, I'll find out soon enough. I cast Shared Senses and looked through the eyes of the principality of observation. The men were shaking in fear, walking in lines between archangel flames while being led by an archangel blaze.
I turned my attention from the invaders to the villagers. I undid the dome shields placed around them by Enoch and canceled Hallowed Ground. I cast that spell to grant them immunity to the passive fear caused by Aura of Despair I. The chief, Amon, rose to his feet and came before me.
"Lord Aurora, thank the heavens you've arrived." He said.
"Be at ease, so long as I am present you are no longer in any danger," I spoke loudly, intending for my words to be heard by all. "A mere day ago, you denizens of the village put in effort to aid me. Allow me to return the favor."
Regardless of my timely rescue, I could feel that the mood was depressing. The woman who was dragged off by the first few invaders I killed was now loudly weeping, clutching a corpse. Several people were weeping openly as if they had already seen a loved one killed. If I practiced scrying mere minutes sooner, there would not have been a single person crying in despair. I rationally understood that it wasn't my fault, that I couldn't have known. I repeated that to myself over and over. It didn't make me feel any better.
"Chief Amon. I'm going to interrogate the brigands who brought ruin to your village." I reached into my inventory and procured a simple silver ring. It was imbued with the message spell. It had three charges, each on a twenty-four-hour cooldown. "Think of my name and face while wearing that ring, and I will hear your thoughts."
I spread my wings and prepared to fly to where the knights were currently removing their gear. Before I could rise, I felt something soft crash into my leg. Looking down, it appeared as though Enri tackled my leg, and was clutching it tightly. That couldn't have been comfortable.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou." She shot out, breathing heavily and hiccuping. Her little sister, Nemu, also ran forward and hugged my leg with Enri.
"Thank you so much, sir!" Nemu cried out. Her father, Richard Emmot, rose to his feet and unsteadily walked forward. He collapsed to his knees.
"T-Thank you, Lord Aurora. We are in your debt forevermore." He leaned forward onto his hands and bowed his head towards the earth. His wife, Joan Emmot, came forward and bowed on all fours next to him. Everyone who wasn't weeping while clutching another was looking at us. And then one person also bowed before me. Like a domino effect, the entire village bowed. The chief was the only one standing. He looked back and forth between me and the villagers before kneeling with them. I didn't know what to say. And so, I said nothing. I reached down and ruffled the hair of the Emmot girls. They both looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. After a few seconds of staring between the three of us, they let go of my leg.
I launched into the sky and flew towards the brigands. I could have flown faster but I needed a moment to compose myself. I considered my emotional state and how I felt about the massacre. These villagers saw a troubled stranger of an unknown species and decided to grant him shelter. The villagers I interacted with were kind. The Emmot family was amusing, the chief and his wife were excellent hosts, and the herbalist burned through most of his medicines trying to treat me. Carne Village was composed of good people. Yea, I was pissed.
I sped my flight up and landed harshly on the ground where the disarmed group sat, surrounded by angels. Just like how they held the villagers captive. They all flinched at my arrival. The duct cloud kicked up by my landing drifted in their direction, causing a few of them to cough. A few meters from their huddle, a small pile of armor lay on the ground, the archangel blaze hovering menacingly over it. In the sky a few hundred meters above the village, the principality of observation hovered. It was watching not just these men, but also the villagers and the surrounding areas.
The men were shivering, nervous wrecks. Their lowly captain was at the edge of the circle, eyeing me with fear. I can use that.
"Your lives," I began, "lie solely in my hand. No god, angel, or demon could save you from my wrath. Whether or not I will kill you depends on how satisfied I am with the answers I receive from you. And even then, I may still kill you on a whim. Am I understood?"
I received a lot of nodding and murmured affirmations. I turned my eyes towards the captain.
"Captain," I said, savoring the word in my mouth. "Come forth."
"Y-Yes, my lord." He said, crawling forth.
"On your feet."
"Yes, my lord." He said, straightening himself.
"State your name"
"Belius von Edmund."
"State your purpose."
"A-Attack and burn down villages to lure out Re-Estize's Warrior Captain."
Not the answer I was expecting.
"State who you serve."
"T-The Slane Theocracy."
The men huddled behind him tensed up, inhaled sharply, and exchanged looks among themselves. All signs of nervousness. He was telling the truth.
"Describe this Warrior Captain to me."
Belius blinked. He wasn't expecting this question.
"He's the most powerful warrior in both Re-Estize and Baharuth. His martial prowess and fierce loyalty to the king make it difficult for Baharuth to prevail in the wars."
"Why does the Slane Theocracy, a human-centric nation, seek to cause strife among the human nations?"
This was the board that broke the camel's back. Belius began blubbering.
"I DON'T KNOW-OH-OH! I'M SORRY! I WASN'T T-TOLD THE DETAILS! PLEASE DON'T KI-" Before he could cry further, I reached out and grabbed him by the mouth.
"I'm greatly disappointed by these answers." I threw him into the dirt to the side before addressing the rest of the group. "Would anyone else care to fill in the blanks?"
The veteran who rallied the rest of the men stood up, waded through the kneeling men, and stopped two meters from me. He bowed at the waist, and held the bow for a few seconds, before standing tall and looking me in the eye.
"Londes Di Clamp." He said. "I was captain of this group prior to Belius von Edmund's abrupt assignment to this group."
I could detect Londes's fear. Within his heart was almost as much as Belius's fear. But where Belius panicked and writhed, Londes swallowed his fear and acted bravely. Despite the atrocities committed by his men, I couldn't help but hold a glimmer of respect for him.
"Oh? And why was Beliu-" Before I could finish my question, I was interrupted by the sound of Belius getting up and sprinting, panting like an animal. All the angels present, including the principality of observation, telepathically communed to me that one of the brigands was fleeing. Enoch even flashed a bright red triangle in the bottom right of my vision to alert me. Amusing. I almost snorted at his little escape attempt. Languidly, I turned around and raised my arm to cast bind. I'll capture him and deal with him late-
Time seemed to slow down. It slowed down to a screeching halt. What was happening? I couldn't move. I thrashed my limbs but they were restricted. Nothing in YGGDRASIL was like this.
Greater Teleportation
The spell didn't cast. Impossible. That spell has a zero percent chance of failing. Before I could panic further, I felt an overbearing presence surround me. It felt like I was being watched from all directions around me, from inside me. The pressure was unbearable. As a boy, I once almost drowned. The fear of flailing for my own life in that swimming pool was the most traumatic experience I ever had. I still had nightmares as a grown adult over twenty years later. And yet, compared to this feeling, that time I almost drowned felt pleasant. Very, very slowly, Belius was still running away. Each step took what felt like a minute to me.
RULE WITH AN IRON FIST.
Those words pounded through my skull. The voice was…my own. What? That's…one of the tenets of the oath of conquest…My paladin oath. What the hell was happening? I turned my attention inward, to the latent powers I felt within myself. I looked towards the paladin powers and felt nauseous. They felt…distant. As I focused on them, I could feel the oath where they originated from. Like branches from a tree. And as I felt my oath, it was identical to the wrathful feeling pinning me down. With a rush of clarity, I realized what was going on. I swore to kill any of them who tried to flee, yet I chose to not kill Belius when he fled.
"Anyone who grabs a weapon or attempts to flee will be killed. Do you understand, Captain?"
ONCE YOU HAVE CONQUERED, TOLERATE NO DISSENT. YOUR WORD IS LAW. THOSE WHO OBEY IT SHALL BE FAVORED. THOSE WHO DEFY IT SHALL BE PUNISHED AS AN EXAMPLE TO ALL WHO MIGHT FOLLOW.
In YGGDRASIL lore, a paladin's oath is more than just a magic promise. It's a divine vow that's branded onto the paladin's very soul. As my avatar swore an oath of conquest, and I was inserted into my avatar, the oath of conquest was now branded onto my soul. I deliberately chose an action that went against my oath's tenets. My oath now pressed down and around my soul as a warning, letting me know exactly what tenet was being broken and why. Despite the intense pressure writhing within me, crushing from the inside out, my oath felt…fragile. Brittle, prone to shattering. The divine powers were twisted and turned, on the verge of becoming something else, something darker. An oathbreaker.
It wasn't too late. If I killed Belius, my oath would relax and would ease back into the oath of conquest. I felt my oath imbue divine might from my core into my held-out hand, felt it gather a spell to instantly kill him. My oath was offering to take control and rectify matters itself. It was tempting. I could surrender control of my own body for a few moments and let the oath fix itself. Or I could resist the oath and make my own decision. I could fight back against the divine might within my core and spare him. Become something unrecognizable. I chose to not surrender control. Time resumed.
Bind
Ghostly white chains wrapped up around Belius. My oath screamed at me. I stalked forward to the man, reached into my inventory, and pulled out Longinus. I turned my gaze inward, to the writhing, raging oath, and pulled divine might directly from it. My negligence caused this. I would not simply surrender control and allow my oath to be correct. I would resolve this myself. Divine might surrounded my person and encased my spear. My entire self glowed brighter than the greatest of beacons. With this much divine power flowing through and around me, I felt invincible. I thrust the spear forward.
Smite
Overkill. I could kill him with my bare hands. I could kill him with a single stick. Using the paladin class's signature ability to smite him with Longinus could have killed the human ten thousand times. Yet I chose to do so. I was sending a message to my furious, wrathful oath. An apology, a vow of responsibility, and a promise to do better.
As I watched the human's body disintegrate around my spear from the overload of divine energy, I turned my senses inward to my soul. To the oath branded on it. And I sensed approval.