Ariel Terzic was waiting inside an interrogation room for anyone to enter that place and end his boredom once and for all. He was finding that situation to be a hassle, but nothing was helping it. Since he and his group committed so many mistakes and tried to mess with one of the greatest, if not the greatest, detectives of that city. They needed to bear the consequences.
'I just hope that we don't need to stay stuck here for too long. We all have our things to take care of. Clan Ignus Cornus isn't the only clan of demons that we need to manage to apply pressure on. Also, with the scheme of the coup nearly starting to unfold, we need to be ready to attack the northern suburbs of this city...'
The paladin looked at the small window of the wall in front of him. Of course, it was too high for him to see anything from there, but he could perceive the blue sky from there.
'I am worried... I really feel a bad omen about it. Before, everything planned for the coup to happen was going smoothly. Mark Foster is still out there, attacking the paladins and making a ruckus. We could force clan Ignus Cornus to disown him. Now, he is still trying to look for Tobey, opening their defenses for us to enter there and make anything we want. The only thing we need to do is to kill Priest Aslam and convince the Matriarch, our mistress, that it was necessary.
'However, even though our plan was going smoothly, this worry doesn't leave me alone, and I know that it is not unfounded. On the contrary, I have many reasons to be concerned about our plans...'
He sighed as he heard the door of the interrogation room opening, just having time to finish his line of thought.
'One of them, unfortunately, is Clementine Welcome. That woman has a sense of justice so strong that she may turn against us if she hears about this coup. May the heavens break apart, but not make us know again the fury of that woman,' Ariel Terzic prayed.
****
"Oh? So you don't comply with this coup, huh? So what? What will you do? Kill me, maybe?" the woman chuckled as she looked at Clementine's Asian eyes.
Clementine took a step forward as she frowned hard and gritted her teeth.
"If that's necessary, I will do it without hesitation. You know very well that I am capable of doing this. I am not an amateur Violet Hayes."
"For an A-grade paladin, a C-rank like you is nothing but an amateur. In terms of talent and power, I am miles away. So much that I was one of the designated paladins to do this dirty service against Priest Aslam."
"Talented or not, it doesn't change the fact that you are just another dirty paladin who uses the name of God and the power of the Angels for your own selfish desires! That's not how things are meant to be, and I won't change my mind about it."
Violet sighed, frowning slightly as she looked at the now golden eyes of Clementine.
"Who are you to talk about selfish desires?" she said in a low and coarse tone. "Among us, paladins, you are the one with the most selfish desires. You were always the rebel here, doubting your faith and our Mistress all the time. You are also the one who demanded the higher-ups to let you live a normal life among humans. Also, you are the one under the Matriarch's suspect for leaving a potentially S-grade demon to flee away.
"At the very least, my selfish desires are here for the sake of the paladins and to exterminate demons from the earth. But you... you are just doing all of this for your own sake, for your own ideals. You are not a good servant, Clementine!"
The old woman shook her head, a slight smile on her face. Finally, she summoned her armor, covering all her body with bright white metal plates adorned with golden details. Two little metal wings were placed on each side of her helmet, pointing backward. Her armor had sharp ends and contributed to her mobility.
"Yes, I am not, Violet. I am not the type of woman who allows others to use me like a pawn!"
That was the last straw for Violet. Her pale white face acquired a color very near her rose lips as she got slightly angry. Anyway, that was just a natural response of her body. In truth, she was way calmer than it seemed. The anger she felt disappeared as quickly as it arrived, being replaced by her usual calmness.
"Curse those who dare to oppose the definitive word of God... Come out, Aspidis!" she shouted, summoning her Soul Mirror.
A huge golden whip materialized quickly in her hand, spreading across the floor. It had, at least, six meters and almost seemed to be alive.
"Don't get so cocky, Clementine. Although you are a true master when it comes to controlling the Divine Flame, It doesn't mean that you are invincible!"
(A/N: Divine Flame = Divine Power, which is the way I addressed that golden aura exuded by the paladins. The first is the right term, but since Tobey didn't know this he used the second term as a base, and since I didn't show it in the story until now I decided to go with the second in the previous chapters. The power system will be explained in later chapters)
Violet swung her whip, making it travel at an incredible speed toward Clementine.
"Wake up and engulf this sinful world in flames, Dei Ignus!"
As if her sword had just woken up from its dormant state, its blade shone brightly and flames began to appear around it. Soon, the blade was thoroughly engulfed in golden, wavering flames.
She moved Dei Ignus just as Violet's whip was about to strike her, blocking it by a hair strand. Even though her slash was perfect and had excellent timing, the tip of the whip could still strike her on the left cheek from between an opening of her helmet, leaving a bruise on the exposed skin.
Clementine frowned hard upon receiving the impact. She wasn't expecting that Violet's very first attack would be so powerful.
'She was aiming to wound me right away. Thankfully, my helmet didn't let it strike me at full force,' she thought.
Violet snorted as she pulled back her long whip and cast a condescending look at Clementine.
Without wasting more time, she swung her whip again, but this time horizontally, making it sweep away the benches lined up on the right side of the church.
Clementine jumped high in the air and avoided the golden whip. However, her face wasn't that of someone triumphant for dodging successfully an attack. On the contrary, she made a worried face as the whip changed its direction with a maneuver of Violet, going up in a wide bow.
'Her aim is perfect as always. It is hard to hit someone in movement with a whip, but maneuvering like this... I must acknowledge her!'
She swung her sword engulfed in flames once again, this time aiming to the tip of the whip, thus being able to repel it completely without getting struck.
Violet frowned slightly upon seeing that and waved the whip again, swinging her arm in different directions and making it bounce back to catch Clementine. The latter maneuvered her body in middle-air so she would be able to slash with her Dei Ignus, defending attack after attack, no matter which side it came.
Clementine defended yet another time before she finally fell to the ground and stomped it, charging toward Violet.
The old woman's charge toward the brown-haired beauty in front of her was explosively fast, so much that the latter didn't have the time to pull her whip back to attack Clementine again.
Dei Ignus descended in a perfect bow towards Violet, its flames wavering more wildly as it traveled towards the apparently defenseless woman.
After the sword clashed against the woman, the flames on its blade expanded into a ball of golden fire that blew the benches on the left side of the church, also burning them down to ashes.
The flames concentrated on the blade again, every single flare gathering on its structure until it was completely engulfed by fire.
Clementine's eyes flashed with hatred as she looked at Violet's armored forearm placed above her head, blocking Dei Ignus before it reached her.
Violet had summoned her armor right before the attack hit her forearm. It was a matter of milliseconds, which was a quite impressive reaction speed. Clementine's armor took longer to materialize.
'Her armor definitely is worth an A-grade paladin. There is no doubt about it. I will need something stronger to go past her defenses,' Clementine thought as she pressed forward while shifting all her weight to her lead leg, trying to push Violet's arm away. She couldn't create distance as she would give her the opportunity to attack with the whip.
Clementine was about to do something more straightforward to force the woman back, but she suddenly felt her vision spinning as if she just left a very crazy rollercoaster after a ride.
Upon seeing Clementine's face getting paler every second, Violet smiled.
"Now, the real battle begins..."