The Sword and The Shadow

Under the Sacred Light

Golden sacred light accompanied the flecks of blue in the air. Leguna stared at the beautiful fireworks as his mind completely blanked out.

It was gone. everything was gone. The one that had remained by his side the whole time, saved him from countless troubles and planned for him was gone. The one whom he loved and feared and swore to protect for the rest of his life… was gone. Wasn't it laughable? He desired power to be able to match up to her in terms of status, so he worked tirelessly and blindly to achieve his goals. By the end of it, he did obtain the power and status he wanted, but his foolishness and naivete had doomed her. What, in the world, had he been trying so hard for over the past few years?

Now, he felt like he had been nothing but a puppet. He tried hard to escape the plans his fate had for him in an effort to make sure those he cherished had a brighter future, but fate merely smirked at his senseless desire and watched the puppet struggle with keen interest. The puppet thought he had everything in control, but fate, from her perspective, had long foreseen the endless abyss that awaited him.

He truly was a fool.

Fools were who thought that they were something else, who worked hard without any sense of direction, and those who failed to notice the ones that truly cherished them. He felt like a complete fool in those senses.

"Yeaaaah!"

"Long live the empire!"

The crowd in the plaza let out a deafening cheer. Even thought they were considerably weakened from having their mana drawn out, they were still in top spirits. Annelotte had died! The one who had masterminded everything and played them for fools with Dark Requiem had died! It was a crippling blow to the darkness that threatened the empire! Humanity would prevail against darkness and drive it away! They cheered and gave Leguna threatening and provocative glares, as if they were trying to say he would be next. Thanks to having their attention drawn to Leguna, nobody, not even the airborne Alfreid, noticed part of the 'fireworks' had coagulated and formed into two small, barely detectable balls of light. One of the two balls descended into the crowd in the plaza and another shot through the skies to an unknown location like a shooting star.

"Why…" Leguna muttered nonstop at the sight of the cheering crowd.

Why, why, why?

Why are they cheering? Annie is dead! Annie is gone! Why would they cheer for the death of others? Annie was such an amazing girl… so gentle… kind… breathtaking… and beautiful… Why would they cheer over the death of such a perfect girl?

Why, why, why?

All of a sudden, Leguna remembered. They were the ones who killed her. If not for them, Alfreid wouldn't have been able to draw the mana from the air. And without that, Annelotte wouldn't have died. Who killed her? Alfreid was the main culprit, but all the commoners in Melindor, all the humans of the empire, were also accomplices! They were guilty accomplices to her murder!

What would he do after knowing who the culprits were? Avenge her! Avenge Annelotte, his love! He would let Alfreid, Alissanda and all the scum that had resulted in her death pay their dues in blood! She would not be the only one to die! On the day of her death, tens of millions of souls would be buried alongside her! That was the only way for him to honor her death! Those people… should all… just… die!

"This is the final judgment. Be reduced to ashes under the Sacred Light!" Alfreid yelled like the most devout of believers. He used all his enthymema to gather what little remained of the mana in the air to form a final Photon Bomb. Its shape was different from before, and eventually, it changed into a gigantic sword of light half a meter wide and ten plus meters long. The commoners backed off from the pressuring might the sword emanated in an attempt to further themselves from the fearsome object.

Leguna clutched his head in pain. He didn't care about the sword that was about to shoot towards him at all, nor did he bother with the fact that the seal would be undone in another two seconds. His head hurt like it was cracking open. He could sense something welling up from his heart, through his throat, then up his head. It swirled and squirmed inside and consumed his brain cells while ramming against his skull as if it was trying to burst out of it.

There was nothing but pain.

No, in fact, there was that senseless noise accompanying the pain. It was much clearer this time around. Leguna finally knew the latter half of the incantation. It was a path he had never understood before, it was his path to sainthood as well as the incantation that some primeval god set for his awakening.

[Under the Sacred Light,] the abyssal voice ran in his head once more.

But this time, he was no longer confused. Alfreid's sword was growing ever larger before him. He stared at the incoming projectile and muttered, "the Shadow is cast."

Boom!

The blow of the sword of light beat up a dust cloud that covered the entire platform. Even so, the crowd began to cheer. They had witnessed the power of Photon Bomb themselves. Had the black witch not used her gift, two would be enough to kill her off. The one that was fired off just now was an enhanced one, too, and it struck the devil that was powerless to resist. There was no way he would have survived that.

But once the dust settled, their cheers and laughter subsided.

A semi-transparent black silhouette of the devil could be seen. Even though it was only the upper body of the silhouette, the devil was still over three meters tall. It was clad entirely in sinister-looking black armor and wore a terrifying-looking helmet. Its two red, ghastly eyes gave off an unsettling light from behind the helmet. The devil had its right hand raised. With only a single hand, it was able to stop the impressive sword of light. Leguna was still kneeling on the platform inside the silhouette with his right hand raised. It looked as if his movements controlled the devil's. His black irises had turned crimson like the devil's own.

"Under the Sacred Light, the Shadow is cast." -- Host of Darkness, full and unsealed.

Snap!

The cuffs binding him suddenly shattered and disintegrated. He stood up expressionlessly and spoke in a warped, distorted voice.

"A mere mortal like thee dareth play god?"

"Devil, return to the depths of hell from whence you came! This isn't a place where you belong!" Alissanda roared as he leapt into the air and tried to slice the demonic silhouette in two.

"AemetteAnt!"

Leguna casually swung his hand. The silhouette mimicked him, slapping Alissanda into the wall as one would a fly.

The prince coughed up bits of pulverized innards and blood in complete shock. He was a saint-realm paladin. A high-order fighter could not compare to him! Yet, the devil's casual slap broke almost all of his bones. If he hadn't used Host of Radiance to immediately heal his injuries, he would've been a corpse by now.

"Protect His Highness!" Swarms of commoners rushed to Alissanda, though whether they were trying to defend him or move away from the devil was a question in itself.

Leguna wasn't in a rush to pursue. With his right hand grabbing the sword of light, his expression shifted between savagery and indifferent serenity non-stop. After some ten cycles, he frowned.

"Whatever."

His expression was replaced by pure, unadulterated cruelty.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" he roared towards the skies, but this time, his voice had returned to normal.

Previous Chapter Next Chapter