It Lives.
The two of them walked through the ruins of the city. Because even now there were still carts standing on the very edge of the city. Perhaps three days had been enough to move all of the people free of the city for most of them could walk and carry themselves.
It was not enough to move six months of food for a city out alongside them. Which sounded like a serious problem for someone else to deal with because he had no clue. There were some things he could not do.
Things like organising food for the refugees, rallying the demoralised populace, withholding his desire to pose at any interval. Convince Eta not to sneak into the city and study the portal. Sometimes you had to give up on certain things, and that was okay.
Rose was looking around pensively so he broke the silence. "To see the city where you grew up reduced to ruins must be a shock."
"It isn't really the city I grew up in." Rose looked out over the wreckage. "Father kept both me and Clara away from the capitol for the longest time, and only Mother ever joined him here. I know the people here were supposed to look up to me, but all I have memories of are my Summer and Winter homes."
A summer and winter home because everyone surely had both of those. While he had barely enough to afford his props even before Gamma charged him for all the people he was sending her way.
If you were to talk about his childhood memories all he would have was the Kagenou estate, and a small empty cottage that had long been abandoned.
He thought back on it. Perhaps a city lost in the mists of time, one that he could never see again fixed or in ruins for that world was long gone.
"A baron's household generally only has the one, it is hard to imagine."
Rose winced. "I suppose it would be and I guess I always did know my upbringing was spoiled. But after Father sent Mother away to protect Clara, he's been leaning on me more heavily and it's taken its toll on him."
The Queen wasn't dead. He'd wondered given that no one had mentioned her previously in front of him. "They must be close." It wasn't like he could say much else.
"They really were, to the point where I wanted a marriage like theirs one day." Rose had a forlorn look on her face. "That I would do them both proud when I took over as a queen strong enough to protect the kingdom they'd worked so hard to leave to me. But now that I have the chance to protect it all I can do is lean on you for I was never strong enough to fight Mordred." It was a wistful sigh that ended her words.
"It is said that the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won." It was quite a famous quote the first time he'd heard it said even as he watched her wilt from the corner of his eyes. "But such people are fools, for war seldom comes for you with an abundance of time but in sharp and brutal opportunities whether you are ready for them or not."
Rose lowered her head. "I wanted to be a good queen when the time came though. To see that I was leading them all to disaster when I thought I was doing well." She trailed off.
"There is a beauty in dreaming even in the face of disaster, of standing even when all hope looks lost. For while it is true that you might fall no matter how hard you try."
He let a smile hit his face. "We always lose when we give up on our dreams."
Rose smiled back at him. "Did that help you become strong enough to achieve yours?"
He let his hands rest behind his head. "Well even now my dream is still too far away. But the chance you gave me to come here… it is closer than it has been in a long time." He could really say he'd changed the course of nations at this point with his games.
She looked thoughtfully at him. "But when I dragged you into this it was only on the idea of killing a few bandits, and instead well…" She looked at the devastated city around them. "It has spiralled entirely out of my control, and I've left you picking up the pieces."
That wasn't how it had been at all. "A demon that would step out and slaughter a city, the web woven beneath leading the nation towards destruction. If you had not called me to battle then it would have all still played out and I would only arrive too late to change anything as the city was devoured by the flames."
He would have missed out on all that fun. "Rather than using me aren't you just giving me an excuse to do what I already wanted. That my dream was here too, and I could not help that I wanted to stand by and save your kingdom."
Rose blinked as she looked back up. "You don't regret any of it."
Why would he regret any of it? "This was what I always wanted to do of course, so perhaps it is merely an excuse from my end." He pulled his costume back together rising up above her. With only the mask left off for he would need his eyes in the battle ahead.
It had been a fun costume to wear. "As the first knight I promised you that I would save your kingdom. So, command me into battle once more, Rose Orianna and know that once again I promise you victory."
She stood tall even as he knelt. Sword drawn as she rested it on his shoulder. "In the name of the crown I command thee, as the first knight of Orianna. Go forth and destroy the demon Ragnarok, slay the usurper Mordred and at the end."
She paused looking into his eyes. "Return to me safe and sound."
He rose back to his full height. "By your command your highness, I shall march to war. Know that whatever armies might stand against me, even if I must rest on a mountain of corpses I shall return to your side unharmed."
He set off to the centre of the city, where the fun would begin.
Gaunt was waiting for him at the centre of the city. A relaxed expression on his face as he absorbed the ambience around them. A devastated city and the sombre air of decay that hung over it profound in its own way.
And as he wasn't sure exactly when the gate would open on the other side he might as well speak a few words to pass the time as friends until the appointed time came. "The moment of awakening comes, have you prepared yourself for the gate to open."
Gaunt gave back a wry grin. "I would not be here now if I was not ready would I?"
They were both gathered here today to witness history. "Then all we can do is hope Mordred does not disappoint us both." It would be a true shame if he stood here all day, and nothing happened.
Gaunt inclined his head. "True then I shall open the gate and we shall see how well he fares."
Yes Gaunt would open the gate… oh Gaunt had the key all along. Not Mordred and he had actually had a chance to stop it right from the beginning. But what was done was already done and there was no way he was going to admit to a mistake.
Gaunt made a motion and a tiny object flew loose from his sleeve, a faint glow emanating around it. Thousands of tiny symbols whirring around in a language he'd never seen before.
But the effect on the world around them was greater as the sky split. An infinitely fine line racing up and down high above them. Not the jagged and broken thing he'd made before, but a pure circular hole. Built as a doorway rather than torn through sheer force as he had done. Neither Gaunt nor Mordred had possessed the skill with magic to make such a thing, but had they found it or been given it?
That was a question he'd figure out later because the fun was about to begin. "You should go Gaunt, however much a dragon's magic is bad for you to devour I promise Mordred's right now will be a thousand times worse."
The man turned to leave. "I hope to never see you again, but if you do survive you must give me a chance to see your full library, I'm sure I have at least something I could trade in return."
He'd waved the old man off like the good friends they were. Then turned back to where the real magic was about to happen.
The edge holding the worlds apart broke as a figure stepped through, a titan of black flesh and magic so powerful he could feel it at a distance. The next second its magic fell loose even as it fell, tearing apart the air around it into its base elements just to have them roar back together in a fire that surged around it.
But not with it, because Ragnarok had never truly been fire, it broke the world and the fire and ash were merely the aftermath of its power coursing through the world. The flames licking at its own flesh as well no matter how ineffectively.
Wood burned in an instant, but stone melted slower, and merely ran a moment later. Resisting its corrosive effect much like the way his own magic trembled at the passing wave of power, but held true bound to his will tightly within his frame.
A horned head, eyes blazing with a fire within turned to meet him. "You are still here even knowing that I am unstoppable. Surely you can feel this power I possess so is it courage or foolhardiness that leads you to still stand before me?"
He set his feet and stared back up at the monster. "Confidence, I have prepared this battlefield and so why would I run from it."
The flames burned around them as a wave of magic washed over him and Mordred's face gained a grin of its own. "Such confidence is a mistake, for I am a God now. There is no one in this world who can call themselves my equal."
He looked up at the titan standing before him. Then past it at the gate still hanging in the sky a kilometre up holding in place even after its use was done. "Only now that you have the power of a God can we truly stand across from one another as equals. Before you kept running away at the sight of me."
Mordred slammed a fist into the ground even as his body crouched down. His head lowering to meet his gaze. "Empty bluster is all your words will be, for I have become the avatar of destruction that entire cities will burn before my wrath."
"Ah true didn't you say you wanted such power to get your revenge on this city. Yet I have already destroyed it and never needed to borrow such power to make do." He met the massive demons gaze and laughed. "Come I will teach you the difference between power earned and your pitiful imitation."
Mordred's arm crashed forward, tearing up the rock around it even as it turned to mud in his claws. An overwhelming tide of unstoppable power.
He bounced backwards and up matching its path even as a trail of slime stood rigid between them. Matching its speed even as he let the blow throw him away as he bounced back along the street, ricocheting his body across the rooftops as he laughed.
A moment later Mordred was catapulting himself after him. Buildings of wood and straw shattering under the weight of his charge. A force of momentum so large that nothing could stop it.
He juked to the side letting the monster sail past harmlessly, Mordred's attempts to arrest his charge failing as the buildings around him crumbled. And as he bounced up over the building tops he waved back calmly. "Such grace Mordred."
Another charge barrelled down on his position through the finest works of architecture the city had to offer. He swung up and kicked off the massive bulk not even trying to stop it as he reached his destination.
On either side of the plaza stood an arch, a massive decorative monument that had stood as a testament to Orianna's gilded glory. But beneath any such monument had to be sturdy architecture so he smiled as Mordred came charging forth.
Ducked under one blow and then leaped up, as though he was caught in midair at a moment of perceived weakness. Even as Mordred surged forward with an unstoppable charge.
Gazes locked as he flittered calmly before the rush even as his foot settled down on the slime wire trailing between across the plaza. In the next instant he poured more magic in, even as Aurora held it in place her mind present within it. The wire acting as an invisible blade as Mordred crashed into it.
It snapped instantly as Mordred's magic tore it asunder, claws continuing to race towards him even as he split his cloak.
The slime blade scratching harmlessly against Ragnarok's flesh as he felt his weapon dull on contact. The control needed to maintain an edge blown away by magic as it made contact even as its own flesh stood unbroken. The impact reverberating through as it crumpled and absorbed the momentum.
Matching its speed as he set his feet down on the outstretched arm utterly unharmed by the impact.
But he was through and racing over the outstretched limb. Slime weapons really weren't a good fit for this battle a bad matchup. But then the solid mannequin legs weren't faring much better as the sheer touch of Mordred's flesh began to melt them. He danced spinning in place as he reached out an arm to catch the string in his hands. Pulled Aurora from the string even as her mind flickered into the spear in his hand, coiled up and holding on as the magic within took form as dense as possible. Then he lobbed it straight into Mordred's eye, the flinch tearing the ground up from under him.
But no howl of pain. Still there was a gap as he reached out a finger. He let all his magic condense into a single point.
And felt as the wave of power Ragnarok poured out blew it back out before it could reach critical mass. His trump card unravelling before it had fully formed as power pulsed over the area around him the air turning to fire.
He let it blow him away, tossing the mangled legs to catch Mordred's sight even as he barrelled through under his gaze. Even as her barrelled over the ground beneath Mordred's gaze, an echo falling like a beacon off in the distance as he reached out and caught Aurora's falling form. "I don't think either of us did any damage there, so it seems he truly is thick skinned."
"A clear see through lid over the eye so I just bounced off." Even if there was disappointment in her tone that was fine. Slime weapons as a whole weren't really well suited when just touching Mordred's magic caused their edges to unravel.
He shrugged. "He is an extremophile so these kinds of things should be expected, my first trump card got blown away as well."
A soft chuckle answered. "You don't seem the slightest bit disappointed at that."
And of course he wasn't, the greater disappointment would surely have been if Mordred had gone down in one blow. "One plan failing does not make a defeat, a general must see past the turmoil if he wants to achieve victory."
He let his magic billow around him as he said it even as he leapt up onto the archway itself to stare back across at Mordred. "For it is the last blow and not the first the deems the victor in warfare."
He gave ground leaping backwards and away even as Mordred's thunderous charge ripped through the archway. And in the next moment the stone went from crumbling to melting as a single swing of the demon's claw sent a surge of molten meteors towards him.
He rode it up letting the power within burn away another pair of mannequins arms. Spinning around it as he used the mass to kick off back towards the ground. Out of reach even as Mordred passed him on the way down.
The demon hanging in the sky above, wreathed in the flames as the air burned. A single flap of Mordred's wings enough to send the monster careening down to crash down on top of him.
He let his feet touch the ground lightly spreading out the surface of his impact as much as possible with slime even as he fired himself off in a different direction. Magic surged into Shadow's voice as he let it carry even over the explosion. "Mordred did you know water will smother a flame?"
Mordred only sped up and hit the ground full force, collapsing straight through the fake floor and into the pressure chamber below. Plunging into the cold depths of the water and just as anyone would, with water crashing into his lungs he would panic and release his magic.
Fire and water, to douse his flame and create a moment of weakness. If he hadn't seen the experiment yesterday he would have stepped forward into the gap. But Ragnarok wasn't a flame, and Mordred didn't understand his power.
He could feel the magic pulsing out as a tremendous wave as Mordred poured that disruptive power into the pool around him seeking to push back the water around him merely for it to break under the spell instead.
He felt his cloak billow around him as he surged backwards, pushing away across the city to put as much distance as possible. Because as the water separated into hydrogen and oxygen it became a reservoir of rocket fuel, and the match to ignite it.
The more magic Mordred poured in the more rocket fuel he would produce.
He felt it as magic first, a single moment of ignition as great as his trump card in the making.
The sight came next, a wave of steam and pressure advancing in utter silence as every flame was smothered in an instant. A white wall disintegrating the noble quarter in a single moment.
A second later it hit him, sound so loud it ripped through his body, and he felt it shaking through every bone he had as the impact tossed him backwards. But this far back it was so much weaker and he was barely harmed while Mordred had sat right in the centre of the explosion.
Cid found his footing landing on a roof far enough away to survive the impact.
Even through the steam he could see it rising higher into the sky, a mushroom cloud hanging over the battlefield above them. Enough magic poured in that the explosion had rivalled an atomic bomb wasted uselessly. He grinned even as the first flicker of magic roared up in the distance, a roar of pain and frustration echoing from the pit.
"Even gods can bleed Mordred, and once you can bleed death will come for you in time." He let the words carry into the wind uncaring if Mordred heard them.
A pout appeared on Aurora's face beside him. "What did you do to make water burn, you didn't tell me you had tampered with it."
He pondered her words and grinned. "This is but one truth in this world, for there are many ways to make water burn if one has the will. But that was not my doing merely a glimpse of Ragnarök's truth, that he was never a creature of flame in the first place."
The first flickers of a flame appeared on the outset of the steam, and a moment later Mordred broke free. The horns above his head broken and shattered, joints leaking what must have been blood as it stained the ground around him. But his eyes still held a fire and the armour protecting him remained fine. Magic still surging around the monster as it rose and stared across the wastelands of the crater surrounding it. "You have no idea how much I hate you, I will make you suffer so much."
He tuned out the rest, because really Mordred had already been planning to kill him. The words nothing more than the pathetic mewling of a fool unable to strike back. "Come then and prove it."
A beam of pure magic raced out over his head and into the city beyond. Past the fire breaks as a building in the distance caught fire. Then a hundred more followed after as Mordred truly let loose as power rained down across the city in an overwhelming display of might.
An ineffectual display of control as the wasted power poured away without coming close to even touching him. Even as Mordred's voice boomed. "Soon there will be nowhere left for you to hide."
A single droplet of slime flew up and away from him. "Do I need to hide when you can't even hit the same district as me? Is it that your sight has gone, or your ears in the explosion that you'd rather fire wildly than even try to hit me."
He watched Mordred grind his teeth in response. The titanic form advancing once more as though to prove he was not afraid.
But not the blind charge of before. An almost hesitant stalking through the city. That blast truly had harmed him, and he was now walking on eggshells. A whisper echoing from his own mouth in return. "Come Mordred keep learning every lesson I have to teach you, that I may know every move you intend to make."
Aurora flickered by his side. "Aren't you worried he will learn enough to match you? Already I don't think you could hit him with that trick again."
But he hadn't bothered to set up another such trap so what did that matter. "Each new lesson he learns will only open him up to more tricks, for in warfare every choice can be a mistake if the enemy can read it ahead of time." He flicked her form free of his cloak and off to the side. "Go round to the far side and call his attention, and I will show him that slowing down also leaves him vulnerable."
Her form slithered off through the wreckage even as he sought out a prepared arsenal. A fragment of slime pulled back into himself to rejuvenate, a stash of stem cells to use as a record of his existence before any damage to heal himself to.
He unearthed another weapon, pulling it up and out on a wave of slime. A giant bludgeon which was as much a lie as a physical force for its true nature was different. The back end a mass of wood, fuel and oxidants ready to explode the moment Mordred struck it. The very front a hollow void waiting to be filled.
Between the two layers was iron, as much pig iron as he'd been able to fit. Iron the most stable of elements on an atomic level, and even if you poured in energy all it would do is superheat itself rather than break and explode.
He let his cloak expand over it, spreading out until he became a giant hand grasping the weapon. It wasn't going to hold together for long, if Mordred even looked at it while he was swinging it would evaporate due to the distance from his own body.
But Mordred was about to look the other way, for he was so easy to lead.
He heard his own voice coming from the other end of the battlefield. "Then if no blade can cut you how about I bludgeon you to death instead."
Mordred looked towards the voice, magic coalescing around his hand waiting to strike as he eyed his surroundings. Away from his own position as he let loose, the massive shaped charge taking to the sky as he tossed it for Mordred's head. A single telltale pulse of magic marking its passage.
Enough for Mordred to sense it as he swivelled his head back round, watching the projectile dismissively even as he brought up his hand and pushed forth a massive blast of magic to reduce it to cinders.
Iron liquified in an instant. The charge behind it exploded inside its casing a moment later. A massive expanding wave forcing the molten metal into the void as it became a vessel for all the force in the explosion.
A tenth of a second later, the stream of molten iron propelled faster than the speed of sound crashed into Mordred's eye, the very real physical force striking into him like a hammer. Even as Mordred screamed and raised his hand far too late to block it.
Pulling the molten metal away even as the lid over the eye was cracked. Even as his other claw swung wildly at nothing as Mordred lost sight of his surroundings trying to pry it out.
He surged up in its wake, Leaping into the gap between Mordred's attempts to pry it loose and swinging the very real blade of his scythe into the crack.
Blood and fire gushed free in return even as the blade broke off, a second scythe falling into his hand a moment later for a second cut.
The world spun as Mordred writhed and he was thrown off, an arm crashing towards him even as he extended a tendril of slime to meet it. The fragment crumpling even as he let himself get thrown backwards and away. "It seems even the gods can bleed under my blade."
Mordred screamed in response, magic flowing out of his form in waves as the world around him flickered. A sphere of pure destruction as everything in a hundred meters of his position merely ceased to exist as solid matter.
He sat outside it watching in, letting his cloak billow around him in the wind. A flashy technique to be sure but oh so useless if you didn't even manage to hit your opponent. His arm outstretched flickered out of the wreckage around him and into his hand.
Aurora returned to his cloak in the next moment, a half formed shade hanging over him as she looked on. "Even with that much strength it is not enough."
He looked on at the swirling mass of flames spiralling out of control. "Where a rock would break, a tree would bend and survive easily enough. Blinded by his strength all he does is stir the wind while blowing hot air out."
The air around Mordred broke further, an incandescent plasma beginning to form around his flesh even as the two of them watched. "To create plasma is truly impressive, but all he does with it is chase after shadows and so it is merely a spectacle rather than an attack."
Aurora bobbed her head up and down beside him matching the tone of his words as she added her own. "It is the nature of magic that once it overruns the common sense of the world that all things change. A glimpse of the dissolution of the order of all things should always be impressive and yet he has not achieved much with it."
Then she pouted. "Also, what is a plasma?"
"Solid, liquid, gas and plasma, it is the fourth state of matter of which all things are made." He nodded his head proud of his own explanation.
Aurora tilted her head as she thought about it. "Earth, water and air… so it is a form of pure elemental fire brought onto the world."
He shrugged because really it was close enough. He flicked his wrist, a tiny droplet of slime rocketing off into the distance before it broke apart. His own voice blasting across the battlefield. "Mordred are you now so afraid all you can do is hide in your shell."
Mordred answered the swirling vortex of plasma splashing out against the world as a trail of devastation that annihilated everything in its path. Another trench of broken buildings gone from the world. The avalanche of power wasted against but a single droplet of his own.
"I think its about time I send you up, we've built a pretty big cloud by this point." He mused idly even as he slipped through the wreckage of the burning city, Mordred's screams echoing through around him.
Aurora bobbed her head up and down, even as her form pulled itself loose and grew wings. "But you realise that once I take flight with the charge it will be easy enough for Mordred to see me."
Anyone with a rudimentary magic sense could see her. Even in spite of the swirling vortex of ash and water rising into the sky. "Perhaps but if you give me a minute I will make sure he has only eyes for me."
She bobbed once again. "It would be a pity if you ended up also only having eyes for him."
He shrugged in his place. "Don't worry I fully know to keep an eye on my surroundings now go. It's time for me to make a scene."
She took off low to the ground, weaving between buildings back to where they had started. A stash of slime and power held beneath it that she could take up with her into the sky.
He went the other way, to the monster he had used to carve open Mordred's base the other day. Dragging it up along with a trace of his own stem cells he'd kept stashed away. Reintegrating them into his body as he healed himself whole once more.
He rose. Pulling the slime entangled beneath him upwards, as the first drops were drawn in to revitalise him. His reserves filling themselves back up in an instant. The rest he crushed down in front of his eyes until it reached critical mass.
A single point of utter devastation brought into being on the point of his hand even as he looked out at Mordred in the distance. Voice raising loud enough to echo across the city as he spoke.
"I am Atomic."
A single point of devastation tore across the city between them. And Mordred responded in kind as an overwhelming surge of magic ripped its way through the buildings. A tide rippling over the world as everything before it came undone.
They met at the halfway point.
An ocean torn away even as his tiny sphere of destruction broke through even as it slowly unravelled.
He'd wanted it to make it all the way through. He settled for three quarters as it exploded far closer to Mordred than to him. A sphere of pure power tearing the remains of the merchant's district asunder in a single instant.
He could still move over to the poorer segments of society if he really wanted to. He glanced over and dismissed the thought. Because of course they had been built poorly, all wood and straw through no fault of their own.
Matchsticks and tinder before the flame until there was nothing left over there either. Gone to join the streams of ash and smoke rising into the sky as the storm above gathered. He waited for a while longer, not to hide but to let his mana seep into the ground around him, touching the dust itself still littered across the landscape.
Mordred rose, wings bent and flapping oddly at his back, limbs struggling to pull himself loose. Magic just as strong as ever as power poured off of him and he looked out over the devastation. There was hope in his foe's eyes, perhaps because his suit barely stood out against the blackened surroundings.
Well, he always wanted to dash others hopes when the time came. "Truly you had such a magnificent amount of power there Mordred, why if only you'd use it correctly I would have stood no chance."
An incoherent scream resounded back at him. Pure rage and frustration poured out for almost a full minute until Mordred finally calmed himself enough to make words. "Why won't you die."
"Me?" Time was what Aurora needed so he would drag it out. "I don't think I've ever really planned on dying so I just have no room for it in my schedule. Why isn't this just fun and games to show how great we both are… do you mean you aren't just playing around?" He let his tone lighten to the line between mocking and innocence.
The growl that came back was music to his ears. "Once I am through with you, you will know the full might of my hatred."
"Yes I know you hate me, you've used that line so many times I don't know what you're really expecting. I figured that out long ago I just don't care. Have you considered opening a thesaurus and trying a new word for hate, or perhaps a new insult entirely. Widen your vocabulary my friend it would do you wonders to sound as eloquent as I do."
He paused. "Oh, but your bookshelf was rather bare in the end I guess you don't read much. I know Morgan's books on magic were truly wonderful when I read them as well, but you should really branch out."
Mordred stared back across the divide. "You have Morgan's books, who… how."
"Your friend led me to them of course."
A single eye blazing with power stared him down intently, as though there might be a thought going through Mordred's mind. "That is how you are turning my magic against me, a last curse for the fact that I killed her coming back even now."
He couldn't let a cue like that go off. Swinging down as all the dust around him billowed forward. The air around Mordred filling with dust. Dust, oxygen and enough magic to light a spark of course. But it wasn't anywhere near as impressive an explosion as the others, so Mordred was probably barely knocked back.
But it was a poignant reminder for his next line. "That you've only figured this out now Mordred, when I have been using it against you since the beginning. You are just a tad slow I take it." Well really if Mordred had access to these flames and had actually tried to study them himself he should have been able to figure it out. It was just all trial and error and experimentation in the end.
Mordred suddenly grinned. "But the very fact that you're saying this now, you have run out of power. If you had one more blast like that in you of course you would use it."
Was that what he had to tell himself to have the courage to step forward. Because he still had the power in his own reserves if he needed it. It was just there was no need to put himself in a dire situation when he still had one trump card building in the sky above. "Whatever you want to believe Mordred, come try and prove it."
The monster reigned in its magic and advanced and so he went wild. Pulling the dust and ash around him into his own terrifying visage of substance without force. A dust devil crashing down harmlessly against the real thing.
His real body slipped through beneath it, eyes caught on a piece of wreckage in the distance. A weapon he'd prepared long ago as a canister of iron stood still standing amidst the wreckage.
A spent charge leaving it hanging uselessly on the ground even as he felt Mordred's gaze return to him. He swung it up and around letting it sail towards Mordred. A simple unpowered hand reached out and grasped it, sheer physical force enough. "Yes it was always my own magic empowering your attempts to harm me no wonder they worked."
He juked aside as it came crashing back, the empty shell shattering against the ground even as he poured magic into the dust in front of him, swirling it up as a storm in between them.
Mordred ploughed straight on through again laughing. "But you do not understand. Even without magic this body is stronger than anything."
"And you have run out of tricks."
There was such a vindictive amount of glee in it that he bounced up through the storm, stepping onto the cooling flesh of Mordred's shoulder and raising a light blade. The swing crashing aside harmlessly against the flesh. "To think you are so proud of being thick."
"Empty words." Mordred punctuated his words with a wild swing, the claw crashing up.
So, he took to the sky, wings rising up as he flew backwards into the thermals around the battlefield. Grinning as he looked down. "Do your wings even still work Mordred I guess if I can no longer win I'll just fly away."
A single massive wingbeat answered. Mordred ploughing up into the sky after him as he led him on their course.
Not straight up. Never straight, for then Mordred might realise where they were going.
A winding path through the winds as he pushed himself higher, a long spiralling path back towards where Aurora had gone. For even if Mordred had eyes they remained fixed on him, never wondering at their surroundings.
Two kilometres into the sky to the base of the clouds waiting for him as Mordred fluttered slowly afterwards. It was time for the next plan as he looked up.
"Are you upset?" Aurora looked down at him while hanging upside down. "After you went through such a plan for the chance to look up at me?"
Yet how could he be when the lattice of power extending outwards was so beautiful. "Tis the greatest sight a man could behold so how could I be disappointed?" She'd prepared everything right for his chance to seize the sky itself.
It was the same technique Freya had used against him, but where shed brute forced power into pulling fog from the air, they had built a cloud first and only then threaded it with power. His own hand reaching up into the cloud filled with his own magic as he brought it under his control. Aurora herself settling back into his slime suit as she gave it up.
He let his gaze fall down to Mordred below him. "Do you know why we are here Mordred?"
Mordred paused his own magic pulling back. "You think you can trick me into blowing myself up again, but I have already seen through it. The only thing that can harm me is my own magic and you have taught me that well, but without any more secrets left I can tear you apart at my whim."
He was still hesitating, and that was good. "True even with this much force it will wash over your body, this storm is not enough to crush you." Because that wasn't even his plan.
Still Mordred perked up at the words, his control reigning his own magic in as he hung in the sky watching back. "You are truly desperate then to try it anyway, you have been running out of power for a while now haven't you."
He clenched his fist and pulled as the entire storm writhed under his own power. The scattered droplets of the cloud collapsed into nine dragon heads hanging in the air around him as millions of tonnes of water stood at his beck and call. "There is no physical force of this world that can cut you, nor impact that could kill you Mordred. Like this know you cannot even understand why you are about to die."
For all they could see from this angle was the city stretched out below them.
"Fall." The first two dragons followed his command two giant hammers slamming down on the demon from above as he dragged the sky down alongside him. Dropping like a stone even as it failed to pierce the demons flesh and his own power was broken. Two gushing streams falling harmlessly alongside the monster.
He swung two more. Coming in at an angle for just the slightest course correction.
Mordred casually swung his arms to meet them not even bothering to arrest his fall as he crushed both dragons with a single blow each.
It didn't matter as he grinned following him down. For they'd fallen far enough as he posed as though he was about to swing a blade of unfathomable might. Mordred's gaze fixed upwards to watch his every move when it was the wrong way.
A kilometre above the world sitting below.
The infinitely fine line dividing two worlds.
The edge of the Black Rose sheared straight through as they reached it.
Blood flowing free of the stumps where Mordred's arms had been. Guts hanging loose from his body as it spilled its entrails free into the world.
Cid stood perched on the head of a dragon staring through the portal. The hole in reality twitching and flickering as the scene behind it changed, the world of flame changing to a barren green murk. Mordred's body hanging between it as he grinned as the two wings still attached beat helplessly to try and regain control of his descent.
There would be no time. Magic surging forward as he slammed Mordred against the lower edge of the portal and then through. Shearing his wings free as they passed, and the portal flickered once more.
The magic that had still been trapped outside as two dragons vanishing from his senses in an instant as he stood above a swamp filled world and the mist around them tried to eat at his flesh. The magic within congealing into the fog as it meshed with the power he'd left there.
The dragon grasping Mordred changed to a hand and he grinned resting gently atop it. "Going so soon Mordred, aren't you invincible?."
A scream was all that met his response as he dragged him back into the portal, crashing the neck into the top of the portal until only Mordred's head remained in front of him.
The sky above was dark and filled with stars. The city below sat in ruins broken by the passing of time, even as it was not Orianna that stood below him. Wrecked skyscrapers hanging off kilter as they refused to fall, suspended in the moment the city had died.
"Mordred come now aren't you a God? Come show me the flames you were so proud of, let loose the rage that you held." He laughed even as his own magic pulsed and the last two dragons returned to him. "But it seems your borrowed power has abandoned you such a pity in the end that this is all you amounted to while I still have more."
A single point of devastation growing on the tip of his finger as he raised it up.
"I am Atomic."
In a single instant everything in front of his eyes was annihilated. The panicked expression on the demon's face, the last scream or perhaps even a plea for mercy. The flickers of a flame and the overwhelming force of magic snuffed out in a single breath.
He held his pose until the last of the glow faded away and the city below returned to the darkness. His eyes resting on the broken ruins for a moment longer.
Aurora shook his shoulder and dragged him out of it. "The portal behind us."
He knew it was gone. "It seems we will have to find another way back." He traced the skyline once more. Familiar buildings and memories kept in the back of his mind returned to the fore.
For the city he'd been born in stood before his eyes broken and devastated beyond repair.
Vafthrudnir turned the key in his hands looking at it lightly.
The gate had closed as he sat and watched it. A bittersweet taste on the tip of his tongue even as he watched the devastation around him. The shadows themselves writhing as Diabolos spoke to him once more. "The worlds aligned and the gate opened. A chance that comes only once every thousand years to finally be rid of Albion once and for all. And yet you lock the gate for a mere human having failed at everything."
The mocking laughter grew and thundered around him. "How long has it been since you failed this badly little human, you even lost Ragnarok for a human how wretched and complacent you have become."
He eyed the gate and shrugged. "I hardly think you can use the word mere for anyone capable of killing Ragnarok. Even your precious Albion only drove it back last time, I would gladly call it a success to rid myself of such a monster."
A bitter laugh reverberated around him. "Yes congratulate yourself on making the right choice, do you offer such praise to any fly that appears before your sight?"
"If there was a fly capable of killing Ragnarok then I would certainly treat it with respect. I would think the fact that you couldn't understand something as basic as that is why you never took the dragons seriously enough until they'd torn you to pieces." He grinned. "It's why you're just a voice inside my head and I rule the world."
Silence came from the other end of their connection. Bitter resentment welling up on the other end even as there could be no excuse. For once they'd been master and servant and the beast still resented him for how it had changed.
But the resentment of the damned and dying had never bothered him. What would it matter if one more screamed at the indignity when entire nations had cursed his name for millennia.
Vafthrudnir rose to stare out across the ruins letting his shadow stretch out to smother the flames in an instant. For they were only mortal concerns, and he had no need to trifle with such things any longer.
In the distance he felt the child staring at his prize and stepped forward, because some things were worth keeping all to himself. Ragnarök's remains was one such treasure.
"Gaunt I believe I said that you could have the contents of Mordred's lab did I not?" Idly he let his shadow expand, a mere hundred demons prying themselves loose of the darkness around him as they turned as one to gaze at his new protégé.
Gaunt gulped where he was standing but otherwise stood his ground. A meaningless gesture anyway because his fate was not his to decide.
He smiled regardless. "You will be pleased to know I intend to honour that statement, I have no intention of taking back what I have already given away. I am not a cruel man, and the spoils of war should be shared don't you agree?"
Why many people even called him kind, especially when they thought he was there to hear them.
Gaunt inclined his head, acknowledging him without giving ground. Eyes darting between the shadows crawling forward and his own unhurried gait. "It is always best to stand beside your allies I agree and with this we have had a truly productive partnership."
He preened and stood a little taller. "But I can hardly give myself nothing after coming all this way, so I think I'll just have to take the discarded limbs ripped of Ragnarok as my own prize, for alas it seems there is nothing else left in this wasteland. Do you have any objections?"
Gaunt bowed his head, and by the time he had raised it he'd managed to plaster a smile over the indignity. "Naturally you are far more versed in dealing with such things, I can trust you already have plans to store and use it?"
He did. But silence was as much an answer as he needed to give. His feet carrying him slowly forward towards Gaunt even as he merely smiled.
He clicked his fingers even as an errant pulse of his magic flowed free. And just for a moment the Eye of Avarice beating with Gaunt's chest stopped. Just long enough for him to feel it as he stepped past. "I am glad it would have been too tragic a tale if mere moments after returning to your health you ended up dying in a place like this."
"For I have better things to do than to kill just one man."
He waved his hand idly and the demons pulled themselves fully free of his shadow. First one hundred, then two and a moment later five hundred monsters sat in the clearing around him waiting and watching. "Orianna has always been such a troublesome place never showing results and always causing problems."
And even if it was not ten thousand demons released upon the world, five hundred was still plenty of devastation to go around. "If they were as wise as you I wouldn't have to punish them so."
His eyes turned east to the direction of Alexandria and Midgar still whole. And as one the small army of demons beside him followed his gaze.
The thread snapped.
Fading away like a part of herself had been severed, as though she could never be whole once again. It was a normal sensation, for she hadn't truly been whole in a long time. The whole that had been Diabolos was broken and she couldn't quite remember if she was even the largest part.
But this wasn't quite like that, even as she could feel the frayed edges. For back then they had torn her to pieces, it had been made to break her so that none of the parts could know what had been real.
This was a clone of herself. Perhaps not quite complete, not a full replication of everything she had ever been, but a whole copy of who she had thought she was that had vanished.
The part of her that was gone was more likely a threat to anything it met rather than something to be threatened. And anything that could kill Cid was something she couldn't fight in her half-formed state as it was.
Still, she pressed against the edge of the Sanctum. Even if she could not change it there was still someone who could.
"Even Alexia accepted my confession, maybe we should try writing a letter from you to some noble girl down on her luck and see your chances." Those chances were of course zero, but Po was a simple child, and simpletons were easily lead.
Did Po think about his answer or merely take so long for a coherent thought to transform into words that it seemed that way? Either way he nodded along with a smile soon enough. "
He was in fact always right. "Perhaps the Dacuacain girl bereft of her father she must be looking for a strong and courageous man like you right about now."
Po stood taller just thinking about it. "She's wealthy and beautiful you really think I can try and sweep her off her feet?"
"Just look at yourself Po and isn't the answer obvious. Reaching out a hand in need when the other nobles avoid her over the minor scandal about her father. All you need to do is write the right letter and I'm sure you'll be able to capture her attention." All humans merely needed to be told what they wanted to hear.
He'd sat by and watched the worthless scribbling, eyed the letter at the end for the sake of his 'friend.'
Replaced the whole thing with a missive from the Cult of Diabolos and filed the letter away into an envelope marked with his own personal symbol. He'd used it enough to worm his way into the parts of Fenrir's empire he didn't like to know it would be recognised. "Any girl would fall head over heels for you like this."
The scene itself had been a spectacle to watch from the distance. Po with his weak knees and spineless words. Eliza herself staring back with horror as only the sheer shock prevented her from calling him out as a gormless idiot as he deserved.
But her eyes were sharp, and his mark was clear. Even through the pain she finally reached out a hand to take it. The word yes failing to reach her lips no matter how hard she tried until she went with something else. "I will read this letter and perhaps we might be able to start as friends."
Perhaps she'd rather throw him under a train as well.
And shortly after she disappeared he had the beginnings of a plan to work with. A high society function, a party to bring the nobility together and discuss politics, ideally deemed to discuss how best to align themselves with their new overlords. A pulpit for those out of favour to extoll their virtues and support for the new regime lead by a hero in blue and silver.
For the loyalty of its people was the greatest currency a nation could possess.
And the first to be debased through performative action as Nobles learned to mouth the words rather than do the deed.
Someone fated to stand at the forefront and act as a sacrifice when it came time to destroy them all. Perhaps Eliza herself could take the stage, or she would find someone else willing to hang the noose around their necks.
And he would take a quieter nobler role. A minor character whose only virtue was to deliver messages between the real movers and shakers that decided the fate of nations.
That he would falsify and forget those same letters. That he would use that sight to see who amongst them was vulnerable and isolated to drag into the darkness. That he would write his own letters and merely pretend to be his own messenger.
Such things went without saying of course.
AN: Fog exists in the cold and damp and as such was not made for times like Summer. I was also not made for times like Summer. Wishing for the return of ice and snow and liveable weather once again.
My first foray with showing of a realm ruler in the flesh. And Mordred gets to demonstrate why using borrowed power you do not understand is such a bad idea. Am proud of how everything turned out. Even if it ended up being very long without a line break.
If Uther had succeeded Ragnarok would have made him the uncontested first seat, but Mordred is no Uther and even with phenomenal cosmic power he squanders it as an inadequate inheritor.
Cid Aurora shipping. A Cid Rose scene that I truly enjoyed.
The next bit will probably focus on what is going on for the Midgar side of the portal first, in place of a normal interlude and then onto Earth.
BetweenIandGirl: Puzzles are fun.
Like if the confusion is becoming distress you can ask for me to clear stuff up, but otherwise I have taken this as a compliment.
Fateful Twilight: The Uther section was Vafthrudnir talking to Diabolos original.
But yes currently there are two Aurora, one in the Sanctum and one with Cid. They are both pulled from Olivier's Sanctum so these two are not very independent, (although as of the end of this chapter they are separated and can no longer communicate.)
Aniisomeone: Questions are always fine and alas my delays continued.
1) Alexandria. Cid would have put them in the villages but Nu thinks she knows what he meant and is actually managing it. And Cid would rather die than stop to admit there had been a mistake. Most of the people coming though would be victims of the Cult rather than conspirators, for the conspirators lean towards positions of power and the nobility who will each have a second home in their own fief. Giving them the means to avoid it while also having the will to not live under Cid's roof when he would casually threaten to kill them all.
The impoverished and the destitute are far more likely to be heading along with Nu.
2) Cid, Aurora and Eta are my finalised plan as of right now.
Church 21: Thank you for the praise. On to the criticism.
The Roleplaying and the misunderstanding are both what attracted me to EiS and a core part of what makes it different to other Isekai. I will intend to make the divergence when making a new identity clearer going forward, but I will not be abandoning it.
There is strength in whimsy and fun, and such things should be kept even amidst the fog of war. If Cid were to abandon those then he would be on the road to becoming a true member of the Cult even in victory. And my story would be darker than I want it to be when I am a fan of Bathos.
If you want a version without roleplaying and misunderstandings you are free to write it and have my full support when you do. It will not come from me.
Rose trusts Cid/Stylish Bandit Slayer. He rescued her from bandits as a child, risked his life for her in the terrorist attack on the school and cured her demonic possession, all of which are kind of big deals for her. Then he went on and rescued and cured her father so yeah she trusts him a lot. Azrael is Cid wearing a costume that she knows is a costume. I'm just not sure what part of her trust feels misplaced here to you, she gets along with the person she trusts implicitly for good reasons who turned up to help her when she was at her lowest.
And who then proved that every bit of that trust was deserved by going above and beyond any kind of reasonable expectation in helping her.
Delta and Pi learned the secret and then got on the train to Orianna straight away. They don't send reports and haven't spoken to any other SG members until after Eta and Zeta made their attempt. Sorry if that doesn't explain I just am not sure where the confusion here is.