The royal capital of the Kingdom of Oswald, Celestia, said to be a city blessed by the celestials, was the city where both magic and technology prospered. Celestia City was where most of the old modern technology had survived against the end of its era and was improved with the help of magic. Celestia City is home to the Kingdom's Castle, the Celestia Academy, Mage's Tower, and the main churches of the gods.
The Viscounty of Accasha is located south-east of Celestia, with two villages and a city in between them. As the road from the Viscounty of Accasha wasn't made of asphalt but simply a path carved out from the ground, traveling by car, a vehicle from the modern era, was not an option, and so they traveled to the capital using the train, a vehicle from the modern era that runs on tracks. It was also more reasonable to use the train instead due to the fact that it is faster than other land vehicles and would make the journey faster than any other land vehicle can. The train was set to arrive in the capital two days from the day they left.
In the VIP car of the train, the sounds of footsteps can be heard outside the room that Aeon Accasha is residing in for the duration of the trip. A set of two footsteps stopped in front of the door, and a knocking sound followed. The person had introduced himself: "My liege, it is I, Raymond, and Alex. May we be allowed to enter?" Aeon, who was setting his baggage in his room, ceased what he was doing and walked towards the door and opened it. "You may come in; pardon the mess as I was just fixing my table to be suitable for work. Regardless of that, tell me what the purpose of your visit is."
Raymond and Alex slightly bowed toward Aeon and then entered the room. Aeon guided them to the table and chairs by the side of his room. "My liege is the room to your satisfaction? Although we may rarely use it, this room was designed for the viscount of Accasha by the former viscount, lord Orion accasha, for you and the future heirs of Accasha." Raymond asked his liege.
"Is that so? I never knew of that, and then again, I only knew him for 13 years of my life. It is comforting to hear that, though, for it is a remnant of my father and also his way of helping me with what's to come. Now, tell me the real reason as to why both of you have come to my room."
"My lord, we would just like to inform you of what is to come. As we travel to the capital, there may be a risk of running into trouble on the way as bandits have been causing trouble as of late. We will do our best to protect you, my lord; as you know, I have trained my life as a knight and Raymond as a marksman." Alex addressed his concern and assured Aeon that no real danger will befall him.
Aeon ponders for a while what Alex had told him before asking him a question: "We are in a vehicle run by mana stones that travels at an incredible speed, enough to kill anyone on its path at that, so how will they even pose any trouble?"
"It may be because you, my liege, haven't ridden the train for a long time and that nothing happened when you used to ride it before, or maybe the records didn't state anything about train incidents; as you know, trains travel really fast, but it is easy for them to derail once they hit something on their path. The solution that the engineers designed is a method of slowing down the train when the magic stone in front of it detects something blocking the path 5 minutes away from it. Although the railway is fenced off to keep anything from blocking the railway, it doesn't completely block off bandits and the bandits make use of this feature to make it stop and steal from the passengers." Raymond replied in order to answer Aeon's question.
Aeon, still a bit confused, asked, "How often do these attacks occur? Why isn't the kingdom doing anything about it?" and Alex replied to the question, "My lord, to answer your question, they don't do it too often, but they still occasionally attack trains like this. As a measure of security, trains are guarded by skilled mages and knights, but only 1 of each per car, as it would be uncomfortable for the passengers to always see armed people during their trip. There is also one priest of the goddess of healing, Heran, at the VIP car in case of any injuries."
"I see, you may now go back to your rooms. I thank you two for letting me know of this. Let us meet again when the clock hits the 7th hour for dinner. You're dismissed for now."
"Then, my liege, we shall take our leave; may the God of Time's blessing be with you and grant you a long life." Raymond and Alex bowed before exiting Aeon's room.
After exiting the room, both of them went to their respective rooms. Aeon, who heard of the possible problem that may arise, cast a spell that strengthens a material with the caster's mana on the walls of his room. After casting the spell, Aeon said to himself while dusting his hand off." That should be enough. Time to finish what I was doing before."
A night has passed since they departed with nothing of note happening, it is now the second day of their trip. Aeon and his vassals are eating lunch together at the VIP Dining car when they felt a change in the speed of the train. All three of them were alarmed by this and signaled each other to prepare for battle in case of it being a bandit attack.
As the train reached a full stop, the cars were filled with anxiety and fear. The mages and knights of each car guarded each entrance to the car while making sure that the passengers didn't panic and cause a stampede. After a few minutes of silence, with nothing happening, the train crew decided to send a mage and a knight to check the railway for the cause of bringing the train to a stop and to fix it with magic.
15 minutes in, neither a green nor a red flare was fired, signaling that something may have happened to them. Tension began to fill the train, and a numbing silence ensued until a sudden explosion was heard, and the cars that were hit by it were dented, and the fences were also destroyed, causing panic among the passengers.
A loud sound of footsteps can be heard in the distance. Silhouettes of people began to emerge from the right side of the train. A rugged-looking man went to the front of the gang of bandits on the right side of the car. "If any of you want to live, then all of you better come out and hand out all of your valuables. No funny business either, or else my men here will have no choice but to defend themselves." The man laughed maniacally.
Fear began to take control of the people, who decided to follow the demands of the bandits. Aeon and his vassals also followed the crowd in order to get in touch with the guards.
"Alex, Raymond, I need you two to tell the guards to protect the civilians and, on my signal, prepare to retaliate against them. Make sure that the civilians and the bandits don't notice; we don't want our plan to be exposed immediately." The two nodded and began to make their way around the civilians.
After signaling that they had told the guards of the plan, Aeon casted a barrier that took 6 seconds around the civilians and then attacked a large number of the bandits with magic bullets barrage. Alex and Reinhardt followed this, with Alex charging towards the bandits opposite Aeon's target and Reinhardt supporting him with his gun. Part of the guards also assisted, while some remained in the barrier to protect the civilians.
The fight was going well until the screams of the civilians were heard. The bandit's leader suddenly appeared behind the civilians. Hitting the barrier with his huge war hammer, although no cracks were made to the barrier, just the sheer amount of pressure from his bloodlust was enough to cause fear among the civilians and guards.
"You mother fuckers! I told you no funny business.. and then you just decided to ignore that.. all of you are dead!" the rugged-looking man roared out of his rage. Blinded by fear, some civilians began to run out of the barrier, which ensued in a stampede. Those that ran outside of the barrier's protection were immediately killed by him, which put a halt to the stampede. The priest of Heran was injured by the stampede, which rendered him incapable of using healing miracles, a domain limited to priests. The people who suffered from the stampede had no choice but to endure their pain and get help once they reached the nearby village.
Aeon shifted his focus from the gang of bandits to their leader. Aeon casted a concentrated mana bullet that took 5 seconds to cast towards the leader. The speed of the magic bullet was as fast as a bullet from a gun; despite that, the leader of the bandits managed to dodge it. "Ah.. finally.. the bastard decided to fight me.. playing hero, are we?" the man mocked Aeon and then sighed. He suddenly charged straight to Aeon, which alarmed his vassals, but both of them were incapable of rushing to his aid and could only yell their lord's name, "AEON!"