SOULTALE | By ShadowNTS

(Chapter 102) Locked.

You clean the dirt off your clothes and pick up your blades before dashing at Loyd. He aims his revolver.

LYD: Lock on.

Loyd fires rounds of bullets seemingly at nothing. You dash towards him and swing your blades.

LYD: Ricochet.

Bullets dig into your back as you drop to the ground. The rounds Loyd seemingly shot into the air turned back and impaled you through your back. He approaches you slowly.

LYD: So cocky, yet so weak.
RHT: Notice this next move. Maybe you'll recognize it from one of your knight buddies.

You thrust your hand through your chest and grab your soul. Loyd stares in confusion. You ignite your soul in hellfire and push it back in, before getting back up. Loyd looks at you, mad.

LYD: Her technique, huh?
RHT: You know of it already?
LYD: She used it against hate and almost died if Amber wasn't there.
RHT: I see. Don't worry however. My technique is an improvement. It won't cause me to die but will still give me the power boosts. Now get ready to die.
LYD: Come at me, harbinger.

You lean forwards. The ground underneath you cracks. The debris around you starts to float. Your hellfire burns your footing into ash. Loyd grips his revolver tight. You take a deep breath.

RHT: Purgatorys' wrath slash.

You zip across the battlefield in an instant and leave behind a trail of hellfire. The city falls into silence. Blood starts dripping from your neck. Loyds' breathing gets funny. Your head falls off. Loyd covers his scar across his chest and turns around.

LYD: Target neutralized.

The sun rises above the mountains and light seeps into the city. Loyd looks at the sunrise.

LYD: I envisioned the sunrise long before it happened. You were destined to lose, harbinger.

Loyd slowly walks towards your dead body and kneels down, looking at it. He grabs your head and puts it in place to pay respects. As he's picking it up, he staggers. He stares blankly.

LYD: What was that vision just now?! There was Frisk and Chara, but there was another person. No... it was two people. I can't see it clearly. One looks like... Rhett but the other one...

A grey hand spurts out of your cracking soul and grabs Loyds' face. He aims his revolver and shoots it.

LYD: Get off of me!

No, Loyd. You're mine now. The hand thrusts itself through Loyds' head and grabs his brain and pulls it out, killing the knight on the spot. Loyds' body drops to the ground, lifeless. The hand presses your neck and ignites it with hellfire. Your soul stops cracking.

RHT: What... just happened?

You get up and look around, seeing Loyds' lifeless body right next to you.

RHT: I... won? But how?

You push yourself back on your feet and regain your breath, looking at the sunrise.

RHT: It doesn't matter. I won.

You recall your blades and leave the city, heading for your next destination. The knight of justice has fallen. The centre is next.

End of Chapter 102
End of Volume 5
"Locked"

[ Rhett has defeated Loyd and is now headed for the centre of determination. ]