The harsh winter breeze seemed like a needle in his bare arms. Everything around him ached as if a dozen of Minotaurs rough-handled him. Ryzen was very much aware that he did open his eyes, but what startled him was that he could not see anything at all. With his sensitive hearing, he could hear the breathing of three more creatures under the sheath of winter blaze.
Ryzen tried to use his limbs, but he was left immobilized under the three pairs of eyes for some reason. He could not even open his mouth, even though he was not gagged.
A soft hand caressed his cheeks. "You shall wear this blindfold whenever you are around other people. This is a tradition for all the Avatars. You can only take it off once you're outside the wall." A soft voice said.
Her voice seemed like a melody soothing his soul. She was neither the seer nor the wizard. Who could she be?
An arm snaked around his numb body before dragging him somewhere else. His three breathings decreased to one when he was nearing the outer wall. And beyond that wall would be Ryzen's new home as Raya Rozenhart.
This was his chosen destiny. And he had no regrets, for he was able to protect his family, and he was able to fulfill his promise.
'Farewell, Ryzen.' He whispered tenderly at the back of his mind as the one dragging him stopped and pushed him far away from where the unknown man was standing. Just like that, he heard the wall closing, and the bare lights he could see through the blindfold were slowly retreating.
He took off the blindfold and was greeted by the sight he knew would mark his new journey. Ryzen stood up and picked up the Kaiga. He never bothered to gaze at the wall longingly—he just stood up and faced the darkness ahead of him.
The breeze was harsher beyond the wall, just as the moonlight gave him enough illumination. Walking away from his old life, Ryzen hugged his weapon, Kaiga.
"It will be you and me now. Just you and me against the unknown," Ryzen whispered as he stared into the dark oblivion that reeked of wickedness and death.
Two years later
THE THUNDERING ROARS of the four kings echoed in the Fortress of Galabhan, located in the southern kingdom of Euria. This fortress served as a watchtower long ago for the kingdom, but now it served as the meeting room for the four kings who kept arguing.
No one could blame their temper, for they were discussing something they did not deal with for a very long time.
"I say we gather our dragons and dragon riders. Let them burn the army of vile creatures and the dead from the sky," King Bartholomew suggested; the king of the western kingdom, Eusha, who was busy staring at the map before them, lay on the wide wooden table.
The gods chose dragon riders to have the right to earn an egg of a dragon. It was scarce, but the Silver Bloods welcomed this, for dragon riders were good warriors.
An academy was built for dragon riders.
"And then what? Risk our dragons when they have ghost riders raiding?" King Kuhei of the eastern kingdom, Raxes, countered King Bartholomew. He continued, "You know very well that once bitten by the enemy will cause doom either to the dragon or the dragon rider."
King Kuhei's reasoning silenced King Bartholomew. Everyone knew how cruel the ghost riders were. They were never seen near the outer wall since the Avatars took care of them, but they would always pay a great price - the cost of their lives. Ghost riders with their phantoms were rare, but they were the enemy's counterpart for Yigena's dragons.
While dragons had real bodies that bled, the phantoms were dead dragons summoned by the dark wizards through forbidden magus. On the other hand, forbidden magus was created from elements that reeked of death, like a murder scene or a war zone.
"King Kuhei, how many Avatars were guarding the wall by now?" King Xerxex from the northern kingdom of Erha asked the eastern king. Everyone's attention turned to the eastern king.
"For now, the outer wall has only one left." King Kuhei answered the Northern King, which caused the entire fortress to fall silent.
"A single Avatar was guarding the wall this entire time? And it's been what? Two years!" King Ryuhei erupted and slammed the table. The fire around the area disturbingly became bigger.
"You know how we selected Avatars, King Ryuhei. There were supposed to be two Avatars, but the recent phantom and ghost rider attack killed the other," the eastern king calmly reasoned.
"Can't you do something to increase its number?" King Xerxex asked the eastern king, his voice laced with uncertainty about the situation. "An Avatar, a single Avatar, handling the situation of the four kingdoms up to this day? It would be a matter of time to penetrate the wall with a defense like that," he continued.
But the grin plastered on King Kuhei's face was not left unnoticed by the three kings.
"Why are you grinning? Shouldn't you be worried?" Irritation was evident in King Ryuhei's voice while the other two kings remained silent, waiting for answers.
"I am worried, but I trust my warrior as I trust my instinct," King Kuhei said. Finality reeked from his voice. King Ryuhei could not argue anymore, for the eastern king was a well-known strategist.
"Do you have a plan, King Kuhei?" King Bartholomew asked.
The eastern king did not respond yet. Instead, he took a scroll from his back and placed it on the table. King Xerxex took the scroll and opened it. The four kings gazed now fixated at the old scroll.
"We cannot win this fight without their help," King Kuhei said - his solemn voice was almost nonexistent.
"This is your plan? Some myth?" King Ryuhei's temper soared high again.
"We are old enough to choose what to believe. And I believed in this. We don't have a choice, do we?" King Kuhei looked into their eyes one by one to convey his message.
After all, the four knew how real they were - the seven mythical criminals.
The three uncertain kings gazed at the scroll, which tallied the records of the legendary Seven Deadly Sins.