Touch of Fate

Chapter 244: Wrath of the Righteous?

Prince Jonathan staggered as the skeletal knight's mace smashed against his shield. Something in his arm gave under the blow, and suddenly he could no longer lift it. That would have concerned him, if there weren't worse things to worry about.

While he was trying to catch his balance, he had to break free from the grasping hands of the zombies that were surrounding him with ever greater numbers. He could hear his subordinates trying to fight their way to him, but it was increasingly clear they wouldn't make it in time.

He lashed out with his sword, putting an end to a pair of zombies that got too close. This bought him a moment of breathing room before he had to face the undead knight that was advancing on him with grim purpose.

[Damn it. I screwed up. I shouldn't have pushed this deep.] He thought resignedly as he experimentally tried to raise his shield arm, only to have a jagged spike of pain dissuade him from future attempts.

By this point, the skeletal being had stepped over the prone form of Johnathan's horse, an unfortunate casualty of his recklessness. It seemed like he would be atoning for the mistake by following the poor creature in death.

[Ah, I can't believe I messed up so badly. Especially now that we were on the verge of escaping.]

He readied his sword, preparing to meet the enemy head on. That, at least, would be a cleaner end than he could expect from the zombies at his back. Thankfully, they hadn't tried to mob him just yet.

Now that he thought about it, weren't they being rather quiet?

There was a blur of motion passing by his right side. He vaguely caught the sight of a blonde haired woman with a manic grin on her face, before she was smashed into the skeletal knight with her shield. The sheer force of the impact caused the undead thing to disintegrate, bones scattering in all directions.

"HAHA! This is great!" She roared, before wading into the nearby zombies, having never spared him a glance.

Johnathan could only stare in shock as the woman rampaged through the enemy ranks with an abandon that bridled on the insane. He was still gaping when someone smacked him on the back.

"Oi! Don't just stand around! Get back there with the rest of them."

Dazedly, he turned to look at the cat beastman who had just thumped him out of his revelry.

"Well, go on then. I'm not getting paid to babysit you. Not really getting paid at all, truth be told." She continued with mild exasperation, before looking around and grimacing. "Oh my gods, where did that idiot get off to now?"

She ran off after the berserker woman, cutting down a few zombies that got in her way with quick and efficient blows from her daggers. In a matter of seconds, she had vanished into the thick of battle, easily bypassing the enemies that he'd been struggling against moments ago.

"Your Highness!" One of his knights called as he brought his mount to a halt nearby. "Thank the gods you're alright." He reached a hand out to help Johnathan onto the back of his horse. "Quickly, your highness. We need to move while our allies are buying us time."

"Allies..." The prince commented idly, eyes still focused on the ranks of zombies the two women had disappeared into. Finally, he shook his head to clear his thoughts and hopefully banish the strange feelings he was experiencing. Now was not the time for it.

[If we have allies here, then it means Thornton has made contact with Count Graveston's forces.]

He was torn. The need for the rearguard had passed, but if he broke away from the enemy now, it would be tantamount to abandoning the two brave women. No matter how powerful they were, it wouldn't take long for them to be overwhelmed by the never ending swarms of the undead. He could try to get them extracted, but every second they remained put his subordinate's lives at risk.

Once again he was faced with a choice. Should take the proper action for a commander, and save as many lives as he could? Or should he act upon his personal feelings and try to rescue them?

After a few moments of soul searching, he came to a conclusion.

He accepted the knight's hand, and pulled himself onto the horse, wincing as his broken arm was jarred in the process. Once settled, he pulled free the signal whistle that he'd been using to give commands, and signaled for a general withdrawal.

The knights responded quickly, long weeks of guerrilla fighting having trained them to react to sudden changes in orders. In a matter of moments, the remaining Almirans were disengaging with their enemies and streaming towards the ocean in an orderly wave.

Johnathan spotted a few living humans following along with the general retreat, ones who were able to keep up on foot. Judging from their appearances, he figured they belonged to the rescue force. However, he didn't see any sign of the two women who'd saved him.

Holding onto the knight in front of him, he closed his eyes and prayed, [Whatever god may be listening, please help them. I know it is selfish of me to ask, but please spare them the cost of saving me.]

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In a sunlit room, a goddess sneezed, dropping the book of poetry she was reading and creating a momentary flash of unearthly illumination that would have blinded any mortals in vicinity. Luckily, she was alone.

"What the...?"

Aminatrea focused her divine senses and tracked the source of the disturbance. After recognizing its origin, she couldn't help but massage her temples and sigh. "What is that fool doing? How does this have anything to do with tracking down the Hero? She's going to get herself killed..."

The goddess trailed off as she worked through the implications. For beings like angels, who were only inhabiting a form in the mortal realm, death would merely cause them to return to their realm of origin.

[Ugh, I really don't want to deal with her idiocy again. No choice, then. It looks like I'll have to unseal a portion of her power.] Aminatrea grumbled mentally as she willed herself to the viewing room. [Let's see. Stage one isn't going to cut it, but stage two might upset the balance a bit. Hmm, that would make some extra work for Teun, though. Well, Cariel's technically on a mission from the five of us, so it should be alright.]

Raising one hand over the image of Ea laid out beneath her, she conjured a portion of her will and commanded the laws of the world to bend. In a voice that echoed throughout the room, and indeed the very foundation of the mortal realm, she announced. "Angel 1749, Cariel. I, Aminatrea, do hereby authorize you to utilize your Grace up to its second stage."

Far below, on the image of Ea, a momentary glimmer of light appeared on the Central Continent.

[Now it will take something a lot more dangerous than a few zombies to kill that idiot.]

Sighing, Aminatrea willed herself back to her room to resume her leisure time. While she did so, she couldn't quite dispel a nagging feeling that this might have been a mistake.

[Well, its not like I fully unsealed her power. She can't do that much damage with just the second stage, right?] She tried to convince herself while returning to her reading.

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"WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW? HAHAHAHAHAHA....hehem. I mean BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE SUN GODDESS! HAHAHA!" Cariel laughed maniacally as swung her gleaming golden sword in an arc, unleashing a wave of luminescence that seared its way across the plain, incinerating dozens of zombies in its wake.

Julia dove behind a smoldering pile of corpses, narrowly avoiding the intense beam of light. Grumbling she got back to her feet and yelled at the rampaging angel. "Hey! Watch it!"

"HAHA...uh, oops." She replied as shamefacedly as her glistening visage of divine power allowed her to, "Sorry about that, I kinda forgot you were still here."

"How could...never mind, I know the answer to that question. Anyway, it looks like the others have headed back, so lets get out of here."

"Aww, do we have to? Do you know how long its been since I've been able to really cut loose like this?" Cariel asked while casually shield bashing one of the skeletal knights, causing it to explode in a momentary burst of light.

"If we take too long, the ships will leave without us."

[The Lacotians seem to be falling back, anyway. They must not be interested in fighting an actual angel. Not that I can really blame them.] She thought while looking over the newly transformed Cariel. She was radiating a palpable aura of divine energy, which when combined with the golden suit of armor and gleaming sword, made it clear that she was not an earthly being.

"Finnneeee..." The angel replied reluctantly while fluttering over to Julia on a pair of white feathered wings that had manifested along with the rest of her raiment of power. Once she'd settled onto the ground, her aura dissipated and she returned to her usual self. "You never let me have any fun."

"What am I? Your mother? Now, while we are heading back to the ship, you are going to explain where all this angel of vengeance stuff came from, and why you didn't break it our any of the other times we nearly died."

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"Do you think it will work?" Mike asked his teacher, as they were walking away from the command tent. They'd just finished the strategy meeting, and had finalized their plans for confronting the Lacotians once they'd arrived. Thankfully, the now dissipating storm seemed to have delayed them somewhat, so dawn had passed without any further undead sightings.

Emmanuel frowned, "I'm not sure, to be honest. There are a lot of variables, but I think this is our best option at the moment. We can't win this fight by conventional means."

"I know you explained it earlier, but are you really sure you don't want me in the strike force? Even with Miranda's fairy scouts, we still don't know what the enemy has in reserve."

The old mage sighed, suddenly looking a few decades older. "Truthfully? No, I'm not sure. There is a good chance that I'm sending some of our best and brightest into certain death, and dooming the entire continent in the process..."

Mike gave his teacher a moment. Emmanuel was under a massive amount of pressure, and there was nothing he could say to really alleviate it.

After a few seconds, the mage chuckled. "On the other hand, maybe we'll get lucky, and the Lacotians will decide to give up and go home."

"One can only hope."

"Anyway, I've talked it over with the strategists. The enemy knows you are our trump card, and they will naturally respond in kind once you show up on the battlefield. Therefore, you can best help by drawing away the worst they have to offer, opening their defenses up for our strike force."

Mike scratched the back of his head."I know, but what if the Archlich is there? Won't you be over-matched?"

"Are you saying you'd be able to fight against a Tier 4 mage if you were there?" Emmanuel asked with a serious expression on his face.

[Probably not with Limit Break still on cooldown.]

"No, but if anyone could occupy him long enough for the rest of us to escape, it would be me."

"Listen, Mike. I haven't known you that long, but I can already tell that you've been blessed by the System in some fundamental capacity. Anyone that could go from barely being able to cast a fireball spell, to summoning an actual hurricane in a matter of weeks is definitely out of the ordinary. However, no matter how accomplished you are, I can tell you from personal experience that Tier 4s are different. They operate under a different set of rules. Hells, they're practically a different kind of life form. The only thing we normal mortals can do, is stay out of their way and hope the destruction passes quickly."

Mike thought back to the two Tier 4s he'd encountered so far. Both had been overwhelmingly powerful, but neither had appeared unbeatable. After all, he'd actually killed Brutus, albeit with a great deal of help. Likewise, Andromeda, the Crimson Disaster, had ended up needing his assistance to deal with the situation in Wyrport, so it wasn't like they were omnipotent. Nevertheless, he supposed that his teacher likely had a good reason for his feelings.

[Worst case scenario, I suppose I can always drop whatever I'm doing and jump in.]

Taking his silence as assent, Emmanuel continued. "Trust me, there's no harm in knowing your limitations. Anyway, we're already relying on you far more than we should." He grimaced. "It's not easy for people my age to lean on an inexperienced youth, Dragonknight or not. Give the older folks a chance to carry their weight for a change, alright?"

"Alright." Mike couldn't say no to that kind of plea. Although he still intended to act based on the situation, he would at least attempt to honor his teacher's sentiments.

"Good, now it seems like we have a bit of free time while everyone else is getting ready. Knowing you, I'm sure you have a skill you'd like to work on, right? Is there anything you'd like me to teach you? I think we could squeeze in a quick lesson."

"Actually, I was hoping that you could teach me a bit about Space Magic."

Emmanuel sighed. "Well, I can't exactly say I'm surprised."