"Took you long enough" Ishtar whispered to Chris.
"I always love a fashionably late entrance sister, I thought you would know that" he answered back causing her to grin.
But deep within he could feel the world around him and it was wrong. A unnatural coldness bit every sensory nerve upon his physical body and Chris fought the urge to wrap his arms around himself to try and rub away the cold. He wondered if Ursa was right about his magic running haywire, but it had to be, after all, how could he be feeling cold.
"Is something the matter, Prince Christian?" the High Council asked.
Chris stiffened as he realised that he had been absent minded again. It had happened after they exited the elevator earlier and now he was doing it at a table of important officials who had all turned their attention upon him.
He nervously coughed as he tried to think up a cover and going for the first words which surfaced out of his mind he blurted out. "I was just wondering about your nations history?"
The High Council paused and looked at him with a puzzled expression as he asked. "Were you not debriefed about this?"
"Just the basics, former puppet state of the Lunar empire that rebelled five years ago and has become a state of its own, nothing detailed or even precise. I would very much like to hear it from someone who actually lived it." he stated before he took a apple from the table and taking a great bite out of it.
The High Council's lips morphed into a wide grin, a sign confirming everything Chris suspected about the giant Elf, he was a prideful bastard.
"Our island was once the home to many seafaring tribes, from Dál-Ligan to Tritonia we helped facilitate trade, that was the way of things for as far as remembered history. But then over two thousand years ago our land was conquered by the Ocean Lords empire for no other reason than they could not suffer a strong rival at sea. Then a thousand years letter the Lunar empire came and beat back the Oncen Lords, conquering us in turn." for the first time the High Council lost his trademark smile for a deep scowl. "Our colonization under both empires was not well and we only managed to regain our autonomy five years ago through a rebellion that I led."
" Sounds grim." Chris poured wine into a cup which he raised to the High Council saying. "To hard won freedom and eternal friendship."
The High Council's smile returned and he raised his own goblet and with a hearty laugh he proudly declared. "To freedom and eternal friendship!"
The High Council then downed it in one go while Chris took a sip of his own. He knew that he was a deplomat representating Avalon, turning into a drunken mess was entirely out of the question.
The general atmosphere of the room suddenly turned frosty as the doors were loudly pushed open and a retinue of elves stomped into the room with disgust and anger mixed into faces. Looking at them Chris found his vision almost blurring like he was losing the ability pickup any details from his environment.
"By the Sky Father not now." the High Council silently cursed as the head Elf from the Hephatantian council arose with a angry expression upon their face.
"My dear High Council, I did not think you blind." the term high council was stated with such obvious disgust it was frankly astounding. " In fact if my eyes don't deceive me I could say that this may as well be a Twelmp gathering rather rather than a gathering of all of the elected leaders of Hephatan."
" I invited the entire Helmp party to this gathering, but half of your members out right refused to come while the others have kept walking out. I have tried to uphold the doctrine of good government, you can not blame me if the other party refuses to play ball." the High Council's
answer only seemed to anger the Helmp party.
"Oh, now you try to make yourself a democratic man. Where was this democracy, High Council Magnus when you ignored the wishes of the council six years ago for your own selfish ambitions?!" The ranting of the council only grew louder and angrier.
" Council Agathocles, please. " the High Council's tone of voice was layered with a thick warning, but council Agathocles didn't seem to care in the slightest.
"How the house of Magnus has fallen with you Hanno. You invite these people to our lands and spurn our oldest and truest friends for your own delusions and shameless ambitions of being king in all but name. Oh how your father must be weeping in his grave!" These words must have gone too far because High council Magnus slammed his fist upon the table so hard that it was almost cracked in two.
"Council Agathocles, unless you have anything of any value in this meeting I suggest you leave or shut up!" as he spoke the High Council's red mane erupted into flames.
Agathocles answered by spitting upon the ground and beginning to walk out of the room flanked by twelve angry looking fae and elves who must have been fellows of the Helmp party. As he walked past the high council he shouted.
"Keep your false government and make your false friends, in time your wickedness shall be brought to ruin and this great nation shall be cleansed of your radicals and treasonous brood of serpents!"
When the man and what Chris assumed was the remaining Helmp party had departed, the High Council sighed and rubbed his face in exhaustion. " If you would accept my humblest of apologizes my friends, I had no intention nor idea that would happen."
"There is no need High Council, if you forgive my asking but what was that?" Ishtar asked him looking positively dumbfounded.
"The Helmp party, they have never liked that we forced our autonomy back from the Lunar empire. They have never forgiven me for ignoring their protests and declaring Hephatan a independent state. They hold no love for you as you would imagine, especially you prince Christian, you slew the legendary Nimue of all people." Chris shuddered as he remembered the former leader of Zodiac.
" But the Lunar empire were oppressors who ruled yours nation and treated you as second class citizens within it." Ishtar like Chris still couldn't understand this love for the Lunar empire.
"Most of the Helmp are old blood with gold flowing through their veins. Their forebears were rich settlers from the Lunar empire, the old way was good for them and I don't think that they would ever forgive me for rounding up twenty percent of all their assets for the public projects, they have always been the penny pinching type." the High Council answered with a chuckle which was more sad, unlike his previous ones.
Ishtar then reached for her rode and from a pocket she pulled out a rolled up scroll which she handed to the High Council who spent the next ten minutes reading it.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
" This is a trading deal with Avalon for timber at a lowered price. A first step in our new born alliance." Ishtar said to the Elf after he finished reading it. "We are aware that the Lunar empire almost stripped mined your island for timber and what's left is under conservation. We are willing to sign this exclusive four year deal with your people to sell you timber at half of the usual rate of your currency with lowered export taxes."
" And what of the military?" the High Council asked.
"We shall send five destroyer battle class ships with a collective number of fifty thousand Avalonian armed forces to help protect your nation from Lunar Empire invasion forces. In return you are to aid us with a minimum of thirty thousand troops and ten vessels for our eastern front against the Lunar Empire."
The High Council turned to face his fellow council men and women at the table to see if anyone had any objections to Avalons offer. No one said anything and after a few minutes the High Council nodded his head saying. "We accept the terms of this deal. We can perform the official signing tom....."
The entire building shook violently and it's lights flickered in and out of life before going out and then suddenly returning so brightly that a few even exploded. Chris had to shield his eyes from the irritating sting of the lights before they finally subsided to their normal output.
"What is happening!?" High council
Magnus demanded over the confused murmurings of the people.
" This country is being saved!" shouted a voice from the other side of the door which was soon knocked open and in walked council Agathocles with many armed military men and women behind him as he declared. " It's over, Magnus. Surrendered and spare us from taking a step too far."
Chris could not believe his eyes as he saw burning purple orbs with the eyes of Agathocles as well the black blood vessels that crisscrossed across their bodies. He had seen this before on his mother when her other half was corrupted by dark energy. He turned to look at Ishtar and was bone white from shock, as matter of fact everyone was frozen in shock.
"Agathocles, what have you done!?" the High Council whispered out in near silent dread.
"The end of this charade has come, it's over my friends. We have made the ultimate sacrifices to bring back order to realm."
"This is madness, you wouldn't have your way in being oppressed by the Lunar Empire and your response to all this was to corrupt yourselves in shadow." the High Council bellowed angrily.
"We are not like you, Magnus. We are pure in our thoughts and no simple shadow shall consume us. Now surrender before this gets ugly."
"Over my dead body." the High Council answered as a burst of fire erupted upon his fists.
"So be it, take them!" Agathocles ordered his men and the shadow tainted warriors rushed everyone in the room.
Chris acted on instinct alone and he reached for Lucius-Aurora, but his sword was not in its scabbard, he had left in his bedroom out of fear of what a negative image he would make to go to a state dinner with weapons.
Thinking fast he wove his elemental magic into a spike made of ice and he drove it through the first corrupted madman who got close enough to him. Everywhere across the dinner room violent melee and gun battles raged as the guests tried their best to fight off their attackers.
Chris found himself fighting like a madman as he slammed his elbow into the jaw of one attacker as hard as he possibly could, knocking out some teeth and sending his foe sprawling onto the ground. But that wasn't the end of the fools pain, Chris raised his leg and he stomped the tainted man's head into the concrete floor.
He turned and manifested a mist wraith, a near perfect copy of himself built from a thick plum of mist. The wraith looked terrifying but it was mainly there to act as a distraction to his foes while he closed the distance and soaked the floor in a shallow pool of crimson.
With each passing second Chris could feel something swelling up from inside himself. It was a sensation that put him at ease and he knew it, this feeling as he pinned one of them down and snapped their neck, was joy, euphoria or any other word that meant immense joy.
It felt wrong in every way, and yet Chris kept a smile upon his face as he butchered his way towards Agathocles. Tunnel vision had completely taken him and he didn't see as Pyrrha used her flames to burn some foes, or when Hamanymu summoned roots out of the earth, or when Thor blasted out arcs of lightning and even when Ursa cast earthen hexes that materialised earthen spikes through her attackers heads.
None of this matter to Chris, all he could think about was to get to Agathocles and to kill more of his minions. Every kill was just too much fun, he could not stop now. He almost stopped his rampage when he heard someone shout his name, he didn't know who it was and before he turn to look at them Agathocles raised his hand and fired off a blast of dark energy at Chris.
The beam of corruptive energy struck Chris like a train going at full force. It knocked him off his feet and sent the Avalonian prince flying through multiple walls before exiting the building with a shower of debris flowing him closely behind.
The blast of pure dark energy had paralysised the prince and though he tried, his body was locked at the joints and he could do nothing as he plummeted from the top of the six hundred meter tall building.
He closed his eyes and winced in anticipation as he finally hit the ground with an ear piercing thud. His collision with the tarmac road left a three metre crater with a groaning and pained prince resting at its center.
"Could I not have today." he thought as he regained control of his limbs and he stumbled to his feet. The people who had been celebrating across the streets came to the edges of the crater in confusion.
"What Is going on?" some asked.
"Is that the prince?" others asked.
Chris tuned them out and focused his attention to the top of the building which had become hazy and almost distorted to see, the full corruptive display of dark energys effect on the world.
He took in a deep breath and focusing upon his back, he felt a tingling prick as his Fae wings materialized in full. Like limbs that had not been used in a long time, so did his five foot moth like wings ache as he outreached them.
Chris flapped them and they instantly launched him into the air so fast that the air around him burned and the building's windows shattered. Within a few seconds he flew through the hole that he had been launched through and he came with a vengeance.
The first corrupted warriors that he fell upon had shards of ice driven through their skulls. But they did not matter to him, the one that he wanted was Agathocles. The arch traitor was easy to find as he stood in the centre of the room fighting Ishtar and the High Council.
Ishtar had also come without her weapons, but that had not stopped the Avalonian crown princess from ripping a piece of steel rebar from the wall, which she used to smack Agathocles around. Meanwhile the High Council shot out streams of fire from his hands.
The two would have easily killed the arch traitor as each blow of steel rebar and jet of flames cracked bone and burnt flesh, but that dark power which flowed within him would reattach torn flesh and regrow skin even faster than the two could make such wounds.
"Surrendered already, you can not..." Agathocles screeching was halted as Ishtar smacked him across the head so hard that bits and pieces of him painted the floor.
Within seconds the wound had reattached itself and the arch traitor did not look pleased at all. He snarled like a rabid dog and he roared with spit flying out of his mouth. From his shadows did creatures of living shadow emerge, their forms were tall and their arms were distended with fingers that ended in hooked nails.
These were the Shadecan, the foot troops of the Night Terrors. Monsters of shadow that were intangible to all but magical attacks. The creatures roared and rushed Ishtar and the High Council, who were forced to step away from Agathocles and focuse on the monsters.
Agathocles smiled thinking that he has safe, a pity then that he didn't see Chris flying towards him until it was too late. Chris grew a large ice spike and he crashed right into the elf, driving it through as he tackled him.
The two went through multiple walls and out the other side of the building. They flew through the air and into the roof of a empty building. The roof collapsed from their crash and they both went through three top floors before coming to a painful halt.
Chris coughed out a mixture of dust and concrete that he had swallowed as he flew through walls and roofs. Every part of his body ached and he could feel blood trickling from some scratches on his forehead.
"What are you thinking, can you not see what I am doing. How can you stand there and claim the care about Hephatan, when you simply want to prop up that damn bastard!" as Agathocles ranted, a stream of black ink rolled out of his mouth and his eyes bulged out so wildly that they looked ready to pop out of his sockets. "I am a patriot, a son of the land. Everything around you was built by the Empire, not by...."
"Will You Shut The Hell Up Already!" Chris snapped. "You say whatever excuse that you want, but I don't give a damn. All I care about is that you threatened my family and my friends. So shut up and prepare to meet your forefathers."
Agathocles snarled once more and this time his teeth had been replaced with needle like fangs. Out of his mouth came a black mist that possessed many glowing purple eyes that looked at Chris with hate. The mist began breaking apart and an army of Shadecan came charging.
Chris smirked as he weaved the threads of his magic into as many mist wraiths as he could muster. Against anyone else the wraiths would have been nothing but cold air, but concentrated magic hurt the normally intangibile Shadecan and the wraiths were formed from the stuff.
The two mini armies clashed with a fury that sent them sailing across the entire room and some even flew out the windows and into the streets below. But Chris didn't pay attention to them. He was focused on Agathocles.
The arch traitor fired off a blast of dark energy but Chris rolled beneath it and leaped forward with a kick to the chest that sent Agathocles stumbling backwards. As Chris once again closed the distance, Agathocles tried to fire off another blast, but Chris wouldn't let him.
A right hook dislocated Agathocles jaw, a spinning left elbow cracked his orbital bone, a pair of oblique kicks cracked his knees and finally a judo throw sent him on his back. Chris leaped upon him and the Avalonian Prince began throwing bombs upon Agathocles face, tenderising flesh and cracking bone.
It didn't matter that arch traitor was healing because Chris would add another wound. Within a few minutes Agathocles was panicking and he placed both hands on Chris's chest in a panic. the room when bright purple from all the dark energy that Agathocles pumped into it.
And yet, nothing happened. Chris was not blasted across the room, he remained mounted on Agathocles with only a cold tinge in his chest and a terrified Agathocles looking up at him.
"By the Ancients, what are you?" he whimpered out, his power spent and his wounds no longer healing.
"I Am The Winter Who Devours All" the words flowed out of Chris's mouth with a glee unknown to him.
"Merc..."
Agathocles plee was ignored as Chris began striking him with a mad glee that put his senses in a haze. As Agathocles pained howls were replaced with a constant wet thumping of knuckles beating flesh into a pulp, Chris laughed.
Within ten minutes, the deed was done and Chris arose with a deep sense of euphoria. If he had been paying attention to anything other than his high, he would have noticed that his reflection had glowing dark purple eyes.