The Damned Paladin-Chapter 134: Mera’s Vision

While Gabriel lay asleep , Mera made her decision.

She’d waited until deep night when Tess finally left the cabin to eat something. The woman had been sitting vigil beside Gabriel’s hammock for nearly two days, refusing to leave, barely sleeping.

But exhaustion claimed everyone eventually.

The moment Tess disappeared down the corridor, Mera moved.

Gabriel’s pack lay beneath his hammock, partially hidden by shadow. She’d seen him check it obsessively. Seen the way he protected it. Watched him pull the book from its depths and bleed onto its cover.

The book called to her.

She pulled it free carefully, unwrapping the leather cloth Gabriel used to protect it. The cover was warm beneath her fingers. Warmer than it should be, like something alive resided within.

This is wrong.

I shouldn’t.

But the pull was undeniable. She’d watched Gabriel use it twice now. Seen the visions take him. Seen the knowledge pour into him like water into a vessel.

I need to understand. Need to see what he sees.

Then I’ll know how to help him fulfill his purpose.

Mera pulled her knife.

Drew the blade across her palm without hesitation. The cut was deeper than necessary. Blood welled up dark and eager.

She pressed her palm to the book’s cover.

The blood vanished instantly, soaking into leather like rain into parched earth. Heat spread up her arm, into her chest, filling her skull with pressure that built and built until she thought her head might split.

Then the world fell away.

The cabin disappeared. The ship. The ocean. Everything.

Mera stood in nothing. Just void. Vast and empty and waiting.

A voice spoke from everywhere and nowhere.

"You will see what he will become."

The voice was old. Ancient. It resonated through her bones like the first word ever spoken.

Drusgard.

Before Mera could respond, the void ignited.

Fire bloomed around her, but it didn’t burn. She stood in the center of an inferno that raged without consuming. Through the flames, shapes began to form.

An army.

Thousands of soldiers, maybe tens of thousands, stretching across a battlefield that had no horizon. They wore armor Mera didn’t recognize. Carried weapons from a dozen different kingdoms. But they all followed one standard.

A banner depicting flames wreathed around a figure with red eyes.

Gabriel’s banner.

The vision shifted, pulling Mera forward through time and space. She saw battles. Dozens of them. Gabriel at the center of each one, fire coiling around him like living serpents. He moved through enemy formations with surgical precision, each gesture sending flames into ranks of soldiers.

But these weren’t bandits or Paladins.

These were something else. Something wrong. Their armor gleamed white and gold. Their weapons blazed with holy light. Their faces were beautiful and terrible.

Angels.

Gabriel was fighting angels.

The vision showed him cutting through them like wheat. Fire erupted from his hands in sustained bursts that lasted longer than should be possible. Thirty seconds. Forty. His body wreathed in flames that never consumed him.

He’d become what the book promised. What Drusgard’s warrior had been.

Pure destruction wrapped in purpose.

The vision shifted again.

A temple. Massive. Built from white stone that hurt to look at directly. Seven statues dominated the interior, each one depicting an Archangel in their divine glory.

Gabriel stood at the center, hands raised. Fire spiraled around him in a vortex that touched the ceiling.

The statues began to crack.

One by one they shattered, stone exploding outward as Gabriel’s fire consumed the representations of the divine. The temple shook. Walls crumbled. The ceiling collapsed in sections.

Gabriel walked out of the destruction without looking back. Behind him, the temple burned. The Seven’s earthly seat reduced to ash and rubble.

He’s meant to tear down heaven itself.

The realization crystallized in Mera’s mind with absolute certainty.

This wasn’t random violence. This was destiny. Purpose. The culmination of everything Gabriel had survived.

The Order had tortured him, trying to break his Dracamerian nature.

Instead, they’d forged him into exactly what was needed.

A weapon against the divine.

The vision shifted one final time.

Mera saw Gabriel standing on a mountain peak she didn’t recognize. The sky above burned red. Seven figures descended from the clouds, wings spread wide, radiance spilling from them like liquid light.

The Archangels themselves.

Gabriel raised both hands. Fire erupted, but this wasn’t the controlled flames from training. This was something primal. Ancient. Power that predated the Seven’s claim to divinity.

Dracamerian fire at its absolute limit.

The flames met the descending Archangels and for a moment, just a moment, Mera saw them falter. Saw divine certainty crack. Saw fear in immortal eyes.

Then the vision collapsed.

Mera gasped, the book falling from her hands. She was back in the cabin, swaying with the ship’s motion, her palm still bleeding onto the floor.

Tears streamed down her face.

Not from pain. From understanding.

I was right. I was always right.

He’s not just touched by the Maker.

He’s the Maker’s weapon against the false gods.

Footsteps in the corridor. Tess returning.

Mera quickly rewrapped the book and shoved it back into Gabriel’s pack. She grabbed a cloth and wrapped her bleeding palm, hiding the evidence.

Tess entered the cabin and immediately looked at Gabriel. Still . Still barely breathing.

"Any change?" Tess asked.

"No." Mera’s voice came out steady despite the revelation burning in her chest. "He’s stable. But still gone."

Tess nodded and returned to her vigil beside his hammock. She took his hand again, fingers threading through his like they belonged there.

Mera watched them with new understanding.

She thinks she loves him.

But she loves a man. A mortal.

She doesn’t see what he truly is.

What he will become.

Mera left the cabin quietly. Climbed to the deck where the night air was cold and clean. She moved to the bow and stared out at the dark ocean.

Her palm throbbed where she’d cut it. The wound would scar. Another mark to match the ones Gabriel carried.

He bears the scars of his making. I’ll bear mine of understanding.

The water ahead glowed faintly with bioluminescence, disturbed by the ship’s passage. Patterns formed and dissolved in the wake.

Four weeks until the Isle of Giants.

Four weeks until he finds more answers.

Four weeks until destiny advances another step.

Mera touched her wrapped palm to her chest.

I’ll be ready. When the time comes, when he needs someone who understands.

I’ll be there.

Because Tess could offer him love, companionship, humanity.

But Mera could offer him something greater.

She could offer him his destiny.

And she would, when he was ready to accept it.

The ocean stretched ahead into darkness. Somewhere beyond the horizon, the Isle of Giants waited. And beyond that, temples to burn. Angels to kill. A divine order to tear down.

All of it starting with one broken man who didn’t yet understand what he’d become.

Mera smiled.

Let Tess have her mortal love. Let her hold his hand and whisper sweet words.

In the end, it wouldn’t matter.

Destiny always won.

Two days later, Gabriel woke.

Mera was in the cabin when it happened, sitting in the corner with her wooden figure and knife. She’d been there for hours, carving and waiting.

She felt it the moment consciousness returned to him. A shift in the air. The bond between them pulling taut like a rope under sudden weight.

He’s back.

Gabriel’s eyes opened slowly, unfocused at first, then clearing. He blinked at the ceiling, processing where he was.

Tess wasn’t there. She’d gone to get food, leaving Mera to watch.

Perfect.

"Gabriel," Mera said softly.

His head turned toward her voice. "Mera." His voice was rough. Damaged. "How long?"

"Two days. You pushed yourself too far with the kraken." Mera set down her carving and stood. "Tess has been here almost constantly. She just left."

Gabriel tried to sit up. The movement was weak, uncoordinated. Mera crossed the cabin and helped him, supporting his weight until he was upright in the hammock.

"Thanks," he said.

"Of course." Mera knelt beside the hammock so their eyes were level. "I understand now."

Gabriel’s expression shifted to wariness. "Understand what?"

"What you are. What you’re meant to become." Mera’s hands trembled with the weight of revelation. "I used the book while you slept. I saw visions."

Gabriel went very still. "You did what?"

"I had to know. Had to understand why the Maker chose you." Mera’s words came faster now, spilling out. "And I saw it, Gabriel. I saw you leading armies. Burning temples. Fighting the Seven themselves." Her eyes were bright with fervor. "You’re meant to tear down heaven itself."

"Mera..." Gabriel’s voice carried warning.

"You don’t believe me. I know. But I saw it." Mera grabbed his hand, ignoring how he flinched. "Drusgard showed me. His voice said ’You will see what he will become.’ This isn’t random. This is prophecy."

"They’re just memories." Gabriel tried to pull his hand back but was too weak. "The book shows history. Things that happened to my ancestors."

"No." Mera shook her head firmly. "Some were history. But what I saw? That was future. Gabriel wreathed in flames that burned for longer than any human could survive. Gabriel fighting divine beings and winning." Her grip tightened. "Gabriel fulfilling the purpose the Maker set for him three years ago when he sent you to save me."

"I’m not divine. I’m not chosen." Gabriel’s jaw clenched. "I’m just someone trying to survive."

"You survived torture that would have killed anyone else. You survived Ariya. You survived killing a Paladin Commander. You survived pushing past your limits to save this ship." Mera’s voice carried absolute certainty. "That’s not luck, Gabriel. That’s providence."

Footsteps in the corridor. Tess returning.

Mera released Gabriel’s hand and stood just as Tess entered carrying a bowl of something that steamed.

"You’re awake," Tess said, relief flooding her expression. She crossed to the hammock quickly, setting the bowl aside to cup Gabriel’s face. "How do you feel?"

"Like I burned myself out." Gabriel’s eyes moved between Tess and Mera. "But I’ll recover."

"The surgeon said you need another day of rest minimum." Tess helped him drink water from a skin. "No training. No fire work. Just sleep and food."

"I’ll rest." Gabriel’s gaze found Mera again. "But first we need to talk. All of us."

Mera smiled. "Of course. When you’re ready."

She left the cabin, her steps light despite everything.

Tess watched her go, then turned to Gabriel. "What was that about?"

"She used the book." Gabriel’s voice was flat. "While I was unconscious. She cut herself and bled onto it."

"What?" Tess’s hand moved to her sword instinctively. "What did she see?"

"Visions. She thinks they’re prophecy." Gabriel closed his eyes briefly. "She thinks I’m meant to destroy the Seven. To tear down heaven itself."

"That’s insane."

"I know." Gabriel took the bowl Tess offered and forced himself to eat. The stew was warm and filling. "But try telling her that. She’s convinced this is divine will."

Tess sat on the edge of the hammock, her hand finding his knee. "We need to do something about her. This worship is getting dangerous."

"I know that too." Gabriel set the bowl aside half-finished. "But what? She won’t listen to reason. She twists everything to fit her worldview."

"Then we separate her from the group. Send her somewhere safe where she can’t hurt herself or anyone else."

"And where would that be?" Gabriel met Tess’s eyes. "We’re on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Then we’ll be on an island full of giants. There’s nowhere to send her."

"Then we watch her. Constantly. Don’t let her near the book again."

"She’ll find a way." Gabriel’s jaw tightened. "She’s obsessed. Obsession makes people creative."

They sat in silence for a moment, the ship creaking around them.

"When we get to the Isle," Tess said eventually, "we find what we need and leave. Fast. Before Mera’s worship turns into something worse."

"Agreed."

But Gabriel’s gut told him it was already too late.

Mera had seen her vision. Had interpreted it as divine truth. And nothing he said or did would change that.

She thinks I’m meant to fight gods.

And maybe she’s right.

Maybe that’s exactly what I’m becoming.

The thought should have terrified him.

Instead, it just felt inevitable.