Chapter 55: Lament

“How dare you… A mere upstart. A mere worm!” Woden snarled, defiant even in the face of opposing odds. “Do you have any idea what you have done? Centuries of effort. To consolidate power. To raise my retinue… Lost! All of it in a single day, because of YOU! You robbed me of my power! MINE!”

“You have no right to complain,” Axel darkly replied. “A monster like you, who speaks so openly of depravity and torment… You who hoard power to abuse your own kind and others… I’ve seen your like whilst I had served in my world as a weapon. You deserve nothing less than the complete destruction of your selfish ambition.”

“Selfish?!” To Axel’s surprise, Woden laughed, loud and mad. “You have only been in the Great Game for one day, and you think you know enough to cast judgment?! Who are you to judge ME?! What do you know of the trials and tribulations that I had to suffer to save my species over the last decades? The choices I have made… The sacrifices I have made! The Fae only exist today because of my existence! You are nothing. YOU KNOW NOTHING!”

“I know enough that I can’t allow you to live,” Axel said. “You threatened my people. You promised to greet my species with slavery and degradation. You would torture your daughter just to soothe your ego against me. I do not need for second thoughts or hesitation.”

“The world would be a better place without you in it.”

The King chuckled. His laughter rose in volume until it could not be described as anything beyond utter derangement. “Oh, you pitiful fool. You have not met the Tyrants of the System yet. You think I'm cruel? Compared to their designs, I may as well be a saint! I am evil; I am not deluded enough to think myself otherwise. But I am the lesser evil by far. And as far as my species is concerned, I am their God and protector! This is not a jest or a boast: I am the only one preventing their complete extinction!”

“Being a lesser evil does not make you just,” Axel accused.

“And so you think yourself just over me? I cannot even begin to put into words how disgustingly stupid and arrogant that mere notion is!” Woden shrieked between howling chuckles. “You kill me, and you doom the entire fae population to a lifetime of enslavement and death! The other Tyrants would send their forces into my world and pillage everything! You would curse entire worlds, all while praising yourself as an agent of compassion?!”

Axel said nothing, even as Woden roared with maddening laughter. Only after the Tyrant’s broken amusement died in bloody coughs and chokes did he speak again.

“If the other Tyrants come for your people,” Axel said. “Then I will simply kill them too.”

Woden recoiled. It took a moment for the King to speak. “The sheer audacity… You believe yourself so far above the other rulers of the Zones? You will bring doom to all. Killing you and ripping the world of your destructive stupidity would be a service to all life.”

“If evil is relentless, then I will be relentless beyond evil,” Axel repeated the oath he made to his Reaper. “If my purpose is only to kill, then I will see my killing used for greater purposes.”

“You deranged fool… You do not possess that capability.” Woden stood to full, despite his wounds. His indignant rage was palpable. “No one possesses that capability! Do you think you are the first to hold thoughts of rebellion against the System? Will you claim dominance over every impossibility under the sun?! The Admins will smite you down for the sheer arrogance before your existence will ever amount to anything!”

Axel smiled grimly. “They have already tried. They have already failed.”

The Harbinger raised his scythe. “First, when they sent me to a Dead Zone alone, with a kill squad ready to greet me. Second, when they lifted the Zone level restriction, and sent me monsters I had no business fighting. Third, when they tried to tempt Ymir’s hand to kill me. Fourth, when they broke the Quarantine rules so that you could enter.”

“Each time they failed. And so they will continue to fail, as I tear apart their twisted games and bring ruin to all they control.”

“You think me incapable of defiance? On this day alone, I cheated their repeated sentence for my death at every step. How far do you think I will go in a week, a month, or another year? How much more will I take from them?”

“The System will crush you. A mere Demon proclaiming himself King,” Woden sneered. “You believe your action today amounts to note? A single feat proves nothing!”

Prove? What did he have to prove?

For a moment, Ymir's words came to Axel’s mind.

“Care not for the judgement of others, be there those you perceive your betters or lessers,” Axel breathed out. “I do not need to prove anything to you, Woden. All I need is to kill. To hunt monsters. To slay Tyrants. To do for the living what you could never do.”

“And what would that be?”

Axel smiled. “I will kill their Handlers.”

The air shifted — a change in pressure; an assault on all the senses.

Those far beyond, watching him now with eyes of unnatural sight, knew his words to be a declaration of murderous intent.

“You are doomed,” Woden bitterly laughed. “Worse, you have doomed your entire species. You have provoked beasts better left alone.”

“Good,” Axel smiled. “Because it would mean I have made the correct decision. I have done what you could not, so many years ago — when you were faced with this choice, as I do now: to obey or to rebel.”

The King of the Wild Hunt stiffened. The Harbinger’s pale eyes fell on him.

“It is not cowardice to hold one’s head high and fight a battle one does not think can be won,” Axel fondly quoted. “Perhaps you had once earnestly fought to protect your people, but greed and fear compromise your honour. And so, looking at you now — a lapdog to another Handler far beyond your sight — I regret nothing.”

“Lament, Woden. You, who surrendered yourself and your world to the System. You, who betrayed your people to higher powers, and in doing so, betrayed yourself. 

“Lament. Because, for all your strength and authority, that is all you can do now.”

“You were just too afraid to fight for what you believed in.”

The King of the Fae howled with the force of a surging tempest and charged.

Axel raised his blade to meet him, one last time.

~~~

There was a calmness to Axel’s mind.

It was not the voice of reason that controlled the flow of his thoughts, not really. Nor was it the violent routine wrought by his experience in war. It might not even be that of his mask of madness — the precious lie that he had crafted for himself, to veil those dying embers of empathy he inherited from his mother.

No, what moved his thoughts then was the antithesis of a murderous and self-destructive weapon:

He wanted to live for himself. He wanted to protect those few he cared for. He wanted to rebel against higher power. 

It was a little hypocritical, Axel supposed, for a suicidal tool to hold such values.

To think of a battle in the pure pragmatism of maintaining one’s true self, rather than how he might achieve the most optimal death.

And so Axel’s mind went as thus:

Woden’s power defies convention. No matter what I do, I cannot defeat him quickly. He is a King who can command the storm, who can move swifter than I can see, and whose every strike is lethal as lightning.

However, he can still bleed, and he is wounded. His strength is formidable, but with an injured arm, he could fall to a lesser warrior. Therefore, my first priority is to use my summons as pawns, create an opening in his storm, and exploit it.

Woden no longer has an army. I have twenty-seven trolls on the field. I can additionally summon four Fae-Hybrids, the headless prince, and a dragon.

The death of all my forces is an acceptable loss.

My own death is an acceptable loss.

This sadistic creature will bring Lune to the darkness pits, to torture and degrade her beyond recognition. He would perform whatever sick pleasures were necessary on both her and my species to soothe his wounded ego. He killed Ymir, the only one who ever told me to live for myself. 

I have every reason to kill him. So any loss is acceptable…

So long as this battle ends with my blade in his heart.

With that final thought in mind, Axel prepared his final trick.

Ascending to a Class far more advanced than his previous position had afforded him more boons than mere stats. He now had two additional Title Slots to use, bringing his total up to four equippable titles.

‘Heroic Isolation’ was in place as always. ‘Friendly Fire Advocate’ took the second place, for he had nothing better to place previously. 

But now… A new Title had just been unlocked for him. One he had previously acquired, but was unable to equip until he changed his Class to the Reaper’s Consort.

~~~

[The Reaper’s Emissary]

[Rank S (Legendary)]

[“In Death’s presence, kings and beggars are judged alike. No title, privilege, or pride shall hold sway when placed against the weight and worth of one’s soul. Measured under the Pale Ledgers of Death, all shall be returned to equal.”]

[Unlock Requirement: Gain Reaper’s Consort as a Class.]

[Activation Condition: Equip the Title and activate its power.]

[Effects: Once per combat, activate to normalise one combatant's power with yours for one minute. All buffs and external modifiers are suppressed between you and the selected party. All Skill Points are removed and then distributed equally. Trait, Equipment, or Title-based passive bonuses/debuffs are all nullified. However, damaging abilities can still be used.]

~~~

Woden closed in. The King of the Fae was still stronger than him in raw stats, but what had once seemed so opposing before was now not beyond Axel's means to overcome.

Time to finish this.

[Title Activate: The Reaper’s Emissary]

[Writ upon the Pale Ledger, All shall be returned to equal]