rslcontracting Chapter 422 Apollyon The Redeemed
Chapter 422 Apollyon The Redeemed
"While you sang songs, I rode into death. And at the end, when I stood victorious, when I had taken the head of that lich, all around me were corpses."
His voice became softer, weakened by pain.
"I couldn't see victory because in that sea of corpses lay my brothers, and in that moment all I felt… was pain. You all stand before me, giving lectures. You did not feel what I felt… You do not! Not! YOU DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING!"
The hall shook.
"Never sing praises of my past, never utter a word before me. I might be weaker now, but even a Banshee Queen can be my creation. I once rode with the living, now the dead cling to me."
He went back to his throne.
"Leave me to my misery. I want to drown eternally… in it."
Dirge took a step back. She knew what he used to be like. They had met several times at the sanctuary. That gallant commander of the Black Night Cavalry, oath-bound to the White Winged Cavalry, had turned into this.
He was already hollow. He fought, he defended, he spoke, but there was no heart behind it anymore.
This was a shell.
"Is this it then? The banshee that destroyed the sanctuary was made by that undead. It was its most powerful weapon besides itself, able to bind souls and use them as an army. I was a victim of that beast, that I know, but I suffer, same as you."
"Your men knew what that charge meant. Don't fall, not to a foe you've defeated in the past. What is your duty, Chief General?"
Lament squinted when Dirge asked that.
"What is your duty, Chief General?"
She asked again.
"Leave."
"Will you deny your oath then?"
Lament rose.
"Watch your words."
"You are Chief General, I am an Elite General. It's not just titles. You, I watched you say those words to broken knights. So, once again, I repeat your words. What is your duty?!"
Lament picked up his halberd and took a step forward.
'To serve as long as I draw breath.'
A solemn voice rang within him. His own voice.
Lament froze.
Dirge, seeing her words might have hit a spot, decided to leave. She had pushed him enough, but one last sentence was enough.
"If you don't want the king to fall into the same pit you fell into, stand beside him, not with your body alone but your heart."
Lament sat.
Three Alchemists appeared with three Royal Apostles.
"Chief General Lament, we have decided to remove the Dark Lich from you and demote you back to a commander. Once we have the approval of His Majesty, this process will be effective immediately."
Lament looked at them.
"I… reject."
***
A knight clad in white armour, whose helmet had wings on both sides, looked down at Apollyon, who stood by his side, staring at the Afterlife World.
It was a dark world. People kept falling from the black skies into hills made of different races. Elfkind, demonkind, mankind, and many other kinds.
Shafts of golden light pierced through the black clouds from the horizon. This was the Realm of the Damned, and that light came from the Realm of the Exalted.
This place was the end. After all their ambitions, all people lived for, they ended up here, with regrets, with longing, pain, scars too deep to ignore. Almost none with true relief stayed here.
Only those who accepted death with all of their heart, with no attachments whatsoever to life, would be able to get to the Realm of the Exalted. There… peace lay, but here, torture blossomed in its purest form.
"I am not surprised you came here." The White Knight said, tilting his head toward Apollyon.
"You said they gave you the name Apollyon. Wasn't that the same title you were given in Pathan? You were the youngest amongst us, just fourteen, scrawny and small when you approached the Alchemists… so how, how did you become this?"
Apollyon shut her eyes.
"This is why we fought."
"It was." The White Knight said. "You came saying you saw the king. You had a vision about him. That was definitely the trick you used to get selected."
"It wasn't a trick. I did see him."
"You did not! You were just a little girl, no feat to speak of, nothing. Just a little girl in the midst of grown men and women, most of whom were in their forties and fifties. You were trained with the sword and shield, taking the place the First Knight left behind when he chose to wield a hammer-axe. You were the prophetic prodigy, we all believed because of you."
The White Knight became silent when Apollyon aimed her staff at his neck.
"Where are your sword and shield, Sister? Since when did you use a staff? It's been ages since we changed. I guess you dropped the weapons you used to slaughter the armies of two nations, to take the heads of two kings and wear their crowns."
Apollyon exhaled.
"You said you came in peace."
"I did until you mentioned the king. You made me leave the order because I realised it was all a fraud. The Unknown King would never show himself to someone like you. The Ice Witch, a knight that overstepped her boundaries by slaughtering tens of thousands from nations she was meant to keep in check."
Apollyon lowered her staff.
"Critize me all you want. You don't know what I thought of myself when I realized the Unknown King was all a fallacy. I finally discovered I was mad all along. I was seeing things that weren't real, and those kings refused to send food to our brothers out there fighting for them. Their greed caused the deaths of many more than I killed!"
She glanced at him.
"Our brothers and sisters had to fight starving and die screaming. Why wait for a king that wasn't real when I could bring an end to it all?"
The White Knight swung his lance over his shoulder.
"It only brought chaos. It only split our people, it made us lose trust. Your action singlehandedly caused a crack that couldn't be fixed."
"Not by us, but by the king...It can" Apollyon lowered her staff to the ground. "I was so far gone. But… if we swear our oath once more, he's willing to accept us."
"That isn't the king you spoke to us about."
"No. I'm telling you about the king I saw, the one Abaddon knelt to. I watched him regain his spark in a way I did not expect."
She looked at the sky.
"I want to serve. The dawn of the order is back and I will do all, all that is necessary to right my wrongs. The king isn't unknown anymore. I've seen him, I've known him. He's the Known King."
The White Knight was shocked when he saw Apollyon dissolving into motes of golden light.
"Impossible!"
A voice from afar shook the realm.
"Raise your lance, brother. Raise it high and he shall see."
She dissolved completely, the golden motes drifting into the black skies.