I felt a surge of heat coming from my head when I heard the ridiculous cheers of the swordsfolk and as a result, I shouted at them with sheer contempt and worry.
I mean, there is a girl that is clinging on her life since she was sent in a high altitude of the air, and now, all you just do is cheer in unison!?
What a hopeless bunch!
Furthermore, just because I was sent in the skies, it immediately spells that I am one with them?! While we are on the subject of being one of those so-called "Myrmidons", are you basically trying to imply that the person with a sword in their hand even if the rest of them were sent to the atmosphere because of a levitator sword spells M-Y-R-M-I-D-O-N??! What is with this selection process?! If people actually tried, they can cheat this out by analyzing and sorting out the internal components of their own sword to resist the power of Gravis! How am I sure that some people can do that? I know I did! I already attempted it when I was but a little girl in re-modelling the sword of a customer!!!
Needless to say, you can probably tell that I am about to be done from all of these shenanigans…
Amidst the cheering crowd of an entire Estocia, a person still being hanged aloft the atmosphere loudly spoke:
"HEYYY!!! If you will allow me to interrupt your "unggky-like" celebration, I would just like all of you to realize that I am still here so- PUT. ME. DOOWN!!!" I angrily bellowed.
The moment I managed to win over the voice of the entire crowd that filled the plaza, the said crowd fell silent.
Especially because I taunted them by comparing their own tradition in a reflex of an ape-like creature exotically found in our islands.
"Seriously! I am tired of being dragged down by all of your messes one after the other! Yesterday, I almost died due to that stupid rite of yours and now, you are going to finish me off by sending me in the air??! Where are your decency, people?!" I angrily protested while flashing a face best described as "offensive".
"B-But! Tori… if you died yesterday, why are you still here? Are you perhaps a ghost?" an innocent voice rang out in the crowd.
A voice that even if innocent at first, presents a sarcastic tone into it…
It was Fae's.
"S-Shut it, Fae! I am not joking today! This is the time where a lady talks, alright?!"
"OH… O-okay, Tori…" she sounded defeated after hearing my words. The entire crowd shifted their respective eyes on my direction to hers as we exchanged our conversation.
Sorry, Fae. I will apologize later.
I gulped my saliva down realizing I just chastised the daughter of the Chief in front of the crowd.
"A-anyways old-man Anakin, stop staring me like that even if you betrayed me from all of this time and please, put me down…"
"OH… R-right, lass…" hurriedly and with a panic, old-man Anakin said when he heard his own name.
Thank goodness, at least even just one person seems to be sane and possesses a common sense around here.
Old-man Anakin sheeted his own sword once more and spoke in a serious manner as if praying:
"I beckon thee: Hera! Loptous!"
Is there something that is supposed to happen? Well, yes! I should be back in the ground by now. But alas, nothing is happening. After all, I am still in the skies…
"Is something the matter, Old-man Anakin? Why is the lass not being sent in the ground yet alongside with the other swords?" concerned, Chief asked old-man Anakin directly.
"I already threw the commandment of my sword. It should not fail, the moment I said my beckon! Which means…"
Old-man Anakin spoke in a confused manner tinged with a slight nervousness.
In that instant…
Everyone, including me, was not prepared for what happened at that moment…
It just happened in a flash… like an unsuspecting visitor.
Amidst the color of azure still shining brightly in the atmosphere, a shot of dark violet went up in the sky. As if fighting the light of azure, the said darkness in the shade of violet made its way in the vicinity, trying to win over the glow of my own sword.
In that moment, inexpiable panic and worry slinked in my body.
I cannot tell if the others are also feeling the same way, but for me, I was in the stature of an instant nervousness that I felt limp in my entire body. It encircled on every angles of my head, then made its way downward on every alley of my body. If this feeling of sheer dread and panic was fluid, I would be drowning to it right now. Occasionally, even if my body was limping, my body twitches unnaturally for some reason to add the sense of nervousness I was feeling.
I knew it the instant I felt it-
The emotion of fear.
Suddenly…
To raise the feeling of fear even further… I heard a voice.
A voice so innocent yet cold, it swiftly sent chills down my limping body. My body was so chilly that for a moment, it felt like I just became a corpse…
"Ahhh… so… it WAS YOU. Finally, I. FOUND.YOU…"
Unnatural, unearthly, and one belonged to someone who is apparently dead- the voice signified that everything might immediately end in that moment.
I felt the chill in every inches of my body as nervousness crept in me slowly. My hands trembled unnaturally while the sweat in my face loosely drips downward on it. I had a difficulty in looking downward to see everyone but I tried my utmost best to look below.
What I saw downward was the same that I was wearing, if not worse.
Every people in the plaza: the men, women, children, and the elderly were wearing a clear and vivid expression of fear and shock in the brief change of the hue in the atmosphere which amplified by the voice. It may look like they can move on their own and run in order to protect themselves and their loved ones, but it seemed that the people, like me, were frozen in fear.
It was as if, at that moment, the entire city went alike to the "Forgotten Town" famously known from its silent and odd inhabitants.
Situated in the center of the plaza, violet figures swiveled in the atmosphere and went through and fro, then finally, assimilated a form…
There stood a girl clothed in a long dress with a hue of pure violet with dark contrasts. Her physique is petite that you might think that she is just on her twelfth year of existence. Her jet-black hair intensified her darkly figure as it glosses and compliments her whitish complexion. You cannot know for sure of what is the girl is thinking or even what kind of emotion is she wearing on her face as she is covered by a linen hood with the same dark-purple color. Her posture gave a presentation of elegance yet still feel that it is broken- too unnatural in fact, based on her appearance. An aura of dark hue is encircling her whole body as she just stands there- silently, further intensifying her darkly posture.
W-what is with this girl? Why is she so unnaturally unnerving?
Alongside with her, there stood black-hooded figures imbued with purple aura emanating on their physicality. They are wearing dark robes which complements the darkness they represent- a message in the vicinity that they are supposed to be feared. Uncannily, each of the figure carried a sword with them. Looking closely although I am in the air, each of the swords are created differently with a similarity on the dark aura imbued on them.
Looking at all of this, it's as though they stopped time due to the fear they had enveloped in the hearts of the swordsfolk of the plaza.
Well, some of them probably…
The person in the left side of the little girl, stepped forward in the center of the plaza and said darkly:
"Abolescere!!!"
Huh?
I felt something in my body that for a moment, violet aura touched the entirety of my body and my weight in the atmosphere began to regain again.
Oh sharps no.
Amidst the atmosphere, while I am still in the pose of raising my glowing sword, I felt the push of the gravity slowly urging my body downward and then…
WHOOOOOOOSHHHHH!!!
"Wahhhhhhhh!!!"
Every person in the plaza raised their head once again as my limping body due to all of these maddening events decided to fall in the untimeliest way.
Seriously Lady Luck, are you even watching me?!
I screamed my lungs out as my frail body is about to hit the ground.
For those who are wondering, in a span of two days, I was so close in dying and meeting death for four times… FOUR!!!
Suddenly…
The sound of my body being stopped in the momentum of my impending demise rang momentarily as my Pops quickly ran and caught me.
"P-Pops… thank you…" I felt that I was about to cry.
"Hey kid, are you alright?"
The feeling of me wanting to bawl and hug my Pops intensified because of his words but I remained mum while looking intently in his face.
While my body trembled as I was holding my sword, Pops gently wiped the droplets of tears forming on my face and said:
"Everything is alright kid. I will protect you." he said, fatherly smile is present in his face.
W-what do you mean by that, Pops?
While I was making a confused face loosely based on his tender words, he stood up, faced the four figures and began his preparation…
He undid his bootstrap and retrieved two things that is presented unto them. In the left side, a metallic grip with a pommel; and in the left side, a guard. With a metallic pop, my Pops inserted the grip in the hole of the guard and fashioned them as if they were one. After doing that, he untied the bows of his cape and unleashed a massive metal- a chunk of Titania that was forged to be a common blade.
This chunk of metal is the most common type in the island as it was the most normal of all. No wishy-washy aura, no calling or talking to the sword, and no "beckoning" business and other fancy names made by my swordsfolk- it is the standard metal for beginning swordsmen and women.
Indeed. I know the structure and the composition of that very blade because besides in being the one on polishing it day in and day out to prevent it from rusting, I saw that very sword in every adventures of Pops.
It is his favorite and special sword: the Terrabuster!
Alas, that is what he likes to call a gargantuan sword.
Color: Silvery-black; Build: Slash-bust; Height: 6.5 feet (78 inches) with a stout wideness; Core: None…
Classification: Durandal.
My Pops assembled the blade by inserting it in the gigantic hole of the guard and with a large earthly sound from impaling the sword in the ground to insert the blade fully, he lifted his Terrabuster with one hand and said seriously…
At that point, even without looking at his face and just relying on my sense of hearing…
My Pops is not messing around anymore.
Having a serious and fatherly sound in his voice as his default tone seemingly disappeared as he is finally facing the enigmatic figures with fury- an emotion due to the danger of his daughter's very own life.
"The Swordsmith of Ea: Samson GrinLock Justocia. In that name, I challenge ye to an Adamthryst!!!"
Hmmm... what are you saying all of a sudden, Pops?
When I happened to hear his words, feel the aura that he was producing in front of his enemies, and notice the very stance with his sword...
I understood.
Ah, it is that one and nifty knowledge I happened to read in our history book in the past.
Ea is a proud country with a rich and mystifying legends and world-marking history.
Ever since the First Hero grasped his first-ever legendary sword, his legacy and adventures etched itself into the very foundations of this lands.
One of it is what we call the Adamthryst.
Named after the aforementioned First Hero, this is a ceremonial battle famously done by every swordsfolk of the continent. In this act of duel, the combatant must reign supreme on their foe by the help of their wits, peer skill, and basically, their holistic swordsmanship.
Oh, additionally, having a high and focused Essence between the sword and their wielder can also affect the tides of the battle.
Indeed. Anyone from the continent can do this "supposedly-dangerous" battle between the two swordsfolk.
But what really makes it serious and dangerous is when the combatants uttered the following words:
Their title and their name.
When one of the sword-wielders uttered those words, it is not announcing a normal, standard and friendly battle.
It is an issuance of a battle to the death!
My Pops reluctantly handled his gigantic Terrabuster with his right hand and waited for a reply from the enigmatic figure in front of us.
What a total shift in character, I thought, as I am now culture-shocked from all of the events that are unraveling right now, specifically with my Pops.
I am aware that he is the finest swordsmith and one of the renowned swordsman of Ea but I cannot begin to imagine that from all of that cold and fatherly antics that he has been presenting into me normally, he can actually become this furious.
From all of his battles in the past when I either watched them from afar, or even just hearing them in my other folks, all of them had one commonality:
My Pops showed no anger.
He was just calm, relaxed, and so feisty to say, laughing and taunting his enemies while fighting them head-on. My typical and idiotic Pops.
But none of these battles came a similarity on what he was presenting right now.
Out of nowhere, while I was taken aback on the sight of my Pops, the enigmatic figure once again spoke:
"Nothingness: Effese"
It replied. That is its given name.
The figure spoke calmly. So calm that it might make everyone intensely lulled on their sleep resulting on their death. The figure called Effese raised its sword that is still burning in a hue of dark-violet and postured its stance.
Color: Dark-violet; Build: Stab-slash and guard; Height: 4.9 feet (58.8 inches) with a slim peak; Core: Unknown…
Classification: Espada.
Then, in a blink of an eye…
"CLINGGG!!!"
The sound of their blades in contact rang loudly in the violet-tinged atmosphere.