Screams came from within the cave but neither person on either side of the entrance moved an inch to investigate. One trembled, his eyes downcast as the fog from his breath and tears obscured his glasses. He reached up and tugged on the scarf around his neck, trying to hold himself together as the agonized howling continued. The other leaned against the outer wall and relaxed, a smile dancing on her face as she took deep breaths. Black wintery air formed around her nostrils and drew up, filling her lungs. She savored it.
The ground beneath their feet shook.
The screams died and a new voice wailed in pain and terror.
“He’s still at it,” Felwinter said absently, checking her unpainted nails. She held her hand out and black ice formed over them, stretching out into wicked points. She turned and held them up to her companion, “Whatcha think? Too much?”
Riot shook where he stood, clinging even tighter to the scarf before shooting his peer a withering glare. He looked down at her nails and sighed when she gave him an expectant look. A mixture of emotions danced across his face and he forced himself to calm down, “Too long, go a bit shorter, better for the shape of your hands.”
Felwinter pursed her lips and held out her hand again, examining her fingers, the nails shrank a bit and she turned them over with an appreciative smile, “Nice, thanks Riot.”
“Anytime,” he mumbled and glanced back at the cave mouth, “D-did we get him enough?”
Felwinter stiffened and finally gave the cave her own uneasy look as one set of screams ended and another began, “I hope so,” she said, “Or we’re both fucked. He’s going through them pretty fast. I don’t even know what he’s doing.”
Riot swallowed, “I think… he’s learning.”
The both of them straightened, Riot dabbing his eyes with the scarf and clearing his throat. Felwinter crossed her arms behind her back and stood at attention. Neither budged as footsteps slowly began to echo up from within the cave, a steady beat of heels against stone until a head of blonde hair caked with blood poked its way out. Otis was bare chested, his torso heaving with deep breaths as his skin cracked and glowed with an unsettling blue-white light beneath the surface, intricate patterns decorating his skin. He stood at the cave mouth in silence for several seconds, catching his breath before whipping his hair back and running his fingers through it. As easily as he did so, the blood vanished from his skin and locks, leaving him immaculate.
He lazily reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, “Running a bit behind,” he said, glancing at the screen, “I hope the Guildmaster isn’t upset.”
Neither spoke and he turned to Riot, “Did we have any visitors?”
“Just a hiker,” Riot said, controlling the timbre of his voice as best he could, “Felwinter handled it.”
“You do it next time,” Otis said without blinking, “You could use a little more blood under those nails of yours.”
“What do you think of mine?” Felwinter asked with a grin, holding up her hand.
Otis smiled a toothy smile, “Pretty.”
Felwinter beamed and turned to face him, “How’d it go?”
Otis frowned and both of them tensed only for him to let out a sigh and rub his neck, he looked up at the sky, “It feels like I’m missing something,” he said thoughtfully, “Not a problem though.”
He chuckled, “I’m quite satisfied with my gains. I have all I need for the next step.” he said coldly and clenched his fist, his skin shimmering and his muscles expanding briefly before contracting. “It feels good to level up,” he said, ignoring the exchanged looks from his heralds. He gestured at the air and seemed to be reading something for a moment before nodding with satisfaction, “All the sidequests are done,” he mused, “Now, all I need to do is kill Liberty.”
“You used a knife in your previous life because it was practical,” Set said, “A tool that could be used for a number of things, not just defending yourself or killing prey.”
The old man stood amidst the grassy plains, wind whipping around him. His white hair fluttering a little now and then. He turned his golden eyes on Sonya before extending a hand and manifesting a weapon of black glass-like metal. It was longer than the average machete but shorter than some swords, closer to that of a gladius if Sonya had to guess. Both sides were edged though it bowed out slightly, creating a wicked shallow hook to its shape. A khopesh.
“This is a killing tool, a weapon of battle,” he held it up for her to see, “I urge you to adopt it over the knife-blade.”
Sonya held out a hand and a khopesh of hard light formed in her palm, she cast an illusion over it to make it appear more real. It didn’t have weight, just like the rest of her hard light weapons, but it still felt a bit odd in her grip. She frowned at it, “There’s extra reach, but it might be awkward with my style.”
“Your style,” Set snorted, “Our brief spar earlier told me much about the martial arts of your world,” he shook his head, “You are not a mundane human, nor are you merely ‘awakened’ as you call it, you have greater physical strength, endurance, durability, reflexes, speed, so why do you fight like you don’t? You must fight like one of us.”
“I don’t have time for a wax-on-wax-off session, I have a feeling I’ll need to leave this place soon,” Sonya said with a sigh from where she sat on the ground, “It might be a bit before we can have a proper session.”
“Fortunately, your suite of powers comes with something you can use to at least close the gap a little, sit, child, and observe,” the old man said and began to move.
Liberty stood in her throne room, looking down at the remains of her round table. Ewen was gone, Rivet and Ellis were dead, but the others had grown in power in order to fill the gap. She swept her gaze over them before stopping on the back of Phillip’s head, her thoughts drifting to the previous night, of quiet whispers in a private place. Weakness that had finally been expunged, no more doubts, no more lingering wants. She rolled her jaw left and right before centering herself. “Rise, Round Table.”
Phillip rose first, then Ito and Halloway. After them, Pence, Song and Kant. Their eyes burned with coppery light as they looked back at her. Behind them, arranged in columns were hundreds of her best and strongest followers. Still more crowded outside the main building, thousands that had been brought from across the globe to supplement their forces.
The heroes would come, they would come and face her full might. She had nearly crippled Black Lotus with only a fraction of the power she had gathered across the globe and now she intended to leverage all of it. This would not be a battle, this would be a slaughter. She would wash away the last cloying remnants of the previous world and clean this world for something purer, better. A world where her word was law.
She gathered her strength, reaching out to the places across the globe where the sun shined and her people were already preparing to enter contemplation. Her cult, her cult, not her father’s half-assed attempt at circumventing laws and hand pick his pathetic little harem. This was her order now, an army that grew stronger as she did and that gave her strength in return. A vicious cycle that had no end. She was invincible and soon the entire world would understand just how much they had underestimated her.
“In just a matter of hours, they will come here and we will crush them,” Liberty growled, raising a fist, “The people who don’t understand the truth of this new world we live in. Nations are irrelevant now. Political power is nonsense. The only thing that matters is STRENGTH!” she bellowed and raised her hand higher into the air. “POWER ABOVE EVERYTHING!” she roared. The Round Table and her followers roared back in fervor.
“MIGHT TO MAKE YOUR TRUTH REALITY!”
“THIS WORLD BELONGS TO US!”
Another earth shaking bellow.
“STRENGTH FROM LIBERTY!”
The response shout this time came with a brilliant copper glow that filled the air, columns of light raining down from above as the entire compound turned into a lightshow.
“STRENGTH FROM LIBERTY! STRENGTH FROM LIBERTY! STRENGTH FROM LIBERTY!”
Ishtar. Black Lotus. Heroes. Villains. You are irrelevant, all of you may come, because in the end the only true power in this world is Liberty.
She raised her head high as her skin began to glow and the chanting continued, “STRENGTH FROM LIBERTY! STRENGTH FROM LIBERTY!”