Artifact of Divinity

[SYLVET TERRITORY] - NIGHT

The Sylvet household was a huge name 6 years ago. They held a powerful position in the market. If you were a merchant, you would know of their existence and understand how valuable it was to be with them.

All was well for them until one year ago—an attack led by a notorious crime syndicate raided their territory—with the results being total annihilation.

"Lady Mina, we must depart immediately!" Their footsteps echoed through the barren halls, the shadows of the night being overpowered by the bright flames of destruction outside their manor.

The town was set ablaze; piles of corpses burned to ash. Their cinders etched in the flowing winds that intensified the fires that consumed the village buildings. The local guardsmen stood no chance against the mechanical terror of clockworks, falling one by one to their power.

In the barracks within the town, a foot soldier runs to Heigen, the general of the Sylvet household military. "General, the fourth division has been annihilated!" Heigen sighs, looking at the map and crossing out another section of the town. Multiple sections of their territory had been overtaken, and they were closing in on the manor. Soon, the enemy forces will come, and it stands clear they stood no chance. The raiders were a notorious crime syndicate called "Eiden". Their leader wielded a powerful Artifact and a strong army. But their newest additions to their military put Heigen on the edge. It was clockwork soldiers, hundreds of them.

Not only could they can easily be produced if you had the money, they were stronger, and more efficient than normal soldiers. Why would you spend years training a mortal being when you could spend a week producing the perfect warrior? That question proved itself to be true on this very night when they ambushed us out of the blue. They only managed to hold them back for so long, but it appeared it was too late.

"Damn it, how did they manage to rake up so many clockwork soldiers?! We stand no chance!" The soldier uttered with a trembling clenched fist. Heigen plants his hand on the soldier's shoulder. "Go and escape; looking at the map, there is one final pathway in the village that they hadn't taken over yet. Using that route, you can escape to Yula Kingdom."

"But general, what about you?" 

"I'll be escorting our lord out of his manor and escape using that route as well."

"But, by then, you'll have no chance to escape-" 

"Don't mind me, just focus on your own life." 

Taking a gulp, he hesitated to follow through, but Heigen's eyes kept insisting. "Okay, fine, but be safe, alright general?"

Heigen nodded. "Are you forgetting who I am?"

"No, I didn't." The soldier said with a smile. He then starts his escape, following that same route. 

Hearing his footsteps grow distant, Heigen sighs before wearing his armor again. "I hadn't faced a situation like this in a while—a situation where I was staring down death itself." Heigen left the barracks building, walking into the town set ablaze. Buildings were collapsing, and the heat was suffocating. "Damn, it's like I entered hell." He stepped through the valley of corpses and broken clockworks. He could hear explosions set off in the distance, with screams of agony and fury. "They're closing in. I need to escort my lord to safety!" Heigen rushed down the streets before being stopped by a group of clockworks. They held swords and halberds, their movements robotic but swift. "Get out of my way!" 

Heigen summoned forth his Artifact, taking the form of a greathammer. Clasping it in his hand, jumps up and slams it on the floor beneath the group of clockworks. On impact, it creates a large explosion, decimating the clockworks to smithereens. As more approach, Heigen charges in and swipes his greathammer through the clockworks, making chunks of metal fly everywhere. Seeing the manor up ahead, he rushes to the front gates. "I'm coming my lord, just you wait!" 

Reaching the gates, many guardsmen stopped him, inflicted with heavy wounds. They all groan in agony, their eyes pitch black and their mouths drooping with a black goo. "W-What, no way, is it true?!" Heigen stepped back in shock, witnessing something that hadn't occurred in years. "They're corrupted—corrupted by The Everlasting Darkness! But that's impossible; it was eradicated centuries ago!"

Back when The Everlasting Darkness was around, it would corrupt the minds of individuals who were in a vulnerable state. Any hint of weakness within the mind would be an entryway for The Everlasting Darkness to corrupt it. Humanity eradicated it, winning the war against it, so its reappearance was baffling. 

Heigen, getting his greathammer, swings at the corrupted guardsmen. As it made contact with the guardsmen, the strength of them surprised Heigen. One of the guardsmen singlehanded blocked his attack with his shield, allowing the others to swoop in and point their blades at Heigen's throat. "No way, they're that powerful when they get corrupted?!" Seeing their weapons inches near his throat, Heigen locks in and creates a powerful explosion as the remainder of his attack, sending their corpses away from him. "That was close. Any second late and I would've bitten the dust there."

Then, an unknown voice from behind the gate catches Heigen off-guard. "Their bodies were already decomposing at that point. It's a surprise they even stood up." Heigen, turning his head in the direction of the manor's gate, sees a man walking out from behind the stone wall. "Who are you?" Heigen questioned. 

He wore a brown ragged cloth over his leather armor. His face was stoic, but his eyes glowed a bright, malicious red. "I am the leader of Eiden, Nox Vulisphere."

"The leader of Eiden? But I thought the leader was Krieg Hullaben."

"Not anymore. I felt like he was wasting such precious resources with the power he held in his massive organization, so I merely killed him to take his place."

"You killed him? But the royal capital was trying to catch him for years!"

"Well, that simply means the royal capital is terrible at their job." Suddenly averting his gaze behind, he summons his Artifact. It was shaped like a saber, its blade extended outwards, its color a mixture of bright red and pitch black. A misty red aura oozed out of the Artifact, emanating what seemed to be death, clinging to his blade. "I'll finish you off quickly as I have other business to attend to."

Looking back at Heigen, it was Heigen already leaping towards Nox, ready to slam his greathammer upon him. Nox reacting to this, lept back to avoid the attack, only to counteract it by stabbing toward Heigen's throat. Heigen, seeing this, activates his Artifact's ability to summon a huge explosion in the vicinity.

After the dust settles, Nox is seen standing from a distance, firing a bizarre projectile at Heigen. It stood out of place in the world, as if it was a bizarre entity that wasn't supposed to exist. Light didn't affect it, or shadows. It was a ball of swirls, violently moving, colored in a vibrant red and black. Heigen knew he should avoid this, but at his current speed, he can predict that he can't outmaneuver the projectile. So his best course of action was to smash the ground with his greathammer and use the debris to block the blast. Doing this, a giant chunk of the earth collides against the ball, making the debris instantly break apart into fragments. 

Heigen was shocked, seeing it turn into dust in an instant. "What type of Artifact is that? I've never seen something so powerful..." 

Nox held up his saber to his face, a proud smile he had as he admired his Artifact. "Isn't it great? I had gotten it a week ago. Though I may be inexperienced, I get the gist of it."

 "O-Only a week?! No way you're this powerful in just a week!"

"I have to thank the Artifact for that." Nox rushed in before infusing his blade with the same type of particle that he used earlier. Streaks of red and black swirls gathered upon his saber, they kept gathering to the point of covering it entirely. 

Heigen, noticing this, lept away, seeing that it was bad news to get anywhere near that malicious particle. "What is that you keep using? That dangerous particle you keep emitting with your Artifact. First, you send a ball of that towards me, and now you're covering it on your blade."

"I don't need to tell an enemy what my abilities are." Nox quickly swiped the air in Heigen's direction, releasing a slashed projectile of the mysterious particle at him. Heigen, being caught off guard by this attack, couldn't jump over it on time, having his left foot make contact with it. As soon as the contact was made, Heigen could feel his feet in immense pain. Because of this pain, Heigen falls onto his knee, grasping his foot. The more he touched it, the more the pain intensified. He screamed in agony, nearly crying from the pain. "What... did you... do?!" He cried, his foot pulsating in pain as he forced through his words.

Nox slowly walked towards him. "I merely just shattered all of your bones in your feet. You kept moving around so much so it would be better if I were to break your bones into tiny fragments. But don't worry, I won't kill you. Analyzing your combat skills just now, I can deduce you must be some sort of high-ranking soldier in the Sylvet's military, are you not? I mean, you're able to survive this long. It would be a surprise if you weren't someone special."

Heigen, hesitant to answer, finds no use in keeping his mouth shut."Yeah, I'm the general of its military. "

"I'll let you live if you tell me where the Sylvets are at. Knowing your rank, you must know of their whereabouts. I've gotten confirmation from my soldiers that they're not anywhere in the manor, so tell me, where are they?"

Even if that was the case, he'd probably be disposed of right after giving him the information, knowing that he could be lying about sparing him. Not to mention, he wouldn't give out any information about the Sylvets. He swore unyielding loyalty to them. In his mind, the best course of action was to fight till the very end. Heigen raised his greathammer and slammed the floor to propel himself upwards in the air. As Heigen readies to slam his hammer upon Nox, he could see Nox's face. Nox's face was of pure rage, a face that shook him. "Oh my god, ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS JUST TELL ME WHERE SHE WAS!" Nox said before activating his Artifact again. Nox held out his hand and gathered a large amount of the mysterious particle before shooting the clouds with it. A second after the collision, multiple lightning strikes hit Heigen in a nonstop barrage. Nearly 13 bolts per second, almost turning into 14. Heigen looked up at the clouds in confusion, his vision going blurry. "It's not even storming..."

As lightning bolts kept pouring into him, Heigen's body started to fizzle away. His body was being burnt to a crisp. "Know what? Fuck you." Nox expands another particle ball, this time exploding within the palm of his hand. After a few seconds, Heigen's corpse was flung into the air and began gyrating. As it spun, began to accelerate at high speeds. As it flew upwards near the atmosphere, a massive tornado formed inside of Heigen. A tornado so powerful, it destroyed trees and even mountains that it plowed through. As the tornado was sent in the other direction of the manor, Nox sighed. "Well, time to get what I wanted."

Nox's men came to the scene and followed up with his clockwork soldiers. "Find them. Look at every nook and cranny in this damn place. I want them alive." Nox ordered. As commanded, they scattered.

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Artifact Name: Vicious Valor

User: Heigen Heartsworth

Form: Greathammer

Rank: Common-level

Ability: The hammer allows the user to create explosions by hitting any surface with it. These explosions will not harm the user.

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