The knight slowly walked towards him, with the manner of a slaughterhouse worker heading toward a trapped pig that was soon to be killed.
The Odachi had a far greater range than his longsword; he knew this much at least. He could not allow this man to have the first attack.
He lunged forward, his strange speed and power, which he had possessed since arriving in this scenario, seemed to surprise the black knight, who took one step back.
Sacril raised his sword, overtelegraphing his swing, and swung downwards with all his might.
The knight easily took notice of the attack and held the odachi up in a simple block to catch the attack.
The Odachis blade was blown apart, shattering in all directions, leaving only the hild left in his palm with a narrow and jagged bit of broken blade attached to it.
The force of the blow was enough to drive the knight to a knee; fortunately for him, it was also enough to send Sacril flying backwards.
Sacril did not manage to stick the landing, getting winded and taking a few seconds to stand up.
By the time he did, the knight was also recovered; the strike had not even touched him, only doing damage through the transfer of sheer force.
It stared at him through the helmet's pitch-black eye holes, malicious intent radiating outward.
Sacril smiled 'Seems I may be less outmatched than I thought! bastards defenseless now!'
From then on, it was not even a contest.
The Knight, who was now aware of Sacril's power, simply never blocked another attack, allowing each and every telegraphed attack to slip by by millimeters, causing Sacril to overextend and allowing him to counter in return.
however he himself would fail some of these counters, if he had his sword, the battle would be over in an instant, but he only had its broken remains, which even on a perfect counter, with Sacrils sharp reflexes and other factors like the surroundings affecting how well he could mov,e he was only able to land minor flesh wounds on Sacril.
And yet they were adding up.
dozens of cuts, some deeper than others, were oozing blood. Sacril grimaced through the stinging pain and swung his blade in an arc, but hit only air. The knight then thrust his blade out, and it pierced through Sacril's arm. He cried out and dashed away, but his arm was hanging limply at his side, leaving only his sword arm.
Now he was the one on the defensive.
A barrage of short-range attacks came his way, the odachi hilt was like a dagger, and it was nearly too fast for his eyes to track.
But due to the range difference, he just barely managed to avoid the attacks.
Countering would be a fool's errand; he could not hope to have the skill to effectively kill the knight through his great armor in one strike, whereas the knight could easily cut his throat.
He could only continue retreating and occasionally moving to the sides to avoid being cornered.
until he couldn't.
He glanced a short strike off the hilt of his sword, and took a step back, but suddenly and brutally the knight slammed an armored shin into the soft meat of his thigh, just above his knee, which he felt give way.
He was thrown a few feet backwards, and when he rolled over, he saw the knight slowly walking towards him once again.
He tried to struggle to his feet, but his leg was dead, and probably broken; all he could do was look at the helm of the approaching knight, as he raised his broken sword, preparing to cut through his fallen opponent's neck.
.
And from those holes of darkness, blood suddenly shot out, and the man wordlessly collapsed.
The body lay in front of Sacril, who was now beyond confused.
He looked up and saw the prince, who was now standing, and in fact was walking over to him at that very moment.
"I told him to slay anyone who entered this room. Well, I guess I can't blame myself for wanting to see what you can do, and to be honest, I'm impressed."
He walked over, and his golden eyes looked down pitifully at Sacrils broken body.
"Oh. I suppose you are confused, Well I'll tell you a story if you'd like, and that should clear up whatever you don't understand."
Without waiting for a response, he continued.
"The Roikos family has ruled this land for well over a century now. In that time, we have had our fair share of conflicts, although none as serious as this one."
A massive crashing sound outside rang out as if to emphasize his point.
"But before all this, around a year ago, a Seer came to my father, rest his soul, and informed us that we had been cursed, and that he and I would be eternally trapped in strange illusions that would repeat over, and over, and over, and, Well... you get the idea."
Sacril found it in him to speak for the first time.
"Wait, you have memories of these illusions?"
The Prince shook his head, "No, but there were signs that foretell these supposed illusions. The Seer spoke of three: The appearance of a familiar or strange individual, who acts strangely and/or possesses strange powers. Im assuming this sounds familiar?"
and with a deadpanned stare proceeded to add "Major Stout."
Sacril nodded, "Yes, everything you've said is just as you say it is, although you have no reason to trust my word."
The prince laughed, "Of course, there isn't. However, there is no need for that; the other two signs were as follows: The Appearance of an unsurvivable event, or insurmountable foe, and of course, the most important point, the sudden and unexplainable death of the king."
Sacril stared at the prince, who had gone from Deadpan to seemingly half-mad in only a few moments.
"Yes, my father died of a strange disease last year, never before was it heard of; he went into a state of stasis, but he never returned, and from his body the first Daemon appeared."
Sacril shuddered at this description, which sounded awfully familiar to the state one entered during their first manifestation on earth.
The prince seemed to calm slightly before looking back at Sacril.
"Fortunately, unlike everyone here, I seem to be able to maintain a somewhat sane state. Everyone else acts strangely when you speak of this to them, im sure you must have noticed."
Sacril thought back to the image of Sergeant Tyber clutching his head in agony as he tried to simply avenge the death of his comrade.
He let out a shudder in confirmation, and the Prince nodded in return.
"As I thought, it's good then that the Seer informed us of how to end this Illusion."
He paused for a moment, suppressing a burst of emotion.
"Of course, for the illusion to end, the stage, the play, if you will. must come to an end, im sure you know about this, or you wouldn't be here. How long must we wait?"
For the first time in a while, Sacril glanced at the Incandescent runes.
[humans slain: 1/56]
He shuddered violently; it seemed everyone outside had died, leaving only him, the prince, and those who had sheltered in the depths of the castle.
He managed to squeak out an answer in a weak tone.
"Not Long."
"And what are the conditions exactly?"
He made eye contact with the prince, who was closer than before. He had an expectant look on his face, like nothing Sacril could say would surprise him.
"The death of every Citizen of Roikos."
The prince continued to stare for a moment before tilting his head up and letting out a resigned sigh.
"As I thought."
Sacril looked around in panic, "But if I am not the last one alive, it won't end."
"You needn't worry about that."
The Prince walked to the center of the throneroom, where a ray of light shone down from a ceramic window embedded in the ceiling.
He held out his hand, and the light coallessed, forming a truly radiant staff which he clasped firmly in his grip.
"On my authority as the last surviving member of the Roikos bloodline, Crowned Prince Baronian Roikos, I hereby command the deaths of every living being standing on this ley line."
The staff let out a flash of light before disappearing.
"Well, that is that. We don't have much time, so I would like to ask you one final thing."
The castle was clearly being assaulted from the outside and was beginning to shake as a great force was being built up below them.
Sacril quickly nodded
"What is it?"
"I know this will have no effect on what actually happened to the kingdom of Roikos, but I would desperately like someone to find out what happened to this land. Please, if you have the ability, when you return to your world, please try and find out what happened to it."
With that, he raised Sacril's hand, which held the black and golden sword.
The quakes below grew louder, as if something was going to explode outward at any second.
"May I know the name of the one who will end the golden lineage?"
"Sacril"
The Prince smiled
"Fitting."
The sword was positioned just on his heart. Sacril lacked the strength to run him through, so the prince simply allowed himself to drop his weight onto the razor-sharp blade, which pierced his heart directly and killed him instantly.
At that moment, he heard the castle doors give way and a massive cracking sound below him. He felt the ground below him shift, and a light beyond anything he could ever imagine appeared in a crack in the ground below him.
But that was as far as it went.
Everything seemed to pause, and he suddenly felt disconnected, like he was in a frozen world.
And that frozen world soon shattered, falling into countless pieces around him.
And after that, there was nothing.