The earth trembled, quaking as if unable to withstand the Cyclops’ weight, but it wasn’t the earth but the policemen who felt the tremors and their minds exaggerated its weight.
As if that wasn’t enough, another Cyclops was pulled out by goblins. This time around, the policemen were paralyzed with fear as the Cyclop roared at them.
Several goblins on its shoulders chuckled maliciously, brought out their long tongues, and coated their short swords with saliva.
Liam staggered back, tightening his grip around his pistol as he switched to the last magazine. Unfortunately, his bullet bounced off the skin of the cyclops.
Was fighting an option at this point?
At the top of the building, Lysander tightened his grip around his axe as the Cyclops dug its fingers into the wall with the intention to climb and get to him.
Cement crumbled as its massive fingers dug deep.
"We never wanted to make an elf a Pathan knight," Lysander recalled the conversation he had with one of the Alchemists.
"Because of the king’s will, we thought of you as a replacement to the rebel who once wielded the axe for this order, but you, Knight mander, are special. You’re what happens when passion and sacrifice collide. You’re not stuck up in the traditions of the elven kind."
The voice rang in Lysander’s mind as he watched the Cyclops fall under its own weight. It roared, spittle flying through the air as its crimson eyes were fixed on him.
All that rage did nothing as Lysander stood there, his grip tightening with each passing second.
"You genuinely want to bee a Pathan. To do so, create your legacy, mander. It will acpany you for a long time."
As those words rang in his head once more, Lysander suddenly leaped, his cloak fluttering upward, revealing his crimson armour. Only his long ears, eyebrows, and moon-like eyes were visible; the other parts were behind crimson plates and black chainmail.
Lysander spun his axe twice, grabbed it with both hands, and swung down. It bit deep into the Cyclops’ back, and as he fell, the axe blade tore open the monster’s back.
No blood could leave the wound as Lysander, with a white mist, froze it. The Cyclops roared, swinging its hand with all its might, so much that the force pulled its body along.
Lysander flickered, evading the blow. The sheer gale caused by that move made his cloak flutter so hard it threatened to be ripped off.
"My legacy?"
"You drank from the water of life by accident, so even at a thousand years, when elves of your type grow weary and old, you stand, young and vibrant. You have carried the pain of countless deaths because their lives were too short. A curse you lived in knowing you would also bury your daughter."
The Alchemist’s voice rang in his mind. That conversation he had with those mysterious beings stuck with him. It went too deep.
With a yell, Lysander swung his axe upward. His arm ached as he swung with all his might. This was a battlefield; a mistake meant death. Why hold back?
That slash unleashed a sharp wave of ice that divided not just the Cyclops but also the three-storey office building!
"In this order, that curse is weightless. You might end up as the oldest knight; you will bee a walking archive of our culture, civilization, and myths of not just yourself but the Known King. Use this gift to serve the king. Claim your nobility and dream of royalty!" the Alchemist’s strong, firm voice rang.
It was almost like he was having that conversation once more.
"By your aid, His Majesty can bee an Imperial!" As the Alchemist’s voice rang, Lysander turned to the other Cyclops. His feet dug into the ground; the asphalt cracked and exploded as he shot toward it.
He was like a crimson blur to the policemen who were fleeing from the Cyclops. Those watching from their apartment only reacted when the second Cyclops’ head and that of the goblins on his shoulder rolled on the ground and ice had burst out with Lysander at the heart, freezing and piercing the goblins around.
Just then, a huge sightless beast, like a hound but bigger than the Cyclops, lunged out of the black gate.
Lysander wasn’t far from the gate and was already within the confines of this monster’s fangs.
"Now... you cannot be killed for you are linked to the castle, but each time you die an unnatural death, it corrodes your soul. In the end, you’ll live long enough to bee a hollow shell of a knight, so do not take your immortality as an advantage to be exploited. Serve and fight like a man who can die – just once."
Lysander lunged himself backwards using the momentum of a pillar of ice that burst out of the earth. He somersaulted... mid-somersault, he threw his axe into the air.
By the time he landed on one knee, the axe had pleted its last spin and fell on the huge beast’s head.
The axe’s new rune glowed. This rune made it over a thousand times its original weight once Lysander wasn’t wielding the axe.
The sheer weight of the axe pinned the beast to the ground, almost giving it a concussion. It recovered quickly and struggled to remove the axe from its head but couldn’t.
Its claws tore deep into the ground. Asphalt was like butter before the sharpness of its claws. It clawed helplessly and struggled to no avail.
Lysander rose to his feet, white mist emanating from his right gauntleted hand, and a massive icicle over three meters in length formed above the sightless beast.
"Let me end the suffering I’ve put upon you," he whispered and clenched his fist. The icicle fell, piercing the beast, the upper part remaining icy blue, but the part that pierced through the beast and came out from below its abdomen was crimson, stained eternally by blood.
It dug deep into the ground, standing before the black gate like a monument.
With measured pace, Lysander took his axe from the creature’s head and went into the black gate.
Liam’s "Thank you" didn’t even enter his ears.
A short while later, he came back with a goblin shaman, the goblin that had evolved and summoned those monstrosities.
Lysander’s cloak had several burns, but he won. He tossed the shaman to the ground. Even while trembling, the shaman shrieked, speaking in a tongue Lysander couldn’t understand, but he knew it had to be saying vile things and cursing him.
With a wave of his axe, the shaman was split apart.
Shockingly, the gate became blue once more and faded. It had closed!
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