If someone is faced with the decision to attain power capable of saving the world, should they? Of course they should, right? But the power to save the world is the power to conquer it.
The power known as great and mighty, may as well be the power known to be tragic and deadly. It's not the power that someone has that dictates the power's moral alignment, it's the person who uses it, their decision decides the moral alignment.
After the events of Altriche, Sir William Rose, reached Vonheim and settled for a simple life in the kingdom of Vonheim. The kingdom spanned three biome, a part of the Central Plains, most of the northern tundra and parts of the Eastern highlands
With Vonheim being mostly in the tundra, Sir Rose settled with Kieran and Soren in a part of the blizzards. He retired from the life of Knightly duties. He became Grandpa Rose.
Kieran and Soren would now also be older by a couple of years, the original incident at Altriche took place when they were 5 and 6 respectively, now they are 13 and 15 respectively.
"Hey catch!" Kieran spoke while throwing a ball made with horse leather.
"Hey man you threw it too low!" Soren spoke as the ball landed a few inches ahead of him as he grabbed it.
"Sorry, here let me try it again-" before Kieran could finish, an old voice was heard.
"Hey kids..! Come inside, time for dinner." He spoke in a strict and demanding tone.
The sound of chairs scraping and shaking of plates annoyed Grandpa Rose, clearly a neat freak and perfectionist.
"Oi.. can't you two do anything quietly!" Rose spoke. "Hehe! Sorry Gramps!" replied Kieran.
As everyone ate their foods, Soren swirled his plates of noodles, before sighing clearly thinking of something.
"What? Suddenly you don't like noodles or something?" Said Grandpa Rose in an annoyed tone.. safe to say, Soren's food choices were quite annoying to keep up with for an old man.
"No.. but.. well, I uh.." stammered Soren unable to think of what to say.
"Well c'mon spit it out already will you?" Said Rose eyeing Soren up and down. "Did you fail a test or something?" a mix of sarcasm and concern filled his voice.
"What?! No of course not.. well I may have but that's besides the point.. I uh, wanna be a Divine Knight! I filled out the visitation form.. I need your signature to the Divine Knights Headquarters.. please? I really want to see how the knights do their Knightly duties, Plea-" before Soren could finish statement, a stern "No." was heard from Rose.
(For reference: order is Soren, Rose, Soren, Rose.....)
- "But it's only a visi-"
- "I said No. End of discussion."
- "Why! It's not like I'm filling out the form to be one of them, it's just sightseeing!"
- "You may as well be filling out a form! You go there once, and hold my word to it, you will immediately be influenced to be one of them."
- "That's not fair! Weren't you like uh.. satellite knight in our old kingdom?"
- "Elite Knight, yeah I was. But it's far too dangerous. I'm not allowing you to do that."
- "So what? You get to do dangerous stuff and be cool and heroic but your grandson can't? How is that fair! It's not like I'm becoming one right now! I wanna become one in the future, when I'm more powerful!"
- "Soren I said No."
- "But-"
- "No 'but's. You are not going anywhere near a Divine Knight, that's it."
- "Ple-"
- "Soren Fischer."
Just like any child, the moment Soren heard his full name being called, he shut up, and again, like any early teen, went into a pouty mood.
Kieran, who had stayed quiet this far spoke up quietly;
"Maybe you should start by learning about Gladius Art. You say you wanna wield a big scary sword and slay enemies, but I doubt you can wield a normal long sword."
Soren looked offended but inside he did consider it, but his ego couldn't let that get away!
"Well you also aren't pursuing Divinae Arts! You wanted a.. uh.. Present shaped staff to do magical stuff!"
Kieran looked at Grandpa Rose, both rolling their eyes since Soren seemed to completely disregard his point.
"Not Present, 'Crescent' shaped staff. The difference is I actually am. I read books on it. And I do not want to be a Divine Knight, or at least yet. I have my options open."
Soren finished his plate of noodles and stormed off to his room. As he laid on his bed he thought about the conversation, why does Grandpa Rose want any of them to become Divine Knights after being a type of Divine Knight in the past? And how would he even pursue Gladius Arts, you can't read books about sword fighting surely!
The door creaked open and Kieran walked in sitting down in his own bed.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't be a Divine Knight, if you want.. sure. But prepare for it. They aren't gonna let any dude have a giant blade- which by the way is called a type of Greatsword or Broadsword." Said Kieran while picking out a book from his shelf.
Kieran's side of the room was all bookish, filled with books, papers and what Soren referred to as "Nerd Gear"
Soren's side of the room was full of newspaper cutouts of Divine Knights and great fighters, posters and his shelves were full of mini sculptures of fighters.
"You're right but.. how do I.. I mean it isn't like there are books on Gladius Arts, and Grandpa sure isnt gonna buy me a Greatsword or whatever.." replied Soren in a demotivated tone.
"Have you ever been to the library? Of course there are. Surely you don't think you can just pick up a sword and boom.. r-right? You gotta learn techniques, tactics and how to even hold the sword!" Said Kieran is a surprised and educative tone.
"Huh? Man... they made swords into something boring too!" Soren replied in a sarcastic and exasperated tone.
"I think you're gonna like the books. Here I have my library charm and get a book. Now go to sleep, Grandpa finds us awake, we are royally screwed." Kieran said, turning to the wall and closing his eyes.
Soren grabbed the library charm with a cubic shapes keychain looking ornament made of wood with the words, "Vonheim Northern School: District 1" and on the back, "Library Charm"
Soren reluctantly closed his eyes, falling asleep too.
"Your potential is not blocked behind the right sword or the right book. It is locked behind you."
Soren woke up in a cold sweat the next morning, glancing at the sand clock nearby and seeing the tally marks next to it he realised it's 9.. 9.. oh fine Soren can't read a sand clock, but it's 9 something!
People of this Era use Sand clocks, with a small porous store tablet next to it, based on the amount of time the sand clock has been flipped, they apply a white line of paint to it in tally marks.
The part Soren doesn't know very well is that on the bottom of the clock there are markings to denote the time based on the sand levels. Each clock has to be flipped every 2 hours.
However in more commercial and public buildings where no one can meticulously jot down the time or read markings, they use a water clock, the water drips from the top container to the bottom one at a fixed rate, based on the water level the time is read.
The water clock and sand clock are similar, but the water clock is more expensive as it involves the drip of the water to be accurately controlled by a specially cut porous stone which is more expensive than the small gap in sand clocks.
"Wait.. IT'S 9?! SCHOOL STARTS AT 8!" Soren replied immediately, grabbing his bag and rushing downstairs to see Kieran and Grandpa Rose sitting calmly near the fireplace.
"Woah guys, do we not have school today!" Soren said expectantly and hopefully.
"Not sure, the receiver is not very clear.. it keeps cutting out, they are saying something about an emergency at Districts 1, 3 and 4. But not if we have school or work.." Kieran said looking impatiently at the Receiver.
Receivers are medium sized horn shaped instruments which is connected to a antenna that is placed above the roof of the house, when a Receiver station announces something through high pitched vibration like noises which a normal person cannot hear, it is received by the pole which is filled with a special liquid that can receive the vibration, then the mechanism in the horn converts the movements of the liquid into sound to be heard by everyone.
Why not just announce the news in a frequency everyone CAN hear? Payment, it forces people to pay for the receiver services.
"Well I'm going! I'll figure it out at school! Bye-Bye!" Soren said, suddenly far too excited to go to school.
As Soren left the house Grandpa Rose and Kieran shared that glance once more before sighing.
"I should go."
"You should go."
They both said, worried about what Soren was going to cause this time.
Soren's plan was simple: The library charm has the signature of Rose on the back, he could forge that onto the agreement paper and boom! He gets to visit the Divine Knights!
Although Soren was faster, Kieran was smart enough to catch a roaming tracklayer.
Roaming tracklayers are small train cart sized vehicles which have a set length of track. The track rotated around them like a hamster ball allowing them to move.
Just as Soren reached school, he went to forge the signature immediately, it wasn't.. perfect but it would have to do.
Kieran arrived just as Soren was handing it over to the teacher.
"Hey Soren. What was that?" Asked Kieran suspicious of him, unlike Soren, Kieran was smart to act gullible.
"Uh nothing. Just homework." Said Soren his heart beating faster.
"Homework? We had homework! Oh man.. I didn't do it, what was it about?" Kieran asked to keep up the gullible act.
"Uh it was on..the history of uh.. bread sticks! It was in that one chapter!" Replied Soren, grabbing a few complimentary breadsticks nearby, clearly where he got the idea.
An announcement ran over the school's own receiver, "Students, school will be cut short today. It will be a half day. Those partaking in the field trip to the Divinate Headquarters, please report outside."
"Oh man! Half day! That sucks.. doesn't it Kieran.. anyways yeah I will uh.. go to my class now bye!" Soren said running off.
Kieran was too frustrated to say anything, hey if Soren goes to HQ then that's Grandpa Rose's lecture he has to bear.
As Soren went outside, he said the kids gathered around a Divine Knight who had come as a guest probably.
"SERIOUSLY?? A DIVINE KNIGHT FOR REAL? THIS IS SO AMAZING!" Soren squealed.
"Hey champs! I'm the Lieutenant of the 3rd branch of the Divinate! Lieutenant Horus Cartier!" A Divine Knight, dressed in white and gold armour spoke, on his back a spear and in his head a helmet he took off.
Horus had blonde hair, blue eyes and was around 6'0.
"The Divinate is the Justice Enforcing Authority looking after the Caspian Alliance. For the newbies here, the Caspian Alliance contains an alliance of 4 Kingdoms, it was suggested and established by Caspian Jones, a fierce and the first Divine Knight!" Said the man in an educative and exhilarating story teller fashion.
"Vonheim's forces are divided into 5 branches that look after their own respective district. Now what is the Lieutenant of the 3rd Branch doing here, in the first District? Well, your Lieutenant is away on important work affairs, while my branch is fully equipped today!" Said Horus before glancing at the teachers which made his smile slowly become a bit crooked.
"Unfortunately we cannot go to the Headqua-" before Horus could finish the kids went rampant, some crying, some whining but Soren just stood there his eyes lifeless, his expression resembling someone who lost everything in life.
"Wait wait wait, but I will be here for the remainder of your school day, to tell you whatever I can tell you about the Divine Knights!" Said Horus.
Soren raised his hands, his expression still quite depressed.
(Order is Horus, Soren, Horus, Soren...)
"Yes champ?"
"Can you teach us about Gladius Arts?"
"Gladius Arts.. hmm, yeah sure! So, Gladius arts involve one's skill with their blade!" Pulls out his long sword.
"It isn't just swinging a sword and hoping to hit, Gladius Art is quite complex, some stages involve imbibing the sword with Mana, you know what that is right? The energy channels in us! I myself imbue my sword with Ground Magic!"
"So like techniques, tactics and ways of swordsmanship are essential for the beneficial growth of a Gladius Warrior?"
Now, these complex words were not his, it was from Kieran.
"Of course they are! Here let me teach you something, see this,"
Horus would hold his sword straight in front of him, the sword was vertically straight it covered a very small area and the thickness of the blade was so thin that it was hard to see the blade from where Soren was standing, so, straight ahead of it.
"Tell me champ, what's your name?" Horus Asked.
"It's Soren. Soren Fischer!" Replied Soren.
"Now Soren, my blade is not very visible to you is it, and it's not covering much of me either is it, so tell me, is this a good stance?" Asked Horus.
Soren, thinking Horus was asking dumb questions, replied, "Yeah!"
Horus shook his signalling a no, his short hair waving with him. Horus tossed Soren a stick, telling him to attack.
Soren, trying to take advantage of the very open spaces on Horus' side, decided to attack there. As Soren swung his sword sword, rotated his wrist and blocked the stick.
"This stance and position make a swordsman's four quadrants easy to cover by rotating the wrist." Said Horus rotating his Wrist around as much as his flexibility allowed him to show his point.
"Quadrants?" Asked the awestruck and intrigued Soren.
"Well yeah, a Swordsman can hit from the top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right, while many stances offer cover to these areas, nothing beats a stance where every quadrant is easily accessible!" Said Horus as Soren tried striking him again from the other side which Horus once again rotated his wrist to block.
"That's so useful! Thanks Sir Horus!" Soren said now once again as happy as a dog.
Meanwhile Kieran was in his spell casting class, overseen and supervised by a strict professor.
His Divinae form called Rune Ejectio, which involved using your mana to form rune like symbols in the air to cast spells, this was basically like forehand drawing, and the slightest wrong movement could lead to the whole spell failing. The gap between the lines has to be the same ratio no matter what.
Kieran, although so invested in Divinae Arts, struggled with Rune Ejectio, while the others around were all even a tad bit better.
"Mr. Noel, your manoeuvring of the finger is wrong, your finger itself is wrong." Said Professor Erik Rodriguez.
Professor Erik was a dark haired, spectacles wearing man with green eyes, image Professor Snape's voice and tone and attitude mixed with the appearance of.. a middle aged dark haired man.
"I can't just wing the runes sir... unlike learning spell chants, these aren't memorizable!" Said a frustrated Kieran.
"Firstly, do not use your index finger. You are to use the pinky on your dependent hand." Said professor while demonstrating the rune projection with his pinky.
"But wouldn't that make me lose control of the finger more? My index is more coordinated and precise." Argued Kieran.
"It was also more long, your finger has a natural curve to it, so many times when you think you are inventing at a certain spot, you drift. Your pinky is shorter, it curves less, till you master injecting your pinky is to be used." Said Rodriguez in an educative tone.
While that did improve Kieran's skill a bit, it was still not as good as some of the others. He struggled for a quite a while before Professor Erik once again taught him something new.
"Your habit, Mr. Noel, is you tend to memorise studies, chants. However Rune Ejectio does not involve that, it involves a mind as clear as a slate. You can't memorise how to draw, can you? You can learn tricks to help you, but not the exact brushstrokes and angles and layering." A sigh left his mouth.
"In a similar way, Rune Ejectio, or Rune Incanting involves clearing your mind, imagine the mana shaping itself to become the Rune. Of course your finger shakes, of course it has imperfections, you have to rely on your mana to straighten them out, to make the imperfections, just a bit more.. perfect."
Kieran struggled to understand what he meant, but the realisation did hit him. It wasn't about learning how to do it, it was about learning how to accept it and improve it.
In a final attempt, Kieran casted a Rune, and spoke the chant;
"Aeterna Lux!"
The rune he invented in the air with his man glowed a topaz light. As the rune slowly converged at one point to become a source of light.
"It-it worked! It finally worked!!" Kieran squealed.
Meanwhile with Horus,
"So, how can I be as strong and powerful of a Knight as you?" Asked Soren.
"See. Imagine a swordsman who can cut through the strongest of metals, gems, anything does that sound good?" Asked Horus.
"Yeah! Of course, I will slice through their armour like butter haha!" Soren replied.
"Yes but, when they keep the blind in its svalbard- the y'know casing of the blade, it would slice through that and fall out! Or if you missed a swing and hit a pole or the ground, it all just collapses!" Said Horus in a very storytelling fashion.
"Well.. I mean then it's not so good." Replied Soren.
"To attain true control over the Gladius Arts, one has to learn to control when he wants to slice through the toughest materials and when to spare even paper." Said Horus.
Back with Professor Erik;
"If your Runes are capable of, let's say, sealing away any evil or just destroying it fully, is that useful?" Asked Rodriguez.
"Well, yes Sir." Kieran replied.
"Ok now imagine, you cast a rune to heal someone, but it's so effective, they overdose. Or hey think, you try to attack a measly grunt but you vaporiser them, Is that very necessary? Should you waste your Mana as such?" Asked Rodriguez.
"Well, no." Replied Kieran wondering where this was going.
"A good Divinae Caster needs to master when to use their mana to kill the greatest evil, and when to control it to leave even the weakest of saplings unharmed. Got it?" Asked Professor Erik.
"Yes sir." Said Kieran.
The school day came to an end. But why? What were the emergencies, and why in such specific districts? Kieran and Soren left school, as they walked towards their home. They heard bells ring, they both looked back to see the gates of their District full of commotion and chaos, and Kieran looked back and noticed something on top of the wall, an archer.. the same archer whose mask resembled a hawk!
The archer grabbed 3 arrows from his quiver, pulling them on his string, as his fingers let go, 2 shockwaves followed from the release, the force of the bow launched the arrows, as the archer smirked.
The arrows slowly diverge for a spread out effect mid air, one headed for the two boys, the other two towards two other people.
The flaming tip of the arrow was followed by a smoke trail, Kieran instinctively pushed Soren out of the way as the Arrow missed and landed behind them, piercing the concrete, the very force of the impact rupturing a good part of the ground.
Then a new type of Assassin could be seen, not the hammer man, now the archer, his weapon were claws attached to his hands.
The clawed man wore a mask resembling a wild cat, like a leopard or tiger. His claws crackled with electricity.
He had a grin plastered across his face, as he charged at the boys,
"IMPIUS VOLNUS!"
The man screamed before jumping into the air, and performing a clawing motion. Electricity ran from her arm to the claw before his mana and electricity mixed to form a claw like slash.
The slash descended on Kieran and Soren. Soren and Kieran felt a familiar surge of energy flow through them whether it was Instincts or not, but Soren held out his hand, fire erupting from his hands, taking the shape of a blade before forming into a Dragonslayer type Greatsword.
He held the sword in a diagonal manner in a way that his hilt was in the top right quadrant and tip of the blade in bottom left quadrant, the claw slash hit the blade, and although the force was extreme for Soren, he was able to absorb it with his blade.
Kieran looked surprised but there was much time, the Tiger masked Assassin once again charged his claws with electricity. The man charged at the boys, punching at the air as a massive electric bolt ruptured from his hand aiming at the boys.
"DIVINE INTERVENTION! DEOS SCUTUM!"
Grandpa Rose rushed in front of the boys as his golden dome rose around them once more blocking the bolt.
"TONITRUA FERRUM!"
The Tiger Assassin once again jumped into the air, as the clouds above him rapidly converged at one point, multiple lightning bolts striking the Assassin's arm as he punched the air, an enormous bolt of lightning continuously striking down on the dome's top.
The dome started to crack and through all the glare of the lightning, the Assassin smirked.
"Divine Service, DIVINUS HASTIS!"
Two large golden spears rising from the ground, before aiming themselves at the assasin before converging towards him.
The Assassin looked at the spear, before dodging by jumping up mid air, grabbing both spears as they missed and passed by, He spun the spears around smashing them into the dome, shattering it.
As all fate seemed gone, Grandpa Rose performed a final attack, "Divine.. SALVATORIS!"
From his eyes, beams of light erupted like laser vision of Superman, hitting the Assassin in the torso blowing him back towards a building.
Grandpa kneeled on the ground, as the Assassin fled. Multiple rookie assassins arrived and went to attack the boys, or maybe Grandpa Rose.
Just then Kieran who was scared until then held out his hands instinctively, his eyes glowed an emerald glow, as the ground beneath that assassins rose then dropped 3 times before finally rising one last time and launching them up.
The Kids held on, but Grandpa Rose was too burnt out, most of the District's Assassins converged towards this odd family, ready to kill, but then 10 golden fighters circled around them before stopping to reveal themselves to be Divine Knights.
Most of them were in regular white and gold armour, but one in particular had no helmet, he had the hairstyle and facial hair of a samurai, he unsheathed his katana, swinging it, as pure Mana left his body in the form of a slashing, knowing the assassins on the higher ground down.
A brutal brawl ensued, Divine Knights and Assassins fighting it out, although the Knights were outnumbered, they had the advantage of mana. Unlike the Assassins who had used up their mana to attack the district, the Knights had it conserved.
While in the end many Assassins did land near fatal blows, their agility allowed them to escape. Only 2 Assassins out of what seemed to be around 20 to 30 had died. The Divine Knights wasted quite a bit of Mana.
"I am the Lieutenant of the 1st Branch of Divine Knights. Sai Komate." Spoke the unhelmeted Knight.
"Do not fret. I assure you and your grandfather will be treated tentatively. Chief. Take the family to Olvark." Said Sir Komate while talking to the boys and his Chief knight.
"Yes Lieutenant!" Said a man almost the same as the other knight if not for his cape insignia being slightly different and of different colour.
Soren collapsed and so did Kieran, Grandpa Rose was exhausted but had enough energy to get onto a Tracklayer.
(Order is between the Archer assassin and a mysterious hooded figure whose mask is not visible; Archer, Figure, Archer, Figure...)
"The old man and his disciples. They pose a threat, sir."
"The Assassin's plans were faltered by an old man and his grandchildren, you say..?"
"Well, well yes, sir."
"Fine. Don't attack Vonheim, the Caspian alliance has always been a problem."
"Sir, the grandfather is Rose, William Rose, we also encountered him during our raid on Altriche!"
"William.. you move kingdoms.. perhaps it wasn't his luck that led him to Vonheim.. maybe a more Divine intuition. Fine, I want all forces attacking the Jade peaks to be ready. We launched an all out raid. Two years from now."
"Sir, two years? To prepare? Yes sir, we won't let you down."
To be Continued.