Chapter Five

The Birth of an Envoy– Part Five.

“Watch out!” Aelius called out. The creature charged Stecia down. A delicate maiden who was merely easy prey in its eyes, or so it appeared to Aelius.

But surprisingly, the creature went straight through her figure and came running at him. Her face and chest momentarily warped and bended like distorted light, and Aelius instinctively realised that the creature could not even see Stecia.

He gasped in surprise and barely raised his sword. Years of hardened and trained combat senses kicked in and he attempted to deflect the claws, but the strength behind the blow was simply too strong, far stronger than anything Aelius had ever encountered.

The shaft immediately shattered into fragments from the impact and he went sprawling along the dirt, the muscles in his primary arm screaming in pain from being torn. “Arghhh-” Aelius quickly pushed himself to his feet through the dirt and glanced up. He couldn’t afford a single second on the ground.

With a deep breath, he realised he was unarmed. For a swordsman, this was akin to defeat. Shit, he grit his teeth, his eyes glancing at the scene in front of him, searching the rocks, the grass, the nearby trees, for anything he could do.

Stay alive at all costs, child. I will teach you to wield the power within you, Stecia’s voice echoed in his head. He noticed in the corner of his eye her giving him a determined look.

“Okay, okay,” he muttered. “Let’s do this.”

The reptilian lunged, faster than even the archers most nimble, and Aelius spun around to sprint for his life into the trees. He crossed the threshold of the shade into the dark and immediately veered to the side, hoping to throw the demon-like being off his trail.

There is now my Divine energy coursing within your Divine Core. It is lower than where your Mana Core is located. Feel it in the pit of your stomach. Focus. Locate it.

Aelius found a tree to sneak around, silencing his breath with desperation, knowing his life was on the line, as he heard the growling and drooling skal tread past on the nearby twigs and grass. Gradually, his chest fell and rose slower and slower as he calmed, and he closed his eyes, focusing on what the Mother Goddess described to him.

His consciousness briefly retreated into his mind and body. It descended down his chest like a ball glowing white. Passing by was a large, large energy source glowing light blue– this was his Mana Core, forged through wielding the sword.

He continued, dropping and dropping deep into the darkness. It continued and continued like a long, long tunnel until finally, he saw the flickers of a golden light. Warm. Invigorating. Overwhelming. Melting. Purifying.

Aelius approached the light, a large glowing ball like the sun Sol itself. His arms were spread to his sides as he stepped in and he screamed but his voice was drowned out as it engulfed him in a fire.

Child! Wake up!

Aelius’ eyes sprung open just in time to see a claw slashing toward his face. Yet, his mind was tranquil. A calm breath left his lips, in tandem with a warm, syrupy energy coursing through his veins. It fired out like an aura enveloping him and he heard a horrific scream.

The skal, clutching its seering face, scurried backward, burn marks running all up and down its body.

Well done, Aelius. You’re mastering the basics of summoning my power already. You’ll be able to protect yourself from this accursed creature now.

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“Protect myself? This damn thing killed Alea,” Aelius growled and lunged forward with a fierce grunt, tackling the demon to the ground. The demon thrashed back and forth, clawing at Aelius’ face but his hands ignored every attempt at deterring him.

“Die!” Aelius unleashed a barrage of punches downward, ignoring the heated scratches of pain on his cheeks.

In the struggle, the skal hissed out primitive noises of resistance and struggle, screams, and cries. Amongst the sound of shuffling dirt and brutal, blunt punching, Aelius was roaring menacingly until he slipped through its defences.

Clutching the demon by the side of its temples and pressing his thumbs into its eye holes, smoke and steam rose out from them and the skal screeched as it was burnt by Divine power.

The thrashing became more and more violent in its final struggle for survival. A stray slash struck his tendons on his left forearm and it went limp, together with another clawed hand plunging into his gut, but Aelius was relentless.

The pain he felt was nothing compared to Alea’s.

After searing its eyes into burnt crisps, he watched it madly flail about with a glare of fury. Then he raised his remaining working arm and, punch by punch, came slamming it down into the skal.

It was powerless to defend against his new found element. Each time it covered its face, it was burnt and its skin purged by Aelius’ glowing aura.

Finally it fell limp and harshly breathing, he stopped. His mind was fading. Too much blood lost?

One arm was ruined and his intestines had spilt out all over in front of him.

“Hah… shit…”

My child… well done. I wish to stay but I can no longer. My authority that I briefly regained due to Alea’s death leaking my powers is dissipating. I hope you forever keep my words in my mind. Someday, all will make sense. This is the Fate that I ordained, and you are Chosen by it. Remember these words when you awaken. Worry not, I am always watching, even if from afar.

“Goddess?” Aelius mumbled as his head fell over.

Goodbye, child.

*

It was a depressing end to the eventful day, and suddenly, everything had changed for him. When Aelius’ eyes opened again, his wounds had miraculously healed. His arm was operable again and the wound on his stomach didn’t even leave a scratch.

As for the Mother Goddess, she also disappeared without a trace.

Aelius, using his earth Magic, got to creating a small tombstone for Alea.

He had been brutally deprived of his dream of returning home to succeed his father and use his standing to approach her once more. He had been working hard all along toward the goal of enjoying her warmth again, but all that remained was a soul-crushing coldness. What hurt him the most was not the fact that he can’t see her anymore, but the knowledge that she met a horrible end.

The fact that she went through so much pain in her last moment made him want to return it a hundred fold.

Aelius rose from his feet and stumbled back to the corpse of the so-called skal. Standing over it, he recalled the words of the Mother Goddess.

This was just the beginning. There’s an entire species of these monsters hiding out there and they could usher in the destruction of Ophelia entirely. Killing this one skal will never be enough.

Never enough.

Even after he eradicates their entire race, it won’t amount to a drop in a bucket compared to the grief he feels for Alea’s horrible death.

He never even got the chance to tell her how he feels. What about her future? And his future, together with her?

There’s no way that he could ever forgive the Skals for what they’ve done. From today onward, he thought as he trudged back to Alea’s decrepit corpse, he’ll make sure to eradicate them, even if it’s the last thing he ever does.

A few hours later, a small flower swayed in the wind, ordained with white petals and a golden dot in the centre. It stood over a pile of rocks and an unmarked tombstone, and no one remained in the same, howling windy cave.

A figure in black, defined by its hunched spine in rage and balled up fists, was slipping out of the caverns and back into the forest, disappearing into the shade of the trees, never seen again by those who knew him, for years to come.

The Path and Fate of the Chosen Ordained began with regret and vengeance.