Laws of Defiance

Prologue

Corpses of humans and beasts littered the ground around a large city like Fortress of stone and rocks. Mages and warriors just outside walls of the fortress fought valiantly against them. But the beasts were conducting a terrifying onslaught against the human race. They rushed into the mass of human bodies without thought for their own lives and wreaked havoc slaughtering where they could.

Grimacing, a man in thick heavy armor on the walls clenched tighter on his ax, and said, “This doesn’t bode well, we are losing too many men, and we are not inflicting enough casualties on their side.”

A young boy, hardly even fifteen, stood next to this towering man, and couldn’t help but shake like a leaf as he said, “We are all going to die!”

Glaring at the boy, the large man puffed out his chest and said, “Boy, right here is where legends are made. Do you want to make it through this day as a coward or a hero who defeat these abominations?”

Gaining confidence from his kings’ words, the boy’s moral raised, and inspired he said, “Yes, sir I want to be a hero!”

Smirking and pounding his plated chest with his large ax, the man said, “Well spoken, let’s show these beasts what we are made of!”

The man’s name was Tius, and he had gathered together the remaining tribesmen and clansmen under his rule to help defend this last bastion for humanity. Mankind was on the verge of extinction, and had gathered together from all different parts of the world of Yeshir, to defend this last location, or die trying.

This was a battle that would decide the future fate of Yeshir. It would decide the very survival of the remaining humans. Because these monstrous beasts had brought them to the edge of extinction and the human race could only fight in this final war to cling on for dear life.

Yet humanity was still in its infancy, and was not considered very powerful. Out of the population, only a select few humans, like Tius, could stand up against the power that the countless powerful beasts possessed.

A female, referred to as Astraea, both a warrior and a mage, stood at the head of the battle and struck out with a sword that shot out bolts of lightning with every strike. Ruler and herald of the remaining braklish clansmen, she and her company fought valiantly but were slowly being pushed back.

Clenching her teeth, she yelled, “Hold them back at all costs. Fight till you drop!”

A man to her right was fighting against a vicious four legged chimera with a spiked tail, and was fiercely trying gain the upper hand. All of the sudden, the tail caught him by surprise, and speared him in the chest, flinging him against Astraea. This caused her to collapse on the ground holding him.

The man coughed up blood and looked up into her green dazzling eyes and say, “I’m sorry… so sorry.”

He raised his hand up to touch her cheek and Astraea quickly gripped his hand and said, “Please don’t die, please don’t… no… no…”

His eyes slowly became lifeless and he said, “I hope… we bought enough time.”

Those were the man’s last words and he passed away bleeding out into Astraea’s arms. She shook violently as hot tears streamed down her face.

“Jafron… oh…Jafron” She said, then gripped tighter on her sword and stared angrily at the chimera and yelled, “You will die by my blade!”

The chimera seemed to think this as a farce and screeched out its wail of arrogance. Poising itself, the chimera flailed its spike tail around, baiting the foolish female to try to kill it.

But before Astraea could even attempt her revenge, a loud roar sounded and a terrifying aura was suddenly pressured down on everyone present on the battle field. A large creature had suddenly taken to the field.

Versus the terrifying beast menace, there was one in particular that the humans greatly feared. This was an evil and powerfully demonic beast, which humanity named as Fengle.

Against Fengle’s majesty no one could compare. His prowess far outstripped those of humans and beasts alike. With but a flick of his claws, he could destroy mountains, what could dare boast the same.

Because of this creature alone, he had massacred population after population all throughout the world, until he had reached the central continent of Tolboud, where the humans had prepared their last line of defense.

Once this beast arrived on the Tolboud continent, with just letting out a roar of rage, he had called all the beasts of the neighboring forest, and acquired a large army of beasts. In that singular moment, all the creatures of the woodland area were subservient to his might, and swore loyalty to his splendor.

In total, this brute had amassed a force of nearly five thousand beasts to perform a single minded genocide against the remnants of humanity. Compared to this force the humans only had a meagre sum of three thousand to combat their crusade of fanatical vigor. Overall is seemed it would be an easy victory for the beasts, given that they were already naturally stronger.

Tius grinned eagerly at Fengle’s sudden appearance, and leaned towards the boy next to him, and said, “Boy, now here’s a real beast!”

Looking over his men, he raised his ax in the air, and yelled, “Men of the Yashabi, are we not fierce warriors, let’s not cower behind these walls any longer! Charge and bring honor to humanity!”

Giving one last look to the boy, he said, “Mrago, my son, stay safe and fight well.”

With that he griped the edge of the wall and leaped off the edge plunging down onto the other side and charging into the mix of beast and men. Mrago stared after his fleeting image as he slaughtered his way through the mix of beast inching towards Fengle.

The boy was utterly terrified but knew he had to stay strong, and said, “Father, I will give it my best.”

Right at this moment Astraea was clashing with the chimera that had killed her dear Jafron and seemed to have the upper hand. Thrusting her sword deep in the flesh of the chimera the lightning struck out and scorched both the outside and inside of the wound.

Howling in agony, the chimera shirked back and wanted to retreat, but Astraea didn’t let the beast. She murmured some quiet spell, gathering elemental energy into her open hand, and shot out thick and heavy lightning chains that surrounded the chimera stopping and injuring him simultaneously.

Constrained, the beast no longer could fight back, and Astraea rushed over to him and stabbed through the head, sinking her blade deep into his skull as lightning shot out from her blade.

The chimera died instantly with everlasting feelings of hate, yet also regret. Unfortunately for Astraea she had no time to rest because although she killed a delegated pack leader for a portion of the beast army, Fengle himself arrived shortly after the chimera’s death.

Unlike regular beasts, Fengle could speak, and roared loudly before saying, “I will kill you for what you’ve done, and wipe your stain of humanity from Yeshir forever.”

Standing valiantly on four legs, Fengle looked like a majestic white lion with wings. His aura was suffocating and easily pressed down Astraea like she was just an ant.

But before he was about to engage into combat with her, a loud yell came from the side as Tius was rushing through the mix of beasts and men knocking down all that was in his way. He arrived just in time, and next to Astraea, they were ready to face Fengle together.

Gazing thankfully at Tius, she replied, “We only need to hold out for a little longer, they should be arriving soon with the help that was promised.”

Tius turned to her, grinned and said, “I know that’s why, I Tius, will see just what is so scary about this Fengle!”

“Ha ha ha… Laughable, truly laughable. You, a match for me?” The large white lion roared.

Disdain oozed from the beast as he said, “I don’t know why you humans decided to name me as Fengle, but none of you will be alive after this day.”

Without giving any warnings he suddenly pounced towards them and flung Tius thirty meters away with a simple back stroke of his front paw. Fengle then turned, facing Astraea, and gathered magical essence by breathing in deeply, and exhaled, as white fire spewed from his mouth towards her.

The movements of Fengle were so quick that she couldn’t prepare fast enough and got surrounded by the white fire, ultimately scorching her left side in the blazing heat. In an instant, both of the supposed heroes of humanity were put in their place, and were powerless against him.

Yet their efforts were not in vain as they had indeed bought enough time. Horns sounded in the distance and the remaining forces of humanity were rushing to their aid. The total forces of humanity now added up to the promised three thousand.

Fengle snorted, and didn’t seem concerned because the beast army still vastly outnumbered the humans. What could the remainder of the humans possibly be able to do?

But seven more powerful figures like Tius and Astraea had arrived and a frightening woman known as Eunomia lead this coalition. The seven quickly rushed over to where Fengle was to support Astraea and Tius.

However, even with their help, Fengle still seemed to have the upper hand against the nine last heroes of humanity. Eunomia didn’t give up hope however, and with blade in hand, she continued to strike out against Fengle.

Using group tactics and mustering all their combined techniques they had available to them, the nine figures started to push Fengle back. Employing her mightiest technique, Eunomia gathered her blade aura, causing the blade to shine in a bright white light, and slashed down at Fengle.

A cloud of dust and rock sprayed everywhere and everyone stood back, hoping for the good news. Eunomia swore she felt flesh on her blade but it was still to dusty to see if there was blood upon it.

Suddenly a roar emerged from the dust, blowing it all away, and revealing the white lion without so much as a scratch.

The humans instantly felt despair and some even fell on their knees out of the nine heroes, knowing that this was now the end. But Eunomia still griped tightly on her blade and stared fiercely at Fengle.

Unexpectedly a large magical disruption permeated the surrounding area and shot out violent blasts that anything they touched vaporized. A ripping noise was suddenly heard and a blue light shined as a figure stepped out.

The sudden appearance of the human like figure in such a fashion caused a shock for every one present, except Eunomia. The figure had the appearance of a man and he had a frightening blood-filled aura incomparable to even Fengle.

Glancing over at Eunomia, the man said, “This beast here?”

Tightening fiercely on her sword till her knuckles became pale, she nodded. The man looked at Fengle, clicked his tongue, and slowly walked towards him.

Nervous, Fengle backed off a bit and said, “You’re not human, why are you siding with them? You should know who I am, and where I am situated in the hierarchies of beasts…”

The man stopped momentarily and said, “Fengle, you are just a small fish in the grand scheme.”

The ground underneath the man suddenly cracked as he pushed off the ground and slammed Fengle. He drew his two swords from his back and cut Fengle into pieces with short work.

Amazed at how great this man was Astraea, choked on her words a bit as she said, “Wh… who are you?... A… an… and how are you so powerful?”

Gathering magical energy around his body he enveloped Fengles remains as he said, “I am an Ascended being. Once you can reach Ascension yourself, you will know.”

The end result of the final battle was not as what would have been expected and the humans were able to triumph over the beasts because of that mysterious man. Stories and books would write down that the last of humanity banded together and under the leadership of a select few talented mages and warriors. In the end they valiantly slayed Fengle, and defeated the beast menace.

Out of the group of mages and warriors that lead humanity out of the perils in its darkest hours, there were nine figures that stood out. These nine figures would create an indomitable religion to be passed down for next several millennia.

The ancient religion would be known as the Church of Ascension. This religion would pass down Divine Laws and Laws of Cultivation which would become the basis for all warriors and mages to follow.

Following the laws set in place, humanity would once again flourish and ten thousand years quickly passed by in a flash. Since the battle between beasts and humans, a new era was upon the world of Yeshir. This was the era of humanity. The planet was now vastly populated by humans throughout the five continents.

However, unbeknownst to the world, a situation would occur once again on the Tolboud continent that would change the fate of history yet again. This event would occur within a forested area secluded from the rest of the world.

These woods bordered the southwestern most edge of the continent where there was a large port city known as Domington. This city was a major trading port to the continent of Gramrot, which was located to the south west of Tolboud continent.

A dense smoky fog swirled the night air in the forest and drifted towards this major city of Domington. Seeing this, citizens of Domington would quizzically look up at the smoke and just pass it off to be yet another foggy night.

However in the center of the forest lay a small tucked away village, where fires billowed out smoke. The wind would then carry the smog westward towards Domington, covering the night air in a murky fog.

Gruesome mutilated corpses were strewn throughout the village and blood ran down its streets and the pungent smell of death and decay wafted in the air. Completely apathetic to the smell, a flock of crows were flying around nibbling at the corpses and fighting amongst themselves over human remains.

It was tragic sight, but the village had been completely ransacked and torched as the result of a bandit attack. The villagers of this miserable place were enslaved, raped, or killed.

What remained was just the gruesome echo of the past. It was a ghastly place and would make most normal humans throw up at the scene of the violence and brutality exhibited in this village.

Yet the crows didn’t care about the scene of violence and instead were happily feasting on a free dinner. When suddenly, an unexpected rippling sound in the air could be heard and with a flash of blue light two figures appeared in the middle of this burning village. Frightened the crows hastily dispersed crying out as their dinner was disturbed.

These two people wore long flowing grey robes with hoods covering their faces. They surveyed the carnal destruction of the immediate area and afterwards the figure on the left lowered his hood revealing an old weary face with wrinkles around his eyes.

The old man held a worried expression and glanced around in an attempt to inspect the area one last time. His piercing green eyes, as he surveyed the area, showed his age as well as intelligence in them.

Gliding through the air, using some form of unspoken magic, his hair fluttered in the wind as he peered across the entirety of the ghost town. Comprising of white and grey strands, his beard and shoulder length hair, became wild and unkempt.

From his appearance it revealed him to be about sixty years old, when truthfully he was about a hundred and thirty, and held countless years of experience.

Exasperated, the bearded old man exhaled deeply then speaking to his companion said, “The bandits that attacked and pillaged the village, must have taken the treasure, since I cannot sense it with my magic.”

The old man with the beard clenched his fist then slowly released it. Obviously frustrated he then said, “If only I would have stayed I could have done something, perhaps even gotten my hands on it myself.”

The robed man to his right was rather quiet but stated reassuringly, “You were severely injured so you sought me out.”

“There is nothing you could have done here unless you sought your own death in that weakened state. Even now you will need the span of several years to fully recover.”

He then said Bewildered, “To think that you would be so heavily injured, it must have been quite a powerful treasure!”

Shaking his head, he stated, “Truly it would be a shame to just let it go.”

Begrudgingly the bearded man let out a sigh letting his frustrations go, and said, “Master, I promise I will take responsibility for my uselessness.”

A glint of anger flashed in his eyes, as he said, “I shall swear revenge on these bandits by bringing them to justice and handing to you the divine treasure they stole.”

The elderly man appeared to seek approval from the robed man to the right he referred to as master. It was apparent who the stronger one was out of the two.

Reassuring the elderly man, the master said, “I will assist you in this matter. However, I have no need of this treasure. I know you grew quite fond of this village so it’s the least I can do as your master.”

The elderly man was quick and humble in replying, “Master, I greatly appreciate any assistance you can provide me in with this matter.”

The Master of this man nodded understandingly and said, “We will make use of the nearby city of Domington for now. Come Amron lets depart.”

The man now referred to as Amron bowed out of respect and said, “Yes, master.”

Once again a rippling sound could be heard and just as suddenly as these two men arrived they vanished with a flash of blue light.