The roar of the battlefield flooded my ears, screams of rage and power echoing out as my compatriots and enemies released their spirit constructs. Seraphic forms clashing in the skies above, while their actual bodies crashed into one another. My own Seraph was kept within though, unlike many others mine was not a full person but instead a weapon. I did not need it though, not yet. Instead, gripping my axes, I charged forward with a roar to drive my axe into an enemy's neck. Cleaving straight through with the wicked edge, I’d pivot and turn, cutting into the shield of another enemy, using the traditional sword and shield combo. It meant nothing to me, my axe would always cleave. Their abilities washed out uselessly from their shield as they tried to knock my axe aside, only for the other axe to come down in an overhead chop right into the man’s head as I yanked him toward me with the axe stuck in his shield.

  Wrenching both axes free, I’d look forward into the clusters of enemy troops, the numbers were… They were endless. The final stand of the unceasing hordes of the Empire of Steel, with their regimented troops who were steadily progressing forward. Meanwhile, our own side’s regular troops looked less organized, but where they had more organization… Ours though, had experts like myself.

  I could feel the energy of some of my allies, the way their Seraphs clashed and crushed the opposition was a heartening prospect. All the while, in their actual bodies, they would strike out to slaughter through the “experts” the otherside was sending out. Boosted novices, their way up the steps to heaven made easier through tinctures. It was funny really, they were called Heroes because they were powerful. But to us, to we who rose steadily… It was like a full grown man sent to slaughter babies.

  My axe would drive down into the shoulder of another enemy, dragging itself down until I’d cut my way down to the heart. Kicking the corpse backward into another, they wouldn’t have the time to utter some curse before my axe cleaved through their head just above the eyes, the top flung away to strike at another to knock silly while I drove my massive bulk through the lines of enemies. My goal was the commander, it was the task of each of us true experts. Find the commander, kill him and then sow discord in the lines to destroy the cohesion of the Empire.

  It had been easy going actually, when we had first met the ordered legions, with their shield and spears. Killing them had been even easier than these “experts”, normal people who had maybe barely reached the first or second steps toward heaven. Killing them was as if a farmer with the scythe, reaping the autumn harvest. One swing could kill dozens or more, even without using actual abilities or powers. Now though, as we got deeper into the Empires forces, the more the fake experts were shifting to actual experts, people who had earned their power like us.

  By now, the fighting had shifted, I couldn’t kill someone in a single stroke anymore. Now, as I swung, I’d have to add a second or even third strike to completely kill an enemy. Slowed down, I would be grinning madly as I began to actually have to put in effort. My arms burning with energy, my axe swings turning straighter now, stronger even as I began to step steadily.

  Block, strike, twist, strike, pivot, kill. My moves were economical, powerful even. My pair of war axes gleamed with my seraphic powers and the blood of my enemies. I could just about see the commander’s tent. But… Almost lost in the battle haze, I hadn’t even noticed when my allies had fallen behind, so lost in the movements of my axe and my enemies to care for those I trusted.

  Now though, so close to the goal, I took stock of the situation and found myself alone. I was an island in a sea of enemies. A glance back, told me there were dozens of yards between myself and the closest ally, who was struggling to fight against many at once. Even as I glanced, someone took the chance to come out me.

  Twist and pivot, avoid the lunging stab of the spear. The Axe came down hard on the shaft of the spear, snapping it easily. The follow up strike jammed the axe through the gorget and neck of the spearman, killing him even though I hadn’t been able to sever the spine. Following through, I’d charge toward the tent, grabbing the dead body and using it as a shield against the magic and arrows of the personal guard of the commander. When I felt the body start to break apart from the assault, I’d simply toss it straight in front of me, knocking into some of the guards.

  My axes, thrown forward with the body, would drive into the heads of two men, slicing through easily before burying themselves behind them into the bodies of two others. They may have thought me mad, but… Well, those were my mortal made Axes, I’d recover them after this, obviously. But my true Axes… Well…

  The energy of my Seraph expelled from my hands, shapes shifting and forming as the divine energy of a Ophanim flowed out and formed into a pair of axes. Wicked blades that jutted out from the handle before curving. A spike extending out the back of the handle behind the blades. I heard the scream from the commander, the moniker of “Axeman”, not for the general term… I had been one, once. But now, it was a title. There was no one else with it, I was THE Axeman. My lips peeled back, showing silvery metal teeth was the Ophanim energy coursed, changing me.

  This time, as I took a step forward, I flew forward toward the line of guards. Even the experts, the honor guard, were too slow as my axe bit into the stomach of one guard. My other axe I let go of, a golden chain of energy connecting it to my arms as I swung it around me, slicing through a half dozen of men in a single swing. Nothing fatal though, these were not the legions, these were real soldiers, people who had survived WARS.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  But they were still facing me. And as my hair lightened, turning into a pale blonde from a reddish brown. Eyes turning into solid whites as I turned the swinging axe on the chain, just as it came behind me in the circle, twisting my arm and bringing the axe in a full swing arc overheard, the spike driving into the ground and releasing built up energy and momentum in an explosion that threw dirt and now dead people into the air.

  A quick yank on the anchored axe drive me forward toward it, my eyes wild, the braids of my hair coming undone, allowing the wild main of blonde hair to spill out behind me as I moved past my planted axe, yanking on the chain so it would slip out easily. The weapon answered my whims, my desires, it was an extension of the self. I was the Axe. The Axe was me. The commander wasn’t far now, screaming as they were for someone to kill me. One expert appeared, wielding a zweihander, they moved with a precision that told me… Yes, the power was a Dominion, strong but… Even they knew it as we clashed.

  I was Ophanim, just two steps from the peak, from the throne of God. They were three, the peak of the middle order but… Well… My axe bit into their greatsword, yanking it downward as my other axe, twisted to the spike, drove down into the plate armored shoulder of the swordsman. Even with the enhanced penetration of the spike, it still only drove halfway into them. Enough that I could hook them, yanking them toward the ground.

  My foot came down on the flat of his blade, pressing it down across his body, my weight causing the blade to bend slightly while I yanked my axe out of his blade and instead brought it down into their face. Once, twice, the third strike finally pushed through the barrier he had formed. Another internal Seraph like myself, it could have made for a good fight if they had been an Ophanim like myself.

  Pulling my axes free, I’d look at the commander, grinning viciously and victoriously. It was then though, that the world changed. Something just further behind the commander came down. It was… A sphere, my senses screamed danger, instinctual danger that made me cross my axes before me. Divine energy spilled forth, forming a shield of energy that was just… Barely… No, not barely.

  The wave of power that came from the sphere as it shattered on the ground turned the world white. For a second, two seconds, three, my shield held. But the power was… It was too much, even as the white was beginning to fade from the explosion… I still felt the wash of power shredding muscles and burning my skin black as my shield fell.

  But, it was over… Truly, there was silence as I fell onto my back, eyes blurred as I stared up to see the very clouds itself, pulled apart to form a massive circle of cleared space. The battlefield was silent, no animals, no screaming, no… No clash of steel.

  Why, what was that? I was barely alive, when I felt the presence of someone else… Something that floated, or flew? I couldn’t see too well, everything was blurry. But I could feel them, they had… Divine energy, but not like I remembered it being, that golden energy that we channeled. This energy, still divine, flowed more like darkness that wrapped itself in the guise of civility.

  “Who…” My own throat struggled to form words, I could taste the blood now. I was dying?

  “Yes, you’re dying.” The voice was feminine, gentle even. “Who… Are…”

  “Save your breath, think instead. I am Kinatrope, I have come to find a warrior worthy enough to serve as my champion. You, the sole survivor of this… Terrible weapon. You are the most worthy, will you become my champion, young man?”

  Young? I grinned, my silvery teeth now a more normal white as I coughed blood trying to laugh. Think though… ‘I am not young. Nor can I be someone’s champion who I do not know. Who are you, what are you? What happened?’

  It seemed silly but she’d respond then, even as I felt her presence come closer still, almost… Hovering above me, was that why things got darker? “No, you’re dying. Your vision is going, your hearing will too… I can save you though, I cannot return you to what you were… But if you become my champion, I can place your spirit into another’s body. I have a loyal worshipper who has been betrayed and killed with poison. You may take their body as I have accepted their spirit into my bosom already for their loyalty.”

  Nonsense, the spirit could not inhabit other bodies. Everyone knows this, demonic cultivators, who spiraled down the circles of perdition learned that. They may be able to do much, but spirits needed bodies that matched the spirit.

  “That is correct, in your world. The creator of it has established the rules that preclude allowing spirit transfers. I am not of your world, and as champion you’ll be brought to mine. The rules of my world are different.”

  I’m hallucinating, “You’re not.” I’m going mad, “Sorry Pete, but you’re not.” She knew my name? What else? “That you have a wife, that you had a son.” That… That brought me up short, my whole body trembling as the words had to be spoke. “Jeffery…?”

  I couldn’t see her, my vision was black now, she was right I’m dying… But I could feel myself die inside as she spoke. “This bomb, it killed everything. Your son, far as he was from danger… He died, along with everyone else on this battlefield… Except for you.”

  Debbie would be a widow, and her son dead… I was a shitty husband, a worse father. Memories of the pride I felt seeing my son wearing the Republic armor had felt… He was… Tears burned paths down blackened cheeks as I grieved the loss of my pride and joy. “It was your side that used the bomb, if you would hesitate because of them. They used it because they didn’t know you would succeed, they lost sight of you and assumed you died.”

  I wasn’t hearing her now, I could tell, my ears were dead as my eyes now. I was dying, no, I was dead… My son, my boy! I wanted to rip the Republic leaders heads off, to have my axes slate their thirst for revenge with their blood. But Debbie, she… I couldn’t, I was dead… “I’ll be your champion.” The words came unbidden, the realization that if I was dying there was no choice. I would die regardless, but at least… I could have a dream of a different life, an impossibility. I was mad, insane really, but…

  I could barely feel her presence as the divine energy I had ebbed away, flowing out of my many wounds, trying to heal me and failing as the damage was too severe. But I felt her moving, clapping I think before she spoke. “Okay, excellent! Now don’t you worry about anything. I can’t see too much of the future in this world but I’m sure your wife will be treated well, her husband is a hero and her son too. She’ll be well cared for.” I needed to hear that, especially as everything faded in that moment. Death came, finally, and with it peace that at least my dear Debbie would be taken care of.