The cathedral was in an uproar. The guards went to arms while the crowd gasped and ran behind the guards since Alex was at the entrance.
Alex looked around and saw the guards surrounding him. He counted about fifteen guards inside the church.
"What are you doing here? Alex Blackwood." Duncan Tarren yelled out.
Alex smirked. He saw the rage in Duncan's eyes, and he wasn't alone; Oliver Tarren had a very similar look in his eyes as well.
"I thought I made that known; I use the right of objection against this farce of a marriage." Alex stated.
Oliver yelled out "I refuse to listen to what you have to say; you have no power here!"
Alex smiled once again. "Well, it doesn't matter if you refuse or not; I declared the right in front of the divines. You can't refuse my right; you can, of course, challenge it."
"He's right, Oliver." The priest said while currently terrified of what's happening.
"I don't care; guards kill him!" Oliver ordered.
However, before the guards could even move, a purple lightning strike hit the right side of the guard encirclement, knocking out six of the guards, while a torrent of water hit the left side of the encirclement, taking out another six guards.
Nobody knew where it came from until they saw a maid with long blue hair and blue eyes jump down from the left side of the upper floors of the cathedral. On the right side, a woman dressed in a black dress jumped down. She had long black hair and purple eyes. Next to her was another maid with brown hair and brown eyes.
"Mom! Veronica! Eve!" Raven yelled out with a tear coming out of her eye.
"Raven!" Anna yelled out.
Raven shoved Oliver out of her way and ran to her mother, hugging her.
Alex then smiled, knowing most of his plan was complete. He hit the last of the guards with his own lightning strike.
"Now, back to what I was saying: of course you can challenge my objection, but well, you should know what you would have to do, right?" Alex asked Oliver.
"No, I don't, but it doesn't matter; you won't live long enough to even get out of this church." Oliver said.
Oliver raised his arm, generating some of his family's water magic to strike at Alex; however, the priest grabbed Oliver's arm before he could use his magic.
"Oliver! If you strike him after he declares his right of objection, you will have disgraced the divines. He has called for the right of objection, meaning if you want to challenge it, you must use the right of combat. You would have to fight him in a solo duel at a trial ground." The priest explained.
"He's right, Oliver." Duncan said, sighing.
"But father!" Oliver exclaimed.
"There is nothing we can do now; it's been called." Duncan said. Duncan turned towards Alex and said, "Alex Blackwood, as a representative of the Tarren family, my son uses his right to challenge and will meet you at the dueling fields tomorrow. You can take your sister to where you're staying; however, if you fail to appear or try to run away, you will be given a bounty directly from the holy family. Do you understand?"
"I do, Duncan Tarren. Tomorrow morning we will meet for the duel; now if you would excuse me." Alex said as he signaled everyone to leave the cathedral.
"Father, why must I fight him? Who cares about his right of objection or whatever?" Oliver pleaded.
"You fool, he declared in front of the divines. If we refused or tried to kill him here, the divines would turn their backs on us." Duncan explained.
Oliver, still angry, yelled "You're too superstitious,father! The divines never interfere in the realm of men; why would they now?"
Oliver sighed and said "I just have a bad feeling about this whole situation."
*Elsewhere*
"Good, they backed down."
In the dimension of the goddesses, Iris and Xymaris were watching the situation unfold.
"I knew he would handle this as well as he did." Xymaris said.
"Bullshit, you were ready to draw your bow if you had to." Iris commentated.
"It's always safer to be cautious, and I wasn't the only one ready for it; don't think I can't see that you were ready to draw yours as well." Xymaris said, pointing at the magic circle behind Iris.
The bows of the three goddesses, each known as a divine weapon, Divine Weapons had the power of an atomic nuke. If the power of one was unleashed. It could turn an entire city into ash.
The two continued to bicker as sisters do, but they stopped talking once they each heard another voice.
"Please don't blow up the city because of those idiots..."
It was a man with blue hair and blue eyes, wearing robes that were blue and white. The goddesses knew exactly who he was. Lapis, the god of the region, and who the city was named after. He was a peaceful god and tended to stay out of conflicts.
"They shouldn't try to harm our chosen one." Iris said.
"I understand, but trust me, that Tarren boy's magic is completely outmatched by your chosen one. So please don't overreact." Lapis begged.
He knew they had the full intention that if Alex got hurt or worse, Lapis City would be nothing but rubble, and there wasn't much he could do to stop them. He was a merchant god. Fighting wasn't his strong suit.
"It's fine, Lapis; he handled it well after all; we were just being cautious." Xymaris said.
Lapis breathed a sigh of relief as he left their dimension as quickly as he could. He was scared of the three goddesses, especially Iris and Xymaris, since they had more aggressive traits. Luckily, Kearis wasn't there, or he would've been in trouble. He could barely handle two of them if all three got together. Nothing he said would've made a difference. He knew how hardheaded each of the sisters were.
"Thankfully, that went well." Lapis said as he returned to his own dimension.
*Back with Alex*
Alex and his family went back to the Inn. They celebrated Raven's return, and she finally felt happy after being away from them for a week. She had never spent so long without any of them. After the celebration dinner, they caught Raven up on the stuff she missed. Mary's betrayal, Veronica revealing her true name to be Kaede, and Alex even mentioned how he met Kyssee, which got him some weird looks from Raven.
"You were flirting with a girl while I was held prisoner in that room?" Raven asked.
"No, no, you misunderstand; I didn't flirt with her. I just shared my dinner with her, and that was that." Alex explained.
Raven didn't fully believe him but stopped arguing. She was just happy to be back with everyone after such a lonely time. She told everyone what has been going on with her; she mentioned that Ellen Tarren tried to help her where she could, but she didn't have much control over that.
Alex took note of this internally.
Later that night, while Alex was preparing for bed, he heard a knock on his door.
He answered it, and Raven was there in the hallway, wearing some of her clothes that the maids managed to save before everything that went down at the Blackwood Mansion.
She was wearing a white t-shirt and light blue shorts. It wasn't the most stylish outfit, but it was better than staying in that wedding dress.
Alex let her in, and Raven moved to the center of the room and faced Alex.
Before Alex could say even a word, Raven embraced him in a hug.
"I knew you would keep your promise; you came and saved me!" Raven said.
"I promised you I would. I would never break a promise to you." Alex said as he hugged her back.
Raven blushed when she heard that. Every day and night, she hoped Alex would save her, and he finally did, but another thought crossed her mind.
"What are you going to do about the duel tomorrow?" Raven asked.
"I'll win." Alex stated.
He had no doubt in his mind that he would win; he saw Oliver as weak, so he wasn't intimated for tomorrow's duel at all.
"But what if-" Raven was saying before she was interrupted.
"Nothing is going to happen; I'll win, and we will all be finally free to do whatever we want." Alex said.
Raven nodded her head, and the two separated their hug. However, Raven asked Alex for a favor.
"Hey Alex, So I have a big favor to ask."
Alex smiled. "Go ahead; if I can do it, I will." Alex said.
"Can I sleep in here with you? It's okay if you think it's weird; I can just go back in the other room-" Raven started to ramble before Alex interrupted her again.
"Of course you can, Raven; you never have to ask."
Raven smiled and nodded her head. As the two lay down on the bed, Raven rested her head on Alex's arm, not letting him out of her cuddle.
Once Alex fell asleep with Raven still awake and cuddling, she sat straight up on the bed and looked at Alex.
"Thank you, Alex." she whispered.
Raven started to blush as she kissed Alex on the lips as he was sleeping.
"I love you."
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