Clover Kingdom / Diamond Border (Outlaw Church Ruins): May 1st, 1011.
It was a terrible day for the world. The ruined sanctuary shaking under monstrous mana while dust and broken glass floated through the air like the city itself had decided to stop breathing, yet if you were to look closely inside of the shattered church. To be more specific, at the broken altar where two newly chosen grimories had descended. You could see a grinning 11 year old boy drenched in blood and rubble standing across from something that should not have been standing in the world at all.
The atmosphere catastrophic.
(David's POV)
I stared at ariella and thought with a ugly looking grin on my face "Yeah…this is definitely a bad idea"
The dices around me spun faster.
Nyx stood at my side in a low crouch with her scarlet eyes narrowed and her sharp black nails elongated while ariella stood at the ruined entrance with her silver spear in hand looking as if she had all the time in the world.
"Come then child. Show me what that grimorie gave you besides confidence." Said ariella nonchalantly while taking one slow step forward.
I held my left hand out and my new grimorie floated beside me. Its pages turning on their own with a deep magenta glow coming off of it and said with a kind closed eyed smile "With pleasure you old undead bitch."
Nyx looked at me and said with a twitching eyebrow "You always get weirdly more disrespectful when your scared."
"I am not scared. I am extremely focused." I said calmly.
Nyx stared at me for a very long second and said flatly "Your hands are shaking."
I was completely silent.
"Dice magic: Loaded Fate." I said calmly while pouring mana into the spell.
One of the dices floating around me shot into my hand and instantly cracked open like a shell. Symbols and glowing numbers started rotating around my arm and wrapped around my body like a second skin while a heavy feeling of probability itself seemed to settle over the ruined church.
Ariella's eyes moved slightly and said as she gripped her spear tighter "Interesting."
"Only interesting. Your reaction is ass. Dice magic: Critical Roll." I said with a smile while raising my right hand.
I flicked a single glowing dice. The dice spun through the air silently.
Ariella moved her spear.
*SHIIIIING*
The dice should have shattered.
Instead it bounced off the spear tip, hit a falling chunk of stone, ricocheted into a broken pillar, then shot back around at absurd speed and slammed straight into ariella's left shoulder.
*BOOOOM*
The entire side of the ruined church exploded outward.
Nyx's eyes widened and she said loudly with shock "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT."
I had a shocked look on my face and thought with sweat appearing on my forehead "Oh. That actually worked"
Smoke filled the entrance.
I didn't hesitate and screamed "NYX. NOW."
Nyx vanished.
*SHSK* *SHSK£ *SHSK*
Her claws tore through the smoke like black streaks.
Ariella stepped out of it with blood running down one side of her armor and grabbed nyx by the throat mid lunge with one hand.
The town square was completely silent for a split second.
Ariella slammed her through two stone pews.
*BOOOOM*
Nyx coughed and rolled across the marble floor with a pained groan.
"Fast. Strong. But sloppy." Said ariella nonchalantly while glancing down at the blood on her shoulder as if mildly annoyed.
My eyes widened and I thought while my grin twitched "She actually got injured. Her immortality doesn't mean instant regeneration"
That was enough.
"Dice creation magic: World of Fortune." I said loudly while slamming my hand against the broken floor.
*BOOOOOM*
The whole sanctuary warped.
The cracked marble beneath us became a giant glowing dice board full of numbered panels, spinning symbols, card like pathways and floating dice constructs moving overhead like small moons. Broken pews, rubble and corpses were all swallowed into the spell's field as reality in the church twisted into something that looked like a gambling hall designed by a lunatic god.
Nyx slowly lifted her head from the rubble and whispered "Dude…this is sexy."
"Shut up and move on 6." I said loudly.
The board beneath nyx flashed.
She vanished from panel 2 and instantly reappeared above ariella from panel 6 with enough momentum to crack the air.
*BOOOOM*
Her claws slammed down.
Ariella blocked with her spear but the floor under her shattered from the force.
I grinned wider and said with a dangerous look in my eyes "Let's gamble."
Ariella's expression did not change but I saw it.
The tiny narrowing in her eyes.
Good. Just what I wanted.
She understood this wasn't a straight fight anymore.
This was my field now.
She leaped backwards.
The board beneath her changed.
Panel 1.
Her foot touched it.
Chains made of glowing dice shot up and wrapped around her ankle for half a second.
That half second was everything.
"Critical Roll." I said instantly.
Three dice shot out.
One missed on purpose and ricocheted off the wall.
The second got deflected by a floating sword ariella summoned.
The third bounced off the first and slammed into her ribs from the blind side.
*BOOOOM*
Ariella was launched through the shattered altar.
I laughed loudly "GYAHAHA. I HIT HER AGAIN."
Nyx landed beside me and looked at me with a disturbed look on her face and said "I really hate how hot you get when your mentally unwell."
"Focus bitch." I said calmly while coughing blood into my hand.
*SPLAT*
Nyx glanced down and said "Huh…your insides are probably cooked."
"No shit." I said with a sigh while wiping my mouth and glaring toward the smoke. My loaded symbols were already flickering from how much mana I was burning's
"I cannot keep this up. My mana is draining way too fucking fast" I thought with a wheezing sigh.
The rubble shifted. Ariella stepped out slowly.
One side of her armor was cracked. Blood ran from her mouth. Her silver spear dragged across the floor.
And she was smiling.
Not small this time.
Wide.
Cold.
Inhuman.
"Wonderful. You are irritating." Said ariella softly.
A giant pressure fell over the sanctuary so hard that my knees almost buckled.
Nyx hissed and took one step back.
I swallowed hard and thought with dead eyes "Yeah. There it is. Second phase"
Ariella lifted her left hand and said "Weapon creation magic: The Coffin of Lost Legacy."
*BOOOOOM*
Hundreds of ancient weapons erupted from the board, from the walls, from the broken floor, from the ceiling itself and formed a giant rotating prison around the entire sanctuary. Spears, swords, halberds, broken crowns, shields and execution axes all circled us like a graveyard had come alive.
My grin disappeared.
"That spell name is not fun at all." I said softly.
Nyx slowly looked up and asked with a strained smile "Can I panic now."
"Yes." I said honestly.
The weapons dropped.
*BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM*
The church became hell.
I rolled across the board as three spears pierced the floor where my chest had been.
Nyx twisted through a rain of blades with absurd agility and still had one axe graze her thigh and tear blood free.
I screamed while summoning spinning dice shields around us "BOARD SHIFT. 5."
The field changed. We slid.
The floor beneath us angled violently and sent both me and nyx into a safer lane while dozens of weapons crashed into numbered panels and exploded in sparks.
Ariella appeared in front of me instantly.
Too fast.
Way too fast.
My eyes widened.
She drove her knee into my stomach so hard I felt something inside me tear.
*BAAAAM*
I flew across the sanctuary and bounced twice before slamming into a broken confession booth.
The world went white.
Then black.
Then white again.
I coughed blood all over myself and heard ariella's voice from far away.
*SPLAT*
"You are clever. But still only a child." Said ariella nonchalantly. Her eyes lifeless.
I dragged myself up with shaking arms and thought while my grin returned despite the pain "She talks too much for someone that old"
Nyx screamed and pounced at ariella's face.
Ariella caught her tail.
Nyx's face went completely blank.
"Oh no." Said nyx softly.
Ariella swung her like a weapon and smashed her through a marble column.
*BOOOOOM*
I stared at that and screamed at the top of my lungs "YOU OLD BITCH."
Ariella looked at me.
That was her mistake.
I shoved everything I had into the spell and roared "Loaded Fate."
The glowing symbols around me all shattered and fused into one huge burning 6 above my head.
My grimorie pages flipped violently.
Every remaining dice in the sanctuary shot toward my hand and compressed into one single black magenta cube humming with so much unstable mana that the air around it twisted.
Nyx coughed from the rubble and looked at me with blood on her mouth and asked hoarsely "Dude…what the fuck are you doing."
I looked at ariella with a ugly smile and answered "Something deeply stupid."
Then I threw it.
"CRITICAL ROLL" I thought loudly.
The dice vanished.
Ariella's eyes widened for the first time.
She moved her spear.
The sanctuary bent.
The dice did not hit her.
It ricocheted through the entire church.
Off the ceiling.
Off the black and gold pedestal.
Off a broken shield.
Off the tip of ariella's own spear.
Then struck her directly in the chest.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM*
The church disappeared in light.
Everything after that was sound and pain.
The world spun.
Stone collapsed.
Ancient glass blew outward over the whole square.
The remaining walls of the sanctuary cracked apart and folded in on themselves as mana tore through every inch of the building.
I couldn't hear for a few seconds. Couldn't feel my left arm either.
I blinked through dust and blood and saw ariella buried under half the sanctuary with a silver spear through her own side and black magenta mana still burning through the wound.
She was moving. Slowly. But moving.
"Of course she is." I said with a broken laugh.
Benjamin stepped out of a silver door beside me, pale and bleeding from the mouth and said calmly "Master david. I believe this is the part where we flee."
I looked at him, then at nyx dragging herself free from the rubble, then at ariella rising from the ruins like an immortal nightmare and nodded.
"Excellent observation benjamin. RETREAT." I screamed.
Ariella's head snapped up.
"DOOR MAGIC: LINK OF WORLDS." Said benjamin while slamming both palms together.
*BOOOOOM*
Multiple silver doors tore open around us.
Jarred stumbled through one covered in blood and missing an eyebrow and yelled "BOSS MAN I'M ALIVE."
"Tragic." I said honestly while grabbing nyx under one arm because she was limping too hard to keep up.
"Put me down you funky booty bastard." Said nyx while weakly clawing at my shoulder.
"No. Your built like a malnourished cat. Shut up." I said calmly as I hauled her through the nearest door.
Behind us I heard ariella roar for the first time.
Not speak.
Roar.
It shook the square.
Weapons rained into the silver pathways behind us while benjamin held the collapsing route together with visible effort, his monocle shattered and blood pouring from his nose.
I looked back at benjamin and shouted "BENJAMIN."
Benjamin smiled calmly despite looking half dead and said "I am directly behind you master david."
"Thank god. I can't lose my valuable meat shield" I thought with a sigh of relief as I hurled myself into the same door as nyx.
It vanishing into mana particles.
A second silver door opened under his feet and swallowed him right as a giant silver blade split the pathway where he had been standing.
Then the world folded.
*BOOOOOM*
⸻
Clover Kingdom / Diamond Border (Hidden Safehouse Beneath Outlaw City): May 1st, 1011. Night.
It was a horrific night for the world. The hidden lower chambers of a criminal safehouse packed full of the wounded, the bleeding and those too angry to die quietly, yet if you were to look closely in a far room away from the others. To be more specific, inside of a cracked stone chamber lit by one ugly lantern and the smell of medicine, blood and sweat. You could see a boy sitting shirtless on a bed with his stomach wrapped in bandages, staring at his new grimorie like it had personally ruined his day.
The atmosphere exhausted.
(David's POV)
I stared at my grimorie for a very long time and said calmly with closed eyes "I hate women."
Nyx was laying face down on the bed next to mines with her leg wrapped up and her tail twitching weakly and asked with a muffled voice "Because ariella beat the dog shit out of you or because I exist."
"Both." I said honestly with a sigh as I rubbed the book.
Nyx lifted her head slightly and said with a grin "At least your honest."
I looked down at my stomach, felt the pain of the torn muscle and cracked something and thought with a tired sigh "Perfect health really is carrying my whole life"
*Knock* *Knock*
"Come in." I said calmly.
Benjamin entered with his suit ruined, one sleeve gone and dried blood at the side of his mouth, yet somehow still looked more composed than everyone else in the building and said with a bow "Master david. The aftermath has been assessed."
I rubbed my forehead and asked "How bad."
Benjamin adjusted what remained of his tie and said calmly "Nine dead. Seventeen heavily injured. Twenty one with manageable injuries. Jarred is drunk and calling survival a holy miracle. The church has been completely ruined. Ariella survived."
The room was completely silent.
"Of course she did." I said with dead eyes.
Nyx rolled over onto her back and asked with a tired look on her face and her legs spread wide open lazily "Did she at least lose a limb."
Benjamin shook his head and said "No. But according to the surviving scouts she was forced to retreat temporarily after your final spell destabilized the sanctuary and collapsed several underground chambers beneath it."
I stared at him for a moment and thought "Temporarily. That word is ass"
"So we lost the city." I said calmly.
Benjamin nodded once and said "Yes master david. The order of saint peter is now moving to secure the church district and the upper merchant routes. They will tighten control by morning."
I clicked my teeth loudly and said "Then we move deeper underground. Shift supplies, hide the injured, erase every surface trail and kill any fool dumb enough to sell information."
"Already being done." Said benjamin calmly.
A tiny curl formed on the right side of my lip.
Good.
Very good.
At least one thing in this shithole world remained reliable.
Nyx looked between us and asked "So what now, stinky feet."
I looked down at my grimorie again.
It's cover glowed faintly under the ugly lantern light. The dice patterns on it looking almost alive and the weird writing shifting whenever I stared too long.
"What now." I repeated softly.
I started chuckling underneath my breath.
Not because anything was funny.
Because I had survived. Because I had a grimorie now.
Because ariella tepse had looked me in my face and decided I was worth killing quickly.
And because that meant I had finally become something in this world worth fearing.
I lifted my head and said with a ugly looking wide grin "Now I grow stronger."
Nyx snorted and said with a wide grin forming on her face to match my own "That sounded hot and cringe at the same time."
"Silence. You lick yourself clean." I said with a twitching eyebrow. My grin faltering Instantly.
Nyx pointed at me and said with a offended look on her face "And yet you still bit my tail like a rabid village dog."
Benjamin was completely silent.
I looked at him and asked "What."
Benjamin adjusted his monocle that wasn't there anymore and said calmly "Nothing master david. I was simply thinking that this has been a very educational partnership to witness."
I stared at him for a long second and said "If you repeat any of the shit you saw today. I'll bury you in a wall."
"Understood." Said benjamin Immediately with a polite bow that told me he would absolutely remember all of it forever.
I sighed and leaned back against the bed frame, pain tearing through my stomach and thought with a tired look in my eyes "I really need to stop fighting people older than civilizations"
Nyx suddenly sat up and asked with a serious look on her face "Are you going to go after ariella again."
The room went quiet.
I looked at my grimorie.
At the black magenta cover. At the new spells sleeping inside of it. At the future problems already breathing down my neck.
I smiled.
Not kindly.
Not warmly.
Ugly.
Hungry.
"Absolutely. That old undead bitch hit me in the stomach." I said calmly.
Nyx stared at me for one second.
Then she started laughing so hard she fell back on the bed holding her sides.
Even benjamin let out the faintest sound that might have once been a cough but definitely felt like amusement.
I looked at both of them with a offended look on my face and said "Why are you laughing. I'm serious."
"That's exactly why it's funny." Said nyx through laughter as she wiped a tear on the corner of her right eye.
I clicked my teeth and looked away with a scowl and thought "I hate these people"
Yet for the first time since waking up in this world, sitting in that ugly underground room with a damaged body, a new grimorie and two insane people that somehow kept choosing to stay near me despite having working legs, something inside my chest felt a little less empty.
Not healed.
Never that.
But less empty.
I looked down at my grimorie one last time and placed my hand over the cover.
"Loaded fate. Critical roll. World of fortune." I whispered softly.
Three new spells.
A dead church.
Nine corpses on my side.
A city lost.
A immortal monster now looking my way.
And a broken family.
I grinned.
"Yeah…this world is finally getting interesting." I said calmly with a very wide inhuman grin.
The ugly lantern flickered.
Outside the room, wounded criminals groaned, drunk idiots argued and somewhere deeper underground someone screamed over losing money in a card game like the world had not nearly ended above them.
And in that ugly hidden room beneath a broken city at the border of kingdoms and disaster, David swallow quietly began planning how to murder a saint.
…
THE END…