Father's Blessings

[Shay Cormac]

Hours seemed to have passed, and the Templar did not move. He could not. So flimsy were his arms as they drooped down to clutch at his knees. His master probably would have thought it a shame, but Shay couldn't have cared less at the moment. As much as he wanted to hate Enel for what he had done so many moments ago, thoughts of his past life riddled him. Annoyed him. For once, guilt and melancholy did not linger in the man; it was replaced by pure spite instead. 

Shay Patrick Cormac would not be the one to let it get to his head, no. But, as he thought of LAW, his blood couldn't stop from boiling. 

King Gilgamesh was long gone now, and Nippur was no more than ruins at this point. That much was blatantly obvious to anybody in Shay's place that held some notion of common sense. Why go back at that point? Shay seriously considered asking himself, thinking of doing nothing but hunting down those responsible for harming the only ones who kept him safe in this godless realm known as the Omniverse. However, the privateer immediately hushed himself upon thinking of her again. 

Agnés. The only living being in the Omniverse to offer him some form of friendship since being forcefully thrown into a world with problems that alluded him. She was gone too. "Shite. SHITE." The man's voice was still coarse, and as much as he wished to scream, Shay could not.

The Templar took his fist, placing it firmly on his forehead in a useless attempt to compress the migraine still pounding at his skull. 

Standing upright in a quick, fluid motion, the privateer almost tumbled over at the sudden spike of pain taking over his legs. Still, he walked forward. At least, Shay thought he was. In reality, it was more of a bare limp.

Whether he was moving or not didn't matter. Raising his hand, Shay Cormac gritted his teeth. Omnilium coursed through his veins, almost seeming as if it was fueled by the bitterness in his soul. 

Closing his eyes, the Templar trudged forwards towards the gate of the Engless Dunes. Until then, Shay Cormac could feel the outfit on his body getting heavier. Each step he took was like an extra stride up an endless flight of stairs. Omnilium slowly started solidifying itself around the privateer. It was almost like plates of metal were being thrown onto him.

On second thought, it was. Shay Cormac opened his eyes for a moment, looking down upon whatever his mind could have came up with in order to get ready for what Nippur might have held; he found his legs were surrounded by the flexible plate of an English cuirassier. It took no more than a few minutes for Shay to take ten more strides forwards, now feeling the sensation of a lobster-tail pot helmet wrapped snugly around his head. The pain in his legs seemed to cease, almost as if the added protection healed him of his aches somehow. The Templar couldn't tell if it was placebo effect or Omniphysics doing it's work, but he was grateful. 

Still, he thought, a cuirassier without a steed?  Shay sighed, coughing as he did so. His newly acquired steel would have to do. Looking up at the blinding illumination of the Nexus, the crusader closed his eyes once more and prayed in the only manner he knew how.

Nippur was close, and Shay's only option was conquest.


May the Father of Understanding guide me.