CHAPTER 3:
'it's cold'
luna struggles but she can't move her body. She tries to open her eyes but can't. The cold deeply penetrate her skin and her body. It feels like she's lying on a cold block of ice. But this coldness seems to not affect her at all, her body wants to fight back from the cold power. The heat within her core is slowly increasing in its power and melts the ice that penetrates the body.
After hours of a continuous cycle of freezing and melting, the ice power finally weakens and starts to crack as the heat overpowers it. As the crack widens and pieces of ice fall, a strong burst of red light shot to the sky, and only then could luna feel the ability to move again.
'what happened to me? Where am I?'
She is surrounded by twenty tall glowing pillars of crystals with engravings of some unknown language that she cannot read. These pillars seem to be pointing in one direction and centered on her. She seems to be inside a ball of ice with engravings in it too, but this ball of ice slowly disintegrates after the sudden burst of light that weakens its power.
After the ball of ice disintegrates, she slowly landed on the floor of crystal engravings. She tries to walk to inspect the area but found out that she is still restricted because when she steps over the line that surrounds her, black chains would wrap on her. She struggles to free herself but the more she resists the more chain would wrap around her body.
"what's the point of getting out of that ball if I can't even escape this prison."
Laying on the floor, she finally gave up struggling and just let the chains be.
-----
'bang'
The doors of the temple abruptly open as the hurried footsteps could be heard walking to the old man. The old man with a long white beard and wearing a white rode is seen kneeling on the temple altar, praying for the guidance of the Goddess. He is the Pope and holds the highest position in that temple.
"your holiness, I'm sorry to interrupt but there's urgent news from the forbidden grounds" the archbishop respectfully said despite the nervousness.
When the Pope heard that it's from the forbidden grounds, only then did he opened his eyes and hurriedly got up. Frantically grabs the arms of the archbishop.
"what did you say? Forbidden grounds? Hurry say it!"
"y-yes your holiness, a witness saw a burst of red light coming from the centre of the crystal mountain. It only happened for a minute and soon disappeared but he really insists that it happened." The priest hurriedly replied as he was shocked by the sudden loss of composure of the pope whose rarely shaken.
After hearing the report, the Pope slumps on the nearby chair as he registered what is said. Shocked by the sudden news, he decided to summon the holy knights of Artia.
"call in the holy knight!"
-----
The holy land of Artia is blessed by the Goddess Artia, Goddess of Purity. The people are ruled by the Pope and is assisted by the archbishops. The holy land ruled the southeast of the continent of Ekliss and is known to be the purest and blessed with healthy lands. Protected by the power of the goddess, the land continues to flourish in harmony without any natural disasters.
The holy knights of the temple keep the peace of the holy land and are known as personal protectors of the pope. During this time, not far from the temple, the knights are on their training. despite the intense heat and the dripping of their sweat, the knights continues their cycle of intense training as the captain watches.
' argh! Captain, please give us a break'
'water! Water!ha ha '
'don't notice me! Don't notice me!'
'must-train- hard-Must -Persevere.'
'f**k you training! F**k you heat! F**k you body pain!'
The knights keep on wishing in their heads that this intense body training would soon end. But of course, nobody voiced out their opinions as this might be added with another set to body training. This is, of course, the punishment that they receive after being caught by the captain looking at various adult comic books at the back of the building neglecting the unfinished daily assignments on the base earlier that day.
"This is all your fault Flinn, if you hadn't distributed it here, we wouldn't be caught!" whispers the knight beside Flinn. Blaming him for selling the adult book.
"money is love, Xiao zie. Besides, you all want it anyway." Flinn whispers back.
"but-"
As Xiao Zie was about to answer but he saw a young priest hurriedly run, he even stumbled and fall to the ground. He was about to laugh but hold it as he might get noticed by their captain.
"C-Captain Yuan, the pope is summoning the knights to the temple. He said it's an urgent matter." Said the priest.
As the captain raises her hand, the training came to a stop and this made the knights rejoice in their hearts as training is finally done. They can finally wash up and enjoy a meal. But their joy came to an end as the captain announced that they need to prepare for an audience with the Pope.
"Is everyone here?"
"Yes, captain" Flinn answers as he readies the captain's horse.
"Let's Go." As Captain Yuan climbs up and seated on her horse, wearing the holy knights uniform, a red cape, and a sword on the side. She looks so dashing in that outfit despite being a woman. Being the captain of the knights, she is respected and feared by her constituents. This is because of her achievements.
At the same time, the knights rode to the temple, the Pope once again kneels in front of the statue of the Goddess and ask for an answer to his questions and a way to deal with the problem on the forbidden grounds.