Chapter 62: Punishment

Chapter 64 will be released on my Patreon in the near future thanks to circumstances!

I always try to stay at least 3 chapters ahead of time on Patreon.

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If people want to read my new story, you can find it here: Vintage Red

CW: Violence, blood. 

The two bandits in front of me stand no chance whatsoever, as the first swing of my sword cleaves the both of them in half. They stare at me in anguish before I can see the light inside of them extinguish.

The two bandits on my left stumble backwards, completely in shock as their comrades fall. Their friends on my right however hastily swing their swords at me, both  harmlessly bouncing off my armor.

“Foolish.” I exclaim as I pummel the one on the left with the hilt of my blade.

His lifeless body collapses against the man on the right, who is thrown off-balance by the impact. Before he can readjust his footing, the backhand strike of my dark longsword swiftly ends his life as well.

The remaining two bandits make a run for it, probably assuming I was still distracted by the others. I turn my gaze towards them and see a group of their reinforcements heading towards me.

“If you think your comrades will save you, you are wrong.”

I take up a sword of one of the fallen bandits with my left hand and send it flying to one of the fleeing bandits, burying it up to the hilt in his back. The force of my throw was so strong the sword, with the bandit still stuck to it, flew on and managed to impale one of the bandits who came over to help. With my sword I start channeling the big blue ball of death, however this one was substantially larger than the last time I had cast it and felt much more powerful too. I pointed it towards the last fleeing bandit and let it loose. A wave of blue flames exploded from the ball on impact, as it incinerated the fleeing bandit and the rest of the reinforcements, melting their armour as I watched.

Their cries of agony fill the market square for only a moment, before the entire square was quiet, except for the sound of fire. However this respite doesn’t last long, as the clanging of armour and weapons rings out from behind me and from behind the church.

Two big groups of bandits, presumably the last, start closing in on my position, alarmed by the shrieks of their friends. The group from the right is closest to me and starts rushing me on sight, however their charge gets interrupted by a couple of arrows and a fireball, their deaths heralding the arrival of the rest of my party.

“Amicia! We will hold them off, you take care of the other group.” My sister calls out to me.

I just nod coldly in return and turn my attention towards the church’s group.

This group, unlike the others, has a combination of bandits with melee weapons and ranged weaponry. While I doubt any of their shots will penetrate my armour, I was still standing next to the little Nekote girl who’s cowering in fear.

I cast Shield of Fate, materialising a demonic-looking tower shield on my left arm that covered the entire height of my body. I rest it down on the ground, making sure the girl is completely behind it and call out to the bandits. “The hearts of men are black with corruption and must needs be cleansed!”  

A first volley of arrows and crossbow bolts harmlessly ricochet off my shield, after which it is time for me to retaliate with the big blue ball of death. Because I can only use one arm and my shield is somewhat in the way, it is pretty clear the power of this one is quite diminished compared to the last one, though that doesn’t stop it from taking out half of their formation. Realising that they can’t win a ranged engagement against my position, the group of bandits decides to charge, with only a couple of crossbowmen staying behind to shoot at possible openings in my defence. The first bandits to arrive at my position try to get behind me, however I do not give them the chance to. I shield bash the people who tried to outflank me from the left, again with an immense power, sending them flying, while swiftly cutting down the couple of bandits on my right. However it does make clear that defending the little girl makes me too immobile to really act as I want to. I temporarily stick my longsword in the dirt so I can take hold of my shield with both hands. I raise my shield a couple of centimeters in the air and jam it into the ground with all my might. Satisfied with how my shield is stuck in the earth I grab hold of my longsword once more and now start advancing on towards the remaining bandits, spreading my wings wide open. Some of them had stopped halfway in their charge and were frozen in place or were stumbling backwards in fear...

“Your reckoning has come.” A sadistic smile makes it way back on my face.

One of the bandits gets on his knees and starts praying to whatever God he worships.

Not like any God could save him from me now. 

His life ends by my blade, swiftly followed by the other bandits still standing on my side. 

I behold the massacre for a moment until a final figure appears from behind the church, a man much larger than the other bandits, and considerably better armed.

“You killed all my men, and you will pay for it!” The giant yells out, gritting his teeth.

“I doubt that.” I lift my sword above my head with both hands and throw it as hard as I can at the man. The sword flies towards him at a tremendous speed and impales him as if his breastplate weren’t even there. The intertia of my sword carries him backwards and pins him against one of the houses behind him. Blood spills from his mouth, although to my surprise he was still alive, at least for now.

“W-what are you.” He sputters out with the last piece of strength he has left while I approach him slowly.

"Banisher of Evil. Protector of the innocent and all that's good and holy in this world. In short, your worst bloody nightmare." I twist my sword and pull it out of the giant bandit, as he collapses to the ground, dead.

“Ami, are you there!?” I hear Sam call out from the market square.

“Yes, I’m here.” I coldly reply and walk back to my shield.

“A-are you okay?”

I nod silently, letting my shield dematerialise and tapping the little girl on her shoulder.

She looks up to me with tears in her eyes.

“You are safe now.”

Tears roll down her cheek as she gives me a silent hug.

“Are you going to change back?” Élise asks me, slowly taking in the destruction I’ve caused.

“I just want to try one more thing before I do.” I pet the girl on her head so she stops hugging me for a second.

I see the party look at me in bewilderment.

“What exactly do you plan on doing?” Hilda asks.

“I’m going to revive the entire village.”

My entire party goes quiet.

“Ami, you can’t do that, your mana…” Hilda tries to put her hand on my shoulder but I brush it off.

“I need to try.”

Before the rest of the party can protest I stick my sword in the ground, right next to the dead Nekote man from earlier. I kneel in front of my sword, put both my hands on the hilt and start whispering the incantation for the resurrection spell while channeling all the mana I can muster in my sword. I feel the energy flowing into the ground, seeking out all the dead in the village, while actively avoiding the dead bandits. 

There are so many…

Tears start running down my cheeks as I try to find even more mana inside of me to pour into my surroundings. I feel my wings spread out to their maximum wingspan, probably as an inistinctive reaction to how focussed I am right now.

“Wow.” I can hear my sister and Nikki gasp in astonishment.

“It’s… it’s... beautiful…” I can hear my girlfriend sniffle.

As the mana starts to peak, everything starts to go hazy as my body reaches its limit and I pass out.

Some undetermined time later I can feel a gentle touch on my cheek and a hand softly brushing through my hair.

“Hnngh, Sam…?” I groan, my eyes only barely being able to open.

“Ah, you are awake.” She’s kindly looking into my eyes. Apparently I had been sleeping on her lap.

“Where are we?” I look around and see we are in a nicely adorned bedroom.

“In the guestroom of the house of the Mayor of Parma. Do you remember what happened?”

“Vaguely… I remember a bandit attack, and then my anger taking over…it felt like me but also not like me…and then…” My mind blanked.

Sam nods. “You tried to revive the entire village.”

“Ah… right… Did it work?” I look into her eyes for an answer.

My girlfriend smiles. “Want to go and see?”

I silently nod and Sam picks me up. I’m still a bit too weak to stand on my legs completely independently so she swings my arm around her shoulder and helps me walk towards the door.

“You might want to mentally prepare yourself though.”

“For the dead?”

“The opposite, actually..”

We walk out of the room, through the empty living room and out of the front door.

A load of villagers are waiting in front of the house.

“The Goddess! She has awoken!” The entire crowd starts cheering.

Eeeeeeeeeehhh?!?!

FieryKathy