The men were shocked to say the least. In front of them in a cage holding a Kjil serpent satt a small 7 year old boy who hadn’t even begun learning energy localisation. Even the beast was confused over the boy who had entered into its strike zone as if it wasn’t even there.

The Kjil serpent appeared to allow the boy’s presence. “Dammit kid get out of there, we won’t hurt you we just want the damn locket” The men started fuming with anger over the boys rashness and furthermore over how hard it would be to get the locket back if the beast decided to eat him.

However Aias only sat there, calmly petting the scales of the large Kjil serpent.

The men began walking to towards the cage getting ready to go after Aias. However unlike when Aias walked up to it, this time the beast reacted, it’s body began moving showing of its large size. It was staring down the men as they started approaching.

The Kijil serpents piercing gaze was truly terrifying to the men, they were used to either guarding important people or shaking down thieves. They had never fought wild beasts before, and had no idea how strong something so big could be. But they also knew leaving without the locket wasn’t possible, so they continued forward towards the still open hatch on the cage.

“Don’t bother with screaming kid, we already have a spell of silence set up”, one of the men called out to Aias in a mocking voice.

The hatch was only big enough for one man to enter at a time, so instead they circled around the cages sides where they could easily kill the serpent by simply cutting between the bars. The men stood at all sides of the cage getting ready to go wild cutting down the snake.

“RAAAAH!”, suddenly one of the men lunged his sword into the cage. The sword hit the snake's side, it didn’t cut deep and the serpent wasn’t fazed but blood had been drawn. As the first man had struck now they all began.

In the beginning the large serpent simple held together protecting Aias from all sides making sure he wasn’t harmed by the men, however after about a minute had gone by and it was covered in wounds the serpent gave out a loud ear piercing shout. Then it fell down, no longer able to hold its body up anymore.

“There we go finally brought down that damn thing” the men sighed in relief glad to finally be able to finish their work. “Now come here kid let’s go already” After getting their breaths back they also started concentrating on Aias again.

“If you want me i’m right here” Aias sat calmly stroking the Kjil serpent as if nothing had changed.

“God damn it boy you are getting on my nerves” one of the men was about to break a nerve as he jumped up on the carriage holding the cage. He stepped into the cage held his sword to Aias chest right before his heart. “If you don’t give us that locket i will kill you right he-”.

But before he could finish his sentence the Kjil serpent sprung forth with its large jaws agape biting into the vulnerable stomach of the man. As the beast retracted its fangs large holes could be seen go into the man, blood pouring out, guts showing. Kjil serpents weren’t only large and strong they also carry a potent hemotoxic effect making wounds almost impossible to heal unless through powerful magic or the right antivenoms.

The man stood there with a stupefied look on his face as if not realising his guts had been pierced by the serpent's fangs. Even though the Kjil serpent was big it’s leaping speed was far faster than your average ki user. Aias knew this was what the Kjil serpent was waiting for. Kjil serpents are ambush predators capable of killing enemies far stronger than themselves by using one quick leap and a single bite, after that they would bind their prey until enough of its blood had been drained from its body, only then would it start consumption.

“You fucking bratt” the men screamed all sharging to attack again but before any sword could reach the serpent. Up from the heavens came down a large blazing inferno of fire almost like a tornado but instead of wind there were powerful flames burning anything they came in touch with to cinder. The blazing tornado was centered around the cage killing the men who encircled it immediately.

“Aias are you alright?” Uncle Laue jumped out from the inferno standing before Aias and the serpent. “You don’t have to worry, now we will protect you.” Laue reassured Aias of his safety.

“Now what do we have here?” Into the inferno walked an old man with clothes colored in gold and themed with dragons. “Who dares try to harm guests of my city?” The old man scowled out into the inferno.

“I apologize grand master lord Meleth” From within the blaze came a whimpering voice. It was one of the men who had attacked. However his face and body were charred black from the fire. It appeared that lord Meleth had spared his life but still decided to punish him for his crimes. “Master Orion needs the locket the boy has no matter what.” The now burned man screamed out. He could do nothing but scream as his body was in too much pain to speak normally.

“Orion? why would they want a locket?”. Lord Meleth responded in great surprise “I. I don’t know we aren’t told anything!” the man responded trying his hardest to remain conscious. But it was too much, his body crouched over collapsed.

“Boy we are going to need to talk” Lord Meleth called out to Aias. As he then let the inferno around them dissipate leaving nothing behind not even ashe. The only evidence of a battle was the wounded Kjil Serpent laying its head on Aias lap trying to recover.

As people poured into the courtyard trying to find out what had happened, the staff in charge of the beasts began healing the Kjil serpent. Uncle Laue held onto Aias and carried him off after lord Meleth.

……

Aias had been taken into a large office. The room was poorly decorated when compared to the room they sat in at the Harahan beast shop. The office was mainly decorated with medals or heads from different beasts, and a small bookshelf with at most 20 books. One noticed immediately that there was no thought put into the design of the office. But the man sitting in a high chair behind the desk in the middle of the room was a far to powerful person to be criticised for his sense of fashion. This was also told by the many medals, most seeming to concern war, and obviously the heads of intimidating beasts decorating the walls were to show what he was capable of.

“So boy what is your name?” the old man, lord Meleth spoke out to Aias. His tone was disgruntled and with no respect. It wasn’t often you would see someone speak disrespectfully to a war orphan as that was punishable, however Aias had heard of lord Meleth before, he was the guardian of Canastota and also born a war orphan. He had the right to say as he pleased as long as he wasn’t mocking something righteous.

“My name is Aias Geno, lord Meleth” Aias cleared his throat and responded. Aias had no qualms with not being respected as he didn’t feel he had earned any right to be respected by lord Meleth.

“Well Aias let me see this locket they were trying to take” lord Meleth held out his hand waiting Aias to give it to him.

Aias understood the situation was different from before and placed the locket in lord Meleth’s hand.

“So this is what Orion is after. Hm, what are these seals? THERE ARE SO MANY SEALS, WHAT IS THIS?” lord Meleth now screamed unable to contain his surprise and astonishment over the seals cast upon the locket.

“I couldn’t feel that many seals on it lord Meleth please tell us what you are sensing” uncle Laue was surprised by lord Meleth’s sudden outburst, he had sensed the other day that there were several seals placed upon the locket and that they were without a doubt powerful, but not to the extent that lord Meleth would become like this.

“I can understand that you wouldn’t be able to sense the many different seals, many of them are similar to each other but contain a slight difference in power, what i don’t understand is how there can be so many seals of a level where even i can only barely break them. Haah, haah, haah” lord Meleth couldn’t stop panting after having tried to sense the many seals placed on the locket. “Laue Sheveu, you know what level i am in heat elemental magic do you not? Eight rank. I am the strongest heat elementalist in Antrim and most other places in this wide world. But on this locket i can sense an elemental seal with fire as its base, if i was to break this seal it would take at least sixty days of full power unsealing, that’s how strong the average seal on this box is, so strong it could actually kill me to try opening even one seal” lord Meleth explained with a voice and look filled with genuine fear.

Uncle Laue couldn’t believe it, a locket Aias had only stumbled upon had turned out to be stronger than anything he or even lord Meleth, one of Antrim’s strongest, had ever seen before.

“Aias, i will give this back to you, it may kill you as the people who are after it are very powerful, but this is yours to bear and i also don’t want to get involved with Orion more so than i have to” lord Meleth reached out his hand holding the locket back to Aias, this time his tone was of sympathy and sorrow for the future he was bestowing upon the young boy.

“No i will take the locket” uncle Laue stood before lord Meleth taking the locket from him. “I won’t allow Aias to be hurt while i can stop it”

“Who are Orion?” but from behind uncle Laue Aias asked what was on his mind. “Who are they?” As uncle Laue and lord Meleth was sitting there baffled by the sudden question Aias asked again.

“Well, Orion is an organisation led to serve a single person, Master Orion. No one knows anything about Orion other than that the leader is revered as a god to his followers and that they will bring him interesting objects, people, and monsters to try and appease him” lord Meleth explained to Aias.

“I see” was all Aias responded with as he took the locket back from uncle Laue then walked to the door where he stood waiting for uncle Laue and lord Meleth to finish with their talk.

“You can wait outside in the corridor, there should be a couch to sit in” lord Meleth told Aias as he looked at him standing there by the door waiting as if a servant. When Aias had left the room lord Meleths eyes began to change, “That boy, he is very odd, i wonder what potential he has?” he looked to Laue with expectation.

“Aias is only seven he hasn’t started any energy training yet” Laue stated, somewhat depressed by also not knowing yet.

“Well shall we continue our earlier conversation. So about the Divine beast-” they continued their meeting while Aias sat obediently outside in the hallway.

…………

Aias and uncle Laue were sitting on their carriage with 36 other carriages in tow. They were the transportation of the beasts they had bought and all the food which would be required both during the journey and while proper holdings were made for the beasts in the institute.

Aias was sitting reading one of the scrolls uncle Laue had bought him, while Laue was cleaning the blade he kept with him during his travels. As Aias finished reading the scroll and was about to take out a new one uncle Laue decided to ask “So Aias would you like to hear more about Divine beasts?” uncle Laue wanted some more time to speak with Aias before they got back to the institute and wasn’t sure of a good reason why he should get his attention.

Aias eyes shined at the sound of Divine beast and immediately sat down next to uncle Laue wanting to hear more about the powerful creatures capable of destroying kingdoms.

“Well as I’ve heard from lord Meleth, there really is one in our region at the moment and apparently it’s close by, last time it was spotted was by Svordie castle” Svordie castle lies around two hundred kilometer southeast of the orphanage, though that was a long distance it was still small compared to the size of their region and tiny compared to Antrim. “However we don’t have to worry it actually greeted the guardian of the castle and swore it wouldn’t do any harm to humans living in the country, as long as they don’t give it any trouble” uncle Laue explained to Aias who was sitting with his ears perked up listening intently on every word he said.

“What kind of creature was the Divine beast” Aias was quick to ask as he really wanted to know what a Divine beast was.

“The lord of Svordie couldn’t tell, apparently the Divine beast shrouded itself in a thick mist only letting out a portion of its almighty energy so the lord could tell it was actually a Divine beast” uncle Laue looked at Aias with an apologetic look as if saying sorry for not being able to answer his question.

“It’s alright uncle Laue, just hearing a little about something so grand and powerful fills me with determination, one day i want to fight a Divine beast”