Paladin Academy: A Playground Inspired Story

[Lix Lorn]

PROtagonist?

[BisectedBrioche]

Yes, he is one of the people the narrative is following and thus the protagonist. As opposed to the antagonist (characters opposing the perspective characters).

Related terms; hero (a role which typically overlaps) and villain (which similarly overlaps with the antagonist).

[licoot]

Yay! End of the story ark,

and also No! The story arks over

[Silverraptor]

Yay! End of the story ark,

and also No! The story arks over

Not quite yet. There's still another two parts to go. But it is close to the end, yes.

[BladeofOblivion]

PROtagonist?

I was talking about Viola...

Antagonists die all the time unless it's animated by Disney.

[Lix Lorn]

That was my point. (nod)

[BisectedBrioche]

That was my point. (nod)

And as I noted above, your pun doesn't really work...^^;

[Lix Lorn]

Pun? What pun?

[BisectedBrioche]

...well I assumed you were trying to imply that you considered Kurama the villain and thus not the protagonist (with the further implication that he was the antagonist). I was pointing out that indicating that antagonist and protagonist are merely perspective terms and thus do not indicate whether or not a character is the hero or villain.

[Lix Lorn]

I think I'm confused. I think I made a mistake somewhere. (nodnod)

[Silverraptor]

Paladin Academy: Part 47

Spoiler

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Viola continued falling endlessly through nothingness. The darkness was pressing down on her from all directions as she fell. It seemed like the further she fell, the more of her senses were being left behind. She couldn't remember anything, not even her own name. A faint purple glow of something was seen squarely on her chest. She didn't look to see it, but watched it out of the corner of her eyes. To her, it seemed like light was fading. At the same time, she seemed to notice that her descent grew faster and faster as the glow faded.

Her mind was completely foggy now, unable to think clearly from the darkness. All she knew was this place was the only existence and she was to dwell in this existence forever. She continued to watch the darkness swirl around her like mist. The lower she got, the blacker the mist grew. It seemed to confuse her for an instant of how something could be so thick, yet she was falling faster through it. But this thought was soon wiped out with the last of her senses. Her mind was completely blank now.

Suddenly, there was movement seen to her right. A last spark of curiosity caused her to turn head to look. Emerging from the darkness was a figure. At first, it was hard to make out what the figure looked like through the darkness, but it eventually came close enough to be able to seen properly. A long black robe with a hood slowly crept closer to her. Black wings materialized behind him, which then proceeded to wrap themselves around the both of them. Viola noticed that in the figure's right hand was a large grimoire and the left hand held a long, curved scythe. The figure then lifted its head to reveal its face as a skull with two glowing pinpoints of red light for eyes.

Despite this frightening figure, Viola was not scared. That was left behind a long time ago, somewhere up there. She seemed to realize that she was missing a great deal of herself. Perhaps this figure could help her remember who she was. As she was deciding this, the figure lifted the grimoire away from itself. The book floated out of the figure's right hand to hover at its eye level. A large, ominous strap then unbuckled itself and the book smoothly opened to a set of pages around the middle of the book. The figure's eyes glanced over at it, and so did Viola. In the center of the page, she saw something scribbled like a list. And at the bottom of the list, it read:

Grim
Viola


Naturally, the words in the book didn't make any sense to Viola. She was still waiting patiently for the figure to help her. The figure then slowly turned its eyes upon her. With a slow, deliberate movement, the figure raised a bony hand and held it out for Viola to take. Viola unconsciously reached out to take the figures hand. Her right hand slowly inched closer and closer to the figure's right hand. Suddenly, she felt a jerk and she could reach out no more. Her arm was fully extended and her fingers were only an inch from the figure's hand. An inch from Death.

Confused, she looked around. Her left hand was suddenly held out behind her. It was clutching something in it that seemed to be the source of what was keeping her back. She tried to let go of it, but her hand wouldn't let go. She could see a bright blue glow escape from between her fingers. She looked back at the figure who was eyeing her hand as well. However, the figure looked less than pleased and the gigantic wings flapped viciously once. The figure then took its left hand that held the scythe and proceeded to move the tool around Viola. It then started to slowly pull the blade towards itself, with it behind Viola, yet not touching her. Instantly, she felt a force compelling her forward. Despite whatever was in her left hand holding her back, the pull of death was barely winning as her outstretched fingers very slowly grew closer and closer to the figure's hand. She was just about to touch them, when more movement was seen from the darkness. The black cloaked figure of Death stopped its pull and slowly looked around. Another figure in dark robes was gliding towards them. However, these dark robes seemed different to the skeletal figure's ones. As the newcomer came closer, he looked over the scene of Viola and Death. Viola was looking at the newcomer's face from under the hood, but could only see his lips, for the rest of the hood was somehow shrouded in shadow.

The newcomer turned towards Death and the two stared at each other. Then he reached into his own cloak and pulled out a small leather pouch. After untying the string, the newcomer spilled out the contents onto his free hand. What Viola saw looked like white shards that seemed to reshape themselves on their own accord. She looked back at Death who was now eyeing these shards with a look of deep wanting.

The newcomer then tossed the shards up and Death pulled its hand back away from viola and caught them. The cloaked figure then quickly opened its mouth and devoured the shards with loud crunching that could be heard. To death's right, the grimoire shuddered slightly. As she looked, she saw her name slowly erase itself from the page, although she didn't realize it was her name from her mind blank state.

At this time, Death had finished devouring the shards and looked back at the Grimoire. Upon seeing that her name was no longer etched in it, Death seemed satisfied. The book closed with a snap and rebound itself, allowing death to take it under its arm. Death then retracted the wings and turned and glided away, disappearing into the darkness.

Viola turned to look at the figure who remained. She still held out her right hand in front of her with her left hand still clutching onto something. However now, it seemed like the blue glow was causing her to rise slowly. The figure glided over to her, his face incredibly close to hers. He then held out a hand, as if he was about to touch her face, but then he lifted it up into the air. As he did so, Viola felt a sudden feeling of rising rapidly. She looked down below as the cloaked figure watched her rise, before he himself disappeared into the darkness.

Viola's mind then started to regain some sense back. The purple glow reappeared on her chest and was starting to attribute to her ascent. The brighter it glowed, the faster she began to rise. The darkness was being left behind and above her, she could see herself being drawn into the light.

[Silverraptor]

I decided I needed to stop procrastinating at get this part written out. Especially since I had most of this scene planned out from the beginning, right around when Viola was about to leave for her first mission. Anyways, please enjoy.

[Lix Lorn]

...wow. That's.... I like it.

[licoot]

I wonder who saved her

[BladeofOblivion]

I wonder who saved her

Tune in for the next episode of...


...The Twilight Zone.

(Cue Creepy Na-Na-Na-Na music.)

[Grimlock]

Ooooooooooo! I like this one Silver! Very much. I wonder who that shadowy, white shard carrying figure is?

[Fable Wright]

Hmm... one arc down, 3~4 to go.

Also, awesome update, as usual. Death is usually a hard scene to do right.

[Blue Ghost]

Awesome.

Silver, I must say thank you for continuing this story all the way.

[Partysan]

Well done, this might be one of the coolest death scenes I've ever read.

[Ranger Mattos]

That was great. I've never seen a better death scene.

[Blue Ghost]

Hmm... the sonnet I quoted in my signature is quite appropriate here...

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.
For those thou thinkst thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

[Silverraptor]

I really thought this scene out when I first thought of it. It certainly seemed epic to me and I knew I had to put it in. In fact, part of the story molded itself around this scene itself.

Anyways, I'm glad I really portrayed death well.

[BisectedBrioche]

That was a creepy scene...

[Silverraptor]

That was a creepy scene...

But good, I hope...

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Its been playing in my head over and over, and everytime I would try to improve it to make it better. And the result seemed to be just perfect.

Oddly enough, this boasting reminded me of this.

Spoiler

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[BisectedBrioche]

I meant that in a positive way.

[Silverraptor]

I meant that in a positive way.

Excellent!

[ThePhantom]

Excellent work. Now the question remains, what price was paid to Death?

[Recaiden]

Excellent work. Now the question remains, what price was paid to Death?

I think it was someone's paladin powers.

[Fable Wright]

Excellent work. Now the question remains, what price was paid to Death?

Maybe something naturally occurring, or manufactured, but rare, that has the energy of a soul.

[Lix Lorn]

A paladin crystal..?