chapter 24

Ariadne looked at him as he had just said a joke. Seeing the serious expression on the faces of Eleanor and James Ariadne stood in a calm way and behaved like a lady. James waved his hands and seats appeared for all the ladies, the queen and him along with Nathaniel and Agni. Everybody sat on the seats.

Ariadne: I am to guess you will be the champion to the princess.

James: I am sorry Senviness, but I am the leader of the Rebellion.

Ariadne: That will not be acceptable.

James: Read the holy laws. Anyone is allowed to lead a rebellion as long as they have not been in the direct service of the queen and upon failing the punishment shall be death. I am the leader of the group.

Ariadne: If I win?

James: I should die in order for you to win. You will remain the queen and live a long life. You will lose when you die.

Ariadne: Do you want to be a Queen slayer?

James: It is not slaying if it is a contest.

Ariadne: True. The power of the Queen flows through my veins. All the agony of the people and the smallest happiness are collected in me and that is where the queen receives her power. The only way to weaken a queen's power to split the opinion of the people of her. I accept the challenge. No dark lord shall stand against a true ruler.

James: Can I say the match has already begun?

Ariadne: Yes. The match has already begun.

James smiled. Darkness came from the chair the queen had been siting and had her trapped. She smiled and there was a bright light. The darkness had vanished and the queen was in a bright shinning armour whose colour could only be described as the colour of the light. She looked and smiled, pointing her blade at James.

Ariadne: You might have used pure man to destroy my forces, but I am wearing the armour handed down by the goddess to the third queen the first dark lady had risen. The holy blade I hold is powerful enough to kill any dark lord. Yes, I know everything of your affinity to darkness. Your aura speaks.

James stood and looked at everyone.

James: A few words to all. This match may go one for years and as long as that happens the council of ladies is supposed to run the Queendom. As we have more ladies, I recommend princess Eleanor to be the proxy.

Ariadne lowered her sword looking flabbergasted.

James: You win after you kill me. I am going to run.

James leaped into the air and flew out of there. Ariadne understood how she had been tricked and followed him by flying in the air. The sun was bright, the sky was clear and James was seen flying in the sky. He only flew away until he reached farthest away. She was hit with a number of prying spells and her suit confirmed to her that it was from her pears and old pears. They did want to see the match.

James was standing there all alone, looking at the queen.

Ariadne: Why are you here?

James: If we had a match there would have been collateral damage.

Ariadne: Then why did you say the statement?

James: I was toying with you. You are a beautiful woman after all.

Ariadne: What a different world this might have been if I had made you my consort? Two immortals ruling besides each other.

James: What a different world this might have been if men and women were equal?

Ariadne: Men cannot be trusted.

James: I don't care for men or women. I want some respect and some power. I need tea every time read a book and a title so that people who meet me wouldn't call me trash.

Ariadne: Like a lord.

James: True.

Ariadne: I can still arrange that. You just need to forfeit the match. If I turn back on you, you can have your revenge in whatever way you like.

James: True. But after I win this the new queen will provide with a stipend of five thousand gold every month and she will not bother me anymore. I will be allowed to take care of the merchant city and collect taxes, sixty for me and forty for the queen. Just a promise to help her defeat any further rebellions and any other threats to the nations.

Ariadne: You are a fool James. I have the holy sword. No being of darkness shall stand before it. And my armour cannot be broken by any power, especially your darkness.

James: Correction. I am the king of darkness and the power of the king flows through my veins. As for the armour and sword, I possess the demon sword.

James summoned a sword and held it in his hand.

Ariadne: I thought you were a dark lord.

James: I am. But with higher mana, creating a very powerful demon sword was really easy. Just so you know, I can even use holy magic.

Ariadne rushed with his sword and attacked James. He stopped it with his sword singlehandedly. There was an exchange of blows for a few seconds until he hit her arms. The armour where it was hit was broken. Ariadne changed her position into a praying one and her

wounds were healed. James looked at the queen. He attacked her again and again as she stood int the position. Divine power, something other than magic which he was not able to use. She was a goddess' vassal it seemed. He called forth his darkness and send the blade back to his extradimensional space. He used his bare hands and touched the queen. Darkness flew into the armour until she was thrown away from its power.

Ariadne stood up from the ground balancing herself on her sword. What are you, she thought? She raised her sword to the heavens.

Ariadne: Oh, supreme goddess, releasee your powers through my body, lest darkness devour this world.

Ariadne had her prayer answered. She shone brightly, her wounds were healed and she rose to the air, her sword drawn. James drew a barrier of pure darkness and began thinking. The power was high, not high as him. If there was a god or goddess to this world, it was going to be a really bad thing. James turned himself to evaluation spells. He stopped the outflow of mana and concentrated on the queen. Her power had been coming from somewhere else. He looked to see that her crown in the queendom had been sending the power. He looked closely to see the power had been activated upon saying the exact same words she had said. So much for praying to the goddess. James smiled and broke out the barrier.

Ariadne had seen the barrier being broken. She rushed into him again and he caught the attack. The sword was caught with his bare hands and nothing had happened to him. She was able to feel the priestesses providing their power to her. It had been a long time since she had had a real fight. She looked and smiled into the eyes of James.

James smiled back at the smiling lady. She landed on the air and she smiled at him. The inflow of power into her had increased. Her core was open to her body and the influx was high. James blocked the attack and was thrown back. He saw that the power of the queen was leaking out fast. A suicidal fight. James released his energy and stroke the queen attack for attack until he broke the sword of the queen in half with his bare hands. She just smiled and her power increased even further. The sword had dissolved and joined with her body. They were now attacking each other. The battle had turned to the battle of power. There was no strategy required. The one with the higher power won.

The fight continued for a long time. The queen was not at all exhausted. She shone with radiance. She cried out loud and punched the punch James had thrown and threw him to the ground. She raised her had and all her mana concentrated on her hand forming the death spell, the spell to separate his soul from his body.

Ariadne: Yield. I will give your lordship back and make sure all of us can win.

James smiled and nodded his head no. Ariadne slammed all the energy into his body. There was an explosion of power. She still had her energy around her. She laugher out loud.

James: Did you think that pathetic attack could kill me?

A secondary fear had come into the eyes of the queen. It was replaced with delight.

Ariadne: I am on par with you in strength. There is no way you can state anything else.

James smiled and formed his hands into a fist. The power of Ariadne vanished completely. She fell to her knees. She looked at the person standing in front of her. Tears formed in her eyes.

James: I had been trying to modify your crown from which the mana had come. I temporarily destroyed it. It started reforming itself.

Ariadne: I am not going to lose. There will be war in the future. The time of Kings arrives, the days shall bleak, the end shall be noted, by blood and darkness. The prophesy will come into being. I have to be there to save the queendom.

James: I will take care of it.

James looked into the eyes of Ariadne. Countless screams of the children were visible. The pleasure of all the citizens, the sadness and pain of the people of her queendom.

Ariadne: Did you see it?

James: Yes.

Ariadne: There is a reason why most queens die of untold reasons. Madness. I am one of the few who has survived that long. The queendom need me.

James: Why are you not doing anything?

Ariadne: The queendom needs soldiers.

James: Look into my eyes.

Ariadne looked into the eyes of James and saw the birth of millions of beings and their death. Their power calling out to him, their King. The pain was high that she shrilled in pain.

Ariadne: You are powerful your grace.

James: True, my queen. I am not going to make the men rise neither the women fall. I just want to be free and visit other worlds. I will take care of this one. But you need to die.

Ariadne: What if I forfeit?

James: There is no provision for that.

Ariadne: How are you going to kill me?

James threw a knife to the ground. Ariadne laughed hysterically and picked it up.

Ariadne: You want me to commit suicide.

James: I will win this fight, but you will never have lost to anyone named Dark lord James.

Ariadne smiled and plunged the knife into her heart, she looked to see the benevolent face of the dark lord to see him smiling sinisterly. He waved his hands and she felt all the prying wards being removed.

James: No one hear us now.

Ariadne: Did you just trick me?

James: The conditions were that you had to die. Breaking the spells on your body would have taken forever, at least till I go to this place called earth and learn hacking. But the knife was a suicidal one. It will make sure that you die. The intrinsic spells formed with your own magic will remove the magic you had placed on yourself. I could have easily destroyed you but I did not want to face the philosophical questions of whether destruction is the same as death.

Ariadne smiled and said.

Ariadne: You sly bastard.

James: You sly bitch.

Ariadne: Are you going to destroy Fenrir?

James: I am going to keep my word; I never go back on it. But you do not get to do bad things and die honourably just because you carry a big pain.

Ariadne: But you just did that for me.

James: It might seem to you. The prying wards had been modified to make it seem like you had lost all hope when you had lost power and like a pathetic being you had committed suicide. You will not be praised.

Ariadne: Well done James. What should I care what the people thinks of me, especially when I am dead?

James: True. Any last words or wished. I can help you.

Ariadne: Just be a good person James. Being a dark lord is not a good thing.

James: Even after using the divine powers you had to kill people and do dirty things. I just used my power to kill all those who had stood against me. I am evil and you are good!

Ariadne: Are we having a philosophical debate.

James: Nay. It was nice fighting you.

Ariadne: A warning for making me sweat in a very long time. The dark lord will always be fretted in everywhere. Define who you are yourself. Let not others tell it. That's how I survived.

James: Why are you being nice my lady?

Ariadne: Because every being in this world and every world's both evil and divine are good. All have their own reasons. And in my eyes, you are a demon and an abomination and shall remain so. Even if I have to suffer immense pain, I will never accept a person like you.

James: I did not have my parents for a long time and even when they were alive, they did not talk to me much.

Ariadne: Are you telling me your sadness? When will I die and forget this pain?

James: After I finish speaking the last seal you had placed will be broken. What I said was because of that I had grown myself. All the ideas I have are my own. I am me. But you are nothing but a puppet to the people of the past some eons past. You are not you purely.

Ariadne: I can feel myself and that is enough.

James approached and held the hands of Ariadne

James: You were a very good person. I really like you. If you were able to see people as people like Selena or my friend Nathaniel rather than men and women, you would have been a good ruler.

Ariadne: You are a good man James. I am sorry for what I had done.

James smiled and stood up and stepped back a little.

James: I won. I won in the battle of wills. Now I will defeat the queen of Fenrir with her death. A word of mine will be enough! Any last words to this abomination.

Ariadne: You in…

James: Die

Ariadne dropped dead to the ground. Everyone later saw Ariadne, the former queen of the state lying on the ground.