Chapter 369

Gustav faced his opponent, drew his sword, and the pair began to clash. Gustav fought as a Paladin, with broad, heavy slashes, his emblazoned cloak flapping in the breeze behind him, while Cerebrate fought as a knight, with more straight thrusts to force Gustav to withdraw.

They circled one another in battle pulses, coming together for an exchange of blows, their armor fending off what their swords could not, the clang of metal on metal was the only noise there was between the two as the crowd picked sides for their favorite.

Calca bit her lip and without thinking, reached for her husband's hand, he squeezed it. "I shouldn't have brought him. I shouldn't have told him to do this. After everything we went through-"

"You disrespect his choice?" Neia asked from where she stood, her hands folded behind her lower back, her tail danced in time with the blows, she didn't look at her counterpart, but the rebuke was obvious.

"Queen Baraja." Ainz quipped, "He is a loyal servant to your ally."

His rebuke to her rebuke did not move the dragonid Queen.

"That is why I say it, Allfather. None of you can understand what is happening down there as I do." She said with icy calm as she watched the sword narrowly miss Gustav's eye and leave a bloody streak on his cheek instead. He backed away and wiped it away with a growl before he renewed his struggle against Cerebrate.

Neia looked over to Calca then and said, "You may have given the order, Holy Queen, but I knew Gustav. He's the one who sentenced me to die. To you he was a friend, to me, first he was a commander, then he was an executioner. He knew my trial was corrupt, but he looked me in the eye, and sentenced me to die in that horrific way. He listened to my screams and did nothing to save me. When you rejected my parents' plea for leniency, I forgave you because you were ignorant of the true corruption. I can never forgive him though, and that's why he's here. Because he can't forgive himself."

Calca paled, "But I issued pardons, for everybody who confessed their crimes and made restitution… we've been rebuilding our homes, our Kingdom, making things right… the Purity movement, Gustav has worked closely with the priests since we embraced it!"

"Do you think that means anything to someone who lived on principle their whole life?" Neia asked and waved toward the sands of the arena. "Yes, he's going to do what you said and enhance your nation's reputation, but he's going to atone too. I've seen it on enough faces to know the look. His quietness, from the very start of our journey I had my suspicions. But this removes all doubt."

The wounds on Gustav were starting to add up. His ear was gone, one eye was shut, and though Cerebrate had his marks, it became ever more obvious that Gustav was at a disadvantage that was only growing.

Cerebrate seemed to be waiting for a concession, and drew back an extra step.

"You can't be serious?!" Calca cried and shot to her feet. "Death?! That's… that's stupid! We need him! He's our friend, the head of our Paladin Order! I didn't want him to fight to the death! Just showcase our strength!"

Her voice began to rise in pitch and she rushed toward the rail, her fingers closed over the ledge, she leaned over, "Give in! Your Queen orders you to concede!" She shouted, but over the noise of the crowd there was little chance that she would be heard so far down below.

If he heard her, he ignored her, and charged against Cerebrate again.

Ainz was quick to follow his wife, rising to his feet and putting hands on her shoulders as if afraid she might tumble over the edge.

Swords flew back and forth and, now that Queen Baraja pointed it out, it was obvious. It wasn't that he was reckless, it was that he was heedless, his strikes were flawless, but his care for his own injuries and the preservation of his own life was completely gone, and when he landed a blow against Cerebrate's chest after a dangerous gamble and sent the knight of the Draconic Kingdom tumbling backward, he squared himself off, revealing the multitude of wounds to his face, and trailing blood into the dry sands to soak them through and through.

"The resolve of the Holy Kingdom cannot be stopped by anything but victory or death! Get up, Cerebrate!" Gustav shouted it like an order, and Cerebrate complied.

"You're insane!" Cerebrate accused his opponent, leveling his sword at Gustav, with both mean breathing hard, he spat into the sand and said, "You can't win. I got you twice in the gut! I don't even have to kill you, just hold you off and you'll die!"

Gustav grinned, his pearl white teeth stained with his own blood, "That's why you're afraid! Because we're not! We don't know the meaning of fear anymore!" He proclaimed and leveled his sword at his side, and with a thunderous battle cry his feet carried him forward over the sands toward his waiting enemy.

"Fuck… he's suicidal…" Cerebrate muttered. [Knight's Charge] he used one more martial art, and sped toward his enemy, a direct charge was a knight's best weapon, and Gustav seemed to have played into it. Still, ever cautious, Cerebrate watched for trickery… and found none.

His sword sank into Gustav's guts for a third time, their shoulders crashed together with a clang of battered metal on battled metal, and Cerebrate felt the man fall limp.

Gustav looked up to the daias where his Queen stood, her face was clear to him, or so he thought, 'I wonder if I'm imagining it… no, she probably is distressed. I've been part of her life for as long as she's been on the throne, if not as close as Remedios… but this is how it has to end… the reputation of my Kingdom… Nobody will think us weak now… with my death, our names are made. And… fuck, this really does hurt worse than I thought…' Gustav groaned and felt his body thud down to the ground.

The roar of the crowd went up, and his killer stepped out of view. With Cerebrate out of the way, the sun smacked Gustav's eyes, blinding him to the blue of the sky, there was no rest of the world, and he could no longer feel the sand beneath him, nor the weight of his body.

He then closed his eyes, and opened them no more. 'Job well done.' He thought, and that was that.