"Everyone, move aside!" Louis instantly drew his katana, stopping Kein's attack. All the journalists and reporters moved away, pushing Marti and causing him to collide with his carriage.
Then, Jhin approached quickly, hitting Louis' face and making him crash into the stone railing to his left, falling below the bridge. Beneath the bridge, the area was rocky with trees in the distance.
"This looks so easy with armor like this!" shouted Inock, shooting projectiles with his right arm.
Louis quickly got up and started running from the projectiles that hit the ground, creating several explosions. One of them hit him and sent him flying far. The three brothers jumped off the bridge and approached Louis with a large amount of smoke behind them.
"Record this! Paladin Louis is fighting three criminals at the same time!" shouted one of the journalists.
Kein looked at the journalists and shot a net to prevent them from moving. "I'll take care of you later, little ants," he then continued walking.
"Damn... What can I do? I don't want anyone to see me, and these three... at the same time?" he thought, stunned by the situation.
"Louis... show them what you're made of! If they're going to hate me, let them! But I'll do what I must!" Louis thought. "But I'll do what I have to do!" Louis created two lava wolves using both his hands. "This should be enough to disable their armors without hurting them... This time... Don't let go of your katana, Louis!" he thought.
"What the hell?" said Jhin, surprised.
"Is that lava?" exclaimed Inock.
"Wow! I have the exclusive, hahaha!" said the short pink-haired journalist, who wasn't caught.
"Stupid rookie!" shouted a man inside the net. "Don't move so much, you idiots!" said the orange-haired lady; the journalists were too tightly packed in the net, making it impossible for them to escape. The pink-haired woman turned around and stuck her tongue out at all of them.
"That's what you get for being nosy!" shouted Marti next to them.
"No wonder my old armor couldn't withstand such temperature. Take care of those two; Louis... he's mine!" Kein added.
The wolves began running toward them... Inock and Jhin shot at them with their armors and flew above them to avoid contact. Still, the wolves began spitting lava to reach them.
Kein and Louis ran toward each other... When they were side by side, they started clashing their swords.
"Interesting power, kid; now I see why you're a paladin at such a young age," he exclaimed as they continued clashing swords.
"I am who I am because of my effort!" he said firmly. "and because of the help I received from the few people... that care about me." He replied with relief as he remembered those who cared for him. Louis and Kein were struggling in a clash of swords.
"That's nonsense! People with magic always have more benefits!" he said angrily, winning the struggle and forcing Louis to step back.
Kein stood in front of him and said in a mocking and annoyed tone: "Here's a little gift!" and shot him with his metallic arm in the chest, causing a large explosion that sent him flying through the air.
"Well done, brother! Ugh! Damn wolf!" Inock shouted, dodging an attack from the lava wolf.
"Damn it, his sword is much more resistant than the first time... I need to keep the others out of the fight" Louis thought, getting up with his shirt torn. Suddenly, the wolves jumped high, lost their shape, and managed to reach both brothers.
"This can't be..." Kein adjusted his arm and shot ice bolts at his brothers. "Are you okay?!" he asked, his concern evident despite sounding robotic.
"Yeah, we're fine..." Inock replied, covered in volcanic rock and ice.
"We still need to learn how to use these things" Jhin said, removing a piece of rock that had stuck to the middle of his face.
Louis appeared behind him, attacking with his katana using his right hand... but Kein stopped the attack. "Do you think you'll catch me off guard again?" Louis placed his left hand on Kein's stomach and launched a large amount of lava that covered the armor, but... Kein activated a mechanism that froze the entire mechanical suit and part of Louis's hand.
"You won't defeat me again!" Kein said angrily, grabbing Louis's arm with his left and punching him in the stomach with his right. Then he lifted him into the air and punched him in the face, breaking his nose and sending him flying far away.
"Damn it, he's in trouble" Marti said, watching from above the bridge.
"This is getting better, I'll have the exclusive of the first defeat of Paladin Louis" the pink-haired girl said excitedly, continuing to film.
"Hey, girl, if they beat him, they'll come for us next" expressed the other, desperate.
"That's even better! I'll be remembered as the one who captured these images" she said, even more excited.
"This girl is crazy..." Marti thought, scared of the girl.
"Damn, it hurts so much..." Louis expressed in great pain, as his hands trembled and his face regenerated. Kein shot ice bolts at his arms and legs from a distance, preventing him from moving.
"What the hell are you?" Kein said disgusted, watching how the wounds on his face regenerated as he walked towards him.
Louis began to see Kein a little blurry, but he managed to break free from the ice by melting it and got up, wielding his katana while his face finished regenerating.
"What the hell are you doing? You're useless!" a deep, dark, and resonant voice said in Louis's mind. The being was so angry that his face shone like lava, revealing he wore a dark silver helmet.
"Shut up, Dark... I don't have time for you to bother me!" Louis replied, prepared to continue his battle with Kein.
"Who are you talking to? Did I hit you so hard that now you're... delirious?!" Kein asked as he started running toward Louis, and they began clashing their swords at great speed.
"Dark...? You have the power to destroy a kingdom! Don't be weak!" Dark said, making his face shine brighter.
"A rookie paladin like you won't defeat me, even with that magic" Kein said, annoyed as they continued clashing their swords rapidly.
"Kill him and his brothers! Turn them into ASHES!!!" his voice became distorted, deeper, and full of fury, spewing lava from the holes in the helmet.
Louis approached Dark in his mind. "Silence!" he said as his two eyes glowed. Louis grabbed Dark's face and crushed it, creating an explosion of lava in his mind and in reality. The explosion erupted from his body, tearing his shirt completely, and sending Kein flying far away, crashing into a large rock and destroying it. For a moment, things stayed calm.
"I don't understand your hate... Just because I defeated you, what's inside of you?" Louis asked with great seriousness.
Kein got up from the ground, moving away from the rock he destroyed after crashing into it. "What's inside...? Hate! And humiliation! A rookie like you... After I destroy you, I'll go after the other two who dared to hurt... my family!" Kein's words were full of contempt and fury, a feeling of humiliation and an insatiable desire for revenge.
"You're an idiot! I'll never let you hurt the professor again!" Louis shouted angrily, positioning his left foot back and his right foot forward, placing his right hand back, holding the katana that glowed intensely from the high temperature.
"Damn it! I won't lose... I won't lose to a rookie paladin like you!" Kein shouted and used the thrusters in his feet to go at full speed, preparing to attack with all his strength with his blade.
Louis raised the katana above his head, covering it with a large amount of lava. Louis's red eye glowed intensely, and a reddish tattoo appeared beside his eye. Kein reached him and, with all his strength, launched the attack with his blade, while Louis brought his katana down in a strike, clashing with Kein's and creating a large sound wave. Then, a great amount of lava burst from Louis's katana, dragging Kein through the current, pushing him against the ground and leaving a mark. Kein's suit activated the cooling system every moment, but it was reaching its limit.
"Brother!" Inock and Jhin shouted, heading to help Kein.
"No!" Louis said, seeing he had gone too far.
"Yes! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Look at the great power you have" Dark said with madness.
Louis began to cool the lava with all his strength.
"Don't be an idiot!"
"Shut up!" Louis shouted.
With great effort, Louis managed to stop the massive attack, and all the lava turned into rock. Louis fell to his knees, exhausted from the effort, while Kein's brothers reached him.
"Kein! Tell me you're okay, speak to me, please!" Jhin said, hitting the rock next to Inock. After hitting it for a while, they managed to find him and pull him out.
"Brother, please respond..." he said, removing the helmet from his armor and showing his expression of concern and fear. Louis watched them from afar, also worried and breathing tiredly.
"I'm... fine... Step aside..." said Kein with difficulty, and his brothers moved aside as the armor expelled a large amount of steam.
"Good to see you're alright, brother," said Jhon, hugging Kein after the armor finished expelling the steam. "We thought you were dead," added Inock, hugging him as well.
"What do we do now?" asked Inock.
"Isn't it obvious? Now we attack him, the three of us..." replied Kein wearily.
"But..."
"He already used a lot of magic, and if I remember correctly, magic that creates elements requires a lot more, so... he shouldn't have much left. We can win," Kein struggled to stand up and began walking toward where Louis was.
"Alright... Let's go, Inock," said Jhin, putting on his helmet and following Kein.
"Are they coming...? I can do it, I have enough magic... This was what the six-year training with Master Rei was for. " said Louis, grabbing his blue necklace. "I must continue too!" Louis stood up and gripped his katana once more.
Suddenly, a large gust of yellow wind came from the top of the kingdom's wall. "Hello, everyone!" said a woman with a cheerful and radiant voice. Her hair was long and blonde, with bangs and a blue streak, and her eyes were violet. She was about 167 cm tall. She wore a jacket that was half yellow and half pink, a black turtleneck shirt with little stars on the chest, pink pants, and pink and yellow shoes. "Let's see... red hair... Aha! I found it. So, the other three must be the bad ones. Don't you think it's unfair, three against one? But never mind, I'm here!" The girl sped toward them with her magic.
"Aaaa! It can't be, the ex-paladin and singer Ann Stary!" screamed the pink-haired girl.
"It can't be!" exclaimed all the journalists on the network.
"I think we should leave, brother," said Inock in fear.
"Why?" asked Kein, not knowing who she was.
"It looks like the ex-paladins are here, and I don't think we can beat them. Remember, we're not good at using the suits," replied Inock, shaking Jhin.
"But why are you shaking me?!" yelled Jhin, annoyed.
Ann reached them, and Kein ordered them to shoot her. Ann easily destroyed the rockets. "Don't be rough!" she exclaimed, putting her hands behind her and then forward, creating a yellow tornado that headed toward them, lifting stones and generating a great wind current in the area.
Inock and Jhin moved Kein out of the way, but the tornado caught them. "Idiots! What are you doing?" said Kein, annoyed after falling to the ground. "Run, brother," said Jhin as they spun in the tornado with Inock. "We'll distract her!" added Inock.
"Damn it, I won't let you!" said Kein, standing up to fight.
"You're injured, you won't be able to do anything," shouted Jhin, and then the yellow wind covered him, and the tornado disappeared.
"Huh?" said Inock and Jhin, confused.
"Gotcha, now I've caught you!" said Ann as she continued flying, with the two trapped in a circle of wind spinning rapidly around them.
"You missed one, pay more attention, Ann," said a man with a deep, calm, and slightly grave voice, with a confident tone. He had somewhat messy brown hair and wore black-rimmed glasses. He wore a long dark green coat over a black turtleneck shirt, brown pants, and brown-tipped shoes. He was watching Kein with a rifle.
"Aaa! It's the ex-paladin Ririam Bloick and Ann's partner too! This day couldn't get any better!" said the girl excitedly, filming Ririam while Martí looked at her strangely.
"Oops... I'll go after him!" said Ann, realizing in a silly and cheerful way.
"No, I'll go. Just throw me at him," said Ririam, getting ready and jumping high from the bridge as Ann propelled him with her magic.
"Before, would you mind answering a few questions?" shouted the journalists before he flew off.
"Damn it, the armor isn't working... I can beat him, yes, of course I can!" thought Kein.
Ririam shot with the sniper, making Kein lose his balance. As he fell to the ground, Ririam hit him in the face with the rifle's stock. Then he took out a rod that turned into a staff and began hitting him, moving back and forth, not giving Kein a chance to respond. "Damn it, it's so damaged, it's hard to react, but... You're mine!" thought Kein, waiting for an opportunity, and tried to land a right hook. But Ririam electrified his staff, stopping Kein's attack. Kein, resisting with all his strength, took the staff from Ririam, but he used his magic and covered Kein with a large amount of slime.
"Damn it, more magic! Come on, come on!" said Kein, annoyed, trying to get the armor to respond. Finally, the armor managed to work and destroyed all the slime covering him with an explosion from his hands. "Perfect, huh? Where is he?" thought Kein, confused when he couldn't see him. Ririam fell on top of him and shot him in the back at a very specific point, causing Kein to fall to his knees.
"Son of a bitch! How is it...?" Kein couldn't move, and the armor shut down.
"I know those things. Don't think I don't keep up with the advancements in war armor," interrupted Ririam to Kein and then put his staff away.
"At least I lost to a paladin with experience," said Kein, feeling somewhat relieved but still annoyed.
"Please... You had already been defeated; I just immobilized you so you wouldn't escape," replied Ririam, while checking his communicator.
"That's not true!" replied Kein, annoyed.
"Yes, it is," insisted Ririam. "No, it's not," replied Kein. "It is! Now shut up," he answered.
"They're going to pay... You'll see!" shouted Kein.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Mei, we're here... The kid is fine, don't worry. Okay, we'll go immediately," said Ririam, activating his communicator and talking to Mei while walking around Kein and touching his armor, noticing the damage it had.
"What just happened...? Who are they? Paladins?" Louis thought, looking at Ririam from afar.
Ann approached Louis but kept watching Ririam. "He's so handsome... Just watching him walk... *sigh* I feel in love..." Ann said, feeling so much love just by seeing him.
"Huh?" Louis said, surprised by what he heard.
"I'm sorry, it's just that sometimes, when I see him..." she said with her heart in her hand, slowly turning toward Louis.
"Aah! Sorry, I shouldn't look at other men without a shirt, I have a partner, hehe, sorry for scaring you." Ann immediately turned around, feeling bad for scaring Louis. "You're Louis, right?"
"Oh, it's true, my shirt got torn to pieces!, how embarrassing...!" Louis thought, blushing slightly, turning around. "Yes... it's me, are you paladins?"
"We were; the king took away our status," Ann replied, still facing away while noticing that Ririam was coming toward them.
"So, you're with Mei..." he said, thinking about what to do.
"Yes, she sent us to find you. *Silence* Professor Maxwell says not to leave..." Ann said, trying to convince Louis per the professor's request. "I think, from experience, it's normal to fail; we wish we could do everything right, but it doesn't always happen," she said sincerely, smiling as she remembered her past.
"I understand..."
"So, you're the guy... Hmmm, you have good muscles, but I still say you're too young to be a paladin," she exclaimed after analyzing his body with her gaze, then turned to Ann and noticed she was facing away. "Here, put this on, but don't touch my artifacts," she said authoritatively, handing Louis her coat.
"Thank you..." Louis said, putting on Ririam's coat.
"Ann, you can turn around now," Ririam said when Louis had put on the coat.
"Aah!" Ann screamed when she turned around and put her hands on her face.
"Why are you shouting?!" Ririam asked, confused.
"Because... without the coat, you look very handsome," she replied, a bit nervous.
*Sigh* Ann... Anyway, let's go to the agency. Have you flown before, Louis?" he asked, somewhat confused, as if he couldn't understand why she was acting this way.
"Yes, I've done it before with green magic," Louis replied, confused by Ann's attitude.
"Green magic... interesting. Well, let's go!" he said, starting to fly thanks to Ann's magic.
"Goodbye, Marti! Thank you so much!" Louis shouted when he saw Marti.
"You're welcome! Keep going, kid!" Marti shouted, watching them leave.
"It's the best day of my life! And you... I won't get you out of there, get out on your own, you bad ones!" the pink-haired girl said, leaving the journalists on the net.
"Damn girl!" everyone said.
"Don't worry, I'll untie them, I'll go get a knife," Marti said, leaving after seeing the girl's wickedness.
"Thank you..." everyone said, sadly.
"Hey, Louis, by the way, did you do all of that?" Ririam asked, pointing to the lava rock.
"Umm... yeah... it was me..." Louis replied nervously.
"So, did you have another type of magic? Mei told me your magic was fire," Ririam said, looking at the brothers arguing in the distance, as Ann was carrying them with her magic as well.
"Uh... yeah, you could say I have other abilities," Louis replied, trying not to lie as he sat on the yellow wind cloud.
"That's good," Ririam exclaimed, then spoke with Ann.
"What should I do...? Professor Maxwell will scold me, but... do I even have a future here? *Sigh* Master Rei... what should I do?" he thought, looking at his katana. "This time, I didn't let go of it..." he said, Sketching a minimal smile, barely a movement on his lips and thinking about everything that happened that day. "What will I do with Dark? Heh, it seems he got upset because I called him that... I have to take care of this problem, alone, it's something that's inside me and only I will solve it" he thought, reflecting firmness and determination.
After a while, they all arrived at the agency and headed to Mei's office.
"Hello, Canbel," Ann said before entering the office with her cheerful voice.
"Hello, Miss Ann," Canbel replied kindly.
"Here he is!" Ririam said as he entered the office.
"Louis! What happened?" he said, surprised to see him in tattered clothes and wearing Ririam's coat.
"Kein and his brothers attacked me outside the kingdom," Louis replied, trying not to look at him from afar.
An awkward and long moment ruled the office; everyone was silent, except Ann, who was humming.
"Hmmm, well, we'll leave you alone, go ahead, kids," Mei said, noticing they needed to talk privately. Everyone left the office.
"Take care of my coat and my things," Ririam said, opening the door once more, then left.
"Okay... sorry for worrying you, professor..." Louis said, a little embarrassed.
"I want you to know that... you haven't given me trouble; yes, maybe a few small ones, but tiny. Having you as my guest has been very good for me: you helped me with the Zthur men, you helped me recover my plans, delivered my packages despite not being from here; though, of course, that was your job. You didn't let them damage anything valuable in my house, but not only that. You also helped Mei, saved people. That I decided to take care of you... was the right thing to do, or at least I think so," the professor said sincerely, with appreciation and a slight touch of pride, as he approached and put his hand on Louis' shoulder.
"Thank you so much, professor..." Louis said, lowering his head and trying not to let him see his small tears after hearing that. He then hugged the professor, and the professor responded by hugging him back.
"I always... wanted to hear that from someone else," he said, his voice slightly trembling.
"Don't worry, Louis... I won't let them hurt you anymore," the professor thought, knowing everything he had gone through to get to this point.
We move away from Mei's office from her window and go to a faraway place in this world, hidden in the heights of the mountains.
*West of Lyran - Church - Priest's Office*
We see an elderly man with short white hair; he wears a black shirt with a collar and a white robe with golden details, somewhat loose black pants, and black loafers. He is sitting, looking out of his window, with both arms resting on a wooden cane; and over his left shoulder rests a golden staff. He also wears round glasses.
"Edgar! I need you to let me know when Rei Fordesthmans arrives," he said in his deep, raspy voice, with a tone that inspired respect and authority.
"Sir, he arrived at noon when you were in a meeting with the Tetran," Edgar replied, trying to calm him down.
"I see... he probably convinced Litny... Tell me, when do I have free time to go to Ystir?" the elderly man asked, with a mix of interest and anticipation.
"All this month is full, sir; it's when you have meetings with all the kingdoms. The bad news is that the king of Ystir didn't request a meeting," Edgar replied, standing firm in front of the priest.
"That's bad... just when I need to go. Well, let that demon enjoy it; I'll handle the matter myself. You may leave," the priest said calmly as he kept looking out the window. After Edgar left the office, the priest began to smile.
End of chapter