Soon, it was nightfall in Dolrea; and it hugged the capital city in a calm silence, fireflies that weren't in the street lamps flew around the dark and blind alleys as the city soldiers patrolled and the guardians watched over Dolrea and its people. A little later, it was deep into night; the appointed time for the meeting at the Kings' palace was nigh and the teachers and fellow guardians from the ends of the capital made haste to the event.
The king's throne room was a huge place, one that stretched 30 meters in length from the 12 meter entrance door to the king's throne. 40 meters in width, from the ceiling to the ground was also no less than 20 meters.
"It is nice to see all of you gathered here." The king spoke, seated majestically with his right hand man standing to his right. He glared through all the assembled there, they stood in two files. Opposite each other. "This peace we have is all thanks to the guardians, the soldiers, the teachers and the citizens of this capital. You have my thanks with every day that passes."
"We're undeserving my King!" A man in the first line to the left spoke on behalf of the others. He wore a crimson red armor from his neck down to his toe.
"Modest as always Merzta. But unfortunately, some forces seem to envy this peace we have and would want to see it come to an end. But we mustn't let them have their way. For the sake of the new generation, we cannot allow this to pass. If it be possible, I'd rather have them grow in this peaceful environment."
They all stood silently as the king spoke but just as he ended, his right hand hurriedly walked in front of him and went down on one knee.
"My king, your words soothe my soul; but as your right hand, it is my duty to convey such matters to the people, if I may?"
"Taiga my friend, matters of the heart cannot be conveyed through someone else. It is best if done by oneself."
The king rose from his seat and like a see-saw; all the individuals in the room went down on one knee as soon as the king rose from his throne.
He took a few steps and touched Taiga on the shoulder, prompting him to stand up.
"Think nothing of it my friend. And please, do stand up." He looked over to the people on the people behind Taiga. "All of you." The king said; but they all still knelt on one knee with their heads bowed down. The king; sensing their usual stubbornness, couldn't help but sigh, then, he turned around and walked back to take his seat, rested his elbow on his thrones' arm rest and planted his cheek on his right hand.
Taiga got up and turned to the others and they all arose from their kneeling. "I do believe you all received the kings summon and I would personally like to thank you for being present"
"Wait…" Lina whispered at the back of the line. "Is the king down because we refused to get up?"
"Well this is wouldn't be the first." Oueus replied, whispering.
"Can we get down to business already?" Miscovan grunted from among his peers.
"Miscovan… you'd do well not to get ahead of yourself. As I recall you have nothing better than weapons to polish." A man in a crimson red suite harshly retorted.
"Hush you two." Mia harshly whispered.
Taiga silently glanced through and haven noticed the silence; "Elder Guardian Merzta, if you would please." He addressed the head of the Guardians.
"As most of you already know, an issue arose and we assigned a few able guardians and guildons to investigate. And it turns out that the case at hand could be more than we feared, because for a reason that we're yet to come to, the creatures and beasts … or whatever you'd call them, from the reports; have been much more of a handful than we have known them to be over the ages."
"Elder Guardian. What is it exactly… that you're implying?" Reus aired his concerns.
"As a person of nature I understand your concern for these creatures, but I fear it is as you fear, young Reus." Merzta sighed. "They've been active than ever. What makes it worse is, even the small time beast and monsters are giving us trouble. Some that would normally get along with people have gone rogue. Take the brownies for instance, a normal brownie would sneak into your room at night and help with household chores, clean up stuff and be friendly and steal a gold coin or two. But what we are encountering right now would have the brownie doing the exact opposite. It will put things in a disorder, make the place a mess. Worst case scenario it could hurt someone. Steal more than it is normally know to even take."
"That can't be!" Reus argued.
"We have reports. I'm afraid it's happening and if you find it hard to believe, you can check it out yourself. At any rate we'll have to deal with this quick. Our priority is the citizens after all."
"Merzta." The king called his name. "Isn't there any other way to deal with this? Can't we deal with this without any bloodshed?"
"I understand your concerns my king… We've tried everything on our end but yielded no positive result. I lost good men in the process and if you would forgive me, I don't plan to lose anymore." Merzta politely stated.
King Churchill sighed. "Then do what you see fit. But if anyone comes with an idea of how to stop this; let everyone get the word.
"Slavio" Taiga called out.
"I haven't been able to succeed in that regard; I am still running tests you see." The man in a white straight garment nonchalantly responded.
"If I may, my King." The head of the city's soldiers spoke up.
"Yes General Shafer?"
"I deployed a few high ranked soldiers to observe the movements around the suspected areas… and it turns out whatever that is going on has something to do with bandits."
"Our peace is on the line and you're concerned about a few bandits? Shafer!" Merzta grunted.
"I assure you, they're not just any bandits. We've been studying them, their prowess are… they're able to subdue beasts of unimaginable caliber just for the fun of it. What's more concerning is that, their gathering their cores, now as if that wasn't bad enough, the soldiers I handpicked to tail the bandits are yet to report to me."
Merzta scoffed. "It just goes to show how weak those soldiers of yours are."
"Merzta! Why you!"
"You two, you're in the presence of the king!" Takel quickly interrupted the two before their quarrelling escalated.
"Are they always like this?" Lina whispered at the back of the line.
"You should see them in their weekly meet ups." They whispered at the end of the line.
"Now, now, Merzta, Shafer; this is no time for us to be bickering among ourselves."
"My sincerest apologies, my king." He quickly went down on his knee.
"Does anyone know of a bandit group with a Silver Wolf as their label? Anyone?"
But the room was riddled with silence. "Guild masters and Assistants all present and yet none with a recollection of such a bandit group?" Takel questioned.
"Bandits with a brand, that's a new one."
...…
Suddenly, a sinister energy wave was felt by everyone in the room then seconds after, an explosion traveled from afar. A huge dark-crimson energy blast had hit the mountains and the forest ranges; the main habitat of the mid class beast and monsters. Then, like a great shadow, it moved over all of Dolrea. Most of the people in the capital including the soldiers, the guardians felt this sinister energy.
A sudden scream leapt across the throne room. It was Reus. Takel quickly rushed to his aid.
"Reus, what's wrong?" But he was far from conscious to answer the question Takel just asked as he writhed on the ground in unbearable pain.
"Mai, Lina, did you feel that?" Tawa softly asked the two that were beside her.
"It was only for an instant but I felt like tearing the skin off my flesh." Tawa softly replied. "I think it'd be an insult to call it a sinister energy. It's none like I've ever felt before." Mai added.
"This could be really bad…" Lina said. "Poor Reus though."
"My brother has always been like this, ever since were kids, ever the first to be receptive to shifts and change." Oueus answered the question Lina was reluctant to ask.
"Oh I think he passed out." Lina replied.
"He'll be fine. Oueus sighed. "Now, without a doubt…. that crazy energy wave earlier definitely had something to do with this and probably related to those cursed beasts too, I can feel it in my bones."
"Things seem to have escalated earlier than we anticipated." The king got up from his seat. "Elder Guardian Merzta, Principal Takel and General Shafer as the leaders of our Military Force, I, the Emperor King, give you permission to deal with this as you see fit."