There was a city called Halton in front of him. This city had boasted about their twenty-five meter tall walls made of stone.

  It was a curtain wall that extended about 50 miles long. The battlements were supported with cannons and mortars with grape shot that became a problem for anyone trying to assault it.

  The enemy didn’t attack them head-on and instead opted on using their manpower to create a fortified area where fifteen thousand men were ready to fight. The city-state of Halton was situated near the shore so they had ships on the back that were capable of firing long-distance artillery on them.

  The Arkshield Island was the first one to approach and since it was the biggest target that they could find. They poured artillery and mortar on the Island for two days straight.

  It became a battle where the Elven-kin, protected by their treants, raised earth barriers, and molded the land around the outskirts of Halton to provide cover for the soldiers of the fleet.

  The first battle became a massive firefight from both sides. The cannons that were being fired and the amount of spells that the Elven-kin released polluted the air and conjured a dust storm.

  When the dust storm was cleared. The city-state of Halton resumed firing, shattering the ground, the barriers, and some of the supply wagons that the troops carried.

  Lady Frigus, Lady Rosalve sang their songs of destruction of the Elven-kin and tore through the battlements. But the walls of Halton were made to withstand the monsters of the Great Seas. Other than the stone that acted as a finishing of the walls. They were using the same black stone walls that they used to create the great gates of Brampi that was keeping the water from the Great Seas from entering the lower lands of the Icean Spine.

  Their songs of destruction were repelled by the black stone that was acting as the foundation of the walls. Every cannon shot was repelled by the way the ravelins and the tenailes were constructed around the curtain walls.

  It was a gruesome battle and the fortifications of the Walls of Halton were made exactly to repel giant monsters. The songs of protection and the songs of destruction could not produce a single spark.

  From the island itself they could see that most of the houses were made of stones to prevent fire, and there were canals where every person in the city could gather sea water and sand to extinguish any fire started by the attack.

  The artillery made a dent on their houses, but from what the scouts could tell, most of their homes had underground tunnels that kept them protected from any monster attack. In this case not even their assault could dampen them.

  Lord Seke, who had failed in his negotiations had returned to the island bringing news of his failure. He had told the fleet about how the city was one of the bastions that faced the Great Seas Monsters on their own.

  For hundreds of years the Halton city-state had endured. Even the long-necked abominations that stood fifty meters tall who sprouted fire from its mouth were unable to destroy the walls of the City.

  The great builders that onced ruled were the rulers back, and although what was left were their descendants, it didn’t mean that they didn’t invent the ways of their forefathers when it comes to facing monsters that were beyond their capability of defeating.

  “We would need to have a greater power, and from the looks of it the songs of the singers are ineffective when it comes to destroying their walls.”

  Lord Seke had been helping the fleet. Caldor Ando thought so little of the Lord despite his help, and it was mostly because of how he was willing and eager to help the fleet.

  Terin understood that there was more to Lord Seke than his ‘eagerness’ to cooperate with them, but Terin was simply too tired to deal with his matter. Caldor Ando, Lady Rosalve, and Lady Frigus were capable of handling the matters of the fleet.

  Most of the council that was on top of the Arkshelled Island were discussing fervently on how they hastened. They were simply running out of time, and the matter of reaching the eye and the heart of the world mattered more than their battle in the Icean Spine.

  It may seem like a big problem, but they weren’t even in the Great Seas, this was not the place where they needed to be. The very space itself was crumbling, and before long the world would turn into deserts of salt if they could not reach the world.

  Terin had tried to ask why he needed to reach the eye of the world in the first place. Why did he had to blind the world, and when it was blinded, reach the heart of the world.

  It was said that he needed to bring light to the heart of the world and make it so the heart would keep on beating. How was this connected to the world turning into a world of salt didn’t make a damn sense to him.

  But Lady Rosalve and the rest of his companions were not eager to answer and told him that he needed to only worry about storing more of the light into him. He wanted answers, but all they told him was this:

  When the eye of the world blinks then the world blinks as well.

  When the heart of the world stops beating then the world itself would turn cold, and when the world turns cold then the eye of the world forever be closed.

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  He didn’t understand his role fully. But he did understand why he needed to reach the eye and the heart of the world.

  Terin knew that the fleet was doing its best to deliver him to the place where he should be. The continent had been ready to rescue their world from the start.

  Terin had gotten used to the power. The overwhelming power that could burn through lands if he could not tame it. It was constantly burning that it made him wonder how long it would take for him to fully control it.

  To hold the sun within his body was not a simple task as they make it to be. Not to mention that he didn’t control them through the use of his voice or through the communication with the sprites that were making use of the power.

  He had to learn through his own ways.

  But it was terrible. He had to learn from the tomes that meant nothing to him. He was literate, he could read the scripts, but he didn’t have a huge vocabulary so he needed the help of his companions to fully understand some of the writings.

  He was able to somewhat learn how to control his power through the study that they had done while the Grand Galleon was traveling the seas. On those boring days he constantly contemplated on what it meant to take in the light and breathe them in.

  Although the methods were different, Terin had made an observation of how the sprites gather power from the words of power that the Elven-kin, and the blue blooded. Through constant observation and practice, he was able to go through what he can do now.

  But he also had learned from the visions that taught him about how to take control of his body, and make use of the power given by the sun to serve his purpose.

  The light itself did not choose where to shine. It does not discriminate unless one hides from it or is covered by something.

  Under the sun he felt invigorated and even if he doesn’t eat for a day or two, he would still feel the power in him. There are days where he felt fear because of his powers. Sometimes there are days where he has nightmares of whatever happens if he misses a beat. The sun not only filled him with power, it made him feel like he could crush anyone like they were nothing more than a piece of paper.

  He found out that in a hard way when he tried patting someone on the shoulder, and had crushed their shoulder bones. If he doesn’t control his strength, he could crush anyone. The power of the light made him durable, strong, and fast. His senses were sharpened and he was far more sensitive to the world before him.

  It didn’t feel right. But knowing that he could trample any person made him wary. He didn’t dare to act without fully mastering his control, and only through touching that pillar on the highest peak of the Icean Spine that he was able to do it.

  “So what do we do?”

  “We could rush the island itself and dare to trample on the city itself.”

  “We could, but we need the deposits of gunpowder and cannon balls that they made,” one of the admirals argued. “This campaign has taken too long! Our men are injured! At this rate we would have nothing to defend ourselves against the creatures of the Great Seas!”

  “And we should let this island suffer damage? You do realize that most of the produce we are growing will help in the journey. This island is alive, and it is breathing the air of the world, and is producing food for us! We keep farms and cattles in this island now! Most of our ammunition is stored in the belly of this island! Do you want to destroy our capital?”

  They were arguing. Terin Gaspar looked at Lady Rosalve, Lady Frigus, and Caldor Ando before leaving quietly, heading out of the fort.

  He walked out of the fort while blocking the sunlight, making himself invisible in the eyes of the others. He could still be felt and seen by the sprites, but he doubted anyone could see him other than those who could see the sprites and spirits of the world.

  Terin looked at the City of Halton with a tired stare.

  Father, you told me that as a farmer, that I should take care of the plants so that they may grow. In order to make sure that they grow healthy, I must clear out the weeds. I wish you were still here, father. You could have guided me, and yet I am here in this foreign place. Mardon’s still with me, and I do appreciate his companionship, but there are days where I wished that someone other than him would see Terin Gaspar, the farmer, the son of a farmer named Bradley Gaspar, not the blinder of the world, not as the son of light, and not the heir of the sun.

  Just me, the farmer called Terin Gaspar.

  They expect too much of me, father. I don’t know why I was chosen, and I still don’t know what choices I have to make.

  Terin manifested his sword of the sun.

His legs weakened.

  His hands trembled.

  But he held the hilt of the sword tightly.

  Terin held up the sword made from the light of the sun in front of him and closed his eyes. Standing on the scalp of the Arkshelled Island. He took three steps and manifested into a fifty-meter tall giant made of light.

  I don’t know who is right or wrong. Whether they should be called good or evil, and perhaps in their eyes I am the devil manifested in a form of light.

  But father, you taught me once, that there are days where a man must choose when to carve his own path. They have their own visions, they have their own choices, and their own agendas.

  Forgive me if I am wrong, father.

  But I have chosen the side that I wanted to take.

  I am prolonging their suffering.

  More of them would die if they could not be persuaded to give up the fight.

  If I’m going to be part of this slaughter.

  Then let me do this on my own terms!

  Terin Gaspar held his sword made from the light of the sun and made it burn bright enough to blind everyone. The sun became his blade and with a single cleaving motion, he tore the black stone walls and demanded with a voice that was like a crash of thunder.

  “Surrender now and be spared!”

  Terin Gaspar made his demands.

  And with his demand the city-state of Halton obeyed.