21

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Thor began to walk east of the cemetery. "The soldier said that it should be around here. He spotted movement and hid behind a tree to see what was going on.

"This rain is terrible!" a cultist complained, "Thank The Creator we're summoning another Knight today. With that we'll have 7. It's a shame that we haven't been able to get much done due to the stupid Guild Hall interfering with our work!"

"I know, right?" another one chimed in, "Had it not been for them we would've been able to summon Demeter and patch up everyone else within a year! But no, they had to get involved."

"If we had our hands on that kid this would've been a different story. Because that dipshit Isaac sent him away he was able to tell everyone about us. You know fuck Isaac and everything he stood for. It was merciful that he died."

At the mention of Isaac, Thor began to tense up. He clenched his fists, but calmed himself until he held out his holdus to check the time. 12:55, It displayed. He immediately played a few cards and ran right into the two guards. Lighting striking them with intense power killing them both instantly.

"ALERT!" a mechanical voice rang inside the place, "ALERT! INTRUDER APPROACHING, I REPEAT INTRUDER APPROACHING!"

Thor didn't hesitate a single second before breaking down the door. He pulled out his Elemental Sword seemingly out of nowhere and began to hack and slash the cultists inside.

"Wh-what the hell is this guy?"

"It's Thor! Didn't our intel say he'd be coming tomorrow?"

"It doesn't matter now! Kill him!"

The cultists futilely attacked Thor only for him to spray their blood across their lair.

"Send me your Knights!" Thor bellowed, "I'm here to slay them for they are the ones who killed my kin!"

"Loud and clear." Apollo said as he entered the room alongside Gaea and Poseidon, "It is us you seek so we will fight."

Thor gave an evil grin, "Where's Hephaestus?"

"He's busy," Gaea replied, "He's protecting Yolus, as if you'll reach that far."

"Indeed," Poseidon said, "If I were you I'd sea myself out."

"Never in a million years," Thor replied, "this is my moment and I'm taking it all in.

Thor bolted straight for Apollo who was barely able to dodge the lightning fast speed of Thor.

"He's too fast!" Apollo thought to himself, "I can't draw an arrow!"

"This is for my mother!" Thor planted his sword about an inch into Apollo's body and coursed lightning straight inside him. Apollo fell on his back and struggled to move. Gaea and Poseidon both immediately realized what they were dealing with and moved in.

"Poseidon, get help. I'll hold him off!"

"Who?"

"Anyone! Aeolus and Hades should be available, just get someone!"

"Alright, I'll leave him to you!"

"Pretty smart sending the Water guy away from Lightning attacks. I assume you're the strategist of the Knights?"

"Not at all," Gaea said holding up her shield, "as the Earth I defend. However, knowing simple things like Elemental matchups are essential for everyone."

"Too bad that you guys are wasting your lives with these scumbags."

"Scumbags or not, a knight listens to their orders."

"My father told me that a real knight would only fight for good. It seems like you aren't real knights."

An arrow whizzed past Thor cutting his cheek. "A-a card can't disobey orders from their master. It's just the way things are…"

"Yes, it's just the way things are…" Thor said, "if I had someone noble like you on my side maybe things would've been different but as of now you need to die."

Thor immediately backed off of Gaea and stabbed Apollo who this time disappeared into a card after another electric shock. Gaea soon followed as she had no way of dealing significant damage to Thor. Thor wiped some sweat and blood off his face and said to himself, "2 down 4 to go." He pulled out his Holdus, 1:24. He smiled and pulled out another card before heading down what he believed was the pathway to Yolus. He walked slowly so he wouldn't make much sound and arrived at a door. He almost turned the knob before hearing the sound of wind and immediately blasted lightning towards it.

"Seems your senses are sharp there, little boy," Aeolus said as he descended. "You were lucky last time to have someone strong enough to both hide his power and was able to get close enough, but this time things are different."

"Things are definitely different," Thor sneered, "4 years of studying and training worth of difference. I play the card Elemental Absorption. Let's fight."

"Indeed let's."

The two clashed into each other. The wind around Aeolus was quickly diminished due to Elemental Absorption causing Thor to be able to land a few light hits. Aeolus sent out a wind blade only for it to be absorbed.

"That Elemental Absorption of yours is a serious nuisance. Ring! Now!"

A man jumped out from behind Aeolus and pulled out a card of his own, "Destroy Truth!" In that instant the wind Aeolus sent was able to hit Thor.

"Dammit!"

"You were able to destroy both Apollo and Gaea. Poseidon has left us, and Hades is nowhere to be found. Interesting turn of events. I'm the one who goes by the name Ring, I'm the one who summoned these guys into our world."

"So you're the one responsible for the destruction of my family."

"I suppose you could say so."

"Then that gives me even more incentive to kill you."

"You shouldn't be talking during a fight," Aeolus said as he blasted wind towards Thor, "It's only going to get you killed."

"Well then I'll shut up and release thunder's wrath upon you. I play Mjölnir!"

A storm began to brew inside the base. It began to rain and thunder rang throughout. A flash of lightning struck Thor and in his sword began to morph into an axe. He sped forward and within a nanosecond Aeolus fell. He turned towards Ring who looked up in fear, but accepted his demise.

"It seems as if you've won this match.," He said.

"I have, and I hope your death is swift and painless," Thor replied as he decapitated Ring. "All that's left is Yolus it seems."

He opened the door only for it to open to an arena. Inside was Hephaestus cracking his knuckles and giving him a smile. "You've made it, little brat."

"It seems I still have to kill the cocky bastard."

"Don't kid yourself, I'm nothing like them. I've had experience in this world. I play the card Equip Truth. May Purgatory's Flame cause you pain and suffering.

"Y-you can play cards?" Thor stuttered in shock, "That's impossible!"

"As long as you have a holdus it isn't." Hephaestus held up one, "Nabbed this of these from one of your sisters. What was her name again? She had that pretty brown hair, and she seemed to smile a lot. Ah yes, Nian wasn't it?"

"You bastard…" Thor growled as he prepared Mjölnir.

"You little group did a number on us that one day. Quite a shame indeed. That silent guy died first, and then the smart guy. Oh yeah that fatso died before either of them for what he did to my arm. That leaves the three girls and Isaac. Let's just say it wasn't pretty for any of them."

"You're dead."

"Oh but don't you want to know what happened? The two older ladies were sent somewhere else while the little one stayed. Quite the rebellious spirit she had there. She wouldn't listen to anything we did so we just decided to end her. She really thought that you'd save her one day, but alas her journey ended quite quickly."

"You… Mother. Fucker."

"Now we can't forget about Isaac now can we? I'll let you in on a little secret. He was the last to survive. The two ladies died within a year, but Isaac held on until just a few years ago."

"I'm going to absolutely slaughter you!" Thor shrieked as he went to strike at Hephaestus.

"Too slow," Hephaestus said, sidestepping and countering with an elbow to Thor's back, "Reckless rage. I know that all too well."

"You know? I might have spared you life," Thor started, "Ring's dead. Doesn't seem like you have orders to follow."

"Hm? Orders? You think I really followed orders? Carnage, destruction, sorrow, things that all occur with flames. I enjoyed doing this kind of job, unlike that sorry Apollo."

"I see. I guess that's why you're the weakest."

"What?"

"You have no sense of honor. No chivalry. You only think about destruction. You're not a Knight by any means Hephaestus. You're a coward.

"That's rich coming from someone like you. You've run away your entire life. From your parents to the Krimsons to the many assassination attempts not once did you fight back you only ran."

"Things have changed for me, I came here to attack. I'm no longer running away and what have you been doing all this time? Waiting. Waiting for a weak opponent to strike so you can destroy. You've never fought anyone fairly which is why you are the coward among the Knights!"

"If your plan was to get me angry, you've succeeded, but all that does is make my flames stronger."

"Come at me, you cocky bastard."

"Don't mind if I do!"

Hephaestus' fists' flames grew tenfold to almost the size of an aircraft carrier. They were able to scorch Thor from the opposite side of the room. He rushed in with his fists increasingly getting hotter and hotter until it hit Thor right in the face, flinging him through the multiple walls of the base and straight outside into the rain. Hephaestus took no time to continue to pummel Thor. Even outside in the rain, his flames weren't able to be put out. He knocked Thor towards some trees toppling 15 before Thor hit the ground which then caused him to uproot 15 more.

"Had enough? I can end this in one quick motion." Hephaestus offered.

Thor stood up and leaned against his weapon, "I'll never surrender to you. I have to defeat you. For everyone!"

Thor immediately bolted straight for Hephaestus' head which he missed, "Like I said, you too—" A spark of lightning had clung onto Hephaestus.

"Spark Teleportation," Thor said as he appeared in front of Hephaestus, "For Bao!" He screamed as he plunged his axe deep into Hephaestus' stomach.

He let out a cry of pain before standing up and ripping the axe out of his stomach and knocking Thor back into the building. "Now I'm furious!" He lunged towards Thor and grabbed his neck while his flames slowly charred away at the helpless man. "We end this now!"

Thor panically sent a bolt of lightning at Hephaestus only for it to disintegrate within the flames. "H-how are you still this strong?" he asked.

"By virtue of having a holdus your power is exponentially increased and for a Knight like me exponentially is huge! I play the card! Ignis Ultimus!" A wave of heat the size of a hydrogen bomb scorched the entirety of the base. "Looks like I'm done. All now I have to do is—"

A hand from underneath him grabbed onto his leg. "Electro Stealo!" a shock of lightning sapped away at Hephaestus' strength causing him to collapse on the floor.

"H-how did you?"

"I learned how to nullify fire magic. By exposing myself to the rain for a long period of time combined with the intense lightning to soften the blow. Your attack hurt, but wasn't enough to kill me."

"D-damn. To think I'd won."

"Now die." Thor said as he plunged his axe back into Hephaestus' stomach and shocked him for 15 minutes. His hands still twitched and hadn't begun to disappear back into a card. Thor pulled out a card and played it, "Death." and in that instant Hephaestus disappeared. His card, cut in half.

"Yolus…" Thor thought to himself, "You're going to regret picking a fight with me."

He entered the final room where the old man sat behind his desk. "You've defeated Hephaestus, I see. Perhaps I did underestimate your power."

"Yolus…" Thor started, "why?"

"Why? Silly child. You don't even know who you are, how sad. No matter, once I'm finished with you I can harness your magical power all I want."

"Harness my magical power?"

"Yes. Back in the ancient times there was one player who could do quite well, but lost a lot. Still though he was named as one of the greats. He went by the name of The Puppeteer and reading his achievements allowed me to use his strategies as a tool. I play the card Summon Dark Puppet!"

The ground below them began to shake and rising from the earth were 7 humanoid shapes.

"I present to you, your dark family!"

"N-no… this can't be…"

"It is! I've used the power of darkness to revive the dead and once I'm done with you, you'll join them. Happy isn't it? You'll get to be with your family once again. Isaac, Erina, Wolso, Nian, Bao, Viv, and Qwins. I bet they miss you."

"No... no… stop…"

"Meet your demise Thor Stroganoff! Puppets attack!" The puppets didn't move. "I said, puppets attack!" They still stood still. "Why? Why? Why? Why isn't it working? I've perfected this magic but it won't work!"

"Bonds…" one of the puppets said,

"What?"

"Bonds…" it repeated.

"Fine, I'll do this myself! I play…" He didn't finish his sentence. The puppets moved towards Yolus and latched onto him. "Wh-what the hell is this?"

Thor stood petrified until one of the puppets spoke to him, "Don't worry Thor. We're here to protect you. Me, Viv and Erina as your older sisters and Qwins, Wolso, Bao, and Isaac as your brothers."

"Nian!"

They began to pull Yolus down into the earth with them. "DAMN YOU KRIMSONS! I'll..." he was now fully concealed into the earth. The puppets all gave Thor a smile before heading back into the earth.

"Nian! H-happy birthday! I miss you!"

"I miss you too," he heard her voice ring inside his head. "And thank you. I'm glad we were able to help you once again."

Thor began to grasp at the floor tears in his eyes before being interrupted by someone behind him, "Quite the reunion isn't it Thor,"

"Tiran… you traitor."

"Looks like you've won, kid. You got your—"

Thor immediately swung his axe, slicing off both his arms.

"No need to get too hasty little boy. I only came to talk."

"Why aren't you dead?"

"I cast a truth that won't let me die until the hour's up. Let's talk."

"No. You need to die."

"Wouldn't you at least like to know why things happened as they did?"

"You mean why you betrayed us?"

"I guess you could put it that way."

"What do you mean 'put it that way?'"

"You see things were planned out this way."

"What? Planned? You planned to betray us from the start?"

"No silly. That night during your birthday, Isaac cast something to make you tired so we could talk without you there."

"Why?"

"The commission was a trap. I was the mole for our guild. The Knight Cult planned to use me to secure you but they failed."

"I know that they failed, but why did things happen like that?"

"You never found it suspicious why everyone gave you something right before they died?"

A thought of realization hit Thor, "N-no that can't be."

"They knew it was a trap, but they went anyway because they knew they had to. You see that commission wasn't actually Platinum A. I just scribbled it on to make it seem far fetched. In reality it was a Diamond D mission, but that would've been easy to be spotted as a trap by the rest of the group. The original vote was 6-2 in favor of ignoring the commission but soon changed to 7-1 in favor of going after Isaac and I told the rest of them the details. They were specifically after you and if we lost you our goal would have failed, so by pretending to fall into the trap and sacrificing themselves was the only way to protect you."

"But there's still one person who voted against it!"

"Who else would it have been except for Nian? She knew that if you'd lose everyone you loved again that you'd be in despair forever. We tried reassuring her that you'd be fine but she wouldn't budge. Not even after we told her that we'd provide someone to take care of you."

"So Sorben was in on it too?"

"Nope, we just ordered him to protect you. He didn't know that I was bad. and I never told him I was a Krimson. Only that I was someone on the inside helping Thor out."

"So that's it. Everyone planned that night to sacrifice themselves for me. But... but why?"

"Seems like you don't know yourself that well. The day will come when you realize why we made these choices, but for now it's over. You've completed your road of revenge."

"Well that's that then." Thor said before moving on, "I'll just leave you here."

"Actually this old man's got a favor for you. I'm hoping you'll accept it."

"What is it?"

"There's actually a little kid inside the cult. I indirectly killed her parents while I was in here so I raised her as my own. She'll define herself as a Knight Cultist and probably the last one. My request is that you let her live. She's about to be hit with the same trauma you've been hit by for the past 5 years and I hope you'll let it slide."

"Your request is to let a small child live?"

"Yup, and in case you didn't believe the things I told you before. The code to Isaac's safe is 20-8-15-18, the letters in your name. He told me that if we met again to give you permission to open it. Inside will be letters from everyone wishing their goodbyes and how they're sorry for what they did."

"Goodbye Tiran,"

"Goodbye Thor."

Thor left Tiran to bleed out and was about to exit when he felt a chill come down his spine, he drew his axe but could barely hold it up.

"Interesting, you're the one who was able to slay 4 Knights and the head of the cult. Thor Stroganoff." a voice said.

"Wh-who are you?"

"I'm Hades, The Black Knight." he responded.

"A-are you here to kill me?"

"I have no need to." Hades replied, "I have no orders to do so, but I do crave a fight against someone strong like you. However, you're in no shape to fight at full strength. Perhaps at a later date, we fight." Hades immediately disappeared.

Thor was dazed for a few seconds before shaking it off and running away from the hideout and back towards the Guild Hall.

"That Thor sure has spirit." Hades said to himself before turning to Tiran, "Should I be helping you?"

"No. This is my punishment for deceiving him and I'll gladly take it."

"I'll leave then. This is no place for an outcast like me. I'll take the other Knights with me." Hades then vanished.

Over by the trees stood a little girl with bright red hair. She seemed scared as she slowly made her way into the Knight Cult. She screamed as she saw the countless bodies and blood splattered all over the floor.

"Scar… let…" Tiran's voice meekly said, "wel… come... back… I'm glad… you're safe..."

"Dad! What happened here? Where are your arms?"

"Don't call me that… please…"

"Tiran… why? Why is this happening to me?"

"It's the price of our sins… Scarlet… the sins of the Knight Cult. They piled up and this is what happened… I need you to remember a name… his name is Thor… Stroganoff… he's..." The clock changed to 2 and Tiran collapsed on the floor lifeless.

"No! Tiran! You can't die! Tiran? Tiran!" She dried her tears and began looking around for anyone, anything when she spotted Hephaestus' card.

"Hephaestus! I need to summon you what—" She picked up the card only to find out it had been severed in two.

"Big Brother!" She began to cry and cry and cry, "Thor Stroganoff," she said between her tears, "You're going to die by my hands. That's a promise.

* * * * * *

Thor limped inside the Guild Hall. Everyone did the standard look who came in but this time they stared. Stared at the bloodied, rainy mess of a 6 year old child who walked in.

"Thor what the hell happened?" Sorben asked, rushing over to him, "You're a mess!"

"I did it." he said softly before increasing his volume, "I KILLED THEM ALL! THE KNIGHT CULT IS NO MORE! I CAN FINALLY REST PEACEFULLY!" He then let out a maniacal laugh haunting the entire room.

"Knight Cult? Weren't we supposed to take them on tomorrow?" Sorben asked in confusion.

"Sorben, they were my enemies. I had to take care of them. It's over now though. I can… rest… peacefully…" he collapsed.

"Someone get help! We've got an unconscious 6 year old!"

Chapter 21: Revenge is a Dish Best Served With a Side of Lightning END