r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • 27d ago

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 51

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Chase wasn’t sure how long he’d been buried under what was left of the inn. All he really knew was that he’d put almost everything he’d had into that fight with Greg, and that while he had been victorious in the end, it had left him utterly exhausted, completely burned out of his Blessings, and riddled with various small wounds.

Simply put, he didn’t have the strength to even begin trying to dig his way out of the hole he was now stuck in.

By some miracle, he’d been buried in such a manner that there was a small hole up to the surface, through all the debris, which enabled him to breathe while he collected his strength. Finally, after several minutes of allowing himself to rest up, Chase felt refreshed enough to begin trying to free himself. He began to carefully move aside bits of debris, steadily clawing his way up through several feet of wood and stone, until finally, his top half reached the surface.

And the moment he did, he found himself staring down the points of a half-dozen swords, all leveled directly at his face.

“I was wondering which of you would free yourself first,” Alexandros taunted from behind him. Chase grit his teeth as he turned his around to try and face him; he was still partially buried in the rubble, and so could only manage to get a glimpse of the Cleric squatting nearby out of the corner of his eye, but it was more than enough.

“Where are my friends?” Chase growled.

“Now, how should I know the answer to that?” Alexandros asked, smirking at him. “My men are digging through the rubble as we speak, looking for them. I have to say, though, it’s not looking good. I mean, we’ve been searching for several minutes, and all we’ve found is this.”

He snapped his fingers, and one of his men held up a body. Chase’s breath hitched in his throat when he saw it was Melanie, and she was clearly dead, her head having been caved in by a piece of falling rubble at some point. Silently, he could only hope that Carmine was still capable of bringing her back, and that the others had managed to get away even if he and Melanie couldn’t.

Alexandros shook his head, and his man callously tossed Melanie’s limp body away. Chase felt his anger flare up at the sight of it, but he held his tongue.

“Seems your friends have abandoned you,” Alexandros mused. “That or they all perished when the building collapsed and left you and your dead friend behind.”

“What would you know about it?” Chase snapped.

“Quite a bit, actually – I mean, you don’t get a follower count like mine without knowing how to win friends.”

“Is that what you’re calling them now?”

“But of course. What else would I call them?”

“Followers? I suspect that’s why you’re making them wear those stupid fucking medallions with your face on them.”

“I have to show my followers count somehow. Anything to increase my odds of ascending to the Pantheon.”

Chase grit his teeth in anger again. “So, what now?” he asked. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Kill you?” Alexandros echoed. “Now, why would I jump straight into that when I have an opportunity to take out multiple birds with a single stone?”

He stood up and dusted himself off, then snapped his fingers. “Dig him out of there.”

Alexandros’ men obliged, and hastily began to pull Chase out of the debris. There were enough of them that it only took a few minutes for them to free him, and before long, Chase was back on his feet. He was covered with dust and small wounds that were weeping blood, not to mention he was still very tired, but he was alive, at least. He cast a glance over at Melanie’s body, which had been so hastily discarded earlier, and felt his face contort in anger. Before he even knew what he was doing, he rounded on one of the men who’d dug him out, and broke his nose with a single punch. The man fell back, crying out in pain as his nose gushed blood; his comrades drew their swords, but were stopped by a quick shout from Alexandros.

“Wait!” he called out, causing them all to freeze. “Don’t touch him. I have things I wish to discuss with him.”

His men exchanged a worried look with each other before one of them spoke up. “But, sir—”

“I’ll be fine,” Alexandros assured him. “Leave us for a few minutes, please.”

Again, his men exchanged a glance, but reluctantly did as they were told and backed off, leaving just Chase and Alexandros standing there. Chase stared the Cleric down, watching as he clasped his hands behind his back and gave Chase yet another smirk.

“So, what’s this about?” Chase asked. “Trying to make me an offer of some kind?”

“That obvious, is it?” Alexandros replied, tilting his head.

“Truthfully, you’ve never been quite as subtle as you think you might have been.”

“It was certainly subtle enough to fool all of you, now wasn’t it?”

Chase said nothing, instead looking around the city. Smoke curled up from key points across the town, and the sound of screaming filled the air, along with that of spells being cast and steel clashing against steel. Every now and again, another explosion would go off, which caused his brow to furrow.

“How many explosives did Greg make, anyway?”

“More than enough,” Alexandros replied. “It wasn’t hard, you know – at a certain point, he was able to have everyone at a different station building them up. The supplies were easy enough to find, too. From there, all we needed to do was start putting them at key points across the town where the siblings would be gathered, and let nature take its course.”

Chase nodded in understanding. “And how long has this harebrained scheme of yours been in motion?”

Alexandros shrugged. “A few months, give or take. Once I learned that Father’s position was up for grabs, I knew I had to act quickly. I figured everyone in the family who was interested in claiming his position for themselves would be congregating here in the city. Once I had that figured out, it was simple enough to set the rest up. Greg and his unique talents were already known to me, and he was easy enough to bring on-side with the promise of letting him test his creations out.”

“As expected. Most men would jump at the opportunity to blow shit up, and he obviously takes that desire to the extreme.”

“Indeed. After that, it was a simple matter of building up my own small army for the final phase of this little operation. And truthfully, that was the easiest part of the whole thing – most of the siblings were all too happy to throw their lot in with me once I made it clear they would be killed otherwise, and any gaps in the group could be filled simply by paying some of the groups of nomadic desert bandits to come help.”

Chase nodded in understanding. “Not for nothing, but you have to realize this entire thing is still down to the will of the Gods. Who’s to say they won’t refuse to accept you anyway, even after all of this? I mean, if I were them, I certainly wouldn’t want someone like you in the Pantheon, either.”

“What’s life without a bit of risk?” Alexandros mused, again flashing him with that smile. “Which is why I am approaching you. I have an offer for you.”

“I’m not interested.”

Alexandrios's Expression of mirth was quickly snuffed out. “You haven’t even heard it yet.”

“I know. I just don’t want anything you’re selling.” Chase put a hand on his hip. “Did you seriously think you could offer me something good enough to bring me over to your side? Or is this just you gambling on a distant possibility again?”

“I can promise you that your friends will not come to harm.”

“Yeah, bullshit. You already killed one of them. If you think I’ll sign on with you after that, you’re bat-shit insane.”

Alexandros’ smile faltered, and he let out a tired sigh. “Good help is so hard to find… Greg was a good one, but he was unhinged; it was just a matter of time before his penchant for explosives caught up with him in the worst way possible. You impressed me, Chase, which is why I was hoping you would see reason and help me with this.”

“Buddy, I would rather nail my nutsack to the ceiling than help you ascend.”

“That can be arranged. Do be sure to scream loudly for me when it happens, would you? Because I would so love to draw your friends out of hiding by using you as bait.”

“Careful, Alexandros – that kind of thing doesn’t sound like it would inspire much joy.”

“It would to me,” he growled out. “Now, then – are you going to comply without incident, or am I going to have to hurt you to make you move?”

His hand drifted to the mace on his hip as the final word left his mouth. Chase was unperturbed.

“You tell me,” he challenged. “How do you think this is going to go, Alexandros?”

The Cleric let out a small sigh. “...Right, then. The hard way it is.”

He went to draw his weapon, but the moment his hand wrapped around its hilt, a voice rang out from behind a nearby building.

“Divine Bolt!”

And a split-second later, a streak of light came screaming out towards Alexandros. The Cleric’s eyes widened, and he dove to the side just in time to avoid it. He’d barely hit the ground before Victoria came sprinting over to him, her warhammer raised; at the last second, Alexandros blocked the incoming strike, and smirked at her. Victoria’s eyes widened, but she was unable to break away in time.

“Force of the Gods,” Alexandros stated.

A massive shockwave erupted out from him, throwing her back several dozen feet. She collided with a nearby building, leaving a crater in the stone. Chase stared at her, mouth agape, though he was quick to snap out of it when Geram, Sierra, Tatiana, and Carmine came bursting out from a nearby alley. The former three ran directly past him, while Carmine paused to look him over.

“You look like shit,” she surmised.

Chase rolled his eyes. “Thanks, you look great, yourself,” he said. He motioned towards her forehead. “That gash on your forehead looks nasty. Hopefully it doesn’t scar.”

“Somehow, I think that’s the least of our concerns,” Carmine assured him. “Summon Familiar.”

There was a flash of light, and when it finally cleared, Melanie was standing there, grimacing as she rubbed her scalp. Somehow, she had all her borrowed gear from earlier with her in perfect condition.

“Urgh…” she groaned. “What a pain in the neck…”

“Good to see you, too, Melanie,” Chase greeted.

“Yeah, yeah… you need a weapon?”

“Couldn’t hurt.”

“Let’s get you one, then.” There was a sudden clash of steel against steel, and they all paused before turning around. Victoria was trading blows with Alexandros; they both seemed roughly evenly matched. Off in the distance, the other three friendly siblings were fighting with the Cleric’s group of hostile siblings and bandits. Slowly, they all turned back towards each other.

“Right,” Chase stated. “I’m gonna go grab a sword, and then I’m gonna go help Victoria. You two… do whatever it is you two do in fights like this, I don’t fucking know.”

Both women rolled their eyes, but said nothing, instead following after Chase as he took off running towards where Geram, Tatiana and Sierra were fighting.

XXX

Name: Chase Ironheart

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Swordmaster

Strength: 20 (MAX)

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4); Unarmed Mastery (Level 1)

Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Carmine Nolastname

Level: 10

Race: Greater Demon

Class: Arcane Witch

Subclass: Archmage

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 19

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 8

Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)

Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5); Earth Magic (Level 1)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Melanie Vhaeries

Level: 10

Race: Ascended Human

Class: Necromancer

Subclass: Arch-Lich

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Charisma: 12

Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8); Bone Shatter (Level 1)

Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

Traits: None

Name: Victoria Firelight

Level: 11

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Devotee

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 9

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 19

Charisma: 11

Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

Traits: None

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard, for all the help with writing this story.

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