Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 137: Interlude: The Popess

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 137: Interlude: The Popess

…

Commissioned by Shaderic

Wordcount: 2500

…

Hikigaya Hachiman.

From the moment that he came through the gates, I knew that he was a herald of destruction.

Others were filled with awe.

Some celebrated.

Most were confused.

A handful felt anger and raged.

In his gaze was comprehension… and then a hatred of such depths that it belied description.

My heart filled with joy when the project failed, and unlike many other worlds far from our reach, he did not have what we wanted.

I prayed that he would perish as a slave.

That Hikigaya Hachiman would become nothing.

Desperately, I prayed for years and years.

Then, suddenly, the world changed in but a few bated breaths.

The Demon Lord took him for herself. She trained him, armed him, and then sent him to the front. In the center of the continent, at the precipice of the Empire’s holy land, he created a city in a fertile valley which used mountains as its walls. Then, from that city, he bided his time, blinded us by killing all who tried to discern the truth, and then struck like a thunderbolt.

First, a fortress destroyed by an Eldritch abomination called upon by a Lich.

Second, a city set aflame and destroyed overnight.

Third, the destruction of Arundel and the unleashing of vengeance incarnate upon our lands.

Then, more and more and more.

How much of the Empire has suffered because of him? How many soldiers and people have died by his hand, either directly or indirectly? How many more will perish before he is gone?

Those thoughts filled me and drove me, until I galvanized all I had at my disposal to launch a campaign against him.

I did everything I could to ensure the destruction of Hikigaya Hachiman and destroy his works.

But the news that returns is always the same.

Failure after failure.

Loss after loss.

Defeat after defeat.

Horrors unleashed upon the armies sent and the deaths of many.

My wish, my desperate desire to save the Empire form that harbinger of destruction, has drenched me with blood. Hikigaya Hachiman has created a machine that consumes and consumed the people of the Empire and turns them into nothing more than flesh. But I provided the bodies and turned the handle with the desire to break that machine to make it overflow, and break it completely.

Yet, it showed no signs of breaking, and both blood and flesh were threatening to smother me.

I saw his face clearly in my mind.

Hikigaya Hachiman’s eyes filled with hate and spite from the first day I met him.

My learned nature and my logical nature told me to accept the failures, to bid my supporters to pull back, and to cease feeding that hatred. I could only wonder what he was doing with all the peoples he captured, all the equipment that he now held in his hands, and how he would act in the future when the frontier was spent and lacking in protection.

If we did not vanquish him now, then it would not be long before he stood before the capital itself and enacted his vengeance for it.

As that thought filled my mind, the lanterns lining my path flickered before coming alight with a flame that stank of corruption.

A chill went up my spine, as I felt a presence at my back, and out of instinct I invoked the protections granted to me by my garments.

My power drove away the darkness and decadence that threatened me, as well as my hidden foe, but it did not retake the entire hall.

Thus, an island of light surrounded me amidst darkness and depravity.

Then, a voice echoed through the halls that shook my bones.

“Oh my? A human with power in this day and age? How curious.” A sword dragged against the marble floors. Sparks came forth and scattered upon the wielder of the blade. The bare feet of a temptress were not present. Instead, my eyes gazed upon jagged, ebony armor. A wayward flicker of one of the subsumed torches casts a brief light upon the creature's face. A mask of demonic metal covered the entirety of its face and it was caught in a rictus roar meant to inspire terror. Not lust. A Demon, a true Demon, somehow stood before me. “Oh, and you recognize me as well. How strange. I thought you all dead.”

I mustered all my courage and summoned spears of light to my side. It dampened the limits of my protection, but it was worthless to simply be safe. The Demon needed to perish, and if it was old as I feared it was, I could not afford to not risk my life.

But I needed time, so I spoke to the creature which I reviled.

“Oh, loathsome creature, you will die here today.” The sound of a sword tip being dragged against the marble drew closer, along with the noise of armored boots. For a moment, a question arose within me regarding the guards. Where were they? Then, I realized it was likely that a creature such as this could’ve already killed them, let alone anyone else who could have killed them. I drew in my protections more and crafted a sword of light to wield. “Begone.”

I sent forth my spears against the creature, with the intention of hurtling it back.

But instead my spears struck it… and shattered.

A laugh, low and deep, resounded… as it stretched out an armored hand and laid it upon my barrier.

Then, it pushed.

The scent of burning metal reached me, but much to my dismay, there was no scent of burning flesh.

“Ah, you’re a middling priest compared to those who I wanted to fight. Decent enough, I suppose.” Training? Demons did not train. They were creatures of Hell, born of malefic intention and power, and they sought out more in the mortal realm if they did not have enough to call their own where they are born. They did not train. “Your people have fallen far, but you can still muster up resistance.”

The Demon withdrew its burnt armor after a moment, then a sight left its lips.

“How unfortunate. You’ve made things complicated. I’d hoped to come here and ravage your little brain, until you made so many mistakes that the Empire would just fall… but you’re actually a good foe for my Master to face.”

Master.

A single word without descriptor, but I knew instantly who the Demon spoke of.

“Hikigaya Hachiman.”

His name slipped my lips, filled with anger, fear, and hate, and the Demon… the Demon began to laugh with joy.

“Wonderful. Magnificent. My dear Master cares for all his subjects indeed!” The Demon laughed and laughed. The torches flickered, the baleful darkness began to recede, and the depraved light of the torches began to fade. For a moment, hope welled up in my heart… then I noticed it all gathering around the Demon. “Now… be a dear and don’t die!”

A rush of darkness and depravity surged towards my protections and overwhelmed them.

I was forced to brandish my blade of power against the torrent of malign energies… and just as I split the attack the burnt, armored hand that I had seen earlier surged forward and clasped around my neck.

A sword clattered onto the ground, while the other, hidden hand ripped off the front of my vestment.

Fear of being corrupted filled me, as her hand rested upon my abdomen, only to drift upward.

The malign creature whispered to me as she raised her hand over my heart.

“Don’t fret. My master has very clear views on corruption. If it’s unwanted, or meant to be a punishment, then death is a better choice. Don’t you agree?”

The Demon spoke… then its hand sank into my chest and seized my heart from within.

A fire welled up within me.

An oppressive flame that didn’t merely burn my heart, but entered my body, and flowed through my veins.

Absolute agony

Horrific pain.

Words could not suffice, as the Demon gripped and fed flame into my body, and then withdrew her hand.

In an instant the pain faded, except for a sensation of a symbol within my heart.

“That’s my master’s name in the formal language of his homeland. Kanji, I believe he called it. That marks you as his to slaughter. All Kindred will know this.” The Demon spoke with great satisfaction as my vision began to fade. I became aware sweat all over my body and the pain lingered across my entire form. My vestments repaired themselves as she brought it over my body and laid me down. “He will kill you with his own hands. Nothing else will. Not even your own cowardly hands… and it will be glorious. I am sure he will not disappoint and make your very last moments agony unlike any other.”

With those words the Demon retreated and the world became what I knew, but my vision continued to fade.

“Struggle, Popess of the Empire. Struggle and entertain me, until my master arrives and crushes your throat beneath his heel. I would kill you now… but I’ll do something else to help my Master save his lands. Your life is his only his.”

The Demon laughed gleefully as my vision faded into nothingness…

And, then, I awoke in my bed with a scream.

…

“Your holiness, I have found nothing.”

“Search again.”

“Your will shall be done, your holiness.”

My head ached, my eyes strained, and my body writhed with echoes of the pain I felt the previous night. All my servants in my mansion told me that I retired early to sleep. That I had never walked the eastern hall from my study the prior evening. And, most importantly, there were no signs of a Demon capable of defeating me anywhere in the capital.

But it couldn’t be true, because I felt the mark on my heart, I felt the pain of hellfire writhing through my veins, and the Demon’s hand wrenching into my body and encircling my heart.

Hikigaya Hachiman’s crest was stamped over my heart, marking me like chattel that he will kill, and it was always present in the corner of my vision.

Burning.

Surging.

Telling me that I am marked for death.

The bishops I gathered searched me for Demonic influence, cast sacraments and blessings upon me to purge me of any Demonic power, and yet it did not fade.

Mockingly, it did not waver in the slightest even against the whole might of the Church.

The Demon’s words resounded within me.

I was a middling priest for this age… if so, then all the others were of no note.

“Leave me.”

My bishops assented as one, not questioning or thinking, and heeded my orders so that I could leave my room.

I summoned a knife composed of light and drove it towards my neck.

So that I would no longer be marked by a Demon, so that I would not have my fate decided by anyone besides the Goddess, and so that I would not have his gaze upon me as I experienced the most horrific of deaths.

But the knife stopped.

Not because I wanted it to

But because I could.

I seized my stopped hand and tried to plunge it into myself, but both my hands ceased, and I found myself struggling to move my own body until I let it disappear. My gaze travelled towards the window… and I found my body frozen and still upon my seat.

The Demon’s mocking laughter resounded within my ears, but I was not going to be crushed by the creatures machinations.

I rang a bell by my bedside and called upon one of my servants.

I addressed her the moment she crossed the threshold.

“I have received a revelation. I must go to the front. Prepare the Holy Knights and the Paladins. They will all come with me to crush the enemy.” I spoke and my order was followed, while my gaze turned towards my vestments. My body took itself to them and I donned each of them in turn. Then, I turned my gaze to the Empire’s capital, upon which the sun shone surrounded by blue skies.

My fate is my own.

If I cannot find my own end, then I will find it on the front, and use it against the Demon’s allies.

If what it said was true and that no other Kindred could harm me, then I would use it to reach him.

And, perhaps, kill him.

I have squandered so much time.

I have ignored my feelings for too long.

I have caused so many deaths due to relying upon circumstance, instead of enacting the Goddess’s will with my own hands.

For that, I must find what penance I could.

And, so, I would march to Hikigaya Hachiman and confront him. If I was to die by his hand, then I would die on the battlefield trying to keep him away from the last vestiges of humanity. Should I be blessed, then I will kill many of his champions and buy time for the rest of the Empire, and perhaps I will save the last bastion of humankind upon this world.

I will not be broken by that harbinger of destruction.

My destiny is my own.

It is not his.

Such a pitiful creature, outside of the Goddess’s grace, should’ve died the moment he looked upon me and judged me. Those eyes that declared me wrong, the leader of the Goddess’s Church, should have been ripped from his skull. He and all the others plucked from worlds without the Goddess’s protections should rejoice to be given the chance to die for the Goddess and be recognized as martyrs.

That should’ve been enough for him and them all, but he rebelled, he cast his lot with monsters, and now fought against the Empire, the Holy Church, and the Goddess.

So, I could stand by no longer.

I will kill him, or be killed by him, because that must be the penance the Goddess has asked me to undertake.

I shall not fail.