A Difference in Gold and Silver

Syren and Tyra rushed over to find the town in chaos. Many of the knights and akkedis laid on the ground in blood and guts. Flies already began to swarm in on the feast.

The carnage was nothing like Syren has seen, but tried to maintain his composure.

Tyra had seen these kind of scenes before as she worked as a mercenary, but was worried for Bellbraun. At first, she thought that he may have been responsible as much of the place had been destroyed and many of the bodies crushed into paste. But she quickly threw that idea away. She wouldn't have ill thoughts towards her old friend without any proof. And she wouldn't abandon him.

The fighting still ensued. One knight was fleeing before getting pierced by an arrow straight through his mouth. Tyra, Syren, and Ira saw what did it. One of those golden-robed mercenaries that worked for Bellbraun.

When he spotted Tyra and Syren, he aimed his bow and fired one arrow. It headed towards Syren. Tyra swiftly deflected the arrow away before it could hit him. Syren opened his black tome and conjured his shadow blade.

The golden figure was threw the old bow away and took out a golden sword. He said nothing and faced the two of them without fear. He was fast. He ought against both of them without so much as a scratch from his robe. Syren opened the black tome to different pages and used different spells. He still needed to read the spells, but he didn't have to recite them. He could just swipe his finger on the page and the spell would appear.

One shot of fire from Syren's fingertips caught the golden-robed figure by surprise. His robes burned, but he refused to take it off just there. He jumped back and removed the robes gently and orderly as if it was a precious thing. Behind those robe, they wore golden armor.

He was about to continue to fight until the body of a small akkedi child struck him from the side. Tyra and Syren looked to the side and saw Bellbraun.

"Damn it. Tyra isn't a rebel, mindless creature," Bellbraun said as his veins popped out in anger. The golden knight's entire body laid on the floor crawling away as blood leaked out of his armor. But the blood was strange. It was almost like anybody else's blood, but there was enough liquid gold that came with it. His armor also broke apart revealing not pure gold armor, but steel and iron. It was only gilded to look as though it was made of gold.

Bellbraun apologized to Tyra while casually walking towards his fallen mercenary, "Tyra, I'm so sorry that my mercenary attacked you. He is my responsibility, and so I shall take responsibility. After my job, I'll make it up to you. How about a nice dinner later? It'll be my treat."

Neither Tyra and Syren had an idea of what was happening. However, Syren was convinced that Bellbraun and his men were definitely related to the demons they were hunting. Ira just stood there saying nothing. He only listened and waited for the fight that he expected to happen.

Tyra asked worryingly, "Please, don't tell me... Bellbraun, this whole town is in engulfed in flames. There's only dead bodies. What job are you talking about?"

Bellbraun went over to his injured mercenary who looked up to see the giant stand above him. Bellbraun held out a hand as though he was going to pick him up. The mercenary thought that he was offering mercy and gave out his hand. But it was far from mercy. Bellbraun took the golden knight's hand and crushed it in his. Bellbraun was so calm about it. Bones cracked and it turned into just a pile of mush. The knight yelled in agony before coughing out gold-filled blood. He coughed so much that his mask was pushed off. The whites in his eyes turned red and gold. Blood streamed out of both. Syren and Tyra froze as they watched it unfold.

Bellbraun let his knight suffer a bit more and after a few seconds of him choking on his own blood, he lifted his warhammer. With one fell swoop, he crushed the man. The parts flew all over into a bloody mess. As the blood sprayed onto his golden armor, it made no stain. Instead, the blood looked to be absorbed into his armor before vanishing completely. Even his warhammer was clean. The only part that was dirtied with blood was his face.

Tyra couldn't believe her eyes. For a moment, she thought that she was seeing a monster.

She took two steps back and shook in fear. "Bellboy..."

"Who called me that!?" Bellbraun yelled angrily until he noticed that it was Tyra. Then, he calmed himself down.

Syren noticed more golden-robed figures appearing atop of rooftops and street corners. He saw one of the akkedis try to flee from her home before being struck down by a golden blade.

However, Tyra was fully focused on Bellbraun. She asked, "Why?"

"Why? Why what?" Bellbraun replied confused, "This is my job. Put down a revolt."

"Revolt? These people... they're not soldiers. They're just civilians. I know we both did terrible things, but you never stooped to this. We both killed plenty of everything under Goldheart, but when you took over, things were a lot better. We never attacked unarmed innocents. We never burned down cities. It was still dangerous, but we got by."

"Innocents? They were rebels? Besides it doesn't matter. As long as the pay is good, then we can stay afloat."

"What happened to you?" Tyra asked.

"You left."

Those two words struck Tyra harder than any arrow.

Bellbraun continued as his smile slowly faded away, "You want to know what happened? Everything went wrong ever since that dragon. And it wasn't just that zombie dragon, but the silver knight, too. The silver knight was a hero - a God even. There was no way to compete with that. And there was no way he was human. Yet, you fell for him. You joined the Silver Order when we could have done anything else. I still dream of days when we could just be sitting near a lake just being happy. We had already accumulated plenty of money from our ventures. But it wasn't enough."

Tyra listened and as she did, she began to question her choice. The whole city was burning, but more importantly, Bellbraun seemed more like a monster. And she wondered whether she really was the reason for it. And that wonder soon drew doubt on whether she really did any good after joining. Her hands shook, and her grip on her blade was light. If a gust of wind would pass by, then she would have dropped it.

Bellbraun continued, "Tyra... Don't be upset. I don't blame you. I blame myself for my own weakness. I learned that no human can compete in this world. I learned that no human can strive to be stronger than any monster. Money and gold can get you so far, but real power comes from power itself. And no human can compare to the strength of a monster whether it be a dragon or a God in silver armor. I wasn't worthy of you then. But I am now. I've become stronger than any man."

Ira heard his words and wondered whether Bellbraun was the demon of wrath instead of himself, but quickly thought that that was ridiculous.

Syren continued to be wary as he saw the golden-robed figures slowly surrounding them. They would have attacked by now, but they were afraid. Syren wasn't sure why they were afraid at first, but it became clear that they were all afraid of Bellbraun.

Tyra had no words. She just didn't know what to say. She blamed herself and looked down at the dirt in shame.

Syren asked, "Bellbraun, do you know anybody or anything called Avaritia?"

Bellbraun looked at Syren confused at first until he remembered that he was with Tyra. He tried to be friendly, but in reality just wanted to crush him. "Ahh. So you have heard of our prophet. Avaritia promises wealth and power to those who want it. Do you wish to join the Golden Garden as we have?"

Tyra heard those words and recalled her memories of her joining the Silver Order.

Syren replied, "Golden Garden? I wouldn't mind, but I'd like to know more about it. Like where's it at?"

"You must first offer something. Preferably your body and some gold - pure of course."

"Sorry. Don't have any gold."

"Shame. Perhaps another time if you live. ," Bellbraun replied as he took a step closer with his warhammer in hand. If Syren had decided to join the Golden Garden, then Bellbraun wouldn't have had a choice but to bring him before Avaritia unharmed. They could always use more followers that can gather the gold necessary for Avaritia's rise to power.

Tyra remained firm. He held her blade and readied herself to fight. As Syren noticed, he was about to ready himself as well, but Tyra stopped him.

"I'm sorry, Syren. But this is my fight," Tyra said, "I've turned him into this. It's all my fault that he's even become like this. He saved me many times, and he suffered for it. I always chose to praise this silver knight over him. A knight like in a fairy tale. Nobody could live up to the being I saw. And he tried so hard to live up to it to the point of turning himself into this weapon. I should've stopped this from happening long ago. So, back away and let me deal with it. Your responsibility lies with ending the eclipse. Mine lies with stopping the friend I corrupted and ruined to the point of no return. Please, Syren, let me be the one to put him down before he can destroy any more. He's my responsibility."

Syren never saw Tyra this serious before. The look on her eyes showed more resolve than any other. She was truly determined to stop him as when she looked at Bellbraun's eyes, all she could see was a monster. The Bellbraun she knew was already dead, and she killed him long ago.

Tyra stood with her feet firmly in the ground. She gripped her blade tightly, but not too tight.

Bellbraun smiled and said, "Tyra, we don't need to fight. The prophet can use more gold gatherers. You and I can be a team once more. And you will become powerful enough not need a shining knight to save you."

Tyra didn't back down. Instead, she focused even harder than before and Bellbraun saw it.

"Fine. I know you understand," Bellbraun said, "I know that you understand that humans can never go beyond a certain point. I reached my limit, and I broke past it. I know you understand those limits. When I break you, then you will come with me willingly to gain power."

Bellbraun and Tyra prepared to fight each other. Bellbraun was planning on going easy on her. If he was human, then he would have had to try, but he wasn't. He didn't have any desire to kill her.

But Tyra had no plans of holding back. Her face was covered in tears, but her eyes were still filled with resolve. This was a battle that Tyra thought was necessary for her penance. A battle between silver and gold.