Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 173

Chapter 173: Mirette's Decision

Mirette walked forward, stepping in the line of sight between Saffron and Karchek.  Their eyes flickered with unwavering certainty, knowing that, despite the superficial racial similarities between themself and the demon before them, Karchek was at best an untrustworthy cad.  At worst, he was a monster who would gladly gorge himself on the Sparks of innocents on vague pretexts, or just for the thrill of it.

They could relate.  It was exhilarating to absorb the Spark of a sentient being, and the resulting surge of strength was addicting.  But that didn’t mean that such actions were right.  Further, it was too easy to fabricate a justification to kill.  

Those soldiers back in Marol in particular.  Yes, they had threatened their life back then and tried to assassinate them.  Death had seemed the natural, sensible way to punish them for their insolence.  But, the soldiers truly were no threat.  They knew they could have escaped, could have blinded those soldiers, incapacitated them, covered their faces with shadows and fought them with less lethality.

But Mirette didn’t choose that path.  They had chosen, specifically, to entrap them, to lure them in, to wait for them to ready the killing blow.  And then they used the attempt as a casus belli both to slaughter them as well as their commanding officer in a nearby garrison.

Mirette realized exactly what Saffron had meant.  Karchek didn’t need to go slaughtering babies in their cribs to be guilty of the murder of innocents.  Words such as ‘threat’ or ‘civilian’ or ‘soldier’ were far too mutable.  Especially in the heat of battle when tensions were high, where split-second decisions were critical and any hesitation could result in further losses of life on either side.  It was tempting— too tempting— to twist such words and justify a taking of life when other paths were viable.  All in the service of acquiring that sweet, sweet rush that comes with killing a person and absorbing their Spark.

“You understand where I’m coming from.  Don’t you, Mirette?” Karchek asked.

“I do.  I won’t insult either of you by saying otherwise.”  Mirette paused.  “But I’m staying on the path we both think is right.  Not on the one which is convenient for us.  Not the one which necessarily serves our personal best interests.  Because we have too many people who look up to us as their goddess.  And we will not let them down!”

Saffron nodded.  “Well said.”  She switched to telepathy.  “I need you to take the lead and buy me some time to gather some Essence.  If you can give me even a minute, I’ll be ready to take over.”

Mirette nodded, charging toward Karchek at top speed.  Karchek met their charge head-on, raising his blade of flame to counter their upward thrust.  His attack was brutal, sending sparks through both of their hair and cutting part-way through Mirette’s icy sword.  

They were lowered to a knee as they buttressed themself from the impact force, but they were not pushed back.  Drawing more strength from the bond the two lovers shared, Mirette conjured another blade held in arms of shadow which materialized out of the back of their shoulders.  They smashed down on Karchek’s sword, cleaving it in twain and sending a smoldering stump flying off to the side.

They continued their relentless assault, wielding two two-handed blades with grace and dexterity as Karchek struggled to do more than dodge and fall back.  They continued pressing their assault, feeling a sense of relief when they successfully nicked his shoulder, drawing the tiniest droplet of blood before the wound sealed.

Though, something seemed off.  Karchek was holding back— there were no signs of fatigue, and he was moving far faster during his previous skirmish with Saffron.  So when Mirette saw an opening in his blind spot, she relented, falling back and narrowly dodging an explosive sphere that burst forth from the aether and sent them flying into the dirt, skidding and scraping along the way.

Mirette clutched their shoulder to re-set it and staunch the bleeding as their regeneration took hold.  In addition to numerous cuts and gashes throughout their body, they’d also suffered a broken hand, two chipped teeth, and half-melted wings that refused to fully grow back.  The pain was intense, but not unbearable.  Closer to that of being impaled in the gut with an ordinary steel blade than being massaged with the stingers of Suicide Nettle.

“I am impressed with your battle senses, Mirette,” Karchek said, his voice accompanied by a sarcastic slow clap.  “I expected that you’d take the bait and fall right to your death.  Just makes what I’m going to do next even more painful for both of us.”

Karchek leapt forward, his entire body shrouded in a flaming cloak that shone nearly as bright as the sun.  The heat was intense beyond compare, turning Mirette’s wings and swords into puddles before he’d closed the gap to within a hundred yards.  They tried to run back and give their body more time to regenerate, but their speed had been quartered due to their injuries and they tumbled to the dirt as his next attack approached.

Saffron leapt forward to intercept his attack, snuffing the flames instantly.  Neither of them moved.  Neither made a sound, both staring at one another for over a minute.  But the flow of Essence swirling like a tornado about them revealed the truth.  The two were locked in a brutal duel not of bodies, but of minds and wills.

Mirette forced their way back to their feet.  Their most dire of injuries had been regenerated, although the more superficial wounds still remained.  They tried to approach the two combatants warring silently before them, but the waves of Essence were thick and oppressive, making breathing difficult and dredging through them even more so.  

But they refused to give in to the temptation to succumb.  They clutched the Periapt of Stability, remembering their lesson from Saffron from before.  That no amount of trickery or technique could negate the need to dig in, push forward, and power through when challenged by adversity of all variety.  

And so, bit by bit, they persevered, choking on oppressive Essence that refused to be absorbed into their person.  They continued, even when it felt like wading through solid steel.  Each movement seared their skin and felt like a vise tightening yet tighter around their arms and legs, like a mask about their face clamping down their throat and trying to squeeze their eyes into paste.  So thick was the air that each breath felt like breathing muddy, unfiltered water.

Time itself seemed as though it slowed so as to prolong the agony, and after seeing the two distort spacetime in their earlier battle, it may well have.  Whether a minute had passed, a second, or a full hour, Mirette couldn’t tell.  But they did claw their way forward just as they had the last time, eventually placing a hand on Saffron’s back.

“You’re…  here.”

“We are, Saffron.  No matter what might happen after this fight, we made up our mind the moment we joined.  We’re with you all the way.  Now guide our strength and do what you came here to do!”

“Of course.”

Sights and sounds and smells of the outside world faded away as Mirette’s mind was battered by a mixture of thoughts and principles and emotions most of all.  They felt Karchek’s rage at being sealed away for hundreds of years.  His lust for power and battle and increasing his strength.  Mirette couldn’t tell his Domain with certainty, but it felt like he was the Demigod of Hedonism— the principle of pursuing one’s passions and enjoyment without regard to social mores or the dicta of established authority.

What sort of relationship did he and Saffron once share, in days so long ago?  Perhaps their relationship was of human origin, dating back to the time before either had ascended to deific status.  That seemed likeliest, considering Saffron’s Stability carried with it a reverence for established order and custom that appeared anathemic to this Hedonism.  

The only thing they could be certain of was the intensity of the sorrow and wistfulness that both of them were leaching in their struggle.  Mirette redoubled their focus, blocking out these errant thoughts, disregarding their sensations of pain and the doubt Karchek was attempting to instill within them, the temptation he was offering them.  The allure intensified as Mirette resisted

Instead, they focused on the future they wanted to create.  A world of Reciprocity and harmony, filled with people who were as Devoted to that cause as they.  A world forged of common cause, of finding joy and harmony in concert with others, rather than living as an island and disregarding the feelings of others.  A world where the very fabric of the world was altered to incentivize understanding, compromise, and uplifting one another.  One in which generosity and altruism were cosmically rewarded, and where all prospered as a collective.  Just as they and Saffron were demonstrating by fighting side by side.

Bit by bit, they and Saffron together pushed back Karchek’s will, whipping the sea of emotions back harder and faster with every passing moment.  In the midst of their struggle, Karchek turned his full onslaught to Mirette.  Saffron shielded them from the brunt of the attack, but the intent was still clear.  A warning that who they wanted to be was irrelevant, that when push came to shove, anything and everything she’d done for people would be inconsequential.  Society would see her as just another demon to be shunned and feared until slain by an outside force.  That this was an inevitability.

Mirette closed their eyes, acknowledging the warning before a final joint push from they and Saffron together overwhelmed and crushed the waves of pressure Karchek had been exuding.  The void of their soulspace twisted apart as Karchek’s voice faded from Mirette’s mind, followed by the caverns of physical reality returning to focus.

They collapsed face-first into the ground.  In their semiconscious state, Lysette’s shadowy form, which had clung to and permeated Mirae’s body, slinked out and pooled on the ground beside what was again just Mirae.

Lysette was sore all over her body, but more than that, she felt an intense sense of loss, of incompleteness, of feeling less than herself.  Her hand moved to clutch Mirae’s of its own accord, and as the two lay there, groaning and mostly immotile, she heard Saffron and Karchek’s conversation about two dozen feet away.

“So, this is how it ends after all these years,” Karchek said.  “Managed to rope another of my kin to help you kill me once and for all.  Such a waste.”

“It was a waste.  And I’m sorry that we never could reconcile our beliefs and how we wanted to guide this world.”  Saffron conjured an obsidian axe and pointed it at Karchek’s neck.  “I loved you, you know.  I’d always hoped that one day, you’d see reason, come to understand that the world we had back then— that we still have now— is so much better than the one that existed way back when Lord Domar still walked this world.”

“For you, Saffies, maybe.”  Karchek coughed.  “But that’s the world I want, the one I wanted even when we were still human.  A world where we can each live freely.  Do what we want, live unbound by law and order.”

“That’s an inherent contradiction, Karchek.  There will always be some sort of order, whether agreed upon by all or imposed upon by the few with the strength to do so.”

“Just like I like it.  Though, I guess I lost.  Just, promise me you won’t come visiting me for a long, long time.  I’ll–  I’ll be watching.”

Lysette looked up a moment later to see the rolling head of Karchek and a splattering of blood between it and the newly-decapitated body beside it.  Saffron turned toward Lysette and Mirae with wet eyes and head held low.  She wiped her eyes, revealing a thousand-yard stare gazing toward the exit from the large chamber.

“Lyse, Mirae, thank you both.  I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Of course.”

Saffron cradled Mirae’s now unconscious body in her arms and walked toward the exit, while Lysette hobbled behind her.

“I sense you have questions for me.  But this is neither time nor place.  We should get out of here as soon as possible.  This chamber is still filled with Karchek’s will, and in Mirae’s current state…  Well, better safe than sorry.”

“You’re letting me leave, Saffron?”

“If I sealed you in here based on what you might one day do, I’d be just the same as he was.  But don’t worry, Lyse.  My promise to you is still in effect: If you do stray from your path, I will stop you.  With all that I am, to the extent I am able.”

“Thank you, Saffron.  Now let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 172: https://www.patreon.com/posts/109460518

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/table-of-101896170

Chapter 174: https://www.patreon.com/posts/109914080