Chereads / Volition / Chapter 102 - Killing With Kindness

Chapter 102 - Killing With Kindness

"Did you not bring those three humans with you? Could this be a duel? You are offering a duel to someone you view as a traitor? How noble, how gracious, how... Kind!" exclaimed The Crystalian as he stood up from his throne of shimmering crystal, the view strands of light in the room reflecting off the hard and sharp surface of the crystal covered walls.

"I simply whished to not involve outsiders in a fight between two high elves" flatly responded Alamanthienne as she took hold of her weapon, drawing her sword and dropping the sheath on the ground with loud clang.

"Oh, my dear kin... I know that they are somewhere around, they may not have as good of an eyesight as us but they are still elves! My men spotted you four heading over here" as they both started walking in a circle, opposite to one another, The Crystalian's face on more cracked, revealing his mouth full of white crystal teeth.

The elven champion only glared at him without responding.

"What is your name traitor?" she asked, her reflection present in each of the shards of glass that made up her treacherous opponent's eyes.

"My name? My name doesn't matter anymore, I am someone else now, something else! You weren't able to find my name were you? You found of a high elf that vanished but no mention of his name and no one had any clue of his whereabouts, didn't you?" he grinned softly with his monstruous appearance.

"You look a bit dubious, you think I have some allies covering my tracks don't you? Fret not! I am alone in this, my only partner in my disappearance is the wonderful system, you have no need to worry of other traitors" he reassured her, trying to sound as truthful as possible for he was actually being honest.

"I do not wish nor yearn for any sort of strife Alamanthienne, I only wish for a coexistence between the two elves species of this island, for camaraderie between us long-eared folks!" he laughed as the champion stayed silent, bidding her time for when he'll put his guard down.

"I have made it clear haven't I? You could say that it was crystal clear! Ah!"

"You already made that one..." remarked Alamanthienne, annoyed by hus antics.

"Oh, did I? But surely, such a hilarious pleasantry like that is doomed to keep working"

"You know, because I am crystal?" he extended his arms forward as if presenting an article to some customers.

Without wasting any time, the elven champion rushed forward, seizing this short opportunity to attack The Crystalian, who seemed a bit taken aback by her complete lack of humor.

As he tried to step back, she swung her sword at his still outstretched arms but moving them out of the way was incredibly easy, he simply raised his arms straight up and shifted his weight while moving back.

Doing a very classy but unnecessary movement by bending his back and putting his hands on the ground before rotating back onto his feet thanks to the momentum.

While very graceful, he quickly noticed that something was off, he seemed to be a slight lighter than before his maneuver.

Looking on the ground, further to his right, his crystal sword had been hit away from his body by the champion, whether or not this had been her aim this entire time wasn't clear but he certainly had lost his weapon.

"Welp, that is troublesome" he remarked to himself as he saw his opponent rushing toward him with her sword shining with high elven light.

The sleeves of his uniform were ripped off as he grew a protective layer of crystals on them and anchored himself on the ground to receive the powerful blow of the both physical and magical attack.

Infusing some of his own magic into the crystals allowed him to come out unscathed but the exchange was only starting.

She swung her sword of adamantine with precision while simultaneously pretty much using it as a battle axe, smashing and smashing into The Crystalian over and over again, aiming for the center of his body rather that his head or limbs.

She was pummeling him and making sure that each of her attacks would connect, forcing him to back off constantly.

Pieces of crystals soon littered the floor as bits kept being chipped off her opponent.

That was a mistake, as soon as he judged it was enough, he caused the extra crystals on his forearms to burst on their own right as the sword impacted, blowing her away for a moment and stopping the onslaught for a brief instant as well.

This was enough time for him to point up, causing the debris on the ground to fly up like air bullets, only scraping against the armor of the champion and slighting cutting into her cheek, that was only the setup.

The bits of crystal formed into a roughly round shape above his head, both of his palm against one another above his head was well before he suddenly brought them apart on each side, causing the ball of crystal to suddenly rise up in the air and start raining the shards back onto the ground.

Alamanthienne was taken aback by the scale and power of the attack but simply reinforced her face and head with her magic before rushing back toward The Crystalian, who was busy picking his saber back up.

He himself was actually getting hit by the rain of shards as well but it only bounced off of him as if it was nothing.

"Let us finish this with sword battle! A bit cliché but beggars can't be choosers I guess! Much better than my idea of turning into a giant crystal monster still!" yelled out the traitor as he kicked off the ground meeting the champion head up, his saber holding out against the longsword.

It was impressive and glorious but it wasn't going anywhere, none of them was getting past their defences, the crystals were only chipped off before regrowing and the armor wasn't getting damage by slashes, only a direct thrust could hope to penetrate it and that was being generous.

For as lengthy as it might have seemed, their sword fight had yet to even reach a minute long and soon enough, the rain of crystal stopped, without the endless barrage of projectiles, The Crystalian was left without the protection he didn't know he needed.

A dagger pierced right through his chest, having went right through his heat and also severing part of his spine, in that short instant of surprise another blade pierced right through him, this time into his guts and seemingly skewering at least one organ, not that it mattered much after the initial blow.

He looked back only to see an unexpected guest, a dark elf, he had heard of one around but he was fairly certain someone had told she had been put out of commission already.

He spat no blood for his crystal face was only decorative, the blood was on the inside of the layer of minerals.

"That will leave a mark..." he muttered, before elbowing the dark elf right in the middle of her face, sending her rolling back as he took hold of Alamanthienne's wrist, pushing the blade further as he got closer to her face.

"I have a confession to make" he said, not sounding explicitly hurt or in pain, almost seeming content with the situation, uncaring for the clearly lethal injuries he suffered.

"I probably should have started with that, doing my true duty I mean, not getting stabbed"

"You see, my act of vanishing isn't one that I orchestrated but one forced upon me, not that I dislike it, I understand and I must say, I am honored that the system saw me as fit for that position" the champion tried to break free of his hold by smashing his wrist or face in but he wouldn't budge.

"I want you to relay that message: The Cardinal Virtue of Kindness is here and ready to take action"

"Oh and by the way, also be kind to the lesser elves about this whole war or revolt, it was all me, shake hands and accept each other okay? I am sure you could use some more workforce, we high elves aren't very quick on the whole reproduction thing after all"

"Got it?" he asked for confirmation if he had been heard but to ask for it, he turned his head toward the entrance, where the three otherworlders were waiting.

He wasn't asking anything of the champion.

Firmly grasping his sword he stabbed it right through her skull before brutally ripping out the sword out of his stomach.

Even though he killed her, just like with the other high elves he had killed before, he exerted his kindness still and made them believe that they had won and survived.

Instead of the delirium of the last few moments of life, she saw exactly what she would have wanted instead.

Surrounding himself with crystals, he went away as Olivia tried in vain to reanimate the high elf.