Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 621: The Cost Of Blackwater

As the spire fell on their bodies, some managed to cast a shield right above them–others ducked with their hands on their head, and yet the ones to survive werenʼt the magic casters, but those whoʼd lowered themselves with no defence above them but their fists. The shields had shattered the spire into many pieces, but it also crumbled under its weight and buried the mages and clerics at once. As for the rest, they suffered minor injuries with tons of rubble weighing above them.

Buried alive, their bodies were being squeezed like a pimple. The weight was too great, and those whoʼd managed to free themselves attempted to help; many more of them died from blood loss and other abrasive injuries.

ʼWh-what…what the fu…fuck happened?ʼ Dazed by the weight of rocks slowly crushing his skull, Aredinʼs eyes wandered in the dark, his body flat as a frog against the cobbled path. Blood gushed through his cranium, and his vision had started growing dark. As his eyes caught a bloodied hand peeking from under a large rock right next to him, his mind raced, and his eyes widened at the realization.

With blood-soaked and quivering fingers, he tried to get closer to the pale hand, but as the weight on top of him shifted, it crushed his hand and blocked what little sight he had of Juneʼs hand.

”AHHH! GODS DAMN IT!!” Trying to push his hand further through the rubble, Aredin could feel his skin being peeled by the coarse rock, and yet, braving through the pain, he grabbed the pale hand on the other side. The slightest pulse of Juneʼs fingers almost drew him to tears; however, holding it back, he tried to shift a lit to move the rocks from above.

His tussle continued for a while, and in the meantime, the sound of constant screaming and bangs could be heard throughout the garden. And right as he felt that he was close to freedom, another portion of the building fell on the soldiers. He was gone before he could realize it, his mind slipped into the never-ending darkness of purgatory.

A golden path that stretched for as far as the eye could see, mindlessly, he walked on it. His consciousness was slipping from his real body with every step, and the pain in his tired shoulders, and the warmth of Juneʼs hands, he could barely feel them.

”Come, let me offer you something more than yourself,” a distant voice called, and he answered by following it. Walking further and further into the darkness, the screams of other soldiers eventually faded from his mind, and so did the warmth of his loverʼs body. ”Good, now–answer me…”

A veiled hand emerged from the darkness, outstretched towards him. Looking at its bony fingers and the glowing runes carved on it, Aredin had not the slightest clue who this person was, and yet in the dark, there was nobody but this stranger to trust.

”You drank from my grail, now make your wish. A servant of god or a servant of the self? A savior for you, woman and friends, or a helpless man dying under rubble?”

Lifting his gaze, Aredin tried to focus on the personʼs face. Cast in darkness, he couldnʼt make out much of their features, and despite that, one thing was clear; the person was neither a man nor a woman, or perhaps both at the same time. Either way, he couldnʼt tell.

”Of course I want to save them…” Finally, as he answered, a smile crept up the personʼs face.

”Then take my hand and be reborn as something more than a pawn to immortal beings.” Stretching their hand further, the silhouette offered Aradin a handshake–a sign of a greater deal than anything heʼd had before. ”Accept your destiny and I shall welcome you in my kingdom when the time comes and thereʼs peace amongst every race, every being, be they mortal or otherwise.”

”What are you?” Aredin asked, and the hand retreated somewhat.

A momentʼs pause, and the person responded.

”They call me ʼThe Impartial Judgeʼ,” stretching their hand forward again, they offered. ”Time is ticking, your body is being crushed, your lover will soon draw her last breath. So answer me, do you wish to take my hand and this power or die a slave to the gods that donʼt even know that you exist?”

Although hesitant, Aredin knew that he had no choice; thus, taking the personʼs hand in his, he watched the darkness disappear and the light return to his eyes along with a great deal of strength that heʼd never felt before. The rubble on his body, he shrugged them off like pebbles, and quickly turning to his friends, he dug them out before even a second could pass since waking back into his renewed body.

Unaware of his newfound strength and…his altered state, he kept digging everyone out like a beast of burden. Screams echoed all around him, the castle kept on crumbling further and further, and yet not a sight of the monster causing all the chaos. Thus, ignoring this unseen beast, he carried everyone that he could into the main hall of the castle. The building may have been falling, but the base had remained mostly untouched and was a far better shelter than having its towers fall onto their heads. Or at least it would be until everything begins to crumble.

Ignoring such thoughts, however, Aredin finally looked down at himself. His veins were burning with a darkened liquid floating throughout his body, and his eyes had turned completely black–a reminder of Ravenʼs fae form or whenever he used corruption to subdue the horrors during the war.

ʼWhatʼs happening to me?!ʼ He pondered, but for now, there were more important things to worry about, like dealing with the monster and healing every person whoʼd been injured yet survived the spireʼs fall.

”DO WE HAVE A HEALER?!” And to his rumbling scream, the already frightened soldiers were shaken some more. His voice, although laced with concern for his people, his appearance, and his apparent rage, was far more visible. Even so, despite shaking in their boots and pissing their trousers, the healers got to work. And as they did, Aredin rushed towards the gates and looked into the skies.

The banging sounds have been showering from above, and finally, as he was getting into the right mind, he saw a winged man and two other humanoids floating up above with their eyes trained right at him and the soldiers. Quickly glancing back, he knew that they were about to attack the main floor; however, turning back around, he steeled his heart and declared with a visceral growl.

”Iʼll FUCKING KILL YOU BEFORE YOU LAY ANOTHER FINGER ON THEM YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!!” And so he sprouted wings like second nature and bolted the men and women that had been trailing them since the desert. Unfortunately for him, much like the horrors of war, these soldiers were trained to kill people with no mercy at all.