I felt my head aching slightly as light seeped through my half opened eyelids. As I opened my eyes, I found myself back at the temple still kneeling. Checking my body, everything seems to be in order.
'Leda...huh, is she what they call a tsundere?' I touched my forehead, also noticing the purification symbol on my hand
"It seems you're done with your meeting , Sir Colt" the old priest had come to greet me with a smile
"Huh, yeah it was just over" I replied as I looked around the temple. I soon spotted Rea and Ben waiting from the entrance. They must have ended their meeting sooner.
"Umm thanks for guiding us Mr. priest, it seems I have to leave now" I started to walk towards the twins
"The pleasure is mine" he replied
As I got closer, I noticed that they were really far apart from each other, both having furrowed brows on their faces. I immediately said hi after I got out the temple.
"Hey where were you Colt, that Tempus guy just said to us that you were meeting with some other God" Ben asked after I greeted. Rea had also looked at me, seeming to have the same question, although still having a frown
'What's up with these guys?' I mused, feeling a heavy mood between the two
"I met the goddess that was related to my talent and man was she cold~,....hey, do you know everything now too?" I asked tense, Leda had told me that the Gods would reveal to the champions the truth even if they didn't ask. I asked to only confirm her statement
The two fell silent as Ben gritted his teeth and Rea clutched her hand tightly. No words were needed to understand that they already knew our predicament and so I stayed silent too.
'It seems that they took it really bad huh, yeah makes sense..but why are they ignoring each other' noticing that they were still trying hard to not speak to one another
"Hey so what's your ability Colt?" Rea asked trying to break the awkward atmosphere.
Before I could answer her, the two escorts that were with us greeted us as they requested us to come back to the palace.
"Lets talk about it in the castle guys, it seems that we need to go back" I urged, deciding that the two needed some space for themselves and the palace was a suitable place for contemplating the news we all had heard today. They agreed and we boarded the carriage back to the palace. Noticing that the sun was starting to set at the way back.
-----
The king sat alone in his throne as we arrived at the center of the throne room. It seemed that the Queen and the prince and princess were elsewhere. Only a few people were in the throne room, the king, the two guards, and us.
'Where is everybody, more importantly why is he dressed like that?' I mused since the last time we were here, there were a lot of people compared to now. The most eye catching thing in this room was that the King was wearing seemingly heavy scarlet armor and had a huge black sword at the side.
"Champions!, It seems that the ceremony was successful, congratulations" the king celebrated, still as boisterous as before, although his expression told another thing
"Now that is out of the way, can you please show me your status?" He requested although it sounded more like an order. I stared at the king, dubious about why he's acting like this.
"Colt, I think something weird is going on here" whispered Rea as she tugged my sleeves
"You think so too huh~" I also whispered, I didn't mind showing my status since we were allies in the first place but the way he was acting told me something was up.
"Status!" said Ben
'Godammit I should warned this guy first!' I facepalmed. Rea had also had a look of utter dismay at her brother
The square panel appeared before us
===
Name: Ben Desmond
Affiliation: Irelia
Talent type: Physical
Ability: Charge-Level 1
-Can stack arcane energy within the circuit to overcome ones limit and current capacity, may also be released for instantaneous power
Circuit: Internal-Arrayed @ lower
===
"Oho! It seems that you have a very powerful ability there champ" exclaimed the King while still reading Ben's status
Ben's ability was really straightforward and most of all simple. It had the potential for powerful damage output while also providing him a buff at the same time.
"And it seems you've opened your circuits, that's great" the king said
"Wait when did you open your circuits?" I asked curious, just noticing after it was mentioned
"Well, it sorta opened when I got the blessing, I didn't really understand that Gods' explanation but from what he told me, it was because my ability had direct influence to my circuits, something like that" Ben explained rather vaguely
"Dude, that's really important stuff, well~, its already opened so what's the point" I gave up on furthering my questions.
"You get it!" Ben slapped my back. The force behind the slap made me trip.
"Hey! that hurts!" I got up quickly, still feeling the pain
"Oh sorry man, I still cant adjust to my body, is this how it feels to get steroids?" Ben apologized while asking nonsense. It seems that his circuit opening led to immediate power up
"Haha, you just need to train a little to get used to it, next, how about you?" The king pointed to Rea
She nodded, not minding her previous suspicions
"Status"
===
Name: Rea Desmond
Affiliation: Irelia
Talent type: Null
Ability: Voice of the Wild-Level 1
-Enables the user to form a link with arcane beast and tame them
Circuit: Internal-Disarrayed
===
'She hasn't opened her circuits yet huh' I thought as I expected she had opened them like Ben earlier
"You also have a great ability little miss, its going to be a big source of manpower for us to fight, though you're going to need to venture danger since arcane beast are known to be untamable" said the King as he rubbed his chin
From what he said, animals, Cabal monsters and arcane beast are totally different things in this world. Rea's ability exactly matched tamer classes in games that focused on overpowering enemies by their tamed monsters
"Thank you for your compliment sir, I will do my best" she said resolutely. It felt like she had said that last part more to herself rather than the king.
"Rea...you" Ben whispered as I noticed him clenching his hands, he stared at his sister with looks of annoyance
"That's the spirit! we will crush those scums like the insects they are" said the king, oozing out bloodlust
'This guy is really eager to kill huh' I thought shuddering, I also noticed the look of the three people in the room.
"Ok~My turn, Status!"
===
Name: Colt Pelter
Affiliation: Irelia
Talent type: Mystic
Ability: Inverno Rune- Level 1 - rune made by the Goddess of Frost, enables the user to gain access to her authority, allows user to inscribe the rune on surfaces
Circuit: Internal-Disarrayed
===
'Oh seems like its updated, she's unexpectedly clumsy..that Goddess' I mused when I notice the additional information
"You..are you a rune user? but the previous rune user was a mage.." said the king as he mumbled further. Surely he was confused since Rune spells required external arcane but the user this time had internal circuits.
"Please don't worry you're majesty, the Goddess assured me that I can use this despite my circuits" I assured the king from further spiraling into confusion
"Hmmm Ill take you for your word, the Goddess Leda huh..so you use ice?" asked the king
"More or less~" I still wasn't sure how mine works since I haven't tested it yet
"F*ck" he silently cursed
'Wait did he just curse me?..' I thought as I looked at the King staring menacingly
'W-what the, was I too disrespectful?' I wondered, I made sure I kept minimum manners
"Dude! You met a Goddess, what the hell, all we met was an old man" Ben complained
"I'm sure I told you this earlier besides its not my fault my talent is Mystic" I argued
"So how did she look?" Ben nudged
'Dude stop, someone is staring daggers at us right now' I turned towards my side
Rea was staring at us with looks of disgust
The king then clapped his hands as we all turned our attention to him. He then stood up and pointed at me and Rea.
"Come here, I will open your circuits. Normally, circuits are opened through 3 ways; digesting arcane pills, acupuncture; and exposure to another person's internal arcane which is what Im going to do now" the King explained
I looked at Rea, she nodded at me despite being obviously scared but we still had to do it. Both of us walked towards the King, letting him grab our hands. After a little while, a feeling of something like warm water was flowing from my hands moving allthroughout my body. It was very relaxing compared to how the purification blessing went. The king then releases his hold, grinning at us.
"How does it feel to have arcane?"
"It feels amazing actually" I honestly said, I was really feeling great, strength and energy was flowing through my circuits. Rea also seemed just as amazed as I am.
The King proceeds to get his huge sword, hoisting it on his shoulders. He looked at the three of us. The atmosphere in the room suddenly turned grim
"I'm sure you've noticed the lack of people in this room and as to why I'm wearing this. Well there is a good reason for that, and such is why I abruptly called you here"
"Rushing you is not my intention at all, my wife has pegged me all night to give you time to think but circumstances has changed" He showed a serious look
"The second line of defense from the frontline has fallen, leaving us one last bastion separating the Alterian army from conquering this land" All of us tensed up, fear becoming evident in our faces. We had expected something was up the moment we came into this room but we didn't expect this at all.
"I will give you two months to become strong enough to fight alongside us, no more no less, our supplies and manpower can only get us that much time, we can't expect reinforcement from our neighbors, by the time they get here Irelia would have been altered already. This is the time to rise to the occasion, I will give my life to ensure that you can train without worry and in exchange promise me that you shall also do the same, the only path to victory rests upon you three and if any of us fail in our duties, then Irelia will surely...fall" the King gave his ultimatum his voice resounding in the room, his eyes held conviction that his words were not to be taken lightly. He stared at us, seemingly waiting for our answer
I held in my words, my desire to decline, to say no, to run away and to cower and hide building up inside me. I looked at my hand with the symbol on it, I knew that more than one world is depending on us but the weight of that fact all suddenly felt all to real at this moment. It was heavy, sure but more than that I...
(You are now and will henceforth be Irelia's champion)
I looked at Ben and Rea, the misfortunate souls to be stuck with me up to this point, their eyes said it all. The moment we were summoned to this place we were already..
"""I am Irelia's champions"""
The king was grinning, when he was about to talk
"Only if my sister isn't a part of this" Ben demanded, staring at Rea with eyes devoid of warmth.