Book 2.

Volume 1: The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter One: Twenty Years Later

*****

Amid the screams of innocent people, amid the multitude of buried corpses, knelt and watched bitterly as a gray-haired grandmother in a gray, stained apron watched the village burn. She watched without emotion the burning houses, the dying children, the parents who were trying to save them, but nothing worked. An army made up entirely of professional killers leaves no chance for ordinary peasants to escape. In the midst of all this chaos, a huge three-meter-tall silhouette appears from behind a blood-red fire. He walks slowly and confidently toward the kneeling grandmother and smiles into her face as he looks at her expectant gaze.

- You are the only one left alive. - He said indifferently, looking down on the exhausted old woman. - Your time has come. - The man creates a sword of energy and prepares to cut off her head.

The grandmother quietly lifted her gaze and looked at the smirking middle-aged man who doesn't care about other people's deaths.

- Your heart has sunk into a pit of despair, your soul is filled with the blood of innocents, and those eyes will be the worst nightmare for all mankind... - she mumbled through her strength, but managed to smile one last time. - But in five years, someone will come into this world who will be your nightmare. The child chosen by fate, her birth would mark the end of your era, Titan, you would not rule for long.

- As you say. - He looked coldly into the smiling granny's face as he lowered his sword and severed the head from the body.

The village is completely burnt out, the Titan continues to seize territory after territory, there is no one who would allow himself to fight on equal footing with such an erector whose power is beyond all possible limits.

*****

- Huh?" a girl of fifteen jumped out of bed, her breath hitched after the dream she had seen. She grabbed her head and rubbed her forehead. - What was that?

- What was that? - asked the old woman sitting in the chair opposite the bed, peacefully sewing socks for sale.

- I had another nightmare with an old woman and a Titan. - she answered as soon as she woke up.

- About the prophecy? - Granny asked, rocking back and forth in her chair.

- Yes. I've been having the same dream for days now, I guess I've been thinking about this war so often...

- Yes... Twenty years ago it seemed like the war was about to end, the humans had practically stopped the immortal beings, but then a Titan came along, coming out of nowhere and defeating everyone. He hasn't known defeat since, and with the collapse of the two countries came eight new ones, but the war still goes on...

- Grandma, is it true that Titan created Titania and called it his empire?

- Of course it is. Titan has done much evil to our world, your late grandfather gave his life in the war, but it turned out in vain...

- You and I live in a village not far from Titania, I am afraid to be here, what if the army of Titan takes us? - The girl was very worried, worried for her family's life.

- Do not be afraid, my dear. For Titania's army to reach our village, it has a lot to go through. Our valiant wars will not allow evil to win, so we will wait until the war is over. - The old woman calmed her granddaughter down and continued sewing her socks.

- Eh... - she sighed. - The war has been going on for over twenty years, every year I hear the same thing: soon Titania will fall, peace will be restored again, but Titan's army keeps getting stronger and stronger...

Miyazaki Asaka, fifteen years old, lives in a small wooden house with his grandmother and younger brother. The village is in the Land of Flowers, the same one that shares the same border with Titania, so the locals try to go far away on big occasions to avoid the front lines. Miyazaki gets out of bed and heads to the mirror, where she fixes her long purple hair, puts on a blue T-shirt and gray tights, then tidies herself up and walks into the kitchen.

- Sis, how is your life? Are you dreaming again from lack of sleep? - seeing his big sister asked the little boy, sitting on the chair and eating his breakfast.

- Oh, Toda, are you annoying me with your silly questions again? - She ignored her brother without interest as she put some food on herself and sat down away from him.

- Ha-ha-ha! - He laughed as he noticed the bruises under Miyazaki's eyes, the girl doesn't get enough sleep and suffers from insomnia, so she also wakes up in the morning.

Toda Asaka, the younger brother of Miyazaki, who is nine years old, is very sly and likes to mess with his sister's head and also wants to be the one who personally stops Titans and defeats them in a fair fight. He is also very sarcastic and loves to tease his sister about stopping him personally, even though he does not have enough food and clothes to go around. Toda decides to play a joke on Miyazaki and supposedly accidentally throws at her... A piece of bread.

- Are you out of your mind? - The girl couldn't take a direct hit to her forehead, standing up from the table and giving her brother a good shouting.

Grandma was sitting in her chair and heard everything that was going on. She was smiling sweetly and almost finished with her socks, she was a little hurt, her grandchildren's parents died in the war, defending the country of flowers, now she alone has to raise a girl and a boy at once, there is hardly enough food for her, she needs to embroider all day long and sell it all to local stores to get some profit and buy food and clothes with it.

- We don't have much food in the house and you're throwing bread around, do you realize how hard our grandmother works to get money so that people like you can throw it around so easily?

Toda frowned heavily and lowered his eyes to the floor, he felt ashamed, at nine years old the boy does not think much about the real war and how hard adults sometimes get money to feed their children or grandchildren. Miyazaki realizes that she is a little too much, so she cools down and sits down at the table, but asks her brother to be more respectful of the food, whatever it may be.

- Miyazaki, someone's knocking! - Shouted the grandmother from the hall.

The girl was not the least bit surprised and even realized who it was. She quickly finished her meal and left the table, went to the front door and opened it. Standing in front of her was a tall guy with short black hair, wearing an orange sweatshirt and green shorts, he had brown eyes and a blinding smile, but even that can't do anything for Miyazaki, her sweet, gentle nature has changed during the war, becoming cold and calm.

- Miyazaki, hello!" the boy greeted his friend.

- Kai, why are you here so early? - She was surprised to see fire in her friend's eyes. - It's eight in the morning, you're usually still asleep by this time...

Kai Akihiro, fifteen years old, has been friends with Miyazaki since childhood and goes out with her almost every day, he is not secretly in love with her because although he is a guy with a warm soul, he does not know about true love. He has not read many novels, and somehow does not trust his feelings. He lives near Miyazaki's house, in the next block, and visits the girl on a regular basis, Grandma even has to fry a bunch of pies in advance to feed so many mouths.

- You won't believe me! - he began. - Anyway, I go to the store yesterday, I pass by the woods, and then I take and fall under the ground!

- И... - She wasn't surprised. Kai is usually such a rascal, then falls under the ground, then the nettles fall, once climbed a tree, wanted to save the cat, the cat got scared and got off himself, and Kai such a clinging to a branch and remembered that he was afraid of heights.

- Well, in general, I found myself in some dark place, there is dust and cobwebs everywhere. So I went even farther and saw a steel door. With great difficulty I opened it, went inside and almost fell down from surprise... - I walk up close to my friend and whisper in her ear. - There are so many papers with secret documents behind that door. Can you believe Titan had so many different names before, there's even pictures of him from different years!

- Did you find something secret? - At least she found some use for Kai.

- It's not so much secret as it is an archive of secrets! Anybody would want to buy such documents. Imagine, you and I will be rich!

- Don't you think they'd rather kill us as witnesses and steal the documents for themselves? - Caius stumped.

- А... Well that's also possible, but I suggest you go there today and see for yourself. There's all kinds of stuff in there, from research papers to search forms with criminals from the past!

- Miyazaki, who is it? - Grandma was getting worried.

- Kai," she sighed. - I hear you. Why don't you get out of here and I'll meet you at the entrance to the forest in an hour, okay? I have to go to the store.

- No problem! Then I'll meet you at that sign in an hour. I'll see you then! - The guy winked at her and turned his back on her with a smile, going back to his house.

Miyazaki closed the door behind her and exhaled. Kai never gave her any peace, always finding adventures on her ass and dragging her into it. She wouldn't have cared, but there's kind of a little brother in there besides her, who also wants an extreme adventure. She is also a bit bored of being home alone, so it's understandable that a nine year old boy would go after her no matter how much Miyazaki refuses to let Toda go.

- So, where are we going today? - Toda asked, already lying on the couch and waving his legs from side to side, waiting with interest for his sister's answer.

- Nowhere! Or rather you stay at home, it's too dangerous there. Grandma! - Grandma found a weak spot in Toda's body. - He asked me to go for a walk, but it would be a little dangerous, we're going to the woods. Tell Toda to stay inside. - Miyazaki looked at her brother and smirked sarcastically. For sure now he'll stay inside and listen to her.

- Be! - Showed his sister the boy's tongue.

- Of course it's dangerous to walk in the woods! Toda, you will sit next to me and help me sew.

- What? No! I don't want to... - ...he got upset and dropped his hands.

An hour later Miyazaki left in the direction of the forest, she promised to meet Kai near the entrance, there was still a sign posted saying you were entering the forest. Toda was lying on the couch, looking sadly out the window. He wanted to run away after his sister, but there was a serious challenge, he had to sneak away from his grandmother somehow.

- Hr-r-r-r-r... - However, Granny snored in her old age, and Toda takes advantage of that, first covering her with a warm blanket, then tiptoeing out of the house and following Miyazaki.

The girl goes to the sign and meets Kai, the guy doesn't look well judging by his pale face and tired look. He also looked a little hunched over, like he'd been hit in the back with a stick.

- Kai, are you all right?

- Yeah, I'm fine! - He clutched his stomach.

- What else has happened to you in the hour I haven't seen you? - She raised an eyebrow in surprise and crossed her arms over her chest.

- I was walking in the forest, I saw some mushrooms, I thought, why should it go to waste? I ate just a little bit...

- Did you know what kind of mushrooms you ate?

- As if I knew anything about them. - Kai waved his hand, I think he's starting to feel nauseous.

- Fool, mushrooms not only do good, they can also do harm! What did you ever do at school? - She scolded him, deep down inside she was really worried about him. It is dangerous to let such a miracle in boots on the loose, to eat something wrong and that's all.

- What school? I don't even remember what I did yesterday, and you tell me about school... Oh, I want to eat something normal...

- Okay, let's go. There are a lot of berries in the woods, I'll pick them for you, they say they are good for your health. The nausea will go away, too.

Immediately Miyazaki led her friend by the hand straight into the depths of the forest. They wandered through it, looking for bushes with strawberries, until they stumbled upon them. The girl happily tears the berries and puts them in her pockets. Kai also wants to help his friend and approaches the bushes. However, he hears that someone is already in the bushes. The boy puts his ear up and directly senses someone there eating strawberries, lurking quietly and not showing at all.

- Surely some hare is stealing my berries, I'll teach him a lesson! - He proudly declares, stepping into the bushes and a second later running out of there.

- What happened, why are you running? - Miyazaki didn't understand. Kai had spoiled the silence for her with his shouting.

- It's... There's a... A m-bear!

It's true. Furious that he wasn't allowed to eat, the bear runs out of the bushes and runs straight at the guys. Miyazaki drops all the berries he picked earlier and scolds Kai with the kindest words in his mind.

- That's all we need... - She says, waving to the bear and quickly running off after Kai.

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Hey guys! I'm a writer from Russia, so I use a translator to translate text from Russian into English. There may be some inconsistencies, please forgive in advance!