(3° person POV, Doranar Kingdom)
The palace was in chaos, several officers of the king running around, making difficult to transit on the corridors. The princess struggles to get to the Royal Library, the only place where the chaos isn’t ensued. She sighs, fixing he dress and long blonde, wavy hair.
The pale skin and delicate face a bit flushed due the effort to go through the people in the corridors. The green eyes look around the library, and the modest body, dressed in a gorgeous white dress, moves around, looking for a book to read. As she looks at the several books, she murmurs to herself in her cute voice:
(Princess): “Whys is everybody so energetic today? Did someone declare war on us?”
(???): “No, Princess Luna. There’s no war ahead, at least for now.”
A woman’s voice talks from behind her. She turns surprised, seeing the one who just talked. Between two of the shelfs, a table sits quietly in front of a window, showing the capital city down below, as the Royal Library rests on the high floors of the castle.
On the table, several pieces of a clock are scattered, together with some tools and the disassembled clock. On the chair, a voluptuous woman with revealing clothes sits leisurely. Her fair white skin has a healthy gleam, the large breasts and gorgeous face that would turn the head of any men.
The golden eyes with a seductive gleam that makes even women blush, the long, straight purple hair falls behind her shoulders to the base of her back. The princess feels some heat on her face as always. This woman is Melina, the Royal Engineer.
(Luna): “Lady Melinda… what is happening?”
She asked, sitting on the empty chair besides her.
(Melina): “My dear, do you remember the Golden Gates?”
She asked out of the blue, confusing Luna. Straining her mind, she struggles to remember anything about the famous Golden Gates. Not that she was stupid, but because she simply can’t bear the boring classes from the scholars of the castle about history.
(Lucia): “Yeah, their army is quite powerful right?”
She said a bit hesitantly. Melina laughed, saying:
(Melina): “Don’t worry, Princess. I understand how the scholars are unable to get anyone’s attention. Because of that, I’ll tell you the story of the Golden gates. But first, do you remember how humans arrived at this continent?”
(Lucia): “If I’m not mistaken, from the east, right? The first humans arrived on ships, right?”
(Melina): “Yes. The first humans came under the leadership of the first human Emperor two thousand years ago, and started a way with the demons inhabiting this continent. His army was vast, around 100.000 warriors, and the emperor himself was a master strategist.”
(Lucia): “I know about that, he conquered the whole continent in five years, right?”
(Melina): “Yes. Because of that, the whole continent is now human territory after migrating from the dwarven continent. However, even two thousand years ago, the Golden Gates were already in the continent, without any contact with the world outside. Do you know what the emperor tried to do?”
(Lucia): “What?”
(Melinda): “He tried to conquer the Golden Gates. With ten thousand men, he attacked with siege weapons.”
(Lucia): “And what happened?”
She asked, curious, as she was oblivious to most of the story related to the Golden Gates.
(Melinda): “He fought the Bronze Knights.”
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A shiver went down the princess’ spine. These guys she knows. The Metal Knights, the army under the Golden Gates. The vast story of the knights in metallic armor covering the whole body gave dreams to bards and writers, creating several fantastical stories about the knights.
For a long time, they were though to be monsters, as they all have similar height and it’s impossible to see inside their helms, and their discipline is almost inhuman. This belief was disproved when one of the knights was wounded in battle.
(Melinda): “According to the records, the armies of the Emperor were completely decimated, without being able to defeat a single knight. It must be noted that he was against three thousand Bronze Knights. He was crushed without being able to defeat even one of the knights.”
(Luna): “These knights are truly strong, aren’t they?”
(Melinda): “Well, we have to consider that at the time the practice of battlemages wasn’t a thing. Also, we didn’t have the technology that we have today.”
(Luna): “Like the flintlock, and the cannons, right?”
She said, remembering what the soldiers use to take down forts.
(Melinda): “Yes. This way, even the common soldier can cause damage at distance. But before that, there was another campaign done by the Emperor. Having faced his first defeat, he swore to invade and conquer the Golden Gates.”
(Luna): “It didn’t work, didn’t it?”
(Melinda): “No. He attacked several times, each time with a bigger army, until he attacked with a full force of 100.000 soldiers.”
(Luna): “What happened?”
(Melinda): “They were slaughtered. There were 50.000 Bronze Knights, and this time, arrows with the size of people fell down from atop the one-and-a-half-kilometer tall wall. After this defeat, he gave up on attacking them.”
(Luna): “I remember now! He wasn’t the last, was he?”
(Melinda): “No. After he passed, his five children fought for the throne. The First Empire was split, and chaos took over the continent. The territory was split in several small kingdoms, as nobles under the five also declared independence. After three hundred years of war, several countries tried to attack the Golden Gates, be either for glory or for the gates themselves, as they are incrusted with several precious gems and seemingly made out of pure gold.”
(Luna): “I neve saw them up close. Is it beautiful like in the novels?”
She asked, remembering the exaggerated and extravagant descriptions created by poets, bards and romance writers. Melinda smiled, looking out of the window, saying:
(Melinda): “No, they’re not like these people wrote about. They’re even more beautiful. Calling it the Golden Gates doesn’t make justice tot the beauty of the place. The gates are set between to mountains, made of a metal that seems gold, decorated with carvings depicting scenes of glorious battles. The colors are made with precious jewels, emeralds, diamonds, rubies and other precious gems.
The yard in front of the gates are vast and white, around one and a half kilometers of diameter. Perfectly smooth, carved with harmonic geometric patterns, made of expensive marble. The whole place looks like a painting of the greatest master that was ever born.”
She said, remembering what she saw, a marvel made with the most skilled hands. A desire to see the place came to the princess’ heart. While wondering about the Golden Gates, she asked:
(Lucia): “Wait, what’s inside the gates? Is there a way around them?”
Melinda shook her head.
(Melinda): “No, the whole place is surrounded by mountains, like a bowl. The mountains are too steep and hard to be climbed or dug through, each one having a ten kilometers height. It almost seems that they were enhanced with magic. The only entrance is the gates.
Of course, many tried to fly over the mountains, even our kingdom tried to. However, they were shot down as soon as they approached the gates. With the gryphon raiders, we managed to discover a castle within the gates, as well a town, fields and an enormous lake.
The whole city seems advanced, a mix of architecture and machine, according to the repot of the riders. However, if they approach too much, a mysterious fog covers the whole place, and we were unable to get more details.”
(Lucia): “Machines… their technology is better than ours?”
(Melinda): “Apparently so.”
(Lucia): “Were there any more kingdoms that tried to fight the Golden Gates?”
Melinda smiled wryly at Lucia’s question, saying:
(Melinda): “Princess, do you remember the other name of the Golden Gates?”
(Lucia): “No.”
(Melinda): “It’s called the Kingdom Breaker. Many empires and kings threw their armies against the gate, but all of them lost. Legendary heroes, generals and kings slain. The military power of the Golden Gates is too great. After all, the Bronze knights aren’t the only soldiers of the Golden Gates.”
(Lucia): “The silver knights.”
Melinda nodded. The most famous knights of the Golden Gates, the Silver Knights. They are the object of several novels and romances, as their rare appearance and fighting prowess earned them the fantasy of the populace. Even this kingdom, Doranar, has the Silver Guard.
(Melinda): “Yes. They appeared first a thousand years ago, when the Demon Army invaded the human kingdoms. They invaded with two hundred thousand soldiers, but what greeted them wasn’t only the army of 50.000 bronze knights, but also five thousand silver knights. They exterminated the demon army, and because of that the humans managed to reconquer most of the territory.”
(Lucia): “Wow! I remember reading about that! Wasn’t also an emperor that declared war on the Golden Gates?”
(Melinda): “Yes, the Wise Emperor. He didn’t had the wish to attack the Golden Gates, he just used them as a excuse to let his country enter a war policy. With that, he moved the country as he wanted, and created great economical advances, building roads and creating connections.”
(Lucia): “I see. He was indeed wise.”
She said, nodding to herself. Seeing that, Melinda smiled and said:
(Melinda): “Well, there were many others famous figures who declared war on them, but nobody ever won against them. However, do you know what all of this have to do with today’s commotion?”
(Lucia): “Oh! I almost forgot! You said that there isn’t war yet, so di we declare war on the golden Gates?”
She asked, a bit concerned. She doesn’t thing that her father would be so stupid to the point of doing so, but why would he other rulers before do so?
(Melinda): “No, don’t worry. The reason for the commotion is that, during these two thousand years, the Golden Gates remained closed and unmoving. Even the Knights, the seemingly came out from the ground in front of the gate. But still, the gates remained closed. For two thousand years.
However, now, the reason why there’s a chaos in the castle, is that the Golden Gates… are open.”