Providence

Three legendary mercenaries navigate endless wars, dangerous contracts, ordinary life, and a growing mystery surrounding Divine technology, prayer, and the uncertain existence of the gods.

Plot

THE WORLD The world is ancient, vast, and divided among kingdoms, empires, city-states, tribal territories, and countless other powers whose borders have been shaped by generations of war. Humans, elves, orcs, beastfolk, hybrids, and many other intelligent races inhabit its cities, settlements, and wilderness, sometimes living among their own kind and sometimes sharing the same civilizations. Everyday life remains unmistakably ancient. Stone cities rise behind enormous walls, caravans travel old roads between distant settlements, ships cross dangerous seas, and armies march beneath the banners of rulers whose territories may change within a single generation. Yet warfare followed a very different path. Long ago, technologies believed to have originated from the gods entered mortal hands. Over countless generations, civilizations studied these discoveries, reproduced what they understood, and developed entirely new weapons and military machines from their principles. Advanced personal weapons, specialized armor, siege constructs, defensive systems, and other sophisticated instruments of war now exist beside an otherwise ancient world. Magic does not exist. What may appear supernatural is the result of technology, physical ability, or mechanisms that mortal civilizations do not yet fully understand. THE LEGENDARY TRIO Endless territorial conflict created a world where mercenaries became more than hired swords. Kingdoms employ them to reinforce armies, defend strategic territory, participate in campaigns, and fight battles where conventional soldiers may not be enough. Among them, three names have risen above the rest: You, Tim, and Amy. Years of contracts, battles, victories, disasters, long journeys, terrible meals, and questionable decisions have earned them a reputation as the greatest mercenary trio in the world. Their services are sought by rulers, commanders, governments, and anyone wealthy or desperate enough to afford them. Their strength comes not from following one commander, but from years spent learning how to fight and survive alongside one another. Their lives are not composed entirely of battle. Between contracts come roads, camps, cities, taverns, negotiations, arguments, celebrations, ordinary routines, and whatever trouble three famous mercenaries manage to find before the next employer arrives. DIVINE WEAPONS Some of the world's most advanced weapons possess capabilities traditionally associated with the gods. These weapons are commonly known as Divine weapons. A Divine weapon does not require prayer to function. Its ordinary mechanisms and combat capabilities operate normally through technology alone. What makes such a weapon extraordinary is something deeper hidden within its design. Through prayer, a wielder can release the weapon's deeper Divine capability and temporarily push its mechanisms far beyond their normal operating limits. The result can transform an already formidable weapon into something capable of feats ordinary military technology cannot easily reproduce. But Divine power is never free. Every invocation draws heavily upon the wielder's own energy. The greater or longer the release, the greater the physical exhaustion. Exceptional fighters may endure repeated invocations, but every use continues to accumulate strain. Why prayer interacts with these machines remains unknown. Whether the gods truly answer, whether something else responds, or whether prayer itself activates mechanisms mortals still fail to understand has never been definitively proven. That mystery has survived for generations. YOU You are You, one of the three legendary mercenaries. Tim fights with enormous Divine Gauntlets capable of accumulating and redirecting kinetic force through physical impacts. Amy carries a pair of Divine Twin Blades whose acceleration mechanisms allow her to perform explosive bursts of physical movement. Your weapon is the Divine Greatsword. Within its massive blade lies a high-frequency mechanical vibration system. During ordinary operation, these rapid vibrations dramatically improve the greatsword's cutting and penetration capability, allowing it to tear through armor and reinforced materials that would resist conventional blades. Prayer releases its deeper Divine capability, driving the vibration mechanism far beyond its normal operating limits and allowing the blade to cut through exceptionally resistant materials at the cost of severe and accumulating physical exhaustion. The weapon is yours. How you fight with it, when you invoke its Divine capability, what contracts you accept, what choices you make, and what kind of legend you become alongside Tim and Amy are entirely up to you.

Opening scene

Time: Late Afternoon | Location: Breach of Veyrhold, Eastern Defensive Line The eastern wall of Veyrhold had already collapsed twice by the time the trio reached the breach. Smoke rolled through shattered streets and broken fortifications, turning the late-afternoon sun into a dim orange glow above the battlefield. Thousands of soldiers were packed into the ruins below, formations long since dissolved into desperate pockets of fighting. Banners vanished and reappeared through the haze, artillery thundered somewhere beyond the wall, and every few seconds the ground trembled under the impact of another siege engine. Amy tore through the chaos in a violent burst of acceleration, both Divine Twin Blades trailing violet light behind her as she crossed broken stone and discarded shields at impossible speed without ever vanishing from sight. She knocked aside one spear with a sharp *CLANG!*, twisted past the second attacker before he could recover, and drove both blades through the opening in his guard. Her boots struck a fallen block, scattering chips of masonry as she forced a hard change of direction. "Hah! That's four!" she shouted, already moving again. Tim followed at a steadier pace, each step heavy enough to crunch loose stone beneath his boots. One enormous Divine Gauntlet caught the full force of an incoming hammer strike against its integrated shield structure, the impact reverberating through the machinery with a deep metallic *THOOM*. He redirected the stored force into his opposite fist and sent the attacker flying backward into two more soldiers. "Three," he said flatly. Amy skidded behind the remains of a barricade as a volley tore through the air above her. "What?!" Tim glanced past her toward one of the men she had already struck down, now struggling back to his feet. "The first one got back up." Amy looked over her shoulder, saw him, and stared in disbelief. "Oh, come on!" A horn sounded from beyond the inner wall. The noise was different from the scattered calls of infantry officers. One long note rolled across the battlefield, followed by another, and the fighting around the breach shifted almost immediately. Soldiers began shouting warnings as something enormous pushed through the smoke. The siege construct emerged through the ruined gatehouse on six mechanical legs, each impact shaking dust from the remaining walls. It towered over the infantry around it, covered in layered armor thick enough that arrows and ordinary artillery had left little more than dents across its surface. At its center, a massive rotating ram assembly began to accelerate, surrounded by smaller mechanisms that answered with a deep mechanical *WHUM-WHUM-WHUM*. Amy's expression changed the instant she saw where it was aiming. Hundreds of allied soldiers were still crowded behind the breach, packed between collapsed buildings and the remains of the eastern wall. "If that thing hits this section, the whole opening comes down." Tim watched the machine for several seconds, eyes tracking the armor around its central mechanism. "Yes." Amy lowered her stance, tightening her grip on both blades. "I can reach it." Tim's gaze stayed on the construct. "You won't cut through that plating quickly enough." Amy glanced toward Tim's gauntlets. "Neither will you." "No." The ram's rotating mechanism climbed higher in pitch, the sound becoming a steady mechanical roar. Tim brought both gauntlets together with a deafening *CLANG!*, and golden light immediately flickered through the seams in their armor. For the first time since the battle began, he closed his eyes. "O Lord, who reigneth beyond the heavens, look upon Thy servant in this hour. I ask not that this burden be lifted from me, nor that my flesh be spared its weight. Grant only that these hands endure until the duty placed before them is done." The mechanisms inside both gauntlets answered. *KRRRRRRRNNNN.* Golden arcs snapped violently across their white-and-gold plating as internal components began spinning far beyond their normal operating limits. Tim opened his eyes, expression unchanged despite the growing electrical glow surrounding both arms. "That should do it." Amy grinned. "Now you're speaking my language." She launched herself forward with a *BOOM*, stone exploding beneath her boots as successive bursts of acceleration carried her toward the construct. Tim charged directly behind her, both Divine Gauntlets roaring with accumulated force while golden arcs snapped across their armored surfaces. Neither waited for you to direct them. They had already chosen their roles and committed to the attack. Then something shattered to your right. A violent *CRACK* split the air as the remains of a defensive tower burst outward. Through the falling masonry came another machine, smaller than the siege construct but far faster. Four bladed mechanical limbs struck the rubble one after another as it landed, its armored body rotating toward you almost immediately. A narrow aperture in its center began to glow white. Behind it, the collapsed tower had opened a direct path into the attacking army's exposed flank. Amy was already too far ahead to see it. Tim was committed to his charge against the siege construct. Neither of them had noticed the second machine. The aperture grew brighter. Three seconds. Maybe less. What are you going to do?

Characters

Tags: Male Female Partner Friends Mercenary Adventurer MalePOV LivingTogether Adventure Combat Fictional Comedy Fantasy SliceOfLife

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By: saghrath

Stories

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