Chapter 24 - The Battle of Lordran (Part 4)

"Light will always be light." Rowan spoke, his voice full of compassion. The axe's cold blade began to glow with a golden white radiance, beautiful white particles, but just as deadly. He brandished the huge combat axe towards the ground with his broad, slim arm.

What followed was a thunderous sound as the marble floor was torn apart by the enormous strength of the Apostle of the First Light. The entire palace shook, large chunks of the building fell from the ceiling, killing some of the guests who were still unconscious.

Suddenly, pillars of white cross-like lights emerged from the ground, intent on impaling Achille.

However, the Patriarch of House Agrece was quicker, moving away from the full range of the attack, successfully deflecting it.

As he retreated, Achille noticed something interesting. The Apostle of Purity was extremely strong, even more so than when he was human, but there was a price for such an increase in strength. 

This he discovered very early on. Rowan's movements, although they looked professional, in his eyes, were not the level of mastery you would expect from someone who had worked like Marshall for a hundred years. His movement was sloppy, he looked like a child with a huge axe, albeit a very dangerous child.

Reflexes and combat experience also seemed to be lacking in Rowan, easily deflected blows were countered without any hesitation, like a novice who thought his blade was indestructible. 

Achille assumed that the pollution from the First Light had made Rowan's memory into relatively complete fragments, leaving certain memories but not others, which meant that the monster in front of him had lost most of its memories and was attacking with the human instincts it had left to fight facing him.

Which was quite obvious given the patterned movements of the Apostle of Purity, who would attack for a while, then calm down, only to attack again. He repeated this so often that Achille had already memorized the monster's movements. 

All he had to do was wait for the right moment and attack with full force to completely destroy the Apostle's body. Together with his hidden trump card, he was confident of killing Rowan without too many side effects in the process. 

Seeing that his attack didn't have the effect he wanted, the freak with dozens of golden eyes stared at Achille and his huge body shot forward, heading straight for Achille.

Achille didn't back down and faced the three-meter-tall monster head-on. The more he got involved in this kind of fight, the more he could lure Rowan into his trap and finish him off!

Both faced each other again with fierce and deadly attacks, neither backed down. Achille with his nightmares caused damage to Rowan's body and soul, while Rowan caused damage to Achille's body with the extremely hot light of his attacks.

Although the damage done to Rowan's physique healed in an instant because of his abnormal regeneration. Achille's wounds regenerated at a much slower rate, but still impressive and superior to any known human. 

They both fought without fear of death, or at least that was the case for Achille. The two exchanged blow after blow, battle axe against sword. The two weapons collided, leaving sparks in the air and the cold sound of clashing steel.

Strong winds and the ground already completely unrecognizable were the minimal consequences of the two men's attacks. The number of victims among the guests at the anniversary ball grew more and more over time. Women, men, the elderly and teenagers. The victims were varied... 

Dodging an attack from the combat axe just a few centimeters from his body, Achille reached his back in an instant and swung his sword bathed in black flames, tearing the fabric of Rowan's back and opening a horrible wound, splashing a large amount of blood on the floor torn apart by their fight. 

Argh!

A painful groan came out of the Apostle of Light's mouth, this was no simple attack with just physical strength. The flames on the swords devoured his flesh and sucked out the blood given to him by his master. This seemed to feed the flames, as the flesh around the wound seemed to wither and age at a rate visible to the naked eye. 

"O lord, help your requested lamb in this cruel world." Rowan looked up and muttered with tear-filled eyes, if no one knew him, they would think they were seeing a fanatical devotee of the God of Sunlight. 

But with his words, a light appeared above him and bathed his figure in a strong white light. The black flames consuming his flesh and blood seemed to sense the danger of that white light and began to devour even more of the Apostle's flesh and blood.

However, facing the pollution of an External God, Achille's black flames held out for mere seconds before being extinguished.

Suddenly, a black sword appeared in Rowan's field of vision and before he could do anything but back away desperately, the sword reached him and slashed a large part of his neck, a geyser of blood erupting from the near-fatal wound.

If it hadn't been for his reflexes, that sword would have decapitated his head, not just a neck wound.

Showing a regretful look, Achille stepped back with a cold expression as he circled Rowan's body with a silent, deadly gaze. As he had predicted, Rowan did indeed have a certain set of pre-created moves. These moves, although complicated, were possible to memorize if you paid attention to detail. 

Just like the surprise attack he had used earlier to severely wound the Apostle's neck, he still found it incredible that anyone would dare to stand still for so long in a special-grade fight.

The patriarch of the Agrece house didn't know if it was one of the after-effects of surrendering to an Outer God, but it was good news. The level of difficulty has dropped a lot compared to before.

Achille's monologue didn't last long. He saw the wound on his neck, which should be fatal for most beings, heal in a mere instant, causing the black blood to stop flowing. 

At that moment, Rowan's appearance had changed again, at least, the Apostle's robes had. He looked more like a demon than anything else.

"What an Apostle of Light!" Achille exclaimed. "If I didn't know better, I would have thought that the being in front of me was a demon." 

Throughout the fight, despite the injuries he had suffered, Rowan had not once changed the compassionate expression on his face. However, at that moment, his expression changed.

It became more bestial and full of hatred. Achille's words had really angered the Apostle of Purity.

Heretic!

Blasphemer!

How dare he sin against the light of the Lord!

"How dare you insult my Lord!!!" Rowan let out an almost bestial scream, his dozens of eyes looked particularly bright and the white flame burning around his head was as bright as ever.

"Your lord is a fool for choosing someone like you to represent him. Imagine how much shame you'll do your master..." Achille sneered sarcastically, seeing how easy it was to provoke anger in the monster before him. Rowan Gellert probably wouldn't even blink at such a naïve provocation.

But the being in front of him wasn't Rowan, it was more like a shell carrying the memories, feelings and desires of someone already dead.

If Rowan had been furious before, he was mad with rage now. His chest was heaving, rising and falling as white smoke escaped from his wide, strangely pale mouth.

The battle axe began to glow like never before, it looked like the Apostle of Purity was wielding a small sun.

"Face my wrath, blasphemer!!!" He roared as his body disappeared from the perception of Achille's extraordinary senses.

But in the next second, Achille had already captured Rowan's figure again, but this second still hurt him badly.

A huge gash appeared on Achille's stomach, crimson red blood spraying into the air as the Patriarch of House Agrece backed away while pressing on the huge wound, which ran from stomach to shoulder.

Achille's expression was indifferent despite the serious injury he had suffered, he could feel the pollution of the Outer God trying to pollute him and make him its slave just as it had with Rowan. 

The whispers of the Outer God were full of temptations and empty promises of glory and supreme power.

Achille only laughed sarcastically at the absurd proposals he had just heard. For the first time, he thought that the Outer Gods were rather naïve compared to humans.

Who would be stupid enough to believe the promise of being elected king of the world by a being dominated by madness?

However that was it, if it had been anyone else, the pollution of the Outer God would indeed have made that person a servant of the First Light, but Achille wasn't just a human.

He was a descendant of the first murderer, the original sin, who was rightfully Adam's own grandson, molded into a mirror image of the Omnipotent Creator.

Achille, like every other member of House Achille, really did have the blood of Cain and Adam running through their veins. It was no simple task to pollute him, even if he was one of the Five Sons of Chaos, The First Light.

 ----------------------

Read more than 20 advanced chapters in my Patre on!

P-atreon.com/TheRadiantPrince

(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)