Finally, Zyrell and Trevor arrived at their destination. They began to see more people coming to and fro. Then the forest path opened up to a clearing. The clearing led down a hill and at the bottom of the hill was a large lake. On the outside of the lake was large farmland and houses. It was cold so all the farmlands were bare. A great stone bridge led to the castle sitting in the middle of the lake. It was an amazing sight to behold. It was like something Zyrell would see in a fairy tale book or a painting.

"Fort Kenshin was made by one of the Emerald Sword inheritors. Named after him too. He used magic to build the lake the bought in fish and other creatures to inhabit. Then he built Fort Kenshin in the middle of it. There are two gates. The first gate you see here and the inner gate which protects the command office where we're going. We thought about making another gate to protect the people outside the city walls. But such an undertaking would be... expensive."

"Is there a large military here?"

"Uhh..." Trevor seemed pensive. "That a hard question to answer. Fort Kenshin hasn't served as a traditional military base in generations. It has actually become more of a trade post than an actual defensive point. We keep a small group of soilder here to protect the citizens."

"why?"

"Well its the home to use the Four Swords. You could attack use but we'd probably wipe out the force in retaliation. So its not a completely nonstrategic point. But it makes zero sense to attack us."

"You can do that? Wipe out a whole army?"

"Not by myself. But when the four sword work together we're basically invincible. That why when we're attack the enemy army splits it force. Attacks several points at once so that the Four Sword are also split."

Soldiers saluted Trevor as he passed. "Sir,"

"Tell the commander we're coming in. Let him know we encountered Hollow-Witches on the path here."

"Sir," the soldier saluted again and then rode off on a white horse.

As the wagon rode past the bridge and into the main gate Zyrell could see all different types of people here. There were elves and gnomes and some other races Zyrell didn't recognize. The wagon rode through the tow and people would wave at Trevor and Trevor would wave back in response.It seemed he was very well liked here. Probably cause they hadn't heard his singing yet.

Zyrell could feel different emotions pelting him from different directions. Anger. Greed. Sadness. Happiness. Lust. They were like stones that would pelt him. Zy growled to himself.

In the forest he hadn't realized it. Or known where his anger was coming from. But now he realized he was feeling what other people were feeling. He had caught his paranoia from the animals in the forest who knew that the Hollow-Witches were out. He had received his anger and blood-lust from the Hollow-Witches themselves.

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At first he thought he was going crazy. Only now in the city did he realize the emotions weren't his own. This was some power he was developing as the inheritor of the Azure Sword. And it was annoying.

"You can't read people's mind or sense emotions?" Zyrell asked Trevor.

"No," Trevor said simply.

"Just fire?"

"Fire and I can teleport."

"What about the others who used the Azure Sword?"

"The one before you died, but he could talk to animals. And the one before that could sense danger before it happened or something like that..."

They rode through town. If Zy could meet another Azure blade he could get some answers but Trevor had said the previous one had died and the one before that had disappeared while fighting monsters. Zy would have to be careful. He'd have to learn to control this power or else he'd end up dead as a doorknob like the others before him.

The streets cleared as the wagon pulled though. Everyone seemed to respect Trevor. He heard some whispers about himself. People pointing and gossiping. they drove past them too quick for Zy to eavesdrop.

After an hour they finally made it to the inner-gate. Inside the inner gate was a lot nicer than the outside. The houses before were staked close and on top of each other without any room. The inner gate had space between each complex. There was a large courtyard that looked more like a park than anything else. Ther was a obstacle course and training gear where all the soldiers practiced.

Trevor had said earlier that Fort Kenshin didn't house many soldiers anymore but there seemed to be more than Zyrell had ever seen before in his entire fucking life. A large door opened into a barn and Trevor left the horse and Wagon with the stable boy.

"I know you're tired Zyrell Freeman--so am I for that matter--but we have one more stop before you can rest. You need to meet the commander of Fort Kenshin."

Trevor led Zyrell up a flight of stairs. He stopped at a wooden door that had been panted red. Trevor knocked once super hard.

"Enter," came a voice from inside.

Trevor and Zyrell entered the room. sitting at the table was a large man. He was bald and had an eye patch (because of course he did). He sat there in a gold tunic with a badge that had been sewn into the right side. There were also three boys in the room. One in red tunic, one in purple tunic and one in green tunic. Zy already knew who they were.

"Trevor, my man told me you had just arrived."

"Commander, it's good to be home. Zyrell this is the Commander. The boy in the green is Baron Alec, inheritor of the Emerald Sword. The one in the purple is Viscount Marcus du Lake the inheritor of the Violet Sword. The one in the red is my little cousin, Viscount Edward Aquilla, inheritor of the Vermilion Sword."

"Wait... did you say Viscount?" Zyrell asked. There was silence for a long time.

"You didn't tell him?" the Commander asked.

"He didn't ask," Trevor responded.

"Trevor," The commander said with disappointment. The commander sighed and turned back to Zyrell. "Yeah kid. The Vermilion Mark, the Emerald Mark, and the violet Mark always appears on people of nobility or high lineage. While the azure mark always appears on people who are low-born or commoners."

"I think you meant peasant," the boy in red chuckled.

The commander turned on him and pulled his ear. "When I need you're correction I'll ask for it. Here's the rank while you're under my commander. You're at the bottom, then the trash, the maggots that eat the trash, then the other soldiers, then Trevor, then the Gods themselves, and then me. Even the grim reaper has to ask my permission first before he take a soul to hell. Got that?"

"Yessir!" Edward shouted holding his ear.

"Now go show your cousin to his room before he falls asleep." the Commander turned to Zyrell. "I'll have Alec show you to your room."