"First Step to Rule the Mortal World!"
To Princess Ceni's inexperienced eyes it looked like the vice-captain was moving in slow motion. His left foot left the ground and he took exactly one step forward. That was it, that was all she could see.
But by the time she blinked and the rest of the information was processed by her brain the three guardsmen blocking his path were cut cleanly into two from the top-down.
And then another half a second later the captain that had rushed towards him in a flurry of rage accompanied by his overpowering spiritual energy was sent shooting back like a meteor.
His body hit the boundary of the cemetery, or to be more accurate the invisible barrier that had materialized around it when he came close.
It looked like hundreds of ethereal men and women were holding hands trying to keep him from coming any closer.
The captain threw up mouthfuls of blood while his magnificent armor shone brightly under the moonlight for an instant before shattering into particles of light and dissipating into nothingness.
It had taken the main brunt of the force behind that attack and was destroyed in his stead.
He fell to his knees vehemently trying to maintain eye contact with the vice-captain.
Mouth agape, Princess Ceni wasn't even able to catch the actual movement, only its aftereffects that had laid waste to everything in front of him.
"YOU *cough* TRAITOR! HE GAVE IT TO YOU! WHY?! HOW!?"
But it looked like the vice-captain was in no mood to talk anymore as his right foot began to move.
"Second Step-"
His words began to reverberate in the surroundings like a proclamation making the captain finally understand there was no getting out of this anymore.
Through gritted teeth he raised the silver blade once more as eleven giant ethereal swords materialized behind his back.
Those were his Mind Palaces. Not only were there eleven of them but each one was progressively bigger and more grand than the last, with the eleventh and final blade coming in at a height of gargantuan 700 meters.
It was so big that only its tip was visible protruding from under the layer of clouds in the atmosphere.
Princess Ceni could not believe what she was seeing. Never in her life had she even heard about a mind palace able to reach such a level but there it was.
Silver light poured down from each of the swords and congregated around the captain's body creating a barrier in the form of smaller versions of the blades.
"KNOW YOUR PLACE! I AM THE CHOSEN ONE, ME! EVEN WITH THOSE YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO KILL-"
The Vice-captain was unperturbed and his movements never faltered even once. He had the utmost confidence in the sword scripture and even more, in his own abilities. His words fell like thunder and his blade like the lighting.
"Second step to Suppress the Hells below!"
Princess Ceni opened her eyes as wide as she possibly could and focused wholly on the vice-captain trying to catch something more and this time she succeded.
She saw the vice-captain raise the sword into the air and swing it down in front of him. It was as simple as that, one ordinary swing.
But unlike the last time, this swing did not come silently.
For just one single moment that lasted less than a fraction of a second she felt like everything around her was replaced by an empty white void. Nothing else existed within this light. It was obviously not real, even she could tell that much.
It was something immaterial brought forth by his actions alone.
'Sword Intent! This is his sword intent!' she screamed inwardly.
What she was seeing was just a minor portion of it that inadvertently leaked out during the clash.
It had swallowed everything and when it receded the captain had another gaping wound on his abdomen going down from the left shoulder.
Of his eleven mind palaces only eight were left standing.
He had somehow managed to redirect the main brunt of the force to his mind palaces destroying three of them in the process.
All that remained of his own silver blade was the hilt.
He could barely stand upright let alone fight back. Tears rolled down his face as the heroic man that had arrived here was nowhere to be seen anymore.
"Brother…please…don't do this…I was…mistaken…forgive me…" he implored through labored breaths, each word costing him a tremendous amount of life force.
But there was not an ounce of sympathy in the vice-captain's eyes.
"Farewell, old friend. I hope we meet again in another life. Perhaps we can change our fates then."
"Third Step-"
Realizing the only way to get out of this mess was to kill him, the captain finally accepted his fate and bet everything on this last gamble.
"So be it…brother. But…I will not go alone!"
He turned around glaring hatefully towards Princess Ceni.
"Won't you come with me, your highness?"
The mind palaces hovering in the sky suddenly rotated on their axis and pointed right at the defenseless princess.
All the silver light surrounding the captain vanished as he completely gave up on defending. He knew he was going to die today so at the very least he wanted to bring the princess with him, just as a last 'Fuck you' to the world his old friend was trying to protect.
And expectantly, the vice-captain was finally taken aback by his actions.
But instead of running over to save her he closed his eyes and finished uttering the words:
"Third Step to Shake the Heavens above!"
