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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/PepperAntique on 2024-11-01 19:10:24+00:00.

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Writer's Note: Didn't think I'd write today. But here we are.

Enjoy.

As Joey and Captain Kaladi struggled to defeat each other, someone besides Noodle and the retreating Ykmir watched with great intensity.

He stood to the side, his bottomless dark eyes sealed shut as he used his other, more godly, senses to bear witness anyways.

He saw the struggle in the younger Choi's heart. The anger. The fear. The desire to simply be left alone.

He knew that struggle. He'd had it himself years before, in a different lifetime.

He watched as the two of them locked blades one last time. The Cobalt Legion Captain was almost finished, while Joey still had energy to spare.

He listened as Joey gave the captain one last chance.

"Stop fighting and you might still survive what you've done to yourself." He said through clenched teeth as he squeezed her wrist with bone-breaking strength as he bent her over backwards.

The metal of her armor squealed as it failed to resist the strength in the grip. Her face was the purple of a bruise and her eyes, nose, and ears were bleeding as blood vessels all throughout her body burst from strain. The pupil in her left eyes was a ragged hole that no longer allowed clear vision. Pink foam lined the corners of her mouth as she breathed out in ragged gasps.

"I don't want to hurt people." Joey said. "I don't want to kill people. I don't want to kill you." He pressed harder. But she continued straining to push her short sword deeper into his side. It was futile. With his grip and his own blade puncturing her thigh she had no leverage to gain. But he felt the struggle.

She'd put on a better fight than she should have given her injuries. But no amount of aide from her armor could win her this battle.

She looked him in the eyes, past the painful light of his luminescence, and she saw, despite all the other conflicting emotions in there, the small part of him that was pleading for her to just... relent.

The being watching continued to focus on the fighting pair.

And it did something no other "God" had ever done before.

It began to practice faith in another being.

It knew..... with every ounce of its incorporeal existence.... that it's little brother would be better than it had been when it had still been mortal.

But it could, by nature, not do anything to ensure that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joey pressed his sword hand forward ever so slightly, causing the legionnaire to move closer to the ground as he pushed down on it. Its tip was already several inches into the ground beneath her.

She was dying.

He'd known that the moment she'd activated her armor's ultimate enhancements. They would burn her body like a resource to buy her more power. But she'd crossed the boundary into lethal usage territory minutes ago.

And even with the sword still lodged in his left kidney, it hadn't gotten her any kind of permanent damage on him. His wand was already fully regrown from losing fingers. His lung was un-punctured. His right leg had no sign of the slash that had flayed open his calf.

He was, with the exception of the blade still inside of him, fine.

She had won nothing from him except time, and his mounting anger.

And he hated the fear he was now seeing in her slowly stilling left eye.

He'd never wanted to be the cause of anything like that for anybody.

He was reminded of something his brother had once said to him during one of his breakdowns back before he'd "left."

> 
> "So yeah Jojo. I understand the way you reacted back at the desert. I might be the only other person in our family who does. And I broke rule number one too." James had said with a pained smile and a haunted look as he sat on Joey's bed back at the castle. "I've broken that rule quite a few times since I've gotten here."
> 
> 
> 

They'd sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments before James had continued.

"Noone's gonna blame you if you want to stop learning magic Jojo." He'd said with a hand on Joey's leg. "Nobody's gonna blame you for wanting to stay in here after what happened. It's... it's understandable. But mom needs you to at least come back out of the room from time to time. Veliry wants you back out. I want you back out. Hell. I bet even Batty would like to see you again and hang out." He'd given a small nod, mostly to himself. Before taking a long breath, as if to brace himself. "Scratch that." He said. He'd pointed at his own chest. And his next words had sounded pained. "IIIII... definitely need you back man.... I'm in over my head here." He'd admitted. Joey had never seen fear like that in his brother's eyes before. "And most of the stuff I do is so that I can see you and mom again and make sure you two are safe.

A few minutes and a bit more talking later, his brother had left him with one last message.

"Take your time Jo." He said as he'd gotten back to his feet with the aide of a pair of crutches. "But come back to us okay?"

Joey looked back into the dying warrior's eyes as he snapped back to the current moment. Her head was lolling slightly as she struggled to maintain focus.

"I'm not a monster." He said firmly as he released his rapier and placed his hand on her heavily dented breast plate. "I am not my disability. I'm not its slave. And I won't be yours either." His other hand pulled her sword arm back and away from him at the same time, withdrawing her sword from his abdomen in the process.

White light flared between them as his hand grew brighter than the very sunlight around them.

"But I'm not letting you stop me either."

His hand rushed forward, pressing her back.

Her left leg buckled from strain even as the tibia and fibia of her right leg shattered from the sudden downward force. If her lungs had still been fully functional, she would have screamed even despite the pain nullifying effects of her armor. Effects which had slowly lost function as the battle had worn on.

She impacted the ground with an explosion of dirt and stone as Joey pressed her into it. Her armor screamed and tore as he worked his imagination toward her defeat.

Behind him, and unseen to him, his brother smiled before leaving again.

After several long seconds, which felt like hours to her, Joey stood up over the defeated warrior. The wound on his side flared white as it healed itself. He was breathing heavily.

"You'll live." He said as he looked down at her. "But you won't be my problem ever again."

Below, Captain Kaladi was entombed in her armor. But it wasn't really her armor anymore.

It no longer had joints or seams, and looked instead like it had been melted onto her as she lay there broken.

She struggled feebly at it with her broken body. But its enchantments had been broken the same way it had, and she was wracked with pain and exhaustion. Even if she hadn't been, portions of her "armor" had been fused together to form long, spiraling, stakes that now extended several feet into the ground below. Only her head was exposed now. But the rest of her was immobilized. All the plates and joints having been fused together like malleable putty by Joey's mind and power.

Joey pulled his rapier out of her thigh with a wet rasp, causing her to whimper in pain, and also took the short sword from her petrified gauntlet, as he stood up and took a long, exhausted breath.

"Under...." She wheezed painfully from behind him. Bloody foam oozed out of her mouth as one of her eyes rested in the wrong spot compared to the other. He spared her a glance. She was delirious. "....a....arr....arrest."

"Shut up." He said dismissively as he made his way out of the miniature crater she now rested in.

He didn't have time to spare her anymore attention. As their fight had progressed, and as she'd become weaker and easier to deal with, he'd noticed the ruckus of the nearby woods. He'd also noticed Noodle's agitated state, and also the flaring magical energies that had been rapidly approaching.

He knew what, or more accurately WHO, was approaching.

And as he stood back to his full height he saw the man he'd expected to see.

Despite the layers of blood, fur, branches and needles, and a familiar yellowish green fecal goo, Joey easily recognized the blade-crested blue and black helm of Commander Vann as he finally fought his way free of the horde of slingers he'd just slaughtered his way through.

Behind him a handful of other Cobalt Legionnaires were similarly hacking their way out of the forest before turning so they could continue holding the encroaching horde off for their commander.

Noodle fired a blast of fire at the commander as he stalked forward. In response he raised his hand and a field of blue appeared in front of his hand as his fingers glowed with runes. The flame of the blast bounced off at an angle and dissipated harmlessly in the sky.

Joey walked up next to her and slapped her flank lightly. She roared as she looked back at him with anger before realizing who it was.

"Get out of the way girl." He said as she stepped to the side and fell back, somewhat afraid of yet another dangerous smart thing. "This is mine."

Vann paused as he saw the discarded helmet of his captain on the ground between them. Then he looked around at all the blood scattered around the area. Finally, he looked at the crater Joey had just emerge...
***
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