CG Chapter 91: The First Two Horsemen of Calamity
Time quickly passed, and while the outside world was becoming more barbaric by the day, the people living atop Alamut didn’t seem to be affected by the chaos at all.
At the beginning of the first year of their training, Folek and Hidden continued to improve their familiarity with their newly acquired powers and bloodlines.
The two felt like the wall to Grand Knight was growing thinner by the day.
In the blink of an eye, the first year neared its end.
On that day, the duo was going to spar for the three hundredth time. But this wasn’t just any normal day; Folek and Hidden exchanged smiles with a look of shared understanding.
They felt it; they truly felt that it was now or never. They would either break through and become Grand Knights or die while sparring against each other for the final time.
The two held their swords and pointed them at each other.
As they breathed in, they forgot about everything except this battle.
With the help of their new bloodlines, their powers had increased by leaps and bounds over the past year. Unfortunately, reaching the pinnacle of any world wasn’t so simple, and even with a strong bloodline, one still needed to work hard to avoid wasting the gift they were given.
The only exception to this rule would be bloodlines or treasures from a superior world--so strong that they pushed you to the peak of your world.
Even then, you should be careful not to get expelled into the void due to rejection by the Heavenly Will.
Boom
Folek and Hidden exchanged multiple moves on the training ground.
The more they fought and the closer they neared their limits, the closer they felt the breakthrough.
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However, they didn’t know whether their breakthrough to becoming Grand Knights would come first or if they would die from exhausting themselves.
At the moment they felt they had reached their limits--when they were drenched in sweat as if soaked in water--their bloodlines revealed their true powers.
The bloodlines gave them the final push they needed.
As if in sync, the two men stood in front of each other, frozen in place, feeling the volcano that had just erupted within them.
Just above their hearts, a new organ was born.
The unusual nature of this organ was overwhelming to them; sensing its power for the first time was like having a miniature sun burning within them.
Though the organ was extremely small, it radiated an immense amount of energy that surged through their bodies.
This was the power of a life seed, which only a Grand Knight had the right to possess.
The life seed would act as a second heart, but it served another purpose beyond pumping blood through the body.
In times of peace, it would act as a storage organ and nurture the vigor that the Grand Knight had accumulated thus far. In times of battle, it would provide the Grand Knight with the energy to fight even a hundred soldiers alone.
Of course, no Grand Knight would be foolish enough to face a hundred men head-on, as they would risk exhausting themselves to the point of having no energy left to even run away.
The best use of a Grand Knight’s power was when they needed to behead the enemy in a single strike.
Even though there weren’t any major wars due to the seven families’ absolute control, they still taught the royal princes the necessary tactics of war.
They taught them that if there was ever a rebellion with an enemy who had a Grand Knight, they needed to sneak into the camp and behead that enemy leader.
With this, the enemy would become like a headless chicken. They wouldn’t even know where to go next, making them easy prey.
After Folek and Hidden became Grand Knights, they didn’t want any celebration for their major achievement. Instead, they opted for a simpler, quieter celebration and chose to keep their powers hidden until they would actually be useful.
To celebrate, they opened an aged bottle of mead.
While the two men were enjoying themselves, the outside world was anything but peaceful.
...
Although Folek and Hidden might seem like the hardest-working people in Alamut, there was someone who trained harder than the two.
Tom was training nonstop, without any time to relax.
The only time he stopped was when he was reading reports or issuing orders.
From the reports, everything was going as he planned.
He looked at the papers while reflecting on the situation.
He thought to himself, ‘Before the death of any nation, there are signs that accompany its downfall.’
He rolled the two balls in his hands before smiling. ‘It seems that even in a fantasy world, things are the same.’
The natural decline of a nation would come slowly, festering in different aspects.
Tom, being the mastermind behind this corruption, understood it better than anyone else.
The first step to destroying any nation or society was to break its cornerstone and foundation, which was none other than the family unit.
As cliché as it might sound, without a strong family unit acting as the foundation of a nation, many citizens wouldn’t have any reason to act honorably.
For many, the only reason they don’t do evil is the golden rule of morality: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This also extends to one’s family.
To destroy the cohesive family unit, which was built on shared faith in the same gods, was no easy task.
Having no better option, Tom decided to weaken them as much as possible. He decided to release his first two horsemen.
The first was an ashen horse called Plague, which spread various diseases among the common people.
The second was a black horse called Famine, which caused crops to die and hunger to spread.
These diseases were created by Tom with a little help from an old lady.
At first, the people didn’t think much of it, but soon, when the farmers noticed that their crops wouldn’t grow no matter what they did, they began to panic.
They even tried to contact the church to bring about a holy miracle. Unfortunately, the churches were in an even bigger mess, and under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t have been able to do anything.