132 years ago…
Queen Diana, the last true blood ruler of Brunhildt, stood in the throne room of her castle in the city of New Athens.
She stood wearing only her elegant Aegis robe, its soft and masterfully woven jade colored cloth draped itself across her shoulders. The length of her robe stretched down to her feet and swept across the polished floor as she paced across the throne room. Her golden crown glimmered in the dark orange light coming from the windows outside. Her dress, which was colored pearl white, turned the same dreadful orange color as the light shined against it.
Beyond her throne room the sounds of fires and destruction replaced the peace that she had so painstakingly tried to build for many years.
Her guards, which had remained ever so loyally by her side, would undoubtedly be killed soon as would she. She had told them as much but they refused to abandon their duty to her.
The queen did not have to wait long for the doors to her throne room to be forced open by the one leading the mutiny taking place.
Upon seeing the face of who was leading the mutiny against her, Queen Diana’s expression became vacant and uncaring.
The woman who marched into the throne room was the queen’s own right hand, the general of the Valkyries, Hylla Vulcara. The woman’s dark skin and scarlet hair was proof of her Amaskian heritage, yet the armor and weapons she wielded showed that she had been raised under the nurturing kingdom of Brunhildt.
“Even as I raze your forces and claim your kingdom for myself, you wear such a face when you see me? Why? Are you not horrified that all your hard work is coming undone? Or what of your dead loyalists? Do you simply not care about any of it anymore?” Hylla asked in annoyance at Queen Diana’s reaction.
So the queen decided to respond.
“All I have to say to you is that your revolt is nothing more than a childish fool’s errand. What you are trying to achieve will only accelerate the kingdom towards ruin,” she said, finally looking Hylla in the eyes.
Enraged by her response, Hylla shouted back, “Lies! Your actions have done nothing but uproot the very traditions that our kingdom has followed for thousands upon thousands of years! The traditions that have kept our kingdom thriving since its very inception! Yet you thought it best to be rid of all of it for...for a kingdom of weakness, a kingdom that panders to the weakest of minds within its walls! You, with your words of so called ‘caring hearts’ and ‘peace’ and ‘equality’! This kingdom did not last as long as it had with values of equality at its core!”
“You prop up the women of our kingdom as the sole heirs to the future while abandoning the men and boys to lives of suffering and oppression. Not only that, you aim to rule the women of Brunhildt under the assumption that each young infant girl will grow up to be a ruthless warrior and not a caring mother. You care not for the future and prosperity of this kingdom. You are nothing but a warmonger, clinging to the stories of Queen Penthesilia and her blood soaked glory days,” Queen Diana said.
Hylla gritted her teeth in anger as she said, “No kingdom can live for long under the rule of a pacifist. A crown is warranted with strength alone and your actions show that strength is what you lack.”
“That statement is only true up to a certain extent, but you surely you did not forget the golden age that Brunhildt had once been raised under. The entire reason that Queen Penthesilia opted for a kingdom of bloodshed and dominance was because even she was aware that nothing remains constant, and her strength was needed for the time she ruled. But now, that ideology has been twisted by you and others like you into thinking that strength is the only path that we can take. Already the citizens who live in Brunhildt’s walls have seen what a life, different of our old ways, could be like. They have seen what a life of greater connection can do for them, and yet you seem insistent on tearing that away from them. What will you do if the people revolt against you?”
Hylla’s face, twisted in frustration and confusion, answered, “I will simply crush their opposition under my heel. I do not need a kingdom of weaklings.”
Hearing this, Queen Diana smiled and said, “Then you will soon rule over a kingdom of ash, burned to the ground by your own hands. A kingdom cannot remain without families to keep it alive. I wanted to give the people hope for a better life, but if you take that away, then no one will follow you.”
Enraged and refusing to listen to another word, Hylla shouted, “Enough! I will not listen to another word!”
She then pulled out the unholy armament of the old days, Ichor Doru, and began walking towards the Queen. Yet at the site of the spear in Hylla’s hands, Queen Diana did not falter.
“Even now, with your death approaching, you do not falter,” Hylla said.
“It is because I still have hope that the future will finish what I have started and deliver this kingdom into the next golden age,” she said.
“Then they shall die as well,” Hylla said as she thrust Ichor Doru through Queen Diana’s heart.
Fighting against the agony, the dying queen said, “Then let your dying kingdom be stained with blood and ash.”
Hylla violently pulled the spear from the queen’s chest and watched as her lifeless body fell to the ground.
Camilla…
Her eyes slowly opened as sunlight poured in from the window of her room at the Inn she was staying.
She had seen that dream many times already, but it certainly did its job to remind her that she had a duty to fulfill in killing Hilda and deposing Hylla from the throne.
She groaned as she sat up from her bed and walked into the kitchen at the Inn. She smacked her lips as her mouth felt dry and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
As she started making coffee to help her wake up, she failed to noticed for over a minute, Raum sitting quietly in the corner of the kitchen eating a sandwich.
“AHH! Raum! What the hell are you doing in my room?!” she shouted in surprise.
“I apologize, but I needed to tell you something, however you were already asleep so I decided to wait patiently until you were awake,” he answered.
“Then why didn’t you just wait to tell me until after my fight today was over? Why did you break into my room and wait here like a creep?” she asked.
“To be fair, I didn’t have to ‘break in’. I just walked through the door.”
“What, you phased through it?” she asked, confused.
Raum shook his head no as he walked over to the door to her room and opened it before saying, “You left it unlocked. Honestly you should be more careful. Someone could break in while you’re sleeping.”
He then looked her in the eyes like she was the idiot between the two of them. The way he phrased it made it seem like if she had locked it, then he wouldn’t have walked into her room without asking.
“Whatever! Just say what you came to say and then leave so I can get ready,” she said as she poured her coffee, cream, and sugar into her cup before taking a slow and annoyed sip.
Raum looked at her carefully for a moment before he closed the door and walked over to the table, all without saying a word.
His silence was unnerving her, which forced her to pay attention to him completely.
His yellow eyes stared directly into hers, eyes of which belonged to the body of a beautiful woman that demanded her attention.
When he spoke, he did so with a haunting tone.
“Very soon, you will find that fate will abandon you,” he said.
“’fate will abandon me’? What do you mean?” she asked confused.
“I mean that the power of Nøkkra that you wield to manipulate fate, as poorly as you do, will abandon you.”
Deciding to ignore his insult about her lack of skill, she asked, “What gives you the idea that Nøkkra is going to consciously abandon me and prevent me from using her power?”
“The dead goddess of fate, Nøkkra, is connected to the unnamed Goddess of Rebirth. The one recognized as the successor to Nøkkra will undoubtedly become the Goddess of Rebirth. Being as Moyako, the one who is closest to the nature of Rebirth, had a part in raising you as your godmother during childhood, it only makes since that you would develop a connection to Nøkkra as a result of that. However, you have distanced yourself from that nature for many years now and are now spiraling towards a different god. I am not entirely certain which one will claim you, but when they do, you will be severed from fate completely. Be wary of that fact during the contest.”
“Are you telling me that one of the unnamed gods will cut off my connection to Nøkkra? For what reason?”
Raum shook his head and said, “That is not for me to say. Perhaps they have a greater purpose for you in mind. You will find out for yourself soon enough.
Later during the day, after she had finished getting ready for her fight today, Raum’s words still echoed in her mind.
Camilla knew what her role was in life, for it was a role that she took upon herself. That which was to reclaim the kingdom of Brunhildt from the traitors who inhabit the throne.
If that was not the grandiose goal that she was meant for, then what could be grander and more important than that?
As she contemplated these thoughts, her eyes focused in on the man known as Frosk, the legendary champion of Forrosa. She watched as he matched, no...overpowered the strength of a god in battle.
From what little she knew about Frosk and the kingdom of Forrosa, the people served and worshiped the God of Wrath, arguably the most prominent of the three unnamed gods throughout history.
As she watched Frosk dominate the fight with the strength of his god aiding him, she could strangely resonate with the power he held. She could feel the rage and the urges of violence that came from it.
It made her think…
If the unnamed Goddess of Rebirth was connected to Nøkkra, and Camilla’s connection to fate was to be severed by one of the other two, then what circumstances would cause either of them to choose her.
For some reason Camilla doubted that it would be the God of Humanity for the simple reason that Camilla had never been much of an academic.
The most she new about that god was that the tomes of sorcery used throughout the world, some of which are written with the pure essence of humanity embedded into their very pages.
With Camilla’s magic, that which controlled the vector of all things that her mind could comprehend, it seemed rather nonsensical for her to learn sorcery when she could manifest almost anything with her own power alone.
The path to humanity is paved with study and academic advancement, to which she knew she was not her strong suit.
With that in mind, it only left her with one possible alternative.
She spoke her thoughts aloud as she asked herself, “Is it really my fate to be chosen by the God of Wrath…?”
Soon the time came for Camilla to fight, and so she stepped onto the floor of the arena to face an uninteresting opponent. She did not even bother to learn his name as she pulled her sword, God Stitcher, from its sheathe.
Her thrusting sword was not like the unholy armaments that were crafted with such mastery that the strength within them could cleave entire continents off the face of the earth much like Hoffnung had once done during the Mordrinite War, but her weapon suited her very nicely.
Her sword was crafted with the finest steel found in the frigid northern continent and turned into bone steel. Forged with the the bones of a god crushed into powder and cooled in its blood, her bone steel sword was crafted to kill gods and any other lesser creature that was unfortunate enough to meet its edge. As an added bonus, the one who forged it enchanted it with a spell that radiated in the essence of humanity.
From what she was told about its creator, the one who came up with the spell had a firm belief that all of creation was comprised of infinitesimally small strings that vibrated constantly. The spell allowed the user to manipulate said strings, whether it was the user that created them or if they always existed in the first place, and take control of everything around them.
Truly, it was a weapon that complemented her own power perfectly as she cannot manipulate vectors if she isn’t physically touching them or if she isn’t connected to them through her sword.
Her sword and her power are both what earned her the title amongst the other Nøkkran Assassins as ‘The All Powerful’.
Her opponent walked onto the arena floor to face her and said, “May we both give it our all.”
As the words left his mouth, the announcer’s voice called for the start of the second match.
As her opponent charged towards her, she could not help but say to him, “I’m afraid you won’t have the chance to show me your best.”
She raised her sword in her left hand, pointed the tip at him as he charged, and snapped her fingers.
As if he were a piece of cloth with many loose strings, his body was pulled apart from every direction so quickly and so violently that she doubted the pain had time to register in his brain as he died instantly.
“And with that, I claim victory,” she said as she sheathed her sword and waited for them to call the end of the match.
When she was eventually declared the winner due to her opponent being unable to recover (realistically, it should be impossible for anyone to recover from what she did to him), she walked back into the waiting room just in time to see Princess Hilda making her way to her first match with the spear Ichor Doru strapped to her back.
The princess did not bother to make eye contact with Camilla as she walked past her, seemingly laser focused on the battle ahead.
However Camilla wanted to add a little bit of chaos into the mix.
“Before you go Princess Hilda, may I share a few words of caution?” she said with a sickly sweet tone.
Annoyed by the fact that someone would delay her on her way to battle, Hilda rudely turned around and spat at her, “What do you want?!”
“I am Camilla Lykos, daughter of the former princess Sophia Lykos, granddaughter of Queen Diana, and I plan to take Ichor Doru from your grasp and mount your head upon its tip,” to add further, she smiled and curtsied to her before turning around and walking away. Leaving Princess Hilda shocked and horrified by what she had just heard, she was unable to do anything about it but to continue on with her fight.