Amazon Apocalypse 4: Chapter 46

Had I not antagonized the nobles, it would have taken days or weeks for this confrontation to play out. But I'd known it was coming, and my words had been designed to draw out those most eager to move against me.

I would deal with the problem in the bud, since the last thing I wanted was an opposition movement quietly growing in the shadows.

"I am Prince Eowyn, eldest son of the the greatest kingdom to grace these lands, and uncrowned heir to my father's throne, should his death be confirmed," said the leader of the six nobles. The others then went on to introduce themselves with equally grandiose titles.

I did my best not to tap my foot impatiently as I noted down their names and who they were associated with. As I hoped, I'd hooked the best of the lot.

"Alright, are you going to keep jabbing or are we going to fight?" I asked, letting a touch of my impatience seep into my tone.

"How dare you! You're in the presence of six royals. Hero or not, you need our aid. Most knights in your position would be kneeling to show fealty." A heated flush filled Prince Eowyn's cheeks, and I got the impression that most of his anger was forced. He was testing me.

And for once I appreciated being tested. The opening was just too good to pass up, so I punched him in the face.

The blow wasn't intended to break bones, though with the strength difference between us, I could have caved in his skull with hardly a thought. It was really more of a light tap to get things going.

Despite pulling my punches, the blow knocked Prince Eowyn on his ass, and he stared up at me gaping like a fish. "Y-you punched me!"

"You needed it. As do the lot of you spoiled princelings. Let's not waste any more time. All of you come at me at once!"

I held my arms wide in a showy display.

The princes and lords threw fists and feet in my direction. I sidestepped each blow like it was a dance, hands folded neatly behind my back as they bound themselves up in a tangle of arms and legs.

"I got him!"

"You've got me, you idiot!"

"Where is he? Where'd he go?"

I clapped my hands to get their attention. "You're all too slow and too sloppy. If this is the best all your knightly training can do, it's no wonder you lost to some demon king."

The young princes jumped to their feet, roared, and charged at me again, but once more none of them could even get hands on me.

"Knights! Apprehend this man! Keep him still so we can teach him a lesson!" Prince Eowyn shouted, hair disheveled and embarrassment plain on his face.

Dozens of minor lords and knights moved in to protect the royalty from further humiliation at my hands, but six or sixty, it didn't matter. I could toy with this bunch all day, not that I intended to wait much longer on them.

I struck Prince Eowyn across the face again, knocking him aside. Six knights rushed me, and some even drew swords. I channeled mana from the earth beneath me and conjured a handful of mana bolts. Each struck a knight like a cannon ball, knocking him from his feet and finally putting a few nicks in their shiny armor so they'd better match the other lords I'd seen.

Prince Eowyn lunged for my legs, hanging onto my ankle, and I had the feeling that this battle was going to be disturbingly like fighting a bunch of toddlers.

So I grabbed Prince Eowyn by his long flowing locks and then used Shadowrealm Stride to haul him to another dimension.

"Unhand me, barbarian!" the prince demanded. He struggled with me, but I easily overpowered him. He was surprisingly weak, and between that and his delicate features, I suspected he might not really be a prince at all. But that wasn't my secret to pry at.

So I unhanded him as requested and dropped him back on his feet, but then he finally got a look around at where he was.

"This is something I call the shadowrealm. You can travel through this space far faster than normal, but you have to be cautious. There are all sorts of otherworldly monsters here."

I gestured to the flickering shadows that represented the other knights and princes. Some of them had far darker and more vivid shadows than others, and one latched onto Prince Eowyn's leg with a spider-like appendage.

"Demon! Demon! Heavens above, guards! Where are my guards?" the prince shrieked, falling to sudden panic. Seeing none, he turned to me with a pleading expression.

I smiled and reached into Morgathor's Satchel at my hip. From there, I drew out one of my spare enchanted swords. This one was taken from the hands of that cultivator I'd slain, though I'd made a few improvements to the already impressive weapon. "Slay it, if you can."

He grasped the sword like a drowning man grasping a lifeline. He hacked without skill or finess, desperate to free himself. When his leg was finally free, he regained some of his bearings and started holding his sword like a prince again, and from there swiftly dispatched the shadow creature.

I placed a hand on his shoulder while he panted, wide eyed and fearful.

"Well done."

The simple bit of praise was all the more impactful to him because I'd given out nothing but insults and words of disappointment since my arrival. The corners of a smile rested on his lips.

"By the heavens. I just killed a demon, didn't I?"

I rested a hand on his shoulder, and he didn't fight me this time. "You did. Congratulations."

I pulled us back into normal space, where time flowed as normal. Hardly a moment had passed during the brief trip to the shadow realm, and the other princes and knights were still attacking us. I scanned the group of knights, looking for the one whose shadow had made a monster in the shadow realm. It took a few moments to place him, but once I did I pointed a finger at him.

"Reveal yourself, demon," I commanded.

The knight froze, sword drawn and shadows coiling beneath his helmet. Others froze at well, confused by my sudden accusation.

"Prince Eowyn, that's one of your knights. What's he talking about?" one of the other princes asked. But Eowyn stood by my side, glaring at the knight I pointed to.

Mana gathered in my hands, and I pulled on the light of the sun above. The mana bolt flew and struck the false knight, and blindingly bright light shattered the shadows that cloaked him to reveal a face more monster than man.

He looked like a human only at a glance. He had an extra eye on his left where his cheek should have been, and his mouth was tilted sideways so it was more vertical than horizontal. His skin was a motley mix of red the color of blood and black darker than the darkest night.

Others gasped at the sight of him. I didn't recognize the type of demon he was, but he seemed like the sort of thing that could have crawled out of the shadow realm or the void.

The knight let out a snarling growl as he leaped at me, landing on all fours like a dog. He charged before anyone else could react, but my hand slashed out and an Arcane Blade sliced him in two. Just as quickly as the monster appeared, it died.

"You see why I'm so angry?" I waved at the bisected demon and then at the knights and princes gathered around me. "The enemy is in your midst. Your nations have fallen. Your world is near its end, and still you cling to petty titles and bicker over status. The demon king you fear is probably laughing at you now."

I rested a hand on Prince Eowyn's shoulders again. "But there is hope for you. Join me, and I will reveal the demons in your mist. Join me, and I will teach you to slay these monsters. Join me as a brother in arms to reclaim what you've lost and more."

Prince Eowyn still held the sword I'd given him. He held it up, hilt toward the sky as he fell to one knee.

"I, for one, pledge my sword to the hero's cause." The prince knelt.

"As do I!"

"And me as well!"

One by one, the young princes and knights knelt. Just minutes ago they'd come with a plan to beat me into submission, and now they were swearing to fight by my side. A high charisma stat was truly a scary thing. But how far would their newfound loyalty go?

I drew my own sword and pointed eastward. "Your High Priestess tells me there was once a castle to the east just a few hours from here. Now it lies in enemy hands and is the seat of power of one of the enemy's great generals. When I left, I intended to retake this castle and slay this general. Who will join me?"

"I will!" Prince Eowyn leaped to his feet, and soon the others followed.

We marched at speed, devouring the ground with every step. As we did so, Prince Eowyn and the others filled me in on the political situation in these lands. Once, the Demon King was the foolhardy lord of the weakest nation on the continent, bankrupt and with little to offer.

Others mocked him and his backwater lands, and at some point he made a bargain with a dark thing from beyond the void. He gave his soul over in exchange for a monstrous form of great physical power, and a mysterious ancient undead lich from beyond the heavens joined him to raise up an army of monsters and undead.

I was gladdened by the sound of undead, since my seal and divine blessing would make dealing with them relatively straightforward. Sure enough, when we arrived at the castle I wanted to retake, we found the walls manned by skeletons.

There were nearly a thousand of them, but they were only E-Grade. These would be easy to eliminate, but given my companions, it would be best to make a show of it.

"Foul undead, in the name of all that is righteous, I cast you down!" I spread my arms wide, revealing the Divine Seal as I did so. Such weak undead couldn't bear the sight of it, and one by one, they caught fire and burned to ashes. My followers gaped in open-mouth awe as I an army with a handful of words.

"What manner of being are you, hero?" Prince Eowyn asked in a hushed whisper.

"Just a man, like you. But this isn't the first time I've fought undead, and last time I fought one, a local goddess approved of me. Perhaps I can pass along a bit of the blessing to you." I shrugged.

"Please do!"

I grasped the Divine Seal attuned to the Goddess in Jade. I was far from her, and I doubted she could hear me. I couldn't get her blessing, but I could copy it by hand and pass it along. It was largely just a certain frequency of mana and faith energy that resonated in a certain way, and I'd studied it a bit while repairing Sir Sandon's jade chord while trying to resurrect him.

I quickly fashioned something similar for Prince Eowyn and wrapped it around his soul like a mantle. If I knew how to make this from scratch, I'd probably be halfway to becoming a god myself. But I knew enough to tear off a bit of my blessing and plant it on Eowyn's soul where it would grow.

"You are cloaked in faith and righteousness. Do no evil and fight for what is right, and this power shall only grow stronger."

Truthfully, I'd hardly listened to the Goddess In Jade's holy scriptures, so I had no idea what she stood for and had to make it up on the spot. I wasn't really much of a holy saint, but I could pretend to be one so long as nobody asked me too many questions.

Eowyn glanced at his hands as they flashed with a faint golden glow. "The last of my doubts are set aside. You truly are a heaven-sent hero stepping straight out of legend. I will live and die by your words."

Together, we stormed the castle. Without the undead, most of the surviving monsters were weak enough that the knights by my side could slay them, so long as two or more took them on at a time. The Goddess In Jade's Divine Blessing seemed to help them against the monsters nearly as much as it would against the undead, and a few remarked at new titles they gained.

I kept at the front of our group, doing the bulk of the damage but letting the others finish off foes I dealt heavy blows to. For once, being near me helped more than it hurt as the improvements to my Death Defier title bolstered the experience rates of everyone around me. By the time we reached the castle's throne room, the plucky young band of knights and princes had evolved into something far tougher.

"Tomlagor the Tormentor, your time has come. The hero is here!" Prince Eowyin waved his sword in the direction of a towering figure of raw red flesh.

The figure on the throne at the far end of the hall looked like a man who'd been flayed alive. I wasn't sure if he was a monster that looked humanoid or a human who'd been turned monstrous. Probably the latter, given what I knew of the Chaos Gods.

"Hero? What hogwash. The lich warned me of you. You're just a questor from another world in over your head." The flayed man rose to his feet. He planted cloven hooves on the stairs to his throne and hefted a massive maul over one shoulder.

Tomlagor the Tormentor (Level 155)

This guy was roughly the same level as the Lich King or the Warbishop of the Naga. Neither had defeated me then though, and they certainly wouldn't have been a match for me now.

"This foe is beyond you. All of you, stay back." I ordered my knights to stay behind me.

"But sir hero!" Prince Eowyn protested, but I silenced him with a wave of my hand.

"Don't worry, I won't take long."

I activated my Arcane Glpyhs, and my armor appeared and took shape around me. What once had been merely dull steel now gleamed with silver. What it lacked in quality was made up for with the lines of shining runes emblazoned on every piece of metal. There was so much mana flowing through the armor that it shone as bright as the sun.

I swapped my rapier out for something bigger and held it one hand. I could have pulled out Doomseeker as well, but the staff had never shed its sinister look, and I was here to inspire people to fight for me as much as I was to slay these monsters. Playing the hero would be the best move here.

The fight between me and Tomlagor the Tormentor didn't last long. I didn't even need to use Mania.

He swung his maul, I slipped past it and scored a deep slice along his thigh with Arcane Blade. He turned to strike at me again, but was still to slow and only got an Mana Bolt to the face.

Blinded by my magic, he swung wildly. Each miss cost him a spell or cut. Soon he was on one knee, and I was unhurt.

"Heavens blast it. You're no ordinary C-Grade. How in the name of chaos did these savages manage to summon you?" Tomlagor the Tormentor gasped out his last words before I cut off his head. His body slumped to the ground, dead at last.

I kicked it aside. "Spread out and secure the castle. Holding this castle will let us clear all the lands it protects. From the walls I could see villages and towns huddled in terror. More of this realm survived than you and your fellow knights suspected. We will liberate every one of them, and from there build an army to crush these dark foes once and for all!"

"Yes, sir hero!" shouted the knights in eager delight.

<Note>

Started this and actually really like this mini-arc. No wonder so many slay the demon lord stories are kicking around. They're pretty fun to write. Yes, Carter will be a bit over the top as he plays at being a hero. It's nice to have a theme change from the evil spellcaster vibe he normally has going on, even if some of what he says aloud is a bit cheesy.