Prologue: Origins
There is a massive mountain that has existed for countless years, some say it has existed since the beginning of time itself. Of course none who make this claim can prove it, considering that they themselves have not lived that long, but nonetheless the point is that this gargantuan mountain high enough to reach the skies and beyond is old, far older than one would expect.
Near the peak of the mountain there is two figures climbing to the peak at inhuman, godly speeds. Their speeds if one were to look at them would make them seem as if they were an illusion, creating mirages as they moved.
They finally stop at the peak and look to see that there is a gate like structure, the gate emitting a faint light gives off a warm feeling once you got closer. Looking closer at the two figures, one would would see that it is young couple looking to be in their early twenties.
The male has golden hair that shines in the light as if to give off a glowing look. His face could be considered extremely handsome, as if he was a holy being descending from the heavens themselves, his silverish eyes at the moment however are giving off a solemn and saddened look, contrasting his handsome facial features.
He looks at the person besides him and sees a woman of similar expression, examining her to notice that she is also an extraordinary beauty With her auburn hair giving off a faint crimson light, and her pale jade eyes giving off a faint greenish light. Her looks were akin to a goddess of beauty, giving a sort of noble aura, despite the depressed expression on her face.
In her arms, surprisingly is an infant with thin locks of golden hair, wrapped in a blanket that couldn’t have been born less than a few months ago, his jade green eyes looking around in curiosity at his new environment. The woman is the first to speak after they’ve both ascertain their surroundings were safe for the moment.
“Ar-...are you sure this is the only way?, surely we ca-”
“No...this is...the only way.”, the golden-haired man interrupted her in a sad and depressed tone, obviously they had still some doubts about whatever they are about to do.
“But… couldn’t we send him somewhere else?”, she said in a frantic tone.
“No, do you think that with them being able to drive us into this state and possessing the power to kill all our subordinates, that whoever they are they wouldn’t be able to find him and kill him.” If one were to look closely at the two you would find both their complexions to be extremely sickly, nearly all color lost. You would also see that their clothes were muddled with dried blood and there were cuts and tears on them. One would come to the conclusion that they were in a battle and were seriously injured, not physically but something... else.
The red-haired woman contemplated this thought and calmed down, she realized that the man was correct. Whatever they were fleeing from was no ordinary power, it was something that even she and her husband couldn’t comprehend much less outwit in any other way.
“Does it have to be a mortal realm though?”
“This way no-one but us will know where he is.”
Then, out of nowhere came an adorable sound akin to gibberish. The two then turned their faces to see the baby looking at them with his eyes as if to say “what’s going on?”. The husband and wife’s expression then turned even more somber, realizing that their son doesn’t know of his fate, and even more so when they realize that they don’t even know of his fate.
“Well…we should say our goodbyes then.”, the gold-haired man said in a somber tone.
“Mmmm.”, hummed the red-haired woman in agreement.
The golden-haired man then took out a silverish amulet and as he held it out in front of him, a goldish light was emitting from it. He then puts it on his son and emits a faint, warm light from his fingertip towards his son. The infant is covered in a goldish aura for a few seconds, but quickly dies down. The woman then takes out a jade colored bracelet with extremely detailed carvings on the outer parts, and places it on the baby’s wrist and does the same, except this time the boy is covered in a greenish light that dies down just as quickly. The woman is the first to speak.
“I’m so sorry that it had to be like this son…I-I just hope you at least have a good family and that you..that you find a girl that you love and-and..”, as she says this her eyes are getting teared up and her voice is getting progressively choked up. After stuttering for a bit she just holds the baby closer and hugs him, patting him on the back as she starts muttering how his life should turn out.
The infant on the other-hand just giggles and thinks nothing of it. He keeps making cooing noises as he is getting embraced by his loving mother’s arms. Then he slightly wiggles and squirms in a cute manner as he tilts his head slightly towards his father.
The man himself has an extremely stone-cold look that seems somewhat sad, as if he was expecting this to be easier. But as he realized that even a person of his type can’t bear to look as he parts from his own child, much less seeing his wife in such a state. He then opens his mouth to say what could very well be his final words to his only son.
“Son I-”
“So this is where you were!”
The gold-haired man turns and looks to see three black hooded men, each holding daggers at arms length and emitting a void-like energy that sucks in even light. The leading man that wields an extremely vile and sinister smile, chuckles slightly at the two. The gold-haired man at first has a face full of shock and then turns into a face full pure, wrathful rage.
“I WILL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE!”, the man bellows with a booming voice akin to a god mad with wrath.
“Hmph, you honestly think you scare me, do you not remember that wound I’ve struck you with?”, as the hooded man says this the other two hooded men start to snicker. “You can barely use your power, much less kill me!, besides we are not the only ones you would be facing anyways, so as I see it you should give up the notion of saving your clan.”, the hooded figure says this with a cold and mocking sneer on his face.
The gold haired man grits his teeth down and faces his wife and says, “Ready the portal, I will use that.” As he says this the red-haired woman is about to say something in rebuttal but is interrupted by her husband. “We are about to die anyways so why not go with a bang right?”
The woman then after a quick thinking nods in agreement and sets the infant in front of the gate and starts to display out her hands with a faint green light emitting from them towards the gate-like structure.
“Hmph, trying to save your pitiful bloodline?, we’ll simply search and kill your child as well”, the man at the side of the leader says this in a taunting snicker as he raises his dagger to ready for battle.
The gold-haired man simply looks at them with a cold stare. “You honestly think I’ll let you live?”, he says this with a snarl and then mutters something under his breath.
“Really now you think that bluff-”
[BOOM!] This sound came from the gold-haired man as a golden light emits from his body making him appear as if he was a golden god.
“What! you shouldn’t be able to use your divine energy!”, the leading hooded man then looks towards the man to his left as if to ask “what happened?”. The man to his left just stood there in shock and muttered something.
“B-but I’m certain I sealed his divinity.”, he said this frantically as he tried to comprehend what was happening in front of him.
“Well, you obviously didn’t!” the hooded man to the other side said in annoyance.
“Who ever said I was using divine energy?”
“What!”, all three of the hooded men turn around to see the golden being that was supposed to be in front of them behind them. The leader of the group noticing the situation turn sour, was the fastest to react and retreated at lightning speed. He still however got severely wounded and his right arm was completely torn apart. The other two however were not lucky enough and immediately beheaded after their bodies were completely mutilated by what seems to be the golden being’s claws.
Taking a better look at the being it is a sort of humanoid draconic being, covered in golden scales and spikes. Lightning coiling around it’s body as if it was alive. A golden light coming off of it’s back as if to simulate a divine halo.
“Wh-what?!, you shouldn’t be able to use any type of energy, much less utilise that form!”, the wounded hooded man was obviously shocked as things have turned out unlike the ways they should’ve.
The golden draconic being is about to say something but then spurts out a mouthful of blood and kneels down to the ground before deforming back to his more human self.
“Haa haa haa”, the gold haired man is panting in exhaustion as he then feels an excruciating pain all over his body. He grunts in pain as this all happens as he is looking cold center at the hooded figure who is also grimacing in pain, but the hooded man then chuckles in realization as he thinks of something.
“So I see, hehehe haha haha!”, the man laughs maniacally as he smirks at the gold-haired man in pain, only to then charge forth at him while saying something.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“So you would use your own life-force to save your bloodline, huh?, fitting seeing as how you would’ve died anyways!”, his dagger then almost reaches the gold-haired man’s forehead, as something then smashes hard into his side. This feeling at his side is as though a mountain was hammered to his side. Off to the side one can hear a baby’s cry as it fades away into the background, the gold-haired man then smiles in the revelation.
“YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HIM!”
The hooded figure was then pushed off the peak of the mountain and is seen falling past the clouds. Going back to the peak of the mountain to see a being of flames and a divine green light coming off of it’s eyes.
“Why’d you do that? we’re gonna die anyways aren’t we?”
The being then turned and quickly deformed similar to the gold-haired man and dropped to one knee in the same manner as him. To her side is her husband wearing a smirk on his face kneeling and blood dripping off of his mouth.
“Well, I’d rather go out with a bang wouldn’t I?”, the woman said this with a similar smirk and blood dripping down her lips.
The man just smiles and asks her a question, “Did you send him to the place we talked of?”
“Mmmhm”, the woman hummed and nodded.“Let’s rest for a bit.”
“Hmmm” , the man nodded.
The two then layed there and reminisced about their life together, how they met, how they fell in love, how they lived their lives in excitement and adventure, and how they felt joy with the news of their newborn. They just stayed there and reminisced until their days came to an end with each others hands clasping, not wanting to let go.
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In a remote village where people are few in numbers, off to the side of the village is a cottage. Outside in the backyard of the cottage is a woman sitting on a chair, the woman looks to be in her late 20’s and seems like a very pretty girl, with her long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, her blue eyes mesmerising and fairly light. Her expression itself seems to be sad and depressed, as if she lost something important, something sentimental.
Out from behind her comes a tall man who looks to be of similar age to her with green eyes and brown hair, he seems to be more of the manly, grizzly adams type. He goes up from behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder and tries to console her.
“Don’t worry Diana, it doesn’t matter what some shitty doctor says, we’ll have that child that we’ve always wanted no matter what.”, He says this with the best convincing tone he can come up with, obviously trying his best to come out of his comfort zone.
One would concur that this is not the man’s best forte to begin with, but one could also make the argument that he is trying his best despite that. Diana notices this and gives him a straight answer, as to not have him keep on with this charade. She then looks at him with her almost lifeless eyes and says.
“Mark...It’s fine, no really. The doctor is probably right, to begin with we’ve been trying for two whole years and have nothing to show for it. No….all I need is time by myself...to think, ya know?”
Mark, even being the boorish and brute-like that he is understood this. Sometimes these things needed time to heal the wounds. So he nodded and just said simply.
“Ok, but if you need anything, and I mean anything like kill someone, chop some wood, or hunt for some meat, you just need to ask ok?”
The woman just chuckled at how simple her man was at times, seeing her laugh, Mark just smiled and headed back inside the cottage leaving Diana to her devices. She then just sat there and pondered in deep thought, when suddenly a bright light shone and blinds her for a second. She then hears a faint cry in the forest where the cottage’s back is facing.
“What?”
Diana then looks at the direction of where the cries and the bright light was coming from. She then decided to go and check it out, thinking it was perhaps some young mage experimenting, though that seems unlikely as their are rarely any mages out this far in the country. As she approaches a bush the crying becomes louder and is more apparent that they are the cries of a baby.
She opens the bushes to see an infant no older than a few months crying and flailing it’s arms about. Diana having her maternal instincts take over, quickly took it into her arms and started to sooth the baby and rocking it from side to side trying to calm it down. Her efforts are in vain until she decides to take it into her arms and just hug it and slowly patting it on it’s back.
This finally calms the infant as he starts cooing and making cute noises in satisfaction. This goes on for about a few minutes until Diana notices that there is no sign of a parent anywhere as she looks around for one.
“Who would just leave a poor baby like you around in the forest?”, as she contemplates this she holds the baby up face to face and notices the silver amulet and jade bracelet on him. She tries to slip them off trying to get a better look at them but surprisingly can’t. She realizes what these things might be.
“Who would put a magically bounded item on a baby?”
Diana is extremely shocked by this seeing as how magical items aren’t really rare, but magically bounded items are exceedingly rare to the point of costing massive fortunes. As they are items that only the bounded person can remove or use and yet this strange infant has two of them!
“Hmmm, we should probably turn you into the orphanage.”, but as she says this her own problems surface inside her mind and she starts thinking about her own repeated failures of conceiving.
“Gurgoogoogah hahaaa”, this extremely adorable gibberish came directly out of the baby’s mouth.
This snapped Diana out of her own thoughts and she immediately “awed” at the sound and noticed something.
“Huh, your eyes are green….kinda like Mark…”
The infant then just looked at her in confusion. She then took a closer look at his jade bracelet.
“What’s this say?”
On the bracelet there was a carving that read Zacharias.
“Zach huh… that’s a nice name.”, after that she decided out of past failures and dreams of wanting child and caring for her own that she would do something spontaneous. Diana wrapped Zach up in the blanket once more and headed back inside the cottage. There she was greeted by Mark sitting on a couch.
“Oh hey Ana that was qui-!!”
“Mark! I want to adopt this baby!”
“When-where’d you get a baby...wait, did you steal a ba-!”
“No, you idiot! I found him abandoned in the forest all alone and...and”
“And what?!”, Mark seemingly is very shocked by the whole ordeal and is wide-eyed at the moment.
“And well I just thought that since we are obviously not getting a child any time soon, that...well this was a sign. Ya know?”
“A sign of what?”
“A sign that we should take this boy as our own Mark! I mean look, he even has your color of eyes!”, She then raised Zach up so Mark could see his eyes.
“Huh, ye-yeah you're right, he kinda does and hey he’s got your hair!”
“See!....so what do you say Mark?”
“Well I mean, I would say to give him up in the orphanage.”
“What?!”
“Buuut, since we have been trying to get a kid since for about two years now and, It seems to make you happy….then I’m all for it.”
Diana just smiled at that and looked at Zach in glee. Then Mark asked out of curiosity.
“Oh yeah, does he have name yet?”
“Yeah, it’s Zach. Strange thing was he had two magically bounded items on him.”
“WHAT! Aren’t those a fortune!”
“Yeah but since it’s already bounded to him we can’t exactly take it off, yet at least.”
“Geeze, what the hell have we picked up.”
Zach on the other hand was just rested snugly in Diana’s arms and looking at his new surroundings in curiousity. While Mark says something to catches his attention.
“Well, welcome to your new home son.”
(Authors Note: Chapters will be updated at my leisure, so probably looking at one chapter every two or so weeks, give or take. Anyways thanks for reading, and peace fuck out dudes.)