Castallia, a civilization long lost and forgotten, the Kingdom of the Unknown. Several centuries ago, it was believed that the human advancement had something to do with witchcraft and that the people adept to magic lived in the country of Castallia. But as times passed by, more and more outsiders gained the favor of the gods, growing ultimately stronger than the original wielders of magic. And with this much power, came the tragedy that drove the Kingdom to annihilation.

Castallians held their fort in their country, but soon succumbed to the overwhelming number and power of Non-Castallians. 77 days, that was all it took for the war to end. Castallian population dwindled, the war was no longer spoken of, and soon, they were forgotten by the major masses.

Jun Skylarc climbed down the jeep wrangler, twisting his foot to even out the sand beneath. After a while, his two friends also climbed down, pulling their cloaks closer to their faces as the wind picked up.

The Hohenheim twins. Jun’s already tall, but the two were much taller than him, they each have athletic builds, and according to most of the females he worked with, they were quite the looker. They both had short slightly wavy dark gold hair and chestnut-colored skin.

Detras was the younger one, his eyes were sharp with bright green irises that reminded Jun of a tree viper. He’s rough around the edges and preferred being silent on any given situations. Between the three of them, he was the one who got involved into fights the most.

Avant, his older twin, had sapphire eyes. He was a gentle soul, definitely warmer than his younger twin, and a lot more reasonable when it comes to socializing.

Jun grew up with the twins. Their parents worked closely with his father, and they were basically raised as brothers.

“That’s quite a steep descent.” Avant said, covering the searing sun’s ray from his eye with a hand “Good thing we stopped driving.”

Jun looked ahead, Avant was right, the sand just immediately drops to a cliff-like descent in front of them. Had they driven further, they’d be in critical danger by now.

“Yeah.” Jun said “We should start walking then.”

The three of them slid down the descent. It was easier for them to ride the sand since the wind finally stopped blowing so harshly. Up ahead, Jun caught a glimpse of a tower located near their target place.

“I though it’s a small village?” Jun asked loudly, thanks to all the sand rumbling beneath their feet, he couldn’t hear everything around “I just saw a tower up ahead.”

“There must be a mistake.” Avant shouted back “People at home-base already scoped the area, there’s no reports of a tower.”

“I see it.” Detras pointed

Finally landing on flatter ground, the three of them started walking towards the village.

“Miss Allera told me that the place should have at least a population of a hundred.” Avant said, reading from a small notebook “She also told me that a good number of them were rescued from brothels and human auction sites along the area of Ozaria.”

Jun clicked his tongue. Ozaria again. After the war, the Kingdom of the Just, Ozaria, was built right on top of the ashes of Castallia. They were supposed to be the kingdom of the just but they were all savages who would do everything, anything, and whatever they wanted.

“Bastards.” Detras spat, his voice rougher than usual

Jun looked around, there really was nothing but sand. From the reports given to them, the area was once where the main battalion of the Castallians and the Non-Castallians fought. Due to almost all the documents regarding the war were destroyed, not much was really known about what actually happened between the opposing powers, but for a battle that barely lasted three months to turn a luscious forest into a desert, it must have been a horrifying one.

As they continued to walk, a sudden gust of wind brought upon a foul rotten smell to their direction. The three simultaneously cupped their noses, coughing as the stench burned their throats as it got stronger by the second.

“What the fuck?” Detras dropped on the ground, gasping for air.

Jun slowly went down on one knee, trying to stabilize himself as the odor gave him a wave of mind-splitting headaches.

Avant stood his ground, tightly gripping his chest.

The smell was a combination of burning rotten flesh and sulfur. Jun grimaced, he knew very well what this smell was.

Jun braced himself and forced himself to stand up. Detras was also up on his feet when Jun tried to check up on him. He looked at the twins, they were all thinking the same.

The three ran.

The stench grew stronger as they sped towards the village. Finally reaching the village, they were greeted with the rumbling and crackling of dying fire. The three wrapped their cloaks tighter around their nose as they proceeded. Jun looked around, it hasn’t been long since the fire, but almost all the buildings were already in shambles.

“What happened here?” Avant asked

Jun scanned the area, looking for any survivor, maybe someone who could answer Avant’s question. It was only a few days ago when people in home-base found the village, and yet, this was what greeted the three of them.

“Where is everybody?” Avant asked

Detras, who was walking ahead of them abruptly stopped, he stood motionless with his neck craned up.

“Detras?” Jun called out

Jun’s eye teared up as the stench grew fouler, he stopped on his tracks, looking up with a hazy vision. His eyes widened in shock, cold beads of sweat ran down his spine. Jun trembled, his whole being telling him to run. Run far away.

“It was not a tower.” Jun said under his breath

Ahead, were hundreds of bodies stacked on top of each, their skins melted into one another, eyes gouged out of their skulls, and mouth agape from torment.

“...me.” A faint voice said

Jun look up, a small girl was trying to reach out to Detras who was closest, bending her arm to meet his head with her palm.

“Help… me.”

Detras reached out for the child’s hand.

“They’re all…” Avant whispered “They’re all alive!” He exclaimed

Finally snapping out of the horrific trance, Jun watched as all the heads started to move, they heard more cries. Jun traced his eyes along the skin and muscles. There was no going out of their states.

“Run…” A weak elder’s voice caught Jun’s attention

Finding the source, he walked closer to an elderly woman pitted on the very bottom.

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“They’re… coming. Run.”

“What’s coming?” Jun asked, making sure that his voice was calm “What happened?

“They’re coming…”

“Run.”

“Help.”

Jun scowled as hundred different voice echoed in his ears.

“Run.”

Suddenly, Detras was yanked into the air, wrapped around his ankle was the ever familiar black spiny tongue of an apex predator. On top of the tower of bodies hunched a large canine, it’s fangs glinted threateningly against the searing sun’s rays.

“Detras!” Jun shouted.

On air, Detras hitched his other foot up, twisting himself in the air and landing a heavy kick on the creature’s head. In retaliation, it swung Detras and let him go mid-air causing him to crash against a nearby rubble.

Avant ran towards his younger twin, while Jun brandished a dagger on his left hand, watching the creature as it roared angrily towards them.

“Tsk, why’s a Stormeye here?” Jun spat

The creature leapt, landing dangerously close to where Detras and Avant were. The twin immediately stood guard. Detras had his left eye closed as his head bled, but he already had his handgun locked and loaded.

The Stormeye circled the three, after a while, it started yapping. Its yaps were so loud that Jun felt his eardrums bleed from within. Within just seconds, several other Stormeyes emerged from the sands, completely surrounding the whole village, trapping the three in a sure-death pit.

The Stormeyes’ yaps became synchronized as they crawled closer and closer to the three. Backed up, Jun and the twins closed their eyes as the Stormeyes leapt to pounce on them.

“Rue del hardt.”

All of a sudden, they heard the agonized cries of the creatures, and their awaited death never came. Jun opened his eyes. Taken aback, he put his weapon down, and watched as the Stormeyes madly tossed about in the sand as if something unseen was attacking them. The red gills around their thick necks trembled as they hissed painfully, the protective layers on their eyes peeled off as they lost their strength. The dangerous spikes on their spine rattled as they trembled. After a while, smoke started to emit out of their body and their whole body were set ablaze by an unusual white fire.

Even though they were dangerously close to the creatures, Jun couldn’t feel the heat, conversely the white flame felt cold. Jun wandered his eyes around, looking for the source of the woman’s voice that seemed to have started the flame.

The twin hurried to Jun and pulled him, not stopping until they finally reached the entrance of the village.

Avant immediately started to treat his younger twin’s wounds.

“Rue del hardt.” Detras whispered

“I’ve never heard of a magical command like that.” Avant said as he started to apply medicine on Detras’ head wound.

The white flame continued to burn everything around it. Although Jun could still hear the cries of the Stormeyes, he could not hear the victims who were still inside the village. He watched as the flame swiftly engulfed everything in its majestic white light, and gradually died down along the wails it brought upon with it.

“There’s… nothing left.” Avant whispered

There was nothing but white ashes left on the mysterious flame’s wake. Not even the dreadful tower of bodies.

The three rested in silence as they tried to wrap their heads around what had just happened. Without a moment to actually rest, they heard the ever familiar bark of a Stormeye, and the sound of heavy metal clanking closer to them.

Within the smoke, Jun saw an unnaturally bigger Stormeye treading ever slowly across the smoky midst of the burnt village. Alongside it was a small hooded figure.

Detras clicked his tongue as he forced himself to stand up. He unholstered his handgun, cocking it before brandishing it towards the large creature.

“Wait.” Jun said, blocking Detras’ gun’s muzzle with a hand “There’s someone beside it.”

“Aren’t you imagining?” Detras spat, yanking the gun away from Jun’s hand

“No, there is someone there, Detras.” Avant said, pointing towards the small hooded figure.

The large beast barked once more before finally emerging from the smoke. It was thrice larger than any other Stormeye Jun has ever seen. It’s long dual split black spiny tongue dangled dangerously from its open jaw, teeth glinting threateningly towards them. The beast’s long leathery tail swished behind like it was excited for a hunt. Jun looked down, its right foot was replaced by a metallic foot with an ankle chain attached to it.

Finally stopping, the beast loomed in front of the three. Right below it, the hooded figure stood still.

“Enemies?” The hooded figure pointed towards the three, her voice was sweet and yet very cold.

Too stunned to speak, Jun slowly shook his head. Detras, on the other hand, lifted his handgun back up, this time pointing the gun directly at the hooded woman.

“Detras!” Jun shouted

“Enemies.” Detras said in a low voice, almost in a growl.

“Detras!” Jun and Avant shouted in unison

The hooded woman pulled her hood down, revealing a long straight silver hair with streaks of black and blue, her eyes were the striking color of sapphire, magenta, and black diamond mixed together to make the most beautiful irises Jun had ever seen. Her skin was pale white with vine like white tattoos that ran from her cheeks to her neck, possibly even beyond that.

She wore a cold expression as she looked at the three, watching their every move.

“Enemies?” She asked once again, a hint of warning in her tone.

“We’re not.” Jun said, looking up at the towering beast behind her.

“He’s safe.” The woman said “Glave. His name.”

She then looked at Detras, who was still pointing the gun at her. “Down.” She commanded.

“Detras.” Avant called, forcing his younger twin to put the gun down.

Detras clicked his tongue as he retreated his hand, shoving the gun back to its holster.

“Was that you, miss?” Avant asked “The one who used the magical command?”

“Magical command?” She tilted her head

“Rue del hardt.” Jun said “Were you the one who said that?”

She nodded with a grin across her lips. “Use. Only me.” She said, pointing a finger to herself.

Jun watched the beast behind her as it hunched down and nudged the woman on her back.

“Dangerous here. Glave said.”

She patted on the beast’s snout, and it gently coiled its long tail around her, lifting her up to its back where the its dangerous spikes were lowered down for her to sit.

“We go. Now.” She said

The beast, Glave, snorted at the three as it nodded its head towards the east and started to walk.

The three exchanged looks before following the creature with hesitant expression.

The woman looked over her shoulders, meeting eyes with Jun. “Name?” She asked, sweetly smiling towards him.

“I’m Jun Skylarc.”

“Jun. Hmm.” She then looked towards Detras.

“This one’s Detras Hohenheim.” Avant answered “And I’m Avant Hohenheim.”

“Siblings?”

“Twins.” Avant smiled

“This. Glave. My family.” She smiled, patting the leathery pelt of the beast “Raeli Luca Ruedelhardt. My name.”

“Ruedelhardt?” Jun asked

“Call me Luca.”

“Wasn’t that the magical command?” Avant asked “You used your name as a magical command, Miss Luca?”

“Magical command? Ah, my name. Yes.”

“Is that possible, Avant?” Jun said, almost in a whisper as he walked closer to the twin.

“I’ve read it once.” Avant answered “In one of the oldest retrieved documents, there were unique wielders of magic with unique commands of all the elements as well as unique ways to summon them. They were believed to be the original Castallians.”

“Is she one?” Detras asked, eyes focused ahead

“That would be impossible.” Avant said “Records say they were all executed after the war.”

“Unless someone escaped.” Jun said

“Which would be highly improbable.” Avant pointed out “Remember, the King of Ozaria combed the world to hell and back to make sure that all of them were eliminated. If it really was the case, then why is Ozaria still standing? Ozaria’s fighting force after the war was greatly diminished and there were time when the throne went unguarded for several days. Even if it was a single person, they could have exacted their revenge right then and there.”

The three fell silent.

Jun watched the mysterious woman as she gently pats the beast.