It is a well-known fact that the greatest empire of Gaia has no queen.
Ten years ago, when Relestia was but a royal toddler, the only woman that Galahad Vestimore so loved passed away.
Her royal majesty was known by the public to have gotten sick on an ill-prepared meal; a highly toxic Echidna Kelpie meat that was mistaken for the Ulysses Sirens which flesh could extend one’s life and enhance one’s beauty.
But no one, besides the ones involved, knew what truly happened.
No matter how inept the royal chef might be, to serve up a poisonous dish is far too unbelievable. Even a kid from the slums knows that heads will roll when the monarch is angered.
If a chef caused someone in the royal family to have the runs, in all likelihood, his entire family would be ready for burial before the sundown. Therefore, a royal chef is a careful one. To make such a mistake is unthinkable.
Galahad may be a kind ruler, but no one would mistake him for a weak one. To dare poison someone during the royal banquet speaks of a deep-seated conspiracy.
The emperor and his queen had six children.
The first child was wise beyond his years and the perfect candidate to take the throne, but he was ill-fated to be born without the talent to cultivate. As a non-practitioner, his years would be a hundred and twenty even with the best spirit fruits and pills around. For their empire, it will be too short of a period.
The second prince was slow-witted but gentle. He lived his years pampered by his older brother until the third prince was born.
As talented as he is ambitious, he aimed for the throne before he became a man.
It wasn’t long before he took his first life, a babe that the queen thought she had miscarried; the fourth prince.
The grieving queen wanted another child, and this time Galahad took steps to prevent another miscarriage from happening again. Thus came the fifth prince.
Gleeful that no one caught him, the third prince already set his sights on his older siblings. The younger one wasn’t a threat yet.
Before Galahad saw through it, he has gotten to the second prince, tricking his older brother to drown himself.
It was then that the emperor found out what was happening for what it is.
Galahad was a master in the arts of cultivation and the study of magic; he had a researcher’s mind and a warrior’s heart.
He had guessed it for a while, but he could not understand his son, the third prince’s vileness that stemmed from a fear of losing what he owned.
The boy had enjoyed the privileges which came with being a prince, but he was weak-hearted and lashed out those that could be a threat. It was often fear that brought viciousness.
Thus before the third prince could do anything more, Galahad, in the act of selflessness, chased the first prince out of the palace granted his oldest son’s wish for a life of normalcy. In return, it tore their relationship apart and broke the queen’s heart.
It wasn’t surprising that for the next few hundred years, the queen ignored her husband in the bedroom. Yet, Galahad’s love for his son never changed. He quietly looked over his son, even as he gained his title as the merchant prince and lived to the end of his days as a non-practitioner.
In remembrance, a piss-poor place called Rutea was protected for hundreds of years, all because the first prince once-loved it.
Without any more competition, the third prince soon established himself, but the fifth prince proved himself to be a survivor and quickly grew into a threat.
Unlike the other siblings, the newest royal member was astute to the danger he was in, and from a very young age, he portrayed an uncanny ability to protect himself.
Galahad was impressed by the child, to say the least as cultivators will only go far by breaking through obstacles with their might and wit.
And so, the two brothers fought each other in the light and manipulated forces in the shadows for many years.
It was many centuries later before the queen was weary of their strife and so Relestia was born, her name meaning forgiveness and love. In her, the queen hoped that the adorable child could unite the family again.
Unfortunately, his two sons had been plotting against each other for the throne for the longest time and Galahad who knew this could not imagine that his queen – a kindly and wise woman who loved all her children equally - would become caught in between.
Her death was elaborate to incite Galahad into taking action and put the perpetrator to death. The two princes blamed each other, but the royal guards traced it down that the culprit was the older brother, the third prince.
However, unexpectedly Galahad did not execute either prince.
His late wife loved them.
His royal majesty was furious and inconsolable, but he knew that even in death, his queen would not harm her children and thus he wouldn’t either; No matter how much of a monster they were to have done such wickedness.
Besides, there was too few evidence for him to confidently say who the true culprit was although everything points to the third prince. Instead, Galahad was suspicious, that the fifth prince planted those.
After the incident, Galahad quietly removed Relestia from gaining any form of power while he played the two princes against each other.
In the open, the third prince seemed to have lost the emperor’s favour as Galahad helped the fifth prince to grow his forces slowly.
In secret, the third prince believed that his royal father was convinced that the queen’s death was by the fifth prince’s hands – except that there was no way to confirm this. Otherwise, why would the emperor lend him aid whenever it was crucial for the next ten years?
Of course, the truth is, the culprit truly was the third prince. His burning ambition was so much that even his mother who loved him dearly was unspared. He did not want more competitors for the throne, and it was an opportunity to frame the fifth prince as the culprit. He knew it wasn't possible for him to fully destroy all evidence, and thus he made sure everything pointed to himself.
It wasn't strange that Galahad couldn't confirm who the murderer was, but he knew one thing. He loved his youngest, the innocent Relestia, and he wanted to protect her.
It is heart-wrenching as a parent that he was helpless to do so, for doing so would attract hostility from her two older brothers.
It was perhaps divine will that the youngest member of the royal family, the little princess, was born a Soul Healer. As her mother, the queen, had hoped, Relestia did gain love from her two brothers, and it became her umbrella of sorts.
However, Galahad knew she is only safe when she poses no threat to her brothers. But the underlying problem - her claim to the throne - is a birthright, and Galahad sought to find her a protector.
He chose Kairos.
Everyone in the royal courts had thought that the emperor wanted to make the boy a member of the royal family by matchmaking him with Relestia. They did not know that Galahad wanted him as the little princess’ defender until she was of age to become the queen of Saint Empire.
Everything had been properly set up for this to happen, even placing two family heads from the Three Great Nobles in position - Duke Yue Chang Ming of the Dark Gods family, and Duke Floretinus Cixton of the Steel Rose family.
Despite never meeting either of them, many of the things that happened to Kairos and those around him were perpetrated by the two princes but were secretly resolved by the two dukes.
Things were going as planned until a calamity that no one anticipated befell upon Saint Empire. Kairos did save the princess as Galahad wanted, however, wasn't from the two princes. It was from assassins sent from the Immortal Realm instead. The emperor went missing that day, the third prince was killed, the fifth prince was made a cripple and became their puppet, and the entire empire was thrown into disarray.
With a prince in their hands through a collaboration with the enemy state, the Silent Lambs Empire, the position of crown reagent was quickly seized by the Devilheart family.
The princess, the only other royal member who can lay claims to the throne, became their biggest target. The ones vying to acquire an absolute hold over Saint Empire knows that Kairos and the Snowdrifts that harbours Relestia are their greatest obstacles and must be eradicated. Unfortunately, the boy and his guild had fame that precedes them; the good work their group had done for the people became their barrier.
Moreover, while the Snowdrifts is a new organisation, their underlying power is deceptively formidable.
Many allies in high places support their group, like Fritzgen the Treasures Pavilion owner, Grand Elder Feng of the Trade Federate, Rielon the King of Thieves, Duke Yue the Dark Gods family head and secretly Duke Floretinus the Steel Rose family head, as well as a myriad other noble families that have members in the Snowdrifts.
Even the Devilheart family who had the entire empire at their mercy could not find an easy way to remove the Snowdrifts - this thorn in their side. Their power was enough to protect them for the next few years, and things remained peaceful for a short while. At least, until the day of their graduation from the Saint Cadets Academy whereby a chance will present itself for the Devilheart family to root out Kairos and his gang.
…..
Two years later, on a cloudless day, Tommy roared with incredible vigour as he finally returned to Entry B rank.
His voice turned stone to dust and churned waters into wind.
A metallic sheen flashed across his skin, as the image of an Arhat seemed to loom behind him before slowly fading away like mist.
He had finally attained the Dharma Constitution. A legendary physique that had no limits to the height one’s cultivation could grow – as long as one is willing to trade an equal value of hard work.
A warrior’s body, forged in training and battle, blood and combat.
All the cultivation he lost so far returned, and it caused him to have double the Ki of those at his rank permanently. A perk of this constitution.
At the early stage, the differences are small. An F ranker that had double the cultivation foundation is no different from a worm becoming a fat worm. But, a Triple S ranker with double the inner strength is a Koi that had turned into a Dragon.
To reach this stage was a long and arduous path. He had in fact retrained several times.
Each time his cultivation was dismissed, he had to go through inhuman levels of pain and torture as his felt his body break apart and his Dantian shattering. Each time, fear struck his heart when he knew he would have to retrain and suffer this again, but his will-power also strengthened along the way.
Although he did rush his cultivation, two years was enough for Tommy to build a solid foundation. For most, it would result in a weak base that was created in haste, causing one’s Dantian to be smaller and thus makes one’s inner energy faint.
But, his internal and external training that was tailored by Kairos was a mix of innovation and breakthrough, allowing him to gain more than five years of cultivation in two.
…..
Five years have passed since the Snowdrifts were formed. The world had changed, and Saint Empire had fallen on hard times in the Devilheart’s hands.
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On a sunny day where the skies are clear, and everything seemed more vibrant than usual, the students of Saint Cadets Academy gathered to witness their seniors’ award ceremony. It is the day where their achievements are celebrated and their job posting to be announced and this year their most legendary seniors are about to embark on a new chapter in their lives.
For some people, however, where they will be assigned had long ago been predetermined. In fact, to prevent unforeseen changes, those seniors that had left the academy early, right after they were ‘specially scouted’, and most of them are members of the Snowdrifts.
In this occasion where it should be joyous, a strangely oppressive atmosphere lingered like old perfume that refused to clear and its source is the presence of armed soldiers around.
They are not ceremony guards, but a military force to prevent anyone from escaping. This is not normal for graduation day, and the reason they are here is for Kairos, Alan, Edward, Jim, and Tommy.
Other core members of the Snowdrifts had already been conscripted, and now these five are the only ones left.
The place the five of them are going is called the Dark Hall, and their posting vocation is as Death Warriors.
Four years later, the world had fallen into chaos. No, the word ‘chaos’ itself cannot fully describe the madness and depravity that ran rampant throughout Gaia.
Murder, parricide, prolicide, fratricide, are carried out every day and celebrated as family members turn against each other and clans fought with clans.
War had broken out. The barbarians of the north march under the banners of their great Khan. And, the war between two great empires: The Silent Lambs Empire and the Saint Empire, had relit like a roaring fire.
Everywhere was rife with strife and danger.
To most people, it was an abrupt change, but the reason had to do with the devils’ seals weakening. As their demonic aura seep into the lands, the lusts, greed, and selfish desires of the people were magnified.
Somewhere at a remote but vast countryside, a young couple carrying their babe was franticly running from bandits.
Not long ago, this place that is within the borders of their capital is free from such rampant crimes.
But with the chaos, crime and lawlessness had risen, and the outlaws grew bolder with every day that passed.
A man that could be described only as a stereotypical rogue, roared with laughter as he watched the small family of three fleeing for their lives.
“Run, hurry up and run for your lives… why are you stopping?”
He was dressed in tattered leopard skin and held a crude blade that had not seen a sharpening stone for a decade. Hardened from the dirt it was caked in his beard, black and mangy, moved stiffly as he laughed.
The other bandits stood in a semi-circle and stalked their prey, all the while chuckling.
With how crazy the world has become, the authorities had limited resources to deal with them, and they fully made use of the situation.
The couple really turned and ran down a mud-trodden slope and quickly disappeared from sight as they get to lower ground.
They appeared faster than the bandits expected, causing their leader to click his tongue in annoyance.
The chase had gone on long enough, and he wasn’t really asking them to flee.
Preys should have some self-awareness and properly provide some entertainment. What’s with this hysterical getaway? Did they really think they could escape?
The rogue whistled, and straightaway his men ran to hunt down the pair. They crackled with joy, as they chased, fully immersed in the hunt.
They felt lucky. They are small time muggers that were looking people at isolated places and bumped into this couple. Both the guy and his wife are beautiful, and their babe will also be worth a pretty penny in the right hands.
“You louts, it’s okay to have your fun with them, but make sure you do not harm the infant. I’ve news of that the Devilheart are buying as much orphans as they come.”
“Aye boss… we be professional orphan makers, we are. Just leave it to old one-tooth.”
“You better. Or else from today on you will be known as no-tooth!”
The laughter all around became louder in response.
Suddenly, just as his words was said, the young couple stopped as though they saw something shocking.
A young man seemingly that had appeared from nowhere stepped in between the bandits and the young couple.
He appeared uninterested in what was happening and took a good look around.
The top of the slope they are on is a good vantage point to see the great flatland for miles. The young man must’ve climbed up the slope at some point, but it was surprising that none of them noticed until now.
“Boy! What do you think you’re doing?”
“You have a death wish, child?”
“Get outta the way of old one-tooth!”
The young man had a hatred for wickedness, but he did not react to them as if they didn’t exist.
The chaos they are now living in had changed everyone.
For him, it had steeled his resolve.
He turned and shouted, “Captain! The way is clear for miles.”
Across the vast land he is standing on, there are more than just this bandit group roaming around, but all these vermin are insignificant for him.
The bandits noticed that the young couple stared wordlessly at the other direction, and curiously they craned their necks to see what caught their attention.
What they saw caused them to blanch. At the foot of the slope, three hundred soldiers on dragon horses rode towards them.
“Dragon Horse?! They… they’re all military officers?”
The beast was easy to recognise from the draconic heads they have and a horse’s body. The type of mount one rides is a show of status. Most soldiers do not even have a beast of burden, but any that does is already an elite.
Amongst the mounts, the Dragon Horses are specially chosen for officers because they are sensible mount of superior stamina and reliability in battle. It is far better than rare beasts that are only nice to look at.
A beautiful Silver-eyed Black Lion would be fearsome enough to frighten off weaklings, but in a war, it will only become a burden with its poor endurance.
The bandits stiffened at the sight. Three hundred officers!
Even bumping into one can be considered downtrodden luck.
Military officers are at least A ranked, and if they managed to defeat one, they would attract countless constables chasing after their group.
If it was only a couple of officers, they could erase all traces, but seeing this approaching army, they turned tail to flee without hesitation.
Three hundred man is merely a larger company, not yet a battalion. However, if each officer leads two to four small squads of five, then it means that there are at least three to six thousand men that command.
The group of men couldn’t help but wish they could grow another pair of legs.
They charged another thousand paces before stopping. As practitioners, if they become winded running this distance, it would cause others to laugh their teeth off. The reason why they stopped was because there was no one chasing after them.
Their glee returned, even though their prey surely escaped by now.
“They didn’t chase after us?”
“For what? There are too many outlaws in this place. It will take months for them to root us all out.”
“Haha! Those military dogs must’ve been on an urgent mission.”
“Maybe we didn’t need to run away after all?”
Just as they were cheering their luck, the young man they saw just now, reappeared besides them.
“Run, hurry up and run for your lives… why are you stopping?” the young man said.
The bandits stared at him as if they’ve seen a ghost. A few with quicker reactions turned tail and fled, the rest scrambling after.
They ran a long while before stopping once again. This time, they had to rest even if they didn’t want to.
No one noticed when, but the young man was once again beside them like a phantom causing their faces to pale.
He said, “Since you like to make me chase after you, quickly move those short stubby legs of yours…”
A few of them shouted unhappily.
“Don’t think we are scared of you kid!”
“Yeah! We are already far enough from your friends. Against all of us, you’ll only regret it. I suggest you turn back now.”
They ran in the opposite direction of the three hundred officers. By now, they should be more than an hour apart, even on the backs of Dragon Horses.
Realising this fact, the others also perked up. They don’t have to be courteous to a single military officer. Although they wouldn’t dare to kill him since they couldn’t wipe off all evidences now that three hundred soldiers already witnessed the incident, they could still give him a good bashing.
“Jim! We don’t have time to waste, hurry up,” a foreign voice shouted from behind the bandits.
Those rogues turned around in fright. In the direction they were fleeing just a moment ago was the three hundred military officers.
Behind the group was the young couple still carrying their babe.
Somehow, they had been chased in a full circle and returned to the start.
“We… we’ve been toyed with.”
“We’re doomed!”
“Fools! Why didn’t anyone realise we were running in a circle?”
“B… boss… you were the one leading…”
“Shut up! Shut up! Do you think now is the time to bicker with me?”
The young man called Jim laughed at them, but he quickly restored his seriousness, “Sorry, I got to follow my captain’s order. He’s right that we really don’t have the time.
Three months. Do you know how short that is to destroy the Ku Kang army?”
Jim did not wait for their reply.
He returned to his group, causing the young couple to stare in shock.
“Aren’t they going to root out these bandits?”
“They are from the military! Shouldn’t they make sure our borders are safe?”
“Hold our child honey, I’ll go and have a word with their leader.”
The man knew that the captain would not harm a citizen of the Saint Empire, but before he took a step, glittering light rained down from the heavens covering the countryside.
It was a breath-taking sight to behold.
When the man looked carefully, he quickly dashed back to his wife and covered her eyes.
He paused a moment then covered the baby’s eyes as well for good measure.
“Honey don’t look.”
“Wha… what’s happening? It’s just pretty lights.”
“Those aren’t lights but daggers!”
The bandits that had returned to flee for their lives suddenly stopped.
All over the countryside, the men surrounding a merchant’s cart, people rounding up villagers to sell them, rogues that are rough handling frightened farm girls, all of them stood still at the same instant.
As if beckoned, they looked up at the spectacular display above their heads, taking in the last thing they will see.
Their victims that were looking at the same sky, did not have the same feelings of overpowering fear that those outlaws did, but a grand wondrous spectacle.
*YING YING YING*
All around was the beautiful chime of metal blades whistling through the air, and accompanying it was the sound of lifeless bodies hitting the ground.
“To the north!” Kairos roared as he charged forward on his Dragon Horse. Behind him, the Snowdrifts followed holding flags with a symbol of a black temple.
Jim, the only one who could precisely target such a massive number of enemies, said a few words of encouragement to the young couple then returned to scout in the front.
“He was so polite…,” the woman said.
“Looks like he is a scout captain?”
“Are they very highly ranked in the army?”
“Not too bad, he is a leader of a platoon of fifty to sixty troops. I wonder which unit they are from, never seen that flag before.”
At the front of the line, Jim reappeared besides Kairos.
“How did I do?” he asked, as though taking nearly a hundred lives was as normal as taking a walk.
Kairos nodded solemnly, “Well done, but a little flashy wouldn’t you say?”
“I’m just practicing the decoy daggers.”
“Ah… that was just the cover for the actual attacks?”
The beautiful lights, the chaotic whistling, and the daggers that fell like rain, was all the grab a foe’s attention. Though this time he did not need to be serious, the true attack will be the twelve relic daggers that is Jim’s family heirloom he camouflages in the dagger rain.
Jim proudly puffed up his chest then his hand formed a series of intricate seals.
Immediately the daggers that had fallen all across the field reappeared in his hands.
He shoved handful after handful of slender blades that had been polished to be like mirrors into his Time-space ring.
On the daggers were runes that copied the Hope family’s relics’ ability to return to the owner through a time-loop. With Kairos’ eyes, it was easy to find out the way to implant such convenient runes to other weapons, however every blade was carefully inscribed by Jim and it took him a lot of time and effort. If he lost even a single one of those daggers his heart would ache.
There were many people left in the countryside after Jim rooted out the outlaws, and quite a few of them plucked a dagger or two from the ground and kept it. Such silver pieces will be worth them some money if they sold it. Some of the victims even wanted to keep the daggers as mementos of the death of their tormentors.
Unfortunately, no matter where they kept the items, unless they managed to seal the space, it will return to Jim.
“I lost about two dozen,” Jim complained. Tears almost flowed out of his eyes when he thought about the work he needs to do to forge new blades.
“And, this batch had the powerful rock splitting runes too…”
The ones that managed to keep a dagger or two will have them melted down for metal, but three daggers will be kept as heirlooms. In the future, they are known as the Saviour’s Rain, though the reason will be eroded away by the years.
None expected that a hundred thousand years later, these three daggers that contained lost-arts will become the cause of a great war.
These lightweight daggers without much power behind it could split through the air creating loud whistles because of the rock splitting runes that was gleaned from the Earthsplitter Mining Pick they studied in the past.
If these finger-length blades struck a fully armoured knight, it could crack the metal with ease and even destroy some lesser runic protections.
With so many daggers that Jim had prepared, it would be plenty to decimate an army, yet it was just to conceal twelve special daggers.
“I’m not going to help you,” Kairos declared immediately.
“I’ll get Flora and Fauna to help!”
Four years in the academy was enough to make Flora into a mid-class blacksmith and Fauna into a mid-class Inscriptionist. In terms of their artisan level, they will be similar to B ranked cultivators. It may not be spectacular, but considering Saint Empire’s level, they are already the top few in their arts.
“Jim, they are busy too,” Alan chided when he heard. As the one managing the entire operation, he knew full well how underprepared they are for this mission. Everyone who knows how to forge arrowheads, inscribe runes, make medical salves have enough work orders for them to last through the year.
The Snowdrifts aren’t going on a tour. They are representing the Dark Hall in a war, and whatever preparation they could make wasn’t enough.
“Great, marching into hostile territory, having enemies on all sides, an enemy commander stronger than Syriong - may that bastard rest in peace, and entire armies waiting for us with knives sharpen back at home… Can I go home now? I seemed to have misplaced twenty daggers. I think I’d need them.”
“Sure, go home then. I’ll burn incenses for you next year this day.”
Their unit are quite different from other military groups. The Dark Hall are Death Warriors, not unlike the Silent Lambs Empire’s Phantom unit.
And their mission was a suicidal one, given by the Devilheart family to destroy the Snowdrifts once and for all.
The Ku Kang army is not the main military power in the northern reaches, but they are the elites, with the weakest amongst them a barbarian chief.
In Saint Empire terms, that means the weakest in the Ku Kang is at A rank.
Jim slouched in despair, and Tommy, Alan, and Kairos laughed.
“I’m actually getting excited,” Edward smiled.
The only pacifist in their group was all smiles heading into war.
“Aren’t you supposed to be brooding that you have no choice but to fight?”
“It’s been a while since the whole group fought together…”
Behind them, Sasha roared, “LET’S DESTROY THEM ALL!”
“A… another war maniac…,” Jim shuddered.
“Let’s destroy them all, wooo!” Luciette cheered.
“I see where our former pacifist had gone wrong,” Kairos duly noted.
For four years they had prepared themselves. Learning what they could and now it’s time to put it into practice. They dared not claim to be ready for anything that will happen, but going forward is the only path for them, for their families, and for the Snowdrifts.
Yet, who can say that what awaited them is only death and defeat but not a glorious future?
Kairos turned his head slightly and looked at his guild. They had grown, both in age and numbers.
A robust spirit rose in him, and with a smile at the corner of his mouth he said confidently, “It’s time to take Gaia for our Snowdrifts.”
Their leader made a ridiculous declaration of world conquest. Somehow, this little group cheered, as though they had heard a cause worthy to pursuit.