Chapter Six

City of Trênt

An eight year old Skye walks past his servants as they either bowed or curtsied before returning to their duties. For the past years this become a routine for him. He has one goal in mind. The Library. Her mom was one of the brightest scholar in all of Herald and their library rivals even The Citadel - an organization who dedicates their life to obtaining knowledge.

"Where was I? P isn't it?" he hummed as he browsed through the mountains of book. For the past year he has been browsing all of the books in the Library alphabetically. Of course some of the books doesn't interest him so he made a list of them in case he wants to browse them later. "Port of Essos" "Philosopher's Stone and it's legend" "Paranormal Historical Events", he browsed through the titles. "Hmmm.. " he hummed once more "Paranormal Historical Events sounds interesting" he told himself as he lifted the book out of it's shelf.

For more than an hour he just sat silently at the floor, shifting positions every now and then.

"Fourth day of Spring Age of the Old Gods" he muttered.

4th day of Spring, Age of Old Gods

An abyss dragon was spotted at the Hylos, formerly Hilo. Several witness claimed that the appearance of the said dragon was serpentine like with four legs with no wings. It only appeared for a couple of second to ascend to the skies and vanished suddenly. No witnesses on where the creature came from.

12th day of Spring, Age of Old Gods

A massive holy dragon suddenly appeared at the skies of the City Capitol of Bexter. The said dragon was believed to be an adult Elder Dragon. Hundreds of witnesses claimed the same thing. No destruction or casualties. The said dragon vanished.

2nd day of Winter, Age of Old Gods

Two competitors of the annual Herald Brawl suddenly vanished after winning the competition in an astounding fashion. Both competitors were commoner of birth and wore a mask in the entirety of the tournament. The rewards for winners were also stolen from the treasury.

Skye continued to read all of the pages earnestly hoping to read something more interesting like dragons but nothing of the like were discussed. More hours past as the youth finished his seventh book for the day.

"My Lord, your mother is calling you for lunch" the librarian said.

"Thank you" Skye replied. Skye walked to the dining area to be greeted by his mother.

"My love, sit". Skye took a sit and ate his lunch silently "What is it mother?"

"What? Nothing my love, nothing"

"I know that look on your face, he won't be home again isn't he?" Skye asked.

"Please understand, my love, your father is a bit busy" Ahria explained

"I know and I understand"

"He said he'll be home before your annual day of birth"

"I won't expect him to, and mother before you say anything. I don't hate him. I don't like him either. I barely remember him anymore" Skye said

"You know your father is doing this for us, right?"

"I know, may I be excused please?"

"Of course my love" Ahria said with a forced smile.

Skye then proceeded to the training halls and grabbed his bow and arrows. He nocked an arrow and tried to hit his target but he missed miserably. He nocked one arrow after another constanty missing. Then he broke down, a tear rolled down to his cheeks. He lied. He loved his father intensely. He remembered everything about him. His face, his voice, his lessons. He remembered all his adventures on his stories. He remembered everything about his role model. He quickly wiped his tears and assumed a meditative pose. He pushed away his fathers memory and viewed all of his training with the bow. He reviewed his memories on how he carefully nocks an arrow. How he controlled his breathing. How he blended with his surrounding."I wanna get strong, so that I can help protect the city. Then father won't have to go to his expeditions anymore" he thought to himself. He then focused on gathering spiritual essence and expanding his pool.

An hour of meditation later, he nocked his arrow once more this time calmer, he controlled his breathing and eyed the target carefully. He then released the arrow as it whistled to the air, piercing the head of the dummy. He repeated the same thing over and over again. Minutes later the dummy's head no longer had any space for another arrow but Skye nocked his last arrow. He focused his spiritual essence to his senses. He felt the wind touching his skin. He can see his target more vividly now. As his senses heigtened it took him a minute to calm himself down to cope up with the new information his brain is processing. After he calmed down, he released the final arrow. The arrow travelled lightning fast as it split the previous arrow occupying the dummy's forehead "Bullseye" Cai smiled to himself.

After finishing his archery practice he never failed to train his body. He would start with light stretching, then proceeds to more extreme ones. Then he would run in top speed around the manor to enhance his speed and agility. After a few minutes of rest, he dons his weights and jogs around the manor to enhance his stamina. After that he would proceed with lightweight lifts for his eight year old body can't handle heavier kinds yet. Finally he would perform different kinds of excercises like push ups, curl ups and the like in set of twenties. Constantly repeating them until he feels fatigue creeping in his body. Last but not the least would be final stretching to lessen the body pain he will experience in the latter days, not that it can be easily healed. He just felt like without healing the body with spiritual essence it will grow much more stronger.

That was Skye's routine every single day. Books, meditation, archery and excercises. Sometimes her mother would be teaching her etiquette and politics, not like he needs teaching but it is always better to have someone to ask questions.

"Mother why are there four kingdoms now?" "I've heard before that it was just one united empire?"

"I'm sure you've read about this before" Ahria smiled but still explained

"The Age of Old Gods as we call it was when Gods still interacted with Herald's people. The Empire of Herald was united as there are no continents yet."

"No continents?" asked Skye

"Yes my dear no continents"

"That was never in the archives"

"Yes my child, this is something like a vision from the Goddess of Wisdom herself"

"Oh"

Ahria started to utilized her spiritual essence to materialize a three dimensional image of Herald. In the center of it is one big island.

"As you can see there is just one continent and no one bothered to name it cause it is just one"

"As I told you, when Gods still interacted with the people of Herald. They would often join the festivities. Festivities of course leads to "something more" and in rare cases will have offspring with a mortal. "

"What is something more?"

" We'll discuss that when the time is right. Going back to the story. When Gods have an offspring with mortals,they were called demi-gods"

"Were?"asked Skye

"They are no more" Ahria simply answered.

"What do you mean Mother?"

"Continuing to the story. When the demigods population become, lets just say were massive. Because the Gods enjoyed having fun especially the male ones. Their population grew even more after a century because most of them are near-immortal and possesed blessings and strength comparable to the Gods themselves." "That's when the original inhabitants of Herald got worried. Of course they had to. The strength of demigods can tip the balance of power that long sustained the united continent"

"Humans known for their greed got obsessed by the bloodline that runs in the demigods vein and started researching everything about them. Weakness and strength. Stealthily capturing the demigods one by one. But of course the demigods caught on the ploy of humans. War erupted throughout the continent. Other races secluded themselves for the wrath of demigods were comparable to the Gods. The Gods could not intervene with the struggle in Herald. Millions of humans were killed nearly facing extinction the same can be said for the demigods. Then Herald decided to intervene in her world. She banished the remaining demigods from her realm while she erased the entirety of humans and created it anew. The other races become wary of what humans can be capable of that they requested Herald to make divisions. Herald was not fond of the idea but had to oblige several centuries later as humans waged war on other races for power. But as the history proved us, war is inevitable."

"But how did the humans take on the demigods?"

"It is still a mystery on how the humans almost took down the demigods. But one things is for sure they had help"

"Hmmm" Skye contemplated

"By the way Skye, I had a raven telling us a master of sword is coming to the City would you like to learn from him?"

"I told you mother that I dislike the sword" Skye whined

"But you disliked the bow at first too" Ahria interjected

"Yes I did, but this time it's different. I suck at it no matter how hard I tried"

"We could atleast try" Ahria suggested

"No mother! You told me that the last time. The twelfth master declined me. Save me from the humiliation on the thirteenth" Skye said as he stormed out of the room.

* * *

Frozen Tundra - Three years later

Months after the Defence of Final Frontier

Skye stalked his prey from two miles away if there was no minimal spiritual essence leaking in his surroundings due to the scouting method he was using then one would think this is just another peaceful day at the frozen tundra. The prey was a five hundred year old frost troll. Known for their massive regenaration but the most notable thing about them was their echo-location. The beast can sense anything from a mile away. This was one of the most valuable spiritual ring considering for someone who just reached the tenth spiritual realm.

"Do you really think the kid can hit that from two miles away?" a hunter said quietly.

"You have seen the boy kill a frost wolf running at seventies from a mile away, what makes you think he can't hit a stationary one at two?" questioned the other one.

"Fuck! If I was that talented I would be rich by now." the other replied.

"I thought the boy was out of his mind when he came to us that day telling us to teach us how to hunt"

"Yah. It only took months and he is this great with hunting already.. I just can't help but be jealous"

"Same here my son" the other hunter nodded

"This is really one hell of a longbow" Skye thought to himself as he carefully eyed the troll. The longbow was one of their family heirlooms that was stuck on their treasury. It was made from unknown materials that even their local blacksmith can't identify. It also has an inscribed scrying ward to locate the prey and intricated with unknown runes. It has been seven months exactly after the attack at the City and rehabilitation was still in process. After receiving her mother's blessing to explore. He immediately know where to start. Learning how to hunt. He was always good with the bow so he thought he could be a good scout. He immediately packed his bags and decided to learn from the real life hunters not those academic scholars that would just make you read stuff and make you hunt squirrels. Queen was one of the best huntress and has taken him under her wing to teach him the basics together with her son Prince, another veteran hunter. They taught him every single detail and what they gave was not just lessons but real life experience. They made him starve till he can kill on his own. They let him wander in the Forest of Illusion till he can find his way out. He almost died in there honestly. Made him hunt frost wolves, racoons, rabbits and even a wyvern. And now that he reached the tenth spiritual realm they accompanied him to hunt his first ever spiritual ring.

He was following the tracks of a lone frost troll for a week now as it's mating season is on the upcoming week. Finally he caught up with the troll but sensed them from a mile away. Now he will be trying to kill the troll from two miles away. He was confident with his archery skills that was honed through years of rigorous practice, hell, he can even hit a stationary target from three miles away.

"We'll wait till the troll sleeps. You only have one shot to the head otherwise it will regenerate quickly" Queen instructed

"Take the wind and humidity as a factor as always"

"Of course, Master" Skye replied

"I told you to stop calling me that. You already surpassed me boy. I told you can call me by name"

"Nope. Can't do. With the bow maybe. But in hunting not in a long shot"

"Whatever idiot disciple" Queen smiled.

Hours passed as they followed the troll careful on mantaining their distance. Finally the troll came to a halt and prepared to sleep in the lake of ice.

"About damn time" Prince muttered.

"Take the high ground and prepare to shoot. We'll strike after a couple of minutes" he commanded.

"Got it" Skye said as he hiked to a better spot. The troll slept peacefully the entire hike and didn't notice their advance.

"This is a good enough spot. You think you could get it?"

"I think so"

"It's a Yes or No question"

"Yep, I got this" Skye affirmed

"Good"

Skye meditated for a couple of minutes to calm himself. He slowly stood up and raised his long bow. "Assist me on hiding my arrow's existence Dejvra" he whispered to an other-worldly entity in the form of his cloak.

"Of course" answered the entity directly in his mind. An arrow made of ice started to form in his bow as he pulled the bowstring. He then concentrated his spiritual essence to his vision getting a clearer image of the troll sleeping. He relaxed his breathing and concentrated on his surrounding. Wind speed, humidity, and distance, any other obstruction he already accounted for. He then dropped his stealth and runes glowed to existence as he amassed spiritual essence in a split second as he finally released the arrow. He then took a sprint to different location and prepared to take a second shot in case the first one missed. But no countermeasures were needed for before the troll could stir awake from his sleep the arrow took away its life, a five hundred year old spiritual ring hovering above his corpse.

* * *

City of Trênt - House of Vjorn's Manor

"It's already been year since our son has left" Ahria said to her husband "I miss him. When I told him he can explore and learn away from the manor, I thought he will stay inside the City"

"I miss him too. And don't worry our scouts are making sure he's safe" Cai replied to his wife.

"I know, I know. I just can't help it. By the way you haven't told me the whole ordeal about the Tales of the Dragon God"

"I know, we haven't exactly had much time back then"

"We have now" Ahria said sternly

"Okay, so there were speculations that if once in a century Herald fates a person,then every millenia there would be atleast two person to be fated but much more powerful than a regular dragon hence a Dragon God. They were fated to guard the realms of Herald to either cause chaos or restore peace. An abyss dragon symbolizes chaos while a golden elder dragon symbolizes peace" Cai explained "And I believe our son is an abyss dragon"

"What? no!" Ahria quickly answered "our son cannot be the bearer of chaos. You know there is only goodness in his heart."

"I know but you have seen what I have seen that day"

"I need more facts about this" Ahria said as she quickly left the room.

"Okay..." Cai muttered as he was left behind.

* * *

Skye was waiting in the line to enter the border as he felt an unfamiliar bond from unknown boy. The boy has a flaming red hair with ocean like blue eyes. Light freckles scattered in his cheeks and possesed a cute button nose. He stared at the boy as he was laughing goofily. He felt a certain familiarity from the boy but he didn't know why. Did he meet him before? When? How? Questions flooded in his mind not noticing that he was staring at the boy for a long time. The boy finally noticed him, who stared back at him then smiled cheekily. He felt embarassed being caught staring and at a boy at that, as he looked away. Luckily the boy was next in line to be inspected and proceeded with the inspection. After the guard gave the boy his approval, the boy looked back at him and gave one of his goofy smiles before entering the city. "Fuck, that was embarassing. He might have thought I was ogling at him. Fuck!" he screamed internally. Before he knew it he was next in the line and the guard took a good look at his face and his eyes went wide in shock. "Lord Vjorn, you should have not waited on the line. We apologize for not recognizing you faster"

"At ease Louis, you're fine. I told you not to call me Lord anymore and besides I have companions with me today"

"You know I can't do that my Lord please come on in" he ushered Skye inside the City gates. He took a good look at the City and the disaster a year ago was no longer noticeable and the smiles of the citizens were a welcome sight.

"Welcome home, my Lord" the scouts of the Vjorns of Dragon greeted as they suddenly appeared from nowhere.

"Indeed, I am home" Skye muttered

"Welcome home too" he looked at the scouts that accompanied him directly at their eyes before looking to Queen and Prince.

"Do I have to call you my Lord too?" Prince asked while chuckling.

"I always knew you were an important person coz I sensed some of the scouts following you but why the fuck did you not tell me you're a Vjorn! If you got killed during your training I could have lost my head" Queen exclaimed.

"For the same exact reason why you didn't tell me you are one of the best huntress too and the Vice Guild Master at that" Skye simply answered.

"Hmmmph" Queen whined.

"Anyway would you like to accompany us to the manor?" asked Skye

"Nope we got a quest from the Hunter Guild, we better part ways here" Prince answered

"Thank you so much for everything during the past year" Skye said as he bowed deeply "I don't know how to repay you but please tell me and i'll do my best to make it happen"

"Boy do you think I accepted you as my disciple because I expected rewards when you first barge in on our house?" Queen asked "No, I wanted to teach you because I saw something in your eyes. Passion. And you've come along way in just a year. Look at me in the eyes" Skye stopped bowing and looked at his master's eyes.

"The next time we meet you are no longer my disciple" Skye was about to protest when Queen continued "You are now an equal and a rival"

"Goodbye Lord Vjorn" Queen said as she turned her back at Skye

"Thank you Master! Thank you Prince!" he made one last bow and took the route back to their manor both the master and disciple's eyes started tear up.

"Let's go home" Skye said wiping his tears away.

* * *

City of Trênt - House of Vjorn's Manor

An arrow flew to Skyes direction as he entered the manor. With a quick sidestep he managed to dodge the arrow. "A classic welcome home party from family traditions" he thougt. A flurry of arrows came but he already calculated the arrows path that has a larger chance of hitting him and managed to dodge everything at a minimal effort. Flurry after flurry he dodged everything. Then came a spiritual lance at lightning speed he tried to dodge but it managed to rip the side of his shirt. "Tsk" he said to himself. I've underestimated my opponent and dropped my guard. He let his spiritual ring flare to existence which hovered in his back. The ring let him sense everything from a mile away through a echo-location. It seems like the frost trolls were blind and relied on sounds to sense their targets. He quickly blended to the surroundings and quickly jumped to the manor walls. He utilized a haste spell which he acquired from Dejvrah's time magics. Then he materialized his longbow from his spatial magic and started shooting down the manor guards bows. He constantly changed his location as the bowmen were confused from being the hunter to being a prey. Skye was about to disarm the last bowmen as a man quickly moved to his position. "Father" he muttered to himself. Before he could nock another spiritual arrow. He felt a kick landing on his stomach. He almost coughed all of his lunch as he tumbled through the training ground. With a swift movement he used the momentum to pick himself up and position himself to a shooting form. "Dejvra use the shortcut method" he whispered to himself as he amassed a lot of spiritual essence in one go and aimed at his father's direction. Cai just looked at his son as unknown runes envelop the longbow as the arrow flew past him. "That was fast but you missed" he told his son.

"One thing you should know about your son" Skye smiled "I never miss"

The spiritual arrow was swallowed by a spatial rift and appeared in front of his father but before it could hit him an aegis materialized in the arrow's path. Blocking the arrow entirely. Before Cai could retaliate Skye already vanished to another location ready to take a second shot. "I know that much about my son" Cai said with a smile.

"Really? Do you even know me like you think you do?" Skye said as another arrow vanish this time appearing at Cai's back.

Cai just flicked his hand against the arrow sending it elsewhere. A third shot was fired and a fourth. A dozen more shots and he was almost out of spiritual essence. "Done playing?" Cai questioned as he appeared in front of Skye.

"I never expected to beat you in the first place" Skye answered. "But don't let your guard down. I just might decide to beat you" he whispered to his father. Chills run down Cai's spine when he heard those words.

"Anyway thank you for the grand welcome! Arrows and kicking your son in the stomach what a fatherly way to greet your son" Skye said as he entered the manor. Cai stood in the training yard dumbfounded on what just happened.

"Mother?" Skye peeked through the library door to check if her mother was in there.

"Skye? Skye!" her mother exclaimed as she made her way to her son

"I missed you so much" Ahria said as she hugged Skye tightly

"Me too, mother. Me too" Skye said as he returned the hug.

"Come on here. Sit! Tell me all about your adventures"

"Of course mother" Skye said excitedly as he begun his tales on learning how to hunt. An hour of catching up and Ahria decided to prepare dinner leaving Skye on the Library to check on the new books her mother added to the collection. As he was leafing to the pages he heard a knock from the door.

"Come in, father. You didn't have to knock"

"Uhmm.." his father said awkwardly "Im sorry for earlier. I got overexcited to see the results of your training that I ended hurting you"

"Is that all you're sorry for father?" asked Skye.

"What do you mean?" Cai asked back

"Never mind. If thats all you can leave. I'm glad you recovered though" Skye offered

"Thank you" Cai said as he was walking out of the Library. "Stupid old man" Skye thought to himself.

* * *

City of Trênt

"Skye Vjorn huh" Kieran said as he remembered the platinum blonde boy with green eyes. "He kinda feels like the old man especially those eyes. It reminds me of him and his fucking training methods. I still get goosebumps whenever I remember being soaked in lava to heighten my regenerative capabilities"

"He looks kind of normal though" a two tailed white and blue fox spoke telepathically to him.

"Believe me, he is anything but normal"

"I can't wait to fight him!" he exclaimed while jumping on his bed.

"That has to wait my child" an other-worldy voice spoke.

"I know old geezer you don't have to remind me everytime. First, we train right?"

"First, we train...." a mini golden elder dragon appeared out of nowhere as he assisted Kieran on his meditation.

"I can't still wait to fight him though"