[Legend of Sun Knight] fic: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 34
Title: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 34
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,914
Summary: Instead of receiving a brooch that dresses him in an assassin's clothes, Sun receives a trinket that switches his consciousness around with Judgment's. Now, Judgment must find out the mystery behind the Death Knight in Sun's stead. Problem is, imitating Sun's poor swordsmanship is no easy feat, and who knew what Sun was doing with Judgment's body in the meantime? Alternate telling of the end of volume 1 of the novels.
Notes: I was suddenly hit with the thought that it would be reaaaaally nice if the final chapter count came out to be 38... By the way, kiyutsuna drew a lovely cover for the fic! You can view a small version over here. I'll be tossing up a table of contents for the fic in my LJ sometime and will be including a larger version then, and I'll also be including it in the PDF. (Also, while I'm showing off these lovely covers, you have to take a look at this cute one of Grisia over here for My Friend, the Pope-in-training. Also by Kiyutsuna. XD)
Previous part
Part 34: Sun
Everything happened very quickly.
In one moment, Leaf, who was way below us in the plaza, was trying to make a pincushion out of Roland. In the next, Roland had skillfully escaped the fate of becoming a pincushion and had already reached the balcony where we were, acting out the play of a lifetime with Lesus -- I really scored with my front row ticket -- and then Lesus got injured and purposefully fell in full view of the public. The fat pig king, the crown prince, and everyone else all watched with eyes as wide as saucers.
It took all of my control not to burst out laughing at the show Lesus and Roland had put on -- really, I couldn't have found any actors more entertaining than them even if I tried -- but I quickly sobered when Lesus fell. Even though it was just as planned, I couldn't help wincing. I tried to convince myself that Lesus would be alright. There was nothing to worry about. After all, my body always recovered quickly, and even if that wasn't the case, both Ice and Earth had already tossed healing spells at Lesus so promptly that he would be fine.
Still, I bet Lesus was regretting our plan very, very much.
What wasn't planned was what came after that. The God of Light must be chortling at our expense. It wasn't that I didn't want to be myself again -- I did! -- but what kind of shoddy timing was this?
With Ice and Earth looking after Lesus, I'd walked forward to deal with Roland. I threw down words about the God of Light's harshness and how He frowns upon evildoers. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Divine Sun Sword on the ground.
On. The. Freaking. Ground!
Lesus, you need to be more careful with a delicate weapon like this! There's no need to imitate how I... lose my weapon all the time...
I mean, since he was me, he should have made me look cooler, like propping himself up with the sword or something. Yeah, yeah, I know the Divine Sun Sword isn't a cane, but using it as a cane would still beat having it kiss the floor.
I bent down, worried about any damage the Divine Sun Sword might have sustained. Right away, I realized that showing such concern over the weapon probably looked weird, so I instead reached out to grab the sword, intent on picking it up. I could then inspect it better, and I might as well fight in the Sun Knight's stead with it. A poetic touch!
I really hadn't given it much thought beyond that. Our luck really sucked.
When my hand closed around the hilt of the sword, a jolt went through me. The sword hummed in my hands. It was like being welcomed home after a long, long absence.
As I felt warmth spread through me, I heard Lesus groan. Immediately, I jerked around in alarm and saw him doubled over, hugging his stomach.
"L-" I almost said. I quickly shut my mouth, nearly biting my tongue.
Lesus raised his head, golden strands slipping off his shoulders. His face was pale. He mouthed something to me. Immediately, my jaw dropped, image be damned.
Isn't the time limit supposed to be three days? I wouldn't have cared if it had been earlier or later, in fact I'd have been super happy if it'd been yesterday, but out of all times...
Why now?
It won't do to have the Sun Knight take a crap in front of the practically the entire city!
My eyes narrowed as I quickly thought about what we could do.
Damn, why have so many people shown up... Not that it matters whether the audience is ten thousand people or just a hundred people. Even if it is only one person, the Sun Knight may never be inelegant! I might as well bid my image goodbye forever and ever if Lesus can't hold it in! I would never be able to live it down!
I spotted a royal knight that was really getting on my already frayed nerves with his all-purpose handsomeness, so I leveled my most menacing glare at him, and you better believe that it was as menacing as menacing could be given that I had full use of Judgment's face!
"You there!" I barked. "Take the Sun Knight to the clerics! Make it fast!"
The royal knight hesitated, eyes glancing at the king and the prince. I clicked my tongue in annoyance.
Ice stepped forward, looking like he had every intention to support Lesus to the clerics, but I quickly shook my head at him. "Knight-Captain Ice, we will need your Ice Walls to defend everyone!"
My words seemed to help the royal knight make up his mind. He hastened to support Lesus and even said to him, "Sun Knight, let's retreat."
In a louder voice, he commanded, "Retreat! Protect the king and the prince as we fall back!"
I blinked. I hadn't known that the random royal knight I picked out would have so much authority! It figured that someone with an all-purpose handsomeness like him had climbed up the ranks easily.
As they retreated, Ice and Earth held the undead creatures back. I gave one last glance at Lesus's back, dearly hoping Lesus would be able to find a way to extricate himself later on. Just as I was about to turn away, Lesus looked back, blue eyes meeting mine for the last time.
Next time, it won't be blue eyes anymore, huh? Next time, he'll be looking out from familiar dark eyes once again. It'll feel a lot less strange.
His gaze seemed to say, See you later.
I inclined my head just a bit. See you as ourselves.
It was time to end this.
I turned and pointed the Divine Sun Sword at Roland, who had been waiting very patiently and politely. I really hoped no one noticed that he hadn't been attacking while we tended to Lesus. He was truly upstanding to a fault. I bet he would never cut someone down from behind.
"You will regret what you have done to the Sun Knight," I growled. "Let me send you off to eternal rest!"
Don't gather holy element to your hands, don't gather holy element to your hands, don't... I kept repeating to myself, hoping the repetition would help my control. Lesus had told me that the holy element around Adair was smooth and controlled in the middle of battle while mine fluctuated wildly. As long as I could keep the holy element around me smooth, I should be able to keep the sword in my grip.
The Divine Sun Sword, however, didn't want to play nice at all. I suspected that the vast amount of holiness it contained did not at all help my endeavor of keeping holy element away from my hand.
Roland closed in. I hurriedly brought the Divine Sun Sword up before me.
Right away, it disappeared from my hand, though not without hurting Roland, who recoiled from the holy element that must have gathered around me before the sword went flying out like a projectile.
I huffed. Screw this.
Roland was an expert swordsman. On top of that, he was even a Death Lord! Lesus might choose to battle with only a sword against Roland, but there was no way I could do the same! I hadn't expected that I'd have to deal with Roland and act out the last part of our play either. We'd assigned Lesus, the "Sun" Knight for that part, but now it was up to me.
I heard the doors close. A quick glance told me that the king and everyone else had successfully evacuated. Only a few knights were still around, as well as Ice and Earth. They continued hacking away at the undead creatures that were swarming the balcony. It looked like it would still be up to me to deal with Roland, the final boss.
Well then, it was time to see just what I could do as "Judgment" for our final act!
I drew on the wind and holy element around me, bringing it about my feet. The elements reacted sluggishly to my call, but they were reacting. Had I been myself, I'd have given myself a much larger boost, but since using magic as Judgment was pretty damn hard, I could only manage a very small boost of speed.
It was more than enough.
Thanks to the boost and Judgment's body that was already well-trained in the first place, I managed to dash forward in what felt like an instant and grab the Divine Sun Sword once more. I also drew the Divine Judgment Sword out of its scabbard. Since these swords loved being projectiles, I might as well make sure I had more than one projectile to use!
I fell back into battle with Roland, who made use of his wings to fly above me and was now a dark shadow blotting out the sun. It was so unfair. But hey, if that's the way he wanted to do it, then so be it!
I swung the Divine Judgment Sword, letting blades of wind cut at him. If I was lucky, people would just think that Judgment's swing was so powerful that he could move the wind. It wasn't that farfetched for someone like Judgment, and it was actually more believable than Judgment using magic. And if anyone started doubting, well, in the end, people always fell back on explanations that made sense to them, so I wasn't worried. Much.
I had a much easier time keeping the Divine Judgment Sword in my hand than the Divine Sun Sword, no doubt because it wasn't leaking a ridiculous amount of holy light. I probably should have just given up on the Divine Sun Sword, but I'd already picked it up. It would look ridiculous if I threw it away now!
With that thought in mind, I furrowed my brows in concentration as I drew on holy element from the sword and wrapped it around my hand. It wasn't a very neat way of doing it, but I hoped it would be a good enough stop gap measure for now. If I couldn't keep holy element away from my hand, then I might as well use it to bind the sword to me!
I leaped back into battle, combining my magic with swordplay. Surprisingly, I managed to keep hold of both swords. The magic wrapping thingamabob worked!
Each swing of the Divine Judgment Sword came accompanied by Wind Blades while each swing of the Divine Sun Sword came accompanied by blasts of holy light. Roland was grinning in a freaky way (tell me it's not freaky when someone with gray skin and cold blazing flames for eyes grins from ear to ear... It's definitely freaky!) and dodging all of my attacks, flitting this way and that. I breathed in deeply and gathered more wind element around my feet -- this was getting easier and easier! Perhaps I'll make a mage out of Judgment yet. I leaped upward, propelling myself over the edge of the balcony to slash at Roland--
Only to abruptly find myself squatting in the bathroom.
I raised my hand up and stared at it. I touched my hair, bringing forward a golden lock.
Then, I wrinkled my nose and looked down with disgust.
"Don't tell me I have to look for the trinket now..."
Ew! Lesus, you should be doing this instead of me! You're the one who ****** it out!
to be continued
*holds head in hands* /o\
Why did I ever decide that's how the trinket works, haha...
Next part
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,914
Summary: Instead of receiving a brooch that dresses him in an assassin's clothes, Sun receives a trinket that switches his consciousness around with Judgment's. Now, Judgment must find out the mystery behind the Death Knight in Sun's stead. Problem is, imitating Sun's poor swordsmanship is no easy feat, and who knew what Sun was doing with Judgment's body in the meantime? Alternate telling of the end of volume 1 of the novels.
Notes: I was suddenly hit with the thought that it would be reaaaaally nice if the final chapter count came out to be 38... By the way, kiyutsuna drew a lovely cover for the fic! You can view a small version over here. I'll be tossing up a table of contents for the fic in my LJ sometime and will be including a larger version then, and I'll also be including it in the PDF. (Also, while I'm showing off these lovely covers, you have to take a look at this cute one of Grisia over here for My Friend, the Pope-in-training. Also by Kiyutsuna. XD)
Previous part
Part 34: Sun
Everything happened very quickly.
In one moment, Leaf, who was way below us in the plaza, was trying to make a pincushion out of Roland. In the next, Roland had skillfully escaped the fate of becoming a pincushion and had already reached the balcony where we were, acting out the play of a lifetime with Lesus -- I really scored with my front row ticket -- and then Lesus got injured and purposefully fell in full view of the public. The fat pig king, the crown prince, and everyone else all watched with eyes as wide as saucers.
It took all of my control not to burst out laughing at the show Lesus and Roland had put on -- really, I couldn't have found any actors more entertaining than them even if I tried -- but I quickly sobered when Lesus fell. Even though it was just as planned, I couldn't help wincing. I tried to convince myself that Lesus would be alright. There was nothing to worry about. After all, my body always recovered quickly, and even if that wasn't the case, both Ice and Earth had already tossed healing spells at Lesus so promptly that he would be fine.
Still, I bet Lesus was regretting our plan very, very much.
What wasn't planned was what came after that. The God of Light must be chortling at our expense. It wasn't that I didn't want to be myself again -- I did! -- but what kind of shoddy timing was this?
With Ice and Earth looking after Lesus, I'd walked forward to deal with Roland. I threw down words about the God of Light's harshness and how He frowns upon evildoers. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Divine Sun Sword on the ground.
On. The. Freaking. Ground!
Lesus, you need to be more careful with a delicate weapon like this! There's no need to imitate how I... lose my weapon all the time...
I mean, since he was me, he should have made me look cooler, like propping himself up with the sword or something. Yeah, yeah, I know the Divine Sun Sword isn't a cane, but using it as a cane would still beat having it kiss the floor.
I bent down, worried about any damage the Divine Sun Sword might have sustained. Right away, I realized that showing such concern over the weapon probably looked weird, so I instead reached out to grab the sword, intent on picking it up. I could then inspect it better, and I might as well fight in the Sun Knight's stead with it. A poetic touch!
I really hadn't given it much thought beyond that. Our luck really sucked.
When my hand closed around the hilt of the sword, a jolt went through me. The sword hummed in my hands. It was like being welcomed home after a long, long absence.
As I felt warmth spread through me, I heard Lesus groan. Immediately, I jerked around in alarm and saw him doubled over, hugging his stomach.
"L-" I almost said. I quickly shut my mouth, nearly biting my tongue.
Lesus raised his head, golden strands slipping off his shoulders. His face was pale. He mouthed something to me. Immediately, my jaw dropped, image be damned.
Isn't the time limit supposed to be three days? I wouldn't have cared if it had been earlier or later, in fact I'd have been super happy if it'd been yesterday, but out of all times...
Why now?
It won't do to have the Sun Knight take a crap in front of the practically the entire city!
My eyes narrowed as I quickly thought about what we could do.
Damn, why have so many people shown up... Not that it matters whether the audience is ten thousand people or just a hundred people. Even if it is only one person, the Sun Knight may never be inelegant! I might as well bid my image goodbye forever and ever if Lesus can't hold it in! I would never be able to live it down!
I spotted a royal knight that was really getting on my already frayed nerves with his all-purpose handsomeness, so I leveled my most menacing glare at him, and you better believe that it was as menacing as menacing could be given that I had full use of Judgment's face!
"You there!" I barked. "Take the Sun Knight to the clerics! Make it fast!"
The royal knight hesitated, eyes glancing at the king and the prince. I clicked my tongue in annoyance.
Ice stepped forward, looking like he had every intention to support Lesus to the clerics, but I quickly shook my head at him. "Knight-Captain Ice, we will need your Ice Walls to defend everyone!"
My words seemed to help the royal knight make up his mind. He hastened to support Lesus and even said to him, "Sun Knight, let's retreat."
In a louder voice, he commanded, "Retreat! Protect the king and the prince as we fall back!"
I blinked. I hadn't known that the random royal knight I picked out would have so much authority! It figured that someone with an all-purpose handsomeness like him had climbed up the ranks easily.
As they retreated, Ice and Earth held the undead creatures back. I gave one last glance at Lesus's back, dearly hoping Lesus would be able to find a way to extricate himself later on. Just as I was about to turn away, Lesus looked back, blue eyes meeting mine for the last time.
Next time, it won't be blue eyes anymore, huh? Next time, he'll be looking out from familiar dark eyes once again. It'll feel a lot less strange.
His gaze seemed to say, See you later.
I inclined my head just a bit. See you as ourselves.
It was time to end this.
I turned and pointed the Divine Sun Sword at Roland, who had been waiting very patiently and politely. I really hoped no one noticed that he hadn't been attacking while we tended to Lesus. He was truly upstanding to a fault. I bet he would never cut someone down from behind.
"You will regret what you have done to the Sun Knight," I growled. "Let me send you off to eternal rest!"
Don't gather holy element to your hands, don't gather holy element to your hands, don't... I kept repeating to myself, hoping the repetition would help my control. Lesus had told me that the holy element around Adair was smooth and controlled in the middle of battle while mine fluctuated wildly. As long as I could keep the holy element around me smooth, I should be able to keep the sword in my grip.
The Divine Sun Sword, however, didn't want to play nice at all. I suspected that the vast amount of holiness it contained did not at all help my endeavor of keeping holy element away from my hand.
Roland closed in. I hurriedly brought the Divine Sun Sword up before me.
Right away, it disappeared from my hand, though not without hurting Roland, who recoiled from the holy element that must have gathered around me before the sword went flying out like a projectile.
I huffed. Screw this.
Roland was an expert swordsman. On top of that, he was even a Death Lord! Lesus might choose to battle with only a sword against Roland, but there was no way I could do the same! I hadn't expected that I'd have to deal with Roland and act out the last part of our play either. We'd assigned Lesus, the "Sun" Knight for that part, but now it was up to me.
I heard the doors close. A quick glance told me that the king and everyone else had successfully evacuated. Only a few knights were still around, as well as Ice and Earth. They continued hacking away at the undead creatures that were swarming the balcony. It looked like it would still be up to me to deal with Roland, the final boss.
Well then, it was time to see just what I could do as "Judgment" for our final act!
I drew on the wind and holy element around me, bringing it about my feet. The elements reacted sluggishly to my call, but they were reacting. Had I been myself, I'd have given myself a much larger boost, but since using magic as Judgment was pretty damn hard, I could only manage a very small boost of speed.
It was more than enough.
Thanks to the boost and Judgment's body that was already well-trained in the first place, I managed to dash forward in what felt like an instant and grab the Divine Sun Sword once more. I also drew the Divine Judgment Sword out of its scabbard. Since these swords loved being projectiles, I might as well make sure I had more than one projectile to use!
I fell back into battle with Roland, who made use of his wings to fly above me and was now a dark shadow blotting out the sun. It was so unfair. But hey, if that's the way he wanted to do it, then so be it!
I swung the Divine Judgment Sword, letting blades of wind cut at him. If I was lucky, people would just think that Judgment's swing was so powerful that he could move the wind. It wasn't that farfetched for someone like Judgment, and it was actually more believable than Judgment using magic. And if anyone started doubting, well, in the end, people always fell back on explanations that made sense to them, so I wasn't worried. Much.
I had a much easier time keeping the Divine Judgment Sword in my hand than the Divine Sun Sword, no doubt because it wasn't leaking a ridiculous amount of holy light. I probably should have just given up on the Divine Sun Sword, but I'd already picked it up. It would look ridiculous if I threw it away now!
With that thought in mind, I furrowed my brows in concentration as I drew on holy element from the sword and wrapped it around my hand. It wasn't a very neat way of doing it, but I hoped it would be a good enough stop gap measure for now. If I couldn't keep holy element away from my hand, then I might as well use it to bind the sword to me!
I leaped back into battle, combining my magic with swordplay. Surprisingly, I managed to keep hold of both swords. The magic wrapping thingamabob worked!
Each swing of the Divine Judgment Sword came accompanied by Wind Blades while each swing of the Divine Sun Sword came accompanied by blasts of holy light. Roland was grinning in a freaky way (tell me it's not freaky when someone with gray skin and cold blazing flames for eyes grins from ear to ear... It's definitely freaky!) and dodging all of my attacks, flitting this way and that. I breathed in deeply and gathered more wind element around my feet -- this was getting easier and easier! Perhaps I'll make a mage out of Judgment yet. I leaped upward, propelling myself over the edge of the balcony to slash at Roland--
Only to abruptly find myself squatting in the bathroom.
I raised my hand up and stared at it. I touched my hair, bringing forward a golden lock.
Then, I wrinkled my nose and looked down with disgust.
"Don't tell me I have to look for the trinket now..."
Ew! Lesus, you should be doing this instead of me! You're the one who ****** it out!
to be continued
*holds head in hands* /o\
Why did I ever decide that's how the trinket works, haha...
Next part