Nothing was said as Mávros looked at Sidus with a seemingly ecstatic smile.
“I… I see.” Sidus said before returning to my side.
“Ahem! We will leave Regi here with thee. Speak to him should thee need anything. He will then relay thine wishes to me.” Luno said as he turned to leave.
“Ok!” A half naked Amartía said as she and the Platinum Knights followed one of the servants towards the bathroom.
As for us, we were teleported back to the Lunar Hall where Luno stared out into the chasm Mávros had made.
We all remained silent as he raised a trembling hand.
A strange but powerful suction of air then occurred, almost making me fall forward.
Luno glanced at his hand before sighing.
He then returned to the throne only for Caligo and the Helma to appear shortly afterward.
“Father!” He cried as he ran to Luno’s side.
I approached the two even as Caligo's eyes burnt brightly.
“What happened?” He asked and I explained everything.
“What should we do?” Caligo asked but Luno simply stared out seemingly at nothing.
“Father…?” Caligo called.
“Nothing.” He whispered.
“There is nothing me or anyone could ever do about the inevitable.”
Luno looked around and blinked rapidly for a bit before taking a deep breath.
“Thine status shall remained unchanged, Caligo. However, if she chooses to attack us… flee. Run as far and as fast as thee can.” Luno said but Caligo frowned at this.
“And what will thee do should such a fate befall us?”
“I… I will fend her off for as long as possible.”
“Would it be too much to ask if I could fight at thine side?”
Luno's eyes narrowed as he looked into his son’s eyes.
“Mmm… I suppose not, but what of Zuri? What will she do?”
Caligo looked at me with a rather pained expression.
“How powerful is she?” I asked but I knew the answer right as both the Moon King and Golden Prince lowered their heads.
“Allow me to explain over lunch. All this stress gnaws at me.” Luno said before leading us into the dining room where we were served some rather light dishes.
Toast, some tea, small cuts of meat, fruit juice and the likes.
We finished eating just as the air filled with the sounds of construction and repair.
Space magicians would be able to fill the hole in the ground, but the palace…
It was hundreds of years old.
Fixing it might not have been impossible but all that history…
I glanced at Luno who stared out of the window into the cloudy afternoon sky.
“Ah… I suppose this is the perfect opportunity to tell thee more of my story and how it links to Death itself. There is a detail I omitted on the moon. Maybe it was because I did not want the boy to hear it… or maybe I was afraid. I suppose it matters not. The truth is that since before I can remember Luna took care of mine sick self. While my brothers grew to be kings in their own right, I remained bedridden while reading countless books all under her care. She watched over me as I conducted my many studies in Dahlia, a forest on the eastern parts of Aurenia. Father had placed Luno and I there in an attempt to shelter us from all the political goings-on of the capital and it worked, for the most part. I spent most of my days studying and researching the mechanical intricacies of magic and the truth behind the existence of the Haneem. It’s around that time that the love Luna and I shared took form. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, but just as the child drew her first breaths… she died. To make things worse, I received news shortly after that my father had died. Luna and I were supposed to head to the capital for Father’s funeral but as if all that was not enough, we received word that Arixo had assassinated Adin. The fool claimed himself to be rightful ruler and took the Lunar Seat shortly after and thus began the Decade of Daunt. Ten years wherein brother sunk the kingdom into a state of chaos and misery. He cared not for his people not his men and so he spent all ten of those years drinking and fucking away his life!” Luno spat with trembling lips.
“This… this was all too much me. I was surrounded by it. By Death. It threatened to devour everything that I knew and loved and so I spent that entire decade researching, experimenting, observing. My hard work eventually led to the creation of the first generation of silver knights or Men of Silver, as I called them back then. They were all space magicians who’s very bones were side from the flesh of the gods. Their bodies hardened through rigorous training and their souls brightened by copious life absorption. These were going to be part of my defence against death, but I needed to start at the enemy which stood at our gates. Dahlia managed to remained relatively clean and uncorrupted due to our distance from Gordias, Aurenia’s capital and a set of laws I’d made which made the region pretty self sufficient. Armed with a Legion of powerful men, I began retaking Aurenia all while developing the second generation of knights. These were the Golden Knights. The reason why I started with silver knights was because I myself was a space magician. Golden Knights required time and a lot of testing to produce. Regardless of the costs, my armies marched forward, for the sake of humanity and the sake of my ultimate goal.” Luno said before taking a sip of his already cold tea.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“As the war raged on, Luna and I had seven other children… Six of whom died before they could even crawl or utter the names of their parents… I didn’t know what it was. Maybe the cosmos placed a curse on mine head or maybe I was never fit to be a parent, but our children kept… dying. This affected Luna far more than it did me. She could no longer face any children, let alone our last remaining son, Caligo. So, in an act of madness, I took the boy to my laboratory and had my men make him a golden knight using techniques we had learnt during the war. We had since learnt that through healing magic, the body would always assume the form it felt was most… natural. If a person with normal bones is healed moments before they die, they’ll return to their normal state, but if a person with Larger, augmented bones is healed, the body assumed its new, larger enhanced state. This all falls apart if any of those bones are broken, but I didn’t care. I had all of Caligo’s bones replaced and we created him a new body. I kept him hidden for a few months until I was sure he would live and much to the joy of my then jaded heart, he lived. I presented him to Luna and she embraced him with love and a lot of tears.” Luno said while smiling at Caligo who simply stared at his father.
“With Luna and Caligo happy, I returned my focus on the war. We had taken all of Aurenia and with the help of my then close friend, advisor and general, Ferrum, we began taking back Medelona. Funnily enough, even as the rest of the kingdom fell to brothers corruption, Agna remained a relatively peaceful farming state… huh. Anyway, the day eventually came when my armies marched towards the capital and Arixo’s armies stood no chance, but what chance does a man stand in the face of a demigod. I actually partook in the march to retake this very Royal palace and I couldn’t help but laugh upon seeing my brothers mutilated corpse on the throne. I actually still don’t know how long he had been dead for but what was done was done. My armies retook Medelona and I sent several legions to Agna just in case. I was then coroneted as King and I set out to unify the kingdom all while preparing myself for augmentation. It’s around this time that I learnt of beings called hosts and their near immortal existences. I asked the Haneem if I could become such a being and they strongly shook their heads saying that only one host could exist for a certain aspect at a certain time. I asked if they knew where I could find one such aspect and they directed me towards the moon and so, after getting augmented, I led an army to the Moon where I met a being that truly deserved the title of deity. The Haneem called it a Caelasti and it was a humanoid made of a near infinite amount of ethereal strings. I asked the being many things, but it did not answer. It simply stared out into the vastness of space. Seeing that it had no intention in communicating, I raised my sword to cut off his head but to my surprise, the sword passed through it as though it was an illusion. I spent the rest of the days that followed trying to kill it but after failing miserably, I returned to Edenton where I did more research. At this point, Caligo had grown into a handsome young man who wanted to follow his father’s footsteps and become a leader of men. I allowed him to do as he pleased with the condition that he should never, ever fight an opponent who he was not certain that he could absolutely crush. I made this condition in an attempt to teach him caution and the fear of death but…” Luno narrowed his eyes as he looked at a now slouching Caligo.
“It seems as though my words fell on deaf ears. Anyway, I eventually discovered that beings like the Caelasti existed on several planes of existence. Some of which went all the down into the very quantum engines that drove the universe, but before I returned to the Moon, I ask Luna if she wanted to be augmented and she said no. She said that she wanted to live a happy, human life and die a happy human death. I argued against this. Saying that if she was augmented, she’d never have to worry about death ever again, but she took my calloused hand and asked me to respect her wish and so I did. Caligo eventually became a proper Golden Knight and he accompanied me to the Moon where I warped the space around my sword so extremely that it touched the cosmos’ intricate parts. I then decapitated the Caelasti and it is then that I gained the title of host. Not wanting to be left behind, Caligo would naturally go on to become the host of light in a display of brute strength. It seemed as though he forcefully took the title by gaining unprecedented control over the aspect and with out newly gained power and immortality, we ushered in a new age. The Age of the Moon.” Luno said before deeply sighing.
“The time eventually came for Luna to pass and I… do not know exactly what I was thinking at the time… I do not remember it clearly, but I demanded that the kingdoms greatest healers find death. We gathered and slew countless death magicians all in some deranged attempt to rid this world of it, but when that failed, I turned to the stars. The most powerful of death and life magicians can not only see the grand current of life, they can also see death magicians as dark vortexes within the stream. I had countless life and death magicians search for the host of death all while creating the Five Stars or Platinum Knights. Beings who would help me rid the cosmos of death. Years passed and we eventually found it. With the Platinum Knights in tow, we set out towards a world that was an unimaginable distance away. Fortunately, as host of space, I could close the distance with relative ease. We arrived at a dark and cold world from which death rose in geysers. Actually, all worlds in that region of space had been touched and ruined by death and so we landed at the foot of a dark palace and that’s when I met her… Amartía.” Luno said, although he whispered her name.
I noted the fact that Luno could travel across vast distances of space, but this wasn’t the time to bring up my goals.
“I demanded her head and as expected, she fought back and nearly killed me. Actually, the battle was so one sided that I called for an immediate retreat. I then tasked the Platinum Knights to watch over her while I formulated a plan, but…”
“Mmm…” I droned in understanding.
“So… why did you hide for seven hundred years? Did you fail to find a solution?” I asked and Luno weakly nodded.
“I was so afraid of surfacing that I sealed myself in a realm far below this one. The subspace that space magicians can sink into at will. I hoped that Caligo would be mature enough by then to lead the kingdom but…”
I nodded before glancing out of the window. It had started lightly raining but for some reason, I felt… moved. Driven.
“So… what now?”
“Nothing has changed really. We must continue forward for the sake of our people. If death choses to turn her blade on us, we’ll fight until the bitter end but until then, I would very much appreciate it if thee helped me usher in a new age for our kingdom. I also sincerely hope that both of thee join me in hoping that it is not the last.”
I nodded with a determined frown.
I had learnt much since sitting down with Luno and one thing was clear.
He could get Adia and I back to earth.
It was only a matter of waiting until I figured out where earth was in relation to Edenton and when the appropriate time to ask would be.