Chapter 4: 4. The Silver-Chain King – Heresy City Arc.

4. The Silver-Chain King - Heresy City Arc

Serafim rushed down the streets, Saewynn’s hand in his own as he pushed past groups of Edenia citizens. His gaze went over his shoulder as his heartbeat galloped.

    “Serafim, what’s going on? Did they-“

“No, it’s far worse, far far worse than I had expected,” Serafim said, noticing the cement gray sky rumbling in the distance could be made out. slow drizzles of rain began to plummet from the sky and mix in with the sweat on his forehead and clothes. “It’s not one of them, it’s one of my own. A traitor.”

     Serafim continued down the interconnected network of alleyways, barely illuminated by the reflections of light cast from the strange, cycloptic flesh beasts tapered to their wall, their open mouths letting out an orb of red-orange light.

     I need to get her out of here. Damnit, I knew this was a bad idea bringing her here, what the hell was I thinking?

    The sound of quick moving footsteps tapping on the roofs of the nearby building came within earshot and Serafim caught sight of a blurred, cloaked figure rushing past them on the rooftops and crash in front of them as he screeched into a stop.

      “It’s been a while Sera.” The figure said, towering over the two of them, Serafim couldn’t see his entire face clearly but he just knew that he was smiling. There was only one person that called him by that name. “What brings you to His Righteousness’ city? Let me guess they sent you to join your comrades as fodder hmm? Of course they did, we’re nothing but chess pieces to them.”

    “I see you’re doing well after spitting on our dead comrades’ memory, Barbarus” Serafim replied, his tone cold and indifferent, reflecting his emotions as he narrowed down his gaze on the figure. Serafim used his hand to pull Saewynn behind him. “They must be real proud seeing you here as part of them.”

     “The memories of dead men don’t make me lose sleep anymore,” Barbarus said, pulling down his hood and letting half of his brown hair fall loose with the rest secured on the crown in a top knot. Those familiar icy blue eyes almost froze him in place, it’s like he recognized it as he cocked his head back and smirked, taking off and tossing out his cloak. “Quite frankly, I’ve had better nights here than being an exorcist. Let’s see what did they call me, ah I remember. Silver Chain King Barbarus, but these mere titles mean nothing once you’re gone.”

    “Saewynn, get out of here. Now.”

“But I ca-“

   “Damnit Morgen, won’t you just listen to me this once! I said go!”

“Who’s the girl?” Barbarus asked, swinging a thick silver chain in hand that wrapped around his well-toned, pale arms ending at his bicep. His eyes widened as a devilish grin formed at the edges of his lips. “Quite funny you mistake her for your little brother, what is she? A friend? A relative? Ah, no I know what she is, she’s your plaything isn’t she?”

   Serafim drew the shortswords at his hip and lunged at him, a loud clang erupted between with sparks flying from the sheer force.

   “Shut the hell up,” Serafim growled through gritted teeth, only making Barbarus’ grin grow even wider as he swung his chain in quick, wind-splitting arcs that were too random and overwhelming as Serafim leaped back whilst deflecting each strike, his breath now ragged and heavy. “My brother’s name shouldn’t be disgraced by coming out of your mouth and don’t you ever say another word about Saewynn again.”

     Barbarus raised both his hands in the air, that snake like grin still etched on his face. “Whatever you say chief. Heh heh, it doesn’t matter because both of you will be joining him soon, you should be thanking me really, uniting two lost siblings doesn’t sound so bad does it?”

     Serafim leapt towards him again, this time he was met with a blurry whirlwind of gleaming silver splitting in multiple directions, creating a dust wave in the wake of the attack.

    Serafim jumped back to get some distance, a clang of metal filled the nearby surroundings as he felt his hand fall limp, a heavy throbbing pain permeated his body as wet trickles of liquid dripped to the ground.

      Saewynn was about to step forward but Serafim scowled out her, waving his hand in dismissal and gritting his teeth. “I said go! Are you asking to get killed? Last thing I need is more corpses on my hands got that?”

    Saewynn brought her clenched hand over her chest, her face looked conflicted but eventually she accepted and began to sprint in the opposite direction.

   Serafim held down both middle fingers, while his index and little fingers extended upwards. Barbarus’ eyes widened at seeing this, before he could leap back, Serafim uttered the incantation. “Tav’era”

    Serafim swung his blade in a wide arc, releasing a ribbon of black flames with red outlines that followed the arc of his blade, weaving around the alleyway and unleashed in a burst of black flames.

    Serafim darted through the other alleyway, leaping through a cloud of smoke that emerged in the wake of his spell. The only incantation he had mastered as an exorcist made him reconsider learning kesem and its spells.

    The sound of rattling silver chains came behind him, his hand forced back as a thunderous rupture that shook the nearby surroundings, sending rubble and clouds of dust that clouded his view.

  Serafim groaned as he tried to get back to his feet, his hand quivering as his labored breathing mixed in with the loud, whoosh sound coming from the swinging chains. Barbarus’ cocky grin emerged from the dust cloud as he swaggered into his point of view, most of his cloak was scorched but the flesh underneath wasn’t burnt in the slightest.

 Instead, scorched portions of it bubbled like hot rubber as it whipped towards scorched areas and reshaped itself almost as if patching itself back together. Fleshcraft.

   Serafim clenched his jaw, a low growl coming from the depths of his throat, like the flames of hell crackling in hell at the sight of him wearing the standard issued black coat of the Old Order, the golden pendant with a six-pointed star dangled on his neck.

    “My oh my how pitiful you’ve become Serafim. Using a keshaphim as a distraction, is this what the Order has become? What a joke.” Barbarus mocked, his head cocked back and covered in shadow. The only thing Serafim could make out were his eyes, deranged, outstretched and shadowy, his pupils widened into twin red voids that looked similar to his own when he detected a Klipah. “Forget it, there’s no point in a little star trying to outshine the sun, give it up.”

    Serafim leapt at him, trying to close the distance but his sword strike was blocked by Barbarus’ chain wrapped arm. “So those silver chains, they’re your Anti-Klipah Weapon huh? Now tell me, why do you hate the Order so much? After everything, they did for you? Are you’re gonna throw it all away? What about your friends? Don’t tell me you’re gonna hurt their feelings because I know damn well they’d be heartbroken to realize the friend they mourned for is out here serving the very people that sent their comrades to their grave.”

    “Shut up!” Barbarus yelled, the sound of bone crunching filled Serafim’s ears, sending him tumbling backwards and scraping his knee on the stone in a pathetic attempt to take a hard roll on the stone. “Maybe the Order is paradise to you, that doesn’t mean it was that way for everyone. The moment they notice you have an affinity for making contracts with Klipah, you’re as good as theirs, you’ve heard the rumors of them sending Klipah to attack innocent families to get a single exorcist candidate, they’re less of rumors and more reality than you think.”

     Serafim’s expression softened at the realization, and he could only mutter the words. “I’m aware of that.”

    “Then why do you continue to serve them? It’s because of what happened that night with your brother and the ritual?” Barbarus said, his tone wasn’t filled with the veneer of arrogance it had before. “I don’t want to be that guy but your brother is gone, or at least what was human of him is.”

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    “Like you’d have any idea.” Serafim snapped back, wiping his nose, his hand coming back drenched in scarlet. His quick shallow breaths escaped from his constricted lungs as air failed to get in his body. “The only thing I have left is hope, this flame that burns inside me, if I let it die out what else do I have to live for? A man without hope is as good as a dead man.”

    Barbarus sneered, the grip on his chains caused the veins of the back of his palm where his brand of the priesthood was. An upright, open palm with two thumbs at each side and three fingers in the middle pointed upwards, a single ominous eye embedded in the middle similar to an exorcist’s red eye.

  “That’s how they lured me in too, promised me that one day I’ll be reunited with my little brother and mother when I got here. It’s been almost a decade and I haven’t seen them.” Barbarus said, his tone was more cynical with his upper lip curled as he looked down on Serafim. “The thing with hope is that it’s like the very chains I swing, it ensnares people like you without purpose with false dreams because it’s much better than dealing with reality. You want to know the negative emotion the Klipah I’m contracted to is born from? The one who forged these chains in exchange for half my life? That Klipah was born humanity’s broken dreams.”

    Serafim sprinted forward, his arm shooting upwards as he closed the distance between them, evading the chain swings with all the finesse he could muster, this only seemed to make Barbarus’ grin grow wider. “I see, a head-on attack? Is this your last stand as an exorcist or is there another plan.”

    Serafim took in a breath as he mustered up all the qlifot he had to move so fast when he appeared behind Barbarus with kefitzat haderech, he could still make out the afterimage in front of him as he drew his sword for the killing blow.

    A silver blur whipped past him and sent him, rolling to the floor and crashing on a wall.

Serafim raised his shaking hand to his jaw, an explosive pulsating pain burst on his cheek where he was stabbed as well as his upper jaw. He tried to scream but it came off as an incoherent mess of jumbled together words, the taste of iron and a warm liquid pooling his mouth, grazing his teeth.

     He watched the blade he throw up in the sky, aimed to strike Barbarus in the head merely lop off a lock of his hair as it clanged on the ground. Barbarus’ agape stare and he didn’t see it coming, the seeping blood began to fill the side of his face, the remaining bits of his ear struggled to reattach even with fresh craft.

    “ I must say that was rather disappointing. Your pitiful ideology of not dying because you still have hope is what people looking for an excuse to live say to themselves when they know deep down their life is meaningless.” Barbarus smiled, a faint smile riddled with sinister undertones. He could almost feel it dripping like snake’s venom the more he tried to sense his spiritual presence. “I loved this little reunion of ours but like all things in life it must come to an end, consider yourself lucky you were snuffed out by someone who was from the Order and not those blood-hungry zealots.”

  Barbarus raised his chain, the veins underneath his chain-wrapped arms bulged against the surface as if they were about to explode and so did the veins around his blackened eye with multiple rings forming a six-pointed star inside a circle and various mystical letters inside it that Serafim immediately recognized as one of the twenty-seven names of God-Queen Odelia.

       Barbarus’ eyes widened as a subtle whoosh sound could be heard by both of them, a hooded figure appeared behind them, their movements swift and effortless, Serafim watched as Barbarus turned his head in the direction of the figure, a scowl on his face.

   “I felt the presence of two exorcists but couldn’t discern whom. It’s been a while, Silver Chain King.” The figure said in a flat tone, almost as if they were trying to mask their voice. “I couldn’t believe it was your qlifot I detected but here you are, and Serafim you look as lovely as ever.”

   “Tch! Who the hell are you?” Barbarus said with a ferocious scowl, his grip on the chain in hand. “You must be an exorcist, but it’s a bit strange seeing as there’s no qlifot coming from you. Are you one of the Top Hats? A handler here to save your agent? Either way, it doesn’t matter, you’ve interfered in my business that in itself is unforgivable.”

   Serafim hacked out blood-filled coughs before yelling out to the figure. “Get outta here! He’s not an exor..cist, he’s a Punish…meant Cleric he’ll ki..ll you. Run while you still have the chance!”

    “A Punishment Cleric you say? Well, then it’s decided. The order to bring him dead alive has turned into bringing back a corpse to headquarters.” The f    “A Punishment Cleric you say? Well, then it’s decided. The order to bring him dead alive has turned into bringing back a corpse to headquarters.” The figure said, Serafim could feel them glancing at them, noticing a gleam of silver reflecting in the moonlight under that hood. “My, oh my what do you have here? Michiel’s student hmm?”

     Barbarus swooped forward to attack the cloaked exorcist, quickly engaging them and forcing them back with a flurry of chain swings, Serafim’s mouth dropped at the sight of the figure moving so fast that all he could make it out were afterimages.

     “H-How the hell are you-“

“So you throw away the lives of your allies that died in vain to honor your legacy by serving the ones that took their lives, pathetic.” The figure spat, the utter disdain in their voice was like splashing acid on someone’s face. Barbarus’ jaw clenched as he let out a grunt of effort, bringing down his chains that stopped midway from the figure.

    “Aargh!” Barbarus yelled, eyes burning with hatred as he swung his chain that split into multiple smaller chains that encased the alleyway, defying the laws of physics as they kept the same unimaginable speeds. “Why the hell can’t I land a hit on you?”

     The figure ducked and weaved, easily evading each swing. “I’ve studied almost every exorcist’s technique in grave detail, the thing about your chains is even though it’s made out of your contracted Klipah’s hardened skin, it’s still nothing compared to an Enhancement Type contract.”

    “So that explains your spe-“

The figure burst past Barbarus, a gust of wind blowing past him with his hand outstretched and a large iron war fan in hand.

  In the blink of an eye, a spray of blood erupted from in front of Barbarus as he crumbled to the ground with a loud cling sound from his chains.

   Serafim watched as a large, sinewy mass of outstretched flesh whipped from the sky and wrapped around him before the figure could strike again, pulling him upwards as he noticed the silhouette of a cloak billowing in the moonlight with a curved birdlike mask before it took off in the distance.

     Serafim focused his attention on the now familiar figure and gave a faint smile as he looked up at him. “It’s good to see you Hermés.”

“It’s nice to see you too, old friend.” The figure said, pulling down his hood and revealing a bronze-skinned boy with the usual flamboyant air about him. He ran a hand through his long, side-parted copper hair and smiled, a thin dyed blue braid was blowing in the wind’s direction. “But it’s not Hermés. It’s Phantom Step Hermés, now do you want to start a revolution?”

 

    

  

  

 

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