Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 257: Bells

War never changed—that much was burned into steel as Erec saw the devastation wrought upon his Kingdom. Upon his cavern. His eye kept catching on the roof, and the beam of light that now dug miles below the surface to reach his cavern.

Even after weeks of work, it still ruined the lives of so many and took even more.

Right now, he walked through the remains of Cavern Number Seven with a mission; he felt a pang in his heart and a small rush of blood as the memories of the fight that led to it played through his mind, along with the hot red hate of Fury, as he recalled the false Goddess responsible had gotten away. His fingers clenched, his skin going white as a reflex.

The fight had been vicious. Colin manifesting his mantle—rather, Kay; the memories of the two of them overlapping were still a whiplash in Erec's head—had brought down magic powerful enough to shear through so much earth.

Technically, now, his cavern and Cavern Number Four were connected. It might, in the future, present a new opportunity for expedited shipping since they could now bypass the bottleneck of the elevator. Given that Cavern Four was massive and had sprawling commercial districts, were he more concerned with economic potential, maybe Erec would have cared more. Now? Every time he looked at it, he was reminded of how much this place had changed.

Erec stopped in his tracks, catching a small boy begging for food on the corner. He dug in his pouch and tossed a handful of ducats. "Go down to the Eighth—get some shelter, and save the rest for food," he said, his voice solemn, as the kid looked at him with wide eyes.

“Sir Erec?” he said, almost trembling.

“Yes. Go get food. You need to get out of here; it’s not exactly a place for kids right now.”

“That was my house, sir.” He pointed out a half-done building around the corner. Rubble still spilled on the street; much like a lot of the ruin, things still needed laborers to fix it. “My… my parents ain't here anymore. I don’t know where to go… not many folks want much to do with me.”

Erec frowned and crouched down near the boy. “I’m sorry. Truly. Deeply. Lionel, can you see that he is placed within an orphanage and taken care of from what’s left in our personal vault? When this building is reconstructed, I want the deed to go in his name. When he’s older, he should have the house his parents put so much work into; it’s the least we can do to make things right.”His house steward hesitated behind him, then dug in his pouch and pulled out a notebook; he looked between Erec and the boy. “My lord, I’m afraid taking down the details will delay me…”

“We can meet back up at the manor. We were going to make a stop at the lab anyway. Any orders Colin wants to place, I’ll write down and bring them back to you. Promise.” Erec turned his full attention back to the kid; looking closer, he guessed the boy had to be about thirteen, almost a teen. By the time they finished reconstruction, he might be old enough to function alone in the place. The kid’s eyes were still wide; his hand shaking as he clutched the coin for dear life. “I’m sorry. For everything. Had we been stronger, or faster, or ousted the traitors before they did this, you wouldn’t have suffered so much.”

“You—you fought for us. Slayer of the Stag—I always wanted to meet you, Billy said he saw you and—“ the kid cried while shuffling forward.

The Erec of now wasn’t so sure how to react, so he dug down in his memories; his past lives had seen the remains of war. As eager as he was to set things right, that hate and fury had to be tempered by moments like this. He understood. Erec threw his arms around the boy and let the tears flow.

Once they stopped, he held the boy at arm's length. “Lionel is a good man. He’ll take care of you. Let him know if any more of your friends are like you, and he’ll see that you’re all put somewhere safe. Alright?”

“A-alright,” the kid said, as Erec stood up, putting on a false smile for him.

Things weren’t alright. He’d never have the same exact home, and the loss of his parents… that would be a gaping wound for the rest of his life. But in this cavern, under his rule, Erec would see that some injustices of life and war could at least be paid reparation.

Lionel crouched down next, notepad in hand, as Erec walked away, Garin quick on his heels.

"That was nice of you. This is… heartbreaking. Every time we've come here, to think she targeted you so much… aside from the Caverns the Silver Flames controlled, this is by far the most damaged. What I wouldn't give for us to get another chance against that witch." Garin spoke with a venom that was rare in his friend—he kept glancing back at Lionel and the boy as they walked away.

"She is insane. A hateful being that is no longer human. We will finish things," Erec promised, the simmer of Fury turning into a hot coal in the pit of his stomach. He let it burn and then let it blow out, rolling his shoulders.

There would be a time for that. And he wanted to hold on to the emotion for when the time came; he'd turn it into the strength needed to do what needed to be done.

They passed people weeping, moved past families in broken homes, just like that poor boy's. Erec let the memories burn into him, held onto what they brought, and shoved it all deep below; the bodies were cleared from the streets, but part of him would always recall the sight of his cavern amid the fires and blood.

They passed a group protesting the church; this was a new source of power for the King. And even now he leveraged it to attack the remnants of the church and its supporters, and the power vacuum was rapidly being filled by the remaining Knights, the military, and the Crown.

Still, he knew, for every protester on the street angry at the damage done to their people, there were those still closeted in their homes, praying to the goddess and not understanding why any of it had happened.

After passing another group of people screaming for the destruction of the churches, Garin cleared his throat, taking on the tone he always did when trying to lighten the mood.

"Y'know, it's unfair you don't have to go to classes anymore, especially since I still do."

“Given the restructuring of the Knights, I can’t imagine you’ll be attending classes for much longer.” Erec plodded along.

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“Yeah, or maybe they will make me stick around for two years. How messed up is that? Moving you and Colin on and keeping me behind.”

“We’ll work on it,” Erec replied. Though he could tell his friend was trying to lead into a joke with the soft complaining, his heart wasn’t in it.

Not in here. Not in his cavern. Destroyed by their enemies.

Garin’s face softened. “Look, man. Sorry. We both know you’re going to do as much as you can to help your people. And the King is going to give you as much support as he can; they targeted this place, and the King is aware of your gifts. Add in VAL? Well, I think when everything is brought back, you'll have built this place up stronger than it has ever been. It doesn’t make any of this better, I know. But trust in you, and trust in the future you’re capable of building.”

Erec paused and looked down. His right hand was balled in a fist—when had that happened? He slowly let his fingers release; the simmering in him would be there. And in those silver fires were memories of countless other wars.

One would think that with the exposure to so much death and destruction, it’d lose its sting. But not for him. Not for any other knight of his caliber.

“But seriously, what are you going to do without classes?”

"It won't be entirely without classes. Boldwick said in a month's time, we'll come back and discuss my training. But he said I should expect to audit some classes. There’s education there, which is valuable to me still. But he’ll be taking a more personal touch… still… I’ll miss all the classes we had together. But don’t worry, man, we’ll have more.”

“Well, congratulations then, that means you’re officially a Knight Errant under him.”

“I’d thought I’d go to Dame Robin, but no. He took me under his wing. Er… and he convinced Sir Able to take Colin.”

Garin sucked in a breath, and then he couldn’t help himself. He laughed. “Oh, no.”

“Hopefully, it helps him. When it comes to magic, Sir Able is one of the best within the Verdant Oak. Dame Morgana was another option… but her magic doesn’t really click as well with him… so yeah…” Erec trailed off. The two of them were like oil and water; the fighting and conflicts between master and student would not be pleasant to be around.

Luckily, the only people who had to deal with it were the two perpetrators.

They began moving again, this time more quickly. Erec was confident Lionel would catch up eventually, and he was growing weary of the trip through the cavern, so he sped up, pushing his pace until they reached a large warehouse on the outskirts of the Seventh Cavern; the logo of Vortex Industries stood strong on the outside. The building itself hadn’t been damaged in the fighting, on account of VAL reinforcing the structure with advanced materials ahead of time. The machine had insisted on securing it for both defense and containment in case of a rogue experiment.

Not that Erec had agreed to let it perform any experiments that went too far. Still, the extra attention to detail kept it intact, even when much of the city no longer was.

Erec pushed inside, Garin close behind. As they filtered past the unused greeting area and into the labs beyond, they heard the clanking of metal and some soft cursing.

“Damned logs—how dare that thing deign to tell me how to make observations. It cannot even use magic, yet it’s offering unsolicited advice on how I am doing things incorrectly; me—“ Colin’s soft voice filtered through, and then VAL zipped out of Erec's armor, pushing through the rest of the way and intruding into the lab where the young mage was currently sitting before three different materials.

He stopped in his tracks.

“Buckeroo. This is America—if you have a complaint about your employer’s methodology, it’s best to swallow that complaint, ignore it, and let it fester until you jump companies. This is my lab, and it is your duty to comply with research instructions.” Even as the floating cube that was VAL gave its command to Colin, it hovered over a stack of papers on the table, which had to be his friend's lab notebook on his work.

A brief fan of red light went out from VAL as it swept over the papers, and then it hummed.

“Your observations are better. But qualitative testing with your data is messy. It appears there is a large margin of error, which likely stems from systematic failure in technique from the technician.”

Colin scoffed.

“I followed your instructions to the letter, you damned machine.”

“Your damned boss—even though Erec is no longer an intern and now on the executive board, that does not mean that you, his friend, can neglect that chain of command. We are a company of meritocracy with values, not a place of nepotism and old-world politics. Not anymore.”

Colin’s eyes flashed to Erec, and in them was more than a little anger. In fact, as Erec took in his friend’s posture, from the way he was slightly hunched, to the dark cast on his gaunt face, it was immediately apparent that this wasn’t simply him clashing with VAL. Though since taking a job in the lab, the two hadn’t exactly seen eye-to-eye on everything. But this was more than that.

With a grunt, he slammed a piece of bronze down on the table and glared at VAL.

“I quit.”

“Ah, this is the third time this month. Shall we file paperwork, or shall I give you a window of opportunity to reconsider? If only we had an HR person, they would be quite useful. Erec, we must consider this an opportune time for expansion; we can provide employment and restructure following the collapse of the local economy. Played right, we'll be the premier force of economic importance in this cavern; now that you don’t have to worry about that pesky religious institution, we can get real work done—“

"VAL. Another time," Erec said smoothly. The idea wasn’t bad, but by the deepening grimace on Colin's face with every robotic word, he knew it was time for a more human hand in the conversation. “Can you just analyze the data and leave us to chat for a moment?”

“Fine. If you do insist.” Small tendrils, much like cables, wrapped around the stack of paper, which VAL then brought out of the room, leaving Garin, Colin, and Erec alone.

Well, as alone as they could be, considering VAL was a part of Erec, with his nanites in his bloodstream, they would never truly be free from it. But at this point, the two of them had built up enough respect that VAL would give him the boundaries he wanted.

Garin cleared his throat. "So what's bugging you, man?"

"Why, I don't know what you're talking about. That damnable machine breathing down my neck, Father sending threatening letters, the annoying parade of letters from the nobility, and the Fourth Cavern threatening a lawsuit over my 'exposing them to the surface.’ Whatever could I be stressed about, Baron's son?" Colin crossed his arms and shot eye daggers at them both.

Garin flashed a look at Erec.

“Spill it,” Erec said, letting a bit of gruffness into his voice.

“Fine. If you must know, the date of my betrothal has been expedited. I am to marry in a week. A week. I'm not even sure if I'm meant to be married to Alexandria, let alone with all of this going on with the Kingdom—but here, have a go at me. Harass me over my damned scientific work if you must, just like that machine, or otherwise devolve this conversation into whatever other low nobility problems you have to put on my shoulders.” Colin spat each word out like they left a bad taste in his mouth and stared at them in silence.

Both Erec and Garin’s jaws dropped.

Almost as one, they both asked the inevitable question, “Wait. You’re getting married in a week!?”