Regil is enveloped in an unholy light that nearly made the cold sweat dripping down his forehead sizzle as it touched the pure, white ground. In the room he resided, there was a single chair, a throne that he had been placed on. He sits on the throne as the light continued to chip away at his mind and the ground began to give away as it began to boil like a pot of hot water. The floor bubbles and fumes but the throne remain upright, unwavering as the sprite king known as Nigil appears in front of him.
The way he floated above Regil made his blood boil more than even the ground his throne sat upon, and veins began to reveal themselves on his forehead as his face torted out of anger and he was unable to move. His eyes darted around the room as the light nearly burned his eyes as he saw the silhouette of a winged man levitating above him.
'...'
'You should have left the boy with me, you and I both know his potential."
'...'
'You can't talk, can you? You. Cant. Even. Move… Isn't that right?'
'I won! I beat you!... That's exactly what you're thinking,' He says while imitating him with a jolly low voice, 'Wanna know how I know that?
The way you dart your eyes around reminds me of what a cornered animal looks like when it's about to die, surely you know that look too. It's a patented look, every time I see an animal doing it, I can feel their emotions, feel their thoughts…' "What happened?" "Where am I?" Y'know… I actually know someone who says those things a lot.'
He struggles, but his eyes are the only thing that can move as his body feels as if it were knitted into the throne he sat upon.
'If not for the interference of that insufferable Lamscul, you'd have lost that little scuffle of ours earlier, but I'll accept my loss for now. I still can't believe that traitor gets off on naming himself "The Creator," even though we're all from the same place, anyways, I came here to make an offer with you, hand over that boy to me and I'll cease my attacks on your kingdom.'
He can finally move, he feels his energy returning to him as his mouth finally begins to move, 'You want me to hand over the descendant of the hero who saved my kingdom from your hands!? At Least that "Traitor" didn't attack my kingdom when I was nearly powerless!' He says in while his anger brewed, as he finally broke himself free from his bindings and prepared for battle, both his hands sparked with an unrivaled aura, Wind, Lightning, Fire, Water, Earth, and Darkness magic began flying out of his body, enveloping him as the other man began to disappear.
'I'll give you time to think it over, if you want to push it even further, we can even become allies and teach that boy both of our magics together, maybe even dethrone that detestable Lamscul, I'll leave that choice up to you though,' Nigil says as he forces out a smile and he vanishes into depths of Regil's mind, disappearing seamlessly.
Regil threw out his magic in a swift rage, just as it was about to connect, Nigil had disappeared and his attack hit the wall of the illusion he was placed in. The facade he'd been subject to in his own mind broke as he felt himself awaken from the nightmare that was Nigil.
'Hubrid wake up-' Hubrid had already been awake for a while by the time Regil had regained consciousness.
"Okay," Hubrid says as he falls asleep again so that he could wake up once more. Hours passed as both Arry and Mwop stood upon him and Regil yelled at the sleeping boy as he refused to budge from his slumber. Hubrid began to dream of his past. Regil saw the cold nights that Hubrid had to endure as a child, the coldness that made him shiver endlessly as the cold morning took over.
He saw Hubrid nearly starving as a child, he would attempt to steal the grass that the cows ate from so that he too could live. When he got caught, an older brolic slave punched him in the stomach to make him puke it out. The man looked angry, blood vessels nearly popping as they continued to grow after seeing Hubrid do such a thing; Later on that same day, the mages from the clouds came to do their checkups, they evaluated each of the people there to see what they'd ate and drank while they were gone. If the mages had caught even a hint of the grass in his body Hubrid had previously eaten, he would have been fed to the pigs.
He saw how Hubrid got his name from the people who reigned over the farm. The people who gave it to him.
"This one is the descendant of Hmrid isn't that right?" The young girl pondered as she stared at the young unnamed boy working away endlessly as she watched over the slaves working on the fields beneath her.
"That is right, young master Bisol," her retainer says as he pours a purple liquid into the glass she was wielding, the drink bubbled and fumed as Bisol sat on the clouds with lax as she peered down into the farms.
"Why don't I give him a name similar to that of the man who nearly wiped out our people, as a symbol?" Bisol says as she swirled a bordeaux glass of wine as she sipped away at the liquid slowly. A small droplet fell from the glass and onto the farm as she stared on at the boy lifting small containers and carrying them across the field.
she puts down the glass as she stares down at the people working on the farms and begins to think to herself.
'Even if these people were so vile… even if they pushed us nearly to annihilation… what gives us the right to enslave them? We'd be better off if we killed them all off right here. We've got everything we could ever desire on Arupio so why do we even have this farm?"
The young girl looks at her retainer and questions him.
"Why do we keep those sub-humans alive?" She says curiously with unfound innocence as the man stared back at her.
"They have to pay for what their ancestors did to us, we're still even recovering today from the massacre that those people launched against us, young master Bisol."
Bisol stares at his retainer with contempt as she clenches down her fist, nearly breaking skin as it transformed into a ball of anger. "How could those weak, impure neanderthals have put us on the verge of extinction," Bisol asks as the man by her side began to feel the pressure of Bisol's aura increasing.
"Your father will tell you the details when you're of age, young-,"
"You don't have to call me master when no one else is around Beschund… let's go down to the ground and give that boy his new name.
"Yes, youn-,"
She glares at Beschund as he stops talking immediately and the two traveled down slowly to the ground to give the young man his name.
"What kind of name was Hmrid anyway?" Bisol says as the two of them continue to walk down the bridge connecting the earth and the heavens.
"The name was… powerful. The man who had that name led a campaign against us people of Arupio and because of his hubris and selfishness we nearly starved to death. To myself, and many other people, Hmrid is a name of death."
"How did we win the war if we were starving? Wouldn't our armies be weakened and our people sick?"
"You never cease to amaze me with the way you keep up on your education, you'd be correct! If not for the help of the noble sprites, we would have surely suffered a slow, agonizing defeat by the people of the ground," Beschund says to Bisol as if he were telling a bedtime story.
The two of them begin nearing the ground.
"I guess Hubrid would be a fitting name, for the descendant of someone who nearly put us into history books, nearly turning us into nothing but a fairytale, this will be his punishment. He'll be reminded of his father's arrogance until the day he dies."
"Not to be judgemental… but you've never been the kind of lady to giveout punishments, certainly not of this kind. If I may ask, is there a reason why you want to give that meek slave boy a name?"
"His punishment will be to remember," Bisol says as they finally touch the ground and make their way to the unnamed boy. With Bisol's magic, she burned a crest underneath Hubrid's right foot. It was the shape of a pentagram.
"I'll leave him with the mark of the beast as well"
Beschund whispers to Bisol although the slaves wouldn't have been able to understand him anyway, "Young- Bisol, you shouldn't do that... your father may have told of the detestable third goddess but, you should keep that information to yourself."
"No one will know what it is, even if one of the arch-mages look at his foot for some reason they won't be able to figure out what it means. He cannot just be given a name without a challenge, if he can overcome the mark of the beast by the time I take over the kingdom, I'll let him and his people live freely on the ground once again "
"... Is this really a punishment?"
"If he cannot overcome the mark by the time he reaches my age, calamity will come to his people," Bisol says as she finishes enchanting Hubrid's foot.
"This may be the first time I've felt pity for those lowly beings…"
This was the day he was bestowed the name Hubrid, it was a rarity for the slaves to have names, even more so for an unknown, weak, 10-year-old boy with the mark of the beast on his foot, time ticked away slowly until it eventually, the mark took its toll on him.
Hubrid finally awakens as Arry and Mwop burned and poured water onto him in an attempt to awake him from his slumber. He awoke in a daze as Regil spoke to him, with pity being heard in his voice.
'How do you smile, Hubrid?'
As he picked himself off the ground with his unwavering smile as his yellow teeth, crooked teeth revealed themselves from his mouth as he continued to smirk.
"I made a promise."
"So you'll help us?" Mwop says as she and Arry begin to jump with excitement and tears of joy as they gave each other high fives, hugs, and kisses as they jumped up and down.