A small village called Inderance sat in the middle of a great plain and was celebrating the victory of the rebel army over the old kingdom. The old kingdom, or officially called The Empire of Lusion, had been a very tyrannical state that had ruled the land for over 400 years, overly taxed its citizens, and led them into such a state that even the richest people in the villages had only enough food to eat two meals a day. This had led to a rebellion led by the new king of the land who everyone called “Slayer” because he had killed so many enemy soldiers in the rebellion. After the Lusion Empire had fallen, the rebel group set up a new government that they called the Reformed Illusion Kingdom. This had led to the celebration in every city and village across the entire kingdom, finally they would be free from the tyranny and could live their lives to the fullest.
In the middle of the town square of Inderance, there was a grand feast with the entire inhabitance of the town and surrounding farms taking part. They were laughing, drinking, eating, and celebrating to their hearts content for the downfall of the Lusion Empire. Towards the east side of the town sat a small group of young men and women who were quietly discussing on what the future would hold for them now. “I think we should go to the capital.” Said a rather rambunctious looking young man “We could probably all get jobs in either the army or the government itself, just think about it! We’d all get rich and be able to have our own land where we could raise families.”
“Yeah or we could die trying,” said another “Do you really think that we could get hired as anything other than basic foot soldiers in the new kingdom? Think about how many other people will be trying to accomplish the same thing.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t at least try, I think we’d be better than most people that apply to the army, we’ve had more training than even some of the soldiers they have now.”
“But they have the experience from fighting the Lusion dogs anyways, we wouldn’t last long in a fight against those who have already killed trained men from Lusion. What do you think Jordyn?”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Jordyn who had been sitting outside the small semi-circle. He hadn’t really been paying attention, he rarely did in fact, everything around him seemed to be boring. In fact, the only reason he was sitting there was because he had been dragged along by one of the girls in the circle. He considered what they had been talking about and decided that “The only reason to go to the capital and join the army would be to have a change of pace. Everything is probably going to stay the same for us regardless who is in power in the capital.” They all stared at him with blank expressions until one of the girls made a comment about how that was just a typical uninterested answer from Jordyn and they all went back to conversations about the future, excluding Jordyn this time. The celebrations continued deep into the night, the villagers seemed to be excited to use all of their excess supplies that they had been hiding from the Lusion Empire, it all seemed to be a waste to Jordyn, who thought it could be put to better use somewhere else.
After he felt he had enough to drink, Jordyn went to go find himself a nice quiet corner to fall asleep in, after all he no longer was welcome in the how of his uncle now that he had passed on. His uncle had been kind enough to him, gave him a bed and a room, but Jordyn had been forced to hunt since he was around twelve years old to have food. This had led to him learning how to track different types of animals, from rabbits all the way to bears, though they lived in the plains there was a forest and mountains only a few leagues away. After his uncle had died his aunt had decided that even just giving him a bed was too much effort and had stranded him outside without anywhere to go. Thankfully it was midsummer, and the nights were warm and cloudless, but once the winter came he would have to find somewhere warm to sleep at night.
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He had just begun to doze off when he heard the drunken footsteps of men walking down the dirt road by where he was laying, he opened his eyes just to be sure that they would pass and not see him, because he would likely be run off from his sleeping spot. After they passed by and he could hear them continuing down the road he finally relaxed and fell into an uneasy sleep that was plagued by horrors from a different world, demons would drag him down to hell and begin to torture him for the role he played in his parent’s death.
Jordyn woke with a start, he was covered in sweat and was breathing fast and hard, but the dreams weren’t what had woken him up. There were trumpets and the sound of hooves on the main road through the town, the sound of the hooves was loud enough that Jordyn thought the entire army had shown up in their small village. He jumped up and quickly ran towards the square, finally something exciting was happening and he didn’t want to miss it. As he arrived at the square he could see the village elder greeting the two lead horse men and began to converse with them. Jordyn could only assume what was said but he figured the elder was likely asking them what had brought them to their humble village. After a few minutes of conversation between the men, one of the riders walked into the middle of the square and announced, “We are here to see if there are any among you young lads that would be fit to ride with us back to the capital and join the new army we are forming. We will have the eligible men go through rigorous tasks that we deem appropriate to decide if you are worthy of this honor.”
Jordyn’s seemed to react in a way that he never had before, and he was confused because of it. He found himself lining up with the other men eagerly waiting in line for them to call him up and see if he was worthy. He couldn’t understand why he was acting this way, it took him a few minutes to realize that for the first time in his life, he was excited about something. Finally, a way to get away from this life that he had been forced into, he could finally break free from it all. The men in front of him were being lined up, stripped of their clothing and inspected, some of the men were turned away due to abnormalities and deformities, but Jordyn was passed through without any complaint by the inspectors. After that the men were spilt up and tested in different groups with various exercises to test strength and endurance. None of the exercises were too strenuous to Jordyn but he could see most of the other men were struggling to keep up with the exercises and more and more were rejected.
After Jordyn and only three of the other men from the village had passed through the rigorous exercises, the lead men from before came before them and looked them over. He looked at the man to Jordyn’s right and snapped his fingers. Three men came up behind him and forced him to his knees, the man then walked up and began to beat him mercilessly. The screams that came from the beaten mans lips seemed like they would echo in Jordyn’s dreams for as long as he lived. Minutes passed while they tortured the poor man and most of the village had begun to jeer at the soldiers and demand that they stop. Eventually the man pulled his sword from its scabbard and cut the mans head off, he then picked up the newly severed head and proclaimed, “Listen hear! This man disrespected the Illusion crown’s army, he was punished accordingly with the laws that have been put into effect. If you have any complaints about how we have acted, you have complaints against the crown and will be considered rebels.” The announcement seemed to stun everyone in the village, but to Jordyn there was a thrill that ran through him while he gazed at the headless body to his right. He had never seen a man killed before him, but now he felt an exhilaration beyond anything that he could ever have imagined.
The man threw the head to the side and looked at the three men from the village that stood before him, “If any of you do not wish to serve the crown then I suggest you leave and go back to your people before it is too late.” The two men both backed up and fled toward their families only to be struck down by soldiers before they could reach them. “Cowards.” The man muttered, “I suppose that means your my only potential recruit in this village. So that means I have to do something special to test you.” A twisted smile crossed his lips as he walked toward Jordyn, he got a feeling of foreboding when the man grabbed him and walked him towards the center of the square where an arena had been set up.