Marcus was already using the rest of his crew as human shields and making a play to stay away from the fighting. It was the kind of craven tactic I expected from him, but to cut and run while the rest of your groupies were dying in a melee was disgraceful in the extreme. Tahar followed up her brutal headshot with a few more, shredding people to pieces and sending them flying into the mud. It seemed as if threatening her good friend was enough of a reason to cross the line. I didn’t disagree with her on that front.

Perhaps he should have made a better plan though. His current one was still compromised by his unwillingness to heed other people’s warnings. It was a motley crew of fighters who had absolutely no business dealing with me. I almost felt bad after I turned the first guy into a shish kebab using Stigma, almost. I was all out of sympathy for them after they dragged Cali into this mess. I wasn’t going to hold back.

It would be a fruitless effort to recall every detail of the ensuing chaos. Bodies flew en masse as both sides attempted to see a quick end to the battle. What should have been a forgone conclusion was anything but with me on one side. I was strong enough to kill forty men with significantly more training and experience than the collection of dregs that Marcus collected with promises of immense wealth. One, two, three. The last man crumpled to the floor as Stigma smashed through his wooden-board shield like it was made from paper, leaving him with a chest-wide gash across his front.

I became so engrossed in slaying all who dared attack me that I didn’t notice Cali sneaking up on me.

“Ren, I do not have my Halberd.”

“Shit! You scared the hell out of me!”

It was an honest reaction - it was hard to hear her over the sounds of people screaming and shouting. I cut down another man as he tried to blindside me from the left while I was distracted. Cali ducked down and stole his sword, quickly putting it to use and adding another life to her own killing tally. She ducked out of the way as another arrow flew and struck down a man wielding a wooden club; “I see that Tahar has abandoned her sense of pacifism.”

“You better thank her when we meet up again!” I grunted, “She’s doing this for your sake.”

“This is all very unnecessary, I was about to make my escape.”

“Bullshit.”

With a mighty swing, I cleaved two heads from two pairs of shoulders at the same time. Sensing that I needed to do more to scare away our attackers, I kicked into high gear and started what could best be described as a vicious, one-sided massacre. None of the men who Marcus mustered were even worthy of the effort it took to dispatch them. Blood and viscera flew freely as I sliced, diced and bisected with no regard for keeping my boots clean. The numbers got thin very quickly indeed, and Marcus was left staring at the carnage that we collectively unleashed.

Was it a problem that I was becoming numb to this sort of thing? I knew that behind the eyes of every man I killed, there was a collection of family and friends, people who would feel a great loss if they died here. I killed another four of them like I was cutting down weeds in a garden. Some of them dropped their weapons and fled. Tahar was just as devastating from her perch on the roof. Those who stood out in the open or tried to meet us in the middle were likely to be shot in the back before reaching us.

I wiped the blood from my eyes with the back of my hand and tried to focus. I needed to protect Cali from them, she couldn’t take hits like I could. That was the entire reason we were in this situation in the first place. I caught one of them so hard that he flew off of his feet and collided with another, knocking them down to the ground and almost drowning them in their blood. It was a short and mania-inducing fight. I stood there and held my ground, swinging wildly like a man possessed.

“They’re all dead, Ren. You can stop now.”

I allowed Stigma to rest in the dirt.

Two dozen bodies lay in the formerly pristine plaza. The white cobbles had been left drenched blood red. They’d be picking out bits and pieces of human for some time to come. The entire thing was a wild, madness fuelled blur that I only returned from when the fighting was over and no more voices could be heard. Marcus was standing there shell-shocked by the ease at which I dispatched his men.

“Now, are you going to explain to me where that money came from?” I asked.

“You’re a fucking monster! Stay away from me!”

Not what I wanted to hear. I grabbed him before he could get away and threw him into the dirt, which made it perfectly clear to him that there was no getting away from me now.

“My last bit of patience is done with, Marcus. I let you off easy last time, and this is how you decided to repay me? Contrary to what you think, I don’t like killing people if I don’t have to. I would have been happy to let you go about your business if you’d just stayed out of my way.”

Marcus started talking in a desperate attempt to stave off my fury, “Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you what I heard, but I don’t know everything – do you think that I have that kind of money to throw around?”

“I already guessed that from the quality of your men.”

“I heard some rumours that the Governor was the one putting up the cash, but he asked the watchmen to keep it a secret because it came from the public coffers. If you want to get rid of it you’re going to have to go and find him. I swear!”

“And where the hell did you put Cali’s halberd?”

Marcus replied as quickly as a whip, “It’s in the warehouse on Barkhorn Street.” He held his hands out in front of him in a vain attempt to protect himself from my attacks. I stared him down for a moment longer as Tahar landed beside us and scared the seven hells out of him.

“I suspected as much,” Cali said, “I know where that is. We can go and retrieve it.”

Marcus moved to another stage of grief; bargaining.

“I didn’t mean anything personal by this, Ren. I really didn’t. You know how the game’s played, don’t you? It was too much money for anybody to turn down. If you were in my shoes, you’d do the same thing!”

“I seem to recall you saying that you were going to kill Cali even after I handed myself over – something about making me suffer?” I was enjoying watching him squirm way too much. I was almost worrying myself. Sensing that I was unmoved by his pleas for mercy, he turned to anger instead.

“You think you can just walk around and do shit like this without anyone noticing Ren?” he yelled, his face turning red in a blind fury, “I’m not the only one who has it out for you. You better keep a close eye on those two fucking whores behind you – or somebody will serve you their fucking heads on a plate!”

“Charming.”

I’d had enough. I brought Stigma’s bloodied edge down through his skull and cleaved his head clean in two. He died as he lived, unaware of his own weaknesses and outraged at things outside of his control. I pushed his head back with my boot and stabbed him in the chest, consuming his soul and his abilities for my own use. It was very satisfying to see his body wither slightly. I turned back and reckoned with the huge amount of damage that we caused during the fight. There were bodies everywhere, sitting on benches, slumped into the grass, or pulverised against solid walls by Tahar’s arrows.

“That wasn’t much of a challenge,” Cali quipped, “Not even exciting.”

I cleared my throat and nodded in Tahar’s direction. Unusually, Cali picked up on my social cue.

“Thank you for this Tahar - you sacrificed a virtue for me.”

Tahar smiled with some sadness in her gaze, “What are virtues for, if not to be broken? I could not allow them to kill a close friend like this.”

It surprised me how quickly the entire situation resolved itself, but I suppose it was in line with Sakura’s precious rule of threes. Marcus and I started as allies, met as enemies, and said farewell as victim and offender. He was a throwback at this point – someone who I had long since left behind thanks to my accelerated stat growth and skill stealing. The only realistic outcome for this fight was a crushing defeat, a massacre even. It was funny that in a world where there were hard numbers attached to every person and living thing, Marcus still miscalculated my strength based on his own biases.

There was no convincing some people. All the numbers and evidence in the world weren’t enough to change the mind of the dogmatic. Marcus believed earnestly that he was righteous and that was all that mattered to the outcome. Using maths never occurred to him because it would demand an acknowledgement that he was out of his depth. Marcus wanted to kill me and it didn’t matter how it came about. It was impossible to fully insulate people from ignorance when emotions were running high.

“They didn’t rough you up too bad, did they?” I asked. It was too late to dole out an appropriate punishment if they had.

Cali shook her head, “They punched me once or twice, but otherwise left me alone. I don’t mean to imitate you but I barely felt a thing.”

Cali led us back to where the warehouse was located. Nobody saw fit to pursue us after such a violent fight in a high-class district of the city, though I was fairly confident that I’d killed a few watchmen who tried to jump in and take a share of the bounty. While in any other town that was liable to make things worse, over here most of the watchmen didn’t much care for solidarity in the workplace. Getting your head chopped off would be seen as their fault for abandoning their posts and chasing bounties instead of doing their jobs.

“It should be in here, give me a moment.”

Cali dipped into the building and returned a minute later with her Halberd and other belongings in tow. She frowned while ruffling through her bag.

“Is something wrong?”

“They took my potions.”

“And not the money?”

“No, that’s still here. They must have been planning to split it up later.”

Thank goodness for that. Cali was funding a lot of these ventures through her noble bank account. It was a relief that none of her irreplaceable or expensive things were missing. None of the men Marcus brought were brave enough to try and use her weapon without preparation first, the only smart choice they’d made thus far. I sighed and tried to clean off my face a little so that I didn’t look like a blood-soaked psychopath. A bath would do us wonders.

“I don’t know how we’re going to handle the Governor spending public money on this bullshit. That’s a step above my usual pay grade.”

Cali was straight to the point as ever, “Warmajor Xerces will handle it. She has a personal vendetta against individuals who abuse public money in such a way.”

“Really? A public official holding another to account, that’d be a first.”

“Xerces is a stickler for the rules. Going over the heads of the local military officials to place a private bounty using public money is a plain violation of the principles on which the Federation was founded. The Governor could face serious consequences for doing so.”

“Well, she better get around to busting his ass soon. I don’t want to deal with this any longer than we have to.”

“I agree. I expected being wanted by an entire city to be more stimulating than this.”

Petty King John understood that he had been humbled, not by the actions of the Absolver, or by his own followers, but by his own refusal to heed the warnings that were offered to him. He fully accepted his responsibility in part leading to the deaths of two of his most promising understudies, and he also accepted that the same level of trust he enjoyed before the incident would not be afforded again so easily. Isolated by the people who once affirmed their support come what may, John secluded himself to his chambers within the fort while recovering from his injuries. How quickly his supposed friends fled once things became difficult or complicated.

What had he been working for all these years?

John was furious at how things played out. His position was always that the Absolver should take a more aggressive stance against the Federation and their refusal to counter the threats posed by the corruption, but that was not predicated on his removal. John was not attempting to launch a coup or a vain power grab for his own purposes. But over time the men and women who rallied to his side became increasingly obsessed with it as a vehicle for just that.

John found himself swept away by the tide. Flinching in the face of outside pressure would only make matters more unstable. What a hopeless person he became. Trapped in a cage of his own making, trying to put out fires that he was responsible for starting. He was surrounded on all sides by people who wouldn’t last one second if he put them out into the cold.

He watched through the window as a collection of squires trained their swordsmanship in the yard below. The weather took a turn for the worse in recent weeks but that wasn’t enough to keep the zealous from remaining diligent in their training. Every single one aspired to be a knight with dignity and righteousness. His musings were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Joseph. He looked a saddening sight with one arm wrapped in a sling and the swelling still plaguing his features.

“John! I think you need to hear about this.”

John forgave his insolence in entering without knocking and nodded, “What’s the matter? I haven’t seen you in this much of a hurry before.”

“Knight-Errant William has just accused the Absolver of misplacing the corrupted items within the armoury, and they went to check. It’s been ransacked. All of them are gone!”

John stood from his chair in outrage, “They’re gone?”

Joseph nodded, “I saw it with my own two eyes. They forced the vault keeper to open the door, and there wasn’t a single damnable thing left inside.”

There was no time to waste. John grabbed his sword and cape, rushing down the long, winding stairs to reach the area where the drama was now playing out. His mind was torn between two conflicting emotions. One was the abject fear of allowing such dangerous things to fall into the hands of innocent people, and the other was a looming sense of dread at the potential consequences of such a development. Whether the Absolver had a hand in this scheme or not, it would surely kickstart the infighting that he’d devoted his life to avoiding.

Knight-Errant William stood atop the marshal’s stage with a gaggle of his fellow knights crowding him from below. He bellowed to them in words of anger and accusation – declaring that the Absolver had done everything but personally drive a dagger into the backs of their deceased comrades and forbearers. His bombast was silenced as the old wolf approached. He ducked out of the way as John stormed his way up onto the wooden decking and studied the rabble-rousing men.

“Petty King John, there is malice most foul, and from the very man who is chosen to lead our good order!”

John held aloft his hand and silenced William’s pleas, “To make such an accusation is grave, I hope that you understand you will bear the consequences should they fail to pass muster?”

William frowned, “Petty King Odera heard from one of the men that he was tasked with transporting an item from within the vault. He has solid evidence, and testimony to tie the plot to the Absolver. We cannot stand back and allow this to continue!”

John’s response was withering, “And where is Petty King Odera now?”

“H-He’s gathering his men, sir.”

John scoffed, “As I thought. Odera is a man who is only concerned with the act of war and not its avoidance. I will gather the others and see to it that the Absolver answers personally to our inquiries.”

Some of the men cheered, but others were not convinced. John’s name was besmirched by his actions, and by the words of those who were once his compatriots. His control over the militant wing of the order was slipping day by day. Soon he would no longer be able to exert influence over their decision-making. Odera was the one who worried him the most. He fancied himself as the next Absolver and didn’t care how many taboos he broke to get there.

This was his last desperate attempt to avert the disaster that he knew was on the horizon. He could worry about the implications of the theft later after he was assured that the order wouldn’t tear itself in two over it. He quickly motioned to Joseph and his other remaining loyalists to get ready for trouble using a signal only known to them. As they dispersed to prepare their weapons, John singled out one of the vault keepers from the crowd.

“Vault keeper, is it true that we have been robbed of our solemn collection?”

The knight closed his eyes and nodded, “It’s true, Petty King. There is nary a piece left to guard.”

“And how did they gain access to the vault?”

“I can only assume that one of our number used their keys.”

John was as superstitious as they came in the order. He’d been raised in a way that emphasized the immense danger that being close to the relics presented, but he always thought it was foolish of them not to keep a close eye on what was going on inside the vault as well. It was an uneasy compromise made between the reformists and the senior members that no one man should be permitted to investigate the items inside.

The reason? The senior members refused to do their duty and stand guard if they were required to do so, which also led to a situation where the reformists were the only ones volunteering for the job. That was not allowed to stand – so instead of forcing the most zealous to do as their commanding officers asked, the reformists were forbidden from inspecting the cursed items unless in extraordinary circumstances.

John considered it a foolish agreement to sustain. There was no reason to doubt the sincerity of their fellow knights in such a manner. It was as if they were silently accusing them of plotting to steal the relics from the moment the debate was ignited. This incident would change nothing, only entrench the sides deeper into their respective arguments. The reformists would claim that this was the result of their methods being rejected, while the zealous would insist that a reformist was the one responsible for stealing them.

Joseph was already back, breathless and without his sword or equipment; “Sir – the others are already here. They’re riding through the front gate now!” John resisted the urge to swear. It seemed that the information was already leaking from every pair of lips to any pair of ears willing to listen. The vultures were circling to pick the bones clean now.

John went out to meet them at the front door. Odera was at the head of the group, dismounting his horse and preparing to have his moment in the sun. John was not going to allow him to turn the proceedings into a circus like he desired. The Absolver would answer their questions, and a course of action would be settled upon if needed.

“John! I didn’t expect to see you out and about so soon,” he grinned – trying his best to sucker up to him before the fighting started.

“My injuries were not so severe to keep me confined to my chambers,” John replied, “I take it that all of you good men are aware of the most serious accusations that have been levied upon the Absolver.”

Odera concurred, “We have. One of my men personally confirmed that the vault is now empty.”

“Then we shall see the Absolver and demand answers. I can only hope that they are satisfactory.”

Odera was not going to cede control so easily, “And why should we not behead the man and be done with it?”

“You mean to kill the holiest leader of our order without asking any questions?” John roared, “To what does our oath mean to you?”

“We swear no oath to the Absolver! Only to what we think is just and right. The Absolver has a hand in this, I know he does. He is the only man with the means to concoct a conspiracy as wide-reaching as this! You simply serve to protect him from his rightful punishment, as you have always done!”

“Watch your tone, Odera. I will not stand idly by while you besmirch my name.”

Odera got closer to John with a threatening gait, “There is nothing left to ravage with my mere words, John. Your reputation lies in tatters as nothing more than an obstinate fool who does not even recognise the unsteady ground he preaches upon. We are not so blind as you believe. You have always stemmed our efforts for the sake of your coward’s peace.”

Insulting John directly was a daring manoeuvre. He commanded much loyalty with some of the other Petty Kings, and they would not condone any attempts to implicate him as a member of the conspiracy. Several disapproving faces emerged from the crowd and came between them before fists were thrown.

The loudest was Petty King Xander, “Stay your tongue, Odera! No one has given as much for our cause as John. Need I remind you of your station?”

A cowed Odera shied away from direct confrontation and backed up with a wagged finger, “Once we have our answers from the Absolver, you’ll see that I’m right. I promise you that.”

To see such an assembly of high-ranking knights was unprecedented. The last time every Petty King gathered in one place was for the death of the previous Absolver and the appointment of her replacement. Curious eyes surrounded them as the lower knights revelled in their collective awe. The Absolver would not be able to make excuses before a show of force like this. John turned and led the group into the main building of the fort. The clatter of armour was deafening as two dozen men charged through the building and headed to the tower where the Absolver’s study was located.

John knocked thrice.

“Come in.”

John calmed his nerves and pushed the door open. Considering the circumstances, the Absolver was remarkably composed in the face of a full-blown rebellion by his own men. He sat at his desk with a beaming smile and motioned to one of the chairs as if welcoming any other guest.

“What a rare sight this is, the good Petty Kings of our order, all here in one place. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

John was forced to hold his hand outwards to prevent Odera from running in and making a fool of himself. He was nothing more than a rabid dog eager to bite at his master’s heels. Odera wouldn’t treat this moment with the gravity that it demanded or deserved.

“Absolver. A serious accusation has been levied at your feet. That you are party to a conspiracy that has robbed our vault of its relics and dispensed them into the hands of innocent people. What say you?” The others were silent as John laid out the charges. He said everything they wanted to say, cutting to the heart of the matter with the sober sense of duty that they expected from him.

The silence continued for some time as the Absolver steepled his fingers together and sighed.

“And if I were responsible for this offence?”

“You would be removed from your position.”

“By what means? The Absolver’s chair confers total power to the holder.”

Odera stepped in, “You cannot hold the Absolver’s chair without our support. A leader without men is no leader at all.”

The Absolver laughed briskly, “Yet, even if that were to pass, the problem at hand would not be solved.”

“Stop speaking in circles,” Odera demanded, “We asked you a simple question. Were you, or were you not, part of the conspiracy?”

“No matter the answer I give – the wheel is already in motion. Spinning out of control with nobody to stop it. Throw me in a dungeon, take the head from my shoulders, and that which I have toiled for so long to achieve will come all the same. Just as you have already concluded that you must remove me from my position. I will not humour this with a response because it does not matter.”

Odera was furious, “Do not think that you can avoid judgement with your fakeries and tricks!” But the rest of the Petty Kings remained still. The Absolver was a man they held in high esteem, even with their differences.

John took his opportunity to act, “Let us jail him, lock him inside of his chambers and keep a close watch. We will root out the co-conspirators and have our answers one way or another.”

Yet another compromise, but no one knight was willing to stain their honour by executing him then and there. The Absolver smiled as a pair of chains were locked around his wrists and he was led away to be placed under house arrest. The others stared at John, in some disbelief that he would be willing to order such an extreme solution.

“Let us discover the truth together, and recover the relics before they can cause any harm.”

It was the rare objective that could unify an ambitious lot like this.