Chapter Text
There was a goddess with ethereal beauty
Mother of three, spouse of an immortal god and a wise man
The oldest son was the heir of immortality,
The younger twins were the heir of the wisdom of humanity
The firstborn was cruel and arrogant
With his power, he tormented his brothers
The second son roared up the sound of plea toward the heaven
Begged for mercy, justice and power
Came the trickster, offered a craft
A craft to make him as powerful as his brother
The middle one mastered the craft
He challenged his brother to an unending battle
The youngest loved peace in nature
He, too, lifted up the voice of plea toward the sky
Came again the trickster
“Your life would bring peace amongst your brothers,” said he
The youngest, as naive as he was, believed the calling
He threw himself into the battle,
Soon his life was expired in the brothers’ hands
The goddess cried in despair
Thus let out a curse
“You shall die protecting my youngest’ descendants,” was her curse to the firstborn
“You shall exhaust your life to a never ending thirst to sought more power,” was her curse for the second
“...and you, I shall banish you to the earth. For eternity shall you deceive mankind and to be deceived!!” she screamed to the trickster.
**
That night’s sky was bright with the flame of fire that burned down the castle’s complex, one by one. The fire was blazing up to the sky, as if wanted to swallow it into its embrace. The high general Rae Lawran could only gazed dispiritedly as the castle building turned into ashes bit by bit.
It’s all gone now...
The young general shook his head, forcing himself to focus. He had a very important task, which waiting for him to deliver, even if it would demand his own life. He tossed away his ragged cloak and took his defendere crystal. The crystal could provide protection from any attack for its user. Rae chanted the simple chant to activate the crystal. Soon after, his body was surrounded by a layer of water-like coating.
The young man took his steps to the northern part of the castle, where the king and queen’s chamber was. He broke through a flock of fleeing ladies-in-wait and pushed away some eunuchs who were running with a bucket of water, or some valuables, or their body only. Some of his men saw him headed toward the king’s chamber and followed him. As he guessed their intention, Rae immediately waved his hand and commanded them to return to their post.
“But general,” his captain protested, “Northern complex was the first complex that got hit. There would be packed with Balins. At least let some of us go with you! We could assist you and assuring the safety of the queen and the crown prince...”
Rae stopped and pushed that captain back, said firmly, “Stay where you are to help the king at the front gate. Help me to evacuate the ladies-in-wait and the eunuchs, so them fleeing won’t disturb the defence that king had erected. Leave the queen and crown prince to General Lee and me. Do you understand me, Captain Kayene?!”
The captain could only clench his teeth and nodded. He then returned to his original post, along with his men. Rae continued to move forward, casting some water magic to repel the fire that seemed thirsty for his life as he went. A couple of minutes after, the tall and well-build general had reached the corridor which connecting the eastern part of the castle, his original post, with the northern part.
His eyebrows frowned, as he tried to suppress his agony and anger when he saw before his eyes, the most beautiful part of the castle, which he loved so much had now laid in ruins. The originally painted sky-blue columns had now blackened and cracked. All the rare plants and beautiful flowers planted surrounding the corridor had now burned and destroyed. He saw his men’s corpses all over the marble floor, where their blood had spoiled the white colour. Rae also saw some burnt Balins’ corpses. The offendere crystal (the crystal that could produce attacks depending on the kind of magic infused into it) which planted on the columns seemed to be working.
Rae caught a glimpse of movement approaching from the west, made him jump sideway to avoid the attack. He then saw a Balin crushed a column, not far from where he stood before. Rae took a good look at his attacker. That Balin was two meters high, with a pair of muscled arms and body. Its skin was coal-black, while its originally good-figured face now had been pulled backward as its teeth became large fangs and shark-like teeth, completely disfiguring its face. The creature’s skull had cracked open and showing its blackened brain. Its blood-red eyes glued to the young general, hungry for blood.
“That was Lee’s doing, right? You should’ve just let her had her way with you, cut your carcass brain into pieces with her Aoife sword...”
The creature growled, and then put an attack to Rae with its claws. The young general jumped once more, not to flee the attack, but to find chance to counter-attack. He pulled out his sword, and then dripped his own blood on the crystal that implanted on the handle of his sword.
“Neara!!” He called.
Responded to the call, Rae’s sword was glowing. Followed the bright light, a beautiful woman appeared. She was radiant with the golden light surrounding her slender body. The woman had long wavy hair, which she adorned with a gold crown. She was dressed in golden robe, made her beauty glowed to the fullest. The woman locked her sight to the Balin, before she shone once more and entered Rae’s body. The young general felt a flow of strength in his body. He knew then, he had unified with his sword’s soul.
Rae dropped fierce attacks to the Balin. His sword swung mercilessly, craving for its opponent’s blood. The creature was trying to defend itself with its claws, before it howled in pain when Rae’s sword cut its whole arm. It did not took too long for the young general to eventually cut off the creature’s head, and put it dead once more.
After killed that creature, Rae continued to move on to the Northern complex, only to stop occasionally to kill any Balin that blocked his way. When he reached the throne room, he saw his best friend and partner, Arlette Lee. The younger woman was facing two Noble Balins. This kind of Balin was different with the ones that Rae just killed. Noble Balin had similar appearance to normal human, and was equipped with high artificial intelligent. Sometimes, it was difficult to tell them apart with real normal living human.
Rae grew up with Arlette. Rae’s family line had always been serving in imperial army. The man himself was the twentieth generation of High General of The Annwn Empire. Arlette’s family, on the other hand, was one of the queen’s closest relatives. The girl initially nurtured to be a sophisticated and elegant noblewoman, to be married off to a prince or other nobility. However, she never liked it. She had always loved the thrill of a soldier’s life, thus forced Rae to teach her all skills that any good soldier should have mastered. She, then, asked her parents to send her off to the Imperial Army Academy, together with Rae. The two best friends graduated in the same time, and smoothly made career as soldiers, then became two of the court’s best generals.
One of the Noble Balins cursed at Arlette when the female general drilled a hole on its stomach. Rae took a glimpse of victorious smile was drawn on Arlette’s ever inviting full lips, hidden behind the curtain of her red hair that fell onto her beautiful face. The smile soon after changed into a victorious laugh as the woman eventually took the Balin’s life for eternity.
“Having fun by yourself, Lee?” Rae jumped to join the woman in the fight.
It was then, when he took a closer look, that he realized how blood had spoiled his best friend’s silver armour, both black and red bloods. Arlette’s marble cheek had also scarred with deep cuts that still dripping blood. The red flow of life was also dripping from one side of Arlettes lips. The sight made Rae even more furious. He prepared to kill the Balins into tiny bits that his sword could make.
“I could hold them off, Rae,” Arlette whispered while swinging her sword toward the enemies. “Go find Queen Maeve and the crown prince. They should be in the crystal room...”
Rae was hesitate, worried for his friend’s safety. He could see that the woman was struggling, even to standing firm. Wounds had scarred every possible spot on her slender yet muscular body. However, he knew that she was right. The safety of the Queen and Crown Prince were of most importance. He killed one more Balin in one struck, then reached for Arlette’s shoulder to kiss her on cheek.
“’Till we meet again, my friend...,” he whispered.
“Live on, my friend,” replied Arlette. A faint smile cracked on her pale face.
Rae let go the woman’s shoulders and ran to the crystal room, where they put the core crystal that was use to produce other crystals across the empire. Rae pushed the polar room’s door. The door minted from mixtures of gold, bronze, and crystals from the core itself. His eyes were blind for seconds, due to the radiating and brilliant light of the core. Rae needed another minutes before he could get used to the light and started to cast his eyes around the room.
Crystal room hosted three meters in height and 1, 75 m in width of a giant crystal. The crystal always radiated a brilliant white light, thus the name Gwendolyn given to her by the king. Gwendolyn was the polar that withhold the entire empire due to her tremendous power, made her the most desirable treasure to be claimed by others, especially by the creator of Balins.
When the phenomena started to occur a decade ago, no one knew who created the Balins. At first, the court administrators thought they were victims of an infectious break out that transformed human into zombie. However, after several autopsies and researches, the imperial alchemists and physicists eventually drew a shocking conclusion. There was no deadly virus, only some sort of craft, powerful one on top of that, which was casted toward corpses. The craft was a black magic and required powerful employment of alchemy, not for any ordinary man doing. The culprit infused the craft into a synthetic crystal and planted it into a corpse’s chest, where its heart used to be. The king sent Intels to sought clues, but to no avail. Even worse, not only they grew in numbers, there were new kind of Balin was being created. The new kind was more sophisticated, named the Noble Balin.
Then, those damned creature finally strike a blow to the King and his family. A treason as it was...
Rae used his defendere crystal to create protection for his sight, in order to reduce Gwendolyn’s brilliant light that started to hurt his pair of black eyes.
“Your Majesty!” He called, eyes wandered to the surroundings, sought glimpse of his mistress’ trace.
Rae felt as if his heart stops beating when he saw a sight of a woman in green silk dress was laying on one of the corners. He ran circling the copper floor built surrounding the core crystal Gwendolyn. The sounds of his boots stomping on the floor echoed all over the room, as he dashed away to check the body.
Queen Maeve was the most beautiful woman Rae ever met in his life. The sophisticated queen had a beautiful long and silky black hair, which she used to style elegantly into beehive, yet now covered her body like a piece of black garment. The queen’s face had always luminous, radiating others with joy. However, now the beautiful face had turned stiff like cold-white gypsum. Her green jade-like eyes, which always full of wisdom and compassion, had now forever hidden beneath her shut eyelids.
“Your majesty!!” Rae cried. He shook his mistress’ body, as if by doing so he could call her soul back.
“Your highness...,” whispered another voice, which so familiar to Rae like the sound of his own heartbeat.
Arlette was wobbly approaching his side, then, knelt next to her best friend. She reached for her aunt’s, the queen, cheek with her bloody hand and stroke it gently. Rae could see Arlette’s body was shivering, as the frigid air of death had taken over all the warmth that the queen had always emitted in her lifetime.
Arlette bit her lips, restrained herself to let out a cry. She then stood up, cast her eyes wildly, looking for something.
“Arlette...”
“Rae..., where is the crown prince?”
The words stunned Rae. He hastily let go the queen’s body and followed his best friend to seek any sign of the crown prince presence in that room.
“Rae,” called Arlette. She now stood at the other corner of the room.
The young general turned his head, and felt his heart thumped heavily. He saw Arlette was standing in front of the control machine panel. The machine was use to control and operate any technology that used by their nation, as well as by other small nations and countries that were surrounding their empire like satellites.
“Rae...,” called Arlette once more, this time more as a whisper.
Rae walked across the room, to where Arlette was. He followed her sight and saw that two of the monitors had activated. The machine informed that any last command inputted had completed. Rae felt his stomach twisted into knots when he realized that the active monitors were the monitors to open portals between universe, and the other was to activate self-destruction program for Gwendolyn. The self-destruction would not only set to blow the crystal into pieces, but also would put an eternal end for their empire.
Rae’s eyes were fixated to the numbers shown on the monitor. He was bewildered, not knowing what to do to stop the running program. The machine had started the count down, and showed the destination of the portal.
It was written, “Earth...”
**