Frosk...
After the strange men, Marcus and Ruvick, left Forrosa to return to where they came from, King Aldia and Lord Azazel began a lengthy discussion.
"My Lord...Do you really think it wise to put so much faith in that man? I understand that you believe that he is the one who will lead Forrosa into the new age but...I cannot help but feel doubtful. I especially feel doubtful because of your absence after the previous war," King Aldia said and Azazel looked away with only the smallest hint of shame in his eyes.
"Um...Lord Azazel, if you don't mind me asking...," Frosk said.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Why did you leave Forrosa after the Mordrinite War? Why leave us for so long without guidance?"
Hearing this, even King Aldia seemed to want the answer to his question.
Azazel folded his arms yet the usual serious expression that he had on his face had disappeared and was replaced with uncertainty.
"The Mordrinite War was a global catastrophe unlike anything that had been seen since the Amaskian War. Never has a war of such scale happened in so long that I had expected it might be an era in which our lord would be brought into this world. I was so sure that he would appear that my own faith in our lord had begun to waver, and even as I saw our great warriors continuing the be granted strength to fend off our enemies, I had felt a great fear about what his plans for us were. If our God of Wrath's power is truly transcendent of time and space, then that would mean that everything had been planned ahead of time. However, in that time of war, I could not devote myself fully to his will as I could not understood what he had planned for us. Were we expected to suffer for ten thousand years of war and struggle only to end up with no answers...?" he said as he trailed off for a moment.
King Aldia looked at Lord Azazel with widened eyes as even he did not expect this from Forrosa's patron lord.
"It was not just me whose faith had wavered during that time my lord. Many of our soldiers, although they had preferred not to be open and speak of it in front of us, shared the same sentiment as you," The king said to him.
"Yes, however it was me who they looked for answers when I had none. I could not suffer the shame of being unable to answer their questions. However, now that this man, Marcus, has arrived in this world, I am certain our lord, the God of Wrath, will soon follow. I am absolutely certain of it," he said, yet despite his words, the king seemed unsure.
"What is it that makes you so certain that our lord will arrive?" King Aldia asked.
Azazel looked at the both of them before nodding, almost to himself, before saying, "As you know, all kings who ruled over Forrosa had a dream before they died that told of when the God of Wrath would be born into our world. Each king had confided this dream to me, to carry across generations. You, King Aldia, are yet to have this dream and I find it likely that you will never share this dream, but rather see it play out for your self."
The King's eyes widened slowly as he realized the implications behind Azazel's words. If what Azazel said was in fact the truth then it meant that the arrival of their lord would come very very soon.
He continued, "I will now share with you, the dream that every Forrosan king had shared up to this point. It is as said 'In the Amaskian War, every battle field that King Dagon, the God King had visited was hit with heavy rainfalls that would blanket both the heavens and earth in thick red blood. In the final dreams of every king, the horrible sight of blood raining down from the skies would follow the arrival of our lord. The heavens would bleed three times, once at the naming of the Successor of Dagon. Once more following the time where the world would be plunged into utter chaos as creatures, gods, demons, and angels of all kinds would run free. Then, for a third and final time, the skies would bleed at the arrival of our lord, our God of Wrath who would then restore order in the world."
Azazel then said, "With this information in mind, with my knowledge of the past, and with my knowledge of what will come to pass, there is an individual that lives today who has seen all of this. The God of War from a world not our own, Ares. He arrived in this world at the height of the Amaskian War and fought Dagon himself. Ares too, will be joining the the Contest of Champions and I believe he will be the one to name the Successor of Dagon in their battle."
The king stood up from his throne steadily with a look of shock, one that Frosk shared.
"This cannot be! So soon?! But...we have not made any preparations for the tournament! We have so little time!"
"Indeed. The Contest of Champions will begin in less than two weeks. I believe that someone from Forrosa must participate in this tournament. However, as this kingdom's patron, if I were to lose in battle then that would negatively my authority and the reputation of our kingdom. I want you, Frosk, to participate in the tournament to witness this event in my stead," he said as he looked at Frosk directly.
"What, me? Do you really trust me with something like this?" he asked, not feeling confident in the role that Lord Azazel was giving him.
"With the armor that Marcus had crafted for you, you shall be a force to be reckoned with. I think you would be able to put on quite a performance for our successor who would later become our lord," he said with a glint in his eyes. Azazel was clearly anticipating this playing out in the coming weeks.
Frosk had never seen Lord Azazel look this excited about anything so it was interesting to witness. He looked at the king for his approval and King Aldia nodded to him.
When looking back at Azazel, in his hands was a black and silver claymore, a long sword with a V-shaped guard. Frosk's breath was caught in his throat as he recognized the blade. It was the sword he had ripped from the hands of the Mordrinite warrior who had use it in a last ditch effort to break through the walls of their city during the final days of the siege of Alken.
"Hoffnung..., you're entrusting me with this?" he asked.
"I am. Take it," Azazel said.
Reluctantly, Frosk wrapped his hand around the handle of the sword and held it out in front of him. It was hard for him to believe that it was almost twenty years ago since he had last seen it, when he had wrestled this sword away from Mordran's champion.
"After losing our own unholy armament, the Heaven-Breaker Spear, I figured that neither of you would want me to be responsible for this," he said but King Aldia shook his head.
"Make no mistake, the loss of that spear was a blow that we may never recover from, but this may be an opportunity to redeem yourself. You won't squander it, will you?" he said, his eyebrows raised as if to further emphasize the question.
Frosk closed his eyes and took a deep breath before facing them both.
When he opened his eyes once more, he was filled with a sense of determination.
In a firm voice, he said, "No my King. I will not fail you."
In the kingdom of Brunhildt, many weeks ago...
A woman by the name of Camilla, with long, vibrant blonde hair and green eyes, wearing the armor of the Blades of Nøkkra, stalked the streets of New Athens with her companion Raum. She too once belonged to the Blades of Nøkkra, a group of all female assassins who, under the leadership of Moyako Kaneko, traveled across the world and purged kingdoms of corruption at their own discretion.
It had been over seventy years since Moyako disbanded their group, to which some members retired, some ended up dead, few even founded schools to teach the skills that Moyako had taught them to be passed on.
However, others like Camilla and Raum, although not objecting to the disbanding of their group, wanted to continue the path that they believed was noble as they continued to fight against the world's corruption.
Raum, a shorter woman with tanned skin, black hair and empty black eyes with spheres of yellow energy serving as irises. She was a particularly unusual woman as she had served closer to Moyako than almost any other Nøkkran assassin.
While Camilla had been the undisputed second-in-command of their group, Raum preferred to play the role almost that of a servant to Moyako. None of the other members understood why but when Moyako disbanded their group and demanded that Raum leave her behind to find her own path, Raum had been devastated.
Camilla knew very little about Raum's past aside from the fact that she claimed to be a 'Demon Prince', not that she understood what that meant but she had been accepted nonetheless.
Now though, the two of them stuck together with the intention of slowly removing every trace of corruption in the kingdom of Brunhildt and returning it to the early golden age in which the Goddess Athena had wanted the kingdom to be ruled.
It was what her mother, the former Princess of Brunhildt and the late Queen of Duranell, Sophia Lykos had wanted.
Now, it fell of her, Camilla Lykos, to depose the current Queen of Brunhildt and bring in a new age. Unfortunately, with the way things were running, it would be impossible for them to achieve a successful coup.
Valkyries watched over New Athens from the skies while Amazonian soldiers patrolled the streets making it incredibly difficult for them to operate.
Tonight was different though as Queen Hylla was holding a banquet in the main hall of their palace. The two of them hadn't caught word of this happening beforehand and assumed that this had to be for a surprise announcement.
Perched on top of a roof of their banquet hall, they had cracked open a window to listen in on what the Queen had to say.
"As I am sure you are all aware, our kingdom has had tense relationships with the Kingdom of Duranell. Times of war between us have come and gone, but despite that, we now live in what is undoubtedly the greatest era Brunhildt has ever seen," she said as her speech had begun. Camilla groaned in discontent at her words but continued to listen anyways.
"As of right now, a great tournament is being scheduled to take place shortly. It is known as the Contest of Champions in Duranell, and I want our kingdom to showcase the great strength that we have fostered for thousands of years. Our kingdom has not yet fallen in all that time under my rule, never come under civil war, and never suffered from corruption. All the kingdoms of the world, Duranell, Forrosa, New Alfheim, and many others from the Southern Union of Kingdoms will be sending champions of their own to represent them. For Brunhildt, I will be sending my own daughter, Princess Hilda, to fight," she said and Camilla's hand tightened into a fist at the sight of her.
Hilda...
"This makes sense now...," Raum muttered, surprising Camilla.
"What do you mean? What makes sense?" she asked.
"My brother Azazel and my sister Gomori have been calling out to me over the past few weeks but I had no idea what for. The two of them will be converging in Duranell for the tournament. I feel that...our lords will soon be born," she rambled on as her attention diverted from the Hylla's speech as she looked out, towards the stretching city scape.
Camilla looked into Raum's eyes and could tell that she was looking at something far beyond the confines of New Athens, far beyond into other lands.
Then, suddenly Raum leapt off of the roof of the banquet hall.
"Hold on, wait! What about our mission here? Are we just supposed to leave my home to rot from Hylla's rule?" Camilla exclaimed as she chased after Raum.
"We must join the contest as well," she said as she broke off into a run while hiding her presence.
Camilla managed to follow her and even caught up to her while asking in a hushed tone, "How would participating in the Contest of Champions be beneficial to us?"
"Moyako will be participating in the contest," she said without elaborating further.
"That's nonsense. Why would she ever get involved with that? Also, why does it matter if she is? She disbanded our group and refused my calls for help. What makes you think that she would help us now?"
Raum then stopped in place and stared her in the eyes before saying, "Camilla. Have faith. If you show her your strength in the contest, I have little doubt that she would ignore your call to aid. We are going to Duranell."
Understanding that Raum was refusing to back down on this, Camilla relented and said, "Alright then. Then I guess we will join as well."
Selene...
When she woke up her head was throbbing from the horrible hangover she was having. A blanket fell off of her back as she realized she had fallen asleep on the bar counter in the brotherhood hall.
"Oh...no...," she groaned as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She then recoiled as sunlight rained down on her from a window on the ceiling.
As she looked down at her hands she noticed that her armor was gone. A feeling of panic started to surge through her before she remembered something that Marcus had told her about the armor while they were drinking.
"I placed a pseudo curse on your armor with a bunch of different properties. In the highly unlikely scenario that it gets damaged, it can repair itself using your magic and you can increase the rate at which it repairs by feeding energy into it. It also stores itself in a tattoo on the back of your hand when you don't need it so it's easy to put on or get out of. The sealing effect of your magic is always active whether you have the armor on or not so long as that tattoo is there," he had said.
Selene extended her hand outwards and looked at the tattoo. It was in the shape of a stylized sun and moon in black ink. She smiled at it before clenching her hand into a fist as she focused on her magic to summon the armor and in a flash, it enveloped itself around her body.
She let out a quiet excited hum at seeing her armor again when someone had entered the brotherhood hall calling out her name.
Selene turned her head to look at who was asking for her and said, "Yes? What is it?"
"There's someone here who wants to see you," he said and she perked up in interest.
"Is it Marcus?" she asked and he shook his head no.
"Nah, just some weird freaky looking guy with white eyes," he said.
White eyes...?
"Okay...," she mumbled as she got up from her seat and made her way over to the open doorway of the brotherhood hall. The other member pointed out where the person looking for her was. It was a man with black hair in a dark suit reading a book and drinking something from a cup. She couldn't see his face from where she was but something about him felt familiar.
As she was walking over to meet him she had a strange feeling, like she had met him or should know him.
"Hello? You wanted to see me?" she said as she called out to him and the man turned his head to face her...
She recognized him instantly. From the corpse pale skin, to the cracks on his face, and the white colorless eyes.
"Ruvick...," she said in a hushed tone.
He nodded and gestured to a second chair as he said, "Sit."
Selene shook her head and took a step back before snapping her fingers. Fire flashed as her sunlight and moonlight sword appeared in both hands.
"What are you doing here?" she asked in a low and threatening tone.
She was prepared to fight him to the death if need be for all the things he had done and yet he just looked up at her with a bored expression and sighed.
"Look, I've already done this song and dance with Marcus and I don't feel in the mood to repeat it with you. If you would kindly-," he said as he snapped his own fingers, causing her swords to disappear and her body to seat itself at his table, "Sit down."
Her heart sunk in her chest as she realized how easily he had disarmed her rendered her magic useless. If she tried to fight him she would surely end up dead.
"For your information, Marcus tried to kill me twice already, failed both attempts, and eventually relented to heeding my advice. You wouldn't fare any better. I would strongly advise you to just calm down and listen to what I have to say to you. I promise, it will be worth your time," he said, yet she didn't feel better because of it.
"Why should I trust you?" she asked.
"Because if not for me, Marcus wouldn't have gone to see the king of Forrosa and get the resources needed to make that armor of yours, right? Now as I'm sure you are still upset with what happened following Malthael's resurrection and my involvement with that. It was never my intention to allow that to happen and I accept full responsibility for that. Do we understand each other?"
Selene furrowed her brows as she said, "Fine. Say what you need to say and then leave."
"I would like to offer you a new way to seal and compress your magic more efficiently," he said and it caught her interest but she wanted to maintain caution and didn't change her attitude.
"You do? Why would you want to offer me that?" she asked.
"Because I am a generous person, doing generous things for not so generous people," he joked but she glared at him.
He sighed in defeat at his failed attempt to humor her and put on a blunt expression.
"Alright, I will tell you plainly. Your armor will do a decent job of containing your magic within you so that it doesn't leak out by accident but at some point in time, if you don't use an alternative way to seal your magic, your soul will inflate until using even a fraction of a percent of your magic might be too dangerous," he said and she swallowed.
"W-what do you mean by that?"
"I mean that your magic itself is not the main reason why you are so dangerous. Your soul, even as a child, was so gargantuan in size that it dwarfed your father's own soul. In fact, I doubt that moonlight magic is the end of the power you have yet to awaken within yourself. With just your moonlight awakening, your soul has now quadrupled in size compared to then and I can sense that there are still untapped wells of power buried inside you that are waiting to be released. When that happens, do you really think that limiting yourself to a percentage based sealing system is going to work?"
"I...I don't know," she admitted as she didn't even realize her soul had gotten larger since her fight with Malthael. She had always believed and even hoped that her magic would stay the same so that it would never become more dangerous than it already was.
"Well, luckily I have something that can help with that. Have you ever heard of 'Chasmic' seals?" he asked and she shook her head no.
He waved his hand and a piece of paper appeared.
"I'm going to explain it like this. Lets say that your soul was a ball of energy that was compressed and shaped into a flat plane like this. If I fold it in half, that means that I have created two layers while decreasing the overall size of the paper by half. If I do it again, we now have four layers yet the size of the paper is much smaller. Do it enough times and eventually you won't be able fold it anymore. You'll stop at seven folds and one hundred twenty eight layers. Amazing isn't it?" he said, clearly fascinated by it, yet she was confused as to what he was getting at.
"Can you explain?"
"Yes, be patient. Using this analogy, we can try to imagine that your soul has been reshaped into a flat plane that can be folded in on itself. While there are limits to how many times paper can be folded in on itself, your soul is like the fabric of space, it can fold, stretch, and compress into whatever way it wants to. So, whenever you fold your soul in on itself, you only pull a percentage of spiritual energy that you want to use from an individual layer, not all of them at once. If you need to use more than the single layer allows you to, then simply pull back a layer and alternate percentages that way," he said and although his explanation was a little confusing for her to understand, with a little bit of time she was able to get the general gist of it.
"Alright...and you intend to just hand me this information? For free?" she asked.
"Not necessarily, but I don't expect a form of payment from you. Like with Marcus, I want to check in on the two of you in case I need anything from you," he said.
"When you say 'need anything from you' what does that mean? I don't want to work with a man who works with that psychopath Kayron," she said and he nodded.
"I understand that, and in fact, Marcus had a similar objection. As I promised him, I will promise you as well. Working alongside me will mean you will never have to be involved with Kayron ever again. It only means that I will keep in touch, offer you advice if you need or want it, and even ask you for help if I feel stumped on something," he said and she felt skeptical.
"That is really all that you want out of it? You don't want us to fight in any battles for you or anything like that?" she asked and he looked at her in the eyes with a completely serious expression.
"Selene? I would genuinely hope that neither you nor Marcus have to be further involved in my affairs," he said and he spoke with such sincerity that she almost believed him but she still didn't trust him.
"Well, I appreciate your words and your offer of an alternative way to seal my magic but I need to leave and get back to my duties. If you'll excuse me," she said as she was about to sit up and head to the brotherhood hall, however Ruvick held up his hand to stop her.
"Hold on a moment. I have one last thing that I need to tell you," he said and she sighed but decided to hear him.
"Yes?"
"I suggest that you go and visit Artemis," he said.
Selene tilted her head in confusion, "Is there any specific reason why?"
"Yes, you should ask her about your mother," he said, with a slight twitch in his eyes. Something about that didn't feel right to her. Almost as if he was hiding something.
"What about my mother? Artemis never met her and besides, she died when I was born."
Ruvick gave her a faint smile as he said, "Artemis lied to you. Your mother is alive."