Chapter 949 – Righteousness 8 – A shield of pure metal [Moira POV]

Chapter 949 – Righteousness 8 – A shield of pure metal [Moira POV]

Moira burst out of the rubble. ‘The Gamer’s allies do leave quite the impact,’ she made a dry joke to herself while rising to her feet. Dropping her warhammer for a moment, she brushed a number of pebbles out of her hair. The shield, magically attached to her right arm, was as undamaged as the rest of her armour. The enchanted plate the Order used was the pride of the organization, each a piece of art that had been perfected over the generations. Not even that armour would have been able to take a hit that catapulted a grown woman over a hundred metres away from the impact point. The artefact that Gaia had bestowed on her bloodline, however, had no problem with something like that.

If there was something indestructible in this world, then it was the shield she was currently wielding.

Rolling her shoulders, the Shield Warden oriented herself. The hotel was not too far away and aiding her Lord Father was certainly her duty. Yet, she was not particularly pressed to get back. Moira knew exactly why the Gamer had decided to take the fight outside. His interest in Lorelei was as clearly written over his face as the white-blonde’s reciprocation had been in private conversation. Generally, Moira wasn’t too happy about this circumstance, but in this specific situation it assured that her friend was out of the line of fire.

Heading back would have only meant that the battle between her Lord Father and the Gamer’s secondary body was decided earlier or that more of his elementals came to John’s aid. The Order had long since analysed all available material on the Gamer and his fighting style. They could predict with relative certainty how he would act. A problem arose that John Newman tended to make either the best or an unconventional choice when it came to strategy.

Those were, however, not the main reason why Moira held back on aiding her father.

To put it simply, she had disagreements with how he ran things. Moira admired her Lord Father. He had raised her with discipline and love, weathered the hardship that was the loss of her mother, and kept the Order stable even as they moved the entirety of their branch to a new continent. Certainly, his willpower and loyalty to the cause were something Moira strived to mimic. That being said, ever since she had come of age and was getting more closely tied into the leadership and operation of the Order, she had become more disillusioned with aspects of his command.

Force was all too popular a tool with her father, Moira found. The policy of ‘punch first, ask questions later’, didn’t strike her as adequate for an organization as powerful as theirs. This current battle was a perfect example for this. Moira could certainly agree that it needed to be burned to the ground and the barrier collapsed. Those that put up a resistance doubtlessly should be viewed as enemy combatants and be dealt with as such. Making the execution of all members of the enemy faction the basic policy of their invasion, that was a step too far.

“We are fighting warlocks and demons,” her father had said, when she voiced that point of view. “If you treat them with honour, you will have a knife in your back.”

There was a certain truth to that, but was it not their duty to take that risk? Honourless or not, demons were part of the Lady’s creation. With firm guidance, they had to be some good that could be drawn from them. Her Lord Father had made the concession that they would fight for victory, not extermination. Who could be taken in for judgement, would be.

With that, Moira had backed down on the issue. For the time being, she was not the leader of the Shield branch of the Order of the Golden Rose. As a Warden, she was powerful, extremely so, but she was still inexperienced. Once her father was confident she knew the burdens of leadership, he would pass on the torch.

‘This is no longer a battle against New Libraria, but against the Gamer’s resistance,’ Moira thought and considered her path forward. She had certainly prepared herself to follow her father’s orders, but with him occupied and the situation having changed so drastically, another path could be taken.

Moira stepped out of her pile of rubble and was quickly assaulted by a group of demons. With just a few swings of her warhammer, the assault was broken. She was in a hostile environment and the demonette that had attacked her now begged for her life. Both her resolve to break this city and to spare who she could was only hardened.

“Stay down,” the Warden commanded. If there was just one innocent in this city, she would prefer them spared. ‘In that, you and I are likely aligned, John Newman,’ the redhead thought as she started running down the street. ‘We happen to disagree that it is worthwhile to keep this city standing to save that one life.’

Running with a massive tower shield and an equally oversized warhammer wasn’t exactly easy, but Moira dealt with it and quickly made her way to the front lines. She broke through a line of spell-flinging warlocks on the way. Spines and skulls shattered from the swings of her weapon.

The demons around quickly ran away when their commanding summoners had been executed. Moira’s allies, led by one of the few knights not currently helping her Lord Father in his battle, attempted to follow them, but the Shield Warden’s voice stopped them, “Halt. Let them get away.”

Everyone stopped, looking at her with confusion and then at the knight. Officially, Moira was still below a knight in the chain of commands. Realistically, she was the equivalent of a saint in her organization. Going against her wishes, publicly no less, would leave the soldiers conflicted. “May I ask what motivates this order, Warden Moira?” the knight asked.

Moira couldn’t help but let a short laugh escape her.

“Ya can do that?” Rave wondered, with a grin on her own face.

“Your honesty is as infuriating as it is refreshing, Rave,” the Warden returned. “A more cunning opponent would try to get away following that announcement.”

“Ain’t that just a roundabout way to call me stupid?”

“You may take my comments as you wish. What I need to do does not change,” the redhead stated and got into a battle pose.

“Ya sure you’re ready to do this?” Rave asked and put on her headphones. “You didn’t tie your hair up.”

“I’m as ready as I need to be,” Moira declared and charged, shield raised.

“As ya say!” Rave stormed forwards as well.

Rubble crunched under Moira’s feet as they closed in on each other. Both activated their auras shortly before they would have clashed.

Moira stopped one step before Rave, raising her hammer. The massive swing was too slow to hit a fist fighter in front of her, but the Lightbearer wasn’t standing there anymore anyway. The weight of her top-heavy weapon accelerated her turn and served as a direct threat for Rave, who had appeared behind her.

While Moira had perfectly read the opening gambit of her opponent, Rave had taken the potential answer into account. Jumping up, the shaft of the hammer flew on by underneath Rave. Moira tried to cover the opening this created by bashing her opponent’s legs away with her shield. Rave reacted with absurd quickness, first stepping on the upper edge of the tower shield and then on Moira’s plated shoulder. The second foot pulled forwards and slammed into Moira’s chin.

The blow, more humiliating than painful, made Moira take three steps backwards. Rave jumped off into the opposite direction, landing gracefully on her feet. She tapped her heel according to the beat booming from her headphones. Tiny circles of light spread out from her foot, following each impact. “I know its kinda bad manners to strike a lady in the face,” Rave bantered, “but that’s just how I get when ya don’t give me the basic bit of respect, ya know?”

Moira sighed and placed her hammer down, upright on the floor. “I did think you couldn’t have possibly improved enough to keep up with the strides I made since our last duel,” the Warden admitted, her blessed shield dropping after she pulled a hairband from the space connected to the back of it. “I suppose that was arrogant of me.” She bundled up her hair into a ponytail. “I apologize.”

“Apology accepted, Moira,” Rave rolled her neck. “Ya know the terms, ja? I win, I get to call ya the chosen nickname again.”

“If it must be like that,” the Warden sighed.



Then they charged at each other again.