The flight from the Hydra and the Barghest was by no means an easy one. Running across the open field that was London was no joke and Ashen had a hell of a time just trying to keep Rosseweisse from getting killed;
After they ran from the Hydra and got chased around by Barghests, the duo ended up having to face a mad Minotaur that relentlessly pursued them until Ashen managed to kick it over the railing and into the river Thames, then they encountered boggarts that tried to drag Rosseweisse away but were strangely dispelled the moment Rosseweisse displayed a pained reaction much to the confusion of Ashen, and when they were finally crossing the Lambeth Bridge, they encountered a troll.
"Really? A troll?"
That was Ashen's only reaction to the troll's angry bellow before he took out a UV torch and pointed it at the troll who was then slowly turned to stone as Ashen shrugged in dismay.
After crossing the bridge, the duo finds themselves in yet another troublesome situation where they got chased around by a horde of angry knife-wielding goblins. Apparently, the scent of Rosseweisse who was a female virgin got them so aroused that they tried to take her away but then Ashen immediately killed some of the goblins; causing them to go berserk and decide to kill the duo instead.
And of course-
"This is your goddamned fault! Why would you go and greet a goddamned hostile goblin?!"
-Ashen had the energy to spare to scold Rosseweisse as they ran through the winding streets of London. Chased by an angry horde of goblins and a bunch of other monstrosities.
*****
And so they end up in their current situation not even a couple of hours from the time they had fled from the Hydra.
"You know, I really hate it when I have to keep tabs on your freaky birdbrained ass..."
"I do not understand what you are trying to say but I do know that you are insulting me yet again, Mr. Ashen. Would it not be better if you were a little nicer to me?"
"I'll be nice once you stop being stupid, you Nitwit."
"Again, my name is Rosseweisse!"
"I know, Nitwit."
"Muuuuu!"
To lose their pursuers, Ashen and Rosseweisse took refuge inside one of the many ruined buildings around them. Though to be exact, Ashen just shoved Rosseweisse inside and he just jumped in after her.
After that, they waited with baited breath as the horde of monsters passed them by.
Thinking that it was still quite dangerous to go out, Ashen decided to just sit still and relax himself for a short while thus their current situation of waiting in hiding.
"Seriously, you really need to stop causing me headaches left and right. You're making it hard for me to even progress in my search for my own daughter for crying out loud!", he grumbled as he leaned on a ruined overturned sofa.
"I am not causing you any headaches of the sort. If you call greeting a goblin peacefully a headache, then you seriously lack a sense of etiquette!", Rosseweisse shot back with an exasperated shrug, "Goblins are the creations of the Heavens as well, to treat them with contempt and violence instead of understanding and acceptance is nothing short of evil!"
"You ignorant nitwit! You're the last one I would like to hear that from!", Ashen grabbed her face and started tightening his grip.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Owww!"
"In the first place, your airheaded-ness is the real evil here! Screw your goddamned etiquette! Your common sense is more than enough to get anyone in this damned twisted planet killed!", Ashen snarled.
Ashen lost count on how many occasions Rosseweisse unwittingly caused him trouble, and most of them he attributes to her simply existing.
'The bear, the wolves, the boars...now the hydra and the friggin monstrosities of England...this woman pretty much triggers every single battle flag wherever she goes and she goes 'Hi, I'm the Saint. Let's be friends!', like a goddamned idiot!!'
He could not help but make a comparison to a very famous video game from the 21st century where the player goes around the world befriending every monster they could find and recording them in a digital encyclopedia of some sort.
'This idiot would probably the type who would gladly go inside a tall grass and fight a goddamned legendary monster with a low-HP team and still think she'll befriend said monster and that in itself is a goddamned pain in the ass to deal with.'
He let's go of her face and shrugs, "You are only supposed to be assisting me here. Do not cause me more problems than necessary. I'll need all the strength I can spare until I rescue my daughter. I have nothing to spare for saving your sorry ass every single time you cause trouble."
"Why are you so fixated on saving your strength anyways Mr. Ashen?", Rosseweisse mumbled while massaging her head, "Basing on strength alone, I believe you are more than a match to that many-headed serpent from before. So why did you not just subjugate it if it was a dangerous enemy?", she asked.
"Hmph!", Ashen then leaned back on the sofa, "You overestimate me. No normal human can fight that monstrosity alone while protecting an idiot like you. In the first place, that ancient monstrosity is so dangerous that even the greatest hero of the country from which it originated from had a hell of a tough time just figuring out how to kill it. Do you really think weak-assed modern humans who can barely survive a hit from a sedan could beat it?", he then asserted.
"But humanity has regained their former ability to harness magic. Surely humans can defeat it now."
"Tch! You really are an ignorant nitwit.", Ashen scoffed, "No point in having ridiculous magic if the thing you're fighting is a goddamned immortal monster. Humans may deem themselves to be the most superior race in this planet but in reality, they're the goddamned weakest.", he then took out his sword from its sheathe and started inspecting it, "Humans are so fragile they would die from a simple stab to the chest or even from choking on a grape. Their bodies are so goddamned flimsy that anything beyond 40 degrees Celsius would cause them to die from hyperpyrexia and even a small insect bite could do them in. I'm no different from them so asking me to fight a goddamned immortal with this fragile decrepit body of mine is just plain stupid."
"But you can ask the Heavens to aid you in battle! Is that not also part of being a human? With the help of the Heavens, if your intention is for the good of the world, then-"
"Praying won't solve shit in this goddamned world. How many times do I have to tell you that?", Ashen quickly interjected. Completely fed up with listening to Rosseweisse's nonsensical arguments.
Though as he looked at her, she still seemed to be totally unconvinced and was still itching to make a retort. But right now-
"Anyways, now is not the time to argue about your shitty religion and my views on humanity."
-he has no time for petty arguments.
"Get up. Time to move. We don't have time till the sun sets and things go completely wrong."
Right now, all he has to do is make sure he rescues his daughter and in the process, keep Rosseweisse safe from death and so he gets up and prepares to move out.
*****
"I just freaking scolded you about this and not even a goddamned hour has passed you friggin did it again!"
"I am truly sorry!"
"Forget it! Just run!"
18 minutes after they had left their refuge, Ashen and Rosseweisse is once again running through the streets being chased by something monstrous.
"There they are! Kill the Saint!"
"You have got to be kidding me?! Even the terrorists?!"
Ashen grimaced as he ran full-speed to avoid an incoming fireball.
"Why do I have to friggin carry your sorry ignorant ass again?! This is not making it easier for me to move around!!"
He continued to complain.
Right now, he was running around and jumping over obstacles or dodging attacks all while carrying Rosseweisse on his back. Similar to how he carried her back when they were on Aeternitas, headed for Lothargien where Ashen had to carry an unconscious Rosseweisse across the forest and was chased by a bunch of angry animals. The only difference now however, was that he was being chased by monsters and terrorists.
"Damn it! I can't outrun them! I have no choice!"
He grumbled as he narrowly evaded a shard of sharpened ice.
"Oi, Nitwit! I'm throwing you!"
"Eh?!"
Before Rosseweisse could react further, Ashen concentrated all the strength he could muster on his legs and in the next moment, he jumped. Easily reaching 10 feet in one leap and as soon as he reached the peak of his jump, he grabs Rosseweisse and does a quick spin of his body before letting her go and throwing her inside the window of one of the buildings near them.
Just to be a little 'nice', he threw her through an open window so she wouldn't be hurt.
However, as soon as he landed, a rock hits his forehead causing him to reel back for a moment.
"Really?! Right now?! You should be thankful I didn't throw her into a goddamned pack of rabid over-sized dogs!!"
He yelled angrily as he wiped the blood from his forehead and drawing his sword.
A couple of Barghests lunged at him; with a quick flourish of his arm, he beheads both of them and even swipes away a bullet that had come flying towards him, deflecting it towards the enemy assassin that came from behind him.
"Guha!"
The assassin gets their head hit and falls down dead on the ground. Ashen spared not even a glance towards their direction and continued to ward off his enemies.
He chops off the head of another Barghest and stabs another. Then, using the large corpse of the monster as a shield, he charges forward towards the group of gun-toting terrorists and annihilates them with his sword as soon as he got close.
Right after that, he gets attacked with magic from enemy magicians whom he quickly dispatched with a rifle he picked up from one of the enemy corpses.
"Shit! They're endless!"
He grits his teeth as he now faces a new wave of enemies; Minotaurs and even armored terrorists that clearly looked like members of the white knights from back then.
"Tsk! So now, you show up! I expected you guys to be appearing sometime during the final stages of this goddamned fight but imagine my surprise to see you here now!", Ashen scoffed.
One of the white knights stepped forward and brandished their sword towards him, "You heretical fool! You will pay dearly for killing our hero!"
'Hero?'
Ashen was momentarily puzzled by their words. But he quickly realized who they were talking about.
"Ah...you mean the shithead back in the throne room?", he remembered.
"You-! Everyone, kill him!"
"UOOO!!"
Their rousing battle cries echoed in the air which basically told Ashen that they were completely pissed off. Not that he cared.
*Bang!"
"Guha-!"
Before any of them could even take a step forward, a gunshot rang in the air and one of them fell on their back with a sizzling hole on their forehead.
"Wha-?"
*Bang!*, *Bang!*, *Bang!*
Not a moment later, 3 more gunshots resounded and 3 more of their comrades fell.
"Ah shit! Out of ammo!"
The exasperated complaint of Ashen was heard and the enemy then sees him throw away the rifle he had been holding before picking up another rifle that was on ground by his feet.
"You-!"
*Bang!*
"Like hell I'll let you get close to me retards!"
*Bang!*, *Bang!*, Bang!*
He lets loose another volley and kills another number of them before the Minotaurs bearing large tower shields moved to shield the knights.
"What the hell? The monsters are smarter than you humans...", he mocked before fishing for something his pocket after dropping the rifle, "Well, I wonder if those things even recognize this...", he takes out a hand grenade.
Since it was the high-tech version of a hand grenade that has no pin, Ashen presed the button and it started making ticking sounds. Counting to 3, he then throws the grenade towards the Minotaurs who then raised their shields to cover themselves. However, Ashen, being the evil person that he is, already knew that and threw the grenade in an angle that was sure to let it slip through the gaps of the shield formation and 4 seconds later-
"KABOOOM!!"
-Ashen raises his arms as he mouths the explosion of the grenade and watching it cause untold damage and mayhem in the enemy formation.
"GYAAAAH!!"
"AAAAAH!!"
"HEEEEEELP!!"
The cries of agony of his enemies felt like music to his ears. Hardly a chivalrous reaction considering he is called the 'Knight King'. Not that he really cared.
"M-Monster! Do you have no honor?!"
*Clack!*
Ashen approaches the nearest survivor and points a shotgun he picked up at their face.
"You-! Do you think this makes you even the slightest bit of a he-"
*Bang!*
Ashen did not let the survivor finish their words and simply pulled the trigger. Blowing away their entire head in a single second.
"Honor my ass. The moment you guys plotted this whole civil war crap was the moment you guys ceased to be honorable knights. You broke your sworn oath so now you pay the price; a death devoid of any honor. You guys almost killed my daughter with your stupid plans. Don't expect me to show any mercy on you shitheads..."
As soon as Ashen said that, a memory flashed in his mind and the face of a person he could never forget appeared. Their lips parting as if mouthing a silent sentence that only Ashen could recognize causing him to scoff.
"Feh...Though I'm not one to speak about oathbreakers."
He then looks at the gray sky in apparent melancholy.
"Can I just get some peace and quiet for once in my goddamned life?"
And just as he muttered those words, he felt something pass through him like a scanner and then his view of the gray sky was obstructed by a rather ominous looking structure that suspiciously looked like a wizard's staff floating a hundred feet in the air.
"Ugh...I hate it when I say I want to have peace..."
He grumbles so as he sees a bunch of creatures flying out from what looks like windows and headed towards him.
"I swear...after I rescue Evaline, I am so gonna leave England for good..."
Vowing so, he drops the shotgun and then picks up the dead knight's sword as he prepares himself for yet another troublesome trek accompanied by his airheaded ward with only a sword and his one-armed self.