Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 14: Trial's End

"Not a flower, not a flower sweet,

On my black coffin let there be strown:

Not a friend, not a friend greet

My poor corpse where my bones shall be thrown:

A thousand thousand sighs to save,

Lay me, O, where

Sad true lover never find my grave,

To weep there!"

- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1602, 2nd Era.)

When the reinforcements slew the last mite, the buffer between Markos II’s joints was almost entirely worn away. The metal grated against itself with each swing of the hatchet

Their help arrived like Knights from the legends of the early 2nd era, marching the wastelands to crash into the insects. Then cut them down like a farmer to a field of wheat. Wave after wave of bugs slammed against them, but they cut through to the center of the campsite and formed an impenetrable shield.

By the time the moon was high in the sky, not a single thrashing mite was left.

None of the bugs fled; in a complete act of madness, they threw their bodies at the barrier of Knights. Dark green gunk and twitching insects painted the land as the town burned in the distance from the stray fire.

Erec sunk to the ground; the Markos II wobbled and barely held together; all of the joints felt loose. A stray wind could cause the plating to fall off. For a good half of the fight, his left arm stopped functioning, and he had to rely on his Strength to use it beneath the Armor.

But he was alive.

He hadn’t lost his head and cost his friends theirs.

Of course, Erec felt pleased to see a blinking notification in the corner of his vision. VAL once more remarked on a strange biological change twice in the fight. Erec assured him it was nothing to be concerned about, but it’d been hard to tell in the heat of the moment what he’d gained. But he suspected something significant. At one point, it was like he’d flipped a switch, his body far more responsive than before and able to shift and balance incomparably. As if he innately understood better coordination, his body fell into a rhythm of war.

As the Knights milled about torching the bug corpses to ensure there wasn’t a single survivor, Erec opened the notification from the Blessing.

Vigor Advancement: Rank F - Tier 8 → Rank F - Tier 9

Agility Advancement: Rank F - Tier 9 → Rank E - Tier 1

Erec let out a small laugh. Yes. That was a breakthrough to the E rank. He pulled up the rest of his Blessings.

Name: Erec of House Audentia

Health: 72%| Mana: 100% | Stamina: 83%

———————————————————————

Holy Virtues:

Strength: [Rank E] | [Tier 5]

Vigor: [Rank F] | [Tier 9]

Agility: [Rank E] | [Tier 1]

Perception: [Rank E] | [Tier 1]

Cognition: [Rank E] | [Tier 3]

Psyche: [Rank F] | [Tier 7]

Mysticism: [Rank F] | [Tier 1]

Faith: [Rank F] | [Tier 1]

There it was. Four of his Virtues were now in the E rank. A respectable accomplishment; plenty of humans never achieved that level of progress. They didn’t put in the time and training. But there was nowhere to go but up from here. Erec grinned beneath the helmet.

[A spike of dopamine. We survived, so I suppose that’s a natural response for an organic creature. Congratulations on not dying, intern. I’m sorry to report that the Markos II will have to be retired. The damage sustained is irreparable. We will, however, keep the helmet. It pleases me.]

That wiped the grin from his face. Baron Jeswald fronted the promissory for the loaner Armor. And while it wasn’t ungodly expensive, there was a particular reason the average commoner didn’t own a Markos I, Markos II, or Custos model. Namely, they were still an advanced piece of technology that was both hard to obtain and highly regulated, and the costs for the core were high, even in outdated ones.

“Crap.” At least if he attended the Academy, he’d receive a stipend. Maybe a few months of that would cover the money the Baron was now on the hook for.

He felt terrible, though. Even though this was a loaner Armor, a piece of near junk compared to the currently used models, the Markos II got him through a lot. It scraped him through the trial and kept him alive outside the wall for this long. He sighed. That was the way of the world; everything crumbled.

As for the helmet? Yeah, good luck convincing the Duke it was a trinket of victory deserved for bashing his son’s brains in.

Boldwick strode into their little fortress, his visor open and a big smile on his face. “Congratulations; you survived, you thrived, and you murdered a bunch of pests. Welcome to your first genuine experience of being a Knight.” His gleeful eyes took them all in. “This isn’t the line of work for heroes. No. It’s dirty, disgusting, and deadly. But look around you—“ He gestured to the viscera splashed across the room's insides. “Thanks to our efforts, the Kingdom will never hear or be threatened by these awful creatures. Take pride in that. Take pride in protecting others.”

Garin met Erec’s eyes. There was a bruise across his face from where a thrashing mite busted through his helmet. His jaw was swollen, but his friend smiled and gave a thumbs up.

“Dad?” Colin muttered in the corner of the room and groaned.

“We’ll get him to see a priest. I think it’s long past time we bring you all back within the wall. I’ll leave five of my Knights deployed on the field for clean-up, and the rest will form an escort so we may return.

All of the Knights responded to Sir Boldwick’s commands instantly; he was a Master Knight, after all. Even if they were from an assortment of the four orders, they complied without complaint and with great discipline. As he said, they began the trek back to the Kingdom not thirty minutes later.

— - ☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

Once behind the massive steel walls of the Kingdom, everyone in the group breathed easier. Garin strolled forward with his hands behind his head—helmet held by Rodren as he embraced the night air. Rodren kept a leisurely pace next to him. Erec, for his part, wanted the space to reflect on his failings that complicated the fight.

It’d been an overreaction to go so far against Colin. But what could he have done differently to stop him from starting that wild assault? They would’ve been lost if Colin had set off more fire, surely. Someone could have died, likely either himself or Rodren.

It wasn’t wrong to tackle him and disable him. It wasn’t even wrong to be angry about what Colin tried after the fact. And it was debatable if his retaliation had been wrong either. There’d been an attempt at his life.

What was wrong was that he continued to bash into Colin after he’d stopped fighting back.

Erec didn’t want to be the kind of person who’d lose his head like that, someone who’d attack indiscriminately. He didn’t even want to fight with other humans; as the swarm of thrashing mites showed, that was folly.

Maybe he was still sulking. But having the distance from other people let him sort through his feelings, even if it meant rehashing the same arguments in his head, re-framing them, and reapproaching from a different angle to gain new insights.

They trekked the fields and reached the Academy, located a mile from the city proper.

It was a prestigious campus; four large buildings devoted to each Order laid out in the cardinal directions around a central fortress. The sizeable castle-like center dominated the Academy and was four times the size of the individualized wings. In a way, it symbolized the Knight’s functionality. All of the Orders may have their differences, but they bowed their heads in respect to the Kingdom, they were a small part when compared to the will of the people.

Boldwick led them to the Verdant Oak quarter on the western side of the campus. Lush vegetation surrounded the red-bricked structure; vines grew all along the side of the brickwork, and a large greenhouse hung off the side of the building. Knights spewed out at Boldwick’s approach—he barked a couple of orders, and they took Colin off towards the central fortress of the Academy.

He turned his attention towards their group and took in the floating ball of light still displaying their activities.

Not far away, inside of that large stone fortress would be all of the nobility who played witness to their fight against the swarm.

Boldwick waved his hand—a white glyph formed, and the ball of light cracked, shattering into a cloud of dust.

“We’re done putting on a show. There were some questionable choices out there, but overall, I can’t say I’ve got much to complain about. None of you died. We made it back fine. Though your trial was cut short, I’ll keep these details in mind as I write my report.” He took a deep sigh. “Considering we’ve come back a whole day earlier than the rest of those taking the trial, I could house you in the Academy. And if you were initiates, I’d do just that.”

He looked up at the moon sinking toward the horizon.

“But you aren’t. Not yet. So, I’ll be sending you home. I recommend you enjoy the rest and consolidate your time with your Houses while you may. If you become a Knight, there is much you must give up on to serve the Kingdom. It asks a lot of you. It’s greedy, always hungry for more. So go, take the time you need, and return here the morning after the next for the ceremony.”

With that command given, the Master Knight dismissed them, Erec moved to head off with Garin to the elevator when Lyotte caught him by the arm.

Her visor was withdrawn, letting her thick black curls spill out of her advanced Armor. That grip of hers was too firm to resist with his Armor barely holding together. “How did you do it?”

Garin paused and glanced back at them, before snickering. “I’ll see you at the elevator.” He waved over his shoulder as he damn near jogged out of the situation. Erec let out a sigh, go figure Garin would misinterpret whatever this was. Lyotte’s eyes burned into him.

“I want some answers; it’s obvious something’s off.”