Divine Sword

The smokescreen generated by the lightning bolt spear covered Vince's field of vision

The silence in the great hall was soon broken,

A sinister laugh filled the room, Vince's complexion turned pale

'Even after all this, fuck...' Vince's desperation was visible

"You did well, little rat, but I said, your weak spells will never reach me."

Vince followed as he looked towards the source of the voice, the tangle of shadows looking at him from the white walls he was pinned to, green eyes shining as they stared at him

The army of bones surrounded him, the abomination staring at him

"This is your last chance, give me 'The Record' and remove my seal, then I, in all my benevolence, will allow you to live."

'What do I do? My mana is depleted, my ring enchanted too, and even if they weren't I wouldn't stand a chance, after all level 2 spells don't affect him..."

Something flashed in Vince's eyes, strands of a bright red glowed towards the giant door of the hall

'Could it be them? I need to buy time somehow, but how?' Vince then thought of everything so far

The demon made a small theater, he wanted to trick, first he tried to convince Vince that his death would eventually set him free, 'After the truth came out, he tried to threaten me saying he would torture me until he got what he wanted'

'There are a lot of inconsistencies, but so far, I can say he's not doing his best to kill me, he wants me alive.'

Vince then removed the revolver from its holster, quickly tightening its latch, the drums spinning

"Human, I'm running out of my patience, do you really think this mundane piece of metal can help you? You choose torture!" the devil's cry echoed through the hall

But this time Vince didn't despair, he raised his revolver and pointed it at his own temple

"Honestly I'm not going to give you any fucking, I'm not going to give you that 'Record', I'm not going to take that seal off, and between torture and death I'd rather close my eyes forever."

Leviatus was silent for a while, then said in a deep voice, "Do you think I need you alive? I can revive you corpse."

"yes, I think you need, if you really could kill me I'd already be a pile of bones by now, and even if I'm wrong I'd rather try my luck."

"So be it, take away your mortal life! But don't think for a second that your soul will ascend, you will never find peace in my hands" his guttural voice reverberated and made the hall tremble

Vince knew that the creature in front of him wanted to instill fear in him, and the fear of not finding peace after death is one of the worst there is

'If I really intended to kill myself I'd be in fear these hours...'

Fortunately for him in those few seconds he conquered, several red threads filled the hall, one of them brighter than the others

Vince removed the gun from his temples in swift action, a sharp shot echoed through the hall, the banner closest to the throne falling and creating chaos in the orda of skeletons that surrounded him

He then shot immediately towards the cloud of dust raised by the fall of the banner,

In a few seconds Vince had gone through the orda, as they were slow he didn't care about the minors,

The problem was the giant of bones,

He grabbed a handful of bones with one hand and with one swift motion threw them towards Vince,

He then began to run in an S-shape, always prioritizing the directions where the red lines were prominent, residual bones from the impacts sometimes reaching him, but were stopped by his mantle

When he was almost to the end of the room he heard heavy footsteps crossing the hall at high speed,

The skeleton was advancing against him so fast that his eyes could barely keep up,

'I was so close, dammit' Vince cursed

But he still did not give up, he used the cloak of his cloak to cover the area of his head, knowing that he would not be able to dodge the collision, he thought of using "Impact Absorption" to mitigate the damage and buy time

Unfortunately the devil didn't use any magic, so his "Advanced Magical Protection" became useless

Vince felt his life passing through his eyes, a prayer resounding in his mind 'Please my kind lady, allow me to live a little longer before entering your gardens'

A sound then filled the room, it was steel cutting stone and something heavy falling to the ground next

Vince removed his cloak from the front of his face, no pain coursed through his body,

In front of him was a grey-skinned man, his black horns matching his white hair that fluctuated slightly from shock waves,

Herman had a sword glistening in blue light clasped in his hands,

The gigantic door spread into the hall, cut into large pieces, the cloud of dust filling the room

"Looks like we somehow made it in time, you did well to put up with Vince."

"I'm fine, he's an ancient devil, but he's weakened, he uses illusions and necromancy, his body is impaled on the sword behind the throne, attacking that body seems to be the only thing that can affect him."

"Understood"

Herman then shifted to a running stance, at a speed beyond what Vince's eyes could glimpse, he disappeared into the dust cloud, blue lines constantly glowing

"Are you okay dude?" Bernard said as he ran to support him

"Damn, I can't believe we let this happen" Sila also rushed to support him

"Red flame that burns infinitely, red terror that brings death, infinite force that rules over destruction, spear that purifies the corrupted"

Bertrand passed Vince, the magic circle above his hands expelling a large amount of flames that formed into an immense spear of condensing fire,

'Level 5 spell' Vince admired

The cloud of smoke swept with a cloud of blue flashes rising from within, a pile of bones turning to dust when confronted with the blue aura,

"HOW DARE YOU MORTALS!" the voice filled the hall

Bertrand then threw the immense flamethrower towards the figure behind the throne,

"DO YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME? EVEN WEAKNES I'M STILL THE RULER OF BLACK HELL!"

A large number of bones sprang up in large quantities from the depths of the hall, joining like a barrier in front of the devil,

But not fast enough,

The few bones that managed to reach in time were disintegrated, the spear collided with the weakened devil,

His screams and curses filled the hall, the scene was so horrible that Vince felt like covering his ears,

Even after the cloud of flames ceased, it was still possible to see the sword without a single scratch, it now seemed to pierce only a small black spot,

A tired voice sounded through the hall,

"I offer you a deal, you want to get out of this grave, don't you? I can get you out of here descendants of Tipharet" the voice this time contained no malice or arrogance, it seemed even humble

Herman approached in one step, his blade glowing brightly, he pointed to the spark of shadows that still resisted

"Don't negotiate with devils, it's just common sense" he then drew his sword

"I curse you all---"

Herman's aura then completely erased the last spark of shadow, making the room extremely quiet,

"Did he die?" Bertrand said breathlessly, level 5 spells had a very high cost, even more so for Bertrand who was not an adept of fire magic

"I hope so, for thelady's sake."

"I didn't even do anything, dammit," Bernard grumbled

"The thing seemed to be in the last few years, Vince must have given it some work" Herman said as he approached them with extreme speed, it looked like a figure of blue light

"If by giving work you mean trying to survive and run, you're certainly right," he laughed.

"You're alive aren't you? That means you won," Sila added

"Was it really a devil? His necromancy didn't seem to come from magical origins, I didn't feel anything..." Bertrand's hands were on his chin as he thought

"And it wasn't, there were little wires holding the bones, like they were puppets," Herman explained

Sila joked with her hair and said "An ancient devil, I thought most had perished in ancient times..."

"... Me too, "Ruler of Black Hell," this is Leviatus, the devil of envy, if he wasn't weakened I'm afraid we'd be one of those puppets..." Herman sighed and then pointed at Vince "And he seemed to target you, you know why?"

"Apparently he needed me to take out the sword that sealed him, only I can apparently" Vince followed the golden line with his eyes "And you know the golden line I told you? Well it brings us here, to that sword to be more specific."

"That sword?" Herman looked at the blade attached to the wall, "Indeed, one of the most beautiful works of art I have ever seen."

"A sword that only you can take... It sounds like something from legends, could the devil just be lying?" Bernard asked

Sila then grumbled and replied, "Why would he lie? Otherwise he might have just killed Vince, tell the truth you want that sword isn't it your smelly goblin?"

Bernard felt like a thief being caught during the crime, and with a strange face he said "Of course not! Well Vince isn't a swordsman, he wouldn't have use for a sword..."

Sila then slapped him on the back "Greedy idiot"

As the twins fought, Vince, Herman, and Bertrand approached the blade

"What is this thing made of? I feel something different from mana, even though they are similar," Bertrand said as he looked shocked at the blade, which looked etheric;

"It's similar to mana, but it's not, that's divinity..., and even if it looks like just concentrated energy I can see intricate patterns of inscriptions, I just don't know what kind they are" Herman looked with his eyes saw beyond the normal patterns, he was a master after all,

"An artifact, and this deity... a divine artifact!" Bertrand's eyes widened

"I understand the word 'artifact,' but 'divine artifact' is not very familiar to me," Vince asked

An enchanted item is a mundane item that has had runes engraved on it with mana, something mysterious done by mages who follow the path of a craftsman,

Artifacts are mysterious items, their method of creation much lost, even without any runic inscriptions, they have unique supernatural effects and a classification of their own

"Well, divine artifacts are the same as normal artifacts, the only difference is that they were made and used by Gods..."

'The weapon of a God!' Vince was so shocked that even with his mouth open the words wouldn't come out

Herman had a confused look, "The question is, why was this here and why the golden line points here."

"I don't know, the demon told a story about a hero who sealed him leaving me the sword as an inheritance for some reason I have no idea about, but I honestly don't know if I can believe it..." remembering something Vince added, "He also said something about me being the possessor of the 'Record,' my eyes on the case."

"So your magical eyes are called 'Record' I don't know much about that" Bertrand shook his head,

"Why don't you try to draw the sword then? The devil is already dead, and the sword seems to be aimed at you, after all the devil was not coming after any of us."

"It might just be because I'm the weakest of us all too..."

"It's no use thinking about it too much, just pull it out, I want to take a closer look at this little beauty" Herman had an excited look

"... Alright, here I come then."

Vince then approached the blade, as he watched the golden line, his hand instinctively approached the hilt of the sword, it was an unknown feeling, 'nostalgia?' he thought

When his hand touched the guard he felt the whole world being covered spin, suddenly he found himself in a field of dirt, it was arid and dry,

Several swords of the most diverse sizes were thrust into the earth, like the tombs of the northmen about which Vince had read,

Was it a battlefield? A grave?

His gaze then drifted to a small hill,

A man with black hair was sitting as he watched the sunrise,

The beautiful black armor he wore seemed to have been unable to hold back the damage of whatever the man had fought, a river of blood running over the open wounds

Vince stared at the man's back, a melancholy and loneliness filling the depths of his soul,

As if noticing his feelings the man turned his head slightly,

With his purple eyes shining deeply as he looked at Vince, he uttered in a gentle voice

"So I'm the first? Welcome, bearer of the "Record"."

The sun was shining beautifully in the background.