Three of Us

“Stick with me and you’ll be fine,” Isabelle said, glancing over her shoulder to John.

Looking from Isabelle to the clouds, Crow craned his head toward the sky and let out an unhinged cackle, arms outstretched. “This is just too perfect. I’m not powerless anymore, bitch.” The eye of the storm passed over them, and they were once again submerged in darkness. “Fall.”

The air thinned around them, and John took large gulps before it disappeared completely. He collapsed to his knees as the inky black flowed over them, and he lost sight of Isabelle. After a few seconds, however, a shining white light banished the darkness around her. She shone like a full moon in the night sky, hand on her katana’s hilt. He heard Isabelle whisper as her head slowly surveyed what little of their battlefield she illuminated, “What the fuck. Even this close I can’t sense his aura?”

Crow issued another high-pitched laugh, the sound duplicated in the darkness and overlapped with itself until it started to sound like a chorus of caws. In the blink of an eye, a massive clash blew John back onto his feet as their swords collided. “Can’t teleport in here! The darkness is mine.”

The leaves around them were torn from their trees by the shockwave. Discordance blared in John’s head, and he Jumped up just as a razor wind cut through the forest, the same attack Crow had used to fell the trees around them. John left them to their high-speed battle, slowly backing toward the forest.

“No you don’t!” Crow shouted from all around him, three images of the man appearing and attempting to skewer John to the ground.

Shaking his head, John noticed that these were much weaker than the real thing. He dodged the leaping lunge of the first and shot the other two with his guns, destroying them instantly. Another thrust from the last was met with an Intercepting Strike, killing it instantly. All three gave him ten EXP each. As one slowly started to fade away, he used Advanced Spy on it.

Since he’s distracted with Isabelle, he can only send scraps at me. They can all kill me in one hit as I am right now, but if I kill just a few more, I can level up! His breath burned in his lungs, already a minute had passed and he was **** to breathe again. Two more images burst from the darkness toward him, but he dodged between and behind them. The sword of one grazed him, and his health tanked back into the single digits. Not to be distracted by the pain searing across his stomach, he dispatched them both with a shot each to the head. He checked his guns and looked around for more before the ground beneath him shook.

Isabelle began to light more and more up, and as John drew closer he saw the source of the earthquake. There was an enormous crater where the two had been fighting, and Crow was trapped in the ground at the bottom.

One more one more one more. A blade pierced through John’s stomach, creating a pool of blood for him to fall into. His arm shook as it rose with Ebony in hand. His vision swam and dark closed in on all sides as he pulled the trigger.

Level up!

Instantly his health and mana were fully restored, all the temporary debuffs he incurred wiped away by his level up. Vision restored, he ran toward the crater as Isabelle jumped in. With a spinning slash, she bathed the entire crater in light, bringing her blade down on Crow’s neck. Even from dozens of feet away, the blinding light made his head swim.

Instead of a corpse, the man at the bottom of the crater faded into nothingness. Air rushed to fill the space around them, and John gratefully breathed in as he remained on guard. Discordance alerted him, but he had no time to react as he was tackled to the ground with a hand around his neck. “You’re just the little pick-me-up I need to-”

John locked eyes with the monster grappling him and put all of his newly refilled mana bar into a single cast of Fist. Crow let out another laugh as his sword slowly inched closer and closer toward John’s heart, and John used the opportunity to connect his spell with Crow’s chest, immediately breaking his arm but sending his enemy meters into the air.

Pressing the barrel of his gun to his arm, John spent two grit points and activated Staunch Wound, recovering a quarter of his self-damage and healing his arm enough to move it again.

“What the fuck! That actually hurt!” Crow screamed in pain as he got his bearings in the air, splitting into two images. The first flew toward Isabelle, the second dove back toward John. He burst into a mass of feathers halfway down, each embedding themselves deep into the gunman’s body, eviscerating him. His health once again was reduced to the single digits, this time from nearly full health. Burning dark lines criss-crossed his body where the feathers hit him. The lattice shrank until it burned a small mark where his neck met his shoulders in the shape of a feather.

Permanent Status Effect: Curse of Ratatoskr

“You’re too late!” Crow appeared next to John in a burst of feathers, the wind which brought Crow there keeping Isabelle back as she fought through it. “You’ll be fine,” Crow mocked, picking John up by his throat and crushing it. “Those words are night lights. They make you think the monsters in the dark can’t actually touch you, but…”

Crow’s taloned hand pierced John’s chest… but also didn’t. Gamer’s Spirit glitched out all around him, his mana briefly read ‘N/A’ and John felt an oppressive emptiness, an abyss, form deep inside of him as the start of a glowing orb was pulled from his chest. “They’re just words.”

An instant.

An infinitesimal span of time so inconceivably short that it may as well mean no time at all.

For an instant, Crow’s gluttony compelled him to savor the delicacy before him. For an instant, Gamer’s Spirit died, and everything that was John Newman teetered on the edge of utter annihilation. For an instant, Isabelle was allowed a strike at her enemy with his guard down.

John fell to the ground along with Crow’s hands, which were no longer attached to the rest of his body. Isabelle sheathed her katana before resting her hand on its hilt, ready to draw it in another instant and deliver the finishing blow before any more trickery could be performed. Crow stared at his wrist stumps which oozed blood, and let out a furious shriek. The oppressive darkness returned.

Isabelle stood between John and Crow as the latter stumbled forward through his own darkness. “This is not you winning right now - you don’t win.” Crow made to peck at John with the beak of his mask, but Isabelle backhanded him, sending him into a nearby tree. He struggled to his feet. “Chaos persists forever, it doesn’t die.”

She pierced his chest with her sword, but he simply faded away into nothingness only to have five more reappear. “I’ve branded you, you’re mine! You’re mine! I will chase you for the rest of your life.”

Isabelle destroyed each illusion in search of the real, but the **** of one spawned two more. “Remember that next time you go to sleep, I’m out there in the dark and I’m looking for you.”

Illusions appeared all around them, a tornado of feathers threatening to overtake them, “You better start sleeping with a night light, Gamer.”

Since he was far enough away, all the illusions and the darkness dissipated instantly. Isabelle glanced around wildly, stuck between leaving John’s side and letting Crow once again get away.

”You owe me a great debt, John Newman,” Astra’s voice boomed into his mind, and Isabelle teleported away, leaving John to palaver with her goddess. “You promised me anything, and yet your own soul is already claimed by another.”

“I couldn’t have-”

”SILENCE!”

”I am not an unreasonable goddess, John Newman. I see the good in you. The compulsion to seek order. To do what is right. Your repentance is thus: total servitude to my champion until you can save her life as she has yours. Her will is mine. Do not mistake my leniency for weakness. Walk the path of light, serve order, and you will be delivered from your strife. Stray, and your end will be immediate and without hesitation.”

The storm had finally passed, and moonlight filled the artificial clearing, healing him back to full health. His arm crunched back into place painfully, and he held it as he sat down against a stump.

His wrist burned, and when he brought it up to his face, he saw the wiry band tattooed there glowing. He thought back to when he was soulbound to his guns, the tattoo scripted originally by divine intervention. Now, that same band was littered with stars, branded onto his skin. Marked by two gods in one day. Wonder how many have done that… and lived.

Pulling up his character sheet, he tapped the status effect Curse of Ratatoskr, his heart sinking as he read through it.

Curse of Ratatoskr, Divine Curse
People with ill-intent are subconsciously drawn toward the bearer of this curse, as though they had a sign on their back that said “I’m a sucker”. Additional effects will occur until the curse is revoked or removed.

He fell backwards onto the ground, staring up at the cloudy sky. As if it wasn’t bad enough. I need to be more careful about who I associate with.

He pulled up the achievement he had gotten after the battle, the power increase a cold solace compared to becoming a **** to one god and a marked enemy of another.

No Church in the Wild
Survive an encounter with an awakened, hostile champion. Why do you draw so much attention?
+1 level
New Quest: Champion’s Awakening I

Level up! +10 Stat Points, +1 Perk Point, +50 HP, +50 MP

Champion's Awakening I
Ready yourself for a fraction of the power entitled to you as a Champion.
Objectives: Reach level 25, Reach Style level 5 (Gun-Kata), 2 optional objectives
Optional Objectives:
Kill a hostile champion (solo)
Subdue and capture a hostile champion
Assist another champion in awakening to their power
Persuade an awakened champion to share their power with you
Have consensual sex with 10 people at once
Defeat an enemy twice your level (solo)
Reach level 50
Reach Style level 10 (Gun-Kata)
Unlock Perk: ERROR - PERK NAME NOT FOUND
Rewards: Champion's Presence (Passive Skill), Champion's Awakening II (Quest), 2 Skill Evolution Points

He tried tapping on Champion’s Presence to see what it did, but all he got was an error beep and a headache. A flash of light signaled Isabelle’s arrival, and when he could blink it away, she was standing over him.

“Piece of shit got away. I can’t teleport back to the capital either, it’s too close to the throne.” She nudged him up with her foot, then grabbed his hand. “Astra told me what you offered her. You’re lucky you prayed to a more forgiving god.”

“I don’t feel very lucky right now,” John replied, closing his eyes as she teleported them to the town he had just come from.

“Shit happens,” Isabelle responded, glancing around until she found the train station. “Get us two tickets. Write my report on the way back. I’ll dictate it to you.”

“Crow is much stronger now. I cut off his hands. Kicked his ass, he ran like a bitch. You were there for this part. Describe what happened. I’ll add in the rest later,” Isabelle finished as the train pulled into the station at the capital. With no luggage, they were the first ones off.

“If you’re going to be with me, you’re going to need to be faster and stronger. Training starts now. Make it to the Rider-Waite base without touching the ground.” Lifting him up with one hand, she threw him dozens of meters into the open air. The bustling city crowd hardly noticed a lone figure rocketing into the sky.

“There he goes,” Isabelle whispered under her breath, watching John go up.