Sofie rode next to them and slashed at the familiar with her blade; her familiar enhanced her strength as she cut through the enemy familiar.
A man cried out in the army as his familiar was killed.
Sofie had a pleased look on her face as she grinned at Todd. “Little bandage and you’ll be—”
A beam of light cut through her armor, sprouting through her chest and going through her ika.
Time slowed. Todd saw the stunned look on her face as her ika stopped. She was thrown forward. Her sword slipped from her hand before she slammed into the ground.
Todd cried out as he felt a burst of pain in his back and chest.
He looked down to see an arrow sprouting out of his chest. He let out a wet cough.
“Sofie!” Gunnar yelled.
“Todd! Todd! Are you okay?” Katrine yelled.
But it was becoming distant as darkness came in and shut off Todd’s vision.
Chapter: On Dawn’s Break
Claire led the group through the ruins of Ashmere.
“Wow, they really let this place go, huh?” Anthony asked.
Claire just rolled her eyes as she scanned the area. She threw out a hand, stopping the others. She cast Illusion on the hallway they were in.
A few seconds later, some guards of the Church of Light marched past. She cast a detection spell that spread through the walls, highlighting the different living creatures around her.
“Let’s go.” She dismissed the Illusion spell and they continued on.
They reached a section of wall. As the others kept watch, Claire put her hand in an alcove.
There it is. She pulled and twisted a handle. A locking mechanism disengaged as she pushed on the wall.
“Footsteps,” Anthony said, hurrying everyone through.
Damien pushed the wall closed and it locked back into position. Everyone held their breath.
Claire saw the guards moving past on their route, watching them with her Detect spell.
She held her breath as they continued on.
With hand gestures, she led them through a small tunnel and they found themselves in an old room.
“Where do we go from here?” Aila asked.
“We go up.” Claire pointed to the ceiling.
Tommie let out a hiss of air. “These enchantments—it’s more complex than anything I’ve seen before.”
“It’s a spatial teleportation formation. Now, I hope that the other formations are still active.” Claire pulled out a crystal. The mana density in the room increased rapidly as she moved to a section in the wall. It opened with a tap and she slotted the crystal in.
The formation flickered to life and the wall lit up with different dots on the wall.
Claire looked at the dots. “These are all the destinations.” She wiped the part of the wall next to the dots, showing the Church of Light cathedral.
“It looks like they cleared most of the ones in the higher levels. There is one here, just three levels from the main chambers where the leaders of the church host their meetings.” Claire pulled out a timepiece. “They should be starting their meeting in about ten minutes.”
She shut it with a snap and looked at everyone.
“Anthony and I will take on the meeting room. I’ll play a cleric and you will play a guard. Damien, Aila, and Tommie—you will be heading to the restrictive enchanted rooms. These are rooms that the Church of Light have altered in order to contain the power of the ley line and use it for their own means. If we can break that hold, then the power of the Guardians will increase dramatically and the power of ‘Light’ that the Drafeng have gifted will transform once more into the power of Dena, reducing the threat of the Church of Light’s guards, priests, and saints.
“Do you know all of the locations?” Claire asked.
Aila pulled out a map from her pack.
“There are four in the basement level, two on the eighth floor, one on the eleventh and seventeenth, with three more located at the base of the spires on the top level,” Tommie rattled off.
“Good. If you can destroy them, then do so. Otherwise, Tommie, you know the most about enchantments among us. It will be up to you to destroy the enchantments and remove their hold on the ley line.” Claire looked at Tommie.
He looked nervous but he gripped his fists and nodded.
Claire waved her hands, gathering mana and forming it with a few words and gestures. She threw it on to the others. Faint golden outlines appeared around them, making them appear to be human and wearing the different clothes of the Church of Light clergy. Tommie looked like a small human priest while Aila was a Church of Light cleric and Damien a large Church of Light guard.
Anthony became a guard as well. Claire transformed into a high priestess. All of them wore robes of white and gold and polished armors, different from the ragtag items they had been wearing before.
“This illusion will last three hours, unless someone has an identification spell or sight to see through it. If you attack or are attacked with the attack hitting your clothes, then the spell will be annulled. Tommie, you need to make sure no one interacts with you. I have increased your height with the illusion, so if someone was to shake your hand, your illusion’s hand is much higher than yours and they would grab the illusion, destroying it. Got it?” Claire looked at them all.
“Does my butt look big in this illusion? Do I have a face again? Which face did you give me?” Anthony asked, all excited.
“You are worse than—”
“I am not worse than when you pick out shoes!” Anthony said.
“Shoes are important! One must be stylish and functional!” Claire waved her finger at Anthony.
“Don’t remind me why we went to the Okasi market. Two hundred shoes! I had to carry all of them back as well while you were wearing those simple sandals. You got blisters three times but you wanted to work them in. Then, when we went on that mission to the Gloustecher swamps, you stepped into mud and were beside yourself for like ten minutes!”
Claire’s eyebrow twitched.
“Wasn’t Gloustecher swamp burned down?” Damien asked.
Anthony pointed finger pistols at Claire wildly.
“Anything that destroys a pair of handmade, venarei leather sandals deserves to be destroyed!” Claire yelled, her eyes like dwarven cannons that had locked onto Damien.
He raised his hands and stepped backward.
“Yeah, she brought down Meteor Rain on the entire swamp, over shoes. I’m the crazy one!” Anthony threw up his hands in the air in defeat.
“Enough you cretin, Let’s start moving,” Claire said. “Tommie, Aila, Damien—you’re up first. Anthony, you’ll need to use your emblem in order to send them up there.”
Anthony came over and put his hand to his chest. His Guardian emblem came out from his armor, a carved metal block in his hands. He pressed it into a recess in the wall. A flash of purple power ran through the walls and into the formations on the ceiling and the floor, activating it.
He tapped the teleportation circle on the bottom floor as the enchanted formation powered up.
“See you on the other side!” Anthony said cheerfully as they disappeared in a flash of light.
Then there was just Claire and Anthony.
“Why did you have to tell them about the sandals?” Claire complained as she walked over to the middle of the teleportation circle.
“Most badass battle mage in the Guardians and she destroyed a swamp because of her muddy shoes—it’s pretty funny.” Anthony laughed as he activated the enchanted formation once again and jumped into the middle. “It’s like old times, just the two of us sneaking into some evil dick’s lair.”
“You make it sound so romantic.” Claire sighed.
“I add the flare into fire. Hmm, that doesn’t sound right. The rom into romantic? What does rom mean?”
Claire hid her smile. Even being asleep for centuries, he’s still the same lovable idiot. My lovable idiot. I was scared that he would have ch
anged, that with him becoming undead he would have changed.
Claire felt relieved as the formation activated and they disappeared in a flash of light.
She looked around as they found themselves in another dusty room and she cast her Detect Life spell.
Seeing no one on the other side of the doorway, she opened it, stepping into a cleaning supplies closet.
“Hmm, looks like we’re sneaking into closets again too. So many memories,” Anthony said from behind her, making her jump as she blushed heavily.
Anthony’s human face smiled at her and winked. He turned to close the hidden door in the side of the closet.
She checked there was no one outside again and they walked out into the halls of the Church of Light.
“Let’s get to judging some Agents of Chaos, Here come da Judge,” Anthony said.
They started walking through the halls, and people moved out of their way as they headed to the floors above.
***
Letanya sent forward her enforcers, the demon hunters, to cut off the rivers of people fleeing Laisa.
Traitors. Why flee if they have nothing to hide? The power of the Light will cleanse them.
She dismissed them from her mind. Nothing but cattle and weakness that should be cut down from the world.
The gates to Laisa closed as they were riding up.
She didn’t speed up her pace, letting the army go forward to prove their worth to the church.
Explosions went off among those who met the wall. The people of Laisa were fighting back.
“You dare!” Letanya’s burning rage overflowed as she drew power from the Lord of Light. She felt his warmth fill her as she lowered her sword and directed it forward. A blast of pure power shot out and collided with the gate, blasting it and a section of the wall apart.
“Charge in! Leave none of them alive!” Letanya yelled. “Cleanse them—cleanse the heretics! For humanity! For Light!”
She let the others rush forward and prove their worth.
She rode in behind, cleansing those who were left behind, those crying out. She looked at them with disdain, letting their wounds claim them.
She cut down those who could run and wandered the city, looking for the non-humans, the Agents of Darkness.
She turned a corner and saw small goblins running out, herding people.
“Rapists, murderers!” Letanya let out an enraged yell as she rode her horse toward them. The goblins threw their explosives at her, but their aim was bad and she cut them down, slaughtering them.
She was a saint, a power that stood to judge the unworthy, to guide those to the light who could be saved and remove those who couldn’t.
The people and the humans who had been herded by the goblins cried out, not in joy but in horror as they attacked Letanya.
There was a thunderclap above the city. Dust shot through the streets, making it hard to see. Letanya backed off on her mount, readying herself to attack again and kill the nest of darkness that rested in the heart of Laisa.
The city has been lost, the people claimed by the darkness.
She saw them through the dust and made to charge forward.
Her movements were arrested as the power of the Lord of Light stilled in her body, no longer responding.
“Corruption.” A voice boomed through the heavens. The dust cleared as a knight stood in the skies.
She felt a cleansing power roll off from the knight as others appeared in the sky, formed of a purple power.
A courtroom appeared in the skies and purple chains shot out of the city, grabbing the attacking army and dragging them into the central square. Those who came into range were snatched up as well. The people from the army fell into disarray; they started to turn around and flee. Those who had been hunting down the other groups that had fled looked back at Laisa.
Letanya was grabbed by those chains that wrapped around her wrists and dragged her toward the court resting in the middle of the sky. Its power seemed to be waning as she looked up at the people in the stands.
That is a knight of the Light!
She felt her heartbeat picking up as she looked up at the man standing in the court.
Have they come to cleanse the world of the unclean and destroy those who do not follow the Light?
The people in the court all sat down. Their expressions were dark.
Letanya shot forward in front of the court. She looked at the other judges. Many of them wore armor that showed that they had been knights of the Light.
“What is this? She wears our armor?” the beast kin wearing the armor of the Light said.
“Look at her core power—the power of chaos rests within her.”
Letanya tried to fight against her chains, seeing these people dare to wear the Lord of Light’s holy armor. She was close to going insane. You dare to blaspheme the Lord of Light and the church. I will destroy you. I will cut down your lineage and use their screams to cleanse your stain from Dena!
“Letanya.” The human knight of Light said her name. His voice rumbled across the land.
Her eyes snapped to him, confused why he wasn’t killing the stains around him. She didn’t notice the anger, mixed with disappointment, in his voice.
“Destroy that power of chaos,” he said to the elven knight of the Light.
The elf raised his hand and the power within Letanya started to shake and tremble, trying to fight and escape.
The power of Light was drawn out of her body. The white light dimmed and turned into a purple vapor, flowing into the purple courtroom, stabilizing it.
She saw emblems on each of the members of the court. Each of them wore the symbol of the cursed—the evil eyes that looked to corrupt and destroy.
She raged as the power of the Lord of Light left her body. She was left panting as the last dredge of power left her body.
She felt sickly, as if something were wrong with her.
What is this corruption? Letanya looked into her body, where the power of the Lord of Light had been. A deep corruption filled her body. Her perfect appearance started to warp. Her skin became see-through in places, chaotic power moving through her body.
“It looks like she had been partially transformed into a chaotic beast,” a dwarf said in disappointment.
“The truth is before her but the lies have clouded her judgment. Aefir, show her the truth,” a hobgoblin said.
The knight of Light raised his hand and a purple and white light appeared on his finger. It shot forward and touched Letanya’s head. Her head snapped back as information filled her mind. She gasped; her head flopped forward and she stumbled a few steps.
Information flooded her mind. As it did, her beliefs—the truths she had held onto—started to come apart. The corruption at her core that had influenced her mind and her thoughts was suppressed. For the first time in years, she was able to think clearly.
The elven mage and the rocky sphere worked together as corrupted power was drawn out of several members of the Radal army. Each of them looked around, as if confused, revisiting what they had done in the past.
“The power of corruption makes one more violent and leads them to acting upon their impulses. But it is only an aid; it is not what starts one acting in the manner that you did. You will be tried for your crimes.” The knight took his helmet off, revealing a gray-haired man with glowing white eyes.
Aefir the First.
She saw the badge on his chest, confused.
“I am bound by the rules of the ancestors and of Dena that believe you can atone for your sins. Who can atone for killing children, for killing goblins who are supposed to be under their protection!” His voice rumbled like a force of nature, making all feel a chill to their very souls. In his eyes, looking upon the people of his own race, there was nothing but rage.
“Army, Church of Light. Murderers and rapists, you spit on your ancestors. You spit on Dena. You stain the human race.” His voice came out in a hiss, barely restraining his own anger.
“Thankfully, there was one already serving out a sentence within the city.” The gnome in the courtroom looked at the gnome on the ground, panting. He was unable to get to his feet. The gnome in the courtroom sent power down to them. They came to and got up quickly, noticing what was happening.
“Guardian Judges.” The gnome didn’t seem to know what to do.
“Go and help the others. We will take care of these. Go somewhere safe. There will be more of them coming,” the gnome judge said.
“Thank you, Guardian Judge.” The gnome turned and ran toward where people were still yelling and screaming in the distance. There were wounded who needed to be helped.
“Maybe I should take over this case. I may be the most neutral, as they are unable to reach me and my people,” the stone sphere said.
“Agreed,” Aefir said. The hammer moved through the air and to the sphere of rock.
“Letanya, let us review your crimes.”
An eye appeared in front of Letanya as she was thrown back in time. She was a young girl again, being taught by Father Woods of the Church of Light, told how to get inside the beast kin city, to destroy them for her parents.
It clashed against her memories from Aefir, from the small churches. Those who followed the Lord of Light were healers, knights, and clerics who offered their services freely to people all across Dena, no matter what race they were. They didn’t care about people’s religion; they just looked to heal. They fought against the corruption. They became Guardians to heal the land and help more people. Her mind shifted again. Now she was looking at the city, the dead around her, the church as they slaughtered and killed, how she had been washed up in it, wanting to belong, be one of them. People looked up to them; she killed, she stabbed, letting out the anger of her mother and father. She had never noticed it before, but now in her memories that were clear as day, she saw the wedding band on the beast kin man’s hand, the tears down his face as he knew he wouldn’t see his loved ones again. Then the stillness as she had cheered and the others had joined in with her.
Crimes passed through her mind: the lives she had destroyed, those she had ended. She knew the corruption in the church, its dark underbelly. What she had been blind to was now brought out again.
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