[ ~ Chapter • Start ~ ]
It was a nice, peaceful day in the entirety of Selenus.
Well, everyone seemed to be really lucky at this very day, as most of Olga's monsters/forces weren't showing any single sign of major or minor activity, except the kidnapping of mages (and those with aptitude of magic), which was becoming actually troublesome to anybody in the kingdoms of Geofu, Ken, Thorn, and Feoh.
At least, Geofu's mages barely longer suffered any sort of kidnappings thanks to Rance's Mass Monster Extermination Order half a week ago. Adventurers, knights, and anybody with knowledge to kill specific monsters are completely obliged to find and eradicate all monsters for rewards and materials from the monsters if they were collectors or craftsmen.
Aside from that small detail.....
In a small room inside Geofu's castle, Rance, Celestine, Kaguya, and Luu-Luu were sitting on chairs arranged around a round table.
Celestine had noticed that Maia, Claudia, Prim, and Alicia weren't here. And due to knowing something was definitely wrong, and two of them were determined to take her back and kill Rance she was deeply saddened, yet never showed it out to anyone here.
There was no right time, their armies were preparing to invade Geofu, for one big reason.
Maia had kept neutral, and that was good enough for them..... until she saw a quick vision telling her that Maia was going to declare independence soon, even though chains seen only by Celestine wrapped around her arms and legs, giving limited freedom to her.
At this point, everyone had noticed that her ears had lowered down a bit and she seemed to almost collapse on her seat, her mouth was agape and her eyes wide.
Why were those happening? She asked herself inwardly, but then, a hand pressed on her shoulder, dragging her out from her thoughts.
"Celestine? Are you alright?" Rance asked her, clearly worried as she looked at his face.
The moment she did, she realized that Rance is still capable of reuniting the alliance his own way, yet she was still worried that maybe one of the kingdoms might fall....
.... and....
.... Olga is beginning to grow in power. Her figure, being consumed by tainted, unholy blood, no, a manifestation of Humanity's malice, coming from the ground, until she was submerged in it.
Her vision cut off after that.
"Lady Celestine?!" Kaguya and Luu-Luu said at the same time, standing up from their seats once they noticed tears flow down her eye.
"I.... Kaguya, Luu-Luu..... I'm sorry!"
A sudden apology came out from her mouth, which definitely confused the two princesses, and Rance too.
"For what reason?" Luu-Luu asked, stepping closer to the Goddess Reborn, glancing at her with obvious worry, like Kaguya, who despite her cold demeanor, felt like something was going on.
They knew of Celestine's prophetic visions, but what about now?
"Olga.... why?" Celestine cried out, holding Rance's rough hand tightly for desperate comfort. "..... Why must you resort to desperate measures, why must you take away my people for your own desires?!"
"So that explains the disappearance of mages around the sacred places in Thorn." Kaguya was the one to speak first, an expression of fury present on her face. "It took us a long while to destroy those monsters with my magic, but..... I'm afraid we were too late."
Surprise filled Luu-Luu, as her fingers scratched her chin.
"If that is the case, then my kingdom's the most luckiest to not gain any sort of kidnappings." The Princess Knight of Rad followed with a smile.
And Rance....
".... Screw this." He used his other hand to gently grab Celestine's gentle, soft chin and lift her face to look straight to his eyes as she noticed a frown on his face. "Celestine, it's not the time to to cry like a stupid baby. I want you to gather your resolve, and I'm not going to repeat this.... I'm your only hope now. And that is why...."
".... We're going to have to forcefully zip the alliance back together, so we have the chance to fight against Olga!" Rance roared out, fist pumped up on the air, taking on a charismatic posture and that signature smile of his that warmed up the heart of Celestine.
"Of course....."
Without anybody noticing, Celestine's hands were covered in a dim, golden light, a part of her divine powers flowed inside Rance, to help him tame a dormant energy of pure evil residing in his blood.
'.... For now, I must temporarily sacrifice my powers to see the future for you, husband. You need it.' Celestine thought, reconsidering his words that began to push her towards the path she needed to take.
She'd sometimes think that her power to see and divine the future was more of a curse than a blessing, as most of the time, she wasn't able to stop an event from happening. The most vague visions were a great example.
But now, she no longer needed to see it. She's seen too much horror in the past few months.
With this, fate has significantly changed due to the anomaly that was Rance. To counterbalance his existence in this world, it began to drastically change everything. For example, she felt like everything was destined to fall, but with him, that was no simple trouble.
And, outside of her view, Rance's own words have struck the Princess Knights, and made Sill smile.
Soon, the Shield Restoration Alliance would make their first true move.
{ TURN 2 - END }
[ ~ Chapter • End ~ ]
{ Next Chapter: Epilogue }
Author's Commentary: Slight change of plans next chapter.
Also, ever heard of Blood Memories?
By the way, I have exams so my speed at making chapters is slow.