*Arghhhh!!!*
*S-Stop please stop!*
*enough… please…*
Screams and cries of anguish and terror echoed through the thorny and blood-red hellscape that suddenly appeared in front of Vivian.
Vivian: "…"
The surreal and unimaginable image in front of her left Vivian speechless.
Not in fear nor terror, but simply the unrealistic and overtly hellish image in front of her simply turned her mind blank.
[I'm… dreaming, right?] Vivian pinched her left cheek in worry… The realist in her denying the scene's validity.
"Ouch?…"
*Sigh* But after feeling no pain, Vivian sighed a sigh of relief as all the worries and fears she had dissipated as she thought to herself: [So it was just a dream after all…]
It was not the countless souls nor the tortured and mutilated demons surrounding Vivian that scared her, no, what scared Vivian more was the sudden illogical change in scenery from her comfy room at the small Pendragon estate, to where ever she was right now.
*["Huhuhuhu, what an interesting mortal…"]* A sudden voice echoed throughout Vivian's mind and the surrounding area, as if the voice came from the realm itself that Vivian found herself in.
"W-Who goes there?! And what are you doing in my dream???" Vivian mustered her courage to confront the terrifyingly vague voice.
"P-Pwahaha!... You're dream?!" The voice suddenly appeared in mortal form through an androgynous being, forcing itself to stop laughing, but for some reason couldn't.
"Haaa, oh Vivian, precious little Vivian, you truly are perfect!"
With black spikes that cris-crossed across a blood red silk robe, the red silk robe visible through the black thorned armor that resembled both a dress and a ceremonial robe priests used during wars, it's long black hair flowing through his/her/its beautiful head. The being wearing feminine clothes introduced itself as:
"Hello there child, I am Tir na Bolg! Known as none other than the Great God of Brutality and Retributive Cruelty!" The androgynous God made a grand gesture as he/she paused with both arms wide open, as if awaiting a specific reply from Vivian.
"A-and?" Vivian cautiously answered.
"... And what?" Tir na Bolg puzzled at Vivian's reply asked: "A-Aren't you gonna bow down or ask forgiveness or the like?"
"Did... Did I do something wrong?" Vivian asked in fear, Tir na Bolg was known to be a peculiarly evil God with a penchant for cruel and twisted justice, so Vivian thought she did something wrong and was now about to suffer x10 that.
Tir na Bolg: "Oh no no child, not at all, you've done nothing wrong at all sweet precious child..."
Vivian: "O-Okay, if I didn't would you please stop creeping me out with your cryptic and vague language? P-Please sir?"
"... PWUHAHAHAHAH!" After a long pause, and Vivian staring into the being's abyss-like eyes, Tir na Bolg suddenly laughed maniacally as he disappeared in a dark vortex, proclaming:
*["One day we shall meet again… by then I shall bestow upon thee a wonderful gift, beffitting thine special... 'talents' "]*
*GASP*
Vivian suddenly woke up dripping with sweat.
"M-My lady wake up! You were having a nightmare..." Anna kept shaking Vivian to make her wake up.
"I'm... I'm fine now" Vivian sighed.
"What did you dream about milady?" Anna asked.
"I... I don't remember, but what ever it was, I don't think I wanna remember" Vivian tried to remember her dream, but the more she tried to remember, the more she felt like not wanting to instead.
And so, Vivian gave up and brushed the incident off as just the stress pilling up due to the mountains of paperwork Duke left her in...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Empire, an exhausted and withered Duke continued to march through the snow.
Although they had successfully disengaged the enemy, the barbaric Northmen were still on their tracks.
And so the exhausted army had to march a little bit further till they could rest.
"Milord, there is a small cliff and a possible up ahead" A Knight riding on a horse reported whilst the old man wrapped in a cotton blanket mounted behind him responded:
"Good, good... we'll go up there and rest for now" The weary old man ordered.
This old man was Alexei Blauschild, the Lord Commander of this weary army. After he had used up his energy in releasing a strong blow to the enemy army, he was knocked unconscious. Thankfully he had now woken up after a couple of hours of sleep.
"How did you see that far??? You didn't even use a spyglass" Duke asked in surprise whilst he was marching next to the horse the Knight and Alexei were riding.
"Oh uhh, it's my eyes milord, they've... Condensed" The Knight explained, embarrassed by his own words.
"Condensed?" Sadly the Knight's reply only made Duke more confused.
"It means his Aura's gathering in his eyes ya nitwit, didn't they teach you this in Knight school?!" Although Alexei was grateful to Duke for his surprising talents in strategy, the old man's grumpy attitude still couldn't let him off as he inadvertently spat Duke off.
"It means he can't train in Aura milord" Byran added, whispering next to Duke.
"N-No... I couldn't enter Knight school in the Academy..." Duke admitted in embarrassment.
"Huh?! Then what specialization did you enter, the Book Reading Club?!" Alexei sarcastically joked.
"Y-Yes..." Sadly, Alexei's joke was met with a serious and embarrassing reply from Duke.
"W-Why didn't you enter the Knight's Squires?! Why'd the heck did you choose the Book Reading Club for?!" Alexei was shocked at Duke's reveal.
You see, in the Academy of Brune where all young Nobles studied at, there were specific school one can enter after classes were done in order to hone their specific talents. The most prestigious of which was the Knight's Squires (Knights School) where old veteran heroes taught the younger generation to fight and use Aura.
Whilst the Book Reading Club, not to be mistaken for the prestigious Literature School, was were the leftover talentless bums were mercilessly shoved in.
"They said I was too fat..." Duke, flushed red in embarrassment, explained the reason he couldn't get in to Brune's Last Standing Wall, the Hero Alexei. A situation Duke hoped he would never find himself in.
"Aigoo, the education system failed this generation's children..." Alexei sighed in disappointment seeing how the talented Duke already reached Aura Strengthening despite not having any mentors tutoring him.
"So how many years have you been learning Aura?" Alexei asked in curiousity, as it seemed Duke didn't even know some of the most basic things about it.
"Hm? 2-3 months I think..." Duke replied in a nonchalant manner. Unbeknownst to him, that his nonchalant reply was the most mind bogglingly ridiculous thing the old man has ever heard, to this day, fiction or otherwise.
"T-Two to three months... You're joking, right?" Alexei looked to Byran and the other old Pendragon Knights riding close to them on their right side, simply replied with a single nod of confirmation and an awkward smile as if telling him [We know... we know...]
"Ha... Not letting in this monstrosity because he was too FAT! Ha ha... the Knights School fucked up big time... The education system really did fail this generation" Alexei didn't know if he should be laughing, or angry that his subordinate Knights didn't find this talent earlier.
"Why is it always the Pendragons that birth the most outrageous talents?..." Alexei grumbled to himself.
A deep sense of regret arose inside Alexei when he heard that no one taught Duke about Aura.
Alexei did hear that Gwaine tried and failed to teach Duke the Pendragon Arts of Swordsmanship from some information sources here and there, [But to not teach him about Aura?... What were you thinking Gwaine...]
[What were you thinking...]
The old man sighed as the Army continued to march...