YoTS January ~ 51 + epilogue!

CHAPTER 51

Randall dropped his own sword and grabbed Grant’s neck. The yellow light faded from his body; he had already proven that he had more than enough power to choke the life out of the smaller man, and this time there would be no edict to save Grant’s life. As he squeezed Grant’s airway with his left hand, he cocked back the right and let fly with a heavy haymaker. It landed directly on Grant’s nose, breaking it easily.

Damage taken: 2 blunt! (9.25 mitigated.)

Current health: 86/184.

“Huh, that was supposed to cave in your sinuses.” Randall squeezed harder and reached up to grab Grant’s skullcap and tear it off.

That was when Grant struck.

With an outpouring of mana, he activated Time is Space and pulled his sword out of thin air. He had made sure during his walk around the area to swing his sword around and touch as much space as he could with it.

Both of Randall’s arms were raised, he was unarmored, and he wasn’t expecting Grant to be in a perfect position. With a simple thrust, Grant drove his Wielded Weapon into Randall’s armpit, following the subclavian artery directly into the man’s heart. The huge man froze as blood stopped flowing through him nearly instantly, and his purple health bar dropped away like a stone. The dark red health bar was similarly emptied, followed by the final, normal, red one.

Randall collapsed backward, his grip on Grant going limp. The young man nearly tore his throat as he forced air into his lungs, coughing heartily as his vision returned to normal. He landed on Randall, and once more found himself staring into the eyes of a man that he had killed.

Even more so than with Count Tuesday, this death weighed on him and made his guts churn with disgust. Grant took another deep breath, and let it out softly. Reaching forward, he pulled his once-caretaker’s eyes closed. “For what it’s worth, Randall… I am sorry. Thank you for the small kindness you showed me in my life. I wish… I wish it could have been different.”

Grasping his sword, Grant levered himself to his feet and looked over at Lord January as the man attempted to make his escape to the castle. The entire fight had lasted under thirty seconds, meaning there was no time for the litter-bearers to move him.

Duel concluded! Winner: Grant Monday!

Terms of the duel: Lord January unconditionally accepts defeat!

Do you, Grant Monday, wish to absorb the power of January 1: Sword Grandmastery? Accepting Sword Grandmastery will override any previous Wielded Weapon power absorbed in the current monthly series. If not overridden by another weapon of the same month, this ability will return to its current Wielded Weapon at the end of the year, unless the quest ‘Heal The World’ has been successfully completed.

Accept / Decline

“Sarge… am I going to lose you if I take this?” Grant quietly voiced his concerns.

silly if you do not accept that prompt right this instant.> Sarge bellowed into Grant’s mind. <that an="" can="" entire="" get="" you="">two tiers above this training program!></that>

Grant hit ‘accept’ with a yelp, and a nimbus of light surrounded both Grant and Lord January. Golden light signified his increase from defeating a Lord of the Month, and a deep, earthy brown - the exact color as the best farming soil - was drawn out of Lord January in a huge pillar of light, which shot in the sky, and vanished.

In the next instant, a column of brown light blasted down through the heavens and flattened the ground and corpse around Grant as though a ten-thousand-ton rock had just fallen from the heavens. Power and a strange authority coursed into him, and his sword. The Wielded Weapon reverted to the form he had first seen it in, and the dragon on the hilt began swirling around and finally spit out it’s tail. The now-open mouth stretched wide, and the brown energy was sucked in. When the last of it had vanished, the sword returned to normal.

Grant blinked as a new notification appeared.

February 29 now has the ability Sword Grandmastery, replacing Sword Expertise. Further information can be found on the Status Sheet.

Sword Grandmastery is requesting to use The Fragment to send a message to District January. Allow? Yes / No.

“Um. Yes?” The very second that Grant accepted, tens of thousands of brown threads shot out of his sword, arching into the heavens and coming down… then driving into the head of every human in the entire District of January. Grant wasn’t spared.

A new Lord has begun his rule in January! All Hail Lord January: Grant Monday!

A terrible injustice has been done to the populace, and the desire of the Wielded Weapon, January 1, to rectify this issue has been granted.

First, the previous Lord January has been fully and officially rejected by his Wielded Weapon. A new position of Nobility has been opened! See House Monday to join the running, though the final choice will be made by the head of House January in this District: Lord January, Grant Monday.

Secondly, here is what The previous Lord January has done, and the truth on many matters.

What followed was images and knowledge from a millenia past: showing Lord January turning his population into a weapon against Leaps out of fear, turning them from hardworking innovators into a hedonistic society, and granted a vision of how they would look and feel if they hadn’t been influenced.

Quest Update: Heal the World (Legendary)

Congratulations, Grant Leap, you have defeated the 1st Lord of the Month, Lord January. As the new Lord January:

1) You have inherited the power of January, the ability to travel anywhere you have been before (within January) by slicing your sword through the dimension and picturing the destination. Each use costs 1 per movement. Charge:1/100,000.

2) You have gained the ability to open the boundary separating January and February by utilizing the Januarian Fragment of Life. Each use costs 1 per person. Charge:1/100,000.

3) You have gained the ability to send a message to anyone within the District of January by utilizing the Januarian Fragment of Life. Each use costs .1 per message. Charge:1/100,000.

4) You also have the ability to switch your name from Grant Monday to Lord January at will.

Only the wind could be heard as the people of January processed the information that had been shoved into their heads. Then a man shoved himself away from the table and stood up. He moved side-to-side, “Everything… hurts. Why didn’t I ever realize that everything hurt?”

That question broke the silence, and a roar of fury rose throughout the entire district. The deposed Lord looked around uncaringly. There was nothing they could do to him, but he had been hoping he would be able to hide his involvement. He hadn’t counted on his own Wielded Weapon betraying him. “You allowed it to use the Fragment? Fool… what a waste.”

Then the furious crowd turned on him, and the massive man was covered in thrown food, then attacked by various groups of peasants and Nobles alike. Lightning started spraying through the crowd, and Grant ran. He needed to get as much distance as possible before the Noble Houses realized that there was a weak Wielder they could challenge for the position of Lord January.

He had planned to meet up with his friends in the sewers, but they found him before he approached the gates. Fergus pulled him into a hug, then shoved him away. “You need to run. Go, get strong. House Tuesday is on the warpath. House Monday is looking to get the top position of their House back, and dozens of Assassins have surely been given your name.”

“But I need to-” Grant’s concerns were waved away as Sir Friday waddled forward.

“Listen lad, wonderful changes are coming to District January. Terrible changes, but  perhaps wonderful nonetheless.” The Noble, the only noble Noble Grant had met, clapped him on the shoulder, handed over a sack of Time, and gently pushed Grant toward the shimmering barrier in the distance. “No one will ever forget what you’ve done for us, but that is the issue… no one will ever forget. There are those that are happy with their life, and you have just shown them what could have been. They will hate you for the rest of your life.”

“You need to flee to District February, or you won’t last the day.”

Epilogue

A man that wouldn’t look out of place at a bodybuilding competition sprinted into a training hall where a young woman with pink hair was pounding a training dummy into rubble. “My Lady, there was a disturbance at the barrier to January.”

“January? The grain and sugar suppliers? Who cares?” She blew a long strand of her pixie-cut hair out of her eyes. “House Thursday has already been instructed not to allow our people to eat either of those, and they are to be shuttled to March as they arrive.”

“That’s just the issue, Lady February. No shipments are coming through.” The man held out a report, the muscles of his arm rippling as he presented the document. “There has been only a single ripple in the barrier. One Januarian apparently came through, but no one saw an issue as he moved deeper into our District. Only later, when the delays became higher than normal, did anyone question why everything had stopped.”

“Get to the point, or get out. Unless you are going to spar with me to help make up the time lost from my weapon cultivation?” Lady February’s words caused the huge man to blanch.

“House Monday is demanding an investigation.” The words were almost stammered out, and the young woman groaned and turned away. Her mind was moving to her next training session, but the next words made her perk up. “They believe Lord January, the leader of House Monday in District January, was murdered by whatever man escaped into our territory.”

“Murdered? But…” She pondered the information she had available, “That ancient glutton should be nearly impossible to take down with normal methods. Do you think the rumor has merit?”

“I do,” the man started leadingly, but the manic grin on the Lady’s face made him freeze in place like a mouse staring at a snake.

“That means he must be able to fight! Find him for me, and make sure he participates in the remapping of the aristocracy!”