Ravens of Eternity

403 Sanguine Massacre, Pt The Gold Justicar swallowed back any fears she had and advanced towards Orsethii. Although she had extreme reservations towards facing off against a Reborn, her duty overrode everything else. Decades of conflict had honed her into a deadly and powerful combatant that few could rival.

Of course, her power armor helped close any gaps between them as well.

“By the code of the Justicars,” she told Orsethii, “I command you to stand down. Any assault made against the Emperor is immediately punishable by death.”

“Ah, yes, another fine tradition,” Orsethii retorted. “It’s a bit interesting to me that my traditions aren’t worth anything, while yours are worth everything.”

“Warring needlessly and upholding law are two different things,” said Retholis.

Orsethii scoffed, even as the Justicar continued advancing.

“No, they’re not,” she replied. “Expression of power is expression of power. No more, no less. And besides, there’s no such thing as needless war.”

“If you truly believe that, then you can die needlessly,” the Justicar told her.

And before Orsethii could respond, the Justicar leapt forward, drew her claymore, and swung it diagonally downward with as much power as she could muster. She aimed it so it would split the Reborn open from shoulder to hip, but found nothing except air instead.

.....

The Reborn expertly evaded out of her way.

But that didn’t stop her assault. Instead, the Justicar continued to swing at the massive drogar in front of her. She easily entered her Windstorm Stance and spun all around the Reborn. Every time she spun left or right, she swung her heavy blade with expert precision.

Though she came very close to hitting Orsethii each and every time, she never once actually connected. The most she could do was barely clip the ends of the Reborn’s robes.

“Needless, huh?” taunted Orsethii. “Looks like the only thing that’s actually needless is whatever you’re doing.”

“You should be happy, Orsethii,” Retholis interjected. “We’re proving you right, yes? You need to fight so badly that you’re willing to destroy me to continue doing it.”

“Exactly what I’ve been trying to say all along.”

“Of course, by bloodying the Emperor you go against the Empire itself. And that means you’re no longer a drogar. You’re something less.”

Retholis stood up from his seat and hopped up on the imperial desk. He then drew out his beltknife with his right hand, and his pistol with his left.

With an incredibly steady hand, he pointed his pistol straight at Orsethii and aimed it right between her eyes, even as she dodged the Justicar’s attacks. He hopped down then maneuvered around the two, and made sure that he was always threatening Orsethii’s flank.

Orsethii leapt out of the way the exact moment he fired, and completely avoided his shot. His bullet instead smashed into the screen opposite them and cracked it. Whatever it was displaying became distorted and fractured.

“Stay back, Emperor!” shouted the Justicar. “I’ll remove this unsightly stain, as per my duty!”

“Our duty,” Retholis replied. “We both exist to keep the empire safe from this... abomination.”

Then he fired again and again. He aimed carefully, and took shots at the Reborn as often as he could.

Although she evaded all of his shots, he made it easier and easier for the Justicar to slowly cut into Orsethii’s defenses. The two of them kept her on the defensive, and eroded her ability to maneuver bit by bit.

More critically, the Reborn began to tire. Her breaths became heavy, but were still incredibly even. And despite how much energy she was using to maintain her defense, she still seemed to be in prime form.

All they needed to do was keep the pressure up and let her slip once. Then it would all be over.

The Gold Justicar pressed her offensive and danced all around Orsethii. Her blade was akin to a tornado as it swung all around. She slowly began to nip at the Reborn, and left little cuts across her body.

Together, she and the Emperor managed to slow her down enough that they actually began to whittle away at her.

Orsethii stumbled for a fraction of a second as she attempted to leap to the side, and caught one of Retholis’ bullets right in her thigh. It punched through her scarred scales and dug deep into the muscle below.

That fraction of a second of hesitation led to a grunt and a groan, and another few moments of hesitation. More than enough for the Gold Justicar to overwhelm her defenses and slice her across her chest.

The Reborn threw herself backwards with a forceful athletic flip, then backed away from the Justicar rapidly. She clutched at her wounded chest, which dripped red hot blood. That blood seeped into her robes and inner wrap, which had also been sliced open by the attack.

Her breathing was hard and heavy, which boosted Retholis’s confidence. But it was again deflated when Orsethii began to laugh.

“Spilling blood to stop bloodshed,” she said. “I’m not the only one filled with contradictory traits. But in this room, I’m the only one who can actually embody them.”

Orsethii stopped for a moment, focused in on herself, and allowed the energies of her Primal Nature to flow through her. Much like Ascendant Form, it was her evolution of her own individual strength and power.

It coursed through every fiber of her being and sealed shut all of her wounds. She even managed to push the embedded slug out of her thigh before closing up the entry wound it made.

Both the Emperor and the Gold Justicar were astounded and overwhelmed by what they were witnessing. Though they couldn’t feel the energies that flowed through her, they could easily feel Orsethii’s growing presence.

It threatened to choke both of theirs out of the room itself.

The Gold Justicar pulled herself together as quickly as she could, then charged Orsethii with as much strength as she could muster. At the same time, she poured all her energy into her blade and brought it down to her opponent.

It would have struck, if Orsethii hadn’t countercharged.

The Reborn leapt forward and caught the Gold Justicar halfway through her charge. She grabbed her by her helmet, sped towards the Imperial desk, then slammed her head right on the very center of it. The force of the impact was so powerful that the desk itself shattered and cracked and crumbled and broke apart down the middle.

The Gold Justicar was knocked completely senseless from the strike, and was completely unable to defend herself. There was nothing she could do as Orsethii reared back her fist, then punched straight down onto her power armored chest.

She sputtered and gasped loudly as her armor caved in from the force of the blow. Worse, her sternum had shattered, collapsed, and crushed her heart.

All she could do was give out a small wheeze as she died.

On seeing his guardian killed so easily, Retholis charged in and sunk his beltknife into Orsethii’s open side. He slipped his blade neatly between her ribs and sunk it in all the way to its hilt. Although he hoped to reach the Reborn’s heart and pierce it, he never even got close.

Orsethii yelped out of pain, then instinctively swung a backfist at the Emperor. It struck him squarely on the jaw, and flung him a half dozen meters away.

She sucked in air as she pulled his beltknife out of her side, then exhaled at length as she sealed up the wound.

“I admit the both of you are decent,” she said. “Or, were decent. Honestly, I was hoping for more. I was hoping that at least you two could give me a real challenge. An ‘edge of my life’ kinda challenge. Now I know, only Ra’ventrii can give me that.”

Retholis coughed blood as he pushed himself up from the floor. And with a groan, he lifted himself up and got back on his feet.

He rubbed his jaw slightly, and felt pain even from the mere touch. It was clearly broken.

But despite the pain he felt, he still spoke up.

“What you really ought to understand is that believing something is true doesn’t actually make it true, no matter how much you want it to be,” Retholis spat out. “No drogar would ever come here to do what you’re doing now, and that’s proof enough you embody nothing.

“You’re just a violent opportunist who wants to kill others, nothing more and nothing less.”

Though he expected Orsethii to retort with something inane, she instead simply harrumphed loudly, as though she was dismissing his words.

But what truly bothered him was the grin on her face. It disturbed him greatly because it held a predatory nature that even he couldn’t fathom.

Then alarm spread through his body as the Reborn charged straight toward him.

He quickly raised his pistol and fired as fast as he could. And despite completely emptying his magazine into Orsethii, she barely slowed. Numerous bullets punched into her scales and dug into her flesh. But they did seemingly nothing.

She charged right up to him, grabbed him by his throat with one hand, and raised him up off the ground. With the other, she grabbed his wrist and pulled it aside so he couldn’t keep firing his weapon at her.

Orsethii increased her grip slowly and crushed his wrist painfully with every moment that passed. Then, with a SNAP, she completely shattered his wrist and popped his hand out of its socket.

As a result, the pistol fell out of his grip and clattered to the floor as he screamed in utter pain.

“Worst. Best. It’s all the same,” she retorted. “What matters is that drogar will be drogar. You can try to deny me my truth, but it doesn’t matter. In the end, I’m the one left standing and with my truth intact. That means I’m the one that’s right.”

Retholis coughed as blood leaked out of the side of his mouth. His vision began to fade as Orsethii clamped down on her grip.

“You’re wrong,” he gasped. “You’re a relic... a long dead past... a kind of drogar we evolved away from... only thing you deny is... your obsolescence.”

With his last few gasps, Retholis raised his free hand up to Orsethii’s face, and opened it palm-up. In the middle of it was a small cylindrical device that beeped faster and faster.

Orsethii’s eyes went wide the moment she saw it. But there was nothing she could do – before she could even drop Retholis, his detonator erupted.

They were both overwhelmed by a white-hot ball of flame and thrown back by the intense blast. A ripple of energy swept through the throne room itself, and shattered all of the surrounding screens.

Worse, the wall screen that Retholis and Orsethii were closest to was completely blasted open. Shards of glass and slivers of shredded metal were thrown out into the Lacroseth skies, then rained down on the combatants far below.

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