Do you remember the first second you gain consciousness? Because to Ashton, it felts like a jolt of lightning and there he is, thrown into a magenta-thistle garden, around him are shattered castle, rusty weapons lying on the ground singing remnants of war long fought. Around him are thousands of kids, a lot of it are closing their eyes and seems to be meditating. He is struggling to remember what happened before, and recall some semblance of memory that he wasn’t sure is his. This is an ascension ceremony that they did for all the six years old in the city. No matter how high is your nobility rank, the process is the same for everyone: you will be given a mixture of potion to drink - a little bittersweet as his tongue recall - and they will instruct you to meditate to converse with God.
“Wait,” he thinks. “That’s already over! I have to find..” Before he finish his thought, another kid staring dagger at him. With determined eyes and step, he leaps towards Ashton and conjuring a dagger out of thin air. The dagger seems to be coated in a colorless liquid that he can only assumed as one thing: poison. Ashton fumbled and tripped as he run away, and before he knows it, the assassin jumped on him with dagger swung accurately...
..and suddenly a girl tackled the assassin before the blade reach him. Thinking quickly, the assassin redirect his blade at the tackler. Another boy behind him are using telekinesis to stop his right hand from moving, and a girl cast a small flame to create the distance. Breaking the telekinesis, he throw the knife at the girl - closest he could find - and she narrowly avoid it. Realizing that throwing his blade was a bad idea, he rushed towards the girl, but were tripped thanks to the telekinesis tripping his leg and stopped in a chokehold by the tackler.
If you were caught, swallow the pill. If you failed to do that... The assassin remembers clearly what the man in the black robe told him. The last thing he is allowed to do is to be investigated. All sweaty and cold, he fervently chew through the pill hidden behind his molar. Bitter and warm, it taste so bad that he vomits, and his body does not stop getting hotter.
Alice, the girl who casted fire earlier, was the first one to realize something has gone wrong. “He’s gonna explode!” she was not sure that could really happened, but shouted anyway. Alex, the one currently put him on a lock, agreed instinctively as she felt the scorching directly through his skin. She throw him away to the emptiest part of the meadow, and run to the opposite direction. Started as a blinding light around his body, an explosion breakout from the center of his heart. Alice, Alex, and Ab - the one who use telekinesis - are definitely within the radius. He exploded radiantly..
..Alice opened her eyes and finding herself were completely unharmed. Around her - and other people within explosion radius - perfectly blocking them from the explosion are an ethereal shield made of light made by Ashton, who took a few hits himself and got mildly burned himself.
“So you can create a shield? Why didn’t you protect yourself earlier..” Alice ask, assuming she did not really have to save him at the first place.
“Umm, I wasn’t sure I could before..” Ashton cringed trying to talk while masking his pain.
“Well, thanks for saving me. Glad everyone is safe, wait, don’t close your eyes!” Alex slapped Ashton as his consciousness fade.
“Is he okay?” Ab looks around. Alex nods to confirm he was only lightly burned - probably just shocked and out of energy. “Not everyone survived. There is at least three people died. All of them are out of his eyesight. Blocked by me, blocked by tree, and by the stone over there. We know how he is going to react from this. Should we keep it a secret?”
“Don’t think we can though,” Alice nods toward the knights sprinting at full speed toward them. “You two will most likely detained. I’m going to be safe, they can’t touch a daughter of a duke willy-nilly, but not you two.”
“Restraint,” one of the knight hastily cast the spell at everyone remaining alive. “Take everyone to the room for questioning. And Rod..”
“..I know. We’re so dead.” He murmur something and golden and green light blasted toward the sky, expecting medics to arrive very soon - and his head gone by letting a assassination attempt happened during their duty.
—
It feels strange when Ashton found himself waking up under a very vintage-decorated room he never see before. He rested in a comfortable bed, with a very concerning, complicated rune. Around him are people, looking pale and deeply concerned. He tries to wake up, and the rune glows red, alerting people around him.
“My prince, oh you have waken up! Oh Ra bless you. Someone give him water!” Ashton was surprised that this large, chubby man was more concerned about his health better than him, water dripping from his temple endlessly.
“Ergh, thanks. Where are my.. uh, the one who save me earlier?” Ashton quickly realize what he supposed to do - help removing his friends out of any possible accusation, or worse.
“Uh, my prince. I believe both knight that were appointed to save you was interrogated earlier by royal guards-”
“No, not them. Wait, actually, could you make sure they did not receive harsh punishment? What I asking is the three people who saved me earlier. The one with telekinesis, the one who tackle the assassin away, and the flame mage one.”
Another knight rushed trying to answer. Ashton are pretty sure a memory of his told him she is one of the highest ranking royal guard. “Fourth prince, those people are not cleared to have an audience with you. We need to make sure that-”
“They just saved me, Kielra. Like, earlie-”
“I understand prince. However, you could not ignore the possibilities that this could be part of the plot, to lower your guards for them to-”
“They had plenty of time between I lost my energy and Rod and Pike arriving. If they want to ascertain a mur-”
“You are basing your assumption on the previous assassin who planned to relieve themselves after the task is done. What if the next one are planned to continue living long after you gone? Attacking your sister, or your father long after you died?”
Ashton confounded. “Well, I won’t move anywhere before I at least properly thank myself. Assassin or not, they are the only reason I’m alive right this second. Not you, not the knights. Them. Beside, I cannot leave before properly shown gratitude to my savior, remember?”
Kielra appear shocked and stopped to a think. “..Alright. I will personally take responsibility in protecting you while you have an audience in a controlled environment.”
“Of course I will meet them in person, so please make them as comfortable as we can. Now that you’re here, I trust you will be more than enough to prevent assassination from three small children.” The prince get up and smirk.
“Prince, you are awfully calm and careless for a noble that has just been assassinated..” Kielra sigh.
---
“You are actually following through with.. this! I don’t think anyone has done this before,” an ominous tone cannot decide between fear, bewilderment, worry, and just a hint of excitement. Gaia, one of the oldest, reigning God-king, finally found the Chaos God-king after decades of searching. Appeared as a horse-shaped array of skeleton with endless limbs, antlers expands as wide as the horizon, combined with the skull of a wolf the size of a mountain, with eye that looks like she trying to lock the Chaos God forever.
“Did my mana smell that delicious that you can find me this quick?" the chaos God-king did not flinch the slightest by her provocation. "God-king summons twins all the time. Castor-Pollux, Freyr-Freyja, Nakula-Sadeva, hell, even Izanami used to be a twin!” he provokes Gaia back.
“Twins has intertwined soul, not like this. Everyone assume you were.. retired. Chaos magic influence in Terran dwindled. I thought you were joking when you planned.. this. A hundred years' worth of energy for four people?! What will be of this world,” Gaia, while having no face muscle at all, appear rattled.
“Good riddance. It feels like thousands of years ago where I feel that my life is ever at stake. Now let’s talk about how I can sewn that gigantic mouth of yours shut as long as possible.”
--
How long can you trick them? A scale.
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Gullible Sharp Ashton Alex Alice Ab