Knight of the Heavens

"Nice shot." My commander informally said as a Steelfur fell beside him. He wiped off the blood that had spattered onto his face.

"Tsk, I missed." I rested my gun by my side. Despite me not knowing anything that is going on, I'll trust him. He's not the type to lie to his crew for the sake of a personal goal. If he wanted something, he would straight up ask or order us to do it.

"Nevertheless, check your phone-"Just before he finished his statement, he paused and focused his rifle on the trees behind him.

I stood beside him with my weapon ready. The distance howls stopped as the surrounding air became stale. The ambient melodies of nature faded away, leaving us with nothing but our own breaths. I peered at Rin and she pulled out her gun. She slowly backed, distancing herself from us. Suddenly, the sound of snapping branches broke the silence. As I glance back towards the forest, a shadowy silhouette materialized. It was hard to see what it was, but all I could make out was the bulky appearance of a large man holding a large spiked ball.

"Damn…" I turned to my commander and found him throwing his rifle onto the ground. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a combat knife with runes on it. "Florence, don't die on me." As he said those words, a flash of light zipped past his head. Blood dripped down his cheek as a sliver chain appeared from nowhere. He grabbed the chain and tugged it. Another blinding light followed as the chain disappeared. Confused, I took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and heard the faint sound of chains in the distance. Within seconds of hearing that sound, I aimed my gun beside me and shot at the air. My shadowy bullet collided with a flash of light. A large spiked ball, once aimed for me, was redirected towards the ground beside me.

"Oh?" The spike ball dissipated as the silhouette from earlier appeared from the trees. The silver moonlight shined gracefully on him. His appearance was bizarre. He wore a very damaged set of armor made of silver, with a bluish-colored metal layered on the outer parts of the armor. His armor was stained with fresh blood. He had the face of an old man with gray hair that stood motionless in the stale air around us. "So the Apostles of the Unity and a disregarded Apostle of the Demon Lord." A flash of light appeared in his hands. Small runic characters surrounded his hands as a long chain appeared with two spike balls on either end. "Hammond Florence, Rin Embervale, and Jason Russel." The man licked his lips. He gripped one end of the chain bola and the other end vanished.

"Runic disperse!" Russel called out as a shield of light deflected the chained ball. "Oh, Empress of Light, heed my wishes and grant me power." Russel then vanished and reappeared behind the old man and sliced at the back of the man's head. The man smiled, and a chain appeared and blinded Russel.

"Damn…" The man sighed. "My mistress is quite cruel. Using her powers against me."

"So I can assume that you are certainly the Apostle of the Heavens?" Russel broke the chains and darted behind the man again. The man tried to clash against Russel. However, before he could fully commit to it, I shot at his chains. Russel then grazed the man's cheek as he sidestepped to avoid my shots. His chains then vanished once more. An echoing gunshot followed by a minor explosion hit the man's armor. Blue dust sat in the air and Russel, avoiding the dust, quickly retreated towards Rin and smacked her on the side of the head. "Runic disperse!" At the same moment, he shielded Rin from a spiked ball. Rin held her head in pain as she stared angrily at Russel. Russel ignored Rin and glared at the outdated knight before us.

With my weapon locked onto the old man, I shot a barrage of bullets to divert his attention. He gracefully dodged everything and vanished. "Void Chains!" Remembering what Naval had said before the fight, spoke a random pair of words, hoping something would happen. To my surprise, a pair of shadow chains appeared behind me and caught a spike ball, but the chains were too weak and the spiked ball pierced through and smacked me in the side. Luckily the spikes did not puncture my skin, but the impact was enough to stagger me.

I collapsed to the ground, and the man stood before me. "We Apostles must pray before we can use spells with their full effectiveness."

"What is your goal, Chained Soul." Russel walked over with Rin behind him. "You could have finished us at a moment's notice, yet here you are having small talk with us."

"Same to you. I'm standing here just talking. You could easily have that girl shoot me with those bullets again." He had a crooked smile.

Russel picked up the rifle that he threw and shot at the man's armor. The bullet ricochet off the armor and a cloud of blue dust covered the air around where the bullet had hit. "Osmium plates. Even if we were to attack you, we would only kill ourselves." Russel then looked at the barrel of his gun. A small smoke cloud stood motionless in the air. "After all, we are in a barrier, aren't we?"

"So the young commander figured it out already? How interesting." The man chuckled a little.

Russel glared daggers at the man. "An Apostle of supposedly killed Deity. There are a lot of things I know about you, Chained Soul. The man who single-handedly suppressed an Alpha level elemental distortion known as 'Heaven's Gate.'" Russel's response caused the man to frown.

"Call me Soul. But to answer your question, the reason why I am here is because of him." He pointed at me. "The decedent of the Apostle of The Earth Dragon, the traitor to all of mankind."

"So I take it you are a Fallen?" I asked.

"That is right. But you taught the wrong things, though it's being expected as you taught by the Queen's fool." He snapped his fingers and a small card appeared in his hand. "You do you believe in tarot readings?" As he said that, he flipped the card, and it showed a picture of an upside-down queen holding a cup.