Volume I Scions of Destiny - Chapter 3 Part I: Rupture (I)

Everything was happening at a frightening speed, moving and evolving in leaps and bounds.

The Castanics Task Forces known as “Shrouded Rose Sentinels” were rushing towards the Enlighten Union forces wrapped in a strange and almost invisible reddish aura in Velika as they were shouting and lifting their different weapons unsheathed pointing to their enemies, while the Pora Elinu forces were slowly defeating the enemies around of the Free Traders Hall as the Princess Caut alongside her loyal cavalry was managing to break through the enemy lines to reach to the hall.

Meanwhile without the notion of the simple minds of everyone, the forces of destiny converged as two gasses of differents color, that when hitting each color mixed and fought against each other in order to overcome between themselves. “C-C-charge…”— one of the Enlighten Union officers tried to order while down his body went through a slight chill which made his voice hesitate involuntarily but then quickly recomposed after hearing the war cry of the enemies in front of him. —“Charge!” — The Officer shouted once again this time with all his force, but his soldiers were slowly stepping back as they were looking with frightened look the strange somber reddish aura in front of them coming from a female Castanic, which was just walking towards them slowly with both swords unsheathed, every step she took the pressure increased even further. All the EU soldiers felt her hateful glare penetrating their bodies making them sweat cold every time they saw her directly to the eyes. The Officer looked at his troops with nervousness but before he could shout once again the order, a male mandatory voice came from behind. This man had a greyish white hair and blue eyes; he was wearing heavy plate armor with two small pauldrons over his shoulders, the breastplate of his armor was really detailed and had the EU insignia near the position of his heart, his gauntlets were of a dark silver color as all his armor, his gauntlets also had little spikes as his imposing greaves. “First Battalion, Charge! Or will kill you all by myself!”—The man had a serious and crude look; the soldiers hesitated for a few seconds but then charged when the Sentinels alongside the Nethaniel’s group and the volunteers were around 10 meters away and Zekka just 4 meters away. The bloodbath started just around 30 seconds after the crude man forced to the EU soldier to charge against the enemy, many died at the starting noisy clash of arms, many were pierced by the sharp weaponry of their respective enemies without mercy. A strange bloodlust was felt from every soldier of the FTC, all of them were being surrounded by that unfamiliar aura; every thought of fear or hesitation were being turned into decision and strength to fight through the aura which was being given directly from Zekka. “Doombringer…”— Nethaniel murmured to himself with concern in the middle of the chaos of the battle as he cut in two an enemy without a great effort. “Ahhh!”— The enemy could just cry in pain as Nethaniel felt the warm blood splattering and slithering on his face, but he didn’t even flinch and continued fighting against numerous enemies; his swords had a long yellow ribbon entwined surrounding the handles, while the blades of the swords of black metallic color were blood-soaked by the by continuous cuts and reversals on his opponents. Nethaniel inhaled and then he swung his swords, immediately after a cry of pain could be heard, then he exhaled deeply. But his mind wasn’t just focused on the battle, he was also thinking about Zekka as he kept fighting. —“This ability…I hope she remembers that Doombringer drains all her strength quickly…fuck…we must end this fast or…”— Nethaniel’s thoughts were interrupted by an attack from his back, but this wasn’t fast enough. Quickly stepping to his right, Nethaniel was able to avoid the attack and in an impressive display of speed and balance, managed to get behind his attacker. The back of his enemy was completely uncovered. Nethaniel without losing the chance pierced the back of his enemy without mercy. This cried in pain, and then Nethaniel pushed the corpse with his foot and released his sword with a damp bloody metallic sound. The Doombringer, it was the special ability of the 5th Clan, the Sapkhal’s Clan of the Great Master Clan Castanic; all of them were acknowledged by their drastic ideology of using a direct intervention to their bodies with pure magic in order to increase their physical powers and magic abilities. This excessive ideology became even more preponderant between the members of the Clan during the long and bloody Castanic civil war where the entire Master Clan Castanic, composed of 10 Clans, went through it; leading them to kill around the 90% of their own Clan Members in brutal experiments in search of a crushing and overwhelming power, strong enough to win an higher supremacy between the other Clans that their mad Clan Leader wanted. Just two biologically compatible Castanics survived out of that 90%, both had great powers given by a pure demonic magic connection; one of them was Zekka, she belatedly noticed the great mistake and its vicious ideology behind all those experiments and made a revolt with help of the Val Uskhal’s Clan, ending up with just the 3% of her Clan, the civil war was still going so she, as the new Clan Leader of the 5th Clan established a diplomatic deal with the Val Uskhals' Clan and avoided the extinction of her blood line, adhering her low but veteran loyal forces to Nethaniel. Now, she was unleashing all of her power which haven’t been unleashed since the Castanic civil war ended, Nethaniel knew that Zekka just had one thing on her mind as she kept advancing: Revenge. He knew that was impossible to stop her right now, but he also knew that she needed to stop, or… The image of Luna being pierced by a spear continuously repeated within her mind, causing the aura to pulse even stronger as she killed an enemy by thrusting both of her swords on his chest and then removed both of them horizontally in opposite directions scrunching her face with anger, the warm blood splattered on her face as the markedly dismembered corpse fell and she pushed it out of her way and kept walking as many allied soldiers passed running next to her shouting. Seeing this, Zekka also started to run and rushed towards the enemy front line swiftly and upon reaching it, she didn’t stop; instead she plunged both of her swords into the shoulders of an enemy in front of her then lightly released the handgrip of her swords without losing contact with them and jumped forward as she turned and grabbed the handgrips of her swords and used all her brute force of her body in her arms, lifting the corpse of the pierced enemy and then threw it on other enemies, knocking down several of them. She stood watching her enemies for a few seconds as she noticed her heavy breathing and a massive headache. “Ahh…”— Zekka whined silently as she fell on her knees feeling lightheaded leaving her swords at her sides without unhand them, but once again the same image as before appeared on her mind. “Tsk-“— Zekka clenched the handles of her swords lying on the floor as she stood up with an intense murderous intent. — “Ahhhhhh! You all will pay for what you have done!”— Zekka shouted in the middle of the chaos, as she rushed again onto her enemies. At the right side of the battlefield, Nethaniel was leading the advance of his troops; the casualties were mostly of the volunteers and thanks to the Doombringer aura of Zekka, the battle was being slowly won by the FTC forces but Nethaniel knew that the aura wouldn’t last too long. From behind, the enemy General shouted as he was watching the development of the fight. “Archers! Get ready!”— Immediately after, the sound of many basic invocation magic were slightly perceived by Nethaniel and a few other veterans on the battlefront. “Fire!”—The same voice gave the final order and then numerous white summoned arrows filled the sky as they started to fell. “ARROWS! Mech!”— Nethaniel shouted as he took a dead corpse from the floor and took refuge behind it like a meat shield. He wasn’t the unique doing the same thing, most of the Shrouded Sentinels did it too as fast as they could since just a few of them had a shield, they knew right from the cruel experiences of past wars. Meanwhile, a few others were protected by an almost invisible magic sphere composed of thousands of little light blue hexagons around them. Those magic spheres were done by Mech who was lifting her left hand forward with her eyes closed, focusing on saving as much as she could but even so, she couldn’t; many allies as enemies were pierced without mercy by numerous arrows through their bodies, killing them almost immediately. Arrows kept falling ceaselessly as the sound of arrows embedding on the ceramic floor was heard by all, alongside with these; a few cries of agony were heard from many allied and enemy soldiers. “Tsk...Dammit…”—Nethaniel murmured as he looked to his left side and saw a few of his men dying while Zekka kept fighting as she noticed a shield around her as Mech still had her eyes closed, wrinkling her eyebrows while her left hand trembled slightly as a drop of sweat was sliding down her forehead. At the other side of the battlefield, the General of the Enlighten Union forces had his arms crossed with a serious expression on his face looking forward, where the battle was happening. “Why so serious, Aurora? Those last arrows round already assured your win”— a soft and cute cheerful voice spoke at his back. “Our reinforcements should have been here already.”— Aurora answered with a severe voice as he looked at the little Elin at his back. She was around the half of the height of Aurora, she had teal eyes, black short hair, and a pale skin color; she also was wearing a black short dress and long black stockings with red lines. On her face, she had a little heart on her right cheek alongside with a pure smile expression. She was sitting on a wide concrete railing about one meter high, as she waved her feet like a little girl. “Ooh mmm…”—The Elin said childlike as she lifted both of her hands and touched her head trying to think. —“Well well…we will be alright if we follow the plans of my master, that’s for sure!” Aurora looked back to the battlefield with a complicated expression on his face—“I am starting to doubt about this “Master”…” “No no…Don’t doubt! You already won this battle! The plans of my master are perfect, just look at them; they are not more than ground meat right now…is just matter of time! You need a little of my lovely belief to my Master, ya know”— The Elin said as she moved her black cat tail side to side. “We will see Ralu, but don’t look down on them too much”— Aurora said as he kept watching the battle as he remembered the old battles that he fought alongside the Castanics during the Argon war. Ralu put both hands on her tummy and slightly leaned back— “Hahahehehahahaha!”— Then looking at Aurora with a slightly sinister smile decorating her face, jumped off the railing and walked till she was at Aurora’s right side. Aurora could hear the gentle pattering of Ralu’s black low heels on the floor at his side and just looked Ralu without turning his head while at the distance, both could hear the war cries and the continuous clash of swords of the resumed battle ahead them. “What do you have in mind?”— Aurora looked back to the battlefield once again. “Hmmm, good question…”— Ralu still had her sinister smile decorating her face.—“…I am just going to have a little of fun, make sure to send the second battalion if things get out of control, ok?” Then once again Aurora could hear the gentle pattering and saw Ralu calmly walking into the battlefield with her left hand wide open near to her hip with many fire cords slightly twining around her hand besides a small fire sphere over her palm. —“Ashes, ashes…they will all fall down!” — Ralu murmured as her evil gaze fixed on the battlefield. Many different people were meeting around a black table in an apparently infinite white room; there was a man with a white mask with joy eyes and a sinister smile upon his mask, he was wearing a black frac and a black top hat, behind him there were two totally hooded with long brown tunics also wearing white masks. In front of them, there was someone wearing a light blue aristocratic dress of one piece, her blond hair was tied into a light brown hat with a blue ribbon and she had the same white mask as the Mysterious Man. Both were watching each other intently without saying a word, creating a tense ambient when suddenly at the end of the table a little girl appeared out of an arcane circle of a purple color. She was wearing a black astral dress with white lines in the outlines and long black stockings; this “little girl” had white long hair, dark purple eyes and two short red horns coming out of her forehead. “What does this all mean?”— The little girl looked to both sides once with a serious gaze. “Hehehehe…means fun Pandora…”— The Mysterious Man said mocking. “Quote, do you know the seriousness of the acts of Sayune?”— Pandora replied jaded. “What did exactly happen?”— The woman wearing a blue dress asked with a soft voice. “He sent an order to kill the Timeless Wizard, Beatrice.”— Pandora said with a straight face. For a few seconds none said anything, but then an evil laugh with pleasure was heard from the Mysterious Man and then he said. —“Hehehe…that old man finally noticed it even after millions of years…hehehe! Well…I will end this then, excuse me, ladies” “What do you mean, Quote?” —Pandora asked as she looked the man wearing the black frac. The Mysterious Man ignored the words of Pandora and ordered —“Qoo…Iri…let’s go…”— But before Quote went away Pandora said with a severe voice. —“The time changes everything Quote…” “Hehehehehehe interesting... You have such an interesting mind, my dear useless Goddess of the Void…but Sayune has done the same thing over and over, equal to do nothing and do nothing leaves everything exactly as it was as you have noticed; now if you excuse me ladies…”—immediately after, the Mysterious Man snapped his fingers and disappeared followed by Iri and Qoo while Pandora sighed and looked at Beatrice. “Shit”— Pandora exclaimed as she was unable to stop Quote and then she sat on the floor, while her astral dress covered her legs completely as the black table disappeared. Beatrice beheld Pandora for a while with her penetrating dark purple eyes through the holes of her mask. “We knew this would happen anytime Pandora, we have given enough tries to Sayune to change everything, sadly, her time ran out. That being said, I will go back to my mission Pandora, excuse me.” —After saying this, as Quote also did, she snapped her fingers and disappeared. Pandora was left alone as she kept sitting on the floor while her gaze was lost in the infinite background of her room with a complicated expression on her face. —“Sayune…what do you think you can do?”— Pandora though to herself clenching one fist over her legs trying to understand everything. 2 hours before the battle of Velika, the war outside and inside of the Hall were still going. The ground shook intermittently as a loud cannon shot sound echoed around. “Keep advancing!” —A fiercely female voice was heard in the battlefield as a few arrows completely pierced five enemy soldiers who were trying to stop the advance of the Pora Elinu forces. “My Lady! We cannot keep advancing on our horses!”— One of the Princess’ Officers shouted as she was fighting with a sword and a shield trying to cover the back of the Princess Caut as the whole unit slowly advanced on their horses, every time slower by the active pressure of the enemy forces. “Alright! We are going to go in on our feet! Follow me!” —The Princess Caut shouted her order aloud as she jumped off her horse and landed a kick on the face of an enemy in front on her and when she got back her balance after laying a hand on the floor, she started to run towards the main entrance of the FTC hall. Immediately after that, just a few were able to follow up the Princess, since the others were stopped by the yet not defeated numerous enemies. The Princess kept running as she shot some arrows to open her way in the Hall, suddenly when she was going through an open place after passing through the entrance, she saw many enemy soldiers blocking the way ahead of her, forcing her to stop and watch as a drop of sweat ran her forehead. In that moment, she could notice her heavy breathing and that she was completely alone. —“Crap! How many are they?”— She thought to herself when suddenly the soldiers in front of her charged against her. Quickly, the Princess Caut summoned an arrow on her left hand and shot it, piercing the chest of an enemy without hesitate, throwing him backward but this wasn’t enough to stop around twentyish soldiers. “Get her alive! So we can use her to stop the Pora Elinu’s forces!”— A male Aman with a deep voice shouted in the midst of the incoming rush. “Tsk…”— The Princess did a complicated expression on her face, but even so she didn’t give up and summoned a few more arrows on her left hand, killing a bunch of other soldiers but yet it wasn’t enough to stop so many, and then they were so close that arrows weren’t effective anymore forcing her to use her bare hands to fight. “Catch her!” — Once again the same male voice was heard. The Princess resisted trying to fight back, but quickly the numerous enemies caught her and left her completely immobilized. “Cowards!”— She said as she struggled in vain trying to free herself from the multiple enemies. In response she received a heavy blow on her face from the Aman in front of her, making her nose bleed. The Princess Caut didn’t complain while she stopped her struggle and then spat blood on the floor. “Princess!” — A severe female voice shouted in a tone of anger mixed with concern, the Princess fixed her gaze quickly to the voice, they were her loyal soldiers running towards her with their weapons unsheathed but their advance was stopped abruptly. “Stop or your Princess is going to lose her head!”—The Aman said as he turned to the incoming Pora Elinu forces and then put a knife on the neck of the Princess. “Tsk…”— The Princess mumbled while she felt the sharp blade of the knife on her neck. “You!... “— One of the Elin soldiers lifted her sword and pointed her blade to the Aman —”…Let our Princess free and we will have mercy!”— The Elin shouted as she fixed her penetrating gaze as the other soldiers held their positions, ready to rush towards the enemy at any moment. “Hahaha! Do you think that you are in a position to ask something?!” — The Aman shouted back slightly moving the knife when suddenly, from the back of the Princess is heard a scream of pain. “Princess!”— The Princess Caut was just able to hear the voice, but it was enough to recognize the speaker, it was the Executor Adiar; the great leader of the Free Traders Collective Alliance who was still alive fighting against the enemy. “Stop you too! Or I will kill this stupid Princess!” — The Aman shouted with nervousness as he moved away the knife near her neck for a second. —“It’s now or never!”— The Princess thought as she used this tiny chance to free from the short captivity. The Aman wasn’t the only one who met a mistake that same second, the soldiers who were immobilizing the Princess also eased their grip leaving able the Princess to jump backwards getting free of their enemies, but the Aman wasn’t that easy to evade, and he jumped on the Princess piercing the knife on the left shoulder of the Princess. Both sides seeing those actions shouted as they rushed towards the enemies to the rescue of the Princess. —“Princess Cauterize! CHARGE! SAVE HER AT ANY COST!” Everything was so fast that even the Princess couldn’t understand everything that just happened, but one thing was clear for her in that very moment; in her 23 years she was never really hurt in battle making it her first time, all her senses abruptly sharpened as she felt like all her body fought for surviving, in a brief blink of an eye while both were falling to the ground she took the knife pierced on her shoulder which was still held by the Aman alongside a cry of pain from her, took it away from him, but it didn’t just finish there. Her whole body felt lighter with strange warmth inside her chest, while all around her was moving slowly. After a few seconds which for Caut felt minutes, her surroundings were invaded by her allies’ forces killing the soldiers around her in a short battle evidencing the superiority of the Pora Elinu’s forces in terms of skills, but she didn’t even notice it. Now with the knife on her hands, she kicked the Aman with all her forces pushing him backward and kept him knocked down. The Aman felt a huge fear crossing his spine as he saw the Princess Caut jumping on him holding the knife with both hands as her demonic gaze fixed on him. It was so fast that the Aman couldn’t even cross his arms in order to try to resist the attack. The Princess lifted both hands alongside the knife and pierced it in the chest of the Aman; right on his heart getting her hands immediately bloodstained but she didn’t stop; she kept removing and then piercing the knife once again on the chest of the already dead Aman as her eyes lost focus and a slightly sinister smile decorated her face for a few seconds. “Ah! – Ah!”—She repeated this several times as she involuntarily shouted every time she lifted the knife and then pierced again till she felt the warm blood of the Aman trickling down her face and a good part of her armor was spattered with blood. The Princess Cauterize looked to her hands holding the knife giving long heavy breaths and then she looked her surroundings still with her demonic gaze alongside the sinister smile immersed in a murderous intentions aura. The Elins soldiers looked at her with worried faces while the non-Elins slowly stepped back with a strange fear coursing through their bodies after Caut fixed her gaze on them. It was normal to have feared since she didn’t defeat the Aman, rather she massacred him. In that moment, the Princess Caut felt a strong twinge in her chest which made her return to her senses as everything completely stopped when suddenly the Princess Caut felt a cold hand on her right shoulder alongside an oddly known soft female voice in her mind. —“It is not your time yet Angel of Darkness, ease your mind and soul…”— The Princess Caut looked over her shoulder and saw a completely white phantasmal hand over her shoulder which abruptly disappeared at the time she turned trying to identify the “ghost”, being unable to recognize from whom was that hand. Immediately after that, once again she felt a strong twinge in her chest along with some mild nausea which prevented her to getting up. There were no more enemies; it was just she and her allies. Her hands were shaking due the great effort, making her drop the knife as her sinister smile was replaced with a scared expression doubting about herself. “My Princess!”— One of her soldiers approached to her and tried to help her making the Princess Caut remember her actual situation. “Go away! Tskk…”—The Princess Caut shouted in fear mixed with pain making her also remember the recent wound she had as she felt her own warm blood slowly leaving her body. The Princess Caut was scared that she would lose the control once again. “But my Princess, don’t be so hardheaded, you are injured! Bring a medic!”— The same Elin shouted and approached to her without hesitate or any hint of fear in her actions. But none else more than that soldier moved excepting the Elin soldiers—“What are you all waiting for?! Move! There is a still a battle to win!” The soldiers nodded their heads and went away meanwhile Adiar alongside Panchuk slowly approached to the Princess. “Sigh…you should be less reckless my Princess, thanks to the Goddess that our Queen wasn’t here, all of us would have been yelled by our incompetence of being unable to follow your step…”— The Elin said with a concerned tone as she took a bandage and began to wrap it around the wounded shoulder of the Princess trying to aid her while the medic was coming. “Haha…I am sorry though…what is your name?”— The Princess gave a sad smile, with a strange feeling invading her heart. “Ehm?...my name is Zalyn”— She said without any honorific as she kept wrapping the bandage, noticing late her disrespect. —“Oh! I am sorry my Princess I forgot the…” “Hahahahaha no worries no worries, I am bored of honorifics anyways, just make sure of call me Caut in the future” — The Princess Caut purely smiled as she forgot what happened for a few seconds. “Eh? Impossible…the wound…”— Zalyn tried to hide her surprise but the odd black-purplish fire on the wound coming out of the wound of the Princess made her remember the old times. —“Our Queen? A Reaper? It was supposed that they are…”— “What is happening? Are you using a healing magic?”— Caut asked confused while in front of her, there were Panchuk and Adiar also watching with surprise the event which was happening. —“I thought that we…”— Panchuk looked at the Princess Caut with a hard expression on his face as he thought —“…a reaper…impossible…”—. Meanwhile, Adiar just had a serious expression on his face without saying anything. —“Reapers…this is going to be problematic…”— Adiar thought for himself with a straight face as Zalyn tried to calm down the Princess but she was more altered than Caut. “Don’t worry Zalyn, your healing magic is awesome! Are you a student of Mech?” — The Princess asked as she freely moved both shoulders without any hint of pain after the purple-black fire disappeared from her wound. “Eh?! I think you are a…but it is impossible…they were eradicated…how?”— Zalyn thought aloud without realizing it. “I don’t understand…what do you mean?”— The Princess asked engulfed in confusion meanwhile both, Panchuk and Adiar, had complicated expression on their faces as they kept watching what just happened. “Ahh!”— Quote did a cry of pain losing his rigid posture with one hand over his mask. “Ma-Master…”— Iri said with a soft worried voice as she approached Quote. “That was a really powerful distortion magic mixed with interference magic…Sayune?”— Qoo said as she was taking her head with one hand, as she also experienced a short sharp pain. “There are just a few who can do that…but I cannot recognize anything of the spell sequence…” “Hehehe…”— Quote laughed aloud briefly and through the holes of his mask both, Iri and Qoo, could see his light blue eyes wide open in an odd excitement. —“Hahahahahaha! AWESOME! THIS IS JUST WONDERFUL!”— Quote extended both arms and looked up to the sky as he shouted and then retake his usual thoughtful stance with both hands at his back. “What are your orders, Master?”— Iri said with a soft voice as she slowly walked, positioning near Qoo. “Sigh…Sayune is going to be very problematic. Master, why we just don’t get rid of her?” “Uhmm…that’s a good idea Qoo, but this is not Sayune’s magic sequence…hahaha…it is just splendid…”— Quote kept speaking with his usual slightly mocking tone. “Master?”— Qoo asked confused as she looked at Iri who gave a step forward. “It cannot be…is this what I think it is?”— Iri said surprised. “Hehe…interesting right? We were able to see a rupture, and how it was…I doubt that this one was the first one…”— Qoo looked at Quote surprised and then spoke quickly. “Then Sayune is right? What are we going to do?” “Patient Qoo…try to learn more from you the patient of your sister. We are going to wait a little more and see where this leads us.” “Understood!” — Iri and Qoo said in unison with serious voices. The Queen Valentina watched carefully from the hill with a straight expression on her face the smoky battlefield which her troops (Composed of different races) had already conquered. She was watching from the hill altogether her officers and her numerous royal guards. Her troops were waving the Pora Elinu Nation flag as they advanced towards the FTC hall while the enemy forces retreated in despair seeing their comrades being surpassed by a superior force. Over her, on the bluish sky there was the imposing but noisy ship Timberwolf, which was slightly similar to a galleon, was floating demonstrating the superiority in all means, in skills and technology of the Pora Elinu Nation. Although the straight face that she had on her face, the feelings inside her resembled a knot but she couldn’t show any signs of weakness, less at this time when all her people were fighting for a good cause, or so her people thought they were doing; but in the mind of the Queen Valentina everything had strayed from what she expected when years ago she sacrificed a good part of her race for a “greater good”. —“This…this is not what I wanted…”— Valentina said to herself while she clenched the reins of the warhorse that she was riding but none noticed it since her expression had neither the slightest change. —“So many of my people died and their existences were almost completely forgotten, all this in pursuit of a greater good…for a better tomorrow…for the future of everyone…but in return we received the same, we ended up in the same situations…my goddess Elinu, what I must do? Is Lhya correct? I cannot continue with this...I have too much weight on me, so many deaths on me…so much blood on my hands…every day is so painful …I feel so dirty…I…still remember everything…”— Many years ago, during the middle of the Argon War, the hope of winning the war started to vanish in the air, and when none expected it, the capital of the Elin Nation who at that time weren’t taking part of the war was attacked by surprise. The Queen of that time, Rida, was killed in action during the vain tries of defense and the capital taken away by the Argons forces, giving a giant punch to the allies forces which were already enough demoralized by the unstoppable advance of the Argon Forces. But once again for the surprise of all, two days later it was retaken without any casualties by the Elins who already had chosen a new “young” Queen, Valentina. They were able to retake their Capital thanks to their new and unknown awakened power which was sealed in them, although not all Elins could use it, but a good part of their population could. Thanks to this recently awakened power of the Elins, the war took a positive course towards the allies (Alliance between all the main races on the Real of Arborea: Amans, Barakas, Castanics, High Elves and Poporis and then the Elins joined) The hopes of the other races were reinforced while as their morale rose when finally the Elins recognized the Argon forces as a threat to Nature and officially joined the conflict. One week after such great news, large quantities of supplies arrived in different foreign battlefields on both continents alongside large numerous of veteran Elin forces and the reapers. All these made a huge difference in the war and nine months later the war ended, or at least that everyone thought for a moment. They were wrong. Two weeks after the end of the Argon War, the Amans, Humans and High Elves looked with fear all this new power of the Elins which unbalanced the military power between the races in addition to others matters, leading them to take a unanimous decision within the high commands: Betrayal the Pora Elinu Nation and eradicate the Reapers treat. The Castanics had an excellent relationship with the Elins due both led the front line against the Argons mostly of the times, although the Elins always discussed with them about the little importance that they had about Nature. “Castanics care too much about themselves and too little about what matters, nature."— The Elins always said that while they were discussing, even so, the differences in their thinking never stopped them when one of them needed the other. The Castanic people knowing about this betrayal tried to help the Elins but they were stopped by direct orders of Nethaniel which was a massive regroup call at Castanica. Every Castanic soldier deployed went back to Castanica. Nethaniel was once again preparing for war and his people supported his decision, since they felt a deep respect to the Elins, not just because their skills, it was also because many of them saved their lives with their own, which the others races never did or even thought it. It was their honor at stake, although the Castanics as a race were known as untrusted, reckless and disloyal towards others, but there were two things they followed as race, after you won the trust and respect of a Castanic, it was unbreakable. The Elins won both of these during they fought alongside them in the Argon front. Emergency reports from all her Generals on the foreign battlefields came to her about this betrayal, but Valentina was also afraid of this new and unknown power, and after long discussions the Queen and others thirteen high-rank Officers of a total of 27 (There were 49 high-rank Officers, but 22 were already killed in hands of the Amans, Human and High Elves forces) decided to not take action due they recognized the reaper power as an indirect threat to the nature. The Pora Elinu Nation was split in two or worse and the Queen itself asked to the Poporis (Who also formed the Pora Elinu Nation) to not take part of this and also to not take any action if something in the future happened. The Reapers dissociated from their native Nation the day after the discussion and when everyone thought that there would be a civil war, the Reapers led by Lhya, the oldest daughter of Valentina, the next heiress, a well-known warrior and commander of a veteran reaper battalion, left Pora Elinu alongside all her people without saying a word and their traces disappeared almost completely. Two weeks later, Valira entered to her room and brought news about her oldest daughter which came from Popolion. “The Humans alongside the Amans and the High Elves forces had cornered Lhya’s army at the southern of the continent but Lhya and the others rebels are still resisting…so they asked to Popolion for reinforcements and supplies…but the Popolion commander is loyal to our Queen, so he sent an emissary to ask your resolution, my Queen Valentina.”— Valentina still could remember the words of Kyloe. But Valentina was too afraid of the unknown power of the reapers and its consequences, so she finally gave completely the back to the reapers and her own daughter. The Popolion commander was ordered to not help Lhya forces even after he sent other three emissaries saying that it was the very daughter of the Queen asking for help and that she shouldn’t give the back to her own blood and race, still Valentina didn’t change her mind. Meanwhile, the Castanic forces which were marching to the Pora Elinu Nation territories were stopped multiple times by the High Elves forces. They weren’t too numerous to represent a treat for Nethaniel and his forces, but they were enough to stop their advance and delay their arrival, it was a coward strategy. Seeing their slow advance, Nethaniel sent the sister of Zekka, Kyloe alongside a few others to reach Pora Elinu forces and notify about the early arrival of Castanic reinforcements as Nethaniel hurried his people to fulfill this promise. On the other part, when the third emissary came back to the Popolion commander he said: “The Queen said that Lhya is no longer her daughter”. The Popolion commander sadly gave up and followed the order reluctantly, knowing the great mistake which was doing Valentina, as a Queen and as a mother. One week later, more news came from a Popori emissary who informed about the completely eradication of Lhya's forces, the death of the Princess Lhya and also a letter from the Human, Aman and High Elves High Commands who apologized with the Pora Elinu Nation for the brief occupation of part of her territory. After numerous short skirmishes with the objective of delaying them, the Nethaniel's forces could finally arrive to the Pora Elinu territories but it was too late. Upon their arrival, they were notified by the Popolion Commander that the Reapers forces were already wiped out alongside the people he sent as also he explained the whole situation which happened. Nethaniel and his people were deeply shocked by this news but they just limited to themselves to go back to Castanica with their honor damaged, being unable to do anything. When the Queen read the letter, Valentina felt like the others races were mocking of her as she also felt disgusted with herself, she knew that she did a tremendous mistake, but it was already done and her Nation needed her more than most, there wasn’t time for her, it was time to act. She left all her feelings apart, making her expression serene and peaceful but it was only a facade to hide her shattered consciousness. Nethaniel somehow understood the hard position were the Queen Valentina was, even so, he still had many questions to do, which still remain unanswered. The Castanics still deeply respect the Elins, but they don’t understand them at all. "The Elins are nature given flesh. They are lively and impatient in the short term, but thinking centuries into the future. Easy to underestimate and hard to understand, but they know more at birth than most of us learn in a lifetime."— This was what Nethaniel said when he alongside all his troops arrived back to Castanica, although he learned these words them from an old Baraka friend of him. Nethaniel tried to say that there was a reason behind all this that none could understand for now. Nethaniel trusted in that and still does. Meanwhile thanks to her diplomacy skills and the active support of her people even after all they went through, the Pora Elinu Nation became an economic powerhouse and accepted other races to join as citizens of her Nation without any major problem, making the Pora Elinu Nation even bigger and diverse than before. Her people loved her and the Elins who still remembered the harsh moments never said a word about it and just kept going ahead as her Queen. But of course, all this had a gigantic weight on Valentina’s conscience which she has been hardly managing all these years, but nothing lasts forever. Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a high-rank officer which approached slowly riding her horse. This officer was the right hand of the Queen Valentina and was also her personal royal guard; her hair was of a cyan color and her eyes were of vermilion color, her skin was slightly pale enough for emphasize her beauty eyes and short hair. She was wearing a dark-bluish light armor. “My Queen, our reconnaissance platoon sighted an Enlighten Union battalion a few kilometers away from the Velika’s west gate, they aren’t moving still but they are reinforcements, there is no doubt about that. If we don’t act now, they will aid the Velika invasion in anytime.”—The Officer said with a clear voice full of respect towards the Queen. The Queen took a few seconds to answer, as she kept looking to the already won battle—“I see…but this war doesn’t involve us directly…what do you think about that, Valira?” Her loyal right hand was surprised for a few seconds as the others Officers and royal guards did too, after hearing the strange answer of the Queen. “I think that this war involves us directly my Queen, not just because they tried to attack our allies or put in danger our heiress, the Princess, and future Queen Cauterize, also because is our divine duty to defend the nature till our spirits are exhausted, that’s my point of view, my Queen”— Valira said with conviction as she fixed her gaze on the back of the Queen who was still looking the battlefield with an empty gaze. The gaze of the Queen recovered its focus, smiled sadly and then said: “What you would recommend me as my next move then? Sorry for everything…I just had a little doubt inside me, my real apologizes to everyone”— The Queen Valentina said as she recovered her straight but also serene expression on her face. Valentina just kept going with her facade thinking on her Nation and her people as she has been doing it all the time. Valira smiled with respect as she answered slightly noticing part of that facade—“It is normal my Queen, don’t worry about it. And now about the EU battalion, I think we should regroup our troops and intercept the reinforcements!” “I think the same. Alright! Let’s do that then, move!” “Yes, my highness!” — Everyone answered in unison and started the preparations. “My highness Lhya, the south gate of our citadel is under siege by the third Demon Lord and numerous wild demons”— Lailyn informed with her typical non-feelings voice alongside her typical straight face. Lhya sighed by the bothersome situation which made Sayune with her apparition in the Nightmare realm. “I better hurry Kyloe, our people is not going to hold too much time against a Demon Lord besieging one of our gates Lailyn, go and help Monkeyi with the defense of the south gate” — Lhya kept her serene expression as she disappeared in black-purple smoke. Lailyn stood for a few seconds in her ninja pose with her eyes closed and then also disappeared in black-purplish smoke. The Steel Citadel, this is how is called the refuge which the Reapers built after being hunted by the others races in their native realm, although for many of them it is still a mystery how they got in there. This city was their new homeland for the Reapers; it was built with their own blood and efforts due the constant attacks of the demons on them, but none of those attacks could go beyond the tremendous Reapers’ willpower. It took 3 years for the reapers to completely build their city completely. This city was engulfed in an aura of an impenetrable fortress, with two lanes of huge and long black walls surrounding the city with a gothic look as its buildings inside alongside an active surveillance on the external walls; nothing entered or went out without being noticed. The city was quickly known as the “Steel Citadel” by everyone due the skillful Reapers alongside their fortified city could withstand everything, even a synchronized attack of five Demon Lords and their armies; these Demon Lords were personally executed by Lhya during the “100 Days Siege”, who was known as the Crimson Princess by their people and enemies. In the center square of the city, there was a huge dark-green generator of around 20 meters long which seemed turned off, near of it; there was a Castanic woman of a pale reddish skin tone monitoring a bluish hologram screen coming out from a control device of the generator. The Castanic was wearing a one-piece armor with numerous little yellowish hexagons which covered all her body; her armor was very close to her body, which allowed her great freedom of movement. Her gauntlets were black as her large boots and were made of the same hexagons. She had a white short hair and her horns were quite showy due in its structure, more precisely in the middle, it had a bright bluish as the hologram screen in front her surrounded by a black metal frame meanwhile a few meters behind appeared an Elin from a dark-purplish smoke. “Hohoho…yo yo! Lhya, what does bring you here?”— A slightly deep female uninterested voice came out from the Castanic woman who was still monitoring the hologram screen in front of her which didn’t even turn to speak. “When is it going to be ready?”— Lhya asked folding her arms keeping her gaze and voice serene as always. “Well well, being honest I don’t have the minor idea about it…with Dekarin helping, it would be way faster, that is the only thing I can affirm in this moment…but she left saying an odd thing that she felt a strange aura apparition and other mysterious thingies that I don’t understand…”— The Castanic women with a body surrounding the perfect measures spoke uninterested when suddenly she began typing instantly after another hologram screen of a red color appeared in front of her. “Kyloe, I am really grateful for bringing us here years ago but…I cannot give you all the time of the world, my people is fighting outside there…we need that shield, now.”— Lhya exclaimed with a slightly treating tone. “Come on! Come on!”— Kyloe shouted to the screen in front of her—“Haha! No more problems, so this loop should leave everything automatic when it…” “Are you even hearing me, Kyloe?” “Oh Lhya! Yeah yeah…this preciousness should be ready soon, don’t worry Lhya!”— Kyloe said as she patted a few times the metallic structure of the generator. “Define soon”— Lhya said as she kept looking intently to Kyloe The Castanic in front of Lhya turned around, her face was soft and her eyes were of a bright light blue color, which didn’t look naturally at all, even so, these somehow fitted almost perfectly with her face. —“Gimme a break Lhya, I…” The words of Kyloe were interrupted by an intense but short earthquake. Lhya immediately turned towards the south gate of the citadel and she could see a large dust cloud as Kyloe did too. She didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “Lhya, is not the time for getting surprised, move!”— Immediately after Kyloe words, Lhya disappeared in black-purplish smoke. “This girl never changes…haha...”— Kyloe said with a mothering tone with a smile on her face as she put her right hand on her hip and with the other hand took a cigarette from her pocket of her heavy battle suit and then ignited it “Well well…I better get ready to fight…”— Kyloe said with a confident and calm voice as she bounced a puff of cigarette smoke. Author's Notes: Hello everyone! It has been a really long time since the last time I posted a new part of my Novel (I want to immediately let clear that I will not drop it) Well, said that. I...dont know what to say...this chapter took way more than the usual since I have been gathering more and more info, new ideas and trying to get better with my grammar and typos (I hope I did haha), also this is a "completely new" chapter and the incoming ones too, since in the original Novel this part didn't last this long or some parts didn't even exist. I cannot promise a new chapter within this two incoming weeks, but I am going to make an effort and try to be faster, I hope you liked it!! (I must add that I am loving the way that my own Novel is going). In other matters, I have been actively trying to find an artist to make a few draws for me, but no luck at all, but don't worry! I will keep going with my search of art hehe. Oh! Also mega-ultra-big thanks to all my dear friends who has supported my Novel all these months! Special thanks to Lailyn and Iri! And also special thanks to the awesome TERA community, they have supported my little Novel for 2 years! (Nearly 3 years!) so yeah, and finally an not less important, a really big thanks to all my readers! I hope to see you all soon in a new chapter!