Chapter 250: Love In The Heart

SUNSHINE boy of the world of play,

Laughing out in the wind away,

Singing free as a song-bird wild,—

O that is the way of my elfin child!

Love in the heart thro’ the day-bright hours,

Joy on the lips like the smiling flowers,

Peace on the face when the night is starred

And sleep steals over my Leonarde.

-Charles Keeler, Elfin Songs Of Sunland (2nd Era, 1904)

Down with the King, they knew, and down with this heretic Kingdom.

Indeed, she would be proud. The secretly building rebellion that the Cardinal had incited was a powerful thing. It was an act of war, glorious fire, flame, and anger—the type of feelings that She, the Goddess above, relished. His most tremendous honor was to be the harbinger of it and to lead the caverns into a purifying blaze. He sat, his head bowed, as a contingent of priests continued to pray next to him. Their prayers echoed out, reinforcing the people who needed to call for the Goddess, giving them the strength they needed to overcome their foes.

It was sweet music to his ears and an enchanting call as her fiery inferno poured into the strength of the believers who needed it—a pool of energy to take and use against their enemies.

The Cardinal was sure that the King would counteract it, aware they had such grand rituals in their pockets. But deep within the caverns, layers deep, it would take a very long time for the King to breach their defenses and interrupt it. Besides, many fires were set alight tonight—too many to put out fast enough to prevent the Goddess’ plan from reaching its complete execution.

Around them sat a vast gathering of Silver Flames Knights. True believers all. They’d turned on the false heretics and made their way down, and more would come.

By his estimates, about half of their Order remained loyal to the Goddess—after all, when faced with the question of the divine afterlife and the one above, and a mortal King who went against their most dearly held values, it was an easy choice to make.

He loved them one and all, and knew that even among the other Orders, there would be more Knights swayed to the true cause at last.

Still, even with these loyal Knights, Nobility, and obedient citizens, their numbers were not sufficient. The Cardinal bowed his head and began to chant.

His voice cut through the ritual around him; his words fervent, begging his mistress to hear them. Her eyes fell upon him, along with a searing delight as she observed the heat and fires in the caverns; he’d been explicit with his commandments to burn. She would see that which was done to her done to others, and with that fire came the purifying grace. They would utilize it to burn down the false influence of the King and replace this Kingdom with those loyal to her goals. After all, he and his flock were but tools for her to use and none other.

He swore to her, his chant rising as fire swirled in his stomach. The copper blaze enveloped him like a searing shroud, running down his fingers and hands, scorching his skin in a way that was both terrible and sublime.

They were all tools, yes, he included. His flesh was hers to rule, his life and soul were hers to take, and he swore to her now in the depths of his ritual that he would be bound forever in her will. He felt it then—the grip of her power, turning him into one small flesh puppet amongst many, feeling her will in this world increase as he brought her and drew her forth.

She had long remained secluded from mortal affairs, allowing her priests to work on her behalf, gradually building her power to a point where she could finally confront the horrid beast responsible for bringing about the end of the world. She needed the strength. But now he felt it, with that spark of Silver Fire in these caverns, she was determined to go and squash it down, to overwhelm it with her fiery might and smother it out once and for all.

The pressure increased in the room as the priests around him bowed to her presence. Their prayers grew more fervent, their words impacting those fighting more strongly as she reached into his soul and then saw through his eyes. The Cardinal then lost his sense of self, becoming nothing more than a witness to his own body acting. Watching it through a dim perception.

She looked down at his hands, now searing with bronze fire—his body, faith, and connection to her were strong enough to wield this physical form with enough time to do what needed. Her hands worked, burning as copper fire surged out and spinning in front of them, making some priests in the middle of the grand ritual recoil backwards so as not to be seared by her holy embrace.

Her power radiated outward, and within the church, a large rift appeared within the cavern. Its edges burned with the same fire she'd conjured, reaching out across the land. Instead of going to a different world, it was attached to another point. He understood this feeling, her logic turning through his brain, even as his skin burned in its coppery glory. Her will pressed forward to bring about her divine changes in the world around them.

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Chained men began to spill out of the Rift, and he could see shimmering mountains in the distance. They walked through, an army of their own. Weapons at the ready as She had prepared them, facilitating this takeover in the background. They were like him, deeply tied by her loving embrace. One of them, his body heavy with chains to the point where it was practically all he had on, wandered before the Goddess and bowed.

"We are here to serve," he said.

And she cackled and then issued her order: "Kill," she said, her one word burning with a command that seared through all their brains. "Kill the Silver Fire," she repeated, gesturing for him to go.

They funneled out from the Church into the Cavern beyond, talking with the Knights and priests to coordinate. Her hidden card. She’d known that her devoted followers here weren’t enough to deal with these heretics, and so she’d called upon her hidden resource, cultivated over the years. With their aid, they would have the might to cleanse this Kingdom’s rot from its core, bringing with them a new holy age of enlightenment.

His awareness was fading.

The view was blackening, along with the searing pain that scorched his whole soul. Finally, this was her loving embrace, to be one with her, as his sense of self began to scorch away in ash in the wind. He felt a peaceful bliss. His life mission had been accomplished. He had served her aims, and now he would see her will be done. The priests' chanting was a beautiful backdrop for him to fade away to oblivion.

Soon, her holy light would spill across these Caverns and bring his chosen one along with him to the feet of their Goddess.

The last thing he knew was the searing pain of her love.

— - ☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

It looked to be hell on earth, as citizens ran and screamed. Blood was on the streets as people fought and clashed against each other. Citizens against citizens, screaming about the Goddess and heathens, pushed into action by their loyalties. The Knights fanned out quickly and efficiently that they could, breaking up any fights that they saw, detaining those that had fought against them as they pursued their sole objective.

They did so with nobility and restraint, often having far more power at their disposal than protesting citizens.

But there were a lot more citizens than the fifteen Knights trying to cut their way to the elevator in the middle of the Layer.

It was a vision of hell, truly. Though it lacked the fires, it had all of the pain that would come with such a devastating place. Erec kept his focus on his feet and hands, letting Fury’s anger burn away the pain of seeing his home in such dire straits. In an hour, they made it about halfway through their journey, taking far longer than Dame Juliana would have liked. The conflict was widespread. They even found a small contingent of the military issuing orders to militant civilians, commanding them to bring destruction.

This had to be forcibly stopped.

And in their act, they opened the first door to bloodshed.

The first bloodshed came when a Knight killed an officer who refused to surrender. The officer wielded a spear enhanced by a metal glyph, its point unnaturally sharp, and he struck the Knight Errant multiple times in an attempt to kill them.

So, in an act of self-defense, he beheaded the officer.

It was the first act of bloodshed, but not the last. And among the death and destruction, as they got into more fights with armed and zealous fighters for the church, more died. One of the Knight Initiates—a lad Erec didn’t know well—began to panic. Freaking out about his family in the lower Caverns.

Dame Juliana had to scream at him to stay focused and continue forward. It was too dangerous to let him retreat alone, and they had a mission to accomplish.

This kept the man going for a long while until they ran across their first group of traitors from the Knighthood. About ten Silver Flames Knights greeted them in a massive intersection of the city; it was a wide street. One of the main roads that led from the elevator to the rest, giving plenty of room to transport supplies and function as a traffic artery.

At first, Erec thought they’d simply run across another group on a mission on this layer. But when Dame Juliana tried to greet them, they were met with a hail of spells and swords.

The Initiate, who had been panicking, had no time to panic anymore, as a Knight with a glowing blade shoved the point straight through his chest and ended his life in the first ten seconds of their fight.

Another exploded from a lance the size of a man, which came from a glyph; and the simmering anger that had been burning all morning for Erec burst into an explosive and undeniable force of heat and destruction.

[Duck] VAL ordered as Erec charged ahead, his body hitting the ground and pushing off with both legs and hands as another massive lance speared through where he’d been a second before. Erec jumped as the weapon cleared him, throwing himself on top of the Knight who’d killed the other Initiate, his axe slashing into them and ripping through their shoulder with one massive application of force. Another swipe at the man cleaved deeper and into the vitals. Chapters first released on NoveI[F]

A surge of electricity slammed over Erec’s shoulder, crashing into two of the Knights and causing them to convulse as Colin let loose a spell.

Dame Juliana picked up the slack, moving in and finishing off one of them as she cut them down with a chop. She aimed carefully to pry her blade through their helmet and Armor, catching their neck and taking off a head.

Erec’s focus on the people around him faded away; he finished off the Knight below him and turned to another, letting his rage and anger take hold. All of the death and destruction around him was plenty enough fuel. These Knights had ruined families and lives. And for what? Some false Goddess and at the words of a crazed Cardinal and his priests? This was to be punished.

Within seconds, he’d chopped down his second Knight. The battle was slowing. Garin was next to Olivia, watching her as she healed one of their wounded. Colin had blasted someone off their feet with another quick pulse of electricity and nearly taken down a building with his spell work. Erec lost his sense of himself and picked his next target.

This was to be the first of many battles for today.

These traitors had earned their fate, having deliberately coalesced to subvert the king in this blatant act of destruction. And this was the consequence of their actions. They were outnumbered by three contingents of Knights and a good part of the military, even accounting for all the potential traitors. There could be only one ending for them, and that, Erec thought as he got to work on his third Knight, burning away the emotions.

Healing would come later. Now it was time to burn. He raised the inferno and brought it back down to a small fire as they finished off their enemies and took stock of their wounded. It would burn until this rebellion was put down. Then he would stamp it out into ash.