Sworded Affair

Chapter 48: Dulce et Decorum est

"Edith Knight, the first to take that name," Emma paused in place, thinking back to her many lessons on the family line. "Died to the bubonic plague over six hundred years ago, but somehow still alive and talking to me through the System."

A faint sheen of frost made itself known upon her armor, prompting Emma to start walking again, albeit more slowly than before as her focus remained on the mystery before her.

"Also known as Anathema, rival to Overmind and Paradox, the latter of whom rules an Empire but is somehow spending time watching me take my first trial. Why me? I doubt anything I've done so far has been all that impressive."

[I watch every member of my family, everyone who has ever lived and everyone yet to be born. The System, my magnum opus, is not so limited that time or death can interfere with my vision. As for Paradox, she is a ruler only in the oldest sense; her existence is the supreme power that guarantees the safety of her subjects, deters aggressors and exterminates threats. She has never been deeply involved in the day-to-day running of her domain; that's what the civil service is for, so her days are usually quite empty. There could be some deeper meaning in her presence here, but honestly she's probably just bored.]

"Pretty much," Paradox acknowledged, the timing making Emma wonder whether it was addressed to her or Edith. "Most residents of the Empire avoided the cities as a matter of course: too many people, too much technology, both factors that dampened the workings of magic. Helpfully, this meant that nobody important actually died in the terminus, though even I'm not so brazen to claim that this was the plan all along. Ah, I'll leave you to stew on that for a bit, the overseer is coming back. Bye bye!"

"...She's not what I expected, for someone so high up," Emma shook her head. "The Queen was always so calm and collected when she appeared on TV."

[Queen Elizabeth II was an experienced head of state, who had years of training with public service in mind before she ever took the throne. Paradox became a magical girl at ten years old, and hasn't aged a day where it matters since the fall of Akkad. Their situations are entirely different beyond the superficial; oh, on that note.

Status condition: Poison resisted.]

"Poison?" Emma sniffed, drawn out of her thoughts by the wonderful aroma of rotting eggs. "No, Sulphur."

Spinning around, Emma called Epitaph to her and stabbed straight ahead, catching the mass of yellow as it broke from the wall and swung at her head. Now impaled on her blade, Emma got her first proper look at her ambusher.

[Sulphurite - Level 8]

It wasn't much to look at, a pockmarked yellow sphere with gemstone eyes and stunted arms that burned at the fingertips. Pulling back, Emma let the golem slide off her blade before kicking it as hard as she could, sending it sailing back down the tunnel behind them. Already, she could see several more starting to pull themselves from the walls, with even more sure to follow. Taking advantage of the lack of cooldown, Emma recalled the Leech King and immediately re-summoned him in the direction of the rising threats, sidestepping the tedious process of turning underground.

"Blast them!" Emma ordered, the Leech King beginning to inhale before she'd even finished her command.

The Sulphurites tried their best to stop him, the nearest even managed to climb halfway into his maw before the attack fired; a futile effort, as the Leech King's beam was far more powerful than a mere bullet and would not be obstructed in its path. A beam of searing light shot down the tunnel; erasing the emergent golems who were left with nowhere to hide.

[5x Sulphurite defeated!

100 EXP gained.

Level up!]

Unfortunately, something decided to answer the Leech King in kind; as her surroundings began to glow red hot and even Emma began to feel uncomfortable.

"Up!" She commanded, her summon digging towards the surface with all haste as Emma scrambled to follow.

A faint but constant popping could be heard in the distance, growing ever closer and reminding Emma of the family recipe for crackling pork, a rather uncomfortable comparison when she was still inside the oven in question. Thankfully, they broke the surface before too long, the threat of hail now very much second fiddle to the flames below. The Leech King took the worst of it, prompting Emma to call him back before too much damage was done; Emma herself presented a far smaller target profile, so it was doable for her to bat away the few incoming projectiles headed her way. Not particularly easy, but doable in the short-term.

Her decision to brave the weather was vindicated moments later, as the tunnel she'd just emerged from erupted in a geyser of flames stretching far into the heavens above. Beautiful, and undoubtedly dangerous, but not immediately so; in fact, the searing heat proved beneficial in one sense, as the hail gradually slowed in the face of the flames, eventually stopping altogether a few minutes down the line. No longer needing to swing her sword without pause, given this reprieve, Emma finally had the time to look at her status page in detail.

Emma Knight - Level 9 Revenant

Race: Undead {LOCKED}

Alignment: True Neutral

Anima: 500

EXP: 2070/3000

Die by the Sword is active; choices modified.

Bonus choice added due to floor selection.

Choose one of the following four options:

1) Weapon Enhancement - The Core: Embodying the concept of the sword, this blade is unbreakable.

2) Weapon Enhancement - The Fringe: Leaves novices dead and masters deadly. Summon cost reduced to 25% of current Anima. Can summon and maintain a second blade.

3) Weapon Enhancement - The Extreme: This blade can cut through anything, but a single blow in return will destroy it entirely.

4) Ability - The Extinction (Cost 99% current Anima): Call down a meteorite to impact a location within line of sight. The user selects the size of the meteorite, up to a diameter in meters equal to the user's current Level. This ability has a 1 month cooldown.]