The King and the Knight

The gatekeeper finds safe land and stops to a halt. Jervaintus hurriedly dismounts and assesses the situation. A great Abyss Demon that he has never seen before leads the siege on the holy capital of the world. The beast stands at least 200 feet tall. He is bombarded with numerous magical attacks from the magi defenders and yet it is almost a futile effort as the demonic beast lumbers forward on the city. The skies above are dark as the burned down buildings. The flames twist around the city like a python constricting its prey, systematically destroying the once rebuilt buildings.

Jervaintus moves not from his spot, he is still shaken from the sight,

"What the hell happened?! How long was I out, gatekeeper?"

The skeletal bird's bone churn and crack as he turns to look at the abyss walker,

"I could say about three months, lad. At least."

This statement shakes the man to his core.

"Curses! The fight against the Lord of Sorrow took its toll. I'll be damned if this city falls."

"Even more so if you fail to save that girl, if she is present in this battle." The spirit advises him.

As the spirit and Jervaintus start bickering against one another, the skies open up and a dark portal looms over Jyus'Shin. A chariot drawn by two devilish horses emerges. Their labored breathing and aggressive running make it clear, they are beasts of war. The rider is clad in excessively spiked armor, tattered cloth wraps around it. His aura is enough to even send a distraught Jervaintus a taste of fear.

Joventrius stands upon the courtyard and meets the chariot rider's gaze. He once again puts on his face of courage, aiming his magical staff at him,

"Who are you to challenge the might of God's chosen? We have felled many of your brethren in these battles." He proudly announces.

The rider reveals his mace, a wicked weapon made with the purpose to crush and tear flesh and bone,

"You have faced our weakest. They have failed, so I have come to ensure your destruction, mortal."

The ruler of the holy people laughs at this threat,

"And who are you to proclaim such a ridiculous claim, demon?"

The demon strikes down with his mace, a lightning bolt from the sky pierces through the holy statue that stands before the castle of Jyus'Shin. The defending forces retract slightly from this show of power.

"I am Hatrenum, king of the Abyss. I have come forth to crush you all under my boot like the little insects you are."

The king of the demons clenches his fist in the air and a great thunder storm forms over the struggling city.

At the same moment, Jervaintus sneaks his way into one of the secret hidden entrances to the city. He uses the fact that he is "dead" to his advantage and passes through unnoticed. As he walks through the empty hallways, he reminisces the first time he served for the Jyus Society. The spirit's voice rings inside his head,

"We must hurry or this kingdom is lost." She urges him.

As Jervaintus opens his mouth to speak, he gets ambushed. He draws his sword in time and blocks the attack. He looks up to see the attacker and realizes it is Sirena. Tears roll down her cheeks as she locks eyes with Jervaintus. Her look of sorrow turns into a look of rage,

"How dare they use my grief…against me!" She breaks off and continues her attack on Jervaintus.

"What the…! It's me, Sirena!" He struggles to block her furry of swift strikes.

She's quicker than before and much of her expertise with the daggers have gone to new levels. He thinks quickly and disarms her and pushes her onto the floor, pinning her. He gets closer to her face,

"Look into my eyes, Sirena, please. I am real." He holds onto her tighter.

She starts to mumble and stop resisting. She cries even more now and leans closer to him. Jervaintus embraces her, but only shortly. He breaks off and tells her that there is no time. The king of the abyss is laying waste to the city.

They rush out into the courtyard and meet up with Joventrius. The ruler is pleased to see the abyss walker,

"God has truly blessed us on this battle. The legendary Abyss Walker returns from the wretched realm and I sense you are even more powerful, too." he praises him.

"I now possess the powers of the three lords of the abyss. Our focus should be on that big piece of shit over there." He points towards the siege monster wreaking havoc.

Joventrius scratches his chin and weighs out the available options. Jervaintus taps on his shoulder,

"We don't have time, we must act now. Keep the king Hatrenum busy. I'll slay the siege demon." He charges off into the battlefield.

The archpriest is left with his honor guard closely defending him. He thinks to himself, it has been a long time since he went all out against an opponent, let out the king of the hellish realm of the Abyss.

Sirena follows Jervaintus and catches up to his near inhumane speed. He looks back at her and asks why she does so. She places her hand on her heart,

"I'm not letting you go at it alone anymore. Whether you like it or not." Her voice speaks with purpose.

Jervaintus smiles and nods in approval,

"Good. It's been a long time since we last teamed together. Let's go out there and kick ass."

The streets are crowded with the united alliance of the three kingdom's armies battling against the abyss demons, they see Layson fighting alongside Whittham. The ruler of Agnaum's armor is a pretty combination of the yellow and grey, and the material looks like leather yet tough as steel. He fights using a rifle with a knife attached at the end of the barrel. He greets Jervaintus with a wave,

"Long time no see, Abyss Walker! You arrived just in time!"

Jervaintus returns the gesture,

"You got anything that can take out that siege demon?" He shouts over to them.

Jervaintus and Sirena quickly slice through the demons between them and the other two. They meet and rest for a moment. Whittham reaches into his satchel and hands him a dark cannonball-like object. He examines the object,

"The hell is this supposed to be?" He moves it around in different angles.

Whithham stops his hand,

"That is a highly explosive bomb. Enough gunpowder to obliterate any colossal mountain in half. Get it deep into the heart of the creature and ignite it from there. Consider it as a challenge extended to you, Abyss Walker." Whithham and Layson part ways with them as they help out the others in the defense.

Jervaintus looks at an annoyed Sirena with a crazed look on his face. To her, it's the face of a goofy and stupid little lad. They both continue their way to the gates of Jyus'Shin.

They break out into the battlefield, Jervaintus examines the place and sees new breeds of abyss demons fighting against them. He feels a bit envious as this is what he missed during that period. Sirena pats him on the back and reminds him of the siege demon. The colossal demon now wields a broken off portion of a tower as a weapon. The king of the abyss charges at the city to battle with its ruler. Jervaintus turns to Sirena,

"Can you watch my back and keep any and all demons from reaching me?" He asks.

She pulls out a rifle, a gift from Whittham, and smirks,

"You got it." She moves to safe cover and signals him to go.

Jervaintus pulls of two daggers that he scavenged from the battlefield and climbs up the siege demon's leg. Several flying demons notice him and starts charging at him in hopes to pull him off of their brethren. Jervaintus pulls out his pistol and dispatches them and gets an assist from Sirena. He quickens his pace in climbing up the football field sized torso of the demon. The demon takes notice of this and stops what he is currently doing to focus efforts on stopping this "itching" feeling he feels.

Jervaintus sees its gigantic hand about to crash on him. He times it and jumps onto the creature's hand and runs as fast as he can.

At the same time, Whittham orders his siege weaponry to distract the siege demon in order to distract it and buy Jervaintus some time.

On the ruined courtyards, Joventrius and Hatrenum faces off against each other. The king of the abyss drags his mace on the ground,

"Why hold on to false hope? Your God has abandoned you long ago." His voice is terror itself.

Joventrius laughs as he slams the end of his staff on the ground,

"God has been on our side all along, demon. The Abyss Walker has returned, having slain your lords and now, he will slay you."

Hatrenum starts his attack which gets blocked from a magical shield by Joventrius. As the demon king raises his mace, he blocks a magical barrage from another direction. Bullets fly and causes Hatrenum to retreat back and recompose himself. Layson and Whittham arrive to help Joventrius in this fight. Joventrius regroups with him,

"Where is the abyss walker?" He asks them.

Layson fires another barrage of magical missiles,

"He is on his way to stop the siege demon, my lord." He nods his head in their direction.

Joventrius looks and sees the siege demon stumbling to keep its balance. He looks back and sees Layson flying back, his head crushed from a hammer thrown by Hatrenum. Whittham dodges in time,

"Oh my god." His eyes widen in shock.

Joventrius looks at the headless corpse of his right hand man. The best friend who helped built his kingdom and now that man is dead. His heart sinks into his stomach and the hash, cold reality starts to set in his mind like a disease. Hatrenum scoffs,

"I don't see your God saving you from your rightful demise, priest."

The demon swings his dreaded mace into the chest of Joventrius, crushing his rubs and sternum, and sends him flying.

Jervaintus tries to penetrate the demon's thick flesh with his blade. Even with the mystic energies contained in the blade, the sword barely grazes the skin and it quickly regenerates with every cut. He remembers quickly and uses his shadow powers to phase the bomb into the heart of the demon. He realizes a flaw in this after the fact,

"How am I gonna light it up?" He wonders.

The spirit catches him by surprise,

"Now you're thinking of that?" She nags him.

Jervaintus looks again and sees the demon's chest glowing,

"Oh shit." He lets go instinctively.

The force of the massive explosion sends Jervaintus hurling through the skies and crashes on the courtyard. Sirena rushes back inside the city in hopes of catching up to him.

He gets up quickly and sees Whithham wounded and Joventrius being strangled by Hatrenum. He lets go of him as he dodges a slash from Jervaintus. He stands in front of Joventrius and aims his sword towards the demon king,

"Hey, big boy. I'm gonna kick your ass and make your realm into my personal bitch." Jervaintus' eyes change into the glowing red colors of his vengeance.

Hatrenum tilts his head and examines the abyss walker in a disappointing sigh,

"This is the slayer of my underlings? I expected something more." He rests his mace on his shoulder.

Jervaintus laughs and approaches the demon king proudly,

"I can say the same thing for you." He leans forward and taunts him.

Whittham tends to Joventrius but he declines every attempt. The wounded ruler looks up at him,

"Leave it, I will not survive this ordeal. I must help the abyss walker with one last spell before I am spent…" He clutches on his chest.

Whittham nods and helps him onto a sitting position and gets his staff for him. Joventrius takes a deep breath and speaks his last incantation. A holy summoning circle envelopes Hatrenum and the powers within weakens him significantly. The demon king is surprised by this,

"Curse you, priest!" He throws his mace at Joventrius.

It hits Joventrius, completely shattering his jaw. The ruler of the Jyus Society has fallen. Whittham is regroups and shoots Hatrenum in retaliation. The demon king goes onto one knee from the numerous shots he is taking.

Jervaintus takes this moment in and lets the demon bask in his presence once more. Hatrenum looks up at the abyss walker,

"Your arrogance will be the--"

His head gets sliced off before he could finish speaking. Jervaintus stomps on his dead body,

"Yes, yes. Arrogance will be the death of me. Blah, blah, blah. Your power is mine, demon!" He maniacally laughs as he stomps his bones into dust.

Sirena reaches to both of them and looks at what happened. Joventrius and Layson lie dead, and the castle is destroyed. Much of the abyss demons have now fled to the other direction. She notices something in where the demons are going.

A messenger clad in the red metal of Hozran approaches them and calls for Whittham's attention,

"My lord, Whittham! Algis requests reinforcements immediately."

Whittham composes himself, albeit a bit shaken,

"What is it, soldier?" He asks.

The soldier catches his breath momentarily,

"The demi-god warrior has launched an attack. They are closing in around Valorfell at this very moment."

The news shocks them all. Whittham asks Jervaintus and Sirena to round up all the surviving soldiers immediately. He also sends a messenger bird back at his city for reinforcements.

Minutes later, Whittham stands before a small army of troops that survived the siege,

"Warriors, we must make haste to Valorfell. The kingdom of Hozran begs for our aid. Godfrey is attacking the city!"

The soldiers hesitate to even march forward. Whittham fires off a shot into the sky,

"We are not hopeless! The Abyss Walker stands before you and he has slain the king of the Abyss! March now to Valorfell!"