Edifices of Times Passed | Meetings of Fate

 

 A solitary figure journeyed through the valley. A cerulean knight garbed in an ornate, platemail aegis whose colour had been turned pale by age, trimmed more by verdigris than gleaming metal. Gone were the monsters of old that had inhabited this land, as were the castles of recent times. Now the earth was a bed of ruin heaped upon ruin.

 The venturer's travel continued for some time longer before they finally found the one they were looking for. A being clad in hulking, coal-black warplate which shared superficial similarities with their own knightly suit, but was far more brutalist in its shape and scale. Waiting motionlessly, this entity could have been mistaken for a statue carved out of the trunk of a great, fire-blackened tree from a distance, but the signs of activity became more evident closer up: the scorching breath of the armour's exhaust vents, made visible in the dust, and the low hum of the powered mechanisms behind each massive, dark-metal plate.

 As the newcomer's approaching steps broke this steady continuum, the waiting party spoke.

 "So, the new regent of Old Breta deems fit to grant my audience."

 "I have only come to bring you to justice, oathbreaker. I will see that you pay for your misdeeds here."

 "I brought salvation to the abandoned and despairing. This..." The figure outstretched an arm, offering the view of the devastation before them. "...was all your doing. Yours and that of our former lord, a-"

 "Do not dare speak his name!"

 The ebon knight drew their sword with a burst of anger, virtually snatching the weapon from its sheath. "Then silence me yourself!"

 Revealed from its covering, the blade cast a baleful, orange light - a glow as ruinous as the damage that had undone this place: flowing lava one moment, a veil of rust the next. Another icon of lost glory, this relic evidenced the progression of the ages in its own way. Much of the original craftsmanship had been replaced to give the weapon a chimeric new life, with an assortment of replacement parts preserving its function over its face.

 The champion in blue responded in kind, drawing a claymore which they raised with both hands as they charged. The faded taspestry of their half cape, hanging from one shoulder, traced the motion of their path behind; a flowing wave that became an arcing curl as its bearer suddenly turned to strike their foe on the side. The bulk of the opposing warrior's armour meant they could only hold their longsword with one hand, but they nonetheless managed to reach across and block the strike to their vulnerable flank and counter the strength of both arms with only one. The air distorted where the blade edges met, flashing with trails of ionised particles. The slight difference in height was magnified up close and the bulkier combatant now began to tower above, as they shifted their weight to push down on their offender.

 The cape swirled with a noble flourish as the blue knight spun once more, to turn the attack aside and let it cleave the empty space adjacent. But the dark warmonger was a skilled fighter nontheless and used the momentum to crash into the nimbler sword-wielder like an iron wall and send them staggering backwards. Now the looming aggressor pressed their advantage with a series of downward strikes that were only blocked by holding the blade's face and using its width as a shield. The blue of the gauntlet blistered and withered to another shade of black as the energies pressed against it worked ambivalently to resist their wielder's touch. Sensing weakness in their enemy, or perhaps just lost in the rage of whatever bond remained between them, the holder of the malevolent, corrosive blade continued to unleash a furious rain of heavy blows. However, all the while that the defender blocked, they counted and learned. The delay between each strike; the force with which the strikes landed; the intensity in the air where the energy fields met. Every measure with which to test the strength brought against them.

 As the searing heat made its way through the gauntlet and reached their hand, the beleagured warrior's patience ended. Catching one more strike with the flat of the two-handed sword, then with a roar of effort, they pushed back and knocking the descending sword up and leaving the belligerent titan off-balance and exposed.