True Love's Seventh Kiss

Ch.43 Corsair's Agenda

"How about a wager to make things interesting?" Marion offered with a flick of his sword.

"What kind of wager?" Whitney narrowed her eyes on him.

"A simple wager, I win, you must accept a silly nickname." Marion teased as he showed the fox-like grin of a schemer.

"Then if I win you have to kiss my boot." Whitney took a proper stance and a deep breath so she wouldn't lose on a technicality again.

This time they moved at the same time and showed the same amount of Killing intent as they swiped at each other furiously. Marion was lighter on his feet and dodged around the battlefield by pivoting on his feet and nearly jumping around her. Whitney's strikes were broad but flowed into one another, so she seemed more like a whirling top.

Once her frustration had cooled, Whitney was the first to slip into the next part of the dance as if it were natural and Marion responded. Gradually they slowed and their attacked became more calculated as they spun around and danced around each other.

On first inspection it may have looked as if it were a beauty dancing with a beast, but it was raw, and the killing intent felt by the audience so it was closer to a knight in a life-or-death battle with a dragon.

But for one particular person in attendance the experience was a little bittersweet. Traitor was in attendance, and she watched the noble knight she knew and saw the seeds of her fall that traitor hadn't noticed before. Whitney wanted to be the best, she needed to be the best. It was unacceptable for her to lose and now that she has lost twice. Her Killing intent was genuine, and Marion's was responsive but with deranged Battle lust. And thus, the seeds of their downfall, a knight obsessed with being at the top, and a warrior who unabashedly loved to fight. No wonder Whitney would be so spiteful towards him in the future.

Another spectator watched something else develop with a sinister smile. Corsair knew the suppressed demon inside of Marion, the drive to survive was a repressed fight-or-flight instinct strongly turned to 11 in the fight direction with the knob broken. The swashbuckler's dead run was of Course something that Marion created in his tragedy during his mercenary days. It was pragmatic and violent. And although it had a high learning curve, it was Marion that created it. Through the cursed sword it would be much easier for him to learn.

This was Marion's first taste of combat with someone of similar age and skill that was directing actual killing intent at him. And since it was in a relatively safe environment his inner monster was being stirred like the kraken of the deep. As their swords hissed when they collided Marion's innocent face curled into a wide sharky grin.

Whether the gods managed to win or not that was only the distraction, Marion himself was Corsair's ultimate doomsday device for round two. The discarded pirate Count of the past timeline was a monster this world created that died as he killed the empire. This Marion was being trained in Outer god magic and would grow to become a dimension cracking superweapon.

Corsair snickered; he couldn't truly deny his own nature as an outer god of ruthless vengeance. This was an evil world; a prison planet and he was sealed here for a reason along with many others. Everyone who was in the throes of the game would focus on the game, in the meantime he would tear the world apart at the seams. And while they got their memories back, only Marion would remain in the dark until the time was right.

If the gods thought that he was satisfied with destroying this world only one time, then they were in for a rude awakening. Even now the gentle powers that maintained the causality and status quo were in an uproar. Turning back time, infusing lost timeline memories in mortals. 8 gods that choose to act completely differently, this world was already spinning on a fragile axis. It was a prison dimension, an archaic fractal of time space where outer gods were sealed and unable to use their advanced magics to escape. Like a blu-ray disc stuck in an 8-track player, there was no compatibility.

So in order to escape he couldn't just blow up the world, he learned that when it didn't work the first time. He had to fracture the causality of the world to such a degree with paradoxes that it would suffer from its own implosion from the irregular reverse fractal distortions.

His plan was easy enough to execute. The mortals and the immortals merely had to go against their nature with a sprinkling of chaos. Since the world events written in time had some degree of wiggle room from individuals making choices, he just had to make powerful people do the opposite of their nature. And go outside the threshold of that 'wiggle room' in history.

The tragic hero Marion would be rewritten as the rebel without a cause. The heretical maidens who persecuted him would now be beholden to him. And the gods who saw the mortals as game pieces would now have to lower themselves to partner with the mortals in a silly game. The future events wouldn't just be rewritten a little, they would be erased and reimagined which wouldn't just shake the natural order, it would topple it. Then Corsair could find his way out through the splinters in reality.

Marion was a singular abnormality in causality that would prevent the world from righting itself naturally. He would be even more of a thorn with an abnormal amount of influence on major parties both mortal and immortal. His very existence was already beginning to rot the world like a cancer on probability. Using the magics that Corsair taught him, and the techniques of a fallen timeline would only accelerate the process.

This world would then seek to naturally eliminate him before he succeeds using an arsenal of supernatural events in order to help fight off the abnormality. If it had to, the world would unleash the sealed monsters and apocalypses that were sealed in this prison world. Those same seals Corsair had unlocked the first time around to destroy it. The world would risk razing a generation just to get rid of Marion and his cancerous influence. Especially now that its "natural methods" for getting rid of him were tied up in a game of trying to gain his favor. And Corsair could play the good guy god by helping Marion to survive and fight them off.

The only question would be, which apocalypse would the world unleash first?

"Whitney was unable to execute a Maneuver in Marion's style, for the imitation section. Marion is the victor." Novak declared.

Corsair's villainous smile rose to its peak as his apostle of the grand cataclysm was developing nicely.

"it was a good match... Whiskey." Marion smiled dubbed Whitney with her new embarrassing nickname.

*

The next day Marion found himself on a date.

It was a bit more of a spectacle then he would have hoped for. But it wasn't strictly because he was spending time with the elegantly dressed princess, it was because he was fairly well known by the people at this point, and they were quite excited for him in an embarrassing way.

For lunch they went to a high-class local restaurant that had boasted many visits from the Countess and the Dragon for their food and even had some specialty items as suggested by the dragoness.

"I will forgive you for toying with me since you so brutally defeated Whitney." Prudence said as we sat down at the table. "It was such a lovely event to see her brought low. Even though she is accomplished in matters of chivalry she is incredibly dull and single minded."

Our seat was next to a large window on the third floor of the Wailscot Mercantile building. It was a unique 4 story building set up with docks to receive deliveries from airships directly to the businesses on each floor. It was a grand project but ultimately led to certain building restrictions so that only so many could be built. This was to prevent air traffic from becoming excessive over residential areas to maintain quality of life. And if too many of these tall buildings were created then larger ships wouldn't be able to get through.

Another concern was to limit the number of larger vessels that flew above the city. If one fell or crashed for any reason it would be catastrophic. Unlike the capital that had already employed this type of structure and more innovative ones, the Cliffgard county didn't have the dedicated manpower to create a division solely to clean up wreckage.

"Are you listening to me?" Prudence asked.

"Pardon me, your highness. I was simply dazzled by your beauty against this impressive backdrop." Marion smiled wryly turning his attention back to the spectacularly beautiful villainess he had to somehow manage not to be attracted to... this was going to be a long date...