CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 23

Johnny swung a hard left hook, a dagger gripped in his balled knuckles. Margaret dodged deftly, as she always did and as he expected it to. With his foot out Johnny transferred his momentum, along with an ample portion of Radiant Essence, into a full forward leap. The Demoness’s eyes went wide as she watched him soar at her faster than she knew what to do.

He slammed head first into her raised forearms, immediately using his weight and new downward momentum to drag the flying Demoness down to the ground with him. Margaret yelped as she crashed together with him, her wings fluttering in a defiance Johnny refused to permit— his legs locked hers and his elbow jutted against her throat, Radiant gleaming dagger pressing against her red neck.

“Submit!” He yelled, panting profusely as sweat dripped from his brow and onto her startled features. “I got you now, damn mosquito!”

Margaret burst out laughing as she relaxed against the pressure he placed on her. She let her head lie back against the golden sands as she cackled into Nsukka’s early dawn. It was day three of their journey across the savage savanna and they’d taken to training at the crack of dawn and at the fall of the sun. And with each session Johnny’s proficiency with Radiant Essence only grew.

“What’s so funny now?” He sighed, letting up on the pressure on her neck to sit up on her straddled form. She looked up at him as though she were about to offer an explanation but only started crackling even louder. Johnny groaned, he appreciated the training, but the Demoness took a bit too much fun in the mockery of skill that came with it. He stood off from her and dusted himself off from the previous rounds where he’d been the one tossed to the ground.

“Are you two still going at it?” Julia chided from her stool next to the reignited camp fire. A pot hung over it on a couple of stencils courtesy of Albert and the creation core, inside a fresh porridge boiled. Julia threw in the last ingredient, chopped, orange vegetable leaves that gave the ensemble of meat and tubers a wonderful taste and scent. “Hurry up, food is getting cold.”

“I beat her this time and she’s still laughing in my face.” Johnny said as he approached. He twirled his daggers into their holsters beside his pair of pistols, their Radiant light fading as he stopped feeding the weapon his Essence. “What’s it going to take?”

Julia chuckled as she stirred the pot. “You beat her while using your Radiant Essence and she wasn’t. I think she’s just happy you managed to score a full grapple this time, you’re making fast progress.” She said, her eyes glowing with approval.

Johnny grunted, not feeling it as much as he used to but glad to understand nonetheless. He sat on his stool— a trio of tree stumps Margaret had ripped out from their roots a day ago— and watched as his mentor finally gathered herself enough to walk.

He glared. “Is that it? You want me to beat you without Radiant Essence?” He wasn’t certain he could find success in such a challenge but he was willing to try.

The Demoness wiped a tear from her eyes. “No, no. I want you to beat me when I am also using Radiant Essence, there’s no way for you to beat me without it but…perhaps you’ll truly be Champion worthy if you can beat the Wardens charged to protect you.”

At that Johnny snorted and raised his palm. With a focused thought he channeled Radiant Essence from the core next to his heart into his palm. It came aglow with power, shining brighter than even the dawn star all while heating up his skin to incredible temperatures. With another focused thought he willed the power to take the form he wished to transform into an engulfing flame.

His hand was lost within its colours. A pillar of red, orange, yellow and blue rose from his hands, a magic he would’ve never dreamed possible a week ago, at least not by him. “See that? I learned how to do this on the same night you gave me that challenge. I already am the Champion and with time, I’ll be able to beat all four of you. At the same time.”

This time both Julia and Margaret erupted in raucous laughter. A tad frustrated and flushed, Johnny whipped the flame away, it scorched the ground as it quenched from his hand. “How is that funny!?”

“It’s not.” Julia began between chortles. “It’s actually very bold.”

“Quite bold I’d say. All four of us? At once? Hah, even Orion has trouble facing two of us at once.” Margaret said.

“Oh yeah? Well, Orion isn’t the Champion, is he?” Johnny smirked, watching how the thought truly crossed their minds this time. “I’ll have powers and strength that none of you do, and I’ll prove it.”

Margaret and Julia shared a look, and the Demoness took her stool and plate, beginning to serve up the porridge from the pot. She handed the plate of steaming, sweet smelling porridge to Johnny and patted his shoulders. “I’m sorry for laughing at you. You are making progress but you should know, your proof as Champion doesn’t only lie in how many of us you can beat.”

“But in the closure of void portals and in the defeat of the Devouring Darkness’s chosen.” Julia said, all signs of the previous mirth were wiped away. “Enough antics now, let’s eat. We still have a distance to cover.”

Although well distracted with Julia’s fine cooking, Johnny didn’t miss the meaningful look she casted at Margaret.

***

They’re up to something.

Johnny gulped. There was something in the air, something thick, vile and eerily familiar. He couldn’t place the smell or the sensation of knowing it was there, hanging overhead in the atmosphere but he knew it was there and that his Wardens were shepherding him towards the source.

He’d only driven an hour along the path set by Warden Qin’s cyborg dragon before Julia commandeered the journey, going as far as to recall the cyborg from the sky— it sat atop the roof of the Voyager, right next to the weapons he’d attached.

“Take this left turn, Johnny.” Julia said.

From the look of the roads and the fact that there were roads in the first place, Johnny had the feeling they were driving through a place where people once settled. It wasn’t long before this thought was proven true. He drove past the remnants of a welcome gate, its hinges still squeaking, grinding against their rust much like everything else in sight.

Floors and sections of wood lay around in their path, forcing Johnny to maneuver through items like broken chairs, termite ridden doors and fallen roofs. “This place…” he muttered, his eyes trailing after what was clearly a bar once upon a time by just how many barrels rolled around its premises. “This used to be a village, a settlement…what happened here?”

He got a command rather than a response. “Keep driving straight, there’s a mining cave just up ahead.” Julia said.

Johnny did as he was told. He could piece together what might have happened on his own anyway, the vile sensation in the air was something he recalled facing an even more concentrated version of and not too long ago. Talvish…Bipedal Rift Eaters. That was the only thing he’d faced off against that exuded this much…loathing.

He drove through the dust winds until the cave came into view. It seemed far more maintained than anything in the village. But why would it be?

That question alone made his stomach churn. Who else would be here after a disaster like a Rift Eater and the Devouring Darkness behind it ran through the village?

“Alert!” Albert yelled from the dashboard. “Recorded hostels in premises, five metres away. Awaiting your orders Johnny!”

In a second a gale swept the dust away, revealing what Albert had already detected— a dozen roaming goblins equipped with machete’s pickaxes and rusted swords. Johnny’s head snapped to Julia. “Goblins?! Don’t tell me you brought me here to fight goblins?”

“Not goblins, but corruption.” Julia said as she pushed the door open and stepped out. In a flash of white-golden light her Paladin’s armor was equipped with a bow and arrow strapped to her back and a staff in her hands.

The back door slammed shut, Margaret already outside and standing beside her captain. She reached back into her wings and pulled out from the warbling red light that enveloped them a two-handed war hammer. Her usual grin, the thirst for battle and the destruction of her opponents was wiped away, replaced by a brutal stoic that guaranteed every vermin to stand before her would be crushed underneath her might.

Johnny gulped, his eyes flickered to Albert’s holo form on the dashboard. He breathed deeply before exhaling. “Open fire, clear us a path, Albert and standby once we’re through!” He ordered, jumping out of the Voyager just as the gatling whirred to life.

A flurry of bullets ejected at the goblins before they could take any further steps to investigate the newcomers, rending their flesh to naught and poking holes through their bodies like cheese. They fell quiet and dead easily but Johnny knew all Albert’s attack had done more than subdue them, it had announced to all other Devouring Darkness that the Alliance, the Champion was here.

A surge of adrenaline crashed through his chest and mind. He drew both pistols from their holsters, channeling Radiant Essence into their magazines. As thick and constricted as his throat had gotten, Johnny couldn’t help feeling excited for what lay ahead— justice. And he was its harbinger.