Anthony looked up at the painting that was behind the office desk. “The battle of Xindez,” Anthony said, picking out the differ- ent terrain features. His eyes noticed the Guardian emblem at the top of the painting.
“You know of it?” Tissis asked.
“You could say that.” Anthony took a moment, seeing the painting come to life in his mind, the fierce fighting as the forces of Dena collided with the chaos vanguard. It was one of the first battles between the people of Dena. They hadn’t been fully united; the humans and the beast kin were fighting different waves of chaos that flooded through their gates.
“So now, tell me about when you came in contact with some- one affected by chaos.” Anthony’s hand rested on his swords and the two guards in the room tensed up.
Tissis looked at Anthony.
“They should have been here only a few hours ago. Did you make a deal with them?”
Tissis opened and closed her mouth. Her features started to twist as shadows shot out from Anthony’s feet. Solomon wrapped around the guards’ and Tissis’s feet and mouths.
“Do not test me, little lady.” Anthony’s voice transformed, sounding like a demon that had clawed his way out of hell. “Did you make a deal with someone just hours ago? It would have been
in your room? He entered and left through a secret passage in this room.” Anthony walked up to the desk, his hand on his sword.
“It looks like you did.” Anthony could read her expression clearly. “What was your deal?” Anthony used a spell. He was drained from having powered such a large Guardian’s Judgement. He felt as though he were scraping the bottom of the barrel as his spell hit Tissis. Her eyes went glossy and Solomon moved away.
“I made a deal with him to heal me and my husband. In ex- change, I would need to break the Black Rags apart.”
Solomon wrapped around her mouth; the guards looked at her in shock and her eyes cleared and widened in alarm.
“Okay, have you had any other dealings with them?” Anthony watched her and nodded. “That would be a no. Have you done any- thing to carry out their actions?” He let out a sigh at her expression. “Do you know anything about them that would allow me to identify them?” Her expression changed again. “Okay, so I’ll need to move fast if I want to follow his trail.” Anthony moved to her desk and rooted around in it quickly. Solomon destroyed his shad- ows across the city so Anthony could use more of them to search the drawers. Anthony pulled out a guard badge and then wrote a
letter, sealing it with the Skalafell lord’s seal. “That should help.”
Anthony put the crest on his armor and then moved to the two guards in just a few steps.
With two hits, their eyes rolled back and they fell on the floor.
Anthony took them into the bedroom, using the sheets to tie them up.
“When I return, you’ll undergo judgement,” Anthony said. Tissis’s eyes were wide as Anthony hit her, knocking her out.
He took her into the bedroom and tied her up.
He followed the stain of chaos and went to a bookshelf. He pushed the bottom to the side and crawled through the hidden pas-
sage there. He closed the hidden entrance behind him and rushed forward. The chase was on!
Anthony slammed through a hidden door, coming out into an- other room in a spray of wood.
“Ah, they were just here!” Anthony yelled as he ran forward, hitting the doors out of the room. Something feral had woken up in him. The power of his familiars was stronger than ever, more pow- erful than adrenaline. People jumped out of the way of the mad knight running through the halls.
He ran past two servants, eyeing them because they had come into direct contact with a chaotic being. They both screamed and jumped.
“Official business!” Anthony yelled, holding out his badge as he kept on running through the halls. He saw a large beast kin marching down the hall, a number of guards with him.
Anthony started to laugh as the group turned around to look at the knight closing in with them.
The guards started to move to block his path.
“Chaos! I’ve come for you!” Anthony’s eyes glowed with a fierce light under his helmet. His face formed a twisted smile.
“Guardian!” One of the men with the count turned and ran. “What are you doing!” the count hissed.
Anthony moved forward. A blade came for his head. He shot past the attacker in a burst of golden speed. His body glowed green as he grabbed their arm, tossing them into a wall. Then he grabbed a blade coming through the air, snapping it in half as he kicked the guard into another behind them.
He arrived in front of the count, who was powering up. Two quick smacks disoriented the beast kin. Anthony picked him up by the torso and slammed him into a wall where there was an arrange- ment of swords.
A golden head appeared over Anthony’s shoulder, breathing on the blades. A black shadow emerged from the wall. A demon mask looked at the beast kin as its shadow tendrils pushed the blades down around the count, so that he had no room to move, the sword acting as a prison.
“I’ll talk to you later.”
Anthony’s armor glowed green while his joints leaked a black miasma and golden wings appeared on his back.
He looked where the chaos-touched being was running and then looked toward a window.
Anthony took a run and leaped out of the window. The rough glass window shattered around him as Dave’s wings unfurled. The early morning sun spread over Skalafell as a demon took to the skies.
Anthony banked around, picking up speed. He took in a deep breath, banking wide and then toward the building.
His wings collapsed as he darkened the window. His helmet lit up with his blue eyes as he saw the Agent of Chaos who had just reached the top of the stairs.
A swirl of gold, green and black appeared in Anthony’s eyes as he drew on the power of his familiars.
The Agent of Chaos’ hood had come back, revealing his elven features and the look of panic on his face as he saw Anthony in front of him.
Anthony went through another window as the Agent of Chaos let out a yell that contorted into a roar; his body shimmered, shook, started and stopped—elvish one moment and chaotic beast the other, made from contorted and alternating colors. It stood six foot tall, had black feet and claws, with a body that looked like glass, allowing one to see the twisted power inside its body.
“Guardian!” the elf yelled out before he broke his restraints, shuddering between forms and becoming a chaotic beast.
Anthony crashed through the window as the chaotic creature fired off a pillar of chaos energy. A mana shield appeared around Anthony, but he was like a rock in front of a hose. The power was breaking around him, as he forced his way upstream.
“Judgement comes.” Anthony drew his sword and pushed it forward.
A purple energy shot forward into the chaos. The beam disap- peared, with silence returning in an almost painful fashion. Antho- ny gritted his teeth as he felt the physical pain of using more mana than his body had been able to recover.
The chaotic beast took a few steps backward. A green gas came from the wounds on his arm.
Anthony dropped to the landing between the stairs. He started jumping up the stairs as the chaotic beast jumped on the wall, tear- ing it apart and corrupting the materials there as he rushed for the window Anthony had entered.
Anthony jumped off the stairs, imbued with Bruce’s strength as Solomon appeared under the chaotic beast, screaming at them as he threw them off the wall.
“Familiar weakling!” the chaotic beast cursed out as they raked their claws across Solomon.
Solomon cried out, but his mask face only seemed to demonify more as a blade of shadows struck the chaotic beast, making them cry out. Solomon disappeared in smoke, as if he were never there.
Anthony brought the pommel of his sword down and smashed it into the back of the chaotic beast, sending it shooting into the floor. Anthony touched the ceiling and then dug his sword into the
wall as he fell, controlling his descent as the stunned chaotic beast started to get up.
Anthony shot past the chaotic beast as a cloud of green ap- peared above it, followed with a scream of pain. Anthony opened
his visor and stuffed the arm into his armor as it started to dissolve into mana, in an effort to replenish his own mana.
Anthony took the other arm and then the legs of the chaotic beast.
“What kind of monster takes his prisoner’s limbs!” the beast/ elf cried out. As his power decreased, he could no longer hold onto his beast form completely.
“Oh, I’m much smarter than that, wee beastie.” Anthony waved his sword at the chaotic beast as he picked up a leg. The green mias- ma was forcefully dragged in by Anthony and his aura grew quick- ly.
“You can refine chaos!” The chaotic beast had shown anger and annoyance so far, but now he showed fear.
“Tasty.” Anthony dropped the limb. It hit the ground and shat- tered, turning into dust.
Anthony picked up the next limb and started to drain it as well. “You—how could you know that? Only the upper echelons of
the Guardians could do that!”
“Seems like you chaotic types have been talking a lot about us while it seems that the rest of Dena forgot all about us. Do you have a fan club for the best Guardians? You must.” Anthony laughed as he took the last limb and consumed it.
It fell to the ground as dust. Anthony consumed the one inside his armor and shook his leg, dust falling on the floor.
“That’s going to be annoying to clean,” Anthony complained as he stretched. He felt good—better than he had in a long time. He still felt as though he was much weaker than when he was at his peak, but now his mana had recovered quickly. He hadn’t been able to fill it yet.
If I can find a few places with a high mana concentration, or some chaotic individuals... Anthony would have licked his lips if he had a tongue.
Guards rushed the stairwell, pointing their weapons at Antho- ny and the chaotic beast that was shuddering between his beast form and elven form.
“Put your weapons down!” one of the guards yelled.
“Official Guardian business here.” Anthony reached his hand out to the side, closing his hand around a gavel that formed from purple energy. His emblem appeared on the left breastplate of his armor.
“I charge you for trespassing on the lands of Dena, for instigat- ing a plague in Skalafell.” Anthony brought the hammer down. It rang out and a wave of force pushed the guards back out of the top of the stairwell as the chaotic beast, without his limbs, was suspend- ed in the air. Judges appeared at their podiums in the large hallway that looked cramped with them all in it and the guards who had been ignored and pushed back.
“Hmm?” The pig kin looked around as he scratched his belly. “Found him,” Anthony said to all of the judges.
“This is Skalafell!”
“Silence in the courts!” the pig kin yelled out in an almost bored tone. The pressure of his bloodline made the guard comman- der slam into the ground face-first.
The guards all lowered their weapons and looked at one anoth-
er.
“You’re guards of the kin! Act like it in a court of law!” The pig
kin seemed to have passed his point of patience with his own peo- ple.
Anthony took his seat as they all looked at the chaotic beast. “Oh Leadio.” The elf among the court sighed.
The chaotic beast twitched at the name.
“He was once part of our people.” The elf judge raised their hand; the right side remained a beast while the left side was elf.
The elf held a deep disappointment in his eyes.
“For creating a plague and setting it upon the population of Skalafell, how do you plead?” Anthony asked.
“Guilty!”
“For trying to kill the people of Dena, how do you plead?” “Guilty!”
“What was your plan?”
“The plague hides a curse. We weakened the people in the noble houses, made them hide away. Then the people who were poor—we didn’t get too many of them—stir the pot with a few people who we had made deals with. Then they would make the poor fight the nobles, then with one another. When the city was opened, the curse would die out. There would be people dead all over the place, but people would learn from the survivors about people turning on one another. We would plant evidence that the elves in the Deepwood were fighting for the humans, add them into the war against the humans,” the elf/beast answered.
“How many agents of chaos that are able to convert others are there here or chaotic beasts that have been altered already?” the el- emental judge asked.
“There are three more enlightened. Chaotic beasts as you say.” “Where is the agent that changed you?” Anthony asked.
“I do not know. I was given my mission and the curse, that was
all.”
“Chaos cell.” The gnome sighed. The others looked at the split man.
“It would be good if we could trace out the cell and see who
they’re connected to but then the plague will advance too much,” the dwarf said.
“Guardian Anthony?” the pig kin asked Anthony.
“I say that we destroy the cell here, then we alert the authorities in the area. Make sure that the people are prepared to deal with chaotic agents if they want to return here,” Anthony said.
“With the power of the chaotic forces, do you think that you will be able to heal the city?” the elf asked.
The judges all looked to Anthony.
Anthony let out a sigh. “I’m not sure. Once the curse is re- moved, then people will be able to heal instead of getting sicker. From there, I can clean the water and use my spells to enhance its ability to heal. I will need to help here and there with the most se- vere cases. There will be people who could die, but then medicines will work on them unlike before when they were affected by the curse.”
“The sooner the better.” The hob tapped their shamanic staff on the ground.
“I ask the court to allow me to examine the accused’s memo- ries,” Anthony said.
“It will wipe their personality and kill them.” The pig kin looked to the elf.
“This is a war and they have attacked our people. They don’t care about their methods and we must eliminate their chaos so that it doesn’t affect Dena. He has become interconnected with chaos. There is no way to remove the power from him without destroying him.”
Anthony could see the pain in the elf ’s eyes as he said those words.
The chaotic beast was trying to move against invisible re- straints.
“I put it to a vote,” Anthony said. They all cast their votes anonymously.
“Everyone is in agreement.” He looked at the results. “Leadio, your memories will be scanned, your mind destroyed, and your power will be converted so that it might no longer stain Dena.”
The hammer hit the surface of his table.
His table disappeared and Anthony stepped forward through the purple court. He stepped upon the air. As he reached the ac- cused, he put his hand on the man’s head. Purple and white inter- mixed. Anthony was hit with a blast of memories. A young man growing up, he hadn’t been outstanding but he had a simple family who lived on the outskirts of Dena. He had been out playing when a group of beast kin had hidden in his village. They had been across the border in the human lands; the elves didn’t know and hosted them, looking after their wounds.
Humans had come in and demanded to be allowed into the town.
With ancient elven culture, the mayor refused politely. The beast kin were their guests; they wouldn’t go against their old tra- ditions.
The humans had then burned down the village. The beast kin and humans had fought one another. The beast kin had won, but instead of helping the people who had helped them, they had taken supplies from the elves and ran off.
He came back to find his mother, father, and sister killed. He didn’t know whether it wa
s by the beast kin or the humans. He didn’t care; he wanted to destroy them both.
He grew up, no longer the carefree boy from before. He trained in the art of fighting. He looked to increase his strength. He want- ed to go and fight the beasts and the humans, to show them the power of the elves to get them to pay for the deaths of his family. He was a proud elf and he knew that one day they would step on these other races and thrash them, like a grandfather would teach his disobedient grandson, and then they would come to learn the errors of their ways, submitting themselves to the elves freely, enter- ing into a prosperous time.
Time went on and he applied to the military. He wanted to be on the border patrols and he made it in. He was an angry man, but toward the elves he was civil, turning his anger outward.
He watched the borders, watched the beast kin and the hu- mans, seeing what they did to one another. He asked to go and lead raiding parties into their lands. He butted heads with the leader- ship.
He realized that the elves were weak. They looked good and they were strong, but they were unwilling to use that strength against others. He became disillusioned with the greatness of the elven race.
He found the aftermath of a raid. There had been elves in the city, trading with humans when beast kin had raided.
He saw the state of the elves and he led a group of his followers to hunt down the beast kin, killing them for their crimes.
He was dismissed from the military, but escaped being impris- oned. He left the Deepwood and headed to the lands of the hu- mans and beast kin. He started to kill people on both sides because he felt like it. He was found by someone—a gnome—protected and given targets.
He was introduced to others who thought like him, then the Agents of Chaos, who had unlocked power from another world that allowed them massive power. That was how they were getting the beast kin and the humans to fight against one another.
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