The 9 members of the council were just as surprised to be confronted by only two people. One of them expressed open hostility in answer to the disrespect it showed, but few words were said. Everything was clear. It was the time for spells and blades to speak-
They were indeed strong, but also... Shortsighted. Had they more experience, they could have stood a chance. However, as it was... Vell could trivially deflect or dodge their ranged attacks - now more than ever with the necklace - while the three who wielded blades seemed to be surrounded by the duke, rather than the opposite.
The fight would be over soon if it continued like that, even without any special moves from the duo. Then, it was on the church's leaders to turn their situation around.
Two casters suddenly sent spells meant to distract the duke- He would jump back, so it was no sign for an attack on him. Rather than that, two of the wielders rushed Vell.
It was a sacrificial plan. Without the two casters - even if only for a moment - Vell could easily overpower the ranged engagement, removing at least one of them from the equation. Which would be a fatal loss. The lone sword fighter was also likely to die in a second. However...
If they killed Vell, then the duke would likely lose on his own-
The two rushing members of the council amplified their speed to reach Vell as quickly as possible, ready to deflect a spell if she managed to react in time. They identified that she had a soul shield. The spell imbued in her necklace. And while a soul shield was effective against magic, it couldn't block anything that was devoid of mana.
But then the impossible happened-
Their blades stopped a few centimeters from her skin, even though they drained them of all magic.
Such was the power of the cardinal arts, the ability to subvert expectations.
In fact, Vell only let them so that she could see it for herself, other than in practice. The amount of trust she put in the item was perhaps excessive, something the duke would never let her do if he knew. Then again, she had enough experience to feel whether it would work early enough to avoid the strikes.
Either way, it was now the time to end this. What not long ago seemed like an almost decently matched fight, was in truth far from it. All this time Vell had been working on an invocation. Invocations were a wide and complex field with hardly anyone interested in it, but with some powerful use cases.
The moment she let the spell loose, tens of advanced ice spears materialized around her and pierced their targets near instantly.
All members of the council died in the blink of an eye, including the ones who had soul shields of their own...
After that day, the remnants of the Church of Destiny continued to fight a hollow war, while the high priests fled with their gold across the ocean. Perhaps at some point the religion was real, perhaps the gods were real, but the cause was long dead.
It would take two years before life in the regions once belonging to the Destium Empire returned to normal. Only then did the duke officially declare himself the first king of the Kingdom of Modeva, with Vell as his queen.
The new country spanned a little over half of the fallen empire. It was by no means small, quite the opposite. The majority of the continent used to be under the rule of either Destium or Vaunthon before the war, so it was still plenty of land.
The outcome was much to the south-western emperor's dismay. He wasn't hasty, but neither was he charitable. His agreement to the terms was forced by Vell, as it was later revealed.
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After she became the queen, a famous writer from Vaunthon came to Modeva to write Vell's biography. That was if she was going to agree, which she did.
Vell was born lucky. Not only was she a noble, but her talents and mana affinity were revered by everyone. Yet, she didn't stop there. She shed her family name to master magic and became the strongest person in the empire. Then she was appointed the leader of - at the time - a dozen-sized army. The Amethyst.
She had connections with a variety of important figures, but that's not what forced the emperor's hand. He had the option of marking her a traitor with little setbacks-
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"...however, that applied to the people. Which wasn't the greatest worry. Not always and especially not since the Artificer's gift has revealed itself."
The man wrote down her words. A small desk was brought in for him to the queen's office.
"It was a gamble. In my life I've only seen one artificial dungeon that was beyond even the royal guard. It was unlikely, but if Lucius got rid of us, lost our support, and another appeared? Whatever you may think, Lucius might be the best emperor yet. Ambitious, often cold, and wise."
She stood by a window that started at the floor and almost reached the ceiling. Vell's black hair flowed to her waist, contrasting her icy-blue dress matching the eyes. Her gaze focused on some people outside, in clothing uncharacteristic for the palace.
"Yes, there is no doubt the adventurers would try to clear it. They always do. Just like in the north. In Noiran. Truly, the mission that made it clear what we are dealing with..."
The dungeon which Vell mentioned was the one she and the rest of the Amethyst members cleared in Noiran. It used to be a separate country north of the empire, but the dungeon drove it to destruction.
The challenge that artificial dungeons posed was that they could extremely rarely be conquered with numbers. Often times when it was tried, an army would trigger responses much too powerful to handle. Hence the task required powerful individuals. Vell's trump card.
Without her and the unit that was devoted to her, a similarly dangerous dungeon appearing in the empire could be the end of it. The Amethyst was a group that was far above the rest during those times.
The emperor and his high officials decided not to take the risk.
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That was the legend behind the Kingdom of Modeva and the queen without whom it may have never existed.
Meiris stared at the cabinet in newfound admiration. Not many people believed in those tales anymore. Or, at least, not as they were told.
No such dungeon has appeared ever since. Neither on her continent, nor any other. The strength of the Amethyst and their leader was also deemed absurd. Though few of the same people would doubt the Artificer, whose existence was far more unreasonable. Then again, the Artificer's legacy kept reminding people about his abilities, while the Kingdom of Modeva's founding tales remained only in words.
At least getting to see the artifacts once used by the legendary queen was a good compensation for Meiris' troubles of digging through the room.
Few people would dare to put it that way, but not her.
As a marquis' daughter, she had a high tolerance for expensive things. The amateur-of-adventuring part of her has also cooled down a lot with her lack of magical potential.
Nonetheless, right now she was interested to read more about the necklace, while she recalled a few more details about the queen's legend...
'Sounds unbelievable, but if I had only a fraction of this power... I wouldn't die. I wouldn't be this close to dying again. I would still be human-
'No. I would be able to escape the knights that came to escort me on that day, but I wouldn't dare do it...'
When she was alive, power-hungry wouldn't be a term anyone used to describe Meiris. Especially not in the case of raw power.
However, it was hardly a surprise that the recent events changed her perspective.
The necklace seemed powerful and so she wondered how it worked, but-
[ ...following the succession committee's decision, no further analysis of the artifact was conducted. ]
There were no guidelines.
The ruling pair didn't leave an heir behind, the reason unknown. As per their wish, the appointed committee included the majority of the Amethyst's next generation of members, who decided to leave the artifacts of both the founders sealed.
'Suppose I have some respect for that...'
She looked at the necklace again-
'But you neither buried it with her nor put it in the archive... So you probably intended for it to be used again.'
Whether the secret compartment of the private royal library - the archive - existed almost 700 years ago or not wasn't exactly a certainty. For obvious reasons, it wasn't well documented. Meiris shouldn't have known about it either.
'Likely to protect the kingdom- Yet I can hardly feel sorry for taking it away from the people currently in power.'
She reached for the necklace. Sooner or later, she would figure it out.
There was of course the option of selling it, though Meiris wasn't fond of the idea. To her the artifact had a special kind of value.
Yes, she didn't know the queen. In reality Vell may as well had been heartless and fake, but still... She at least wanted to put some trust in the legend, if nothing else.
Anyhow, Meiris gave the necklace a quick try by wearing it. The issue was- How could she check if it was working?
Using her own flame was her first thought, so she brought a tiny one near the finger of her other hand.
What made the experiment a little difficult, was something she noticed while lighting up her surroundings at night- She felt neither warmth nor cold, so she had to rely on pain instead. Unless that was gone too, which seemed unlikely with her sense of touch.
"Ouch-"
Pain seemed to be normal, so that meant the test was not enough-
'Would make sense if it didn't protect me from my own magic.
'Maybe I should find an instruction on something similar?'
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She found a few other artifacts imbued with varying kinds of soul shields, but the notes hardly seemed helpful. Meiris lacked the knowledge of relevant concepts.
Eventually - for the second test - she dropped a staff from a low height, making use of the artifact's unique property. It still hit her though, and with a painful edge that Meiris failed to notice.
sigh
'Guess I will try again once I have more mana...'
Her low magical potential could have been the issue, so for now she just put the necklace in her cloak's pocket.