In his mind, he was unstoppable.
The Demons of hell were nothing to him.
Clad in his power armor, he would walk alone, facing droves and hordes of those filthy xenos. He would simply eliminate them with everything at his disposal and keep going.
Service is duty, duty is honor, honor is life, life is the Solarium. That is what the Paladins were raised on. All that Solomon Creed wanted, however, was to remain human and to protect that.
To the people of the Solarium, it was them against the entire universe. Humanity was endangered in the face of the forces of evil, and no other option was left for them to turn to. Those who embraced the Infernium were condemned to eternal damnation, those who yielded to the Hive sacrificed their sanity and lived in the dark ages of madness, and those who joined the Machina now resided in power plants, dormant in pods that fueled the Rogue A.I. of the Machine.
(A.n: Biblical Hell, Lovecraft, and the Matrix. A blend second only to breakfast tea.)
So when Adam told Creed that he was a figment from a story, not a human that once lived, that he was an imagination from the future, that he lived only in the minds of mortal men from this world, Creed did not pay attention to any of that.
He just heard one thing that made him gently put Adam down before extending his arms sideways and then ejecting.
PSSS! PSSSSSSSSS!
The power armor opened from its back the same way it opened from its mask. Pressurized air left the inner layer of the pilot's interior, and the back was lifted up, the upper arms slid down above the forearm, and the hip slid down to the foreleg.
Creed's face disappeared from the helmet that was fixed to the whole power armor, and the sound of footsteps was heard from behind the power armor.
The setting sun cast light on the scene, and a man appeared next to the power armor. He was only slightly shorter than the armor, with platinum hair, ashen skin, and bright, sun-like energy cracks around his bright glowing eyes. He was wearing a tan-colored underarmor suit with short sleeves that displayed his superhuman, veiny, muscular arms.
Before him stood a thin, pale young man in mismatched layers of clothing over baggy pants and sturdy boots. A beanie concealed most of his head, and a cheap, lightweight combat vest, designed more for holding spare magazines than providing actual protection, adorned his waist. He was a walking fashion disaster.
The paladin looked at the much shorter young survivor affirmatively and extended his long-reaching right arm to pat his shoulder.
"I died at the Pale Gate?" Creed asked.
Adam gulped, but his throat was so dry that it felt like he was swallowing razors. Even with a 50% chance of being doomed by the paladin's rage, he found the courage to nod.
"How?"
Creed asked again, but rather than angry, he seemed serene and calm.
Adam would swear he had not heard as many grunts and war cries as that man's when he was playing that game of "Wartopia: Star Paladin III", and this emotional look in that man's eyes made him so out of character. Somehow, it felt more like a man who was at peace with the news of his death.
"Your death was… heroic. I mean, the books say that the Solarium has no heroes…"
"… Except those who are dead."
Adam's reply was continued by Creed, who was certainly familiar with the saying. Creed let go of Adam's scrawny shoulder, but his eyes urged the young man to continue.
"You died fighting Asmodeus and bought enough time for the Six Legions to arrive at the Pale Gate. During the battle, you sustained a great energy attack directly from Asmodeus's mouth, but you still broke off one of his greater horns and drove it into his middle head. However, you overheated from the excessive healing process, your life spark faded, and you died on your knees, resting one hand on the horn you had torn off."
"…"
Falling silent to Adam's report, Creed closed his eyes and nodded, this time not confirming whether it was true or false by his golden fiery eyes, but by his memories alone as they returned to him piece by piece.
"Not a second after you passed away, Solwoken Orlion the Hammer, Solwoken Helios Lightbringer, and even Valkyrie Superior arrived at hell on a Stellar Ark. The two Solwoken tore through the remaining heads of Asmodeus like he was not even there, then the Lightbringer dragged Asmodeus' broken body to hell and slew him right after its doorstep with the Spear of Sol Imperius, ending a Hell Prince for good. As he returned, the Hammer was lifting your helmet and covering you with his cloak, the Lightbringer chanted your name for the Six Legion, and the Valkyrie Superior whispered the true name of Sol Imperius into your ears."
The scene that played in Creed's head was too great even for him. He would recall other paladins who had done great deeds, but none were as lucky as he was. Two Solwoken, one of whom was his commander and the other the most beloved Solwoken of all, was one thing, then being sung the true name of the Sol Imperius by none other than the Queen of Valkyries was another.
He would be the envy of all the Paladins.
Truly, he had it all.
His eyes remained closed, and as he nodded to himself a few times and after a deep breath, he opened them again and smiled, something the developers of the game never even thought of animating.
"I thank you, Adam."
Adam nodded to the paladin and did not say more until Creed spoke again after a minute of silence.
"You spoke as if you were there, Adam," he said.
Adam was not as scared as before and replied truthfully but still chose his words:
"Your story was a bit of the visual type."
"Is that so? Your truth is accepted, but I want to see it," Creed said as he walked closer to Adam.
"I would love to help with that, but as you see, it's all over for this world. I would rather find us food and shelter before spending the night," Adam replied, urging Creed to start moving as soon as possible.
"Fair enough. Tell me, what ruin claimed your world?"
For the first time, Creed was interested in this new world he was in. His question was mere curiosity, though. No Paladin is interested in anything other than the Sacred Solar System and Urd, a fictional version of Grimdark Solarpunk Earth where the greater part of Wartopia's events occurred.
"Your guess is as good as mine. I mean, I slept through the day the world fell," Adam said with a self-mocking chuckle, "One day, strange monoliths appeared across the world. People thought it was another monolith prank, but this time they were bigger, harder to remove, and grounded in very public places. The next thing you know is that these monoliths glow up and some magic rifts open from them and spew out monsters. You have met the green ones, and from what I know, there are a lot more."
"Rifts? As in the Void?" Creed asked.
"They don't exactly look the same from what I heard, but I think they are."
"And this scourge swept the entire world?"
"If this country has fallen, there is not much hope elsewhere, I can tell you that."
The Paladin displayed no reaction, but it was clear that he was thinking. He looked at the sun very intently, and his eyes were never harmed by it. Those with that kind of eyes never get harmed from looking at the sun at all.
"So this is my Eternal Peace," the Paladin mumbled to himself.
Adam wanted to retort, but knowing who that was, of course a ruined world to him would be his Eternal Peace. That term is the afterlife of any Solarium faithful, for State and Faith were one and the same, patriotism is piety, so to speak. This Eternal Peace can be just about anything, be it an endless glorious war, a peaceful green paradise, or a heavenly cloudscape. To Creed, it is a ruined world without a hero.
Creed then looked at Adam intently and spoke:
"You have been forthcoming. A reward is owed before we part."
"Part?"
Adam had a chill running through his spine. If his miniature came to life somehow, should they not at least stick together?
Creed's reply, however, made Adam rethink what he desired:
"My objective is to acquire understanding of, and subsequently purge, those elements that pose a threat to humanity."
Adam's guts started to churn from what he heard, and he displayed obvious unwillingness.
"I am totally going the opposite way."
It was obvious how this would play out. One man would run toward monsters, the other would run from them. Adam is not an Action RPG protagonist, nor is he a good fighter at all, and now that he is without a survivor group, he shouldn't take any chances.
Creed could also understand how Adam felt. That pitiful look in his eyes was the same as those many citizens he rescued before, hoping their paths would not part for the sake of their survival. The Paladins were trained to suppress pity since they were Squires; they were the sword of the Solarium, a sword that has pity is a faulty one.
"Lacking a worthy gift, I offer safe passage as my service."
Hearing that, Adam's eyes lit up.
"Thank you. I know a place not too far! Thank you, sir."
Yet just as Adam was about to feel delighted, a scene unfolded in just a split second.
Creed raised his left arm and caught something that was flying at them faster than a bullet. Once the terrifying sound of stopping that axe shook Adam to his core, he looked at where it came from, and his heart almost stopped.
"GRAAAAH!"
There was a Gobzkin, a small one, but he was rather well decorated with human skulls and bones. He screamed and pointed at them with anger.
Beside him, a much larger Gobzkin seemed to be fixing his posture after seemingly performing a laborious act.
"Shit! They came back."
Adam immediately tried to pull the charging handle on his rifle, hoping that the jammed casing would eject, but it was not moving.
Meanwhile, Creed turned to the Gobzkins with angered eyes, and without even twisting his body to the right direction, he launched the axe back in a powerful momentum enough to make Adam feel like he was passed by a truck.
The large crude axe probably broke from the extreme force, but its head still found its way back to its owner's head, blasting it off as it passed through.
Creed used the momentum of his movement and jumped back into his power armor, entering it in one acrobatic move, before the armor immediately closed itself and was ready for battle.
Then the horde arrived.
Tens… No! Hundreds of Gobzkins suddenly started to swarm over the destroyed military blockade.
Their sight was terrifying, their sizes varied between the small punks and the large brutes, almost reaching the height of a school bus.
"Retreat!"
Creed spoke to Adam, who was hitting the stock of his M16 against the ground, after removing the magazine. The bolt was finally freed from the jammed casing, and Adam immediately started running as he put in a new mag.
BEW! BEW! BEW!
The Paladin shot down three of the largest Gobzkins with his plasma pistol, putting down the three in one go before they attempted to throw weapons. As for the rest that swarmed them from the flanks, even Creed decided to retreat behind Adam and cover him instead of going in a one-man hack-n-slash frenzy.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Adam finally got his weapon working, and the shooting started on his part too. It was laughably weak in the eyes of Creed how that weak man with such a weak weapon was resisting the horde, but if there were a few hundred more like him, they would put on some resistance at least. It was a sight similar to those desperate and soulless Men-at-Arms.
Adam's aim was all over the place, but with numbers of Gobzkins coming from left and right as he ran, he could shoot in any direction, and one out of three bullets would at least hit a Gobzkin.
He emptied his first mag, not knowing if he killed any or not, but he still got rid of the empty one and put in another, leaving him with two.
These were the last bullets he had after that good haul he had yesterday at an abandoned police truck. But as he was emptying this magazine as well, something miraculous happened.
≪ You have gained 1 EXP! ≫
Just like the words that appeared when he saw Captain Creed for the first time, he was seeing words again.
This is happening again, and there seems to be a deeper plot than him just summoning a Star Paladin from a miniature, but there is no time to overthink it.
"COME THIS WAY!"
Before he could even react, Adam was carried by Creed, who moved at the speed of a speeding car just by two legs, and as he held the human and made a distance between him and the horde, Creed took out a yellow-colored object from his side and held it above his head.
"Holy shit! You are going to kill us!"
Adam immediately recognized the object and went pale in an instant. Creed, on the other hand, armed the grenade in his hand and threw it toward a nearby high rise before turning tail and running away as fast as he could.
FZZZT!
A strange crackling sound started to come from the building Creed threw his grenade in, then a fiery light appeared as an explosion suddenly expanded beyond sense, and
BOOOOOOM!
The Plasma Charge exploded!
It is one of the strongest tools in a Star Paladin's arsenal, and the scene it caused next fell well with every piece of lore Adam had read about Plasma weapons.
The entire building started to collapse as if a pillar that once held the sky was collapsing from high heavens.
The heat of the explosion and its shock wave arrived next, but Creed absorbed it for Adam, and the two stopped watching as the large building came down on the heads of the Gobzkin horde.