At this point, Vin and his friends had been chasing after the divine warrior for nearly a week. During his recovery in the infernals’ village and his downtime in between bouts of training with Alka, Vin had had plenty of time to wonder about what exactly the divine warrior looked like.

  The one thing everyone agreed on was the golden blade that the warrior carried, but there had been little mention of anything else. Vin didn’t know if he was tall or short, loud or quiet, hell, he didn’t even know if he was human.

  After hearing about the warrior’s mass killings, Vin had crafted a picture in his head of a large, barrel chested man with a brilliant golden greatsword slung over his shoulder that the warrior used to cleave dozens of lives with each swing. A muscular, powerful man capable of killing a trained warrior with a single backhand, who refused to speak other than to scream holy gospel about his God as he struck down all that dared to face him. A week was a lot of time for the imagination to wander, so Vin had crafted a pretty detailed image of the divine warrior in his head at this point.

  So he was rather surprised to turn the tunnel corner and find himself face to face with a rather scrawny looking man covered in scales, with nothing but a thin rapier at his hip.

  Vin blinked, actually coming to a stop as he struggled to conflate the man standing before him with the image he’d crafted over the last few days.

  The first thing he noticed was that the divine warrior was actually a full head shorter than he was. He had an elongated face that looked almost like that of a gecko, and his large, bulging eyes put even those of the trogums to shame. He wore a simple green tunic that went with his dark grey scales, and had an old looking chain necklace hanging from his neck, with a tiny dagger dangling on the end of it that looked as if it had been crafted for Scule.

  The divine warrior seemed just as surprised to see them as they were him, as he halted in his tracks, his eyes widening slightly. Rather than blink, his tongue suddenly shot out of his mouth, wiping across his eyes with incredible speed before vanishing back into his long mouth.

  “Well that’s gross,” Alka said, squinting at the strange looking lizardman. She already held her sword in hand, but based on the fact that she had yet to fly off down the tunnel and strike at the scaled man, she also didn’t quite believe this was the warrior they’d heard so much about. “Hey you! Are you the divine warrior that’s been killing everyone all over the place?”

  Due to his strange facial structure, Vin was having a hard time reading the man’s expressions. But as best he could tell, the man seemed just as confused by Alka’s accusation as he’d been to see them in the tunnel in the first place.

  “Killing?” He asked, his voice weirdly gurgly, as though he was attempting to gargle water and talk at the same time. Despite their clear hostility, he continued standing there entirely unconcerned, not having done so much as place a hand on his sword. In fact, he actually reached up and began scratching at the side of his neck, revealing a rather irritated looking patch of scales. “What’s this about killing now?”

  The three of them shared a quick look amongst themselves, and Vin could practically hear his companions thinking. The stranger sounded genuinely confused regarding Alka’s accusation. No doubt Alka and Shia’s thoughts were mirroring his own right about now.

  Was this actually the dreaded divine warrior that had slaughtered possibly thousands of people? Or was this just some random lizard-like folk that had wandered into these tunnels somehow from a different fragment?

  “We heard from the trogums that a divine warrior has been working with the True Queen. Going through their tunnels and hunting down innocent people,” Vin explained, wondering if this guy just had a phenomenal poker face. Even so, they weren’t about to just lash out and kill what might be an innocent man. If he was somehow the divine warrior, he shouldn’t be able to use his divine boon without going through his strange speech anyway, meaning they weren't exactly pressed for time here.

  “This… True Queen, you mention. Is she some larger version of these bug-like people?” The stranger asked, miming a crown with one hand as his other continued scratching and his tongue wiped across his eyes yet again. “Twelve large antennae like things sticking out of her head? Voice in your head that sounds like a tree sitting on you?”

  “Yes, that sounds like her,” Vin called back, readying himself to fire off a Stone Shot after the perfect description. Either the man had seen the Rebel Queen at some point, or he was the one working with the True Queen.

  “No, I’m not working with that maniac,” the man snorted, his wet chuckling drawing a sigh from Vin as he relaxed for the briefest of moments.

  “She was the first one I sacrificed in this fragment.”

  Vin’s sigh caught in his throat and he nearly choked at the sudden whiplash. Clearly he wasn’t the only confused one.

  “Wait, you got rid of the True Queen?” Shia asked, her knuckles white around her staff as she kept it trained on the stranger. “Why? And I thought you just said you hadn’t killed anyone!”

  “Why? Because she marred the creation of the Gods!” The warrior said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “This realm the Gods painstakingly created is a piece of art. Countless pieces of worlds now forever lost to us, woven together to form one giant relic of times past. None of us are supposed to be here. None of us were meant to dirty this grand creation with our pathetic existences. The fact that everyone from the dirtiest beggar to the most powerful war chief lost their strength is evidence enough of that. It was to make us easier to erase.”

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  “To kill is to cause death,” he continued, finally stopping his scratching and smiling at them as though it were a teacher lecturing them on his favorite topic. “But a sacrifice… a sacrifice is a gift. None of those that I sacrifice have truly died. Their power lives on with me, and allows me to continue my mission of cleansing this new world.”

  As he spoke, the lizardman patted the hilt of his rapier lovingly, as though it were the head of a beloved pet. He looked like he had more to say, but evidently, Alka had heard more than enough.

  Not giving the crazed lizardman another second, Alka shot down the tunnel in a blur of green, her sword trailing behind her as she headed straight for the divine warrior. Before the lizardman could utter another sound, she struck, aiming directly for the lizardman’s throat.

  And missed.

  Vin blinked, not entirely certain what just happened. One moment, Alka’s enchanted blade had been slicing through the air, headed directly for the divine warrior’s neck with all the speed the ghost could muster. And yet, seemingly without him having moved at all, her attack had missed.

  Clearly Vin wasn’t the only one confused, as he heard Shia mutter right beside him.

  “What in the…?”

  For her part, Alka only hesitated for a brief moment before continuing her offensive. Letting out a barrage of slashes, Vin finally realized how her first one had missed.

  The divine warrior had dodged.

  Vin’s mouth fell open as he watched the impossible scene playing out before him. As a ghost, Alka had lost all her strength and was forced to rely on her impressive sword for offensive power. But she maintained her dexterity that was somewhere in the forties based on the bonus stats Vin received from her. She was easily the fastest person Vin had ever encountered, not including the deranged Relic Guardian from the citadel.

  Even so, the lizardman was faster.

  Much faster.

  Alka’s sword flashed green through the air as she attempted again and again to land a hit on the lizardman, but he was simply too quick on his feet. Still yet to draw his sword, he kept one hand leisurely at his side while the other reached up and continued scratching at his neck as he ducked and weaved his way around the ghost’s rapid strikes, watching her with more curiosity than anything.

  “I’ll admit, I’m not entirely certain if I even can sacrifice you,” he said, not even winded as he ducked and slipped out of the way of a few quick thrusts. “But seeing as you are trying to stop me, I suppose I will have to give it a shot.”

  “Shia, slow him down!” Vin shouted as the man cleared his throat with a wet gurgle and raised his voice. “Trogum guy, you-”

  Vin turned to order the elite to run in and help, and found himself staring at a patch of empty tunnel.

  “What…?” He gasped, realizing the elite was gone. As he tried to figure out what had happened, the divine warrior began speaking.

  “By the decree of the Gods, you have been chosen!” He began, continuing to narrowly dodge everything Alka threw at him. “Rejoice, for in your sacrifice-”

  “Entangling Thorns!” Shia screamed, tapping into her staff for extra juice as the ivy covering the tunnel walls erupted into dozens of thorny tendrils that shot directly at the divine warrior.

  “-you shall contribute to something greater than you could possibly imagine!” He continued, suddenly moving even faster as he dipped and wove his way in and out of the grasping tendrils, somehow still continuing to dodge Alka’s attacks. There simply wasn’t enough vegetation within the tunnel walls to draw out the spell’s maximum potential like Shia had done during their training with Alka back in the forest. “I ask that you lower your arms-”

  “Stone Shot! Stone Shot! Stone Wall!” Vin cried, shoving the missing trogum from his thoughts as he began casting spell after spell as fast as he possibly could, each one with a load of extra mana dumped into it from Runic Recalibration to increase their force. The lizardman seemed to dodge each of his stone missiles at the last second with ease, and the Stone Wall he tried conjuring underneath his foot to make him stumble was simply kicked off of, used to dodge another of Alka’s frantic slashes.

  “-and willingly accept the blade of my God, to ensure that your passing-”

  “Rapid Growth!” Shia tried, carefully aiming her staff as three giant branches blasted out of it, shooting toward the warrior and through Alka, before slamming into the tunnel floor and wall, having been narrowly dodged by the nimble warrior.

  “-is as quick and painless as possible!"

  As the lizardman spoke those final words, he finally stopped dodging, standing stock still as his hand blurred, going from scratching at the reddish looking scales on his neck to the hilt of his sword.

  Not willing to lose the chance she’d been given, Alka brought down her sword in a powerful, arcing slash at him with all the speed she could muster. The usually calm and collected Slayer actually screaming with rage at her inability to land a single hit.

  But before her sword could connect, the lizardman moved.

  A blinding, golden light that seemed to contain the very power of the sun erupted from the thin rapier as it was finally pulled from its sheath. Vin could do nothing but watch as, having finally drawn his golden blade, the lizardman struck, his sword cleaving forward.

  Through the dozens of barbed vines reaching out to grab him.

  Through a screaming Alka, her eyes widening as she realized at the last second what was about to happen.

  And through her sword, cutting the petrified elder wood in twain as though it were made of cheap copper.

  As the two halves of the indestructible sword clattered to the tunnel floor, Vin collapsed to his knees. A sudden, chilling pain stabbed deep into his core as though he’d been the one to get cut instead of Alka. Vaguely, he felt that strange rubber band sensation tightening around his core again like he had back in the dungeon, except this time there was no stepping back from the corridor entrance.

  The last thing he saw was Alka’s ethereal form flickering like a dying candle as the ghost turned to him, her expression a mix of shock and fear. As she faded away, the very first friend he’d ever made on this crazy world reached out a shaking, sputtering hand, as if trying to grab him from all the way across the tunnel.

  Part of that invisible band pulled tight around his core snapped.

  And then she was gone.

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