Selene...
When Dean came back from his meeting with the king he seemed confused and anxious about something.
"Did something happen? You don't have that expression unless its something bad involving me," she said concerned. The few times that the king had personal issues with her being present in the kingdom, he would make Dean order her on specific jobs throughout the world as a way to prove her usefulness to Duranell.
It also made her assume that it was to keep her from being executed for being so powerful. If she had to assume correctly, whatever that meeting was about, it had to be about either her or Marcus.
She hoped that it didn't involve her just because she had assimilated Artemis' power as part of herself.
"Don't worry Selene. Its not about you this time but...it could be much worse. Its about Marcus...," he said and sounded like he was going to elaborate but trailed off as he looked around him before he continued.
"The king has demanded the participation of the Darkmoon Knights and the Ruin Sentinels in the Contest of Champions. Both Marcus and Artemis are required to represent our two brotherhoods," he said and her eyes widened in surprise upon hearing that.
"Wait, Artemis joined the Ruin Sentinels?!" she asked and he nodded.
"A week after you came back from Lunaas, Lysandra recruited her into the Ruin Sentinels and now she's living here in Duranell," he continued and for some reason Selene felt happy to hear that.
The two of them weren't especially close but she still felt happy that she wasn't too far away so that they could meet each other again.
"Wait, why does the king require Artemis to participate? I understand having Marcus participate, with him showing up in this world and being another superpower of our brotherhood, the king would want to make sure his loyalties aren't in question or that he isn't dangerous. For Artemis though, she proved her loyalty during the war didn't she?"
"Selene, neither you or I even knew her name or who she really was until after she showed herself and told you about herself. Even when I fought alongside her and Adrian, I didn't hear a thing about her aside from what she did during the war. Adrian kept a very tight lid about who she was. I only knew her for about three years before she disappeared with Adrian and I didn't see her again even when she returned to the war nearly a year later. With that in mind, even though she did fight on Duranell's side, it doesn't make much of a difference if her character has been completely hidden from the world," Dean explained but she still seemed confused as to why they would need to question the valor of someone like Artemis. It seemed over the top.
"You don't seem all that worried about Artemis' reaction to this though. You're more worried about how Marcus will feel, aren't you?" she asked.
"I am. You recruited him on your own and gave him the promise of protection without consulting me first and even took him on a very dangerous job, one that actually resulted in multiple small villages being flattened in the process. On top of that, he managed to kill one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet, even if it was with your help. There are plenty of reasons why the king would view him as a threat," he said but Selene was more surprised when he had mentioned the villages being destroyed.
"Hold on, you said that multiple villages were destroyed in the process. What did you mean by that? How did it happen?"
"When Malthael released that beam of black fire from his mouth, it carved a canyon into the northern hemisphere of the Eleum continent before it escaped the planet's atmosphere and carved another canyon into our largest moon Phobos. He killed about seven thousand people in the process and would have killed more had we not reacted in time and killed the Draugr that were made from his flames," he said and a feeling of panic almost overwhelmed her.
"D-Dean, I'm sorry. I-I didn't know-!" she started but he waved his hand through the air dismissively.
"Shut up, its fine. You actually did the right thing so I'm not blaming you for anything. If the three of you didn't take the job in time then that thing would have killed us all surely. You managed to stop them before Malthael could amass his full strength and build an army of Draugr. Yet despite this, the king is threatened by Marcus's strength and his questionable character. No one knows who the hell he is so the king is using the contest as an excuse to judge his character. If by some stroke of luck that Marcus loses and it turns out that there is someone powerful enough to beat him in a fight then there shouldn't be any reason for the king to feel threatened but if Marcus throws a fight then that would mean he is hiding his power so this situation has to be handled carefully," Dean said which did unnerve her but made perfect sense.
Her eyes then drifted over to the entrance as a familiar feeling washed over her and she noticed that Marcus had walked through the entrance and met her eyes as if greeting her.
"Speak of the devil," she said.
"Do you want to tell him or should I?" Dean asked.
"It'll go better if I tell him. He trusts me, I don't know if he trusts you though?" she said.
He shrugged before walking over to the bar and asked for a glass of whiskey.
"Marcus, can I talk to you for a minute? I need to tell you something," she said.
"Is it about me joining the Contest of Champions?" he asked and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. Even Dean seemed to hear him say that and his head slowly turned in disbelief at his words.
She pulled him over to the side and asked, "How the hell do you already know about that? That information hasn't even been released to the public yet and I only now just heard about it from Dean a few minutes ago."
Marcus looked around as if to make sure no one was close enough to listen to him as he said, "You remember how Artemis said she was attacked by a man named Ruvick? The man you said you met when you were younger? I met him today," he said and she didn't know how to react.
"Y-you met him? What did he say? What did he look like? What happened?" she asked but Marcus held his hand up as if to ask her 'one question at a time'.
He then looked at Dean and waved for her to follow him. She decided to do what he asked and said, "I don't trust Dean with this information so I'm only telling you this. Can you promise me not to tell anyone else about this?"
"I can't promise that, I'm sorry. I have responsibilities as the vice-captain to disclose any important information-," she tried to say but he cut her off.
"Selene, don't act like an idiot when I know you aren't one. Be serious for a moment and think past your responsibilities. Think about your own personal safety when I tell you this. Now, can you promise not to tell anyone what I am about to tell you?" he asked once again.
For him to act so serious in this manner worried her.
"Marcus..., for you to ask this of me...does this effect Thalia's safety as well? Is that why you are being so secretive about this?" she asked.
"That is part of the reason but there is more to it than that. I can't quite put my finger onto what the other reason is but I feel that there is something more to the importance of what I'm going to tell you," he stated and she decided to trust him on this.
She took in a deep breath and said, "Alright, fine. I swear to you that I won't tell anyone about this information."
"Do not swear upon my name. Making an oath on my name means nothing. If you are truly serious about this, then swear upon the name of Styx that you will never share this information with anyone unless I deem it no longer necessary to keep secret. There is no greater oath than that," he said with his eyes bearing down on her. It was unnerving to see him like this.
"You're really serious about this...?" she asked.
"I am. Swear it."
"I swear upon the Styx that whatever information you share with me, I will not share it with anyone else unless you say it is no longer a problem to share," she said and for some reason she felt a cold shiver run down her spine. It was the same feeling would get if she had dived into a pool of cold water.
He then frowned but seemed satisfied by her response as he said, "Good, now listen closely. I did meet Ruvick here in Duranell. He told me that my participation and Artemis' as well was orchestrated by him and Kayron. Yes, he is linked to Kayron as well and yes, according to his word, he was partially responsible for Malthael's resurrection."
She took a step back in shock as she couldn't believe the words that had come out of his mouth. This man, the same man that had cursed Artemis and kept her so easily trapped in that town until they showed up was the one who was responsible for all of this and that he was linked to Kayron, he was behind the brotherhood's involvement with the contest of champions?!
"Marcus, I can't possibly keep this information to myself. I have to report it!"
"You've already sworn an oath upon the Styx. If the Greek myths are really true then any oath broken under that name could result in a fate worse than death. You cannot share this with anyone," he said.
"Why would you force me into an oath like that with information like this?" she demanded.
"Because Ruvick isn't just interested in me, he's interested in you too. Leaking that information could put you at risk too. I need time to figure out what his end goals are before I can take any kind of action against him. Besides, I don't think you can grasp just how potentially powerful this man is. You remember the story of Dagon, the God King and how he faced off against the unnamed Dark Champion for hundreds of years before disappearing from the world and presumed dead?"
"Yeah...?" she said as if asking what he was insinuating but fearing that she already knew the answer.
"The tomes in Duranell's museum are written in ancient Greek and they say that Ruvick was that 'Dark Champion'. If he is someone that was capable of matching against someone like Dagon, someone infamous around the world for being so powerful that he held the world in the palm of his hand, the depths of his power still being largely unknown, then why would we run the risk of making an enemy of him right now?"
"Are you saying that we should just let him do as he pleases?" she asked in a furious tone.
"No. In my world there is a saying. 'Keep your friends close, your enemies even closer'. In other words, the greatest way for us to defeat this kind of enemy is to make him our friend and try to learn as much as possible about his intentions and his abilities before taking any kind of action against him. Do you understand?"
She didn't like this. She didn't like it at all. It felt like there was some hidden movement behind the scenes that was already moving far too fast for her to keep up with.
That being said...Marcus was right. They needed to keep this information between the two of them. Kayron was widely known around the world as a mass murdering psychopath and a war criminal. The fact that Ruvick was tied to him and that the two of them seemed to have influence in the royal courts in Duranell would suggest that they have influence in other parts of the world as well.
If it was made apparent to the public that Marcus and Selene were aware of those connections then Kayron would surely use that influence against both of them.
"Hold on a moment, Ruvick told you that he was partially responsible for Malthael returning. What did you mean by that? Are you saying he is trying to shift blame?"
"No. In fact, he had a lengthy discussion with me over it. He said it was not his intention to bring Malthael back and that it was Kayron's idea. His only intent, as he put it, was 'to force us to adapt and master our newfound powers to a respectable degree'. As in, he seemed to already know about our abilities and wanted us to train them," he said.
"Wait, hold on. He was talking about both of us? But my magic has always been the same until the moment Artemis gave me her sword. How could he have known I would awaken that magic as a part of myself...," she tried to finish but she couldn't believe it.
"Unless Ruvick already knew that Artemis' moonlight was a part of your magic," he said as he finished her thought.
"Oh god...," she breathed out the words as the realization crushed her.
"Selene, this man has seemingly been alive for over ten thousand years. Do you really think that we shouldn't handle this situation with the utmost care? We need to see how this goes," he said.
She turned around and started pacing back and forth as she thought about this. Keeping this information to themselves seemed to be the only option they had but she had no idea how to do any kind of investigations on this man when there was nothing beyond the stories told about the Dark Champion, nothing to go off of. All they could do was hope that by playing along with what he wants that they would get some answers.
"One more thing to keep in mind is that he said that he would have a champion of his own participating in the contest to test Artemis and I, and that he had asked Moyako herself to participate," he said and when she thought that nothing could surprise her any further, that put the final nail in the coffin.
"How is Ruvick possibly connected to someone as esteemed as her?"
"We'll have to find out because apparently she's interested in meeting me personally," he said.
Cole...
A week later, in the Northern Continent...
At this man's feet lay the head of a stone giant, a construct of a man carved out of the mountains and canyons within a rift world created by a world stone. They were such magnificent things to witness even if they were walking disasters.
A rift world was similar to the concept of pocket dimensions in the sense that outside of the rift world, the surrounding area could be a small as someone's townhouse but on the inside, with enough power, you could hold multiple continents inside and establish your own societies within it. There were dozens of these rift worlds in the scattered kingdoms of the northern continent.
At one point, the northern continent was nothing more than a hellscape of nearly uninhabitable mountain ranges and canyons where some families that were hardened by the harsh terrain managed to survive and developed a society within those lands.
It was because of this harsh terrain that proved difficult for even Dagon himself to invade which made it all the more impressive that the people there were able to defend themselves against his armies at the time.
Now however, the caves and ravines within had long been explored and now had winding roads that navigated to numerous rift worlds within.
Of course, there were rift worlds all over Erebus but the Northern Continent seemed to contain the majority of them due to how secure and dangerous it was to attempt to navigate the terrain.
That being said, the world stones that sustain the existence of these rift worlds contain a powerful and concentrated form of magic that provides fertile land and life into that world. It is so strong in fact that some times, when people die within these rift worlds and the proper burial practices are not preformed, a person's soul might end up trapped within the land itself and that land will serve as a second chance at life for them. Sadly the person they once were is lost as their minds seemed to collapse after death and even further upon being merged with the terrain.
As these stone giants, they seem to feed on any living thing that they can find, even attempting to eat dragons. It seems that under any instance of a human that dies and is reanimated, their first instinct is to cannibalize another person's soul in an attempt to retain their sanity.
But for Cole Mohr, known as The Sword of Rain, beheading this stone giant and freeing whatever poor bastard that was trapped within the body of that monster was not an issue.
After turning in his report and collecting his payment for the job he noticed something on the job board. He usually preferred to work as an independent contractor but sometimes he helped the local brotherhoods and guilds when they needed help which allowed him to build good relationships with them and gain access to better paying jobs without having to be tied down to anywhere.
On this job board however was a flyer mentioning something called 'The Annual Contest of Champions' that was typically held in Duranell. Even though he's been living on this planet for almost eighty years but it was still difficult to read Erebus's version of English. The differences in how they were both written made it nauseating to think about.
As he continued reading he noticed that it said the brotherhoods called Ruin Sentinels and Darkmoon Knights would be making a special appearance as they would be participating in the contest with champions of their own, which was odd because neither of them typically participated in that kind of thing.
Apparently this flyer had been posted a little over a week ago.
It had the names listed below but since names usually varied in how they were spelled in this world's English he could almost never figure out how to read them so he let someone else read names for him.
A brotherhood member walked up to the job board to look for work.
"Can you do me a favor? Can you read the two names here for me?" he asked.
"Sure," he said as his eyes squinted before they both widened in surprised.
"Hold on, I know those two! They took on the Archdragon Malthael alongside Selene Kiser! Those two are real monsters!"
"Yeah, okay. What are their names?" he asked patiently.
"Well the first one says Artemis. I'd seen pictures of her and according to some reports, she was identified as one of the most powerful driving forces of the war. With her aiding in Malthael's defeat, some would say she's among the strongest women in the world!"
"Really...? She helped take down that beast? Well, I'd love to meet her but I doubt she would come close to Moyako," Cole said having fought alongside Moyako once before, many decades ago. The brotherhood member simply shrugged.
"What about the other one?" he asked.
"Well, it says here that his name is Marcus Wright but I ain't ever heard of him until now. Seems like he's pretty powerful too since he took on the behemoth on his lonesome," he said but at the mention of Marcus's name, the man's voice and all the noise in the background seemed to fade away as unpleasant memories that Cole thought he had moved past resurfaced.
"Marcus Wright..., seventy years I've been stuck here and only now you show yourself...? Haha...I just can't believe you," he said in a daze at the thought of finally getting even the slightest hint of this man.
"What do you think Cole? Are you gonna join the contest too?"
"As a matter of fact, I think I will," Cole said with a slight edge in his voice.
Maybe I'll finally get some answers after all this time.