Red stumbled down the hill, half-conscious, towards a rural village. Every time he closed his eyes and opened them again, he expected to see Valafor’s smiling face standing there, but he never appeared. Approaching the village, the villagers scurried away from him, herding their animals and children into shelter.
Red felt unusual internally. His body didn’t hurt, far from it, he was more healthy and lively than ever before, even ailments that he felt since he was a child were healed. However, his movements did feel clunky and unnatural, as if the signals he was sending from his brain weren’t translating directly into physical movements. He looked around at all of the structures, and unwittingly looked through them, directly at the individuals cowering inside. He could see the flow of the arcana in the entire area, no physical object was a barrier.
He stopped in the middle of the dirt road and looked at his hand. He could now see directly through his skin, into the mana network in his body. The mana flowed through his body, adjacent to his blood, the mana which was usually blocked at several points, now flowed freely through his body. Red examined his whole body for a long time.
“So I guess this…mutation broke that curse. I can finally absorb arcana and get mana flowing through my body.”
Red looked around the village, then down the dirt road, and noticed there was a large moat with the gate down a distance away from the village.
He attempted to stumble his way to the moat, but barely made it a few steps before he tripped over his own feet.
"What’s wrong with me?" Red thought to himself.
His vision became hazy as he attempted to make his way towards one of the huts, and he was unsuccessful as the ground rose up to meet him.
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Red awoke just a little while later, his body feeling lighter and more natural. He looked down at his hands, and to his shock they were completely different. Gone were the callouses and deep scars from his battle-weathered hands, and in their place were just a few fresh wounds, ones usually present on a younger warrior. Looking around, despite the darkness, he could immediately tell he was no longer in that farm village. He was now in a dingy and used barrack, surrounded by dozens of other young men snoozing in cots. Looking down at his body, he was wearing very light leather armor that appeared closer to a shirt rather than something that was meant to protect.
I’ve travelled back to my youth. Is this Valafor’s doing?
Before Red had time to ponder, a short young man in gaudy silver armor peeked his head in the door. His short blond dreadlocks shook as he motioned to Red. Red looked around and then pointed to himself. The young man became more aggressive and motioned to Red again and Red sat up quickly.
As Red got closer, the young man threw his arm around Red’s shoulder and pulled him in, “Redhead, why are you moving so slow tonight? You know I wouldn’t call out to you if it wasn’t important!”
As he walked alongside the young man, memories came flowing inside his head, and Red slowly began to lose control of his body. His body moved and conversed with the young man without his input, and he slowly became a passenger in his own body.
“Seriously though Arthur, we have our final examination tomorrow, shouldn’t we be trying to sleep?”
Arthur heartily smiled at Red and smacked him on the back, “Of course we should! But there’s something more important we need to attend to first.”
After walking with Red for a while past the training camp and into Britannius’s capital city, Aeon. The city’s structures rested upon an ever-rising body of water, too large to be called a river or lake but too small in its scope to be close to an ocean. The young men weaved between the stone bridges and leaning buildings and leaped over small bodies of water until they reached an unlit back alley where the backs of many of the buildings faced. Small monsters scurried around in the darkness despite the relative calmness of the capital city.
As Red and Arthur rounded the corner, they witnessed two more young men, both bloody from battle, at a complete standstill. They stared at each other, unmoving, while panting hard. The boy on the left, a shorter darker skinned young man with dull blond spiky hair, stood without a shirt, only sporting loose red pants. His muscular physique would awe the most seasoned warriors as his body seemed devoid of body fat. He stood without a weapon and his hands down by his side, but the expression on his face showed he was ready to strike at any time. Despite his attempt to remain calm, his eyes betrayed his true feelings, his overflowing killing intent. Red instantly recognized the young man as Setanta.
Across from him stood a taller, significantly older man, well into his mid twenties. The man wore a full set of gaudy silver armor similar to Arthur’s and stood defiantly holding half of a rapier. The young man pushed up his square glasses from the bridge of his nose. The young man was obviously winded from whatever previously transpired, but mana still erupted from his body as he readied another strike. Looking at him for a long time, the name Lanzel suddenly appeared to Red.
The two young men looked over at Red and Arthur, and nearly had the same response. They both scoffed and turned back to their battle, each readying magic runes for an attack. The entirety of Setanta's arms were engulfed in green runes, with light emanating off of them like flame. Red runes danced around Lanzel’s rapier as he fully assumed an attacking position.
Red spoke up suddenly, “Look, I don’t know what you idiots are fighting about, but I’m going to hope it’s not for the squad leader position. You should already know who it’s going to be.”
Lanzel canceled his magic runes and turned to Red, confused, “Who is it going to?”
Red crossed his arms, “Obviously me. If we’re following the chain of command, it should be Arthur, but since he made a big spectacle about not wanting it at the debrief, I’m the next best fit.”
Santa's bloodlust subsided as he turned to Red with mocking laughter, “And why do you think it should be you, Mr. Blood Mage?”
Red slowly became indignant, “Yeah, I am a blood mage, that’s exactly wh-” Red sighed deeply, “Look, our unit is insanely lopsided, we know that right? Out of the four class types, we only have 2 of them fully represented. Three melee fighters and a spellsword is a terrible ratio, so somehow we’re going to have to make up for our lack of support and healing magic. Since I can use both,” Red motioned with his hands, “Wouldn’t it make sense to make your leader the person with the most versatile skill set for any situation?”
Santa and Lanzel had fully sheathed their weapons and stood deep in thought, considering Red’s proposal. Arthur just stood to the side and smiled.
Red blankly stated, “Besides that, I’m the strongest.”
“This isn’t how it happened at all. I never said that. Lanzel didn’t respect commoners so he wouldn’t listen if I did. I remember Arthur gave some heroic speech and he became the squad leader. Is that how I should’ve acted, Valafor? Or is this how I wanted it to go, deep down?” Red thought to himself.
The words seemed to cut through the air and completely took Santa, Arthur and Lanzel off guard. They all looked at Red, in shock that he would think to utter those words. Red stood leaning against one of the building as silence filled the air because of his comment. He listened to the rushing water around them, and waited for a rebuttal. No one said anything verbal, but the looks on their faces did not want to accept the statement.
Red looked at all of them and nearly whispered, “Do you all want to win against Oldum?”
The young men nodded in agreement.
“How badly do you want to win against them? Are you okay with being just another nameless, faceless pawn that lost his life fighting against them, or does your ego require you to be the hero that leads the youngest platoon into battle? I shouldn’t have to tell you all this - especially not you Santa, but to get the outcome you want sometimes you have to sacrifice in one aspect, to obtain something better later on. Are you all willing to give up those aspirations of being heroes so that we can be knights?”
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Santa and Lanzel seemed to reluctantly agree to this prospect, while Arthur laughed heartily and put his hand on Red’s shoulder.
“I knew it was a good idea bringing you out here! I don’t think I can give a speech like that.”
They all laughed at the statement and began to head back to barracks, where Red first awoke from. As the boys exited the alley, Red’s consciousness seemed to be pushed farther and farther out of his body until he was no longer near his body and instead flying into the atmosphere hurtling toward the sun. A blinding light clouded everything around Red, as his consciousness escaped into the stratosphere.
“A false memory…” Red thought to himself, “Why would you show me that Valafor?”
____________________________________________________________
Red struggled his eyes open but was met with complete darkness. He felt fabric caress his skin, something was covering not only his eyes but his mouth as well. Red spat the gag out, inhaled deeply, and nearly threw up. The air stunk of dead bodies and excrement like they lined the walls with it. Red attempted to move his hand but his entire arm was bonded, no, encased in an unflinching metal. His other arm and his legs were contained the same way. In that same moment, pain began to set in, all across his chest, then his face, then his entire body. It was clear that during the time he was passed out, he had been poked, prodded, stabbed and whipped with varying degrees of intensity. The wounds weren’t painful however, they served as little more than a slight annoyance.
Red sighed hard, and with no effort pulled both of his arms out of their metal bindings, instantly shattering the brittle metal to pieces. Red pulled the blindfold from his eyes and looked around. Red now confirmed his suspicions, he was in a small cell, complete with bars in front of him, and he was surrounded by dead and decayed bodies. Red shuddered and looked down at his chest. He placed his hand over his chest and gathered a bit of blood, simultaneously closing all the wounds at the same time. Forming the blood into a pick he reached down to remove the bind from his legs, but in the same moment, he heard something loud at the opposite end of the room. The sound of pieces of metal slamming against each other, echoed throughout the room for a long time.
Red stood motionless, completely unimpressed, and shouted at, “You might as well show yourself now!”
Out from the lingering shadows stepped a fair skinned portly man holding a long white rifle with gold accents. The man wore a black cloth suit that was adorned with the same symbols that Olo’s troops wore.
“Let me guess, are you one of Olo’s apprentices as well?” Red continued to examine the man as he pointed his rifle directly at Red’s head.
“His second in command actually,” The man spoke with a deep voice and drew out every word, ”Unfortunately for you, I don’t have the same moral conviction as my captain though, so I don’t think I want introduce myself to trash like you. For the rest of your short life, you can call me the Ruiner.”
Red chuckled at him as he took a step forward, breaking through both of his leg constraints, “Okay ‘Runier’, tell me, where exactly am I?”
Ruiner put his gun in a ready position as mana began to flow around the barrel, “If you take another step you’ll be resting with the gods. Right now, you’re in the castle’s dungeon, and we’re preparing a big festival for your execution. The king was thrilled to hear that you wandered onto our front doorstep and fainted for a week, but frankly, that disappointed me a bit. I heard from Olo and Yasuke about what you’re capable of and I wanted to see for myself, especially that Reign Magic.”
Red attempted to invoke his ability Outrider to gauge Ruiner’s power, but nothing happened. Even without it, however, it was obvious that Ruiner was at least close to Olo in mana output, as mana flowed off of him.
Red smiled widely, grabbing the bars and bending them. He shouted out, “Maybe I can show you something!”
Ruiner’s rifle became surrounded in mana, all culminating and overflowing at the barrel. Red put his hand up and formed a shield of blood, as Ruiner shot his rifle. There wasn’t a sound when the rifle was fired, the bullet didn’t cut through the air or deafen the room, until seconds later, long after the bullet penetrated the shield and part of Red’s hand, barely missing his head. Red concentrated with all of his might to stop from doubling over in pain.
That rifle is insane! Those bullets are the fastest thing I’ve ever seen, I couldn’t dodge it even if I was at my full strength, never mind now with my body still being sluggish.
Ruiner loaded his gun in an instant and got into a ready position again. Red waved his hand around his body and summoned his blood armor, as well as his kite shield and lance. He put his shield up and rushed towards Ruiner, knocking him down and pinning to the ground in the same move. Ruiner’s rifle slid across the floor as Red placed the shield on his neck and the lance near his chest.
Ruiner still laid on the ground, smirking, “You know, I was a teenager when you and those so-called legendary knights were going on your rampage all those years ago. The thing I hated was waking up every day and hearing one of you killed my brothers, cousins and uncles. At first I was sad, then I was angry, and then I was just tired.”
Red completely ignored him, “Where is the king?”
Ruiner shushed him, “It’s rude to interrupt when someone’s telling a story. Anyway, I enlisted when I was sixteen, and since they were taking all comers, and my family was too busy to object, they let me go. And one day, on a patrol I saw something out of this world. Just a sea of red blood, like a tornado in one part of the battlefield. I thought it was some tier eight monster with a taste for human flesh. But no, it was just Red, the King of Crimson Blood, smiling while he took the lives of my comrades, and laughing at anyone who asked to be spared.”
Red bit his lip and shook his head as he attempted to forget the past. He pressed his lance against Ruiner’s chest, “Where is he?”
Ignoring the blood being drawn he continued, “You know Red, when I saw you that day, I seriously couldn’t tell you were human. I was scared stiff, and I just sat there and watched you slowly stab each member of my squad one by one, targeting every single vital area until they bled out. Did you like it Red? Did it feel good to you?”
Red let out a blood-curdling scream that bounced off of the walls as he stabbed into Ruiner’s chest.
Ruiner coughed up blood, “I was too weak then. My little innate ability was too weak no matter how much I trained or what type of rifle I used. So I committed myself to learning. I learned and learned and trained and trained, until I became master of the fundamentals. I mastered the fundamentals and then I mastered something greater."
Ruiner stared into Red’s eyes as he placed his pinkies together in a diamond formation. Runes quickly gathered around his entire body, and then appeared in the air around him, and then over the entire room and beyond.
Ruiner yelled out, “Liminal Space Fulgur!”
The hairs on Red’s body seemed to stand on end as a blinding light surrounded them.
In an instant, they were teleported to a small wooden pier overlooking thrashing waters in the middle of a raging storm. Lighting ripped through the sky as Ruiner razed the pier with blinding electricity, collapsing the small wooden structure and casting the two of them into the furious sea. Lighting continued to assault the two of them relentlessly. Ruiner kept a bored expression on his face while Red howled out in pain. Red’s blood magic dissipated inside the hail of lightning strikes, leaving him completely immobile as Ruiner began to float up into the air with a large gaping wound in his chest. After a few seconds, the lightning rain began to slow and the waters calmed as the illusion dissipated, revealing they were still in the musty dungeon. Ruiner floated down to the ground and dropped to a knee, holding his chest and wheezing.
Ruiner continued to gasp for air and stumbled over to his gun as Red laid face down, smoke emanating from his burned body.
Ruiner examined Red for a while looking him up and down. Pulling his hand up to his eyes, he silently whispered Outrider as he looked over him closer. Ruiner staggered back as Red began to absorb the arcana around him at an alarming rate, wringing the area dry of it in a few moments, and using it to fill his own mana pool. Red slowly lifted himself, struggling at first and propping himself against nearby rubble, but after a few seconds he got up completely independently and stood defiantly without any injuries.
Ruiner still pointed his rifle at Red and attempted to charge a shot, but no mana gathered at the barrel.
Red stood a short distance away from Ruiner, panting. Before he could make a move, a figure dropped in from above and stepped between them. The tall man stood in elegant and pristine white armor that completely contrasted against the messy scene of the dungeon. The man grabbed the barrel of Ruiner’s gun and pointed it down. He directly at Red, his helmet completely obscuring his face.
“Former Celeres Red,” the man said in a familiar quick and rushed manner, “the king has requested to see you at once. Cease this fighting, we will meet him right away.”
Ruiner spoke directly to the man in the white armor, “What’s the meaning of this Olo?”
“That’s Olo?” Red thought to himself.
“Do not forget your place, Lyle,” Olo nearly spat out the name, ”The king's orders are absolute, he does not need to provide a justification that makes sense to you. Now put down the rifle before I mark you down as a traitor like that other boy.”
Ruiner instantly put his gun down to his side and assumed a salute position, quietly murmuring, “Yes captain.”
Olo turned back to Red, and began pacing around him, “I watched your entire scuffle Red, and it’s obvious you’ve become several times stronger and faster in just over a week. I only wonder, what’s happened to your Reign magic? Do you no longer have access to it?”
Red swallowed hard, but remained silent and stood stoically.
Olo stared at him for a while longer, “It doesn’t matter. Our king has requested to see you privately, against my vehement pleas, so I will be escorting you to a special chamber. If you attempt to lay a finger on the king, we will swoop down on you and execute you immediately, so I’d advise you not to try. Now, follow me.”
Olo turned and began to walk towards a half-ruined staircase, and Red began to follow. Ruiner remained in the same spot, saluting to no one in particular until Olo and Red were out of sight. Red and Olo walked through an ornate hallway patterned with gold tiles and massive gold pillars. On every corner, soldiers stood with their weapons at the sides saluting as the two men progressed. After half an hour of walking, Red and Olo came to a drab narrow hallway filled with cracked grey bricks. As Red continued down the hallway, Olo suddenly stopped and assumed a salute position.
“This is as far as I go,” Olo stated matter-of-factly, “King Esa has requested that the two of you speak privately, and has specifically requested that I don’t enter his chambers with you.” Olo shot him a cold glare, “But I am right here.”