VIIIth Century, year 63, Brumáire. Day 20. In the Florenz Kingdom.

A warrior approached a bench, the wooden bench ornamented with rustic designs and upholstered with wool silk, was minimally luxurious. This bench was in a corridor leading to the main hall of the palace.

The warrior wore dazzling armor, it was so well polished that one could have no doubt they had put a lot of effort into the appearance of that steel bulk. His legs suspend his body slowly, leaning into the seat in a way that slowly settles , barely noticing who was around him.

"Hi...I-I-I'm called Alice. And you?"

The shy girl promptly started a conversation with the warrior who had sat on the bench, but the warrior did not answer. A deep but succinct sigh could be heard from him. His face showed exhaustion and regret. Probably the situation on the battlefield was not the best, and it was getting closer and closer to the end.

"Can this still be considered a war? It's a one-sided massacre. If only the King wasn't an inexperienced bastard, tsk."

The warrior was sinking into frustration, his mind repeating this process of lamentation every minute, wondering what he had done wrong. But he couldn't demonstrate any plausible wrongdoing, so all that was left was to blame someone else. And who was easiest to blame, the new king. All the frustrations of the high-ranking warriors were placed on the regent, after all, his ego was so huge that they could not adequately think of a solution to the problem. Then all they had to do was blame someone, blaming could protect them from certain thoughts, but never from the exhaustion they would carry.

The warrior looked around and noticed that there was a girl staring at him. Her hands were chained, her clothes were tattered and her dark hair was dirty and greasy.

"Are you the girl the King ordered to fetch from the prison?"

"I-that, Archemis taught me several things in prison..." Answered the girl promptly with a look of happiness, raising her index finger slightly close to her lip. Finally there was a use for the teachings that her guardian had passed on to her, so Alice believed.

To Alice Archemis was like an older sister, her mother had not been able to adapt well to prison, making debts to continue her lifestyle and someday that debt would have to be paid, there was a limit to how much you could pay with your body alone, and that line had been crossed.

It was at this point that Archemis appeared, saving you, giving you a new direction in life. Unfortunately, Archemis had already exhausted much of her life in that prison, due to an infection. So her time as Alice's guardian and older sister were rather short.

"So you can read Runes?"

Alice who was submerged in old thoughts was brought back to reality with the warrior's question.

"C-how?"

"I asked if you can read Runes!?"

"B-well I can interpret them, runes are something quite complex created long ago and each culture had a way of carving there, well at least sister Archemis taught me that..."

The answer echoed in the warrior's head, he didn't understand it very well, to him Runes were just a strange writing made by an ancient population. He didn't realize that Rune was more complex and that it had many ramifications.

Runes were an archaic method to transfer information. So it was common for each culture to have their own means of making them, some using features based on geometric figures, others using variations of arrangements and the amount that these variations were repeated could read the whole word.

Runes ceased to be a part of reality millennia ago with the adoption of the single Western writing system, and with that many techniques and teachings were lost to time.

"Well, what is that bastard thinking? It's really hard to try to understand someone who can't deduce even one strategic move of his enemy hahaha"

The warrior showed no finesse in offending the regent king, there was no supporter among the upper echelon of the military, so were the remaining nobles. The nobles were concerned with keeping their possessions and the military was trying to save their honor. At that moment few cared about the kingdom.

"Attention, your majesty has arrived!"

The guard's warning shout ordered all soldiers to stand at post.

"Well, let's get going!"

"Y-yes..."

"My name is Otto Grinberg, it was a pleasure to meet the guardian of the teachings of Archemis, I will be waiting for your return here."

That officer even though unkind to your majesty, was being extremely nice to that girl. It was minimally strange, this mutual respect, was there something behind it?

As she walked down the hallway, Alice was pensive, what if she couldn't read the Runes, what if she could read the Runes what would happen to her after that?

These thoughts made her anxious, and she hated this feeling.

Her thoughts were so deep that she was walking with her head down, and only stopped when her head collided with the gate of the central palace, that gate made of a golden stone, brighter than gold overshadowed all the delicate thoughts in her mind.

The guards announced Alice's arrival, and opened the palace entrance gate.

In front of Alicia was a huge corridor, with huge pillars of draken bone. Between each pillar was a guard holding the banner of the royal family of Florence, and in the middle was a huge vise, made of a dark purple material. That place showed no connection to the reality outside.

"So you are Alice?" Ashkan asked sitting on the throne, his voice sounded like someone who was already used to such formality, however his body reacted in an ungoverned way, he could even feel the uncomfortable strain applied by the regent king.

"Y-yes your majesty" replied Alice, in a slight bow.

"No need to pay reference to me!"

The guards were caught off guard by this statement from Ashkan, equally Alice. A King who did not accept reverence from his subjects?

There was a rigid hierarchy that was the pillar of the welfare of a nation and its subjects, and to break that was tremendous nonsense.

"Your majestad-"

"Let's get going, we have no time to waste."

Ashkan was aware of the situation, and every time spent on mere bureaucracy could destroy this Kingdom. Even if all the high nobles and officials felt no imposing of a King. Ashkan was trying his best to get some salvation.

Ashkan interrupted the guard who was opening the gate to the entrance hall. He ordered everyone to move away from that point, only he and Alicie would continue.

In the center was a huge crystal and several runes carved around it, that crystal had been hidden in the Palace dungeon, and Ashkan only found it because of some ancient Rune that he was researching in the library.

"Then I need you to take off your clothes!"

"B-But what?"

Alice's face flushed, her mind going into confusion "will my first time be with the King?" Alice's erotic thoughts came into play, and with each additional thought her face reddened more and more.

"I needed you to wear these clothes"

Ashkan had given away a White blanket with gold seals to protect Alice. The seals were 3 level protection, strong enough to be able to save her life should something go wrong.

"But your majesty, what about you?"

Ashkan did not answer and continued the preparation for reading the runes, ashkan could not use any clothes with special seals, they were all taken for their own protection from the highest ranking nobles and especially his Father when fleeing the Kingdom.

Then Ashkan gathered all the runes in chronological writing form, based on the ways the rune figures changed over time.

Alice read the seals very superficially, and soon a slight smile of joy broke out on her face; she was able to interpret the runes! They were quite similar to what her master had taught her.

"Your majesty, these runes are an inscription"

"That is, by following the steps left in this rune we can deduce the function of this crystal!?"

Alice didn't know how to answer, she still doubted her abilities, but it was okay to explain after all Ashkan didn't expect an answer.

M-but how are you so sure of that?" Alice asked casually, but that didn't bother Ashkan so much, he felt that by following this path written in these ancient runes he might have an answer.

"I can't explain it properly, I can only feel it. Kindly continue reading the runes Alice."

"Of course!"

Ashkan yielded the last runes without mishap. Urgency demanded agility so there was no reason to delay the scriptures to Alice, if she could interpret there was a chance to fight back this chaos, otherwise they could only wait for total annihilation.

While Alice tried to interpret. Ashkan took refuge around the crystal in a meditation position.

"I-I can do it!" Shouted Alice with such joy.

After a while, Alice's shout woke Ashkan from his meditation, and he immediately ran towards her.

"What is written, tell me?

"It's a magic... uwu a magic...I think... But it's seems more a tutorial"

"Follow up..."

Alice took a deep breath and began to explain the processes inscribed in the runes.

"I see, in this case this is a sealing stone, but why would it be here and no one has ever stated about it?"

Questioned Ashkan quietly...

"Could it be that the right decision was to try to break that seal? What could it possess in there. An ancient dragon, or perhaps an Evil Druid?

I can't get that deep in thought, whatever that being is in there, hostile, it will be hostile to everyone, if we are very lucky it will also be more hostile to our enemies."

"V-your majesty" Alice poked lightly at her majesty's shoulder, it seemed she possessed something urgent to say but also did not want to disturb Ashkan's thoughts

"Let's start the preparations then Alice"

"Everything is already ready your majesty!"

"silence"

No sound came out of his mouth, however his confused face indicated everything he would like to speak. But Alice promptly explained to him, that there would be no preparations at all, in fact all that was needed was to inscribe this runic text with the blood of the descendant

"But what is this descendant?"

To Ashkan, perhaps it is the one who would inherit the lineage of the throne, which in this case would not be him.

Ashkan hesitated, it wasn't him, he couldn't follow through on that. Maybe he would send some men in search of the true heir to the family. And try his best to buy some time during the battles.

But would that be fair? To try his best to maintain this reign, while his family waited for his death to try to appease this war. Would it be right to sacrifice yourself for the sake of this nation, where your name would not even be remembered for your efforts?

Ashkan looked around, the room was empty and only Alice was present, there was no one present. Then he turned his gaze to Alice who was organizing the runicos papers with a glint in her eyes.

"Alice, what I am about to do, don't tell anyone"

Alice did not fully understand, but affirmed to respect her majesty's decision

This cheered Ashkan up.

Ashkan instinctively felt that his head would leave his body in an instant if he engraved the runes on the crysta, because him was not the successor that was cited in the instructions.

"But by the order of Bronze, and for Alicia's sake I must at least try..."

Following the instructions that Alice was explaining him , Ashkan sharpened his fist, shedding blood and began to carve the runic texts.

As he carved the first rune engraving; clouds began to cover the sky, making it difficult for the sun's rays to reach the ground, it seemed as if time was being distorted.

But this could not be noticed by Ashkan and Alice. But maybe those on the battlefield could feel a strange difference.

In the second engraving, Ashkan was repeating the same process, carving the Crystal with his blood.

The breeze stirred slightly, becoming stronger and stronger, rustling the leaves on the trees. The sun's lights were no longer visible, and the clouds were filled with black and blue color

There was no more blood on his hand in the recipe print, so Ashkan cut his wrist so that no more blood would be needed to finish it. And with that, the rune inscriptions were complete with a big thunder falling from the sky.

With that thunder the ground began to rumble, everything seemed to break in half, and out of that crystal came a hand, a dark hand with demonic fingers. That hand has a dark blue color, and was tall enough to not suit a human hand.

That hand pulled at Ashkan's neck.

"Who... are you?" It asked from behind the crystal.

That same voice, completed "You do not possess the blood of a successor, not completely"

"I-I am Ashkan, a bastard son of the King of Florence" Ashkan could not answer properly, his voice was being suppressed by the aura of that being.

"Kingdom of Florence... I have heard about this place, I think that person must be interested about this kikikiki"

Ashkan was struggling in agony, his trachea was being subjected to enormous effort to be able to breathe, due to that hand holding his neck with such force.

Ashkan started to look around, but all he could see was Alice's unconscious body.

"Why did I order the guards to stay out" Ashkan regretted bitterly about his decision. But his mind also turned on Alice, "Is she fine?"

She didn't seem to have suffered any fatal blows, but being knocked unconscious was not something common.

"Come, let me take you to him."

With that final sentence, that hand pulled Ashkan into the crystal, against his will.