Chapter 59- Charles Veritas

Chapter 59

 

Charles Veritas

 

           

            The residue from the diamond dust still lingered lightly over the hall. The explosion had destroyed three of the ten pillars in the room and blown away countless tables, chairs, and religious trinkets, along with the limbs and corpses of the True Believers from the previous room, all over the floor. Beside Charles stood Lucia Starfall and Gottfried Calantz. Across from him, blocking the stairway, was the assumed daughter of Rhyth Juno, Mhia Atlas, and two knights of the Holy Army who descended the stairs shortly after explosion. To Charles, all three were little more than mere obstacles in the way of Caelum Infinitum’s certain demise.

            Charles’s eyes met with Mhia’s. Inside them was a burning black inferno waiting to be unleashed. Her glare did not intimidate him however. He’d killed countless men, women, and children who’d looked at him the same. Mhia was just another soon to be in his list.

            Lucia was the first to make a move. Still carrying bullets in her revolver, she aimed straight for Mhia. Parallel to her movements, one of the knights stepped in and took the bullet to his armor admirably but did not foresee the second between his eyes, ending his insignificant life. Almost immediately, the other knight dashed at Charles thrusting his halberd. Gottfried parried his halberd and engaged him. By the time the self-proclaimed Queen decided to make her move, Charles was already expecting it, effortlessly shielding himself with his massive sword. But Mhia was not repelled that easily, falling back into an evasive roll, which quickly became an illusive scurry towards Charles. Charles swung his sword through the air and missed terribly giving Mhia the opportunity to run passed him and cut his thigh lightly. Charles tried to counter but by the time he turned around Mhia was already eight feet away from him, safe from his reach. Fortunately, Charles did not fight his battles alone.

            Lucia readily engaged Mhia with her rapier the instant they got close to one another, erupting into a speedy dance of swords. Charles concern fell to Gottfried whose years were probably catching up with him. As predicted, the Mentor was on a clear defensive against the much younger knight. Using his range, the knight kept Gottfried just out of reach while maintaining the offensive. His back however was completely exposed. Charles gladly took the invitation and stabbed him and launched him fiercely away with one swing of his sword. A grin of relief crossed Gottfried’s lips, quickly washed away by fear.

Charles heard a cry from Lucia as blood splattered across the floor. Lucia stumbled and Mhia inflicted another fatal blow on her. Unable to keep up, Lucia dropped her weapon and fell to her knees. Right as Mhia was about to split her head in two, Gottfried jumped in just in time to save her. Their swords clashed awkwardly, cutting into Gottfried’s shoulder. Mhia pressed deeper until she saw Charles get closer, then acrobatically leaped away to a safe distance.

            Charles pressed onward with a strong desire to kill the daughter of his once wife, but she was proving much harder to kill than her mother. No matter how he swung his sword, she always managed to slip under, over, or from the side, with every failed swing resulting in some minor wound on his body. Were Charles alone, Mhia might’ve been able to keep this game up long enough for his body to weaken for her to gain the clear advantage. But even with Lucia down, Mhia was still outnumbered two to one.

            Gottfried circled her from behind as Charles continued to press onward from the front. As Mhia attempted another acrobatic escape, Gottfried was able to cut her leg with his rapier and she went crashing down into the floor instead. Charles quickly followed with a large swing, which Mhia managed to doge just by a hair. Wasting no time, Gottfried jumped over Charles’s sword and attempted the same. Mhia proved agile once more however, blocking with her sword and quickly wrapping her legs around Gottfried’s torso and squeezing him against her body. Without hesitation, Charles raised his sword to kill them both but a flying sword from another direction came at him, forcing him to seize his attack.

            “Your Highness!”

            At the end of the room, a new knight joined the battle. His white robes were already covered in blood, though not his own. Charles quickly found himself in the defensive by an aggressive fury of attacks from the knight. The knight gave little openings for Charles to attack, and when he did, it was to little avail. As the power struggle progressed, Charles began to feel the weight of all the little wounds Mhia had inflicted on him. Eventually he slowed down for a moment just long enough for the knight to pierce the point of his halberd through his thigh. Charles grimaced with pain but grabbed the halberd with one of his hands and swung his sword with the other to break it in half. The knight immediately started running for the short sword he threw earlier. Charles then removed the halberd and got ready to launch it at the knight but stopped himself and looked to Mhia instead, who now had Gottfried fully mounted, and shot the halberd at her. Sadly he wasn’t as good a shot chucking spears as he was with a gun.

            The halberd missed Mhia but scared her enough to get her off Gottfried, after which she received an elbow to the face from him. As Gottfried scrambled back to his feet, picking up his rapier, he warned Charles, “Behind you!” Charles turned just quick enough to catch the knight’s sword with his left hand in a painful and gruesome manner, and hit him with the hilt of his sword to quickly push him back.

Noticing his body get weaker, Charles decided to take a risk to avoid the fight prolonging. He allowed the knight to force him back all the way towards Mhia and Gottfried. Once he was close, Charles unexpectedly became aggressive, forcing the knight into a sudden defensive with enough success to make him jump back for safety. Charles reacted as quickly as his body allowed with an attempt to kill Mhia. Unfortunately she noticed just in time to save her own life again. It wasn’t a complete failure however. Charles’s sword met with Mhia’s and twisted her wrist, sending her weapon flying away. For a split second, Charles believed he would finally end this farce until he heard his Mentor shout, “Dark Charles!”

            If not for Gottfried, Charles would’ve had a sword at his back. Instead his Mentor jumped in between Charles and the knight, taking a sword through the eye. In sequence, Charles returned the favor and beheaded the knight.

            “Callatz!” Mhia cried as she proceeded to tackle Charles down from his injured leg, digging her fingers into his wound. The sudden fall and pain caused Charles to loosen the grip on his sword, dropping it with enough momentum to land it from his reach. Doing his best to ignore the pain, Charles grabbed Mhia with his good hand and yanked her by the hair off his leg. Mhia punched and kicked but to Charles her little arms and legs were harmless. Ominously, he leaned over her with his massive body and dropped one punch after another upon her face. With each punch he tore away a piece of her will to fight and reshaped her face. Mhia attempted cover her face but Charles grabbed her only good wrist left and broke that one too.

            Forcing himself on one knee, Charles stood up looking down at her. “You should’ve ran and never shown your face again.” He grabbed her by the neck and picked her up. “Join your worthless mother.” Stretching his arm as far back as possible, Charles flung Mhia’s tiny body with all his strength at one of the pillars.

            The sound of her head hitting the pillar echoed through the hall, but as her body dropped to the floor unconscious, Charles saw that she was still breathing. Not wanting any room for more pretentious Cruorian heirs, Charles limped over to his sword and picked it up. Dragging the blade against the floor, he walked over to Mhia’s body to put an end to it. It was amazing how even while unconscious you could still see her hate burning through her expression.

Charles raised his sword for the kill.

            Thomp!

            He felt his sword leave his hand before he noticed the bolt through his elbow. Thomp! Thomp! Two more pierced his body. One on his upper back and the other on his lower. Charles stumbled as he turned around to see who it was. Thomp! Another bolt hit his shoulder.

At the other end of the hall, a Cardinal with dark curly hair and silver eyes watched with a crossbow firmly in his hands and another Cruorian Princess by his side. The Cardinal was not someone Charles had ever met before. Is this how I am to die? At the hands of a clergyman with no name.

            The clergyman dropped the crossbow and pulled out a knife from beneath his sleeve. Slowly, he started walking towards Charles. “So we meet face to face at last.”

            “Who are you…?” asked Charles.

            The Cardinal smiled. “I’m the Archangel who uncovered you. The Archangel that took your son…and made it his own.”

            Charles clenched his fists, pumping blood from every wound he had. Furiously, he started limping towards Dante. “Where is he…? What…have you done to him?”

            Dante’s expression went from a condescending grin to a dark menacing glare. “How dare you act like you care! You who so willingly murders and abandons everything close to him for the sake of your false order. Liana loved you…but you just couldn’t take her offer could you. You just had to s**t on God every chance you could get.” Dante met Charles in the middle and stabbed the knife to his groin and twisted it.

            “Arrrggh…” The whole world became a sea of pain. But Charles was Charles. He was Judicium’s Moon. And no amount of pain was going to stop him. He grabbed Dante’s mantle as tight as his could. “My son…where…is he?”

            Dante twisted the knife some more. “Liana. Where is she?”

            Dante removed the knife and Charles fell to his knees in front of him, still holding on to Dante’s mantle. “She’s…dead. Now…my son…”

            Dante grabbed Charles by his neck and pressed the corner of the knife to his scar. He cried, “What did you say…? WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”

            Charles accepted that he would not know the answer to his question. Instead, he smiled and repeated, “She’s…dead…”

            Dante reopened his scar and started shouting, “YOU LIAR! YOU F*****G LIAR! I’LL KILL YOU!!!!!” Charles felt the Cardinal’s grip tighten around his neck as Dante slipped the knife through his ribs. Charles started to fall and together they collapsed into the ground. “Why…?” continue to cry the Cardinal. “She was innocent! She only did what was commanded of her…why, Charles? SHE WAS YOUR WIFE!”

            Charles chuckled, spitting blood out at the same time. “It…wasn’t even…me. My…son…killed her.”

            Dante’s head shot up. Charles couldn’t see what his face looked liked clearly but he imagined it was something like shocked and furious. It’s a terrible feeling, isn’t it? To be robbed of your vengeance. Without a word, Dante stood up and left running. Kill him, Caius. Kill every one of these religious lunatics and save Venir.

            After Dante left, all the chaos seemed quieter with each passing second. The screams of the dying felt less real, each scream seeming more like a fainting memory. Soon, every scream started to sound like a scream Charles had heard before. Screams of people he’d kill. Screams of people he’d watch die. Screams from every time a piece of him got torn apart. Though he would deem his life a successful one, even he could not deny, it was never a happy one.

            He wondered if he would’ve done anything different. Would I have been there for my children if it meant failing Judicium? Would I have sacrificed the love I shared for Rhyth and Liana to avoid the tragedies that came after? Was I wrong to turn my back on God? He laughed inside already knowing answer to those questions.

            If after today he accomplished everything he wanted to do, then he could die content. Because in that world, Venir could have a life again, and Caius could learn to love. Even if it cost the lives of thousands, his daughter amongst them, if they could have that, it would’ve all been worth it.

            Charles heard footsteps approaching him and watched as a blurry figure loomed over him. The figure leaned down, drawing closer to Charles’s field of vision. Even blurred, just from the colors, Charles could recognize the image. He couldn’t help but laugh. “After all that’s happened. This illusion…is this your way…of punishing me…God?”

            “This is no illusion. God does not exist.”

            Charles’s eyes shot open. It was the same person yet nothing was the same. His eyes had lost any hint of kindness, resembling his own reflection. There was evidence of torture and he was bathed in the blood of others. It was clear the boy before him was not the son he had left behind two years ago. Even so, it was still his son. Alive. And safe.

            Charles smiled. “Venir…I’m so happy. When I lost you…I thought…I’d…never lay eyes…on…you again.” Charles knew he didn’t have much time left. “Caius…he’s waiting for you…outside. He’s…your brother, Venir. Please…learn…to love each…other. I know it’s too late…to make amends. But please…live on…for your sister…if not…me.”

            As Charles was raising his hand to touch his son’s cheek, Venir grabbed it tightly and whispered, “Just die already…”           

Charles noticed the silver blade on Venir’s other hand and felt a tear fall from the corner of his eye swim down the wound of his open scar. Dying, he laughed inside one last time. Better for it to be at your hands.

 

Author's Note

Guide me through your thoughts once again :)

Reviews

[Dark Rider]

First off, sorry for the long wait for a review. I've been busy with school. Second: How dare you kill Charles!!! I sort of seen it coming, but still. Why? *sighs* At least he got to see Venir once more before dying. But now you better have Venir' s, or Mallus', point of view as the next chapter. XD I loved this chapter, and I can't wait to see how this will end. :)

[Cynical_Art]

Don't worry about it. I've been busy myself with work :P I just finished working on a new project last Friday. But yeah, I have the remaining chapters all written, I just need to revise them before posting it up. So I should have the next chapter up really soon.

[Dark Rider]

Yay! I can't wait to read them. :)

[Cynical_Art]

The next chapter is up :)

[Dark Rider]

I'll read it as soon as I can! :)