Artemis…
Selene launched herself at her with rage in her eyes as she held her sword brimming with such intense energy and heat that every time she swung her sword the shock reverberated through the streets and the windows of all the surrounding buildings shattered inward. Artemis did not strike back as she did not wish to hurt her and stayed on the defensive as she parried and deflected every attack sent her way.
Artemis stared at the sword in Selene's hands and knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was in fact the Sunlight Sword of Apollo which meant there could be no mistaking that she was in fact Selene Kiser. It was containing so much power that even with her moonlight, attempting to split the energy so as to lessen the power behind it was difficult.
"Selene, wait!" she tried to say but her words fell on deaf ears. It didn't seem like Selene could understand what she was saying at all nor did she seem to care.
Clearly it was because of the man that Artemis had killed moments before that was causing the rage to well up inside her but who was he?
Artemis ignored the thought. It did not matter to her who he was or who he might have meant to her. Clearly Selene had involved herself in something she shouldn't have which meant that Artemis needed to stop her.
Selene jumped into the air and held her sword with both hands and just as Artemis lifted her own sword up to counter, Selene disappeared in a burst of flames.
Huh?
She then felt a flash of heat run up the nape of her neck as she realized that Selene had reappeared right behind her with her sword poised to take off her head. Although Selene managed to surprise her with a surprise attack and held enough power that if her sword did connect it would certainly do some damage, she was still far too slow to land a blow.
Artemis spun her body around with ease as she parried Selene's strike once again, her sword splitting the flames contained with the Sunlight Sword and causing them to burst outward towards the sky. As Artemis met her eyes she could see the shock and surprise in them as Selene clearly realized that she was no match for her.
Artemis hardened herself as she knew it was time for her to put an end to this as she reinforced her right leg with her moonlight magic and slammed it into Selene's ribs. She made sure to tone down how much power she put in her strike however because if she hit her any harder she would tear through her body and kill her. That was something she absolutely did not want to do.
Selene's body was launched through the air at such speeds that resulted in a sonic boom echoing through the streets and a cone of air exploded outward. She then crashed through a carriage until she slammed into a brick wall of a store.
Artemis made her way over to Selene's body as it slide down from the wall of the store. She tried to raise her sword but could barely stand and tried to use it to prop herself up but with a flash of light Artemis appeared in front of her pointing the tip of her blade at Selene's neck.
"Enough," she said as she stared Selene down.
Marcus...
His head felt fuzzy. He could barely feel anything at all aside from the tingling sensation as if he being pricked by static electricity all over his body.
The last thing he remembered was turning his body from the waist up into Dragon Glass before Artemis shattered it like it was made of glass and he was reduced to a pile of shards. The only thing keeping him alive was the electricity jumping from each shard of Dragon Glass.
He tried to pull himself together but the more he tried the more he could feel his connection to each shard that kept him alive slipping. There was no way he had such precise control to be able to simultaneously put together each of the hundreds of little pieces he had been reduced to so quickly.
Instead he had a better idea.
He decided to focus on maintaining the connection to each shard while slowly absorbing the every individual shard and converting it into electrical energy. As he went about doing this he could feel his connection growing stronger and his ability to maintain his focus increasing.
While he was doing this he heard the muffled sound of Selene's sword clashing with Artemis and he knew that he had to hurry.
The moment he had enough absorbed enough of the Dragon Glass and converted it into electrical energy he quickly pulled himself back together and turned his body back to normal. When he did he let out a gasp of air to fill his lungs and he clutched at his chest in a panic. He felt around to make sure everything was still there and realized that his shirt and jacket had been torn to shreds. His sword however was still at his side and he reached out to it and gripped it tight.
But just as he was about to sit up straight and throw himself back in the fight he realized that the rune formulas that Selene had drawn on his chest to help control his magic had been reduced to meaningless scribbles and were now worthless. If he were to try and control his magic the way it was now he wouldn't be able to contain himself...
But with a threat like Artemis, maybe he didn't need to.
Marcus stood up with Light Taker in hand and compressed his magic into thick armor and could feel all of his energy surging up into levels that would have been way too much for him before. In fact, it still felt like he was operating through a fog. All the overwhelming strength was washing over him but he managed to use the armor like a container and turned his flesh into electrical energy within the armor.
The best way he could describe the feeling was akin to nuclear fusion. All the energy within him wanted to escape and burst outward, that energy being a mass of electricity inside an extremely dense obsidian stone outer shell that held it firmly in place. Although, even with the extremely compressed armor trying to keep everything contained, some of his power still leaked out of the crevices and cracks of the armor. It sparked outwards from his body and struck at everything all around him wildly as if he were a living tempest.
As he was about to throw himself back into the fight he could see that Artemis had the point of her sword at Selene's throat and it filled him with anger. Not only did she nearly kill him but Artemis was going to try and kill Selene as well?
"ARTEMIS!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Artemis, who was looking down at Selene, lifted her head up slowly and turned around to look at him. Selene also noticed him and smiled as she realized he was still alive.
"You...I thought I killed you...," she said.
"You will need to try harder than that to kill me," he said as he lifted his sword and pointed it at her in challenge.
As Artemis looked his way and noticed his sword her eyes widened and she asked, "Where did you get that?"
Then her eyes narrowed in a glare before she appeared only a few feet in front of him with her sword raised above her head ready to strike him down once again.
He only had a brief moment to think to himself about how he was going to counter her speed and her ability to split anything apart with her moonlight and the only thing that came to mind was to try and absorb her magic the moment it came in contact with the left side of his body.
Her sword fell and the moment it hit his armored body cracks began to form as the moonlight split apart whatever it touched. However the sword stopped halfway through its strike as it was caught in his armored body and stuck deep inside. The moonlight that had been emitted from her blade had been absorbed into himself and stopped her from cutting through him completely. With her sword embedded in his chest the energy surging from inside his body traveled down the length of her sword and began electrocuting her. The aura around her body however was still strong enough that she was able to resist the powerful torrent of energy coursing through her as she held firmly onto her sword.
"Well...how about that. It actually worked," he said with a laugh.
He then reached out his left hand to try and grab her sword but she was too fast as she snarled at him and kicked at his chest while at the same time pulling out her sword. She then pulled out one of her hunting daggers and reinforced both with her moonlight. As she held both in her hands steam rolled off of her body from the intense shock that surged through her from before. Her sword arm also began twitching erratically from it and it looked like he had dealt more damage than he realized.
Despite that she stood strong and was prepared to face him. He didn't know what it was that made her so determined to fight against the two of them but right now he didn't care. He had almost died and she looked prepared to strike Selene down only moments ago which made him angry. He didn't feel like talking this out in a civilized manner.
Artemis then rushed forward and he as much focus as he could muster into absorbing her magic as he could as she swung her sword at his throat.
He managed to block her strike with his sword in time but she then kicked at his chest made him lose his balance before she slashed at his ribs with her dagger, only making a shallow cut but it had enough force to weaken his posture and gave her enough time to make her way around him as she held her sword hand high above her head with the point aimed towards the small of his back as if she were about to drive a stake into him and her sword pierced through his armor exiting out the other end.
She didn't stop there however as she quickly sheathed her dagger as she stabbed him and let go of her sword. She then began to repeatedly punch him in the back, each punch being much faster than the one before it and as she was about to land the final strike on him she stepped back slightly while grabbing onto the handle of her sword before landing one final kick to his back.
All of the repeated strikes built up so much force that he was flung through the air and crashed through the window of a café and then through multiple other buildings before finally coming to a stop.
As he tried to sit up he saw that her barrage had caused a tunnel to form him crashing through the town.
He stood up and as he looked towards her he was able to see that she had put her sword away as well and was now holding her bow and arrow aimed towards him.
In less than a second, an arrow imbued with moonlight came hurtling towards him and was only a foot away from running his head clean through.
If he wanted to he could have easily just let it hit him and then absorbed the moonlight as it passed through his body and he would have been fine since the inside of his armor was nothing more than electricity but he wanted to demoralize her. He wanted to show her that no matter how fast she was, no matter how many times she tried to attack him, she would not be able to kill him.
He then used the moonlight that he had absorbed before to enhance his speed as he reached with his left hand and caught the arrow mid-flight.
With the arrow in his left hand he looked down at it and began to absorb the moonlight stored within it. Once he had taken all of it into his body he noticed that the arrow was actually made of the same adamantine that Selene's sword was made of. It also had strange engravings on it very similar to the ones that Selene had placed on his chest.
As he contemplated this, the arrow began to disappear in his hand. He also noticed something else.
For some reason his body didn't know how to react to absorbing moonlight and keeping his flesh in a state of electrical energy at the same time so instead it reverted his body within the armor back into flesh while the moonlight coursed through his armor mixed in with his electricity.
It didn't matter to him though. With the increased speed from absorbing the moonlight from her attacks, he wouldn't have to worry about being hit by her. Now it was a matter of properly countering her attacks in a one on one sword fight once he got close to her.
He looked back at Artemis and could see the surprise and anger on her face as she must have realized too that he was beginning to adapt to her attacks and she wouldn't be able to match his strength for much longer so she then began loosing arrow after arrow at him and he began charging towards her as he either caught the arrows in his left hand or simply swatted them away with Light Taker.
The moment he was about twenty feet away from him she put away her bow and pulled her sword and dagger back out of their sheaths and charged towards him.
Meanwhile...
The man who was masquerading as the mayor of the town, the one that Selene had called Principal Anderson once before, he watched on with interest at the two warriors who had stayed at the Inn on the edge of town to observe what was happening in Lunaas and at first he had felt nervous because their presence there would have put everything he had been working towards in jeopardy.
However he knew that this white haired woman was a far greater threat to everything since she seemed to know what was going on in this town and was actively doing everything she can to kill anyone even remotely involved.
If this armored man and the red haired woman Selene killed her then it would fix everything!
Watching from behind the wreckage of his home, a little boy peeked out and watched as the man in jet black armor with lightning pouring out of his body and splitting the very ground he walked upon lifted his sword to meet the white haired woman who emitted a brilliant but horrifying light that she had used to tear through the men and the guards of his town.
Both of them had such awesome power.
And both of them were utterly terrifying to watch as they destroyed the very ground then walked upon.
As their swords clashed, the boy watched as the light coming from the white haired woman was absorbed into the armored man's sword and his lightning, which had once glowed with vibrant blue light, was now glowing pure white as her moonlight mixed with his lightning. The electricity that sparked wildly from his body struck everything all around him and where ever the bolts of lightning hit, cracks formed upon impact and split everything apart.
It was like watching two gods fighting amongst themselves with mortal humans being caught in the crossfire as their homes were being eroded away by their mere presence.
The young boy didn't know how much longer their town would last with such powerful individuals fighting right in front of them. He was too terrified to try and stop them but also too terrified to move.
All he could do was watch.
Artemis...
This man was persistent and unstoppable and had complete disregard for anything around him as he let his magic run wild to fight against her.
Her magic mixing with his own was a disaster that was tearing apart the very town she was trying to defend and so she needed to put a stop to all of this, kill this armored man as quickly as possible, and attempt to communicate with Selene if she could.
She decided that the only way that she was going to match his unrestrained strength is if she too released all of her magic at once.
"Full release!" she shouted and the man flinched at her words.
She then reached out with her left hand wreathed in moonlight and grabbed the front part of his helmet and it shattered completely. She then ripped it off of his face leaving his head unharmed as he absorbed the magic emitting from her but completely exposing it.
He looked at her with wide eyes as he held his left arm in front of his had to guard from any attacks and she then kicked at his ribs and shattered the whole left side of the armor covering his torso. She continued stripping away at his armor faster than he could cover himself back up and he was left defenseless save for his sword that remained completely undamaged from her attacks and he managed to deflect and parry her attacks that she attempted to throw his way.
After she managed to strip his torso of nearly all his armor and hit him with a barrage of attacks he still stood firm with his sword in hand and then...she took a brief moment to look at him closely.
Even before hand when she stabbed him in the throat and reduced him to nothing she wasn't thinking about who he might have been. She had simply struck at him wildly and assumed that he was working alongside the man Ruvick who had attacked her. She assumed this because he held such fearsome power and thought to kill him as quickly as possible.
However, now that she saw him clearly after stripping away his armor, even thought she did not recognize him personally she couldn't help but be reminded of...
"Hestia...?" she said in confusion which caused the man to return the look she gave him.
He shared Hestia's jet black hair and bright vibrant blue eyes but...her flaming hair was not present on this man. Without that distinctive feature of the flaming ends of his hair she would have assumed automatically that he was unrelated to her and that it was a coincidence that he shared her hair and eye color but he recognized that name clearly with the way he stared at her.
His look of confusion was brief however as he resumed his attack and she had to straighten herself quickly to not be thrown off balance and overwhelmed.
Even without his armor he managed to match every attack that she threw at him.
She then decided to try something else as she threw one of her flechettes at him with her free hand to distract him which he caught in his left hand perfectly.
She tried to use this opportunity to launch a surprise attack and just as she was about to swing her sword he widened his eyes abnormally and a spark of electricity jumped out at her from his pupils following a loud popping sound.
She didn't notice any change and continued to swing her sword down on him while his guard was broken and she managed to slice right through his neck all the way through to his heart...
Only for the image of her doing so to fade into nothing as she realized she had struck open air and his sword came hurtling towards her and slammed into her chest.
"Railgun," he said with a menacing voice and she felt a violent shock traveling across her body as she was turned into electrical energy and absorbed into his sword before being launched through the air.
She had tossed both Selene and Marcus around as if they were ragdolls only to have it done to herself for not fighting them both at her full power from the start and now found herself at this man's mercy.
The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Selene as she brought her leg up rushing towards her head and knocked Artemis out of the air.
Selene…
Artemis was laying on the ground unconscious as Marcus walked towards them breathing heavily as he looked exhausted from fighting her.
"The rune formulas...that you drew...faded away," he said as he stumbled towards her using his sword to keep himself propped up.
"I see...thank you Marcus for fighting in my place. If I had fought with my full strength then it would have been even more disastrous. I might have reduced this whole town to a smoking crater by accident just to stop her," she said genuinely grateful.
"Sure...no problem...," he said as he slumped down to his knees next to Artemis and lifted her off the ground before setting her back down in a kneeling position so he could bind her hands and arms behind her back with chains and cuffs made of his Dragon Glass. She then placed a sealing mark on Artemis' forehead which sealed her magic.
"There. If she tries to use her magic she will feel excruciating pain as if being burned alive. This will help keep her restrained," she said.
"Oh good...that's a relief," Marcus said as he laid down on the ground and tried to catch his breath.
Soon after the two of them finished restraining Artemis, Alta and Gaiyen came rushing out from to meet them.
"Did you guys...do all of this?"
Selene shook her head as she said, "Not me. Marcus is the one who did most of the damage."
"Hey, not cool," Marcus complained halfheartedly.
“Holy shit...," Alta said breathlessly as he looked at all of the destruction laid before he continued to ask, “How often do you guys do this kind of thing?”
Just as Marcus was struggling to get his bearings, Artemis blinked her eyes open and looked at them before realizing she was bound in chains. She then tried to use her magic and groaned in pain from the effects of Selene's seal being placed on her.
Marcus sat up and looked at her in the eyes with a glare before saying, "I don't know what your deal is but I suggest you calm down and stop resisting or I'll shove my sword through your throat like what you did to me."
Artemis went silent and her eyes was set with panic as she frantically looked around as if searching for something. Clearly there was something wrong but he figured he'd wait to question her until after they brought her to a more secure place.
A voice behind them suddenly exclaimed, “I don’t believe this. You actually did it! You defeated that wretch.”
Principal Anderson, the man they had met who had turned them away when they first arrived, walked forward to greet them with a look of glee in his eyes.
Marcus couldn't quite put his finger on it but for some reason the look in the man's eyes unsettled him.
Artemis on the other hand was absolutely livid as she started screaming at him in ancient Greek. Venom spewing with every word that came out of her mouth as she shouted, “I WILL FUCKING END YOU, YOU CHILD MURDERING BASTARD!”
He didn’t understand what she meant by that, but he’ll definitely question her about it later. He placed his sword on her throat and said in ancient Greek, “What did I tell you earlier? You need to calm down and stay silent. You and I are gonna have a little talk later about what you’ve been doing here and where you came from. Terra, if I’m not mistaken.”
She instantly shut up when he said ‘Terra’.
“Good, now keep your mouth shut and it will keep you alive longer,” he said as he took his sword off her throat.
He brought her back to her feet and held her as if to present her to Mr. Anderson.
“Looks like our job is done,” he said as he looked to Selene
“I hope so, my chest still aches. I need to rest,” she said.
The two of them turned around to head back to the inn but didn’t make it ten feet before Mr. Anderson called out to them, “Where do you think you’re going?”
Marcus turned around and said, “What do you mean? We did our job and we’re tired.”
“You defeat this woman, who had slaughtered dozens of hard working men serving as the town guard here in Lunaas and you expect her to be shipped away and not be judged by the townspeople first?” Jiroh asked.
“If I'm not mistaken, you turned us away the very moment we arrived almost as if you didn't want us here," Marcus said which caused Selene to jerk her head around to listen to them and she had a confused look on her face.
"Marcus...what do you mean? What's going on here?" she asked.
"You are correct. I did turn you both away the moment you arrived but you must understand, I had a reason for doing so. As you can already see, from the damage you two did to this town, you are too fearsome to be welcomed by the common people. You would only stir unrest and fear amongst them so I thought it better to let our guard handle things instead so as to keep the people calm and collected. However, I must thank you anyways for putting a stop to her rampage. It was quite the spectacle to see you fight."
He didn’t notice it at first, but as Mr. Anderson was talking, a large crowd of people had gathered to watch what was happening. Many of them gasped in surprise when they looked at Artemis bound in chains and cuffs.
Mr. Anderson's expression suddenly shifted to a false expression of sadness as he said, "However, now that you have defeated her I ask that you give her to us so that we may punish her for the crimes of taking away away the children of the townspeople and killing them."
Marcus's eyes narrowed as he looked at the townspeople and saw their shocked reaction to Mr. Anderson's words. This was clearly news to them as they didn't seem to suspect this woman was the cause of all the disappearances but now that they have heard it for the first time their sudden shock turned to anger and it looked like they were about to let their feelings over what they heard take over their judgment.
This didn't look good.
Selene…
Marcus grimaced at Principal Anderson's words and looked at her to lead things from here on out.
“Principal Anderson-"
"Mayor Anderson."
"Mayor...whatever, if you want us to turn her into for you to judge then that will be fine but-"
"Oh no, I don't think that will be acceptable. The people here have suffered quite a bit with the loss of their children and although I have taken up the Mayor's seat even I don't think I'll be able to hold back their anger for long. I assume they want justice to be carried out right here and now."
"What...?" she said in surprise as she started listening to the pained and angry voices that began shouting towards them. They seemed certain that this woman, Artemis which Marcus called her, was responsible for taking their children away but she wanted to look over the evidence of what was really happening in this town first before taking any further action. The people however were clearly not so patient as they began calling for her death.
"As you can see...I'm afraid I will be unable to hold back their wrath for long if we decide to have taken into custody. To settle things quickly before they get out of hand I believe that one of you should take action and...execute her immediately."
Selene balled her fists in anger and grabbed the hem of his shirt in her hand as she said, “The Darkmoon Knights do not execute people in the streets at the demands of the people regardless of their crimes. Of all the people in this town I thought someone as civilized and patient and understanding as you would be above this...barbarism.”
She looked at him with absolute disgust showing clearly on her face that reflected in his eyes. It was no wonder Artemis' response to seeing him was with such hatred in her eyes.
She backed away with a sudden realization and looked at Artemis' eyes with shock.
Artemis looked at her with mild anger at first but then upon seeing her reaction was replaced with confusion but then to fear as she realized Selene knew something was wrong. When Selene looked back at the mayor and then back at her, she had a panicked look in her eyes as if to try and convey her inability to resolve things. Artemis then began to understand as she looked at all the hateful stares that the townspeople were giving her.
She then started screaming at Marcus in the language that only he understood. The more she tried to plead with him the more stone-faced Marcus looked, and from the angry shouts that came from the people around them, as they continued to shout for her to be killed.
"What do you want us to do?" Marcus asked Mayor Anderson.
"Wait a minute-"
"We want you to execute this woman immediately," Mayor Anderson said.
"Will you compensate us for it according to the job request?" Marcus asked with the same stone-faced expression and Selene stared at him in disbelief.
"Of course," Mayor Anderson answered with a twisted smile on his face.
"Marcus wait a m-," she tried to say but he smacked her in the chest and she suddenly found herself 50 feet away from him and behind the crowd of people who began to surround Marcus and Artemis.
He then picked Artemis up by the throat and said something to her before he began to turn her body into stone.
Selene couldn't teleport in time to stop him and even if she tried to the flames from her appearing there might hurt the people around him.
All she could do was shout at him, "Marcus stop!"
His sword fell upon her body and reduced her to nothing but a pile of shattered black glass and blood.
With inhuman coldness in his eyes he turned to Mayor Anderson and said, "If we're done here then I'd like to get paid if you don't mind."