Chapter 2: holy knight

Alexander Percy Cross had an extremely easy life, being the grandson of the Head Priest of the Church of the Descended Angel. Because of his grandfather, Alexander had effortlessly developed his elemental core and rose through the ranks of the Church becoming one of the youngest holy knight commanders in recent history. Elemental cores are the gathering of energy in a person that enabled them to use stored elemental energy in various ways, the more energy one had the more that could be done and the stronger that person would be.

There was a distinct difference in the cores of different people, based on what elemental energy a person could use and their spirit form. Finding out that he had no talent in forming and cultivating a core to grow stronger Alexander was disheartened but not beaten, with the power and influence of his grandfather he was able to acquire a great number of rare plants and herbs to strengthen himself. From the age of ten to the age of twenty-five he had progressed rapidly due to his high consumption of these plants and herbs, quickly going form the apprentice rank to the rank of grand knight that was only a dream to most, having almost no equal in his generation.

If anyone were to say he had a problem it would be that he was not recognized as the best in his generation above him had always stood one individual, an earth knight commoner. In his eyes this commoner simply did not know his place, Alexander first met him in a tournament at the age of fifth teen having relied on external means to gain strength rather than relying on himself he could easily defeat anyone with a cultivation level lower than himself, but Alexander lost to the commoner during the preliminaries of the tournament.

This was the demerit to his way of gaining strength through these rare plants and herbs. At the same level it would be impossible for him to defeat anyone because of the lacked of a solid foundation and control over his own strength.

Having lost to the commoner he used his connections to force a spot into the main tournament and warned the commoner that if he won again in front of the large crowd outside then he would not lead an easy life.

Having made his threat Alexander was sure that he would win the tournament, but that was not to be, meeting the commoner in the finals alexander was effortlessly defeated and could not exact revenge because after the tournament the commoner gain the backing of a duke and became a widely known for his talent and strength. Events like this continued to happen throughout his life. Alexander was constantly out shined by this commoner.

But that would all end in the following week, having made a deal with a powerful grand necromancer, in exchange for leading the earth knight commoner into a certain location so that the necromancer could use the body to create a death knight, the necromancer would give alexander the body of an already defeated death knight thus gaining the glory of having defeated one of the enemies of the Church.

The following day Alexander had a request put in for the commoner to eliminate an advanced ranked necromancer, a task simple enough not to cause suspicion from anyone and something the commoner would be able to accomplish on his own. Once he confirmed that the request had been taken by the commoner, Alexander had one of his subordinates inform the necromancer of the exact location of where the commoner would be in four days.

Having sent his subordinates to inform the necromancer he himself began to head to the location to witness the end of his longtime foe.

Taking his best horse he reached his destination after two days meaning he would have enough time to make any final deals with the necromancer, assuming he arrived on time, and find a good location on which to watch the death of the commoner Alexander loather to the extent of never learning his name.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Black Forge Mountain named after an eccentric blacksmith that once lived in it centuries ago, Alexander spotted something odd, an adult holy crow. Holy crows were not rare but were uncommon what was extremely rare was finding one not only at its peak of strength but without its murder.

Smiling to himself Alexander couldn’t help but think of this as a great day because although holy crows were not particularly powerful they were vastly more intelligent than most other elemental beast they also had great skills in timing and cooperation, having one meant that as long as a person didn’t sustain any fatal injuries the holy crow would be able to heal you with accurate precision and timing so as to keep a companion alive for as long as possible.

Alexander had no doubt that he would be able to capture and eventually tame the beast, so he began to draw closer to the holy crow restraining his breath and moving in a manner befitting an assassin rather than a knight. This was because although he knew that losing to the beast was not a possibility it could escape through fight if it noticed him early enough.

As he drew closer he knew that he was now close enough to capture the beast and regardless of its superior senses as a beast the difference in strength between him and it would make it impossible for it to detect him, but contrary to his thoughts the crow rapidly turned around and attacked him viciously, attacking with its talons and beak crazily as if it was struggling to the death against him.

Alexander as taken by surprise and his face was wounded, feeling this wound he grew angry and decided that he would capture and torture the beast until it submitted to him or die a horrifyingly painful death. Using his strength of a grand knight it was impossible for a rank three elemental beast to seriously harm him or kill him, so he struck out his hand at a speed faster than most could perceive and grabbed the wild crow by the neck and held it tightly for around seven minutes before it passed out. What alexander didn’t notice was the gray crow that was behind a tree hiding from his view.

In reality even if Alexander were to see the other crow he would not pay it any attention three eyed gray crows were considered the weakest elemental beast and some people didn’t even consider it an elemental beast just an odd looking ordinary crow. Alexander once again headed to the meeting place and upon arrival he saw the old necromancer wearing a dirty black robe. The necromancer was extremely thin and pale looking lie a dried up corps himself rather than a powerful being that controlled the undead and was to be feared across the continent.

“Hoho young holy knight it seems you had a bit of fortune in finding that beast” the necromancer’s voice contrary to his appearance was that of a kind old man making people thing of a grandparent speaking to his grandchild with extreme affection

“Hmph don’t speak so fondly to me necromancer, other than this exchange we are enemies and it will stay that way after that filthy commoner is gone and I have the body of the other necromancer I will be on my way.” He felt nothing but disgust towards the necromancer and did not hide this fact and it was true that they were enemies, the Church had hunted necromancers form the very moment of its establishment and only tolerated the existence of some of the most powerful because they had no way to deal with them.

“Very well boy, no need to be hostile from the start but it is as you said we will complete our deal and return to being enemies.” The old necromancer as if being not caring at all about the hostility directed towards him continued to speak in a kind tone. Alexander was greatly angered by this but decided that saying anymore was pointless because if he actually did anger the grand necromancer regardless of how he looks or acts the necromancer could kill Alexander rather easily. After waiting for three days the commoner finally showed up.