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Y. 763-M. 07. A.D.R
It had been two years since Raze was born. The years had been difficult for Axyl, as he had to hunt down Eldrim and look after his newborn son. Luckily he had been able to contact some of his colleagues in Reignend and get some help in his hunt. Though nothing related to Eldrim has been found, it’s as if he completely vanished.
It was the middle of the night and Axyl was sitting in a chair in his apartment overlooking the city of Ravton. Even in the night the city was bustling with life, bright lights shone on the streets, buildings were filled with activity. Axyl wasn’t surprised, Ravton was a big commercial hub in the human lands. He stood up from his chair and started walking to his son’s room. He slowly opened the door as to not wake up the sleeping child. He took in the details of the room.
The first thing he noticed was a white crib made from the Mellowbrook tree, it’s wood renowned for it’s high quality, though it was rather expensive. He then saw light blue wallpaper covering the walls and ceiling. Beside the crib was nightstand with a small lamp on top.Axyl turned his head to the left, and saw a small brown closet. Beside it was a small window which had the view of the crescent twin moons. Axyl took a few small steps towards the crib and looked at his son. He had been growing quite well. His hair had grown, no longer the small patch that it used to be. As he gazed into his son, a feeling of pride washed over him. He was already quite proud of his new son, Raze had taken to walking like a champ and he had begun to use real words and not some baby gibberish. Axyl looked away to check his watch. Deciding that it was about time for some rest he walked out of his son’s room and closed the door as quietly as he could.
With that out of the way, he walked towards the fridge in the kitchen and grabbed a carton of milk and he poured himself a glass. With his milk in hand, the started walking towards his own room. Opening the door he was greeted by the sight of a sleeping Nyx, a gentle smile adorning her beautiful face. Disregarding any thoughts of interrupting her peaceful sleep, he drank his milk and gently climbed into bed. Clearing his mind, he went off into deep slumber.
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Y. 765-M. 09-D. 20. A.D.R
The chirping of birds could be heard, signaling the rise of the sun. A heavy knock could be heard on a wooden door.
“Ugh” a deep voice said “can’t I ever get some decent sleep, Come in...”
The door opened and in stepped two women dressed in maid uniforms and behind them was a tall well dressed man with piercing violet eyes and short blonde hair.
“You know.. this is not how a king should act” the tall man said in an amused tone.
“Like you’re one to talk you lousy spirit, you might not need much sleep, but I do since I’m not as young as I used to be.” Said the now identified King.
“It’s almost noon, and you have a meeting in a few hours so I suggest you wake the hell up and get ready, wouldn’t want to embarrass your family now…” remarked the spirit.
“Fine , just shut up already, I’m not even sure why I keep you around…”
“Uhh, peace treaty with the elves, does that ring any bells? Or maybe it’s because we’ve known each other for the entirety of our lives. Anyway that doesn’t really matter, as I’m here to stay” the spirit couldn’t stop smirking.
“You just love giving me headaches don’t you?”
“A little bit I guess” the smirk wasn’t going away anytime soon. “Well... more than a little..”
The king frowned “Ugh..I should get ready..” said the king as he was getting out of bed. The two maids we’re already presenting clean clothes. “Thank you, make the bed and then you two can go. The maids nodded in understanding and started making the bed while the king got getting dressed.
Once the king was properly dressed, he turned his head toward the spirit. “Lexion, we should get going.”
“Yeah sure, whatever you say, your Majesty.” Lexion did a mock bow, the smirk still present on his face.
The king and his spirit companion left the room and made their to the throne room. Which was quite a distance away from the royal quarters, their current position. As they walked the king decided to stop and went to one of the windows overlooking his city. He gazed into his city, Lune Gemelle. The capital of the human kingdom. Giant houses and buildings of stone and metal were surrounded by thick metalic walls which extended as far as the eye could see. It truly was an enormous city, it’s population estimated to be around 22 million civilians and 5.8 million active soldiers. The capital had dozens of huge farms and a gigantic freshwater lake surrounding it and providing food and water to the people.
The king stopped his gaze and sighed. As beautiful as anything can be on the outside, it will always have some ugliness on the inside. The same could said for his city, corruption was rampant and he didn’t miss some of the nobles attempts to his life. Yet he could do nothing without causing a civil war, so he had gotten used to it, he just hoped his children wouldn’t grow up tainted by corruption. The king motioned for Lexion to move and so both of them walked to their original destination, but not without another stop. The king stopped and turned towards a branching hallway. Lexion nodded in understanding and followed after his king. They both stopped infront of a door adorned with gold and precious jewels. The king slowly opened the door and walked In, Lexion following soon after.
The first thing the king saw was his youngest daughter sleeping soundly in a small bed. His face curled up into a small smile before getting serious.
“I know what you’re thinking, and isn’t it a bit too early for that.” Lexion spoke in a serious tone, his previous playfulness nowhere to be seen.
“It might be a bit soon, but nevertheless I need something to keep my daughter safe, and a spirit could do just that” the king said as he walked towards a nearby bookshelf and pulled out a rather large book. While flipping through it’s pages he abruptly stops, and takes in the page in front of him. Depicting all of the 7 humanoid races.
Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Demons, Engelim, Spirits and Beastmen.
“She needs to be protected from these” the king pointed to all the races.
“Elias, i understand where you’re coming from, but I still think it’s too soon..” replied the unsure spirit.
“Please.. I’m not as asking as a king, but as a father.”
The spirit sighed. “ Ugh, I’ll see what I can do, if this is what you want, then there will be a lot of preparations to be made.”
“Yes it is and I’ll make sure all the preparations are made.”
“Then i guess we’re done here” Elias exclaimed as the book in his hand was promptly closed.
“Yep” Lexion said as both of them left the room quietly and continued towards the throne room.
After several minutes of walking in silence, the pair reached their destination - the throne room.
The guards stationed at the door immediately recognized their king and Lexion. They made a deep bow and opened the huge doors to the throne room.
As the doors were opened, Elias instantly recognized the exquisite and intricate décor of the room. It was a very large room, capable of holding hundreds of people with ease, the pearl white walls and the dozens of pillars gleamed in the light of the ornate chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. In the center of the room was a big table, which curved outwards from the door. The table was where the nobles were seated and behind the fancy table were two thrones, one obviously bigger.
Elias breathed a sigh, ‘At least I have a small bit of free time, I suppose I should use it to figure out the safest way to get my daughter bound to a spirit. Spirit binding was a very complex and dangerous ritual, which required the blood of the binder and the binded. The binding would create a link between the two beings, but if something went wrong then both of them would either die or go completely berserk and Elias really did not want that. He thought for an hour, yet he did not have a solution. The sound of a ceremony horn snapped the king out of his daydreams. As he looked to the door, he could see all kinds of nobles rushing in, good, bad and everything in between. But he knew that most if not all of them had the scent of corruption and ill intent on them. Elias walked to his throne and sat down.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the court, I thank each and every one of you for attending this soon to be recurring event.” Elias said, his voice carried confidence and power. “As most of you already know, my youngest daughter, the third princess Esselize Rakios was born a fortnight ago."
Lound cheers echoed inside the big throne room. The nobles and their offspring were clapping loudly. Some even had devious smiles, already making plans to marry their sons to the princess, thus ensuring their place in the royal family.
Elias stood up from his throne and with a clear and steady voice declared “I have gathered you all here to celebrate my daughters birth, but there was also another reason.” Elias took a deep breath. “ I plan to have my daughter bound ,so that she would bring prosperity to these land.”
As soon as those words were spoken, a large outburts could be heard from some of the nobles. “You want your daughter bound with elven magic?? Preposterous.” “More Elven magic? Isn’t having that pathetic Lexion here enough, we don’t need more filthy spirits.” “But having the spirits here help us preserve our treaty with the elves, we couldn’t risk another war, not with them getting a Harvester.” “What, the elves got a Harvester? When?! No, what’s more important is that we eliminate it before it can get the chance to do that to us.”
More and more nobles joined in and the conversation soon turned into pointless rambling. Elias sighed, he should have expected this, he knew that telling the nobles about his daughters binding would bring some backlash. But it was nothing compared to what could have happened if he kept the binding a secret.
After about 15 minutes of rambling the nobles started to leave, their boredom and irritation getting to them. Elias was relieved to be done with this farce. He looked over the leaving crowd and saw Lexion heading towards him.
“Well that was interesting, turned out better than expected eh?” Lexion remarked.
“Interesting indeed, though the elves having a new Harvester is worrisome. But that can wait, we need talk about the binding.” Elias said with a serious face.
“Alright, alright I guess I can’t keep dodging it forever. But are you sure you want this now? She’s not even 2 weeks old yet.” Lexion replied.
“ The sooner we do this, the sooner we can ensure her and the country’s safety.”
“ Ugh, once you set your mind on something there’s no turning away huh? Fine I’ll comply, but be ritual would only be ready next month at the latest.”
“I’ll take what I can get I suppose. Just make sure nothing goes wrong. And i should probably get back to my work room, I have a lot of paperwork left so..”
Lexion curtly nodded and turned and walked away. After Lexion left the king soon followed. He fell on his bed not long after and fell asleep, enjoying his guilty pleasure.
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Y.765-M. 10-D. 22. A.D.R
The month flew by fast. Elias was anxious about the ceremony, a lot of thing could go wrong. As Elias was gazing into the temples walls to calm down did he feel a pat on the back. He turned his head and was greeted by the smirking face of Lexion.
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“I know what you’re thinking and don’t worry, everything will be fine. And all the preparations are set, so there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.” Lexion reassured.
“I just can’t help but worry, what if someth-“ Elias was cut off by the loud ringing of a bell, indicating the start of the ritual.
Elias and Lexion both took their respective places and waited for the mages to begin. Several dark blue and one red hooded figures entered the temple, the guests and nobles making the way for them. The red mage was carrying a blanket with a child inside. The mages put the baby in the circle and motioned for Lexion to step worth. Elias took one last look at his daughter, black hair, blue eyes and a beautiful smile adorning her tiny face. The mages started chanting, everyone took a step back. The chanting carried on for a while before Lexion joined in.
“By the eight God’s will do we bind this child. Esselize Rakios, who’s purpose shall be to protect the human race from anything that may cause harm. After several more incantations a large magic circle could be seen on the tempe floor. The head mage held out Esselize and put her in the middle of the magic circle while Lexion was chanting several complex incantations, it wasn’t long before Esselize and the circle started to shine in brilliant blue light. Everyone had to cover their eyes, as the light was getting brighter and brighter. After a minute the light died down and beside Essellize another baby could be seen laying on the hard marble floor, but this one was overflowing with magic.
“The binding has been complete!” the head mage declared in a joyous voice.
Loud cheers erupted from everyone present. Elias walked over to Lexion and put a hand on his shoulder.
“So I guess you’re a father now too, go on and give her a name”
Lexion slowly nodded and started walking towards the laying children. He stopped and thought for a minute. After deciding on a name, he took his new daughter in his arm and held her up.
“From now her name shall be Alisa Vucasith and she will be the protector of the 3rd princess.” Lexion looked at his daughter. She had a small face, beautiful magenta eyes and blonde hair with slightly yellow tips. Lexion felt happy that the ritual succeeded and now because of it he had a daughter.
Lexion turned around was greeted by the sight of Elias approaching.
“I think a congratulations are in order don’t you think?” Elias asked with a sly smile.
“Yeah, I could use a good drink, or ten.” Lexion chuckled.
“Haha, yes , it’s been too long since we had a good drink together and now is as good a time as any, so let’s go.” replied the king, his voice full of excitement.
And so after the ceremony everyone went back to the palace to celebrate properly. And so the night ended with beer, lots and lots of beer.
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Y. 768-M. 07 A.D.R
A 7 year old boy was joyfully running around an apartment complex without a care in the world. Raze was trying to find his father, they were playing hide and seek and Raze was the seeker. But he had been searching for 20 minutes now and he still couldn’t find his dad anywhere. Raze was starting to think that he would never find his dad, maybe he left him altogether.
But then a thought popped into his head, what if his dad is hiding in a nearby park? His 7 year old brain thought that was the most logical solution, so he started running towards the park. He took as many shortcuts as he could and he even had to dodge a couple of autocarts, the drivers were clearly unhappy and they let the world know that too. After 10 minutes of running Raze stopped, finally reaching he park.
His breaths were heavy and he was very exhausted, he never ran so fast in his short little life. The park was big, in its centre was a pond, and a pretty big one at that. Surrounding the pond were dozens upon dozens of trees, ranging from big to small and everything in between accompanied by hundreds of different flowers. Raze had been to the park only once, and now he just couldn’t stop gazing into the beautiful trees and flowers, but he had to as he had to find his dad. He started running through the park which was surprisingly empty. It was very strange, Raze started to feel like something was wrong, but he kept on going deeper. He noticed that the sky was getting darker, black and gray clouds forming over the previously blue sky. As he went further in a strange and powerful feeling hit him. For the first time he felt dread, something was definitely not right and he still doesn’t know where his dad is. His running slowed down and now he was just slowly walking, while looking around for any dangers. As he walked he started to see more and more dead and withered trees, the air around him was freezing cold and Raze started shivering. Yet he kept walking forwards. He needed to find his dad, what if something happened to him? He had to know. Raze stopped beside the pond, the water was rippling uncontrollably and then it just stopped, as if nothing happened. Raze raised a brow in confusion ‘today is a very weird day.’
He looked at his reflection and his eyes widened, behind him the shadows were convulsing and something akin to a portal was forming. The portal kept growing in size until an armored hand came out and grabbed the edge of the portal. The hand pulled and more of it body came out the portal. Finally, a figure, that of a man covered head to toe in black metal armor stepped out. The armor was frightening and overflowing with shadows. The helmet was sharp with 3 spikes protruding towards the back, 2 where the ears should be and 1 at the top of the helm, it also had 4 vertical slits on both sides of the face. 2 glowing crimson eyes could be seen through them. The rest of the body was covered in hard and intricate metal plating. All except the inner arms and thighs, the throat and a small part of the abdomen, which were covered by strange dark leather like material. The shoulder pads and back plates had several spikes on them, and the hands had sharp claws with lines running all over the armor. 2 very intricate sword could be seen strapped to the left side of the beings back, a long sharp spear was also strapped to the right side of his back. Strangely, the right arm of the figure was bandaged. The bandages were barely visible under all the armor.
The portal closed behind the armored man. Raze was freezing and terrified, he took several steps back but ultimately lost his balance and fell flat on his ass. The air started to get even colder, so much so that it started to snow.
‘Snow, how could that be? It’s the middle of summer!’ Raze though frantically. The armored man hadn’t noticed him yet so maybe he could still flee. But his body wouldn’t move, probably from the cold or the fear, or maybe both. Tears started to well up inside Raze, he didn’t want to die in a frozen forest, he didn’t want to die at all.
The armored man looked at the falling snow and sighed. He looked around, seeing nothing but frozen trees and flowers.
But then he heard it, the sound of someone whimpering , it was faint but he still heard it. He turned his head in the direction of the sound. What he saw was a fallen boy crying his eyes out, his eyes widened as he recognized the boy. He started look around frantically.
“I should not be here… I need to leave fast…” a distorted voice muttered.
Raze raised his head at the voice, his fear kept growing, but at the same time he felt curiosity.
‘It shouldn’t be here? Why?’ Raze though in his mind. He took another look at the armored man. He was covered in a dark shadowy aura, unlike anything Raze had seen. His eyes blinked and then the man was gone. Panic ran through the boy, where did it go?? He could feel the air getting warmer, and the snow had stopped falling.
‘Did it leave?’ Raze didn’t wait for answer, as soon as he got up he started to run back, towards his home. As he ran, he couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. He was so terrified of the armored being, it was a miracle that he didn’t piss himself.
After another 10 minutes of running was Raze finally able to see his apartment complex in the distance. He never felt so relieved, he just hoped his dad was okay. Not long after he reached the complex, did he start to hastily run up the stairs. His hurried pace made him lose his footing and land face first into the cold metal stairs. Raze felt liquid on his face, he moved to wipe it but as he did, he noticed his hand was stained in blood, his blood. Fear once again overtook him.
‘What if I bleed out???’ his thoughts were panicked, he needed to get back home before he died! He ran up the rest of the stairs and made a bee line for the door to his house. He knocked loudly on the door. He kept knocking and knocking until it finally opened and his mothers figure could be seen in the shadows.
Nyx opened the door and saw her son scared and his face bleeding. Her face twisted in worry.
“Raze what happened, why are you bleeding?!”
“Mom! I’m so scared! Is daddy okay?”
Nyx knelt in front of Raze and hugged him tightly. “Your father is fine, now lets get inside and tell me what happened, okay?” she asked kindly.
“Okay..” Raze sniffled.
Nyx led him to the living room, where she sat him down. She walked to the hall, “Axyl, get over here now!” she yelled.
Hurried footsteps could be heard as Axyl came around the corner.
“What’s wrong, did something happen?” asked the husband.
“Living room, now!” Nyx growled.
Axyl, fearing for his well being bolted for the living room, and his eyes widened.
“Raze?! What happened, why are you bleeding??” he asked worried and guilty.
Nyx came up beside him “How could this happen, you were supposed to be watching him..” she said with anger laced in her voice.
“I don’t know, we were playing hide and seek when he disappeared, i was looking for him but then I got.. distracted..”
“You got distracted?...” Nyx was baffled “It seems I’ll have to punish you tonight…” Axyls face went pale, he knew that his grave was dug..
Nyx turned towards her son and gently asked.
“Raze, sweetie why don’t you tell us what happened” she got some cleaning cloth and water and started cleaning the blood from his face.
“okay…” he sniffled, “ I was playing with dad and then i lost him and I couldn’t find him, I then ran to the park to look for him some more, but everything felt weird, and it was getting really cold” he shivered at the though of the freezing cold. “ I went to the pond and then I saw it, behind me was a portal thingy and then a big scary man in armor stepped out, I was really scared and then the armored guy saw me and said that he shouldn’t be here and then it disappeared.” He wiped his tears away an continued “And then I ran back home and I tripped on the stairs and started bleeding..” Raze finished.
Nyx finished cleaning his face and softly said.
“Don’t worry, everything is gonna be okay now, nothing will hurt you here. Why don’t we go put you to sleep? Does that sound good?” Raze nodded tiredly and Axyl was forced to carry his son to bed.
An hour later did Raze finally fall asleep, both parent left his room and went towards their own.
“A black armored man, who do you think it could be?” Axyl asked curiously
“I don’t know, but I’m more worried about the dark energy that I felt, it can’t be a coincidence. Even demons don’t have that much dark energy, so that only leaves..”
“A Harvester” Axyl concluded “But I’ve never heard of a black armored Harvester, and what could it even be doing here? This just doesn’t make any sense…”
Nyx sighed “ I have no clue, we can figure that all out later, the important thing is that Raze is safe. It’s getting pretty late, we really should go to bed..”
Axyl just nodded, the both of them promptly went to bed and Axyl quickly fell asleep. But Nyx could still feel the strange energy in the forest, it was fading, but very slowly and that made her worry. She tried to relax, and after an hour she too fell into sleeps gentle embrace.