KotLC: Eclipse (KotLC X Magnus Chase)

Chapter 9 part 1

[A/N. Rewritten to not have as triggering elements.

This chapter refers to arsonists and death, so skip this chapter if you aren't comfortable with this. There's a recap on the next chapter so you know what happened.]

Sophie's POV

I was relieved when the presentations began on the other end of the table. Helgi called, "Deke Redhall!"
A short brunette nervously got up with his valkyrie supporting him.
"We present to you, Deke's heroic feats!" With that, a series of massive holographic screens flickered to life around the tree. The video was choppy, as if the person filming had been running.

The hologram showed what looked like the inside of a mall, but it was chaos. The windows of shops were shattered, dark smoke billowing from inside. A group of masked people walked slowly along the corridor, two of them occasionally throwing something into shops that didn't have a fire inside while the others held knives to discourage any heroic civilians from attacking them.

Meanwhile, crowds of humans were shouting, pushing and shoving each other in a mad scramble for the exits.

The Feast Hall was deadly silent, everybody transfixed on the scene in front of them.

A man in the throng tripped and was caught in the stampede, falling mere feet from the arsonists.

I watched as the holographic Deke stopped after noticing this, turned, and pushed through the masses towards the fallen person.
Shouting at Deke and the man, the masked arsonists threatened the two with their knives.

The flames from the shops grew larger and faster, glowing a pure white. They looked suspiciously like the fires that had been set in San Francisco before I came to the Lost Cities. Fire crawled up the steel support beams. Around the arsonists, ceilings and walls collapsed.

The then-alive Deke started to help the man up but was interrupted by one of the criminals shoving him away, unholstering a pistol, and pointed it at the man cowering on the ground.

"You move, he dies." The arsonist told Deke.

Deke barely hesitated. He launched himself at the person, wrestling him for the gun.

CRACK! I flinched as a gunshot rang throughout the Hall. This could not be good for my elven mentality.
Luckily, the bullet had pinged harmlessly off into the flames.
The gun skidded away, right in the path of the approaching fire.

Deke and the masked flame-setter glanced at one another before jumping at each other and starting to wrestle over the weapon. The man scrambled away from the fray and disappeared out a conveniently placed fire exit. Meanwhile, the other arsonists quickly followed suit, muttering about 'this not being worth it' and one would 'rather go to prison than burn'.

The man fighting Deke shoved him away into a ruined wall before sprinting away down the corridor, avoiding any flames in his path.

Deke began to follow, but a support beam collapsed in front of him, trapping Deke in the mall.

The hologram flickered for a moment before cutting to heavy static for a second. When it stabilised, a shadow appeared.

A confused murmuring rippled through the Hall.

I recognised this shadow from the dream I had when I died. His eyes and mouth glowed an eerie red, grin splitting his face in a grotesque way.

The static reappeared, and just as quickly as he appeared, the figure was gone. I glanced at Deke. He looked confused, as if he hadn't seen the shadow when this was filmed. The valkyrie next to Deke had the same expression. She, too, hadn't seen this thing before.

The flames crawled unnaturally fast towards Deke, burning without fuel, like a lion that hadn't eaten in days.

With a defiant expression and no escape, Deke faced down the fire and let it consume him.

The camera swooped down to where Deke died, and we watched as the valkyrie's hand reached towards Deke's soul and took him to Valhalla.

The crowd in the Feast Hall roared with appraisal for Deke's heroics.

✦⋆★⋆✦⋆⭒✵⭒⋆✦⋆★⋆✦
620 words

I decided to rewrite this chapter rather than write a new chapter this time.

As always, if you spot any SPaG errors, please let me know so I can fix them.

I couldn't add the meme again because Wattpad wasn't letting me.

Bye 👋
-ManicMohawk