Chapter 27: Bright Lord

Third POV:

Gunlaug looked exactly just how Sunny remembered him. A golden demon born of some harrowing hell.

The Bright Lord was tall and had broad, powerful shoulders. His body was clad in an armor that seemed to be made out of molten gold. It was both solid and liquid, flowing over his mightly muscles and covering him from head to toe.

Not even Gunalug's eyes were exposed.

In the place where his face should have been, there was nothing but a smooth and empty expanse of polished gold. The great hall of the Bright Castle reflected in it, and all the people gathered there did, too.

Simply shaking off the pressure emitted by the armor, Sunny gazed at the Golden Figure.

Walking out of the darkness of the alcove like a golden apparition, Gunlaug glanced at the mass of people below him and sat on the throne. His pose was relaxed and casual, as though he was here to leisurely resolve a trivial matter, not decide someone's fate.

Hundreds of fates.

However, despite his laid-back attitude, everyone gathered in the great hall swayed a little, pressed down to the ground by the incredible force of his presence.

The Bright Lord lingered for a few moments, and then said, his serpentine voice full of mirth:

"Ah, what a sight. All my precious wards gathered here, united in the desire to see justice prevail. This dedication, this fervor for the rule of law... oh, it just makes my blood boil with appreciation. Don't you think it's wonderful?"

He laughed and turned his head slightly, peering directly at Nephis. She lowered her head a bit, an almost imperceptible tremor running through her body. To Sunny, it seemed as though the plates of marble beneath her feet were about to crack from the terrifying pressure of Gunlaug's gaze.

Nevertheless, she endured it without showing much of the tremendous strain she was under.

The Bright Lord paused and then echoed his words, a note of some dark emotion finding its way into his voice:

"Don't you think it's wonderful, Changing Star of the Immortal Flame clan?"

Nephis greeted her teeth, struggling to remain steady under the psychic onslaught of the golden armor. When she finally answered, her voice sounded suppressed:

"...Indeed."

Gunalug remained silent for a bit. Although his face was hidden behind the golden mask, Sunny had a feeling that he was smiling.

Finally, he spoke:

"How nice. Somehow, I was under the impression that you would disagree. I've been told by my most loyal aids that you are a disagreeable person. I guess you just can't trust anyone these days."

With that, he glanced at his lieutenants, making them pale and shiver.

The message hidden in those words was clear: Gunlaug was letting Nephis know that he had known that she had a spy among the highest ranks of his people all along.

And didn't care. Maybe even silently allowed it to happen.

Finally, deciding that it was time to cut to the chase, Nephis objected the punishment that was bestowed upon Effie and called The right of the Challenge.

An echoing silence fell on the great hall of the ancient castle. The fateful words had been spoken, and now there was no turning back.

For better or for worse.

Gunlaug tilted his head and stayed quiet for a few moments. Then, the sound of his laughter rolled over the crowd.

"The right of challenge? Oh, that old thing. You are awfully fond of that tradition, it seems. Not even a full year since you have arrived under my roof, and I had the pleasure of hearing you say those words twice. Insolent girl..."

He paused for a few moments and then leaned forward. His voice suddenly turned cold, full of dark undertones.

"To be honest, I am very tired of your insolence, Changing Star."

Before Nephis could answer, the Bright Lord suddenly rose from his throne, towering above the crowd like a statue cast from pure gold. Then, he leisurely took a step forward and began descending the stairs of the dais. With each step, the sound of his serpentine voice resounded, growing lower and lower, until it turned into a fiendish, wrathful growl.

"Your little games were fun at first, but the more I observed your clumsy attempts at playing the hero, the more disgusted I became. I couldn't believe how naive, self-righteous, and stupid you turned out to be. It made me sick. It made me want to do things that I promised myself to never do again. Ah, I expected better from the daughter of the Immortal Flame! To disappoint me so thoroughly..."

His growl reverberated through the great hall and then abruptly disappeared. A moment later, Gunlaug suddenly threw his head back and laughed brightly.

"Oh, but then it hit me! I was such a fool. You fooled me so beautifully! Brilliantly done, Changing Star. Please, do accept my compliment! After I saw the real you, ah, it was such a joy to watch your performances."

He left the stairs and stepped on the marble floor of the throne room. The crowd of the Castle inhabitants parted in front of him, people hurrying to get as far away from the oppressive aura of the golden armor as they could.

The Bright Lord sighed.

"It's such a shame that all of this will have to stop now. You see... while I can't help but applaud your effort, in the end, you still turned out to be just another fool."

He glanced at Effie and asked, his voice full of mockery:

"A challenge? I don't think it's your place to demand such a thing. You are not the one accused of the crime, after all. If someone has to invoke the right of challenge, it should be Effie herself. Don't you think?"

Nephis gritted her teeth, struggling to remain poised under the assault of the psychic pressure. Refusing to turn away from the polished mirror of the Bright Lord's face, she said:

"...It's just like one of your minions said. I am responsible for the actions of my people. Any crime they commit... is my crime."

Gunlaug watched her, his expression hidden. Neph's pale face was reflected in his mask, staring back at her with merciless grey eyes. After a while, he spoke:

"Sound logic. Who are you going to challenge, then?"

She hesitated for a few moments, then said steadily:

"Whoever it was that passed the guilty verdict."

The Bright Lord chuckled.

"Oh? But by the same logic... that would be me."

She smiled darkly and glared at him, white flames dancing in her eyes.

"Then you are the one I challenge!"

Her words resounded in the great hall, sending hundreds of people gathered there into a state of stunned shock.

Sunny looked at the crowd of stunned people, while keeping an eye on Gunlaug, Nephis, Harus, Tessai, Kai, Aiko, and Stev through his Shadows.

Regardless of how the fight between Nephis and Gunlaug ended, the small enclave of humans living in the Dark City was meant to descend into utter chaos. If Changing Star was killed, her followers would make her into a martyr and go insane. The Host would not just let them off, either. If the Bright Lord fell...

No matter how much of a bastard Gunlaug was, he was also the glue that held this whole place together. Without a tyrant enforcing some semblance of order, no matter how ghoulish, things would get really ugly really fast. Who was going to stop the Nightmare Creatures from wiping the humans out then?

In any case, there was going to be a bloodbath.

Which Sunny wanted to prevent at all costs.

Even if it meant walking out of the Shadows.

In the silence that enveloped the great hall, the Bright Lord laughed and tilted his head, staring at Changing Star from behind his golden mask. Then, he said:

"How audacious! I wonder what gives you the confidence to dare challenge me. Various people have tried to kill me, you know. I have a little hobby, actually — collecting their skulls. Come to think of it, your pretty head would look really well in my collection."

Suddenly, he raised a hand and gestured to his forehead:

"Don't tell me... don't tell me that it's all because of that little toy that you took off the First Lord's corpse? Oh, no! That would be terrible. You didn't really think that one powerful Memory would be enough to defeat me?"

Nephis lingered for a while, glaring at Gunlaug. Then, she said evenly:

"My bare hands would be enough to defeat a worm like you. The Memory is just to make it quicker."

Gunlaug stared at her for a moment, and then chuckled.

"Great! This is great! Such spirit! I will really enjoy Breaking You, Changing Star. When this done."

He flexed his shoulders and said, his voice sending shivers into the hearts of hundreds of people gathered in the hall:

"Alright. I accept your challenge."

With that declaration, Sunny dissolved into the Shadows.

It was time for him to start moving.

*****

The great hall of the Bright Castle grew silent and still. However, that stillness was not tranquil, but like a predator that fell low to the ground, ready to explode into a violent lunge to tear its prey apart.

The Sleepers pressed themselves against the walls, giving Changing Star and the Bright Lord space for their battle. Effie was dragged away from the middle of the hall by two Guards, and now, there was nothing but emptiness separating the two fighters.

From one side of the hall, the five lieutenants — Gemma, Tessai, Kido, and Seishan— were looking at their master with complicated emotions. On the other side of it, Kai, Caster, and the leaders of the outer settlement hunting parties were doing the same. Cassie was also there, her hand resting on the hilt of the Quiet Dancer. There was a grim, somber expression on her beautiful face.

Sunny glanced at the blind girl through the shadows, and then turned to the center of the throne room.

Two people were standing opposite each other there. One was a tall man encased in a strange golden carapace that followed the lines of his mighty body. The other was a young woman in an elegant plate armor forged of white metal.

There was a subtle similarity between them. Both were emanating a striking, compelling sense of power and confidence that very few people ever possessed. Both were fearsome and deadly. Both were at the apex of their kind.

However, this was where the similarity ended.

He knew better than anyone what Nephis was capable of, especially after her breakthrough as demon, but even then, the sight of her facing Gunlaug made a deep scowl appear on her face, despite already knowing the outcome of this battle.

He was more worried about the potential consequences of his upcoming actions and the possible variables that might arise.

The Bright Lord was much taller than her and weighed probably twice as much as Changing Star. He was stronger, had longer reach, and had much more experience in slaughtering people.

That was not even considering that damned golden armor of his.

Even with the miraculous augmentation of the Dawn Shard, Neph's silver sword could barely be considered at the same power level as an Ascended weapon would have been. That was still a whole rank below Gunlaug's strange Echo.

Trying to break through that armor was going to be as hard as cracking the shell of a carapace centurion with a sword forged from mundane steel. Incredibly hard, if not impossible. And unlike the carapace of a scavenger, the golden Echo did not seem to have a weak spot.

At that moment, sparks of light appeared in the air in front of Changing Star. The silver longsword appeared in her hand, and she pointed it to the ground... for now.

She glanced at the Bright Lord, liquid gold flowed forward and assumed the shape of a heavy battle axe, which Gunlaug then grasped and leisurely put on his shoulder. The polished mirror of his mask reflected the slight frown that appeared on Neph's face.

The weapon the Bright Lord was going to use was also a part of his Echo, and as such, possessed the quality of a Transcended weapon. It was going to cut through the Starlight Legion Armor without much effort.

"Any last words, Changing Star?"

Nephis tilted her head a little and remained silent for a while. Her helmet weaved itself from strings of light, hiding her face completely, with only calm grey eyes visible through the crack of the visor. Finally, she answered with only one word, her usually even voice full of furious contempt:

"...Traitor."

A wave of whispers spread through the crowd. People were guessing what exactly she meant by that, but Sunny suspected that he was the only one who knew.

Neph wasn't accusing Gunlaug of betraying his fellow humans or causing the deaths of numerous young men and women. She was accusing him of betraying the true duty of the Awakened and submitting to the Nightmare Spell instead of fighting it to the bitter end.

In her mind, that was a far greater crime.

The only crime, even.

The Bright Lord laughed.

"That's too bad. I heard that one before..."

And then, without wasting even a fraction of a second, he suddenly exploded forward in a terrifying, lightning-fast lunge.

The shift between peace and violence was so instant and swift that most people gathered in the great hall did not even realize what was happening until a few moments later.

With each of Gunlaug's strides, the floor of the throne room shook a little. He flew at Nephis like a furious giant made of gold, swinging his battle axe with both incredible agility and horrible force.

She barely reacted in time, shifting her body and raising the sword to deflect the killing blow to the side. However, then something unexpected happened.

The shaft of the battle axe suddenly elongated, the liquid gold comprising it flowing forward to assume a new shape. As a result, her deflection ended up being almost useless.

With an awkward stagger, Changing Star reeled back. The very edge of the battle axe's blade bit into the helmet of the Starlight Legion Armor and effortlessly cleaved through it, leaving a shallow cut on her cheek. In the next moment, Gunlaug's foot crashed into her ribs, sending the young woman flying through the air.

Nephis landed in a roll and used one hand to stop herself from sliding on the marble floor. As drops of blood fell from beneath her helmet, merciless white flames ignited in her eyes.

A moment later, she jumped forward and met the onslaught of the Bright Lord with an equal amount of fury.

The deadly song of clashing steel resounded in the ancient hall...

Like a promise of much greater bloodshed yet to come.

The breastplate of Neph's armor cracked from the force of Gunlaug's blow and there was blood streaming from beneath her helmet, but that didn't slow Changing Star one bit.

Jumping forward to meet the Bright Lord's assault, she dodged the blade of the battle axe, twisted, and tried to deliver a strike of her own. A furious clangor of metal exploded in the silence of the great hall, both fighters moving with incredible speed, precision, and skill.

In a span of several seconds, they exchanged numerous blows, but each was either deflected, dodged, or blocked. There was nothing elegant, graceful, or elevated about This terrifying clash, all there is, was a barbarous violence and cruel brutality, with each of the fighters doing everything in their power to break, cripple and kill their opponent.

Their voices sounded like that of wild beasts, partially from the incredible strain of the duel, but also to let out the suffocating bloodlust and murderous intent that were drowning their minds.

That was not to say that any one of them had lost control of their thoughts and actions. Both were cold-blooded killers and knew how to remain calm in the throes of the most terrible rage.

A few seconds later, Gunlaug and Nephis disengaged and staggered away from each other, letting the spectators draw in shaky breaths.

The Bright Lord's golden armor was pristine and unscathed. Nephis, however, had several bloody cuts on her body, the black material encompassing it torn and ripped. Another crack appeared on one of her pauldrons. She glanced at it briefly and then indifferently turned back to watch her enemy.

Everyone in the throne room, in one way or another, was thinking about the same thing, a cold and sickening feeling slowly spreading through their chests. How would they fare in such a fight themselves? The answer was simple — they would have been long dead, eviscerated in mere seconds by one of these awesome fighters.

Everyone felt death breathing down their necks.

Among all the people watching their fight, however, there were one who observed Changing Star's every move with a special kind of attention.

Caster.

His reasons were studying how Nephis fought, and make countermeasures if anything went astray.

Unfortunately for Him, nothing was ever meant to happen the was he wanted.

...Just a second of rest, and the two fighters lunged at each other once again. This time, however, their behavior was different.

The first clash was just a test to gauge what the enemy was capable of. Now, they were not holding anything back, throwing everything they had at the enemy.

At least that was how it seemed.

Changing Star's sword suddenly flashed with brilliant radiance. Removing one hand from the hilt, she grasped the incandescent blade with her armored gauntlet at the middle to better control its tip and raised it to shoulder level. With Gunlaug's ability to change the length of his weapon at will and almost impregnable armor, this grip was more advantageous.

The Bright Lord absorbed the battle axe back into his armor. Then, two straight blades grew out of his forearms, creating weapons that resembled long, heavy punching daggers.

They clashed once again, this time with even more fury. The people pressing themselves into the walls of the throne room trembled.

Nephis seemed to abandon a lot of her defense, willing to take much bigger risks to obliterate the enemy. The reach of her sword was much shorter now, but the silver blade also grew much more agile and unpredictable. Gunlaug's daggers were a true menace to resist, however. They flew at her from all sides, either in tandem or in a staggered rhythm, making it hard for the young woman to predict and deflect each blow.

But she wasn't trying to.

Changing Star seemed willing to receive many shallow wounds to get a chance to land a strike on her opponent. More bloody lacerations appeared on her body, the Starlight Legion Armor barely holding together.

But she achieved her goal, in the end.

Catching one of Gunlaug's daggers between the blade of her sword and her body, she forcefully twisted the sword sideways and caused him to turn his torso. Then, Nephis sidestepped and suddenly appeared behind the Bright Lord, with a fraction of a second left before he could turn around and defend himself.

Her incandescent sword finished its arc high above her head, and, changing back to the standard grip, she brought it down with all her strength on Gunlaug's shoulder.

The radiant white blade flashed through the air and bit into the golden armor.

...And then, it slid fruitlessly off its bright surface, not leaving even a scratch on it.

'Damn it all!'

In the next moment, Gunlaug threw the sword to the side with one arm and delivered a terrifying blow with the other, his dagger aimed at Neph's face. She managed to turn her head at the last moment, avoiding instant death, but was still caught by the enemy's fist.

The impact was so strong that Changing Star was thrown backward several meters. The helmet had shattered completely, revealing a pale, bloodied face, with bits of metal piercing the skin. She rolled several times and came to a stop, then rose to her feet with some effort. The white flames dimmed a little, and there was a dark, disoriented emotion in her eyes.

The gem of the Dawn Shard shone gently right above them, illuminating Neph's wounded face.

A moment later, she dismissed what little remained of the helmet and stared at Gunlaug with resentment, blood running from the cuts on her cheeks.

The Bright Lord laughed and made a step toward Changing Star, his voice echoing under the roof of the great hall like a death sentence.

"What? That was all?"

However, his laughter came to an abrupt halt.

Due to the furious roar of a wild beast that came from somewhere behind.

Under the curtains of the current battle, something else was being weaved behind the scenes. A scheme that even the Bright Lord had overlooked.

Every set of eyes in the great hall had turned to the raised dais at the far end of the great hall, eyeing the four Lieutenants of the Bright Lord.

Or Three to be exact.

The fourth one however, had leaped forward down the steps in a single motion, and once on the floor, the hunched butcher of the Bright Lord dashed forward with a terrifying speed and with both of his fists clenched so tightly, it drew droplets of blood that decorated the marble floor in his trail.

His expression didn't hold any resemblance of sanity or humanity as it was now so contorted and soaked in hatred, anger, resentment, and vengeance just like a starved and wild Nightmare Creature.

The Bright Lord was just as taken aback by Harus's sudden rampage as the crowd was. As he watched his trustworthy hound dashes past him toward his current opponent with a stunned expression that no one could see.

To everyone in the crowd, it appeared as if Harus had interfered in the battle to aid his master in a fit of fury against Changing Star. So everyone asked themselves the same question.

Would he be the first one to break the sacred tradition of the Bright Castle?

Only Nephis and The Bright Lord Knew that Harus wasn't aiming for any of them, but he was rather Glaring at someone or something behind Nephis.

While For some, it appeared as if the Bright Lord had considered Changing Star a dangerous enough threat to the throne that she made him take a few Countermeasures to ensure her doom.

Some even Saw her as an opportunity to re-choose their side in the upcoming battle struggle.

However, before anyone could voice their complaints against the Interference of the Hunched butcher, Something shot out of Changing Star's Shadow.

Or rather someone.

A pale young man clad in a beautiful onyx armor shot forward from the Shadows, meeting Harus's assault in the middle of the space between Changing Star and the Bright Lord.

Two fists collided. One clad in a black gauntlet, the other one bare. As the force contained within Those fists meticulously cancelled each other, the impact still sent both of them several meters away from each other.

A shudder ran through the hall at their clash, but soon enough a curtain of deathly silence fell over the crowd.

The figure clad in the Black armor was none other than Sunny.

To everyone's surprise, the scrawny-looking boy whom everyone labeled as a nobody and was rumored to be just a dead weight that Changing Star rescued in her journey to the Dark City, had just blocked an attack filled with bloodlust from one of the most feared Sleepers on the Forgotten Shore.

And now, he was just standing there beside Changing Star simply re-adjusting his gauntlet without a worry in the world. Emitting an aura of solemn and dread Sunny's Voice broke the icy silence.

"I'm here to even the odds. Any objections?"