=== Jeanne ===
A few days had passed, and Jeanne, sitting in front of the campfire, listened in silence as Luvia teased Artoria Alter.
"So… King Artoria hm? I'm sure no one would have voted for you."
"You don't vote for kings." Alter replied, eyes sharp.
"Well, how'd you become king then?" Luvia retorted.
"The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the
purest shimmering samite held aloft
Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I,
Artoria, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am king."
"Listen, strange women lying in ponds
distributing swords is no basis for a
system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony." Luvia said.
"Be silent." Alter said sharply.
Luvia continued. "You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you." Luvia said, a slight smirk on her face.
"Shut up." Alter said, her face darkening.
"I mean, If l went around saying I was empress, just because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away." She continued, getting a rise out of the Alter.
"Shut up, will you shut up!" Artoria Alter shouted, standing up in a rage before gripping the young woman by the collar and shaking her back and forth.
"Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!" Luvia shouted, trying to gain everyone's attention.
"Shut up!" Alter screamed.
"Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help help i'm being repressed!"
"Bloody peasant!" Alter said, shoving Luvia from her.
"Oh what a giveaway, did you hear that? That's what I'm on about, did you see her repressing me?" Luvia said, looking at everyone around the camp.
Jeanne pinched the bridge of her nose as Alter shoved Luvia to the ground. Before the situation could escalate any further, she stepped forward, her voice commanding and sharp.
"That's enough!"
Everyone froze.
Alter still stood over Luvia, breathing heavily, golden hair swaying with each twitch of frustration. Luvia, ever defiant, lay sprawled in the grass with a smug grin on her lips.
Jeanne's boots crunched against the gravel as she approached, eyes flitting between the two women. "I don't care if you're a king, a knight, or a self-declared revolutionary," she said sternly. "We don't have time for this."
Alter huffed, muttering under her breath as she stepped back, clearly seething. Jeanne turned to Luvia. "And you! Do try not to provoke one of the most dangerous people in camp just for your own amusement."
Luvia stood up and brushed herself off with a theatrical sigh. "I was simply trying to make conversation. A little satire never hurt anyone."
Jeanne looked ready to counter but instead turned to the others gathered around the dying campfire. "We move in ten minutes. The road ahead won't wait for our squabbles."
Artoria, the original, remained seated, quietly watching the flames dance in the pit. She hadn't laughed, but the corner of her mouth tugged upward, just slightly.
Alter stormed past her, fuming, but Artoria reached out, lightly catching her wrist.
"You should be used to the jokes by now."
Alter glared at her. "Doesn't mean I enjoy them."
Artoria gave a light shrug. "You're not supposed to. That's why it's funny."
Alter didn't dignify that with a reply, just yanked her arm free and stalked off toward the edge of the camp.
As the group began packing up their gear and preparing for the day's march, the mood slowly shifted back to purpose. Tension still lingered in the air, but Jeanne's firm leadership kept everyone moving.
Artoria stood at last, fastening her gauntlets. The path ahead would take them through Black Hollow Pass, and after that… back towards the ruins of Avalon.
She glanced toward the eastern mountains. The sky above them was gray and brooding.
We're getting close, she thought.
=== Godrick Alter ===
The gates shattered like paper under the weight of his halberd.
Stone crumbled, men screamed, and arrows rained down from the battlements, only to break harmlessly against his armor. The amethyst veins along his monstrous right arm pulsed with rhythmic fury, fed by the frenzy coursing through his veins.
Godrick stepped into the courtyard of the fortress like a god descending into a temple unworthy of his presence.
The once-proud keep, nestled between mountain crags and guarded by tall, gleaming walls, had already begun to burn. The fire reflected in his eyes, those pits of cold, golden light, swirling with madness.
Steel clashed. Anthrax's knights tried to hold the line. Brave men, perhaps. But bravery was wasted on monsters.
"This fortress belongs to the dead now." His voice was a low growl, echoing unnaturally through the smoke and stone. "Your loyalty is obsolete. Your cause is dead. Your queen is ash in the wind."
A squad of halberdiers rushed him.
In one sweeping arc of his own massive halberd, he cleaved through armor, flesh, and magic alike. The weapon hummed with unnatural hunger, a song of ruin and despair.
He moved with grace unnatural for his size. Each step was thunderous, each strike left devastation in its wake. Blood splashed across his tattered cloak, but none of it was his.
At the foot of the keep's stairs, Anthrax roared, his Warhammer and shield in his right and left hands as he charged towards the Juggernaut.
Their weapons met with a sound like thunder. Anthrax's hammer was pure steel, blessed by ancient rites. But it clashed against something that had long since left the realm of man.
For a brief moment, it was almost even.
But only for a moment.
Godrick brought his halberd around with such force that Anthrax's hammer shattered into pieces. The knight staggered, staring at the broken hilt in his hand.
Godrick lifted him by the throat with his monstrous right arm, dark as the void, veins glowing like magma.
"Kneel. Serve me, and your men live."
Anthrax struggled, spit blood, but stared him in the eye. "You are not her son. You are a demon wearing his face."
Godrick growled low. The stone beneath his feet cracked.
Then he threw the knight down, hard enough to explode the stone steps.
Anthrax coughed once, rolled onto his stomach… and began to rise again.
"…Very well," Godrick said softly, eyes glowing brighter now. "Then you will all be buried here."
There was a dull crunch as Godrick slammed his foot down on Anthrax' back, thrusting him down into the stone once more.
The Juggernaut then seized him by the chestplate, lifted the veteran knight into the air, and hurled him through stone and steel.
The stone walls of the keep's central tower buckled under the impact. Mortar exploded outward as Anthrax crashed through the archway and vanished into the shadows beyond, leaving a trail of shattered brick and splintered wood.
Screams. Panic. The stink of blood and smoke thickening in the air. He could smell their fear now.
With a low, inhuman growl, he marched forward, halberd dragging behind him and sparking against the blood-slick stones.
"Run, if it so pleases you," he muttered to no one, voice flat and void of mercy. "It will not change what you are. Kindling for the pyre."
From the left tower, a volley of arrows rained down.
Godrick didn't flinch. Arrows struck his armor, his skin.
In a blur of terrifying speed, he surged toward the left tower, leapt off the ground, and drove his halberd through the iron-bound door. Wood and steel exploded, sending guards flying down the stairs inside.
He wrenched the halberd free, spun it once, and entered.
Within seconds, the tower screamed with the sounds of slaughter, steel carving through bodies, boots stomping broken bones, and men begging for mercy that would never come. Blood poured like wine from the upper windows, staining the stones beneath.
One soldier tried to crawl out through a high arrow slit.
Godrick caught him by the ankle, yanked him back in, and slammed his body against the inner wall until he stopped moving.
This was war as it should be. Honest. Cruel. Cleansing.
He returned to the courtyard moments later, crimson dripping from every edge of his armor. His shoulder cape soaked in blood.
Dozens of soldiers rallied now. Not because they thought they could win, but because death in battle was all that remained.
A knight captain stepped forward, shield raised, voice trembling: "Form up! Formation! We hold this ground or we die!"
"Then die," Godrick said.
The first row tried to brace for impact, but they were obliterated in a single sweep of his halberd, bodies ripped from legs, shields torn asunder.
The second line never even got to scream.
He moved like a beast unleashed, cutting down men like wheat in harvest. A flail crashed against his shoulder. He grabbed the weapon's chain with his left hand and ripped the weapon and wielder both into the air before throwing them to the ground with a sickening crunch.
Two spearmen lunged for his back. He twisted, slammed the haft of his halberd against one, splitting him in half, then drove the halberd blade into the other's skull with such force it struck the stone below.
It went on like this for minutes.
When the last man fell, gurgling, eyes wide with fear, Godrick stood alone in a field of bodies. The courtyard was littered with limbs and armor, stained black and red beneath the rising smoke.
Only the keep remained now.
With slow, deliberate steps, he walked toward the breach he had thrown Anthrax through earlier.
He entered the hall. Blood trailing on the floor. A shattered spearhead. A dented helm. A man's groans echoing from deeper inside.
Godrick followed the sound.
He found Anthrax sprawled across the base of a massive stone altar, coughing blood, swordless, his left arm bent at an unnatural angle.
The knight lifted his head weakly, eyes squinting at the monster who now loomed over him.
"You… think this makes you king?" Anthrax rasped.
"No." Godrick knelt, just enough to bring himself closer to the man's eye level. "This makes me free. Free of her chains. Free of restraint."
He rose again, halberd humming with power.
"And soon, the world will know what I have become."
"Now stand up. Die on your feet."
Anthrax did so with a great effort, and got to his feet again, blood drying on his lips, armor scuffed and cracked but still intact.
Then, without a word, Godrick turned, drove the base of the weapon into the cracked stone floor like a war banner, and stepped forward.
A challenge.
Anthrax rolled his shoulder, cracked his arm back to normal, and spat to the side.
"So be it."
He rushed forward first, no fear, no hesitation.
Godrick met him halfway.
The impact was titanic. Flesh struck flesh with the sound of boulders colliding. Anthrax drove his fist into Godrick's jaw, but Godrick countered with a brutal uppercut to the gut that sent the knight skidding back across the stone.
Anthrax caught himself with a roll and charged again. He ducked low, grappling the man's waist, trying to drive him into a wall. Godrick snarled, twisted his stance, and slammed his knee into Anthrax's ribs.
Ribs cracked, and one of his lungs collapsed.
Anthrax grunted but didn't yield. He headbutted Godrick square in the face.
The blow rang out like a hammer on steel.
Godrick staggered, blood trickling from his nose, but he smiled.
"Good. I thought you old and weak, but now I see you're just old."
He lashed out, landing a haymaker with his right arm. The blow caught Anthrax in the chest and launched him across the hall. He crashed through a table and landed in a pile of shattered wood, coughing violently.
The knight groaned, pushing himself up with trembling arms.
Godrick stepped forward, towering, the shadows of the burning keep casting flickering firelight across his golden mane.
Anthrax didn't wait. He stood unsteady, bloodied, and ran.
He ducked a punch, hammered a jab into Godrick's ribs, followed by an elbow to the jaw. Godrick grunted, caught Anthrax's arm, and threw him through a pillar. Stone exploded. Dust billowed. The knight lay stunned in the wreckage.
But only for a moment.
He rose again.
And then they collided again, this time slower, heavier. Grappling. Slamming into walls. Grunting with exertion. Their fists blurred, traded in vicious, primal rhythm.
Godrick's obsidian arm caught a punch mid-air, then twisted. The bone in Anthrax's wrist bent sharply, but the knight pivoted into it, locking Godrick's elbow and slamming him face-first into the ground.
The keep shook.
But Godrick's growl became a laugh. He surged up, wrapped both arms around Anthrax's torso, and suplexed him into the stone. Cracks spread outward in a spiderweb as dust shot into the air.
Anthrax lay still.
Godrick stood, not even breathing hard before grabbing Anthrax and lifting him up.
But the knight spat blood in his face.
Godrick snarled and raised a fist.
Then Anthrax moved his arm shot up, grabbed Godrick's neck, and the knight rolled with monstrous force, flipping them both over.
He mounted the warrior, striking down blow after blow.
"You're not a king!" he roared with each punch. "You're not a god! You're just a mad child with no discipline!"
Each strike left dents, blood, bruises, but then Godrick caught both fists mid-air.
Power surged through him. The veins on his right arm flared bright, lightning-like, the detonated.
The floor exploded.
Both men were sent flying in opposite directions, crashing into rubble, groaning in agony.
Silence again.
Both men lay still… until, slowly, they stirred.
Anthrax rolled to his side, coughing blood.
Godrick stood, swaying, then marched to his halberd. He yanked it from the stone and turned to face the knight.
The Juggernaut stared down at him, expression unreadable. For a moment, silence returned, heavy, expectant. A part of Anthrax, through the haze of shattered bone and broken pride, thought he saw something demonic behind those glowing eyes.
Godrick raised his halberd.
"You're a monster. I hope it was worth giving up your humanity." Anthrax said coldly.
The blade descended like divine judgment.
Steel split bone and stone alike. Anthrax's body jerked once, then stilled, impaled through the chest, pinned to the ground.
Godrick stood over the corpse, halberd buried, blood pooling around his feet.
He did not look away.
There was no triumph in his eyes. Only the cold, unflinching certainty of his own purpose.
"I was never human to begin with."
He yanked the halberd free, letting Anthrax's lifeless body slump to the stone.
Power surged from his right arm, and Excalibur Morgan appeared in his hand. Red lighting crackled from the blade, as if it were unstable before he simply thrust it into the ground.
Then, without ceremony, he turned and stepped through the ruined hall, past the burning tapestries and shattered columns.
The sword inside detonated, and as the keep exploded, smoke and dust enveloped him. But Godrick Alter marched on, not as a man, not as a knight.
But as Ruin incarnate.
===
If you enjoyed this chapter, maybe consider leaving me with some of your power stones? I promise I'll take good care of them :)