Heavenly Assistance

After a few minutes of desperate crawling, Lars collapsed; he simply didn’t have the strength to keep moving. Blood was still weeping from his stomach wound and his undergarments were now stained red with the stuff. Wet gore leaked from the cracks and rents in his white armour, flowing down the shiny surface and onto the damp earth. Lars was shivering and shaking, his teeth chattering as an alien coldness spread over his body. He couldn't move his hands or his legs any more; the life had left his limbs. 'Shit' whispered Lars. He should have just taken that fairy's deal, but he'd been too stubborn and prideful to accept help. Now it was too late. The fairy was gone and he could feel death creeping up on him. He wasn't scared, just ashamed. Ashamed in himself. The Enslaver's army had positioned itself in the Great Forest, who knew how many Dark Knights now lay hidden in these trees. He had to warn the Kingdom, otherwise the villages that surrounded the outskirts of the Forest would be in great danger, and after them the path to Kingdom City lay wide open. He'd tried to struggle back, but he was too weak. Now, how many hundreds of innocents would die because of his weakness? 

With no other options left, Lars did something he'd never done before. He prayed. He'd visited the temple and churches as a boy, dragged there by his mother. He'd learnt all about the Seven Gods and the Beginning there. He knew about the Heavenly and the Demonic Realms, but he'd never really believed it any of it. He'd remained unpassionate, even when he joined the Royal Army, which professed to be the defenders of the faith and in which there was a strong clique that professed to worshipping the God of War. Through it all though, Lars had simply been ambivalent to the idea of there being a higher power in the world and of life after death. But now, with nothing left to lose, Lars prayed. He did not pray for himself though, or for his soul to be gifted salvation, instead he prayed that the Kingdom would be saved from destruction, that they would hear his message and realise that the Great Forest is lost. 'I would do anything', he muttered deliriously to the sky. 'I would do anything to keep my Kingdom and my people safe....'  

He grimaced, half from pain and half due to the sheer regret that he felt. Everything hurt, his body and soul. Perhaps, death would give him some relief. All ready he could feel his oncoming demise; it wrapped around his shaking form like a warm blanket, filling him with content. He lowered his head to the floor, pressing it into the leaf-strewn ground. His eyes were heavy and the world around him grew dark. 'Please..anything....' he gasped with his last, shuddering breath.

Suddenly, a ray of light burst forth from the sky above and rocketed down to surround the dying knight. As Lars was engulfed by this column of light, he felt some of the pain that wracked his body start to ebb away and his breath returned to him. It was as if he was gradually being revitalised. Part of him actually regretted it, death had felt to so blissful, so comforting. Instead though, he creaked open his eyes and looked on as something strange seemed to form in front of him. 

A dozen strands of ethereal-like light flowed out of the blazing tower. The strands started to swirl closely around each other, caressing and crossing over each stream, highlighting some kind of connecting. Orbs and flashes of light seemed to erupt sporadically from within the peculiar mass. As he watched these tendrils of light swirl about, Lars could of sworn that he could hear soft music filling his ears, relaxing and reassuring him. 

The bright and happy voice of a woman then came from the light mass. 'Oh, I'm here.' It said, as if unsure of it's position. 'So quick. Good job, good job...' it stuttered while the light streams whizzed around. 'Where is he....she? The knight...'

Lars didn't know how to react. When a shaft of holy light appeared out of the sky and healed his broken form, he hadn't expected the bubbly voice of a young girl to accompany it. He coughed.

The light stream stopped and turned, or rather it flowed back towards Lars. 'Oh, sorry, there are you. Distracted, I do apologise. Happens so easily. Oh my!' It began to circle around Lars as the knight lay there, collapsed in the dust. 'Oh my, my, my, my, my...that does look bad. So painful. Really sorry.' It said, each word seemed to shoot out as if it were being spoken at a mile-a-minute.

'Who are you?' Croaked Lars.

The light stream once again ceased it's movement. 'Me?' it replied, slightly confused. 'Oh yes, yes of course. The introductions, I always forget that part.' The light then rose slightly, as if it were trying commune a sense of grandeur that was definitely already lost on Lars. 'I am Joyce, brave Knight. Archangel to my beloved Goddess, Joanus; Goddess of Luck, Happiness and Fortune.' There was a brief pause before the streams of light that was Joyce whispered to herself. 'I think that was good enough, better than last time at least.'

Lars didn't know what to say. He never been a believer. But now, in his time of greatest need, the Gods had proved themselves to him. Still, this hadn't been the kind of assistance he'd been expecting. He was both astounded and kind of disappointed. 'Joanus....' he mumbled, confused as to why this particular Goddess had heard him.

'Yes, that's right' beamed Joy, quite literally. 'The Goddess of Luck, Happiness and Fortune, did I forget to add that part. Silly, stupid me, I'm always forgetting that bit...silly and stupid.'

'No, no, no..' reassured Lars. 'I mean, why did Joanus send you? Why is she helping me?'

Joyce seemed to find the question incredulous. 'Why? Why? Because she cares, that's why. Not like those other stuffy, old Gods. Sure they're all-powerful and very lovely and nice, but they can be a bit....well...removed from things. Ozlek in particular. Don't get me started on him. All he wants to do is sit on his throne all day and preach about big things like judgement and obedience and how the world is doomed to terrible events, la dee da da; he's so very boring, sends me right to sleep sometimes. Not really though, cause I can't actually sleep, but apparently it's a figure of speech. And that Archangel of his...phew...talk about uptight. You know I once asked her about the relevance of enlightenment and she launched into this whole triad. 30 years it lasted, she talked for 30 years! Of course time flows differently where I come from so 30 years is, what, 467 years here. I don't really know, I just pulled that number out of my head, which is funny cause I don't actually have a head. We're corporal beings you see, no head, no body, no nothing. Not normally at least, should soon, maybe, perhaps. Still, I'm rambling a bit, sorry sometimes I do that, I talk and talk and talk, really only because I'm nervous or excited, or both and then I stop and I suddenly think, like wait, what was I talking about again. It makes my Goddess, my incredible Goddess, laugh all the time but all the others say it's annoying, especially Alayne. Oh my goodness, you have not seen annoyed until you've seen Alayne's face after I've been talking, she does this weird eye twitching thing and she tries to ignore me, but I know she listening...'

'Please...stop' gasped Lars. He couldn't take it anymore.

Joyce complied. 'Oh sorry. Wait, what were we talking about again?'

'We weren't talking, just you.' replied Lars steely.

'Oh ok, well, so, you know that bad guy. The Emperor, or whatever his name is.'

'The Enslaver', corrected Lars with gritted teeth. Despite the ray of holy light, his stomach still felt as if it were on fire.

'Right, well my Goddess, my wonderful Goddess, heard you praying and whatnot and was really upset about this Enslaver guy. So, she sent me to help you out. Just this once, though, cause this like never ever happens, like ever. We're suppose to stay out of affairs unless things are really messed up and Crona goes into this really massive rage about fate and time, and stuff. So, I'm thinking this Enslaver guy is a really bad, messed up sort of person to warrant all this attention. Cause again, I cannot stress how much this kind of thing never happens. My Goddess, amazing and spectacular as she is, could probably get in tons of trouble for doing all this.' The streams of light that made up Joyce then zipped around, as if she were searching for something. 'So, where we gotta go?'

However, a grunt from Lars alerted her to the reality of the situation.

'Oh right. I'm so sorry. I totally forgot that your injured. Really badly too. I've seen some bad wounds before and this is right up there with the worst ,it's actually pretty disgusting, I'm just kidding though, I'm sure you'll be fine. Oh, also there's another problem, I'm suppose to help you and stuff but I can't actually interact with this physical realm. In fact, you're the only one who can see me right now. You know, incorporeal and all that.'

She flickered around Lars, who looked on disdainfully. 'Ok, what are we going to do about all that, huh' He groaned. The knight still couldn't believe that this was the help he'd ended up with, some kind of scatter-brained lava lamp.

'I know, I know', reassured Joyce. 'We gotta sort all that out. I got a few good ideas. You just need to say, "I accept your light and assistance, glorious Joana" You know, my magnificent Goddess would never do anything that went against your will. You gotta be, like, totally accepting of it.'

Lars groaned. Couldn't this angel, if she really was an angel, see that he barely had the strength to speak. Still, he supposed he had to say those stupid words. After all, he had proclaimed that he'd do anything to save the Kingdom.

~
1. Lars's accepts the angel's assistance and is transformed into a holy Knight of the Heavens.
2. Lars's accepts the angel's assistance and Joyce subsequently possess his body, turning him into a physical avatar.
3. Lars decides that he can't bare life with this angel and instead chooses death.

~
Return to the last page
Return to the first page