Rise of the Inquisition (Arc 10)

Chapter 216: A Dragon, a Wolf, and Grandmasters

Walking through the halls of the Royal Palace, Paladin found himself completely alone. No one else was in the palace halls, and no one else seemed to have been in the palace. It was desolate of all life, desolate of any energy. The only light source inside the palace was coming from the red sky - it's light radiating into the hallways.

Paladin's bandana was raised to cover the bottom half of his face - a sign that Paladin was ready for Aero. In his right hand, Excalibur was unsheathed and tightly gripped.

Paladin walked by every single opened door on the way to King's Hall, and he found every single room to be empty and cleaned - despite there being a few dark corners. But what wasn't Paladin's main reason for checking the rooms, since he was looking for Aerro - just in case he didn't end up going to King's Hall.

Arriving at the tall golden doors to King's Hall, Paladin stopped and stood in front of them. He gave himself a few moments of peace, and he sighed as it would be the last few moments he would have for awhile. Even after Aerro was dealt with, there would still be Tiberius and possibly a few other Grandmasters to deal with.

Paladin then kicked the doors to King's Hall open with his right foot, and upon the doors being kicked open he walked into the room, immediately walking into King's Hall. At the end of the hallway, Paladin found himself looking at Aerro, who sat on the throne with his legs crossed - smirking as he twirled his sword on the ground with his right hand.

"Welcome to the throne room Lord Inquisitor, it took you awhile to get here, but I'm excited that you're finally here. We're going to have a good time - the best time."

Paladin heard everything that Aerro said, but he decided to not respond. Instead, Paladin kept walking forward to Aerro and the throne he sat on, ready to fight Aerro, ready to reclaim the throne for the Kingdom of Orion.

Aerro recognized that Paladin decided to not reply, and instead of not attempting to get Paladin to speak, he kept going with what he planned to say - something he planned prior to Paladin getting there.

"Lord Inquisitor, are you aware that the war in Orion has officially started, as of this early morning? The civilians of the city apparently knew, because when I came here I couldn't find a single person - no matter how hard I tried. I checked every single building I could, every single room, every single hallway. But nope, I just found an empty city and palace."

Paladin kept walking forward, and at first he didn't respond to Aerro - which caused Aerro to sigh as he stood up from the throne. But as Paladin got closer, Aerro tightly gripped onto Chaos Maker, and casted Void flames onto its black blade.

"Enough of this chit-chat, Aerro. There's only one sound that should be coming from the both of us - the sound of our blades clashing."

Aerro continued to smirk as he nodded his head at Paladin.

"I agree, the time has come Lord Inquisitor, the time for the two of our swords' blades to clash - the time for the Lord Inquisitor and the Grandmaster Aerro to fight. Therefore Lord Inquisitor, I'll be the first one to strike."

Aerro took Chaos Maker and slashed it in Paladin's direction, throwing black void flames flying across the room directly for Paladin.

Paladin responds by lifting Excalibur towards the ceiling - golden flames spiraling around Excalibur's golden blade, extreme heat radiating off the golden flames and affecting the temperature to the room. As the Void flames came close, Paladin took Excalibur and sliced down through the center of the Void flames - leaving him unharmed as the cut void flames crash onto the floor behind him.

Aerro was surprised by Paladin's defense, but was impressed.

"Well, that is certainly a first Lord Inquisitor, but it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I will win this fight, and I will make sure your corrupted Inquisition is stopped!"