65 Awakening Part 2

Not much surprised Axel anymore. He's fought against a giant snake after waking up in the body of a dead prince. Then, he made love with a girl from a famous family after only knowing her for a couple days.

To say that nothing surprised him was a fair assessment. However, what was currently happening infront of him was something he would have to add to the list of things that shock him.

Ann was literally dancing around the shadows as Carmen tore them to shreds. She was doing it so efficiently that she was actually gaining ground on the ever-spawning waves of slimes and phallic shaped shadows.

Axel and the boys could only watch in awe as Ann finished off the last shadow. She turned to target Kamoshida, who had just appeared with more shadows, but suddenly fell to her knees as she reverted back to normal.

Seeing she was back in her normal form, Axel's eyes widened as he took off towards her. Sadly, Kamoshida was closer to her and he noticed the fatigued state Ann was in.

With a chilling smile, Kamoshida tore the sword out her arms and kicked her in the face, forcing her to the ground. Dazed, Ann held back her tears as she tried to stand.

But Kamoshida wasn't just going to let her recover. Giving Axel a taunting smile, Kamoshida placed his foot on her stomach, making her unable to move. Then, under the horrified gaze of Axel and the boys, Kamoshida plunged his sword into Ann's shoulder.

She cried out in pain. With tears streaming down her eyes, Ann fell into a panic as the pain slowly grew stronger. To make matters worse, Kamoshida twisted the sword as he seemed to derive pleasure from Ann's howls of pain.

Axel felt his blood boil as he growled. This was the first time he's ever seen someone he cared for be hurt this badly. The pure anger he felt at this moment actually made him dizzy.

Suddenly, Axel froze in place as a massive headache assaulted him.

\"How… pathetic.\"

A cold and calculating voice whispered inside Axel's head as all he could hear was the sound of his heartbeat and the voice.

\"To think my new liege would be someone like this… how aggravating. Then again, I guess this is what I deserve.\"

Flames far darker than everyone else's circled Axel's body as he roared, \"WHO THE FUCK GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO CALL ME PATHETIC!?!\"

The voice scoffed in disdain, \"The right? I don't need to be giving 'the right' to call someone pathetic! Look at how your acting and tell me I'm wrong.\"

With an aggrieved expression, Axel clenched his fists hard enough to draw blood and growled, \"Then how should I act, hmm? My girlfriend is being stabbed right infront of me and instead of saving her, I'm arguing with some stupid voice in mind head!\"

The voice seemed to find his words amusing as it lightly chuckled, \"I suppose your right. You do realise WHAT I am, don't you?\"

Axel snorted, \"Obviously your some form of Persona. However, I really don't need an annoying persona.\"

\"Then your in luck since I'm not like the others. Unlike Gemini, I live for the battlefield! Summon me! Call my name! Shout it to the world and let my legend live once more!\"

The dark flames surrounding him stabilised as Axel's eyes colour changed to yellow. The flames grew larger and larger, forcing everyone to stop and brace themselves.

Luckily, Morgana took the chance to retrieve Ann when Kamoshida stumbled back from the force of Axel's flames.

After giving Ann a concerned look, Akira turned to Morgana and hastily yelled, \"Morgana! What the hell is going on!?!\"

Morgana was visibly panicked by both Ann and Axel as he screamed, \"I-I don't know!\"

From within the torrent of flames, Axel's amber eyes glared at Kamoshida as the voice slowly uttered, \"As a disgraced knight, I take up my tainted blade once more…\"

\"I am thou, thou art I... I shall become the blade that reaps the foes that stand before you.\"

\"As the knight of betrayal, I swear my loyalty once more… Speak my name and let my sword quench it's thirst!\"

Suddenly, the world went silent as Axel roared, \"COME TO ME! MORDRED!\"

The flames surrounding him expanded outwards and exploded, forcing everyone to take a few steps back.

Stand in his persona form, Axel finally caught a glimpse of his new persona.

Overall, Mordred's body was sleek, covered from head to toe in dark grey armour. On its arms and legs were glowing red veins while a short, tattered blood red cape hung on its back.

It's weapon, a jagged sword far bigger than its body, lay in one hand as the knight kneeled before him. As if on instinct, Axel raised his hand as he said in a chilling tone, \"Lay waste to them all.\"

Mordred said nothing as the dark red flames within its helm burned brighter. Taking a single step forward, Mordred seemingly teleported infront of the incoming knight commander.

Raising it's sword, the knight commander didn't even have the time to react as Mordred's sword easily pierced through its chest. However, Mordred was far from finished.

Red veins spread out from the wound like a wildfire, fully enveloping the knight commander in a matter of seconds. Then, under the shocked gaze of everyone in the room, the knight commander dropped to one knee and pledged itself to Mordred.

This was Mordred's special ability, the legion of betrayal. Those stabbed by Mordred's sword forget where their loyalty lies and pledge themselves to Mordred and Axel.

Sadly, there were restrictions to this ability. First of all, it can be resisted. If someone manages to resist his sway, they gain a slight resistance which makes them even harder to convert.

Second, Mordred can only turn a maximum of 10 people. If he wants to turn someone else, Mordred needs to either release someone from the legion or kill them.

Last but not least, the more people Mordred converts, the weaker he becomes.

Currently, Mordred was level 1 and had 10 slots. He could easily outrun any shadow in Kamoshida's palace but if he was to convert 5 shadows, his stats would be halved.

Even though that was quite a glaring weakness, numbers helped make up for it. Even though Mordred lost 1/10 of it's combat power, the knight commander alone was strong enough to take on numerous shadows on it's own.

Mordred and the knight commander ran through the shadows like a typhoon. Everywhere they went, only carnage and rumble remained.

Axel was a little sad that Mordred had no spells or buff abilities but it easily made up for it with its sword skills. Even though Mordred's sword looked like it weighed a ton, Mordred swung the blade with ease, creating violent gusts with each swing.

While Mordred took care of the shadows, Axel ran over to Morgana. His steps felt heavy as he gently fell to Ann's side.

Her cheerful face was pale as blood seeped into her clothes. She tried to give Axel a reassuring smile but ended up grimacing in pain.

Axel silently grasped her good hand as he tried, and failed, to heal her using magic. Gritting his teeth, Axel's hatred of the world trial grew out of control when the system spoke in a silently and glitchy voice.

[I-I-InVeN-ToRy! H-Ha-S HhHeALiNg P-oTi0n!!@$!,#]

Axel's eyes widened into saucers as he quickly opened his inventory. He scanned through the items inside as fast as he could and felt a childlike joy spread through his chest when he came across what he needed.

Pulling out the large glass bottle filled with a red liquid, Axel pulled the cork out with his teeth and said, \"Akira! Ryuji! Get over here and hold Ann up for me! Morgana! Stand guard!\"

No one showed a hint of concern or doubt at Axel's orders as they quickly moved. Even though Ann felt a terrible pain from being moved, Axel could only apologies to her later as he put the bottle to her lips and said, \"Ann, you need to drink this!\"

However, he underestimated the damage she took. She only managed to slightly open her lips before falling unconscious. Axel couldn't help but swear as he drank a mouthful of the potion before transferring it to her via mouth-to-mouth.

It took awhile, but Axel didn't care as her wound closed at a visible rate. However, she wasn't out of the woods yet. Sweat poured down Ann's forehead as Axel felt her temperature skyrocket.

Opting to carry her on his back, Axel glanced at the others and roared, \"Time to retreat! Ann's wounds are healed but she has a fever! We needed to leave!\"

Akira expression suddenly brightened as he said, \"Axel! There's a private doctor close to LeBlanc! Let's take her there!\"

Finally receiving some good news, Axel smiled as he and the others rapidly dashed through the palace, easily avoiding the patrolling shadows. Kamoshida could only curse them as they easily escaped.