Volume 2 Chapter 1: Magnificent Seven

Erica was woken up really early by the doorbell ringing and was irritated when she was heading down. This irritation was immediately replaced by surprise and happiness when she saw who was outside.

“Advanced happy birthday Erica! You’re going to be 18 tomorrow aren’t you?”

A middle-aged woman hugged Erica and kissed her on her cheek after greeting her.

“Mother! Thank you for taking the time to visit and celebrate.”

“Of course dear. I wouldn’t miss your birthday for the world.”

Erica then turned to the man right standing next to her mother and bowed to him.

“Good morning Father. I thought you were busy with your work?”

Erica’s father hugged her as well, surprising Erica before she returned the hug.

“Of course I wouldn’t miss it. You’re about to be 18? What kind of father would ignore his child for his work. I left the management of the territory to my people.”

“How about older brother and sister? Will they come too?”

“They’re going to come tomorrow with their families. It took them longer to prepare so we went ahead.”

Erica then led them inside the mansion and started talking about her plans for her birthday.

“Mother, I invited quite a number of people from school. I also sent invites to the prominent people in this city. I’m gonna hold a grand party right here.”

“Hmm, that’s good. I can form ties with the higher-ups in this city, maybe increase our trading.”

Her father suddenly looked pensive and started thinking.

“Stop thinking about business for a second and enjoy this break you have. It’s about to be your daughter’s birthday!”

Erica’s father suddenly smiled and consoled his wife.

“I’m joking of course. Then honey, care to walk us through your plans while we eat breakfast? It was tiring to travel through the night and we need to eat.”

The three of them ate breakfast together while Erica discussed her plans for the party.

18 hours before (about 12:00 PM Noon)

Saying that the Head Priest was angry was an understatement. He looked closer to a demon than the supposed voice of God that he was.

”Pray tell, how in heaven did we lose 23 paladins in the span of a day?”

The acolyte was shivering in fear and was stuttering when he replied.

“We don’t know. The watchers were dazed for a second then when they recovered, the boys were gone.”

Finally, the Head Priest lost his cool. He slammed his fist against the table, destroying it.

“What! You’re telling me they just vanished?”

“Y-yes sir!”

“Leave now. Don’t inform their families yet. Let me think of something.”

The acolyte left the room and the Head Priest was muttering to himself.

“This could be the work of the Empire. It won’t hurt to inform the army. Kaolin and maybe Ryzak might help us too.”

The Head Priest took out a pen and some paper, preparing to write a letter to General Kaolin.

The acolyte returned to the dorms where his friends were waiting for him.

“So? How did it go? ”

“He’s really mad. Can’t blame him though. I hope Eric and the others are okay. It was gonna be his birthday soon too. We can’t throw the surprise party without the man himself.”

They sadly laughed and returned to their work.

Eric finally woke up after being knocked out for 2 hours.

“Huh? Where am I? OW!”

He was looking around when he suddenly hit his head in the floor, which turned out to be a carriage.

“Ugh, my head fucking hurts. Who was that guy earlier? Hey August, Leo wake up.”

Eric found out that his hands were tied so he started kicking them.

“Five more minu-STOP KICKING ME!”

Leo rose suddenly, shouting curses at Eric.

“Leo calm down. We need to assess our situation. We’ve probably been kidnapped. Wake the others up too.”

Leo noticed that the three of them were not the only paladins in the carriage. There were 2 others whom he recognized. He woke them up and asked them what happened.

“We were walking home together when a guy in a carriage stopped us and next thing we know, we’re here.”

The other paladins responded with their experience which Eric found eerily similar to theirs. Before he could ponder further the carriage stopped suddenly and the covering opened up, the sun temporarily blinding them.

”Looks like you boys are awake. Saves me the trouble of carrying you one by one. Now get up and follow me.”

The man who they all recognized to be the one who stopped them suddenly appeared and ordered them outside. Once they left the carriage, they saw a large wooden building that appeared out of place in the mountains they were currently in.

“This house boys, is where you’re gonna live for the rest of your lives. Not that it’s gonna be long.”

The man laughed then led them inside. When they entered, they saw everyone of the new paladins there too, all bound in magical rope that restricted magic and movement.

“Ah shit, they got all of us huh. Who are you anyway?”

Eric shouted at the man who was leading them who laughed again and replied.

“You don’t need to know who we are. Let’s just say we’re researchers from the Empire and we need to experiment with you unique people.”

“Whatever it is you’re planning, you’re not gonna succeed. The Kingdom will stop you.”

Augustine threatened them to which the man responded to by pretending to be scared.

“Oh no! They’re gonna stop us! HAHAHAHA don’t worry prince, you’ll be long dead before they find you. Also, we know each and everyone of your identities and we already have our precautions. Just sit tight and wait for your turn.”

Eric started thinking of a plan to escape when he saw the weapons getting carried inside the building. He signaled to everyone else using the code they were taught to use whenever in trouble and dashed towards the weapons. Every other paladin then stood up and caused a distraction. Eric slammed the guy guarding the weapons and touched his hammer.

“Repel all that is evil within me.”

He chanted the spell Repel, which dispelled and protected him from any negative statuses. He then broke the rope with ease after it was dispelled and took his hammer.

“Everyone! Get your weapons! I’ll hold them off!”

Eric was confronted by the guard he knocked down who pulled out a sword. Eric sidestepped the swing and swung his hammer upwards, hitting the enemy on the jaw instantly killing him. He then engaged the other guards to buy time for his friends to get their weapons.

“Eric we’re done. Let’s retreat and get the hell out of here.”

One of the paladins shouted to him so Eric knocked out the guard he was fighting and ran towards the exit. They all managed to exit the building with no problems which made them all uneasy.

“You all can run but you can’t hide. I’ll even give you a headstart!”

The man who captured Eric and the others shouted out to them, furthering their unease.

“Everyone! Use the spell Beacon and figure out where the temple is. We’re going to split up for I have a bad feeling about this and we need to increase our chances of escaping, I don’t think they’ll let us free that easily. At least one has to escape and inform the Head Priest! I’ll stay here and delay them.”

All of them activated a spell that showed them the general direction towards the Order which was the very first spell they learned and split up into individuals. They also recasted Repel just in case there were tracing magic casted on them.

“Eric! I’m gonna stay here too. I can’t let you fight alone against the dozens they have!”

“Yeah me too!”

Some of the paladins volunteered to stay behind so Eric had to amend this plan

“Fine, 5 volunteers stay here with me. The rest, run and inform the Order. Don’t worry about us, we can handle ourselves.”

“I’ll stay behind too. Augustine, go with them.”

Leo also volunteered as he didn’t want to leave his friend behind.

Eric picked the another 5 who volunteered and they took up their weapons and stood their ground against the enemy who had about 70 soldiers.

The enemy tried to overwhelm them with numbers but the seven of them efficiently used their spells to heal each other and used their light magic to ward them off without letting major damage go through.

“Healing and harm!”

Eric casted Purifying Light, which healed the target and damaged any enemy within 2 meters. The

6 other paladins followed his actions and started casting the spell. Anyone caught to close was burned

by searing light or hit by one of the paladins with their weapons. One paladin named Leralas was

unique in that he used a bow which fired arrows that were made out of light. He wreaked havoc on the back lines of the enemy and took out quite a few of them. Another used a great-axe, who swung it around with such force that he tore one person completely asunder.

‘I hope they make it. They’re our only hope.’

Eric thought while he busied himself bludgeoning anyone foolish enough to approach his side of the formation.

‘Why can’t my magic affect them? It must be some spell they used. I can’t believe I underestimated those paladins.’

The man, called Red was worrying over the escape of the paladins. He couldn’t put them back to sleep due to the fact that Repel was canceling out his spell.

‘Well if we manage to capture the remaining 7 and move immediately back to the closest city of the Empire, we can still finish the experiments. Iturgen is gonna kill me for this. He wanted all of them.’

Red then shouted a command to his soldiers.

“Just tire them out, sooner or later they will weaken. Don’t kill them, we still need them for our experiments!”

His soldiers switched tactics. They were kiting the paladins out and rotated whoever was fighting every 3 minutes. This preserved their strength while completely fatiguing the paladins.

2 hours later

“Damn that took too long. Those paladins really are strong huh.”

“Yeah, we lost too many comrades.”

Two soldiers bandaged all over their bodies were talking after a long fight to subdue the 6 paladins who remained behind to delay.

“Everyone, we need to leave now and return to the Empire. The paladins have probably reached their home and informed everyone.”

Their leader, Red commanded them to pack up and leave.

“Lock those 7 up and leave their weapons here. Can’t have another escape attempt. It doesn’t matter if their friends find the weapons, they can’t fight their way to the Empire.”

The small army, which was rendered even smaller by the death machine that was the paladins finished packing up and rode their carriages back home to the Empire.

“What do you mean you only have 7 paladins? Weren’t there 23?”

Red met Iturgen in the City of Elzire who was understandably upset.

“I underestimated them. What can we do now? Let’s just proceed with the trials.”

“The results would have been more precise if we had more people. Carry on then and do it fast. We can’t have the Kingdom sieging this city just for some paladins. I’m giving you a week to finish.”

“Yes General. You can trust me.”

Red winked at Iturgen before leaving the room. He walked towards the lab where the paladins were held and started giving instructions.

“According to the info we have, these people and the other paladins who escaped had no special powers before their admittance to the Order. Figure out what they do to give them powers and try to keep them alive for as long as possible.”

The scientists all nodded and began testing the paladins with Red overseeing them.

The Head Acolyte, Zendar was walking outside the city when he saw a stumbling man emerging from the road. Upon closer inspection, he recognized him to be Augustine, one of the missing paladins.

“Augustine are you all right? Where are the others?”

Augustine looked like he hadn’t slept or ate during the night. Zendar helped him as they entered the city and into the temple where the Order resided.

“Station people… outside the city… the others are arriving.”

Augustine spoke while breathing heavily before collapsing into sleep.

“You heard him, have people meet the paladins outside the city, particularly where Augustine showed up. I’ll inform the Head Priest.”

Zendar delegated the job to the other acolytes while he went to the room of the High Priest himself.

“High Priest, I bring news about the paladins.”

“What? Enter immediately.”

Zendar did not waste a second and reported that Augustine has returned and that the others might be following him. The High Priest visibly felt relieved and told Zendar to prepare food and water to receive them.

“Let’s ask Augustine what happened after he wakes up. We’ll tell their families what happened when they return. Go rest now, leave everything else to you friends.”

Zendar thanked the High Priest and left for the dorms.

“Zendar, we found three more when you were talking. They’re all resting now.”

One of the acolytes notified him of the arrival of more of them.

”We’ll ask them what happened when they wake up. Tell everyone to work in shifts.”

“Yes sir!”

Back to the present time

“High Priest, we have found 17 out of the 23 paladins who were missing. Augustine and the others have finished resting and are awake, I think it’s time to start asking questions.”

Zendar notified the High Priest who agreed with him. Together, they walked towards where the paladins rested.

“Augustine, can you tell me what happened?”

Augustine explained what happened, from the kidnapping to waking up in the temporary base to escaping because of Eric.

“That base should probably be near Stonetalon Mountain. Zendar, use one of those communication stones we have. We need to inform the Generals as fast as possible and a letter isn’t fast enough.”

“I’ll do it immediately High Priest.”

Zendar left to do what he was told and the High Priest continued questioning Augustine.

“Only 16 of you returned. What happened to the others.”

“They stayed behind to buy us time. Eric led them and told us to return and inform you.”

“Do you think they are dead?”

The High Priest asked with a grim face to which Augustine replied to with a no.

“They told us we were going to be experimented on so I think they’re gonna keep them alive for now.”

“Good, that gives us a window of opportunity. Let me contact some of my acquaintances, I might need of their services. Let me ask you one last question, do you think they’re from the Empire?”

“I heard them mention it High Priest.”

The High Priest moved to leave and told Augustine to rest.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let them die. Let me talk to the mercenaries I know.”

The High Priest left the room and went to where the acolytes where staying.

”Go inform the families of the missing paladins. Tell them to wait here until I return. I’ll talk to some of my friends.”

He left after giving out instructions, preparing money to pay his mercenary friends a visit.