Crusader King

The captain was a burly, old, avian male with dark brown hair and a golden armor, wielding a golden sword in his right and a shield in his left hand, similarly to the statues of Karira.

A weirdly divine feeling came from the golden sword but Cades didn't care, he didn't even think as he began fighting with the paladin captain.

He sprinted towards the captain and used the momentum to punch him a few dozen feet away, with the captain rolling over a few times but still retaining his balance after some time.

The captain held up his shield and put it into the ground in retaliation, he wanted to stop the unknown enemy but he didn't have time to think about the fact that that enemy had wings.

Cades used said wings, flew up and descended once more, the shield of the captain was difficult to move so he wasn't fast enough.

Realizing this, the captain left his shield behind and franticly grabbed his sword to fight against the monster that was attacking them.

The sword was barely able to block Cades frantic attacks as the shockwaves from the colliding mana were sent out from the source of the collision and threw the other paladins that the captain had been trying to protect over their feet.

Being only a beginner tenth sequence the captain would never be able to defeat Cades, but he tried to at least distract him for long enough so that others could save themselves.

Cades also, even in the state that he was in, didn't want to hurt innocent people so he followed the old man as he flew up towards the sky in the desperate attempt to distract Cades from the other, weaker people on the ground.

There, in the sky, they now battled, one with their full sanity, and the other one blinded by rage and barely thinking.

The stress and anger from all this time had been built up and now it was finally exuding its toll.

Cades had almost died more times then he wanted to count, he had lost everything and had nobody to talk to, this was now, finally, taking its toll in the form of pure unbridled anger directed at anyone he saw.

He held together because he had thought that all ehetrians that managed to survive were going through the same thing, but now that he knew that the others were safe, or at least that Mangel was, he broke down.

If they had at least been trying to find out who caused it and get revenge on behalf of the ehetrian people, then it probably wouldn't have been half as bad, but alas, his anger was simply uncontrollable by now.

He wasn't even able to think about other possible reasons.

The two of them, the captain and Cades violently clashed in the sky sending out sparks of magic as their clash slowly came to an end.

Cades anger was running dry, he was simply done with everything now and the captain could barely keep up with Cades after that begun happening.

The calm Cades was not only a powerful foe to face but also a very intelligent person, he specialised in artificing after all.

And finally, the captain was defeated and fell down onto the ground, violently crashing into it with the impact further heightened by the weight of his armor.

He was not dead, he was simply unconscious the same going for Mangel, but not for many of the other paladins, they weren't even strong enough to withstand one of his attacks, and yet they were bombarded by dozens of his attacks while he had been blinded with fury.

With a now much more serene mind Cades landed, took the atlas and the sword of the captain and flew upwards once more.

Cades looked down at the now utterly destroyed temple.

The temple laid in ruins, the statues almost all having been thrown over, the beautiful arches having collapsed.

It seemed like most of the priests had escaped but that didn't improve Cades mood after all of this.

He couldn't stay here, they would continue to try and fight him.

He had lost the ability to stay with others once more, this time because of his own madness.

People were starting to point up to him as Cades finally began flying away once more, back to the library, the only place where he thought of himself as safe.

But not before he screamed something towards those that worshipped the goddess of rescue and safety, he said what he truly thought.

"You are hiding for your own safety, aren't you ?

Do you think Karira would be happy with just that ?

No... she would never be happy.

She wants chaos, she wants rescure to happen and that can only happen when people are in danger.

You all, all of you that devoted your entire lives to her, don't matter to her."

Of course they couldn't understand him but Cades simply longed to speak his mind.

He himself didn't realize it at this moment but there were only very few beings that would be capable of causing that which had happened on ehetria, and the gods were likely candidates.

Finally, he started his flight back to the ancient library with Mangels book and the golden blade of the paladin captain in his hands.

He didn't think, no, he didn't want to think.

He had done horrible things, things that he had promised himself to never do.

He had done unspeakable things to people that were just doing their jobs.

He didn't know how the dead were like when they were alive, but he told himself that their "sacrifice" wouldn't be in vain, he told himself that he would avenge the paladins of rescue by rescuing as many beings as he could.

He simply couldn't entirely comprehend what he had done yet.

When he finally arrived he broke down, he threw up and could barely stand up again.

He, he had taken lives, he hadn't been forced to, he had taken the lives of innocent people.

Cades wanted to swear to himself that he would never kill another innocent, but he knew that that wouldn't be possible, not in his condition.

He slowly stood up, walked down to the library with shaky legs and began thinking about what to do now.