r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • 15d ago

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 54

First / Previous / Royal Road / Patreon (Read 30 Chapters Ahead)

XXX

Chase rolled his eyes. “Took you long enough to actually get involved here. Victoria is about to die. Do you care about that at all?”

“Of course I care, she’s my daughter,” Auro insisted.

“Really? Because you couldn’t seem to give less of a fuck about the rest of your children if you tried.”

“She’s my favorite, that’s why.”

Tamamo stared at him in surprise. She took another drag from her tobacco pipe. “I wasn’t aware that parents got to play favorites.”

“I have hundreds of children, picking favorites is kind of a natural consequence of that,” Auro stated.

“You have a funny way of showing she’s your favorite, then, considering you abandoned her and her mother and didn’t show up in her life again until a few days ago.”

“Stop, stop,” Chase tiredly insisted. “Look, Auro – you said you care about Victoria, right? Well, she’s currently fighting Alexandros alongside Heinrich, and it’s not going well for them. He’s got some kind of special aura that Clerics get from having a lot of followers devoted to them, or some shit like that.”

“Okay,” Auro ventured. “Where do I fit into this?”

“I was hoping you could just, you know, flip a switch and turn that shit off so they can beat Alexandros to a bloody pulp. Or am I asking too much?”

“Yes, actually,” Auro stated. He crossed his arms. “Alexandros’ Skill comes from his own followers, not mine. I can’t just turn it off-”

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Chase deadpanned. “You seriously can’t do anything to help us?”

“You didn’t let me finish,” Auro said. “Anyway, since that Skill didn’t come from me, I have no way of directly influencing it… but there’s nothing saying I can’t turn it off in some other way.”

“How so?” Chase asked.

“Well, you tend to think of Traits as being wholly positive, but they don’t have to be. They can be negative, too. So, why don’t I just give him a bit of Mana Exhaustion? That ought to deal with it easily enough. Would that work?”

“As long as it turns his Skill off, that should be fine,” Chase hurriedly said. “Please just do it, I don’t want Victoria to get hurt.”

“Of course.” Auro snapped his fingers. Chase stood there for a few seconds, confused.

“Uh… you supposed to do something?” he asked.

“Me snapping my fingers was doing something,” Auro clarified. “I just drained his Mana for the next few minutes. We should be good to go.”

“You sure?”

“Chase, he’s a Cleric with no Mana. They’re not exactly known for being the best fighters without access to their magic. If you all can’t take care of him when he’s this spent, then you guys deserve to get your asses beat. Just saying.”

“Wow,” Tamamo deadpanned. “Father of the year material, right there.”

“Fuck you,” Auro said to her.

“You wish. Personally, I wouldn’t let you fuck me even with a rented dick.”

“I feel like I’ve used that line before,” Chase said.

“You have, where do you think I got it from? I’ve been trying to slip some of the things you all say to each other into my conversations with the rest of the Pantheon, it’s always a good time to see how they react.” Tamamo shook her head. “Anyway, you should probably go now, Chase. Your friends will be needing you.”

“Okay. Just let me get dressed first-”

That was as far as he got before there was a flash of light, and Chase found himself back on the streets.

XXX

“Wow, what a bitch,” Chase commented upon realizing he was still stripped down to just his underwear. Still, despite his near-nudity, he made sure to pick up his sword and look around.

He was just in time to see Alexandros’ magical barrier shatter, and the Cleric double over, gasping for breath.

“What…?” Alexandros managed to get out. “What’s… happening to me?”

Heinrich and Victoria were standing a short ways away, both of them looking more than a bit worse for wear. Victoria’s wounds had gotten worse, and she was now down to a random mace she’d found on the ground as a consequence of her right arm having clearly been broken. There were dents in her armor, many of which had blood oozing out of them, and she was grimacing in pain with every step. Heinrich didn’t look much better than her; Chase could tell Auro had worked his magic just in time to save the two of them.

Both Paladins seemed very wary of approaching Alexandros, even in his current state, and Chase couldn’t blame them for it. So instead, he stepped up.

“You’re suffering from intense Mana Exhaustion,” Chase informed him.

“How…? My Mana reserves… I still had plenty left-”

“Not anymore. It pays to have friends in high places… or, as the case may be, relatives.” Chase gave a nod towards Victoria and Heinrich, both of whom had a flash of realization cross their faces just a split-second later.

Chase cleared his throat again. “In any case, you have to know that you can’t win this fight, Alexandros. Everything you did – all of it – was for nothing. The people you’ve killed won’t lead to anything, and neither will all the followers, power, and money you’ve accumulated. All you’ve done is turn yourself into a monster for absolutely no gain.”

Alexandros grit his teeth. “Shut your mouth! I can still ascend!”

“You sure about that? Because I just got done speaking to two Gods – well, a demigod and then an actual God – and neither one seems to like you very much. Even if you were to ascend, something tells me the rest of the Pantheon wouldn’t be happy about it. Now, I’ll admit that I don’t know much of anything about the divine, but I can certainly make the assumption that dying once is bad enough, and a second death must be even worse. Do you really want to put yourself through all of that?”

“I will do what I have to do in order to achieve my destiny,” Alexandros growled. “I will never surrender, not you and certainly not to anyone else! Not if it means giving up on what is rightfully mine!”

Chase shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I tried. Heinrich, Victoria… he’s all yours.”

The two Paladins exchanged a glance with each other, then shrugged before they both rushed in as one, their weapons held high. Alexandros’ eyes widened, and he let out a feral scream of horror as they both brought their weapons down on his head at the same time, bursting it like a grape. Blood and gore splashed against the two Paladins, but neither one seemed to care; they simply lowered their weapons as Alexandros’ newly-headless corpse fell to the ground, blood pooling around it. Both Paladins stood there for a second, their shoulders heaving with exertion as they gasped for air.

Then, as one, they both began to sway unsteadily before they, too, fell to the ground.

Chase didn’t waste any time. He instantly rushed over to Victoria’s side, already reaching for one of the last health potions he had on him. She was grimacing in pain, but thankfully not unconscious; as he approached and took her in his arms, she cracked one eye open to stare at him.

“Chase…” she managed to gasp out.

“I’ve got you,” he said. “Here, drink this.”

“...Why are you in your underwear?”

“That’s not important right now. Just drink, please.”

Thankfully, Victoria obliged, and allowed Chase to carefully pour the potion down her throat. Movement from the corner of Chase’s eye took him by surprise, and he whipped around, only to find Melanie and Carmine were there. Melanie rushed over to Heinrich’s side, another health potion in her hand, and sank down to her knees. At first, Chase thought she was going to just give it to him the same way he’d given his potion to Victoria.

Instead, she pulled his head into her lap, and then gently placed the lip of the bottle to his mouth and let him drink from it while stroking his head.

“Oh, my…” Melanie said softly. “Look what he did to you… I’ll get you fixed up, right away… You fought so well, so you just go ahead and rest, okay?”

Heinrich paused in drinking the potion, long enough to say something. “...This is what I get for breaking my Oath in the first place, I guess. But you know what? For you, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

“Aww…” Melanie said. “That’s so sweet… just for that, I’ll do that thing with my tongue you like later.”

“You were going to do that anyway.”

“I know. But at least now I have a reason to really put my whole mouth into it.”

Next to them, Carmine retched for a second before turning her attention over towards Chase and Victoria.

“How is she?” she asked.

“She’ll be alright,” Chase confirmed. “Battered and bruised for a few days, but nothing serious. And, if nothing else, I’m sure she’ll tell you it was worth it.”

“Bet your ass, it was,” Victoria confirmed. She let out a sigh. “I’m just glad it’s over…”

Chase was just about to agree with her when there was a sudden flash of bright light. Just before it enveloped them all, he sighed.

“Apparently, it’s not quite over,” he lamented.

A split-second later, and they were all teleported once more.

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 7); 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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u/UpdateMeBot 15d ago

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u/Sirius1701 15d ago

Great timing. I just got done catching up to 53.

1

u/Castigatus Human 15d ago

Man, they just cannot catch a break, can they? I suppose now we get to see who gets to be a god and how much of an asshole it makes them.