The characters, places, events, companies, and other elements in this story are all fictitious. Any similarity to any real persons (living or dead), places, happenings, fictitious characters, and/or establishments, as well as any mentioned history and references in this story are all coincidental and not intended by the author. That includes the inventions (patented or not) mentioned in this story.
The “Art Of War” and all passages from “The Art Of War” are of its respective copyrights and the author gives all credits to its great teacher, Sun Tzu.
The “Siva” and the stories included in the “Siva Light Novel Series” are all personal original works of the author. Its name and all its titles are Copyrighted under applicable law.
All individual references mentioned in this story belonged to its creators and the Author sends his greatest most heartfelt thanks for creating such characters that this story had had the opportunity to be created.
Copyright © 2014 by John Ethan Reddcliffe
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any other means, or stored in any database or retrieval system without permission from the author or the publisher. Any reader who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with reviews or inclusion in any other agenda should give the credits to the book and the author.
This story is made through passionate writing for the benefit of its readers and supporters. It is free and the author does not charge any money to anyone upon reading of its contents.
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I've relaunched my "Royal Road Legends" (www.RoyalRoadL.com) account since a few days ago after receiving some personal help from the beautiful phoenix, Wing-Sama, of the Royal Road Legends website, whew, and will be posting chapters there as well so please, if you can, inform your friends over so that they also enjoy our story and be up to date with the current progress of Siva's quest.
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Volume 4
Chapter 1: The Book of Legends
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In the beginning, there was The One. He was the ruler of all creations, everything is his. And then he grew tired of watching a dull cycle of day and night and so he made three beings in his likeness and thus came the existence of the three Gods that govern the Universe.
There was The Brahma, derived from the image of the creator himself. He was kind and benevolent to all creations that he himself would take a part of himself and give life to his creation. But what gift he had in him is the gift of freedom, he was tasked to be a God and as well as one of the creations. He was a friend.
And then there was The Vishnu, The Sustainer, the preserver of Time. She was the most adored of all the creations made by The One and all would pay their respects to her beauty.
From their rule, the universe grew and expanded.
Worlds were created and creations began to flourish in the vast lands The One had created. All beautiful things resided in the Light and the impure ones chose the Dark.
But of all his creations, the impure ones, the shadow cast upon the light shed by the beautiful ones with the soul, began to change.
These impure beings have only but one trait, envy.
Their envy grew to be so great that as day and night created the cycle of time, they began to reject the light and everything in it.
They observed, not evolving, learning how to corrupt the beings of light to multiply while accumulating hate, born from envy of The One‘s favor.
Indolence piled up from their low esteem, their jealousy that ignited wrath and gave birth to violence propagated into an evil race of life consuming demons.
Voracity started to corrupt their sense of reasoning. The dark ones desired what magnificence the children of the light had. And just as their arrogance ripened, their greed eventually became the evil that devoured everything into darkness’s abyss.
Even when it seems they had it all, they already forgot how to be contented and started to plunder everything, wanting even what power The One had.
As the war grew, worlds were destroyed. Those who harbor and live within the light cannot live without it but those in the dark were born and raised there so it went on.
The children of the light fought back, igniting the ancient war fought over countless eons. Their hostility towards each other was inherited by their blood’s blood, their children’s children…generation after generation, kin after every kin.
With all the generations of war, the Poeple of the Light could not take the cycle anymore so they sent all their children into the deep and ever expanding Universe, in a place where darkness could not do them harm.
And when these children learned to speak and think, the intelligence they inherited from their parents led them to build the greatest civilization of old.
«Mu», the home of men.
Hundreds of generations later, the all consuming greed of the Demons had finally reached their silent sanctuary and the war has began once again. Only, this time, they have been preparing for them and the greatest gift they will give the future is a world where demons do not exist.
With the Ancient War, Mu had fallen into chaos and the leader of this great empire decided to sacrifice his life for the sake of greater good.
Mu fell down along with the great number of Demon invaders. Two ships carrying survivors escaped the planet and one of them managed to escape to a new world of their expanding Universe.
And so came the Age of Survival.
They did their best to survive in that world, even if its natural inhabitants wanted them all dead and digested.
For hundreds of years, the Muans survived in the new planet, learning of its ecosystem, its composition, all its features, and the likeness it had from their old world, Mu.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Two hundreds years later, came the scouting legion of the Demons. War had once again threatened the peace they had. But this time, the war that came to their new home caught them unprepared. They were defenseless.
The Muan survivors of this new planet had their hands full on the defense against the harsh environment of this new planet. Even the invaders did not expect that the race of Dragons were too powerful for both forces to defend. It led to the halt of war, and the establishment of the current system of the societies.
With the invaders persistent on their efforts to kill and eat all the Muans, the Dragon Race began the campaign to retake their land.
In this three way war, the dragons, though few in numbers, almost won out. But then came the Terrans clad in their advanced technology, claiming they were also predecessors of the Muan Race.
Together with the Muan survivors, they fought to the very end. The Terrans won and protected the last of their kinsmen but the numbers of the brave Muans had been reduced to almost poor states.
With their lost Starships, the Terrans were also forced to stay, thus came the Age of The Beginning.
In its first centuries, with the defeated Dragon Races gathering their numbers and gaining back their strength in secret, the Terran societies flourished and rose.
All of the Demons had been vanquished but their threat remained, even until this day. Empires and Kingdoms began to be established and the once rich technological culture of the Muans and Terrans, forgotten, reduced to nothing but mere old legends of the name.
With covert attacks from the Dragon Races here and there, the remaining technologies of the Terrans and the Muans have been used until their users vanished.
There are some who had been kept, but there are more of them that disappeared.
And to what these legendary weapons and technologies have become —«Runes», as the Dragons have no use and cannot use them, they kept most of their spoils and hid them in plain reach of the Terrans.
Years went by, the terror of the Demons and Dragons have been forgotten.
As the decades became centuries, battles for territories came. The once united Muans and Terrans fought for the sake of greed. Feuds and conflicts shattered the peace they fought for. And until it came to the point that the Muan culture have been forgotten, the modern societies of the Terrans usurped the old Muan ways.
History had to be written, the «Age of The Beginning» is a piece on the large puzzle of fate. Kingdoms grew into empires, war settled in from place to place.
With the early years of «The Beginning» coming to its climax, the Dragons came once more and attacked.
Blood was spilled once again and the war they have long forgotten had taken lives in the most unexpected and brutal of ways.
They did not expect that the Dragons would evolve in the way they did.
In their new planet they named Terroa, the Dragons, the original inhabitants of this world, had evolved into vile and savage creatures that controlled the land, the air, the light, and the darkness.
Elements controlling the world of Terroa had been used against the Terrans and so in turn, the Terrans, too, had to evolve.
It was here that they learned to use the same «magic» that the Dragon Races used against them and thus they, once again, managed to survive. Barely.
The war ended after decades of bloodshed, the Dragons once again, slept in their unknown lands. With the fear of the Terrans waking them up unknowingly, the expansion of their territories came to a close halt.
Thus the «Age of The Founding» began.
After the Dragon Age, the Terrans lost communications with the other Terran Families all over the planet.
Closely governed countries rose from continent to other continent, kingdoms and empires flourished once again.
With unknown borders, lands filled with monsters and savage, brutal creatures wanting food, these countries had remained as they are, preparing for the next awakening of the Dragon Races.
Their places of rest unknown, the Terrans continued to live on and forget their history.
Not until the Council of Elders from Central Continent of Zenturo, introducing the Book of Legends, that the Terrans would know their rich cultures in the past.
It became a trend, communication with other cities and countries was also reestablished, the long silent decades that embraced the quiet peace between the kingdoms and empires had once again shattered by greed.
As alliances grew, so is antagonism, these empires fought and fought, the history of Terroa written in all but bloody battles and campaigns.
With the blooming magical culture of the Terran Tribes and Families, they discovered the existence of the Gods The One created.
They were worshipped, they were respected, they were prayed upon, they were known.
25 cycles of history, written in a large book in every place there was a city, reminding the people that their world is but a fragment of a big Universe.
Books written in the old Muan language, books with a clear purpose of a memorial tome, the «Book of Legends» was a part of, and as well as the, History itself.
When the Demon Invaders attacked Terroa, they did not expect that the Terrans would fight back.
And so they took them by numbers, overpowering the weak and fragile Children of the Light by sheer brutal strength and the firepower of their Demon Technology.
But then came a miracle, 56 years ago.
A race of warriors, with unknown origins, clad with the same Technologies as once known and foretold in «The Book» as belonging to the Muans, the young but very intelligent race of Humans came to rescue Terroa.
With this last grand war in History, the Terrans were once again united and the «War of The Braves» detail was written.
Nine heroes rose to challenge the Demon Armada, with the help of a few numbers and a still unknown kind of phenomena that combined both magic and technology.
The Ancient War reenacted, the War of The Braves was won. History kept moving… or so everyone thought.
And so, 56 years later, The God of Creations looks at «The Book» he started himself, and sighed when he touched the pages where a new detail was just written.
A certain name appeared from the letters that Gabriel wrote and the writer himself was shocked to have found his pen writing that certain name.
“Master… this name… this curse… I don’t understand it. I though he was just another soul with the same name he thought of to himself randomly?”
“Well, it seems that I am right all along.”
“What do you mean, Master?”
“Gabriel, there were three of us. Have you not found it odd that there were only me and Terra who was named in both my book and the ones made by the Elders?”
With that question, Gabriel brushed his silvery hair dyed gold by the flames of the immortal torches in his study. His expression clearly expressed bewilderment and confusion to how and what the answer to that last inquiry is. “I’m lost.”
He scratched his head again, “Though, I guess you are not aware of his identity too, Master?”
Janus smiled at him and put a gentle hand on his young-looking shoulder. He sighed and kept his eyes fixed at the new detail on the book.
“I had a feeling with Him so I tried to follow him around…”
“…and even telling him you were just running away from loan sharks.”
Janus chuckled.
“So Master, is this… Siva… really that special?”
That last question made Janus shrug. “Perhaps.”
“But in truth, I am also not sure. Besides, I am not aware, have not been updated, and I wasn’t sure of many things anymore, Gabriel. I have lost all my power and authority the moment I gained this body.”
“Mortality is a brutal experience, Master.”
“Perhaps. But I do enjoy the company.” At that, the two old men looked back and saw the bickering group of the youths fighting over at which book they were going to go inside next.
Gabriel raised a brow. “I can see that.” and Janus had a laugh that seemed healthy.
Then he became silent, tracing the letters in the book with a melancholic face.
“When I gained awareness, Terra was already a hundred years old. She was already there and looking after the world, sealed in the time at which her powers came.”
Gabriel understood his worry.
He sighed and took a seat back, skimming his eyes in the large page his size.
“Terra… was there, master, 56 years ago.”
Their eyes met. “Yes. It was a sad thing. She lost all her personal memories but not the memories the Demons wanted from her. I wish I could have helped her back then. I wish I could have…saved her.”
Gabriel took another silent gaze at the pages and said with surety, “But she was happy, back then. With Neth and his group, even for Lunette.”
“Yeah.” Janus smiled back. “She was.”
“So we can’t say that she… was sealed with unhappy memories of her life as a mortal. I think she is now in a place where happiness is an everyday thing.”
“Hahahahaha, you’re beginning to sound like a human.”
“Wha-I’m not!”
“Hahaha, you’re still so pure, Gabriel. It’s like you, being an Emperor, is another person at all.”
Gabriel pouted, “And to tell you honestly, I miss those two at times when that reality sinks in on me.”
“Well, Flynn and Rapunzel also had a happy life.”
“Heh. That’s true.”
At that point, Janus summoned two cups of fresh and steaming brownish caramel liquid and gave one of the cups to Gabriel.
“Master,” From out of nowhere, the silence was broke even by the inquisitive tone of Gabriel. “Pegasus. He’s the creator, The One, but…”
Janus knew where the question was leading. “He wasn’t anywhere.” and he paused to drink from the cup.
“What I know is that he was the one responsible for this world falling in its current state of war and confusion. I don’t know all his reasons but from the way he created The Demons, I’m sure that he had planned for everything to end during that time, 56 years ago.”
“The War of The braves.”
“Yes.”
Janus’ eyes closed and his expression peaceful. Gabriel thought that the Master of Creations, their guardian, the friend and deity, supposed to be not here in flesh, the guardian of this world —or their Universe at that, was in the midst of him remembering the details of that war.
Because as much as he don’t want to tell him all of it, he had already seen it and read it, he already experienced that war, 56 years ago, from this book.
Janus, Terra, and even Mefisto, this world, Pegasus’ plans, everything…
It was all supposed to end that day.
Janus was there, everyone was there except Pegasus.
That day, when the name «Siva» appeared in the book he was writing, 56 years ago, had caused the miracle in The War of The Braves and changed history.
He was the unknown 10th number that protected Terra and Neth. What more, he was worried with the single line, the one and only line he spoke during that time.
“Mom.”
And then, after that… everything changed.