The Noble Rebellion in My World

-Some gore in this chapter you have been warned-

Looking around me, you would expect to see carnage, signs of a battle or something. Instead, all that remained of the five knights was their corpses strewn over the ground like some action figure halfheartedly discarded everywhere like the child playing with them had gotten bored.

The sixth person, the leader was still alive, albeit barely. When I crippled his legs he cried out, but instead of collapsing he seemed to double down on his beliefs. He had the audacity to claim I was from the empire, so I made the water in his right eye boil until the eye popped, he tried to scream but the water in his throat and lungs prevented him from screaming. Once he passed out, I realized I might have gone slightly overboard. The sight of an empty bloody socket and mangled legs didn't faze me. I had very little experience with this traumatic of an injury this severe ignoring my own. Maybe it was because he was going to die anyways it didn't bother me. But then again what gave me the "strength" to kill was another matter entirely. It seems that The Voice in my head was influencing me more than I thought, I need to reinforce the walls in my mind a little more it seems—or maybe it was inducing these changes physically.

"You are going to die today. There is nothing you can do to change this. You are incredibly weak and there is no one coming to save you. You have the right to blame me—but you shouldn't. I mean you are clearly too weak to be trusted with such a task. I mean your compatriots literally died without knowing how it happened—is that not insane? They didn't overestimate your abilities, but they are guilty of underestimating your talent. Your task wasn't to suppress me, or to last long enough to get reinforcements. You are tasked with checking in every couple of minutes, right? In other words, you are a glorified perimeter alarm. When you fail to make contact, they know they have been found out and the real guardians will come and capture me. You had a future, but instead of taking control of it yourself you allowed some useless nobles take your future from you. How sad. It is a noble behind this little rebellion is it not? All for a little glory? It matters not", I say while sneering at him, "You will all die in your so-called glory and brimstone but fret not for I will seek holy retribution for you."

All he can do is groan in pain and look at me with his one good eye like I am a monster. I don't need him; my grandstanding was more for the whoever was watching me in the woods. I hadn't noticed them, but my familiars had—their sense mana was much stronger than mine and apparently, they could also sense divinity too since they alerted me through our mental link that the watcher was probably a member of the holy inquisition, the secret service of the Holy Order better known as the One Religion.

Anguis slips off the stump of my right arm and starts to snake its way towards the guardsmen who was attempting to crawl away, it seems he had still had a will to live. But it was too late as Anguis things down and transforms into this long thin worm like creature that slithers into the ear of the guardsmen. He starts to scream and this time I take no effort to muffle it. Let them come, I have a need to test out my newfound powers and I did pledge to seek revenge for this poor guardsman. Something shoots out of the dark and slams into the head of the guardsmen killing him instantly.

Whipping around I turn to look at where the inquisitor was hiding, who has just now revealed himself.

"I didn't know the inquisition upheld the standards of sympathy within their order?" I slyly jest at them.

Their only response is a knife infused with divinity being thrown at me. I don't bother evading it, instead allotting to flicking my finger, simultaneously stopping the knife with a spout of water that shoots up, and then flows towards the inquisitor attempting to slam into them. I had attempted to influence the water inside them the instant they showed themselves, but they had coated themselves with divinity, warding off my control.

My spout of water is easily avoided as they roll to the side and glare back at me.

Or at least I assume they are glaring at me, as the inquisitor is wearing the trademark mask of the inquisition. It is a white mask with a cross going down the center, with the horizontal bar of the cross made from divinity colored red. It was an artifact that much was clear but the actual use of it was unknown.

They are covered in a cloak so I can't tell any other details about them, but this fact in of itself (also with the use of divinity) confirms the fact that this is most likely an inquisitor.

I turn around and start running towards the rebel camp—I needed to buy time to wear through their divine shield. I'm faster than I look thanks to the fact that it isn't really me who is running—instead it is Limus, my slime familiar, currently in the form of my legs. I zoomed through the forest ducking in-between branches until I feel a knife hit the back of my left knee, causing me to fall and crash into the ground.

It hurt like a bitch but that wasn't going to stop me, crawling on my hands and knees away from the inquisitor.

I could feel the inquisitors piercing gaze on the back of my head and then I could suddenly sense them right behind me.

Kicking me in the back and then turning me over to face them, I can finally hear their voice

"All will fall before the Emperor's grace. Now repent your sins and tell me what exactly you did to those guardsmen, the emperor is not so above awarding even the sinners for their contributions to his glory!"

Their voice was raspy and feminine, creepy almost like it wasn't their own. I decided then and there their death wasn't going to be a clean one.

Looking up at them I just smiled—then grabbed their ankle. I didn't pull up them down, instead I just held on with my left hand like I was begging.

This seemed to delight them as they didn't attempt to kick off my hand. Instead, they just seemed to leer at me. I could feel their intense gaze, almost like a vulture circling over a dead body looking to swoop in to reap their spoils. This would turn out to be their final mistake. Using touch, I was able to bypass the divinity shielding them and influence their water filled body directly.

Closing my eyes and shielding my face, I hear a small pop and feel something rain down on me, the ankle I was grabbing had long been turned to a slush held together by skin.

Standing up and brushing off the bits of flesh from my shoulders, apparently not forcing the water out of their joints wasn't as smooth or as clean method of disabling them as I thought. I look down at them and simply ask,

"What was that about your so-called god emperor?"

They look up at me, I can still feel their mocking gaze as they croak out a, "Die sinner" before detonating the divinity they had been not so secretly storing in their brain. I had been alerted to this at the last minute by Limus.

The explosion was far from what I had expected, forcing me to take a couple steps backwards, even behind a water barrier I had summoned right before the blast hit.

Two pieces of their mask were embedded within the barrier, almost like a final act of defiance against me. But it mattered not, I was fine, and they were very far from it. Right at that moment I started losing it. I mean it really was really, really, funny.

I burst into a deep maniacal laughter, for an emperor to inspire such loyalty in his subjects yet nobles would want to rebel, this meant there was something else at play here. I honestly couldn't control my laughter, I just kept laughing and laughing.

I couldn't stop laughing, it honestly was too much for me, I mean on one side there was someone with such loyalty to their emperor they would kill themselves to protect his secrets, and on the other there was a bunch of nobles willing to kill of their charges to kill the sitting emperor. It was such a stark contrast, but I imagine they both interacted with the same empire… so why the stark contrast in reactions?

Either way I was going to have a "talk" with the leader of this rebellion, so this was just another item on the list for the conversation were going to have!

Waving my hand, I dissolve the barrier, catching the larger half of the mask. The mask broke two thirds of the way down, meaning if I were to wear it, the mask would cover everything from my nose up, exposing my mouth. I quite liked it, putting it down by the side of my leg, I push it into my leg which absorbs it in no time. Limus cleans it of divinity, or any last surprises left for me, before spitting it back out to my waiting hand. Smiling, I caress my leg with love before I place my new mask over my face and siphon mana into it. As expected, the only function to survive Limus' "cleansing" was the function that made it impossible to remove unless it ran out of juice. I couldn't tell if Limus simply missed it, or it had intentionally left this ability behind. If the latter was true, this thought was terrifying, and it meant that I had been kind of taking my familiars intelligence for granted. The top of the mask retained its smooth edge, and after the quick clean from Limus even its off-white shade, but the bottom of the mask was different. Apparently one of the enchantments around the mouth area had combusted in the explosion meaning the off-white shade slowly receded into a slight grey or charred look the lower down the mask you got. Right below the nose region the mask turns pitch black, with uneven jagged markings at the bottom of this new mask. It didn't cover my mouth, which I liked, allowing my mocking face to be seen even through my mask. The visor portion of the mask had changed from red to blue, probably due to the new power source, which gave it an almost demented look. It was a lighter blue which allowed those who paid close enough attention to see my eyes.

Regardless, I was glad that I got a mask to cover my face. It really gave me the comfort in anonymity that I had craved for when I was the only complete cripple in the village. Moving past that, I promised myself that I was going to pay more attention to my familiars in the future. Feeling something slither up my leg, I lower my right stump downwards so the newly returned Anguis can find his place back on my arm. They had managed to survive by diving into the guard's spine right before his head became a mushy mess, which was quick thinking on their part.

Lowering myself to the ground, I have Limus return to his slime form to consume the remains of the inquisitor, as the true guardians of the rebellion would be here soon, and I would like to keep my beef with the empire as quiet as possible. A direct audience with the leader of this farce would make my life so much easier.