Ch.26

—Somewhere up north—

The top of an unnamed mountain where even the strongest creatures dare not go sat a man.

His hair the same colour as the snow that drifted around him, his eyes the piercing blue of a frozen lake. He radiated a soft power that even a king would bow to. Chains hung from his wrist glowing with holy power, keeping him held to the throne in which he sat. He pulled with all his might, the chains quivering from the pressure with some starting to shatter.

"Soon, soon the summer queen's curse will wear off and I will be able to reclaim my home."

He inhaled a long breath before huffing.

"Long last the winter." He said, thoughts of his inevitable freedom dancing on the forefront of his mind. Soon the king of winter, Hiems Irea, would be a freeman and he would make them pay, the damned summer queen, the irritating jester of fall, and the bothersome knight of spring. Those he called family.

The man kneeling in front of him, nothing but an ant in his plans, looked up with a cold air of indifference.

"As you command, I will gather the last of the items. Long last the winter."

"Good, now go forth sir Garth and you shall have the power of the winter at your fingertips and I shall fix the madness that plagues your mind from that child's blade."

Garth merely bowed his head before setting off, he knew it was going to be a long and painful journey but the cut in his side radiated a fire that he knew only the winter could quench.

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(Somewhere within the palace)

"Hey! Clay! Wake up!" A voice could be heard shouting, it sounded so close yet as if they were a hundred miles away.

An explosion detonated taking down some unknown wall. The shaking brought Clay back to his senses. He screamed a grotesque screech as all the pain flooded into him at once.

"My legs!! Where the fuck are my legs!?!" He screamed as the two stumps that were his legs flared up in a burning pain.

"Calm the hell down Clay. Get your shit together and let's get a move on, the fighting is moving closer." A bloodied up John stood above him.

"What happened? Where are we?" Clay asked, looking around in a panic.

"Honestly I'm not certain. Last thing I saw was your black knight grabbing us and running away then I fell unconscious. If I had to guess near the grand library."

"Are you ok? You're covered in blood!"

"Most of it isn't mine." Replied John motioning to a pile of bodies near the door. "Looks like the king's royal army threw a coup d'état judging by the uniforms."

"Dammit… I hope the others are ok." Clay's hands were engulfed in a holy glow as he attempted to fix his legs. "Shit this is going to take forever, let me try something."

Clay grabbed onto the darkness around him and shaped it around his stumps until it resembled a pair of legs. Standing up he slowly took a walk around.

"This should suffice, I made most of the pain go away and now I can move."

The duo quickly took to the halls avoiding most of the fighting they could. As they got closer to the gate the violence intensified, an ocean of white clashing with a sea of red.

"Looks like the church is on the king's side."

The white side was heavily outnumbered, slowly being cut down and pushed back. A man rose from the crowd, brimming with a holy power that Clay nearly recoiled in fear from.

"Who or what is that?!" Clay gestured towards the figure.

"He is archangel Michael, one the seven saviours of the church. One of the most powerful people in the kingdom if not the world." John replied from his section of cover.

A voice rang out, echoing above the battlefield. "AZRAEL YOU HAVE GONE TO FAR!" the power radiating from his voice silencing the battlefield.

A second figure rose up on the other side. He was robbed in black, a vile stench that Clay could smell from there came from him.

"Brother! Long time no see. How's Uriel?" The figure smiled, opening his arms as if making a welcoming gesture but Clay could tell that the man's gaze was nothing but spite.

"Quiet you traitor. What are you even doing? Using the nation's people for your own petty games?" Michael drew a great sword from the sheath on his hip. The blade looked as if it was carved of marble, so delicate a butterfly could shatter it with but a flap of its wings yet Clay could tell that blade would outlast both its user and the kingdom.

"I should kill you for what you did." Michael snarled.

"All I'm doing is merely freeing these people from your lies. You call yourself a saviour, an angel, yet all you do is sit on your ass…. Can't you see! Your people are starving, many people are starving, not just this kingdom but all of them. There's more than enough for everyone yet you refuse to share." The robed figure shook his head before drawing a scythe. "I don't want to hurt you Michael, we were raised together, fought together, yet you turned your back on real family for this lie, the idea you were making a difference when you never were." The man looked as if on the verge of tears.

"It killed me inside to put my blade through his heart you know…." The man hung his head in sadness before steeling his gaze once again. "But if you stand in my way like he did then you will meet the same fate."

An explosion of power radiated from both of them, many falling to their knees under the pressure.

"You lived a rat and shall die a rat." Micheal spoke before swinging his sword releasing an arch of light that tore through the stone of the surrounding walls like a knife through paper.

A dome of lightning rose up to meet it, the resulting explosion blinding anyone that witnessed it. The fighting was long forgotten as the two sides scrambled away from the warriors.

"Path of the wind!" Micheal yelled out as a spell engulfed him, his speed increasing ten fold to the point Clay could barely keep up. This hardly bothered Azrael as the man was able to block every single blow that came his way.

"Rage blinds you brother. You've lost your way."

Azrael began moving his hands in intricate motions, power swirling around him.

"Third form: Trees in the storm!" He slammed his palm into the ground as plants made of lightning rose from the ground, swinging wildly destroying anything they touched. Micheal's defence slowly crumbled under the constant assault, unable to deal with the continuous stream of blows.

"I'm not done yet brother!" Micheal cried out. An explosion rocked where he stood.

"Lightning burst!" Another explosion went off around Micheal, the man becoming more bloody by the second.

"I was hoping never to use this but you leave me no choice. The great one above saves my soul for I have sinned, grant me the power!" Micheals chant ended with a beam of light striking where he stood. Something emerged, if purity became a being whatever it was became the embodiment. A glowing angel of pure light stood before Clay's eyes hardly believing what he was seeing.

?¿?¿? (*‰*) — Level.??? HP %/% MP %/%-

(3rRor: You are too low level to identify)

"How!" The fear radiating from Azrael's voice became obvious. "That's an actual archangel!"

"You have sinned brother. It is time for you to be redeemed."

A massive amount of mana was pulled to the creature's palm.

"Sinners guillotine."