The settlement of Narakita was one of the first settlements made by early humans. The settlers here were subject to inhumane scrutiny by entities that were unknown to the settlers. They named them "Shadows"; the only way to ward off them was to worship the god of the land; in exchange, the god would grant them their weapons and power to be able to protect their tribe from outer attacks as long as they would keep worshiping. The settlement of Narakita was on land ruled by the God Of Destruction: Vi'Tabah. Ever since the first worshiper, it had always been foretold that every two hundred years, a worshiper would be born in Narakita, that would be able to harness the full potential of the power bestowed by Vi'Tabah, finally ending the terror running rampant by those creatures.
A prophecy came into being when the tribespeople realized that as someone would start worshiping Vi'Tabah, they would gradually be given his power. Furthermore, as the generation of the worshippers would progress, they would rise in power, only to fall at the very end of the generation, to start again. The reason for this remains unknown to the elders still. Through the years, the settlement of Narakita became a full-fledged city with enough people. However, the city's army would frequently get overwhelmed by the 'Shadows'. Seeing this opportunity, the other settlements—now turned cities also—took the opportunity to attack repeatedly, hoping to claim the land and increase their power and influence.
The Elders' even knowing that the aggressors wanted to claim and control the land, decided on a policy of slight pacifism: Never kill the aggressors, only ward them off. This, however, would prove to be a counterintuitive method as it limited the power of the worshipers. The power granted to the worshiper scaled with anger and rage they harbored alongside disciplined control. The act of killing would exponentially increase the power but would drive the worshiper rapidly towards insanity.
Due to this, they were never allowed to kill, as this would only increase the mortality rate of the worshipers, further risking the city's protection. This policy would indirectly result in the worst time faced by the Narakians, "The Decline". This period brought substantial changes to the Narakian settlement as it coincided with the waning phase of the worshippers and saw increased attacks by the aggressors, at one point getting them very close to endangerment.
Taking advantage of the turmoil during The Decline, Mayao Sura: an army general, rose to power and became the new leader of Narakita. His rise to power was entirely fueled by the death of his family at the hands of the aggressors during The Decline. Mayao's freedom to kill policy would gain him an untold advantage as Egil Kondo would support it: the current worshiper of Vi'Tabah, and the strongest to date.
The elders disrespected Egil as he chose to disobey the policy. Not much is known about Egil's past to the people or the leader, as Egil refrains from talking about it. People fear his unnatural power and need to kill. However, he was not always like this. He had been known to have changed the tide of several wars drastically, some becoming gruesome for other nations, so much so that if the enemy were to spot him, they were told to retreat at the moment, leaving their weaponry behind, even semi-wounded soldiers if needed to be. However, even after these failed efforts, the aggressors still attacked. Whatever the land of Narakita unknowingly harbored was very precious to the aggressors.
| PRESENT DAY: 473 |
The Sun shone brightly on the populated streets of Narakita, it was around three in the afternoon, and the market was at its peak. People were rushing to buy rice for the festival of ancestors. This festival came once every two years, where people would dedicate sweet rice to their ancestors as a token of appreciation. The rice shop at the corner of the street was at the peak of being busy, as customers kept on coming.
"Minya, would you stop slacking off and deliver this package to Mr. Vera near the lake!!" The shop owner yelled at her daughter with frustration and anger in her voice.
"Getting to it now!!" The daughter yelled back, grabbing the package and running off in a hurry towards the lake.
Mr. Vera lived near the lake on the west side of the Narakian settlement; the lake marked the end of the Narakian boundary in the West direction. The river was the spot for the ancestor festival, with the people coming here at night to send the rice in small paper boats in the lake.
Minya walked at an average pace, not worried about being late as it seemed worthless to her to hurry and mess up her beautiful clothes. She reached Mr. Vera's house at four in the afternoon. However, if she wanted to get back before night, she would have to leave the house by five. It took her several minutes to complete the necessary formalities, but she took her to leave their home when she was done.
"Mr. Vera is always lazy. Why can't he come to the shop to pick up his delivery." She mumbled to herself, walking back towards her house.
Several minutes passed by as she kept walking without notice. When she looked around, she found out that the sky had turned dark and the night had arrived. This was unusual; she should've reached her home by now, she thought. Another quick look around gave her an immediate shock; she realized that she was on the other side of the lake outside the Narakian boundary.
The sudden realization led her to hurry and start running towards the bridge. She ran as fast as she could, but she was stuck in the same position to no avail. The Moonlight shone over her as she looked down. The ground on which her shadow fell was starting to morph as a dark figure slowly made its way out of her shadow. The figure was distorted in shape and had latched itself onto her shadow, holding her in place.
A colossal shockwave made its way through the air coming from something headed towards her from behind her. The shockwave got louder as the thing causing it sped up. The air around her started to violently thrash as the Kama with a wooden handle and a crimson-edged blade impaled the distorted figure. The impaled matter around the Kama began to evaporate into the air as the figure started to screech in an ungodly voice. Minya covered her ears as she couldn't bear the noise.
The figure evaporated particle by particle as the crimson color of the blade glowed brighter. The blade fell on the ground as the figure completely disintegrated after a few seconds. Minya looked in half relief and half horror as she tried to process what had happened.
Before she could realize it, the Kama suddenly launched back into the air, returning in the direction from where it was thrown from. The Kama was caught by Egil, who was standing in the distance. The Kama vanished from his hand with a tattoo appearing on his right forearm.
Minya just looked at him in shock and awe, slowly coming back to her senses after a few moments. She tried calling out to him, but it was too late as he had already walked away into the dark. She looked in his direction for a bit, collecting herself before walking towards the bridge back into the city.
She reached the shop at eight and entered inside. Her house was a part of the shop. She entered without saying anything, choosing to go straight into her room, ignoring her mom's words regarding the delivery of Mr. Vera's package and her being so late. She entered her room and jumped on her bed, looking up at the ceiling, thinking about the incident, going over it in her head, as she closed her eyes, letting the mental exhaustion take her to sleep.
The gate of the castle where the leader lived was heavily guarded. Egil was outside the gate and waited for the guards to open it. He walked into the court, greeted by the guards as they let him inside. He walked towards the main door, looking at the beautiful night sky before stepping in to meet Mayao.
He entered the meeting room to see Mayao and General Aegis conversing about the recent development they had witnessed about the aggressors. He sat down near them as they both greeted him. The look on their faces conveyed that the matter was serious. Mayao hinted to Aegis to explain, as they all sat in silence with Aegis starting.
"We have received a declaration of war from the settlement of Kozue; they want war for reasons they won't state." He explained, looking at him with a stern expression.
"Furthermore, we have reason to believe that they have been behind the 'Shadows'." Mayao added.
The last sentence took off the restraints that had bound his anger from appearing on his face. Both of them could see him radiating a purple-reddish aura. It seemed like the air around them was getting hotter, as the slight silhouette of Vi'Tabah slowly manifested right behind him. His anger overflowed through his raw expression, but this was also the display of his paramount capabilities and prominent link to Vi'Tabah as the strongest worshiper to date.
"You will get your revenge," Mayao stated in a stern voice as he knew that was what he wanted to hear.
He could sense the burning rage that fueled Egil's power. After all, he was the one who could understand him the most. Both of their families had been brutally massacred by the aggressors during The Decline.
For Egil, the pain of losing his family was immense. He had a deep spiritual bond with his dad. Even though his dad held a regular occupation as a local priest, he was considered the family's black sheep. He had chosen not to follow the path of destruction and rejected the lineage of worshiping Vi'Tabah. Instead, he was the paramount worshiper of another god. This was considered an act of betrayal by his elders. As a result, he was disowned and cast to live near the Temple of Vi'Tabah. This was done to ensure that the influence of Vi'Tabah's Guardian stone, which resided under the temple, would continuously hinder his prayer and break him into submission.
Egil was born on the land of the temple, which in a sense would make sure that he would become a devout worshiper of Vi'Tabah, as he would've been influenced from birth. On the other hand, his dad sought to change that; he wanted to find a way to break the cycle of using destructive power to make peace. He was successful in making it so, as he had cast a spell on Egil's birth that would save him from the influence of the Vi'Tabah's guardian stone.
This all fell in chaos when the aggressors directly attacked the temple one night. Nobody in the village could fathom how they even managed to invade the land without anyone noticing. The outsiders charged straight for the temple. Even though it wasn't his dad's duty, he still protected the Guardian stone inside the temple with his life. Young Egil hid under the house as his Dad and Mom patrolled the temple.
He could hear the cries of his parents as they tried their best to protect the temple and their son. He blocked his ears with his hands so he couldn't hear the noise as his heartbeat heightened with his body shaking due to fear. After a while, as he took his hands off his ears, he noticed that the noise had stopped. He could feel the wind of terror as it was now ominously silent.
Egil stepped out of the basement of the temple as he looked around with his teary eyes. His voice slurred as he struggled to find his parents; not seeing them in the temple, he hurried outside in panic and anxiety as he could feel the shortness of breath engulf him. As he stepped out, there it was. He witnessed his parents' deaths, mutilated bodies lying in the mud. He hurried over to them, almost falling on his way as he approached, inching closer; he took his steps carefully, looking at their lifeless bodies as sorrow started to fill his mind rapidly. He kneeled in the mud as he held the body of his father in his right arm and his mother's in his left, begging them to come back to him. He felt alone and scared. Tears started flowing down from his eyes rapidly as he started crying; he looked around as his crying got louder, unable to form words anymore due to the shock.
The pure sorrow slowly began to turn into anger as the spell cast by his dad started to fade away. His crying slowly stopped as he could feel something snapping inside of him; at that instant, the spell had worn entirely off, as his eyes bulged a bit from the anger. Tears started to flow again. This time not of sorrow but rage, as he held his mom and dad closely, looking up in the sky. The fire inside the temple started burning harder and harder as the statue in the temple radiated a reddish-purple aura; the painted eyes on the figure shifted to look at the young child directly.
"I WILL KILL THEM ALL!!!!!" the young boy yelled out loud, as the fires in the temple raged with intensity along with the scream of the boy.
TO BE CONTINUED…