《Ashes of Empires》Chapter 116 - Truth
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Kaden quickly made his way further outside of the town towards some trees in hope that he would be harder to follow. Nelsen was a bit problematic. He worshipped Jorn, God of Laws. Due to this, Nelsen was one to hunt down criminals when he could.
"Still, he is a hypocrite just like all worshippers of gods", Kaden muttered to himself. "As soon as something that concerned him directly, his friend, Erral, he immediately went against laws he should have been upholding instead of going by the rules."
Of course, this was due to Kaden's own actions and that there was indeed foul play involved. Still, are laws something you only follow when it suits you?
Not that Kaden cared much how devout Nelsen was, but that would still give him some justifiable excuse.
After a while Kaden was thinking Nelsen had not been able to follow him, but just as soon as he thought that, he sensed someone approach quickly from behind him. It was time to deal with the matter after all. Kaden stopped at an opening nearby and waited. Soon after there was some rustling as Nelsen appeared.
Kaden stared at Nelsen quietly and he did the same.
"What brings you here Nelsen?" Kaden asked casually as if there was nothing strange going on. "I would have thought you were at Corand."
"I could ask the same from you", Nelsen answered. "How is it that you are here? You should be with the church, yes?"
While this Nelsen put away some kind of tool. Kaden guessed it was something Nelsen had used to track him. Where and how he got it, he did not know, but at moment, it didn't matter. He had probably paid quite a bit for such an item. Tracking tools were often expensive depending on quality.
"Oh, there were some... problems at the place where I went with the inquisitor", Kaden continued. "There were also some findings I wanted to take look at and get church's favor."
A terrible excuse, but Kaden didn't care.
"Now, if you just came to speak with me since you happened to notice me, I will be going now", Kaden continued his charade.
At first Nelsen didn't say anything, but then he finally asked a question.
"Did you do it?" Nelsen asked.
"Do what?" Kaden replied with a sneer. Indeed it was the reason. Nelsen was onto him. He had to die. No need to hide anything.
"Did you kill Erral? Did you murder his family? What about the cultists", Nelsen demanded to know. "There are too many deaths, disapearances and events related to you. Erral being only the latest victim."
"Haha, whats wrong?" Kaden continued his mocking. "Erral clearly had dealings with cultists. Even the church decided so or at least did not care to investigate further. Why are you so concerned about death of a ... cultist?"
Nelsen wasn't going to listen to it anymore.
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"Clearly all of it was your doing then", Nelsen said angrily and pulled out his huge two handed sword. "Explain everything. Are you a worshipper of God of Lies? No matter how much I investigated I found no motive. If there weren't signs of vengeance mana, I would have assumed Erral go too close to something. Before I put you down and drag you back to Corand, dead or alive, I want to know why."
"A cultist?" Kaden rolled his eyes. "Do you take me for a fool? God of Lies is just another damn god. Liars and deceivers all of them. Why would I ever worship one that obviously doesn't even hide the fact? I spit on gods. What? Did you think I would ever give a single prayer to gods? Remember how I knelt before Jorn's altar. In my mind I cursed and spit at him. That is all gods deserve."
Nelsen looked shocked. Such words were rarely heard. Gods were part of everyone's lives. Humans needed them to cultivate mana. Even those who didn't cultivate, worshipped them to gain their influence and make their lives better. Someone like Kaden was nonexistent.
"Shame Erral wasn't a perfect target after all", Kaden continued while Nelsen was still trying to comprehend what he just heard. He pulled out Vengeance. It gloved with that sickly green light. Nelsen clearly saw the blade. "Serin's soul screamed for months nonstop. His soul has been obliterated by now, though. He didn't deserve to even go to hell."
Nelsen was still listening.
"As for Erral. His soul was torn to shreds", Kaden grinned Nelsen who almost attacked at that point, but held his rage since Kaden was still letting out information. "If anything made it to the afterlife, it was probably like a torn broken cloth. Hehe. I'm not certain why, but it must be that Erral was merely someone who followed orders and was at wrong place at the wrong time. He still needed to die. He commanded the soldiers who my family was made to fight against."
Kaden let that sink in for a moment. He wasn't sure why, but he wanted Nelsen to know. He had not spoken about his true past to anyone. He would open up to Nelsen and then kill him to silence the truth. If Nelsen won, none of it would matter anymore.
"Erral is dead, the soldiers under his command are probably purged by the church or will have their lives stained", Kaden continued. "I have to thank the demon for all that. I really have no idea how it did all that. It did not like cultists and allowing it to sow some chaos while arranging the cultist purge made it easy to convice to help me. I, of course, only had to send a bomb to Erral's family. Now they too are dead just like my family. Only I live and that is by pure chance."
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"I don't understand", Nelsen said. Since Kaden was giving the answers he wanted to know all of it. "Why would your family be in the way of the army and be killed by them? Any random civilians should be conquered, not butchered. At least not under Erral's command."
"That is where Sacronan comes into play", Kaden started explaining. "I used to live close to the border area... on Sacronan's side. Still, even if the area was going to be conquered, we would likely had been spared. Then came that Juren. My entire home village was simply conscripted and sent to die. Military on Sacronan's side will die too. Then I will kill everyone involved. Who gave the orders to start the war? Who sent the armies. Emperor? Higher church officials? On both sides? I will find all who are involved even slightly. They will all die."
"You are insane", Nelsen told Kaden.
"Maybe so, but all will burn regardless", Kaden replied. "I will defy even the gods who do not deserve worship. They have never given me anything. Under their name, people who follow them, my family and life was destroyed. All will burn. Sacronan will burn. Saint Empire will burn. Temples will burn. Gods will only hold dominion over ash."
Around at that time Kaden unleashed his powers completely. His mana armor, his plume and even his core, revealing its presence to Nelsen who did not immediately understand what he was sensing from Kaden.
"I am strong enough by now that you cannot stop me anymore", Kaden told Nelsen and pointed Vengeance at him. "You made yourself obtacle and for that I must destroy you. This blade, Vengeance, will consume your mana and grow stronger so that I can in future kill all who should die."
"A core?! What are you!" Nelsen demanded to know. "Are you actually a beast?"
"That you don't need to know", Kaden replied. "None of you ever bothered to have me studied with strong enough tools to detect the truth. You all ate my lies like breakfast and felt complacent. You thought you knew my motives and tried to make use of me. While this I grew. Now I'm strong enough to take what I want and keep growing without any help."
Around at that time Kaden decided he had spoken enough. There was no need to give Nelsen more time to prepare while performing some kind of monologue. Best time to attack was while Nelsen was still confused by the strangeness.
Kaden blasted a fully powered Fire Beam at Nelsen. Whether or not it was surprise or not, Nelsen avoided it easily.
There was one thing Kaden had to admit, Nelsen could move and act surprisingly fast despite that fact that he was dragging along a huge sword. No doubt getting directly hit by it was not something Kaden wanted to experience despite whatever defenses he had or how tough his body was.
Due to this, Kaden decided it would be best to keep distance and bombard Nelsen, if he could. Then again, Nelsen wasn't having any of that. So while Kaden shot a few Wind Blades at him and tried to wear Nelsen down, he was also trying to not get hit by the huge sword.
In fact, Kaden had not really ever fought against Nelsen. Kaden's practice partners had been other people. Nelsen probably knew quite a bit about Kaden, but the other way wasn't true.
"The situation isn't favorable to me", Kaden thought as he leaped away from the sword's path. "But that doesn't matter. This isn't enough to deter me from my goals. Once Nelsen is dead, there is none left who truly opposes me. Except the nobles, but they have yet to do much. Eventually I will be beyond them too and I will be able to destroy them too."
Kaden had no time to be distracted. Nelsen took the chance immediately and only barely Kaden was able to avoid by pushing Nelsen away with a quick Flame Burst.
With that the nearby trees and folliage was set on flames.
"I will have Erral's name cleared", Nelsen told Kaden. "You will be judged before the gods."
"Hahahaha", Kaden laughed at Nelsen. "You mean some pathetic altar? Gods won't even look. Erral will remain dead and so does his family. Your efforts are futile and pointless."
"I will end this here", Nelsen said and started doing something.
Kaden could sense Nelsen's mana speed up and power flood out. Yet, it did not completely seem his. There was something in it. Kaden could tell what it was. Usually it was what priests and other servants of gods used. It is power they gather when they worship their god. Then release it when needed.
Nelsen started to glow slightly with blueish white light.
"You will be judged before Jorn", Nelsen announced with some seriousness in his voice. "This is their power that you shun. Justice mana will determine your fate!"
Obviously it had to be something like that. Jorn was God of Laws. Obviously things like justice and judging people was part of his concepts.
"Hypocrite god", Kaden replied. Nelsen was going to use his trump card. Kaden had already revealed his, the core. The fight wasn't going to last much longer. This didn't mean Kaden didn't have something else to match Nelsen. "Your justice is based on lies and hypocrisy."
Kaden brandished Vengeance. If Nelsen was going to get juiced up on justice mana, Kaden could match it with vengeance. He wasn't quite as adept with it and it didn't probably work even the same way, but it was something he could use.
Nelsen was ready and glowing with probably his most powerful state. Kaden prepared for the true fight.
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