Knights Apocalyptica

“Can’t you channel your mana? I don’t understand why the lines keep breaking,” Colin shook his head. Erec sat on the hood of Yniol’s car, his hand held out before him. Gwen and Enide sat in for the lecture. Both girls were on either side of him. With Enide going along and trying to learn what she could. Gwen supervised.

They’d gotten deeper into what Boldwick affectionately referred to as the ‘badlands’, a known section of the desert where Knights liked to avoid. Both because of a lack of supplies, a general lack of anything to scavenge, and the overall weird nature of the place. Up above, the sky was filled constantly with billowing red and black clouds, hell-like and quite disturbing to look at.

“If I could, I would.” Erec rubbed his eyes. To his credit, Colin had been trying. But after an hour of Mysticism practice, which Erec wasn’t good at, the initial patience in the normally irritable Duke-Spawn was drying up quickly.

He needed a break.

“This is?” Enide asked—her glyph flaring to life with a red hue.

A second later, a ball of fire burst out of the glyph and slammed into Colin. Their instructor let out a shriek. Which was a natural reaction to having a small ball of fire lobbed at you. Protected or not by a ton of steel.

Enide laughed.

“How dare you! I taught you that glyph! You are certainly not permitted to use it against me.”

“Think I just did,” Enide smirked, hopping off the hood of the car. “Gonna cry about it?”

“Nothing royal about me.“ she turned back to Erec and winked, mouthing the words, ‘break time’ to him. With that ominous message, she turned back to face Colin full-on. “Still haven’t got you back for that smart-ass remark in the library. Think it’s time for you to pay up. Spar me.”

“How dare you!”

“Yeah, yeah, dare this, dare that—boring.” Enide vanished, then reappeared, her leg smacking into Colin’s Armor.

He didn’t budge at all, but she reappeared further away from him, cursing up a storm. Enide underestimated the defense of steel and reinforcing spell-work. But Erec was sure she’d figure out something to give Colin a run for his money. Already the boy was forming a glyph; aiming to fire off a flashy spell to show how much better he was than her.

Erec sighed, taking his helmet off and setting it on the car. He ran a hand through his hair.

“She’s a fine fit for ya,” Gwen offered.

“I think we’re trouble for each other, but you’re right,” Erec responded.

“Bedwyr would like her.”

That made him pause. He glanced over at Gwen. After showing Bedwyr his new estate, and granting him and his father permission to stay there, his Brother only redoubled his efforts in training. So much so that neither he nor anyone else in the Academy had seen much of him for the last couple of months. Aside from perhaps Gwen.

“Why did you decide to go along with this expedition? Making yourself an enemy of the Church doesn’t seem like something you might want. I’m sure Boldwick talked to you about it. It’s not like you came from nobility; so why make enemies who are going to get in your way?”

“Do ya ever ask yourself, ‘What’s the right thing to do here?’ Think about the Church. Think about what they’ve done lately, and in the past. In my humble opinion, they held us all back. They police the nobility and the Royals… They provide sermons for the people, let’em join the Church. But… Suppose you aint ever gone to a Church for food when there was none in your stomach. But, I can say, they aint giving aid for free.”

“The nobility isn’t better, they’re as like to rob a person blind to increase their own power than to offer any fashion of help,” Erec frowned. While not a fan of the Church, it had been the nobility that ostracized him the most.

“Naw, they’re not quite like that. It’s about fifty-fifty with’em, if it’s good or bad. Like any person.” She paused, then rose a finger. In the distance, Enide had somehow convinced Colin to climb out of his Armor for a fair fight.

Which, he presumed, was a bribe for her to stop using her Divine Talent. With her ability to teleport, Colin couldn’t land a single blow. And every time she’d hit him with the Armor on, she landed nothing concrete. If she’d been using her guns—maybe. Actually, Erec kinda doubted the fight would’ve lasted this long if she had them. Colin would probably be dead on the ground, with a few holes through his Armor.

How much of this was her wanting to punch Colin, or trying to give Erec a break, it was impossible to distinguish.

“…Anyway, when you look at the Church’s actions, they’ve been consistent.”

“How do you mean?”

“More Churches, more followers, and more priests. You’d think it was as a means to accrue power—but I’m not so sure.” She shrugged.

With that, they lapsed into silence and watched the rest of the fight.

Colin tried to form another glyph. It bled a purple color and was unlike what Erec saw him typically use; a rather complicated glyph too. Given it was Colin, it was probably a trump card. The boy wouldn’t trust Enide to keep to her word for very long, so it was a move intended to end the fight in a single blow. Colin was prone to dramatic moves like that.

Unfortunately, he’d miscalculated.

Colin thought that without her teleportation, Enide would be slower. That it would buy him enough time to use an overly complicated glyph to win.

That was a complete misunderstanding. True to her word, Enide didn’t use her Divine Talent. She didn’t need to. Instead, she rushed him, her form blurred as she threw all of her speed into moving. Easily closing the gap of ten meters in a second. Her fist snapped into Colin’s face, knocking him flat on his ass and shattering the glyph.

Enide rose both arms up her head, and yelled out, “Sweet victory!”

“…I’ll go gett’em up,” Gwen snickered. “You two are a pair, huh? Go spend some time together. Think training’s done.”

With that, she got up, going over to Colin to check on him; Enide swayed over, a killer grin on her face as she eyed Erec.

“Wanna go for a round or two, tough guy? I’m itching for a real fight now.”

“I’ll take you down,” Erec agreed, feeling that flare of challenge rise in him. Her eyes lit up as he accepted. There wasn’t anything sweeter than seeing that look of pure bloodlust and rivalry in her expression.

— - ☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

The days spread out easily on the road. Mile by mile they closed the distance to Vega and flew further from the Kingdom. Once they were past the badlands, they skimmed the sides of the great yellow-fog canyon. Which was a sight to behold. Miles upon miles of an ominous gas filling the tunnels—Colin claimed that like the clouds of the badlands, it was natural magic conjuring it.

Of course, he told that privately to Boldwick, who disseminated the information to all the Knights. Avoiding telling the Duke how he came by the information.

In a rare twist of expectations, Colin somehow avoided spilling his secrets to his father. Not even about his Divine Talent.

The boy had been acting a lot more reserved; eager to push Erec to learn Mysticism, but otherwise keeping to himself when he could. If the teachers gave lessons, he was an apt student, if distant. A change from challenging them and getting himself in trouble. In return, the Duke adjusted to the change and appeared content to let Colin attend lessons with Dame Robin and Dame Juliana.

Boldwick took the initiative to forbid Dame Morgana from any more unplanned lessons without his supervision.

Which, given her irresponsibility… Erec felt surprised that it hadn’t happened before now.

Time kept slipping by, like sand through an hourglass. Past the magnificent canyon, the Pendragons joined on a road that held up remarkably well. Each day, they drove further away, following the road.

Life slipped into a comfortable pattern. Once the sun sank, the Pendragons would pull over and set up camp. Boldwick would assign his Knights to scout the nearby location—when they came back, the initiates were sent to training, until it was too dark to see without lights. After that, they played a game of guard shuffle, with someone always keeping eyes on the captured thugs and Seven-Snakes. Boldwick kept the poor girl that was with them aside from the main group, but she was still kept under watch.

When Erec didn’t have the ill fortune of having to keep watch, he snuck off to spend the night with Enide. Whether it was going for a stroll, sitting around drinking with whichever of their friends had the night off, or a moment alone together talking, it was always the capstone to the day.

Enide kept running through his mind. And reality loomed closer and closer. The question kept repeating in his head: Vega, and then what?

He wouldn’t have minded if they never arrived at that fabled city if they could’ve spent their entire lives on this road together.

Maybe without Seven-Snakes. The bandit leader had gotten quieter the longer they were on the road; whenever Erec looked at him, the guy had a dark look in his eyes. Like he knew something they didn’t. Aside from him, it would’ve been perfect.

With a heavy heart, he saw the lights of Vega on the horizon for the first time.

It was breathtaking. Lights flared into the sky—despite the dark horizon—enough to show the towering buildings that dwarfed anything in the Kingdom. There were rows of them and a thin, glimmering dome wrapped over the entire city. Beneath it, neon lights flashed, every color under the sun. In a way, the city was a massive insult to the ruined world outside of its barrier. No matter what happened, it would stay there, unaffected.

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