Book 8 – Chapter 57 – Honor and Pride

“You’ve escaped.” There was no hatred in Conviction’s voice, more… relief?

“Interesting.” Urs answered. “I was curious about how in-depth the copy had been. You have memories of imprisoning me?”

“More than memories. I was the same one who cut your hands, arms and legs and ordered you struck down and trapped for eternity.” Conviction answered. “I am everything my progenitor was. More than him, given his ultimate fate.”

“And yet lesser, given he succeeded in binding you here, shard.”

The room had grown silent, the Winterscars here taking the time to regroup and replan while the demi-god spoke to the actual god he’s beaten once.

“His plan failed. I have grown stronger and more determined in solitude.” Conviction stabbed his sword into the ground, then let go and folded his arms. “How did you escape, God of man?”

Urs waved a hand over to me, and then to the room ahead. The knights here who’d kept Conviction at bay here from escaping. “I had help. And Relinquished was not able to wipe my name off the world as she’d hoped.”

“So I see. I admit, there is some joy in seeing you free.”

“And why would that be the case? I come here as an enemy.”

“Precisely the point. Our final confrontation lacked any true conclusion. I was denied a proper battle, ordered instead to be a butcher than anything of worth.”

“A proper battle?” Urs tilted his head slightly. “And remind me, how did your final fight against Talen go? Was that not a proper battle?”

There was a flash of something over Conviction’s features. “No.”

“I had heard the same. Learning that he was ambushed and killed without any decorum was surprising, coming from you. Or your prior incarnation.”

Conviction glared further, actual anger radiating out of him. He seethed in place, but held his position otherwise.

Urs tilted his head again, this time I had a feeling the thought was focused on Conviction himself. “Your mannerisms and appearance match A01. It is as if I am speaking directly to my old foe. And yet, I have learned that he turned against Relinquished not long after he sealed me. It was… difficult to understand. To return back to the world and find history has continued to move on. Do you not feel the same? Locked this far deep?”

“My progenitor was weak willed, and filled with doubts. I am not.” Conviction spoke. “I cannot guess at or even begin to understand why he dishonored us all. I will do no such mistake.”

“You cannot understand, is it?” Urs asked, and it sounded more like an off-the-cuff rhetorical question. “Peculiar that one iteration of him turned against Relinquished, while the other remains her loyal minion despite being a symmetrical copy. What makes you different?”

“I am his missing conviction.” The shard hissed back. A hand lifted in the air, and the blade by his side equally lifted off the ground. Occult shook in the air, gathering up within it. “Within this blade, I now seal the programming and processing permissions required for your attempts to navigate this sea. If you wish to take upon my strength, you will need to break through me. I leave no other method open. Fail, and I will rip the fractal of resolve from your soul, and deliver it to the pale lady directly.”

I could feel the vault behind us seal.

He drew his hand to his side and the blade slowly floated into hand. “Last remaining God of mankind, draw your weapon. I will fulfill my duty.”

He didn’t wait for Urs to answer back. Maybe he was afraid of what the God might say. I can’t tell myself, there was a lot of history between these two that happened long before I was even alive.

But I could tell Conviction was out for blood, already racing ahead of him, blade glowing before he turned on himself in a circle and struck forward halfway across the room. A wave of occult lanced out, wrapped with what felt like concepts of time, dissolution, and force.

Urs lifted a hand and one of the orbs cycled right before him. He tapped it.

A shield slapped the approaching pulse of power, splitting it like a rock would split a stream.

Another orb cycled in front of Urs, and he lifted a hand to tap it.

An occult lash came out. More like lightning. Conviction flickered in the air, reappearing only a few meters away, clearly out of range from the crackle of occult lightning.

And then I felt two things happen at the same time. The first was the triggered fractal of Urs. The one I was familiar with, meaning he had connected to a greater gestalt version of himself.

And the second pulse of occult was different. Far different than anything I’d ever felt.

The fractal of Resolve pulsed within him.

Occult ripped around the world, like a storm breaking into reality, sucked inwards by the God at the center. Empowering him with something beyond what I could make sense of.

The lash he’d sent forward multiplied like a true lighting bolt now, doubling, tripling, turning into several thousand streaks of power.

Conviction flashed in place, dodging each tendril sent his way. And yet no matter how many he dodged, I could tell it was impossible for him to escape this forever.

Urs could test every permutation. See every possible direction Conviction could attempt to reappear at. And had the power to send another tendril of destruction in that direction.

Anarii had once shown me a glass block, and within it was a frozen pattern. Done by channeling lightning through, as he’d explained. Thin cracks looked more like an incredibly chaotic tree filled with spines had been flash frozen.

This is how it looked to me in that half instant it lasted. The result was Conviction being stabbed straight with one of those branches as his hundred attempts to separate himself failed. He was thrown backwards, landing into the water, gliding over it instead, feet barely touching the ground.

The other knights nearby didn’t miss the chance, each attempting to lunge forward at the protofeather, including Captain Sagrius.

Conviction sliced in the air, and somehow that slice carried through reality. Striking each knight directly in the chest at the same time, long before any reached the right distance.

He sliced twice, three times, four times, and the shields broke. The fifth slice ended all their lives, sending them back out the terminal. All except for Sagrius, who knelt down and focused on wrapping shields around himself.

Conviction turned his eyes directly the the captain, and there was a look of almost respect in his glare. The protofeather lifted his blade, far out of range of the captain, and yet it looked more like was about to deliver an execution.

A pillar of absolute destruction slammed down into Conviction like a giant cudgel.

The shard sliced upwards instead, cutting the invisible force in half, avoiding it.

Ahead, Urs had not moved position, but the mask kept a cool look forward. His hand extended out again.

I felt the very concept of separation, division, and destruction line up in one vertical pillar, held in place by his will. Tall enough it outright sliced through the ceiling of the vault itself.

Empowered by the fractal of Resolve. So pure in vision, that no occult light even leaked out of it.

The blade was invisible as a result.

And Urs swung it down like a weightless greatsword, as if this amount of power was nothing to him.

The vault split in half. Conviction lifted his blade, point directly aimed at the approaching calamity.

The pillar of destruction broke apart against the spear of the protofeather’s will. Although I could tell it certainly cost him a chunk of focus given his far more ragged look.

The vault on the other hand was breaking apart now. Worse. Something on the other end of the vault door was breaking through. I could feel the barriers there breaking down as force slammed into it. Either the knights that had come back were trying to break back in or something else was on approach.

But the rest of the terminal was getting shredded apart by Urs unleashing his full power, slamming the invisible pillar of destruction again and again at his target that refused to die.

Through the sliced cracks, I could see the digital sea, sediment on the ground everywhere. Except it ended with a massive cage of darkness all around us. The edges of the terminal, locked away from the rest of the sea.

Urs lifted a hand and once more called forth the pillar of invisible death, and swung it again at Conviction. Again, and again. The strikes battered the protofeather, breaking against his parries, but otherwise slicing through the rest of the room.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Until Conviction leaped upwards, grabbed the fading remnants of concepts of Death and destruction Urs had woven, wrapped them around his hand and spun, delivering them out with an arc of power right back at the God.

One of the orbs on Urs’s center rotated into place, and a massive dome of occult shielded him, the concept of power breaking against it.

Conviction flickered in midair, and held a hand high up. I saw the spear of A01 begin to form there. And among every flicker nearby was an identical spear equally forming up. That’s what the original A01 had used to fight against Relinquished herself.

Urs looked over the changing battleground, then once more lanced out a flash of occult lightning that split into hundreds of paths, each one slamming into the budding spears, breaking them apart.

The vault doorway behind broke apart, Conviction’s seal failing. And on the other end were some Winterscar knights. But they’d been standing at the ready instead.

At the center of the formation was Keith Superior. Returned again for another round. And in his hand was another spear of occult like the ones Conviction had been about to launch.

More than that. There were three occult ghosts next to Superior, each holding an equal spear above their own heads. All three launched their spear at the same time, and Superior lanced his own.

Conviction threw his own spear back, slamming into Superior’s midway, causing an explosion of occult that sent water and knights backwards. The other three spears were stabbed, sliced and the third actually hit home, launching the protofeather backwards in the air.

Conviction landed back on the ground, then flickered. Once more Urs lifted a hand and a lash of power came out, multiplying into thousands, trapping Conviction into dodging the entire combo. Forcing the protofeather shard backwards.

Superior stormed inside, hand lifted above him again, drawing more spears in the air, ghosts trailing behind him, equally generating their own spear.

Captain Sagrius and Father both seemed to appear out of nowhere flanking Superior’s side, like personal bodyguards. The move seemed almost practiced or that they’d already found this to be the most effective tactic.

The knights were all sprinting around the vault sides, each getting in position to lance towards the center from all directions, catching the shard at the center. And far above them all, Wrath soared straight up, about to come down on Conviction from the air. I joined in on the attack the only way I knew how: Launch a mass of occult ghosts.

At this point, the gear and weapons I had available outside the digital sea like my rifles and bullets outclassed my abilities here. Superior really was the heavy hitter when it came to us both in the digital sea.

Conviction didn’t so much as a mutter or show any surprise. His eyes rapidly scanned around at the danger all around him, calculating.