Gustave Delacroix had always thought he had a solid grasp on how the world worked. Of course, he couldn’t comprehend things like God’s plans, the weather, and other such forces. But overall, he thought himself rather grounded in his view of the world.

Two days after he witnessed demons descend upon a village and a man who was immortal so long as people feared him, Gustave was still unsure what to make of those circumstances. Even though he’d thought about it so much that his men were beginning to worry.

The townsfolk believed God had sent the creatures to punish them. He considered that, however, that conclusion came to blows with his theological education. And that was the closest thing he had to an answer.

God didn’t punish that way. Suffering came as a result of a choice to turn away from God. One brought it upon himself.

He also thought that perhaps demons had risen from hell simply to cause pain. But...even the devil was smarter than that. The devil fought against God by converting people to atheism or paganism.

So did that mean the pagans who had killed that demon were actually among hell’s rank and file? A question for a future less confused Gustave.

Gustave snapped out of his thoughts and returned to the present moment. His mare had stopped to eat a patch of grass. He pulled her away with his reins and caught up to his men, the townsfolk, and the mercenaries.

Well...Gustave wasn’t sure if they were mercenaries. He wasn’t sure of anything right now.

He envied the less educated in that moment. Even his men, who were the sons of noblemen in the country, only had a rudimentary understanding of esoteric dealings like God and Hell.

Gustave often asserted himself as an authority because of his education, but in this scenario, that education made him even more lost than those who grew up on farms.

There appeared to only be about six people who actually knew what was going on. So at their midday break, when the villagers and his men divided scarce rations while the mercenaries ate, to their hearts’ delight, Gustave approached them. Specifically, the Sklaveni woman they called Taya.

Gustave collapsed into a cross-legged position, his lamellar armor clanking as he did.

“Sklaveni.” Gustave muttered.

“How can I help you?” Taya asked absent mindedly, as she drank tea from a metal cup.

“What...what the hell is happening?” he asked.

“I was wondering when one of you would ask.” Taya said.

“My men wouldn’t speak to you without my permission.” Gustave said.

“Why?” Taya frowned.

“Because it’d be insubordination if they did so.” Gustave said.

Taya shook her head, “I think that’s just a good soldier getting shit done.”

“Whatever you want to call it, I would like an answer to my question.”

“Well, you’re going to need to be more specific. ‘What the hell is happening’ could mean a ton of things. Do you mean what are we supposed to do with this life? What are we currently doing?”

“You know very well, what I’m talking about, woman. Don’t play games with me. The demons and dragons and whatever unholy abominations we encountered that day.” Gustave said. He paused before shaking his head. “Why am I even trying? You’re all a bunch of pagans.”

“Ahem.” the shorter woman among their group got his attention, “Not all of us are pagan.”

Gustave frowned.

“Cecile Millet. I’m as Sarfan as you.” Cecile introduced herself in Sarfan to boot, “Would you take my word for it if I said these people were worth listening to?”

At least there was someone he could understand among them.

But...a Sarfan among pagans. How did that work out? Did she convert the others? Did they convert her?

Gustave shunted all that to the back of his mind. What mattered was that she was one of his people. One of his people who understood what was going on. He couldn’t ask for much more.

Gustave sighed, “Alright. What have you to tell me?”

Taya thought a bit before answering, “I was going to wait until I consolidated enough power to make a stand to go into detail about the Armageddon Event’s history, but especially after seeing a specter, I now understand that the truth of this world is the only thing that’s going to get us that power.”

“The world is under attack. It’s under attack from the Nikan Empire, it’s under attack from the Plague and it’s under attack from these...creatures. This has happened before in history. Same circumstances. Humans fighting among themselves, a plague hits, then fairytale creatures start killing people. That was called the Armageddon Event.”

Taya’s allies seemed unphased by this clearly alarming information.

“So...it’s like an apocalypse?” Gustave asked. He thought it sounded preposterous, but he would hear it out until the end for the sake of just having something to put his confusion to rest.

Taya nodded, “More or less. Except for the fact that we can fight it.”

“What did our ancestors do about it?” Cecile asked.

“The Plague is actually a force of nature that links all Shedim together called...well, it doesn’t have a name, but druids from my country call it the Veil. In the wake of the last Armageddon Event, that force tried to give every man it could find a Shedim, but the fact is that not everyone has what it takes to handle our powers. Those people get sick and eventually die.” Taya explained, “Our ancestors, who became Shedim Masters, banded together and formed the Companies. They were organizations of Shedim masters like us who stood up against the Armageddon Event on behalf of all humanity.”

“Do you know what’s actually causing this whole thing?” a Hikupti man among them asked.

“I wouldn’t know. All I can say is that creatures like the specters adhere to four masters who go by the names Obedience, Cowardice, Ruthlessness and Complacency in service of a greater entity I just call Despair. I don’t know why they do what they do or even what they are. All I know is that they’re dangerous and our enemy.” Taya said, “I intend to reestablish the eight Companies to fight back. But I didn’t want to officially establish anything until each Company had equal representation so there would be no Company lagging behind the rest.”

“So…” Gustave sighed, “What I’m hearing is that there is a world-wide war between four gods and the Nikan Empire with the rest of humanity. And that magically powered...whatever it is you are are the only ones who can fight it.”

“Fight it effectively, yes.” Taya said.

“How exactly do you intend to reestablish the Companies?” Cecile asked.

“Through people like you guys. “Taya said, “We are the foremost humanity has to offer, since only those who wish to fight will acquire the power to do so. But we need at least one member of each company before we even think of establishing them. There has to be balance, or else we’ll collapse.”

“So we just...declare that we’re the next generation or something?” the Hikupti raised an eyebrow.

Taya shook her head, “I’m not exactly sure how it’s supposed to work, but there are mantras for each Company that you’re meant to say when you’re prepared to grow. From what I’ve researched, you’re meant to simply know those mantras when the time comes.”

He shook his head and sighed, “Whoever made this power demands too much trust from us.”

Gustave scoffed, “You realize how insane all this sounds, right?”

“You saw the demons with your own eyes. Tell me that isn’t some end-of-the-world shit.” Taya retorted.

“Watch your mouth.” Gustave said before continuing, “From what I can tell, save for Cecile and the Hikupti, you’re all commoners. How the hell do you intend to gather any sort of influence? It’d be impossible.”

“The circumstances of my birth have mattered very little for almost a decade now.” Taya said, “I get what I want. Whether or not other people like it.”

Gustave scoffed again. He had about a million more of those in him. He stood from his seat, shaking his head, “This...this is absolutely mad. I...I haven’t the time for this esoteric nonsense.”

With that, Gustave walked away with more questions than answers. Do I believe them? Could I imagine something like that? Something that would shatter my entire world?

Gustave spat at the ground. What was he talking about?

Peasants and their folklore…

___________________________________________________________________

“Tell me, Bjorn, do you really believe all that talk your fearless leader gave? About Armageddon?” Yahui asked.

Bjorn sipped from his waterskin as he deliberated the best answer for her.

“I...I hope she’s wrong.” Bjorn said, “But I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Oh please. The end of the world? Sounds a tad dramatic, even for my nation, don’t you think?” The princess scoffed.

“Well, given that your country is more or less treated like the apocalypse anyway, I wouldn’t say that the actual end of the world is too far of a stretch.” Bjorn muttered, “Especially considering things like the specter Taya killed and the army of demons that came with it.”

“All you people ever do is find an excuse to diminish the Nikan Empire.” Yahui muttered.

“I’m sorry. The Ascommani aren’t quite invading all the countries around them and slaughtering innocents.”

“You call those countries?” Yahui asked, “The Khongirats, as complex as they may be, endlessly fight amongst themselves until all sides are in ruins. The Jambudvipi are little more than primitive jungle tribes. Same goes for the Sklavenis. None of them know cohesion or unity. They just fight over petty squabbles. The Nikan give them unity.”

“The Nikan force unity on them,” Bjorn scoffed. “You make them bend to your authority under threat of death. Don’t twist the narrative to make your people seem like altruists.”

That got the princess to finally quiet down. All his conversations with her either ended very well or in an argument. No in-between. Bjorn looked to the orange sky as the sun was sinking below the horizon. They only had an hour or so left of daylight.

Based on his own estimations, they would reach Dimale either tomorrow or the day after. From there, all they had to do was get a boat and sail to Koinelia. A simple task. But what was Taya’s plan from there?

Yes, she wanted to expand the Searing Breath so they could recruit more members, but was she planning to create official guilds for the other Companies? They didn’t have enough people to have a leader for each of them, did they?

Say they gathered a fighting force? What would be their first move? Which land would they liberate first?

“Your head must be a whirlwind right now.” Yahui muttered.

“What?” Bjorn returned to reality from his own thoughts.

“You only make that face-the one where your mouth goes thin as a fishing line-when you’re thinking too hard.”

“Someone’s spending too much time ogling her captors.” Bjorn scoffed.

“I’m not ogling, Stormtamer. You’re just the only one who’s any fun to talk to around here.”

“So what I’m hearing is...you care for me?”

“Ugh.” Yahui rolled her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. It’s unbecoming. All I wanted to say was that when I tell you to lower your head, I do so out of concern.”

“What?”

Yahui flicked her eyes to the side, “Look down.”

Bjorn tilted his neck downwards and felt something rush past his head. He glanced up to find that Yahui’s bindings had been cut by a screaming straight sword, undoubtedly a prison to a Shedim.

“Tay-!” Bjorn called out for his allies, but Yahui whacked him in the nose with the pommel of her sword.

Bjorn fell back before staggering to his feet. He put a fair amount of distance between himself and his new enemy. Well, not really new...more like-

He evaded a potentially lethal strike of her sword before grabbing his shield and spear from off his back.

The others were running to help him, but were ambushed by the sudden appearance of Bane Knights. Bjorn channeled lightning to his fingertips, unleashing a volley of electrical power at Yahui. She easily evaded, but it gave him an opening to help his allies.

Guanyu was around here somewhere.

“Bjorn!” Ruhak shouted, “Help me out!”

The Hikupti man had bound up one of the Bane Knights, but was narrowly avoiding the advances of a second one. Ruhak detached the wires on his left hand as Bjorn grabbed them and sent electricity coursing through them. The bound Bane Knight spasmed before falling over.

Bjorn ducked under a sweep of the hydrokinetic Bane Knight’s spear. He charged up his power, causing electricity to crackle along his skin, but the Bane Knight trapped him in a blob of pure water that drowned out the energy.

Cecile caught the water under her own manipulation, allowing Bjorn to escape the trap. He turned to discharge his electricity at the Knight, but saw one of the female Knight ready to attack Cecile. He turned his hand, but was thrown to the ground as Yahui pounced on him.

She held the form of her bonded Shedim, not the one she Banebended, giving her fox-like features and putting dark violet flames under her control.

Bjorn’s power discharged into an empty patch of forest at Yahui’s forceful redirection.

The Ascommani lifted Yahui off him by her abdomen and threw her aside. He rolled to his feet and lowered into a combat stance. The Duskbreakers were getting absolutely man-handled by the fire and shadow Bane Knights.

Bjorn backed into his allies, plus Gustave, all of whom had been struggling. Even Taya wasn’t faring very well against Guanyu.

“It’s...It’s like they know all of our abilities by heart.” Taya heaved.

Bane Knights surrounded them.

“What a coincidence.” Guanyu sneered, with a smug grin on his face. “That’s exactly the case. Show them, sister.”

Yahui pulled a small scroll out of her silk robe. “My dear brother offered a small gift to me the last time you fought. Being able to speak to him has made my stay here so much more comfortable.” She wasn’t as overtly shit-eating as her brother, but Bjorn could sense the indignation radiating off her.

Bjorn’s chest seemed to fall. He should’ve expected this from her. So why hadn’t he?

“Surrender to us and perhaps we won’t have to kill you right away.” Guanyu said.

Taya grinned, “Is that so?”

“It’d be a wise decision.” the prince said.

“I think you’ve misunderstood your enemy, Your Majesty.” Taya said, “We don’t fear death.”

“We don’t?” Gustave asked.

Taya burst into a flurry of motion, taking out three of the Bane Knights with one well-placed sword swing. Bjorn blocked a strike of another Bane Knight’s glaive with his shield before thrusting his spear into the Knight’s armor, accompanied by a blast of electrical energy.

As the Bane Knights regrouped, Bjorn fell in line with his allies, letting the rhythm of battle take over his body.

His footfalls were the bass that backed the quicker tempo of his heartbeat along with rapid notes of exhalation, preceded only by the wind whipping around his weapon as he moved it.

His song intermingled with his allies as they fought around him, seamlessly intertwining their abilities to benefit each other. A shock of lightning followed a quick soak of sped-up water from Cecile up. Taya threw him into the sky, allowing him to land like a thunderbolt in the dirt. Ruhak’s wires conducted his electricity, turning them into massive magnets that manipulated the steel weapons of the enemy.

But all that was put to a stop when Bjorn turned to find a giant rock hurtling towards his head. No bolt of lightning he could muster would break it apart. He lifted his shield and was carried by the rock for a few feet as it tore off the upper half of his shield.

Bjorn rolled to his feet in a daze, giving him a chance to survey the battlefield. Somehow, in a few seconds, the tide of battle had turned against them.

Such is war. Such is life.

Bjorn furrowed his brow. Where the hell was that coming from?

Ruhak’s wires were being frozen brittle by the water knight while Cecile’s abilities were futile against the air knight. Peng and Gustave were being ganged up on by the two female knights and the fire knight while Taya was fighting both Yahui and Gustave. And she looked to be losing her skirmish.

There was one missing, wasn’t there? The Earth Knight.

Bjorn realized that the Earth Knight was on him the moment before a sickening crunch stole away his consciousness.