“What does my blood have to do with this?” he asked.
“Your white hair. During the time of the Old Religion white hair had a meaning. It was meant that you were touched by the gods and able to use their artifacts. Without that one key feature people become mad or if they are lucky the items simply won’t work. The sword you carry on your back is one of them. The arm, however, is different. It's a birthright passed down from father to son and so on and so on. Do you understand now? You are a direct decedent of a god. VINCENT VALENTINE! THE NEW GOD OF WAR! Has a nice ring to it, right?”
The air became rather colder where Vincent stood. All around him, he could hear the faint sound of a woman screaming his name. The voice started to become louder and louder. “Wake up, Vincent! Wake up!”
“Emilia…” he muttered.
“It would seem like your girlfriend has finally arrived. You have a choice Vincent. Abandon your quest or I will kill her.”
Vincent made the rage on his face very apparent. “You wouldn’t dare…” he growled.
“Wouldn’t I? See, you’ve been placed under a charm spell. A suggestion has been planted in your head and right now I’m the only one stopping it from taking effect.”
“You so much as touch her and I will…”
“What? You’ll do what? You're just a coward, Vincent. Always have and always will be.”
Back in the waking world. “Vincent! Vincent! Wake up! Come on! Wake up!”
Vincent turned his head to the side to face her. His eyes were still deprived of all light. He slowly rose to his feet. Emilia was overjoyed to see that he was okay. That is until he raised his sword to her. He swung down hard. Had it not been for Cassandra’s timely intervention of blocking his sword with her own sword, Emilia would be dead right now.
“Vincent…” Emilia muttered.
“I don’t think he can hear you!” Cassandra yelled.
Vincent grabbed Cassandra by her jaw and clenched tightly. He raised her up and slammed her into the ground as if she was a rag doll. He kept pushing and pushing and pushing. What would crack first? The floor or Cassandra’s skull? Lucky we would not find out. Emilia tossed a dagger hitting Vincent in the shoulder. He reeled back and let go of her.
“Vincent, please stop!” she said, her eyes full of tears. She pulled out two more daggers. “Please don’t make me do this.”
Nothing. No emotions. He just took the dagger out of his shoulder and ran at her with his sword in hand.
Back inside Vincent’s head.
“I’ll kill you!” he yelled.
Black chains shot from the ground wrapping him and pinning him to the floor.
“Sit tight, Vincent. You have front row seats to the death of Emilia Blackfire.”
Emilia was on the defensive. She didn’t want to fight him. As much as she raises a hand to him a lot, Vincent swung his sword with the intention to kill. One miss step. One wrong move and it would all be over. She was left with little options. Daggers against swords on a head to head duel is no contest. Swords wins nine times out of ten with sheer power. Daggers are used mostly for stealth situations. It was how Emilia was trained but she did have a plan.
Each time Vincent would swing his sword she would block, move to the side, and make a small cut on his body. Nothing lethal but enough to draw blood.
“Oh. Your girlfriend is good, Vincent. I can see why you fancy her. She’s using an old assassin technique called Bloodletting. She makes a small cut somewhere on the body and allowing it to continue to bleed. She would repeat this process I’d say about hundred times. The blood loss would add up, fatigue would take over, and eventually total shut down. Impressive. Very impressive. However, a move like this has one major flaw. And that is if your enemy knows what you are trying to do. And I don’t have time to be playing with her.”
Vincent jumped back away from her. He looked blankly at her. Then he finally pointed his sword towards her. It began to crackle with black electricity. The electricity shot forth like a bullet out of a gun. Every muscle in Emilia’s body tensed up and locked up on her. She tried to stay on her feet but paralysis soon quickly took over and she fell on her back. She tried to move. To reach for a dagger at the very least but it was useless. Vincent soon quickly loomed over her. His face deprived of all emotion. He gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands and was ready to plunge it into Emilia’s heart. She closed her eyes waiting for the end but instead she felt something wet touch her face.
She slowly opened her eyes and saw Vincent’s arms shaking. He was clenching his jaw so tight it looked as though his teeth were going to crack. And tears fell from his eyes like a rushing waterfall. He’s fighting it.
He tossed his sword away and clenched his forehead and let out a bellowing scream of pain.
“Impossible…” the Black Knight said as he glanced over at Vincent who was slowing getting to his feet. “How? With willpower and rage alone, how are you able to break my control?!”
Vincent laughed as the chain links began breaking one by one. “Maybe because you’ve never been in love.”
“Love…?”
When the last of the chain links broke, Vincent ran at the Black Knight like a rampaging bull. Meanwhile, outside, it looked as though Vincent was fighting himself. Punching himself in the face and ribs.
“No one controls me! Not even me!” he yelled. “You will not hurt Emilia so long as I breathe!”
Vincent began giving the Black Knight a series of right and left hooks to the face. “I will find my sisters! Whether or not my memories have been warped is a mute point! This is my body! And I will do as I please! If you have a problem with that then you are free to leave! I never wanted you!”
Laying on the floor, seeming beaten to unconsciousness, the Black Knight began to laugh. “Congratulation!” he yelled. “You passed.” He slowly got to his feet. “Not many people have the strength to break those bonds, not alone anyway. But even more so, not many people have the strength to look at themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Fuck you. I do as I please.’ Maybe you are a worthy successor after all. I suppose we’ll have to see. I’ll be watching, Vincent. Always watching.”
The image of Avia’s castle soon faded and Vincent found himself once again in control of his body, or rather the bloody mess of his body he beat himself into. His right eye was swollen shut, he could taste blood in his mouth, and breathing was difficult. He collapsed to his knees on the verge of fainting when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked and saw Emilia. Vincent smiled, overjoyed to see that she was okay. Then, he collapsed.
Chapter 8
Cassandra regained consciousness soon after. She saw Emilia on her knees holding a bloody and beaten Vincent Valentine. She slowly walked over clenching her head. “What…happened?” she muttered.
“He had me dead to right,” Emilia replied. “Something happened to him. Something…LEVI! WHERE ARE YOU?!”
Emilia’s voiced echoed throughout the halls. “FACE ME YOU COWARD!” she yelled.
“Your grace, please be quiet!” Cassandra urged. “I know how you feel, but right now it seems as though she does not know we are here. On top of which if she were to attack us now, we would have to be worried about Vincent the entire time. He’s in no condition to defend himself.”
Emilia clenched her jaw. Cassandra was right and she knew it. With Vincent the way he is their focus would be split between protecting him and fighting Levi. She knew that. Knew that the best course of action was to find someplace safe to tuck Vincent away, but everything just came rushing into her head like flood water on a stormy night.
Her father’s death, her people frozen and dead, having an entire kingdom chasing after her like she is some criminal, and now Vincent so badly injured she can barely tell it's him. You can only hold in your emotion so long before common sense is replaced with rash decisions.
Emilia was about to run off alone when she felt something grab her ankle. She looked down to see Vincent grabbing her.
&nbs
p; “Don’t do it…” he weakly said. “I know that look in your eyes all to well…it was that same look you had when you decided it would be fun to play in a bear cage when were kids. You saw how well the circus trainer had them playing and wanted to do the same. I know you still have those scars on your back from where it attacked you. They have healed nicely but I know they are there. So, don’t do it. Don’t jump into that bear cage again…think…this time.”
Vincent let go of her as he passed out once again.
Emilia completely forgot about that day at the circus. The scars she got that day are barely visible. She smiled. “I hate you so much, Vincent. You always know the right thing to say. It always came too easy to you. I hate that about you so much.” She let out a deep sigh and calmed down. “There is a hidden bedroom inside my father’s study. He used it when he had those late nights of reviewing documents. Help me carry him.”
They carried Vincent to the room connecting to the throne room. It was hard for Emilia to walk in that bedroom. That was where she found her father dead which begun a rather harrowing scenario of events leading up to this moment.
They put Vincent inside the bed carefully and most of all making sure he was still even alive. The way he looked you presume that the two of them found him in a back alley somewhere.
“He’s still breathing,” Emilia said. “If only just barely.”
“He’s tough, Emilia. You said he isn’t the type to die easily.”
“I know. Still, I hate seeing him like this. Remind me once he’s fully healed to kick his ass for make me so stressed. At this rate, my hair will turn just as white as his.”
From outside the room, they heard a bellowing roar which was accompanied by a scream and followed by a spine-chilling gust of wind. They glanced at one another. It had to be Levi.
Cassandra unsheathed her sword. “Let's end this.”
Emilia grabbed her daggers. “I’m right behind you.” Before leaving, however, Emilia held Vincent’s hand, kissed him on the cheek and whispered in his ear. “If you are dead when I get back I will bring you back and kill you all over again. Just something for you to dream about.”
“Voices, voices, voices, voices! Why do I hear voices?!” Levi yelled.
Emilia thought herself clever by throwing a dagger at the back of Levi’s head. The problem was Levi felt something out of place. The dagger froze and shattered harmlessly against the back of her head. “You?! Why are you here?! Should not be here?! Chase you out, I did. No, no, no, no. You are ruining everything!”
“SHUT UP! This is my home! And you will pay for your crimes!” Emilia ran at her with daggers in hand. Cassandra wasn’t far behind. It was a common pincer maneuver. One comes from the back and the other from behind making it impossible to dodge by moving forward or backward. The only option for Levi would be to move either to the right or left. When she did that, either Cassandra or Emilia would attack. They held their weapons out fully extended so Levi wouldn’t be out of reach when they collapsed. The problem is that the two of them did not know she was a witch.
Levi vanished the moment they collapsed on her.
“What the…? She’s a witch. She’s a fucking witch!” Cassandra yelled out.
“Mage! I am a mage, you fucking heathens! You shun that which you do not understand! Shame me for being what I am. No longer! I will show you the power of magic!”
Levi reappeared and slammed her staff into the ground. Ice sprang forth and barreled towards them like a wave. They barreled rolled out of the way. Everything froze and shattered into shards the size of toothpicks.
“DIE!” Levi screamed.
Ice shards formed in the air around her. She sent them flying towards them. Cassandra found out the hard way that they are impossible to block or parry and got impale through the shoulder. She broke it off but could feel her arm numbing from the freeze. She ducked behind a pillar to avoid getting hit. It was at this moment that Levi realized Emilia had vanished.
“Where are you, little rat?! Come out, come out, come out, come out, come out, come out! You should not be here. Dead, is what you should be. Ruining everything. Cannot be allowed to breathe! Must die! You must die!”
Levi slumped her shoulders and bent over. She began to laugh. “Funny. Your father and I fucked every night until his death. Would you like me to tell you how he died? To make a long and sweaty story short, he was implanting me with his seed as I a drove my dagger into his heart. Funny, funny, funny, funny!” Levi began to laugh harder.
The sound breaking glass hitting the floor reverberated throughout the room. Levi cocked her head to where the sound originated from and sent ice shards flying off in that direction. “DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!”
When the mist of ice finally died off, there was nobody. It was a decoy and Levi fell for it. When she turned her head back around she saw Emilia running up after her. Daggers to close that she can reach out and touch them. Levi waved her hand and vanish but not before taking something with her.
Levi reappeared with a dagger impaled at her side. She collapsed to the ground and clenching her side. She saw blood on her hand and screamed so loudly that glass began to shatter.
“YOU BITCH!” Levi screamed preparing to fire more ice shards. Only they wouldn’t form. “Why…? Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why! What did you do to me?!”
“I’ve known for quite some time you were a witch. I had my suspicious when we I saw how my father hung on every word you said. To him, every word out of your mouth was like gospel. Then came the confirming note when I finally met up with Cassandra again. There was no denying what you were then. Which is why I coated all my daggers with hydra poison and had them reforge with led base paint. It was this same combination that the witch hunters used against you all those years ago. All I needed to do was scratch you and your flow of mana gets disrupted.”
Levi screamed again. Emilia shut her up by tossing to daggers at her knees. Levi repeatedly slammed her staff into the ground but nothing happened. Cassandra ripped it from Levi’s hands and kicked her in the face. “That was for my brothers and sisters!”
Emilia grabbed her by the collar of her robe and began caving her face in. “That is for my mother you tried to kill!” She then broke both her arms. “That is for chasing me from my home!” Emilia grabbed a dagger and ripped out Levi’s tongue. “That is for killing my father!”
Levi tried using her one good knee to crawl away.
Emilia grabbed her once again by her robe and slammed her against one of the column. Using both her thumbs, Emilia blinded Levi and just kept pressing. “That is for all the people you killed and for messing with Vincent’s head!”
Emilia firmly grabbed Levi by the head and whispered in her ear, “And this is for pissing me off. Not many people get the luxury of knowing why they are going to die. Be grateful for that.”
Emilia almost effortlessly broke her neck.
Emilia didn’t know what to expect after killing Levi. A celebration? Closure? She felt…disappointment. She let every one of Blackfire down. They are all dead because she allowed things to get this far. Or so she thought.
While they were all looking at the body, the sound of footsteps echoed just outside the throne room doors. The door opened. Emilia and Cassandra were ready for an attack. What they didn’t expect were the people of Blackfire walking into the room accompanied by members of the Blood Knights. With Levi dead, the ice melted.
On the floor, they saw Levi’s corpse and Emilia covered in blood. The Blood Knights took a knee and held out their swords. This was a sign that they wanted to be punished. For what they did, for what they didn’t do, and for betraying the royal family.
“No…” Emilia said. “There will be time for regrets later. Now…now we rebuild!”
Chapter 9
Piña and Kristy grabbed a carriage out of Illya threw the Hothcar desert. The days were sweltering and the nights were freezing. The nearest oasis town was Anders but that was nearly a fortnight away. Bes
ides, Anders was not their destination.
Piña was on the floor of the carriage laid out like a sunbather. Her lips were chapped, she was sweating out of every pore of her body, and her throat was as dry as the desert they crossed.
“It's hot…” Piña muttered. “Why did we leave that nice breezy forest again?”
“We are going to see a man. He has…he has information on my parents. Information that I so desperately need. I said you could wait for me in the cabin until I got back.”
“It's no fun if I’m alone. Besides, I actually want to see someone too.”
Kristy raised a brow. “Really? Who?” she asked.
Piña pulled out a broken silver locket she had tucked away in her belt. “I wanna find someone who can open this. I’ve tried but the damn thing seems to be wedged shut because of this dent. I think it's mine. It certainly has my name on it, but I can’t seem to remember where I got it. It feels…important, though.”
Kristy’s eyes were locked heavily on that locket. Piña may not remember it but Kristy does. She was given that locket by her father. It was her mother’s before she passed on and chances are there is a picture inside of it. If there is then whatever it is can completely undo the indoctrination that Kristy has placed. They haven’t taken hold yet and Piña cannot be allowed to remember.
“Kristy. Kristy?”
“Hm? What?”
“You zoned out. I asked if you think someone in that village has a chance of opening it?”
“Um, perhaps, would you like me to hold onto it?”
When Kristy extended her hand, Piña brought the locket to her chest as if trying to protect a baby. “I…no. I’ll hold onto it. It’s…I think it’s something important.”
The Return of Constantine (The Blackest Knight Series, Book 2) Page 5