Chapter 5
The Farmer, the Soldier, and the Cultist
Have you ever found yourself in an odd situation and wondered how you got there? I don't mean anything that was clearly created from your actions, but circumstances that seemed to fall upon you by pure chance. This is how I would describe my current predicament.
My first instinct was to blame my troubles on fate, but that seems a bit unfair. Fate as a natural force doesn't exist, so the idea of pushing all blame for my situation on it seems irresponsible. However, it doesn't make sense for any of this to be my fault. I've never once been involved with the Cult of the Black Sword, and everything with Karasu and Eien is just pure confusion for me.
So then why me? Maybe it has nothing to do with me causing these events to happen, but simply me getting what I deserve. Although I don't think I've done anything that would warrant this kind of danger, it's still possible. But this would suggest that there's a supernatural force at play, which I don't believe in. However, the deeper I find myself in this situation I'm in, the less I trust everything I've known about this world.
Could this all just be chance then? I don't think so. I don't know what I think. Maybe fate does exist, and it hates me. It hates me for being complacent with my life. It hates me for being weak. I'm sorry, fate.
*****
Tokiya opened his eyes. Standing next to him, proud and tall, was Gremory. His uniform jacket and the shirt underneath were torn with a long red diagonal slash. Despite his injury, he shone like a beacon of hope.
Mors smiled as he stopped preparing his attack. The cultist clapped his hands.
"Bravo! Bravo! I can't believe a side character such as yourself was able to survive my attack. Fate never told me of you. Perhaps he forgot to mention you. No, no, no! Fate could never forget anything. That simply means you just aren't important enough."
Gremory frowned seriously.
"A side character? Tsk, normally I'm a pretty chill guy, but you did just kill a bunch of my men, so I'm not in the mood to entertain your crazy ramblings."
As if in a quick draw contest, Gremory pulled out a pistol and immediately shot three shots at Mors. Mors stood in place as if he knew what would happen next. The bullets stopped a foot away from Mors, and a faint yellow glow surrounded each of them for half a second.
"How dare you! How dare you call the words of Fate crazy ramblings. How dare you! How dare you! HOW DARE YOU!"
Gremory's eyes widened at the scene, and Tokiya let out a small gasp. Gremory prepared for Mors to perform a launch like he did inside the station, but Mors just stood there with his body twitching relentlessly.
"How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you!"
Gremory looked down at Tokiya with a bewildered expression.
"Tokiya, what's this guy's deal? He's a total lunatic. Not to mention the fact that he can literally survive death!"
Tokiya stared blankly up at Gremory.
"I'm just as confused as you are."
Gremory aimed his pistol back on Mors, knowing that it would have no effect, but still trying his best to look controlling in this situation and relieve his own mind.
"Hey cultist, what's your deal? What's all this magic shit you're pulling, and why are you targeting Tokiya over here?"
Mors stopped his shaking and looked up at Gremory with nothing but disdain in his eyes.
"Magic? You think the power bestowed upon me by Fate is simple magic. I suppose the ignorant hardly ever know they are so."
Gremory gripped his pistol tighter.
"If it's not magic then what is it?"
Tokiya tried to tell Gremory that it was the work of a Divine Blessing, but he couldn't gather enough strength. Mors spoke instead.
"It is because of my Divine Judgement Blessing though I doubt you know what that is. Divine Blessings are entirely sperate from magic. This Divine Blessing allows me to reject anything that interferes with my worship of Fate. As it was given to me directly by Fate, it allows me to be protected by their power of divine judgement. If Fate decides my death is unjust, then I shall survive. If Fare deems an attack, such as bullets unworthy, it shall not hit me. Do you see it now? Unless Fate wills it, you cannot win!"
Tokiya who was already defeated somehow, was put into a deeper depression by the revelation. However, Gremory stood there like everything he had just heard meant nothing to him. This wasn't foolishness because in truth he understood everything Mors said and believed it. However, what Gremory display was bravery and duty.
"Listen, freak. I don't know anything about this Divine Blessing shit, so as far as I'm concerned, it's magic. What I do know is that your trying to kill Tokiya, and that is-"
Gremory's eyes widened as if he had realized something. He winced and put his hands on his head. He bent over and looked down at the ground.
"AAAAAAAAAAA!"
Tokiya looked at him with confusion because to him, it was clear that Gremory's display was fake. The acting wasn't terrible, but to someone who knew Gremory, it was obviously a fraudulent act. However, it was enough to fool Mors.
"What are you doing, side character? Are you having a headache? This must be Fate at work! It is clearly a sign that you should've just played dead."
Gremory slowly stood up straight and took only one hand off of his head. He looked at Mors with wide eyes.
"Cultist, I have had an epiphany. I think it's a vision from Fate."
Mors raised an eyebrow.
"Impossible. You cannot fool me that easily. Only the boss and I are capable of communicating with Fate. You must think I'm an idiot."
Gremory almost frowned but decided to push on. He dramatically took the hand that was on the side of his head and put it over his forehead.
"No, cultist. You don't understand. My eyes were filled with light, and I heard a voice. It said..."
Gremory paused for a bit and raised his eyebrow. It was clear he was making everything up on the spot. Tokiya looked at Mors to see how he was taking this. To Tokiya's surprise, Mors just stood there like a child waiting for Gremory to finish his sentence.
Mid thought, Gremory began waving his arms and moving his body in weird ways. Tokiya wondered if these weird dance-like motions were meant to signal something to him or simply buy any time he could get.
"Um... It said something like, 'My dear child, Gremory, you must kill Tokiya.' Yeah! That's what it said!"
WHAT?
That's what Tokiya wanted to scream out, but it came out as just a tiny squeal. Mors had a much more positive reaction. He stepped towards Gremory with sparkling eyes.
"That sounds exactly like something Lord Fate would say! Could it be that you're not just a simple side character?"
"Yes! It could be, my fellow follower of Fate! And it is all thanks to you."
Mors' eyes widened even further and shone with a childish sparkle.
"Me?"
Gremory walked towards Mors as well, and eventually they were rather close to each other.
"Yes, if I had never met you, I doubt this vision of Fate would have ever crossed me. I am truly forever in your debt. It was truly destiny crafted by Lord Fate that we could meet."
Gremory pretended to wipe tears from his eyes. At this point, the expert people analyzer had learned to mimic the way Mors spoke in order to best please him, and it was working.
Mors put his hands together in front of his chest and was almost bouncing with excitement.
"Yes, yes, it must be Fate. Oh, you must join the Cult of the Black Sword! It would be the perfect place for you to praise Lord Fate under me. You must! You must!"
Gremory put his hand over his heart.
"Oh, I would my friend, but I fear I am barely worthy."
The atmosphere around the two was practically glowing with a pleasant yellow light. Meanwhile, the mood around Tokiya, who was still lying on the ground in front of the station, was dark and depressing. He had been completely forgotten.
Tokiya wondered what Gremory's plan was. How would this possible allow him to get past Mors' Divine Blessing? He was still confused on how he was meant to interpret those motions from before.
"You mustn't worry. There are many people in the cult how don't even know of the existence of Lord Fate. Your knowledge alone would be enough to shoot you up to the top of the ranks. Oh, I can see it now! You could start off as my loyal assistant, and then you would make your way into being an existent serving right under the boss! Ohhhhhh, this is so exciti-"
The deafening sound of crushing bones and splattering blood rang into the ears of Gremory and Tokiya as Mors' speech was interrupted by him being completely crushed by a giant wood pillar. This was the second time Tokiya had seen Mors' body being decimated, and it wasn't any less frightening.
Gremory clapped his hands together.
"Well, that takes care of that. Now, let's get you rebandaged and stuff."
Gremory began to walk over to Tokiya, but all Tokiya could do was just repeatedly blink at what just unfolded. Gremory picked up Tokiya by the arm and tried his best to carry in his weakened state.
"What the hell just happened, Gremory? A giant pillar just fell on him!"
Gremory brought Tokiya over to the pillar where blood was now oozing out from underneath.
"Well, after hearing about his ability, I knew I'd have to get smart if I wanted a chance at beating him. So, I thought that if I hit him with an attack that crushed his whole body and gave him no room to regenerate then he'd die."
In response to this, Tokiya yelled as loud as his exhausted body would let him.
"That doesn't explain how you summoned an entire pillar on top of him."
"Oh, I didn't. Remember those crazy gestures I was making during my interaction with that creep?"
Gremory pointed up to the roof of the building in front of them. There, Tokiya saw about 5 normal soldiers and another soldier who was decorated the same as Gremory with glasses and a sword at his hip.
"Those gestures were to signal my plan to those guys up there. They were responsible for getting the pillar to land on right where we needed it."
Tokiya frowned.
"How did they understand the plan from those stupid gestures? Do you guys have a secret universal police code or something?"
"No, no, no. That code is just something I developed with my closest ally in the police force, Kaluk. He's the one in the glasses."
The soldiers on the roof disappeared, presumably to go take the stairs to get back down to the ground. In a few seconds the five soldiers, Kaluk, Gremory, and Tokiya were all standing around the pillar. One of the soldiers spoke up.
"So what do we do know?"
Gremory responded.
"I'm going to take Tokiya somewhere where he can really recover. Kaluk, I want you to set this pillar on fire to make sure the body is completely destroyed. Then you can dispose of it however you see fit."
Kaluk pushed up his glasses.
"Quit bossing me around and having me run your errands. We're the same rank so act like it."
"Yeah, yeah, just do it."
Before Kaluk could have a chance to respond, Gremory turned and began walking away with Tokiya. However, he didn't get far before a glowing yellow light luminated from underneath the pillar. The soldiers reached for their weapons immediately. Gremory turned back to face the scene.
"There's no fucking way."
Kaluk turned to Gremory.
"Gremory, run and get the kid to safety!"
Gremory turned around one last time and used all of his strength to put Tokiya on his back and run away. The yellow glow luminated brighter until the wooden pillar burst into pieces. All of the gore of Mors' body began to reform into a human shape. Mors was being revived.
The soldiers who had already drawn their weapons and were preparing to charge at Mors, but they were stopped. Kaluk stepped in front of them as he placed his hand on his sword.
"Stand down men. You'll stand no chance against him. We have to find a way to kill this thing permanently."
Kaluk drew his sword and approached the glow. However, while Mors' body was regenerating, the yellow glow would not allow him to get close. Kaluk remained calm and prepared to attack as soon as the magical barrier disappeared. Eventually Mors' body had fully reconstructed.
"How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! Where is that man? I cannot believe he pretended to be a follower of Fate just to fool me. That is a sin! A sin!"
While Mors was distracted by his monologue, not even noticing the soldiers around him, Kaluk swiftly dashed at him with an elegant form. The moment Kaluk's sword was about slice Mors, the wide, mad eyes of the cultist pierced Kaluk. Mors dodged the sword.
Mors voice was more crazed and loud than ever before.
"You are also a heretic! You do not deserve to even breath the same air as me!"
Mors jumped up and curled his legs back. His legs were truly his most powerful weapon. They were what allowed him to perform such powerful launches. One serious kick from them would mean death. While in midair, Mors extended his legs, which brutally hit Kaluk in the face.
Every single bone in Kaluk's head shattered, and his blood flew everywhere. His eyes popped out of his skull, and his bone fragments flew like the shrapnel of a grenade. Kaluk's body was sent flying back about fifteen feet.
The soldiers stood their ground not out of bravery but out of pure fear. Mors stared at them with his wide eyes. Mors was no longer sane. The way Gremory had insulted his faith was unacceptable. Mors bent his legs and launched himself past the soldiers. Once he hit the ground, he began running in the direction Gremory had taken Tokiya.