4-35 Interlude

“P-please… s-spare me…” begged a muscular man who was on his knees, at his wits’ end. He had been the undefeated champion of the underground fighting ring, garnering consecutive wins with only his fists and agility. He had been the reigning victor for five years but today marked the end of his reign and also his life.

Standing before the kneeling former champion of the ring was a thin and frail-looking man with barely any meat to his bones. Yet, he was exuding an imposing presence and an overwhelming aura. His presence and aura were made ever greater when he defeated the supposed champion of the fighting ring. The thin man sneered at the muscular man’s pleas.

“Please, h-have mercy… I have a family…”

The thin man snorted with a sneer. “Why the fuck do you think I care?” he said and pivoted his body into a roundhouse kick, bursting the muscular man into a splatter of blood, bone, flesh, and matter.

There was no audience for this fight as it was held abruptly. One had issued a sudden challenge to the other due to his boredom and the challenged accepted the fight, thinking the challenger was just a fool that was in over his head. The challenged soon came to know the truth was quite the contrary and the realisation came too late.

“What a disappointment,” the victor of this offhand fight muttered exasperatedly and plopped right down on the floor. “Only a level sixty-five and he dares to flaunt his strength and abilities like he’s the mightiest… Are there only delusional individuals in this city?”

“You’re simply too strong, Rex,” said a man with golden hair and a thick beard that was concealing his weak chin, who emerged from the darkness outside of the fighting ring. “You’re over level eighty, for god’s sake.”

“He didn’t even put up a good fight. He was just a fare to his level. It doesn’t feel that much different from fighting an Undead. Hell, I bet an Undead of the same level would give me more of a challenge.”

“An Undead of level sixty-five will be of great concern. Please don’t even joke about that, Rex.”

Rex tutted. “What do you want, Rylan? What brings the Lord Viceroy of this city to personally come and talk to me?”

“Marduk is ignoring my request for an audience.”

“I wonder why. So, why are you here?”

“Your friend, Varus. I’m sure you have already heard about his… circumstances?”

“How can I not have heard about it? It’s all everyone’s talking about in the Covenant.”

“And you’re not concerned?”

“About what?”

“Varus was incapacitated. What do you think that means?”

“There’s a high-level individual in the city?”

“And a witness to one of your operations is in the hands of the Guild. What’s Marduk even doing right now?”

“Not my problem and neither is it yours.”

“And what if the individual who defeated Varus finds out the truth about all of these, what if they find out about my arrangement with your… faction?”

“I don’t know and I don’t particularly care. Marduk’s not saying anything. That means he already has a plan in motion.”

“Is that truly so?” Rylan questioned with a scoff.

“You doubt me?”

“Aren’t you and Marduk just scared? Isn’t that why he suddenly commands you to lay low instead of being out there, looking for the one who did that to your friend?”

Rex chortled and bounced to his feet. “I may not be as smart as Marduk or Varus, but I’m not as dumb as you so desperately believe, Lord Viceroy. If anyone’s scared right now, it’s you.”

“Bollocks.”

“You’re the one who has the most to lose should things intensify. Not me or the Covenant. I know what you are trying to do.”

Rylan gulped.

“But it ain’t going to happen. I love fighting a good fight but this is a fight that I would rather avoid. I don’t doubt my victory but… I’m pretty sure I would be tremendously weakened after that fight. Who knows what people like you would do at that moment?”

Rylan’s face contorted with shame and anger. “How dare—”

“How dare I insult the Lord Viceroy? Why wouldn’t I dare to? Who’s going to stop me? Your secret guards that aren’t exactly a secret?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I may not have hyper cognition abilities like Varus but I know who you are and what you are, Rylan. Deep down in your heart, you’re a coward. You won’t go anywhere without your guards.”

“I’m here alone, am I not?”

Rex chuckled and flicked his palm.

In the next second, a fully armoured individual appeared between Rylan and Rex, deflecting an invisible projectile flying toward Rylan.

“Ah, yes. The infamous Shadow Knights. It’s funny. For a secret knight order, it’s infamous. The irony is just so… huge.”

“You dare mock me despite knowing about my Shadow Knights. Do you believe you can win against a group of them all at once?”

“I don’t believe I can win. I know I can win.”

“Such arrogance…”

“Such cowardice. Hiding behind your knights.”

Rylan growled furiously and snapped his fingers. Three more Shadow Knights made their appearance and the four of them surrounded Rex from all sides.

“Marduk isn’t going to be pleased with this.”

“What? Don’t tell me you plan on crying to Marduk after you lose now, are you?”

“Are you?” Rex retorted with a smirk.

Rylan waved his hand and the Shadow Knights made their move, drawing their swords out of thin air.

“This is all it took to garner your ire? What do you hope to achieve by doing this? Say you win, what happens then? You may not want to admit it but Marduk might have a smaller army but he has a stronger army and that’s not even taking me into account. Aside from the Shadow Knights, the soldiers in Sephrodia Valley are shams. They are mostly sycophants of no true strength or sons of noble houses that got where they are through their family’s relations.”

“All I’m hearing is that you are afraid of losing, Rex. Are you finished?”

Rex sighed. “Marduk isn’t going to like this but consider yourself warned. I won’t be holding back.”

“Neither will my Shadow Knights. Attack, but don’t kill him.”

The Shadow Knights sprang at their lord’s command.

The tattoo around Rex’s right forearm glowed and a shockwave pulsed out radially, throwing the four lunging knights back.

Rex guffawed and lunged at the Shadow Knight in front of him first. The knight saw Rex’s rapid approach and quickly recovered its bearings. The knight swung its sword at the charging Rex.

The knight’s blade was inches away from carving into his head but an ethereal shield manifested in-between moments before the steel found flesh as the tattoo around Rex’s right upper arm glowed. The knight’s sword bounced off the shield and the shield disappeared. Disoriented by the rebound, the knight was sent flying across the room by Rex’s punch.

The remaining three knights rushed towards Rex urgently after recovering their composure from the unexpected attack.

Rex turned around with a triumphant grin and this time, the tattoos all over his right arm glowed in tandem. The Shadow Knights stopped abruptly in their tracks as if time had ceased to flow for them.

“What the— What did you do!?” Rylan cried.

“With such quality and magnificent gears, no doubt your Shadow Knights would stand a chance against me. However, none of them knows what I’m capable of.” Rex shifted his scornful gaze to Rylan. “Do you, Lord Viceroy?”

“You’re supposed to be hopeless in Magic Arts. How were you able to—”

“As I have said, you know nothing about me. You only knew. You do not know. Simple as that.”

Rylan balled his hands into fists and clenched them tightly.

“Tell me, what or who’s to stop me from punching your head off your neck right this instance? Your incapacitated Shadow Knights? Your superficial authority as the Lord Viceroy of Sephrodia Valley?”

“The displeasure of Marduk,” Rylan said, reluctantly.

Rex sighed with a chuckle. “Why are all the ruling nobles so spineless? How do you even become a viceroy?”

“...You made your point, Rex. Let us end this like civilised men, alright?”

The glow on Rex’s arm faded and the Shadow Knights regained their freedom of their body movements. “Let this be your lesson. If you can’t get the attention of the better one, don’t settle for less,” Rex said and took his leave with none of the Shadow Knights moving to stop him.

“Damn you, Marduk… Damn you…” Rylan muttered infuriatingly through his gritted teeth.

****

Lucan made his way up the short flight of steps and kneeled on one knee halfway up on the altar. The intricate engraving on the altar’s platform glowed radiantly in dazzling gold. An ethereal figure was gradually forming from the strands of lights emitted from the radiant glow. The light strands morphed into the figure of a woman seemingly in her prime with a lithe yet ample figure, and she was in the middle of donning her garments. However, the woman in question did not seem to mind.

“Commander Azaela,” Lucan lowered his head.

“Lucan. There are still three days before the appointed time for your report. What’s the urgency?” asked the commander of the Venerers in a very chilling voice.

“We have faced grave opposition from another faith.”

“Don’t we always?” Azaela scoffed. “What’s different about this one?”

“Saril was utterly defeated by this Apostle. She claims her assailant was an Aeryon Apostle.”

“An Apostle of a dead god managed to win against an Acolyte of a prominent Divine? What are you doing, Lucan?”

“I’m sorry, Commander. I don’t quite get—”

“An Apostle of a dead god is no different than a faithless individual. Saril was basically defeated by a person of no faith. Do you still not get the meaning behind my words, Lucan?”

“I understand now, Commander.”

“Why did this Apostle attack our own in the first place?”

“From Saril’s testimony alone, she was trying to apprehend a band of suspicious adventurers. They were a group of two humans, two Fae, and a Beast-kin. All of them were girls. She was stopped by the Aeryon Apostle, who’s a female Augur. The Augur claimed the misfit group to be Aeryon Acolytes. To be precise, the Fae were an Elf and a Dryad.”

“An Elf and a Dryad are Acolytes of a Faith? Do you think that’s possible, Lucan?”

“It’s rare but not unprecedented. There was a Ruvan Elven priestess in Quinteburgh.”

“What’s even rarer is that a Beastkin is in the same party with Fae. Last I heard, they were unspoken sworn enemies.”

“As I have said, misfits.”

“They do sound like a suspicious bunch. They are deserving of our scrutiny. Are they currently under our scrutiny?”

“...No, they aren’t, commander.”

“Why are they not?”

“We couldn’t find them. We asked around but there had been no Aeryon Temples in the city since the death of Aeryo. We checked all the places they were sighted by the locals but there was nothing. We don’t know where else to look for now but we are trying our best.”

“Try better, Lucan. Anything else to report?”

“It’s regarding the activities of the Covenant. Their experiments with Demons are making frightening progress. They have successfully created Demons out of humans with their minds and sanity intact. Furthermore, they seemed to be less susceptible to Holy Magic. They are called Demoids.”

“Demoids… How are they creating them?”

“We weren’t able to gather any knowledge about that. Every apprehended Demoids died the moment they were forced to talk. Most likely the ones responsible are constantly observing them. The city officials weren’t entirely helpful either.”

“Explain.”

“They’re slow and they keep making mistakes.”

“Do you know what that means, Lucan?”

“How could I not? They are colluding with the Covenant but we have no solid evidence. If we attack them as it is, they’ll turn the people against us.”

“There’s no need for evidence, Lucan. There are other ways to hurt them without the need for evidence. So, listen well.”

“I’m listening.”