William of Archonia: Redemption

by Jarod Meyer

  With that the man shoved the fiery steel into his face. William roared, squeezing his eyes closed as the fire ripped through his nerves. But the fire and pain abruptly stopped, and William heard metal hit the ground. The last light had faded from the sky, leaving the training grounds in the half-dark of dusk, just before the deep, dark of night fell. William felt something reverberate in the air.

  A deep tone cut through the still air, vibrating and filling William with dread, and echoing off the stone walls of Valhalla. The warning beacon had been rung.

  “The forces of Dichonia are attacking!” a voice boomed out across the vast expanse of the training grounds, projected by some unseen guardian.

  It wasn’t Katrina. That much he knew.

  “Fly to the aid of your brothers. To mount Olympus!” the voice boomed again.

  There was a moment of pause, as people seemed to take in the news and decide how to react Then flashes of light split the darkness amongst the crowd, blinking like fireflies as soldiers began to summon their armor. Captains shouted commands, and bodies shot off into the darkness.

  Everyone was moving now, asking for direction or giving orders, and everyone forgot about William.

  “Hey! Cut me loose, I can help!” William shouted frantically, but he was drowned out by the clamor of armor, and swords.

  He tugged at his bindings, but they were very strong projections, made by a higher ranking Adjudicator. They held him firmly. William gasped for breath and tried again. They wouldn’t budge. Feeling cornered and desperate, William let out a frustrated bellow, and began thrashing wildly. But the chains held. They were simply too strong. He tried to catch the attention of someone, anyone. He shouted at the top of his lungs until his voice cracked and broke, the pain from the brandings now forgotten pains.

  William stopped. The grounds had fallen quiet. They had all gone, moving to the north. He could see flashes of light off in the distance. It looked just like every other battle scene he had ever seen, flashes of violence. There were probably screams of pain and terror, too, but he was too far away to hear them. He was powerless to stop any of it.

  Readjusting himself so that he could gain some leverage with his legs, William pulled against just one side of his bindings. He strained until his muscles quivered and failed, and he slumped in the chains, black spots swimming across his vision.

  “Come on!” he shouted, refusing to give in. To accept the weakness and frailty of his past existence.

  A good hour passed before he stopped to rest and looked out across the horizon. Darkness had fallen over the training grounds. The guards that usually attended to this were now many miles from here facing lord only knows what, he thought to himself.

  Why had Katrina not rung the warning bell? Was she stopped, or did someone get there first. Was she in danger? Had Juarez gone with Brock as well? Questions flooded his mind, and he fought off a wave of nausea. Not only did he not know if his friends were in danger, but he could do nothing to help them.

  He hung his head in defeat. William felt a tear run down his cheek. How had this gone so very wrong? Why did nobody believe him?

  He couldn’t decide if he wanted to cry or yell in anger, but as his mind tried to decide he heard an enchanting voice.

  “Fear not my friend,” someone said suddenly.

  Startled, William looked up to find a figure wreathed in light standing before him.

  “G..Gabe?” William asked, squinting against the light.

  “Yes, my friend it is I,” Gabriel said, his voice echoing from far off.

  “Thank god you’re here! Free me!” William said, relief pouring into him like icy water. “Everyone is in danger. Archonia is under attack.”

  “Yes, I know. I tried to warn the Synod many times of this danger, but it fell on deaf ears. I do not know if they were trying to deny it from themselves, or simply trying to avoid panic,” Gabe said.

  “None of that matters anymore! We must help the others! Free me!” William yelled, desperation gnawing at his insides.

  “I cannot, my friend,” Gabe said, passing a glowing hand through one of the massive chains restraining William.

  “I don’t understand?” William said. “Are you not real?”

  “I am still on Earth, William. I am speaking to you through your mind,” Gabe said, his ghostly image smiling.

  “My mind? Is that possible?”

  “Unless you have gone mad, William, we have been speaking for about a minute now,” Gabe said, chuckling. William’s face flushed. “I joke, William. I have been around for a long time, and have learned a good many things along the way,” the Archon said serenely.

  “I need your help Gabe,” William pleaded. “You have to come back,” he said, hanging his head.

  “I cannot return. I still have business here on Earth. And you think too little of yourself, young William. I saw you break through stronger chains than these on Earth. Surely these bonds cannot hold you down. Now go help your friends,” Gabe finished.

  “If you can’t help me, why come?” William asked, desperately.

  “Sometimes, William, all the help we need is a simple reminder that we are strong. Break free, William,” Gabe said in a whisper, and then was gone.

  Chapter Twenty

  The Breach

  The reaction was almost instant. William flexed his arms, and roared a long cry that echoed across the now empty field. Light erupted from his body, and the ground trembled around him. His armor clamped down around his arms and legs, and his eyes burned gray. The massive stones and chains that bound him crumbled under his returned strength.

  He was airborne. Breathing through his teeth, he barreled through the sky towards Olympus. It was no longer fear that gripped him, but a raw determination to face whatever was coming. His face and chest still burned where he had been branded, but it was motivation. He would not forget that pain.

  The world around him blurred as he picked up speed, and a trip that should have taken him the better part of a day would only take him a small fraction of that time He was already so far behind, but he could not change that now. All he could do was help.

  His rage slowly subsided as he flew further, until he could finally see the peak far off in the distance, riddled with fire and explosions, heralding a fierce battle. He spotted tiny dots coming towards him. When they got closer he could see that they were soldiers, retreating from the battle.

  He didn’t think twice, moving to intercept them. William’s leather clad hand landed firmly against the chest of a Sentinel. The soldier’s armor was in shambles, and his eyes wild. A group of other soldiers following the frightened man came to an abrupt halt at the site of the two.

  “Soldier where are you going?” William asked eyes narrowed.

  “The battle is lost, the forces of the fallen are too numerous! We must flee!” the soldier gasped.

  Other frightened soldiers slowed to listen in on their conversation.

  “And where will you flee to?!” William shouted, addressing the entire group. “This force is not here to claim territories or land. This evil is here to take your souls!” No one spoke. “You all took oaths to defend the people of this world from the very evil threatening it right now!”

  “What do you know of oaths, traitor?” a nearby Adjudicator asked.

  ”You all eagerly branded me a liar and traitor for trying to warn the people about the very thing that is happening right now! I am moving towards the danger, while you run from it. I think it is you that is a traitor.”

  “Nothing can stand against this force, William.”

  He recognized the voice, and turned quickly to see Samuel. His armor was in shambles, and he was covered in black soot.

  “That is what they said about me, Samuel. They said a tainted soul could never live in this world. They said that I would fail, but here I stand, ready and willing to face evil,” William snapped back.

  “You have not seen this enemy,” Samuel responded.

  “I do not need
to see this enemy to know why it frightens you, Samuel,” William said, looking around.

  The number of soldiers floating around him was growing larger.

  “I lived hell in my previous life I didn’t learn soon enough that you can’t do everything alone. Flee and you may live, but our lines will break, and then you will be alone, isolated when this evil comes for you. You can watch it destroys everything you have in this life, and all the innocents that will die with it. You can let this evil come into your world, and take it from you. Or, you can stand together, and show these demons why you were chosen to live in Archonia!”

  This was the first time that William had ever given a speech, and surprisingly, it felt good. The soldiers roared in approval, and as William took off they all followed him. He led a force of almost seventy soldiers. Samuel floated up next to him.

  “You’re crazy, William, you know that?” Samuel whispered.

  “It’s amazing how people tend to follow crazy,” William said with smirk. “Now I need you to surround this whole group in one of your shields. Don’t focus on anything else.”

  He didn’t have to ask twice, for a sphere of light expanded around Samuel. It bubbled out, engulfing the entire group. A rumble of excited approval swept across the group.

  The sounds of battle in the distance drew nearer, the shrieks and cries of beasts rising above the din.

  William shouted, “I need any archers or projectors to the rear of the shield, if anything flanks us kill it! Fighters to the front. Work together as a team! Fly in and out of the bubble, and make your kills count!”

  “We should keep the bubble high, so that the wyrms can’t consume us all,” said the Sentinel that William had first stopped.

  “I don’t know what the hell those are, but your strategy is sound,” William said. “What else can we expect?”

  “Tera spawn up high,” the man shot back quickly. William shook his head, feeling more than a little confused and unprepared for what lay ahead.

  “The bats,” Samuel said, after noticing his confusion.

  “Right,” William responded. He remembered his encounter with them on the cliff well enough. Perhaps the flock he fought on the cliff was a recon force, testing their path in Archonia.

  “There mightn’t also be dredgers on the ground, and demon kin footmen.”

  “Your name, Sentinel?” William asked.

  “We have met once before, tainted one. I am Silvos. I was not so courteous to you in our first encounter,” he said.

  William finally put it together, and married the man’s familiar face to that early, painful lesson. He had never really given a second thought to the thrashing he took that day. After all, he’d been through so much that first day in Archonia. William met his gaze, the man’s eyes seemingly begging for William’s pardon.

  “You’re forgiven, brother,” William said, nodding.

  Silvos smiled. “Thank you…William,” he said, using his name for the first time.

  William nodded, struggling to force down a smile, and continued.

  “You must lead these men to victory, Silvos,” William said.

  “Where will you go?” Samuel asked.

  “I have to find my friends,” William replied, a determined edge to his voice. “Gather as many men as you can for the counter attack. Take it slow, and stay with the shield. Find more shield bearers and more archers. Contain them as best you can. If we can provide our men order and discipline…that is the first battle to win. Win that, and maybe we survive this conflict.”

  William pushed forward out of the protective bubble. He crested a hill, finally allowing him a view of the battlefield. The sight before him stilled the beating of his heart. Screams and shouts filled the air, punctuated by the angry bellows of fearsome beasts. Beams of bright light and fiery explosions pitted the darkness at the foot of the great mountain. The air grew black with soot, moving like living smog. Millions of demon spawn covered the vast expanse as far as he could see. From his perch in the sky it looked as if the ground was squirming…and bleeding.

  Flashes of gold glinted amidst the sea of writhing bodies, like distant, sparkling flecks. The defending army’s line hadn’t just been broken, but worse, scattered. Each of the Archonian protectors were now struggling just to stay alive. They were completely unprepared for an attack like this.

  William swallowed hard, and tried to make sense of the chaotic battlefield. He knew that he had to bring them together if they were to have a chance. He had to rally them somehow. Lightning bolts, and energy blasts rained down suddenly from the top of the mountain. He tracked the bright flashes, guessing that Zeus and his Sentinels were making a stand on the high ground.

  Zeus’s flash of light pulsed against the ground. William realized what it was. A beacon. The tiny specs of gold started to move, gravitating towards the flashing strobe.

  Good, William thought. Zeus is trying to rally them together.

  Bolstered by the sight of the Archonian’s coming together, William took a deep breath, and shot down from the sky, his energy building and engulfing him. He roared a mighty battle cry, unsheathing his sword. The mighty weapon transformed into a spear as he held it out before him, its handle buzzing with violent purpose in his palm. He plummeted from the sky, falling like a glowing, terrible meteor.

  William approached the field, squirming demons blocking any view of the ground beneath them. A sudden pressure formed inside him, pushing against his fall, and right before he landed, he spun and flexed with all his force, projecting a violent wave of energy before him. The wave struck the ground, exploding in a shower of dirt, rocks, and demonic bodies, instantly clearing everything in his path.

  William landed, and they were on him again. Demons, bats, creatures of every shape and size were screeching and clawing at him. He arched his weapon back and forth, morphing it back into a sword, and slashing again, and again, cut through bodies like butter. He parried a crooked blade wielded by a larger demon. He cleaved it in half, felling it like wheat at the harvest. Waves of energy spouted from his hand, knocking back hundreds of enemies. Even more swarmed over their bodies and continued to attack.

  Their strategy isn’t not power, or technique, but sheer numbers, he realized.

  William fought fear with rage, roaring and bursting through a cloud of the vicious spawn whose gnashing teeth ripped at him. The energy surrounding his body disintegrated their flesh, leaving a trail of falling maimed demons behind him. He could not keep up such energy output indefinitely. He had to change his strategy.

  He decided that he needed to gather as many forces as he could, and send them to the shield. He spotted a group of Guardians through the chaos. Their white armor gleamed against the red and black masses.

  The cut off group were mounting a futile defense many hundreds of meters below him. Gungnir formed into a spear and he dove headfirst towards the ground. His shoulders strained with every hit as he impaled demon after demon. The spear struck the ground and cratered the dirt beneath and ten or more demon carcasses squished to the ground around it.

  One Hell of a Shish Kabob.

  He hefted the spear and pirouetted flinging the bodies off the end of the spear. Gungnir abruptly turned into a gleaming Scythe and continuing his spin the blade cut through a score of demons who had closed in around him again. Their screeches and gurgles of agony filled his ears as they flopped to the ground in multiple pieces.

  He had reached the soldiers. They faced outwards in a tight circle, their backs to one another. Mounds of bloody, hewn body parts, and demon carcasses were piled around them. Their faces were ashen, smeared, and weary. A score of Archonian soldiers lay behind them in their circle, motionless. Another wave of demons pushed in at the circle of battered soldiers, driving their defensive formation back and threatening to break their lines.

  William formed Gungnir into a massive hammer. He forced his energy into the weapon, before leaping forward and driving it into the ground. The hammer connected with the ground, ex
ploding with a blinding flash. The energy rippled out, fracturing the ground and passing harmlessly into the beleaguered soldier’s formation. The demons scattered, the violent energy striking them with incredible force.

  William looked up, his eyes meeting a familiar face. He moved to greet Ulifrig, but the wall of demons was already reforming and collapsing upon them again.

  “Ulifrig! Get your ass up to Samuel,” he said, pointing wildly at the glowing shield, which was now twice the size.

  There were more tiny specs of gold flitting their way towards it, and new bubbles starting to form, connecting to the larger one. Ulifrig simply nodded, and with a burst of light the group of soldiers shot off into the sky.

  William took off as well, splitting Gungnir into two axes.

  Time to do some more damage, he thought.

  The two small war axes became like ripping saw blades, spinning them in his hands, dicing any enemies before him into pieces. The demon’s blood was like sticky tar, flinging from torn and ruined bodies, and covering William from head to toe.

  William had just finished decapitating a particularly large demon whose eyes had somehow been sewn shut and seemed to be sewn together itself from the parts of many different bodies. He was blindsided by a sword It drove hard into his armor, but didn’t get through. William staggered and turned, finding a large human-shaped demon, floating in the air. He wore very thick armor, and bore a large shield. His white skin made him look like a corpse and it didn’t have any whites in its eyes they were merely black voids.

  William slapped the two small axes together, forming them into one large axe, the blade the size of his own body. The axe fell, sinking into the shield, but not rending it as he had expected.

  Oh shit.

  He’d expected the axe to rip through the shield as it had been doing against other foes, but this enemy was more powerful. He had just left himself completely open to a counter attack. William heard a crunch and felt something dig its way into his left side. He looked down. The demon’s blade hadn’t pierced through his armor, completely. A crack resounded as the demon thrust, and pain shot through his insides, taking his breath away.