Chapter 145: The Hero of Endless Thoughts

Gjallarhorn's Royal Capital, City of Heimdall, The Royal Palace.

In the darkest night ever metaphorically recorded of the once great human kingdom, the throne room seems to defy their inevitable plight, the room is lit with bright light using several magic circles that emit light, similar to the light bulbs of the Queendom of Kamatayan, some houses, like the Seiyoku noble house already have them, and the scholars of Gjallarhorn can only replicate them through these circles, "Sorry, but we're not Sophia" said the scholars.

_Another slap in the pride of my Kingdom._

Such were the thoughts of the King of Gjallarhorn, Roselle, his long hair now disheveled and under his supposed to be beautiful blue eyes were bags so dark that light seems not to escape it, well that was an exaggeration, but still, with such an appearance, one can see his tiredness, he spent all day and night since the meeting with Mizukuni thinking of methods to salvage his kingdom who was about to get pounded by two literal calamities on his own.

Roselle even considered participating in the rumored human experimentation of the Stardust Kingdom, but, because he knew that he would have to divert part of his army (that lost most of its generals) into the frontline of the 2nd Elven-Undead War as payment if the experiment was successful, he naturally opted out of such an option.

He tried to knock on the door of the nations he had alliances with, but without even realizing it, Gjallarhorns got alienated from all of them, even Apolaki pulled out their helping hand and gave it to Valentine in full, which makes sense because Roselle is aware that the emperor wanted revenge against Sophia, that person wanted revenge for the littlest of things.

All of his options are closed, except for a window of fake solace called Mizukuni that would not save his country, but at least would give him a chance to save his royal bloodline, he looked at the man in front of him as well as the woman in his arms and two children, a boy and a girl, the man almost has the same feature as Roselle except, for the man's black eyes, the man's family doesn't have luxurious clothing, actually it can be called ragged because of the man being an adventurer, yet when he looked at his supposed King, nowhere is the fear and sense of inferiority a peasant should normally have, he put his family at his back and then opened his mouth.

"Let me guess, you want me to escape to continue the bloodline, right?"

Roselle who cannot muster words to his illegitimate brother flinched, and then silently nodded, such cowardly behavior is not typical for the king, but now, he is so tired that he admitted the matter casually.

Carrera Gjallarhorn was one of the few illegitimate children of the previous King of Gjallarhorn, and the only one who married a woman from the country and settled in the capital.

Roselle felt melancholic as he looked at his brother who is, with a sword is alone more talented and has better potential than him and Noir combined.

If Sophia were to hear the story of Carrera, she would find it pretty cliche, his mother, a maid, fell in love with her king, and likewise, the king did too, they consummated their love and then Carrera was born, a genius, more talented than the legitimate children, but was banned for the inheritance because of his lineage, this caused his mother to fall into depression and later on, suicide and without a parent, he left the palace and lived as a peasant, married a woman and then got some kids.

The not-so-cliche part is instead of plotting revenge, he made sure that Gjallarhorn would not be able to use his genius and became an adventurer escorting farmers for deliveries in other cities or exterminating bandits, doing the odd jobs that he is so overqualified to do, like Sipnayan, he was approached by generals of several battalions of Gjallarhorn and armies of nobles to be part of them, he agreed only if they won against him, in which they did not, so he never step a foot on any military camp.

"Brother, you are the inheritor of the genius of the family, the only reason you are not the king is because of  a stupid tradition, you can have all the treasure you want inside this palace so that at least we can stop the development of the invaders once they succeeded taking our lands."

Carrera looked at his brother who is once his closest sibling, he did not feel pity, but instead, relief, because if he ever became the king, then he also have to become like him, facing a storm that can fuck bitches day in, and day out.

"Don't worry, we have already saved money for us to go to the Exodus continent when you started to defame Sophia, At that time I know that Gjallarhorn has already started to spiral down to destruction."

Carrera did not say anything anymore, Roselle said "Thank you." but was ignored, he looked at the knights that are in the door who were looking at his brother and family with animosity for such respectless behavior towards their king, prompting them to not make a move, for Roselle any kind of affirmative response is already enough, at least, his bloodline will not end today.

"A king shall not outlive his kingdom..."

He closed his eyes as if to resolve himself to stand up and fight, yet a rainbow-colored aurora invaded his room and gave an order to his very subconscious.

G̵̯̦͋͋̓̅̄̾̍̐̚̕͜o̸̢̢̩̘̥͔̭̲͖̲̘̯̰͆̈́u̷̡̨̨̦̳͓̱͍͎̣̝͓̤͚̽̓̿̌͛̒̈́̇͑̌̈́̊̍̕͝g̴̩̍ę̶͎̩̲̞̻̦̳̜̩̟̟͛͆͌͊̈͒͛̋͆̏̚̚ ̷͕͍̯͖͓͚̲̼̻̩̤̃̒͋̍̄͗͂̽͗̂͑̌̄͠ŷ̷̡͓̺̠̘̼͔̮̳̪̳̬̊̌̐͘͝͝ǫ̷̢̞̞͉̲̳̳̗͌̋̇̈̇̈́u̵̧̨̡̨̡̗͈̫͙̭͒̎̕͜͜r̷̡̢̛̰̣̟̜̣͓̲̈͆̃͌͋́̋̓̐̀́͜ ̵̨̡̗͎̝͍̲̻̼̠̻̺̋̾̄́̒̒̃̄̓͂̕͠ͅĥ̶͔̰̜̈̌͂̊̚̕͝͝͝e̶̡̛̙̪̽͗̇̐͐͛̆̿̿̎̅͜͝ạ̴̧̡̛̛̠̥̦̥͈̝̪̜͎̹̬̓̓̎̎̓́̐̀ͅr̵̛̛̪͎̠̻̬͓̫͈̤̳͈̽̆̄͋͆͂̊̈́͂͒̚͝͝ͅţ̵̡̱͕̙̙͚̜͍̻͔̤̃̑̅̾͌̑̅̂̊͑̕ ̸̡̡̨̛͈̮̹̩̌͊̊͐̈́͌̂͠ǫ̷̡̮͉̞̩̪͎͕̰̘͔̏̂̄̐̉̆̀̄͘͝͝ừ̷̥̠̟̰̙̺͎̼̲̥͍́̋͒̂̎̂͠ť̴̳̣͈̖̜͕̝̲̲̼̖͙͍̓̽.̴̧̺̜͔̿́́̅̾͑͘  (Gouge your heart out.)

It was like an order, from his... parents? Lover? The gods themselves? This, Roselle is not sure, but the king felt a very compelling force, so compelling it was that he felt like this order was the amalgamation of all his hard work and thus an unavoidable final destination.

Roselle tried his best to resist the uncontrollable raising of his hand, he really did, for his kingdom, for his family, who else? Maybe for himself, yet he failed, for before he knew it, he slowly opened his eyes to the sight of his warm, pulsating heart sitting casually on his bloody hand, he looked at his empty chest that was coughing up blood as if it was a mouth, Roselle then looked at the door of his throne room, but the knights who were watching the conversation is already gone.

_I remember now... she... Aoi is... The Hero of Endless Thoughts... to make the whole nobility forget about her... from the start...we have no hope..._

Roselle leaned on his throne and looked up at the ceiling of his throne room.

"Goodbye, my motherland..."

Such were the words of the last King of Gjallarhorn, the one who will be known in history as The Shameful One.

____________

Gjallarhorn, Heimdall City, above the sky, just below the clouds, 30 minutes before the death of King Roselle.

A woman in a blue Kimono pairing up very well with her hair and eyes of the same color is floating above the roofs of the royal capital of Gjallarhorn, around her is a rainbow aurora that circulates repeatedly to support the lady's flight.

Aoi Dodomeki, The Hero of Endless Thoughts has all of her eyes open, looking at the capital of the kingdom her newly established nation coveted the most, the Kingdom of Gjallarhorn doesn't have any big cities blocking them from Urduja, so the council of the newly created Queendom decided to dive directly into the capital and use their second hero to effectively start their conquest.

Aoi raised her arms and put them in a praying position, all of her eyes directed their gazes and looked intently towards Heimdall, and slowly, the aurora around Aoi expanded horizontally until it engulfed the whole city.

[The Order]

Such is the name of one of the abilities of Aoi's unique skill named [Endless Thoughts], a very misleading name, though still makes sense when one understands that one of the inherent abilities of the unique skill is to plant memories via [The Order] ability, memories that they will obey inevitably until they die, until today, not even the elves have the power to dispel such a seemingly simple trick, they do not even know the 100,000 person limit of the ability, for they will either kill themselves before conveying it or the ones who got the information will live to forget it until they die.

The rainbow aurora descended slowly, first it found the throne room of the King and ordered him to kill himself by gouging his heart out, the aurora then went and influenced all of the functional soldiers of the royalty, the private army of some nobles that were patrolling the vicinity of their territories and the samurais who are helping out the knights to patrol for the invaders, except for one certain family, 60% of the concentrated force inside the capital was ordered by Aoi, and their orders was simple.

Surround Heimdall and invade the capital.

At first, they were confused, seeing such a beautiful aurora seep into their ears and whisper such words, but soon they realize, somewhere in their subconscious that they have to follow these orders, lest they want to incur the anger of their ruler.

And for who their ruler is? For them, it was irrelevant, they just didn't want to be scolded, thus for a mere half an hour the whole army of controlled human and demi-human puppets surrounded the whole Heimdall, yet only when the family of Carrera leave Heimdall did the aurora whispered on them once more to attack.

Aoi looked at the commotion the nobles and samurais whom she failed to control had started when they saw the charging tide of humans and demi-human towards them, she sighed and then looked in the direction by which the family she spared had headed, to the north-west shore of Gjallarhorn, her eyes seem to zoom in the said direction, in there she saw a woman in a skin-tight attire, Myra, Warden and Momoiro looking in front of them in perpetual silence.

"Let her die the way she wants."

Such were the words spouted by her beloved when she suggested erasing the memory of Myra, her memory of being a mother altogether so that they can save her life. Aoi did not look anymore, her eyes slowly closed once more one by one as she descended slowly to the ground, she then sighed as the rainbow around herself slowly shuddered to a halt and unceremoniously turned blue, at the same time the two facial eyes of Aoi opened up, glowing as if the woman who is known for her gentle aurora transformed into a murderer that not even the gods themselves dare to offend.

__________

At the northernmost shore of the Gjallarhorn Kingdom, the Navy of the human country welcomed a large fleet of ships coming from the continent of Leviticus, they bare in their bow is a white flag with a big red circle in the middle, and in that circle is an illustration of a kappa sitting in meditation.

The flag of Leviticus, and the symbol of the ancient calamity known for his mastery of water, Mizukuni Mamorite.

If Urduja is the Hero of the Sun, then Mizukuni is the Hero of the oceans, and the man himself, in his usual Hakama since the time immemorial to most humans is in the bow of the mothership, looking at the land of Gjallarhorn, no, he was looking at the whole Genesis itself as if he already has it, as if his conquest has already succeeded.

His gills moved with the gentle wind and his breath is as steady as the ship their continent specializes in.

_Finally, I will be able to meet you again._

Mizukuni's stoic face remained the same, something that every samurai in all of his ships seem to have as they slowly docked their fleet into the port one by one, the Gjallarhornian navy is not part of the people whom Aoi controlled, one of such reason is because Urduja wanted some of her children to have fun with intercepting the samurais and the navy, and the Hero of the Sun wanted to have fun herself, Mizukuni was unconsciously aware of this, thus he is not surprised when he saw a dazzling light suddenly emerge in the back of the ship that is in front of the mothership.

Appeared there is a woman in a golden brown light armor, her long black hair swept to the side as a way to indicate the direction of the wind, in her hand is a sword that she made to rest in her metal clad right foot calmly, as if the lady is not facing one of the world's living disasters, that may be because the lady, Urduja Tawalisi is one of those said calamities.

Mizukuni looked at her with an emotionless eyes, but his hand is already gripped tightly on his katana, anytime, ready to throw hands against the world's strongest human.

Despite all of this, Urduja is still smiling, as if teasing a youngster instead of facing an enemy.

"Mizukuni-dono, I would like to remind you that interfering in the continental matters of Genesis, The Land of Calamities is not a very good idea, also, good evening, long time no see."

Such were the words uttered by Urduja, not giving any respect to the man in front of her, though Mizukuni seem to not mind.

"Good evening, Urduja-sama."

_________Author: The story does not permit me to introduce a proper world building for the other 5 continents, mainly because of how the opponents of Urduja is positioned in a way that surrounds Kamatayan, but here are my ideas for them:

Genesis: The Land of Calamities where 3 out of 4 Ancient calamities reside and has the highest concentration of heroes in recorded history.

Exodus: The Human Continent, the only continent with all of its countries considered as "Human Kingdoms"

Leviticus: The Land of Monsters, a Japanese style continent with Yokais, this is where Nians (race of Philo) originated.

Numbers: The Land of Blessings, this place has the greatest concentration of Weapon Familiar wielders.

Deuteronomy: The Forbidden Land of Gods, it is said that the war of gods happened in this place, causing poisonous levels of mana to be present on the land.

Maybe I'll make a prequel/sequel with one of these continents when my second book is over.