Vol 2. Prologue: The Chosen and the Pious (2)

“The King of Storms.”  That utterance alone was laced with a rare seething wrath that was enough to make chills crawl down the spines of his fellow Chosen, who had remained unaffected by the pressure and killing intent he had been exuding until then. Whether Xetant intended it or not, this reminded Levina and Siegnir of their place below Xetant and the seriousness of the matter at hand.

“What do we know of them?” he asked as his gaze turned to Levina. In that moment, the chills she experienced worsened to the point that she felt as if death itself was strangling her, making it difficult for her to breathe. Yet, her pride didn’t let her remain as such, not even for a moment. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. And so, she swatted away at those metaphorical hands with her own power and freed herself from their grasp. This pleased Xetant despite not showing it, for no Chosen must be so easily made to submit.

‘Hmph! Bastard. Your power lets you personally spy on everything, yet you still ask while trying to make me feel like one of your peons…! I won’t ever give you the pleasure of that,’ she thought. To say that she despised Xetant for making her feel that way would be an understatement, but he was still the strongest among them, no matter how she felt about it. And strength was everything for dragons, even those as proud as her.

‘As for the knowledge you so crave, you shall get it. Even if you already have it.’ Thus, with that line of thought, she swallowed her hatred, her outrage, and answered Xetant’s question. “My subordinates embedded in the Kyrie Kingdom tell me that she is an extremely powerful and charismatic human woman, one who claims to have been sent by the Goddess to help Kyrie from a kingdom within the Lost Forest, or as we dragons know it, the Snake of Perfidy’s Nest.”

Siegnir scoffed at that as he leaned back on his broken throne. “Hah? That green bastard’s lair?! Tch, as if she’d ever tolerate something like a kingdom existing there unless it’s the one her so-called… ugh”—he gagged, utterly disgusted at the idea of even uttering the word he was about pronounce and its implications—"rider tried to save. And that kingdom was dead and dusted even before we learned to hunt. Seriously, that’s such an obvious lie in the part of that King of Storms that I can’t think of a mortal idiotic enough to believe her. Especially when it’s well-known that death awaits all who dare enter her forest. Even we don’t go there since she is that much of a hassle.”

“Of course it is a lie, you numbskull,” Levina shot back condescendingly. “It is called a cover story. They are used when someone wants to hide the truth of where they come from. In her case, even such a place is a plausible enough birthplace due to her strength and the area’s uncharted nature, regardless of lethality. And that is the core of a successful cover story like this one, Siegnir. Plausibility. You might have heard about it.”

“Oi, I know what that word is. I am not some brute, Levina.” Said Siegnir, angered at Levina looking down on him as if questioning his intelligence. Still, the haughty dragon lord simply let out a smug harrumph, snubbing his anger like it was nothing before she simply continued with her report.

“Anyways, this ties neatly with the next part of information that I have of her as it may shed some light on her true origin. You see, the first sighting we have of her is at Illumbee Village with four of her servants. The same location where a vein of our Benefactor’s Blood, as well as its opposite mineral, the Goddess’ Blood, were found and were in the middle of being retrieved. And this happened a day after a strange, out-of-season storm hit the surrounding area, which caused no damage to the village. At all. And that is despite awakening a dormant volcano with its powerful red lightning strikes.”

“Huh? Wait. No damage at all? Not even from its winds? Then someone calling themselves the King of Storms just… appears in that village the day after? And right when Scath’s puppets were about to get what we needed for our plans? Something smells fishy about that, and it ain’t you, Levina.” Said Siegnir in a mocking manner, pettily taking revenge on her for looking down on him earlier.

“Ugh”—she rolled her eyes, bored and even disappointed at such drab jab—"if you are going to insult me, at least get some new material first. That fish insult grew stale after a week. Centuries ago. But yes, I agree. It is strange,” she admitted before turning to Xetant and wondering if he agreed, and he did.

“Indeed. It is no coincidence. The perverting touch of the Goddess is present in all these events. Unlike before, it is clear that our actions have finally incurred her full attention. And now she has deployed an agent of her will with one purpose and one purpose alone. To destroy us and our plan. Methodically. Unrelentingly.” Such was his confidence in his words, that it bordered on absolute certainty.

A certainty shared by Levina as she went on. “Exactly. While we all have seen some… not as weak mortals, the King of Storms is in a whole other category altogether. To the point that there is simply no other possible explanation for her unbelievable list of strengths, not to mention the feats she has accumulated in the short amount of time since her arrival.”

“Which are?” asked Siegnir, excited to know more about the agent sent to kill them all. Meanwhile, Levina seemed to be growing tired of all his interruptions, as she scowled at him almost immediately, a reaction he relished.

“I was about to get there, you battle addict.” She sighed in exasperation before continuing. “As far as my subordinates have been able to gather, she is a master in both magic and physical combat. Capable of wielding multiple attributes such as fire, lightning, space, and ice, with reason to believe that she can wield more.” Hearing her say this, Siegnir’s smile grew more and more, his bloodthirsty nature clearly showing. Meanwhile, Xetant’s overall lack of reaction confirmed to Levina that he already knew all of this, but she still decided to continue.

“Unfortunately, my subordinates could not tell me much about her martial prowess, as most as what they witnessed of her fighting was done in what they believe to be a separate space.  Still,  one of my subordinates who is acting as an inner castle guard for the Kingdom reported seeing her wipe out half of Scath’s powerful army with one attack of her weapon, which they assure me is blessed, making our theory more of a certainty. That same subordinate told me she sliced a Colossus’ leg off with a slash of it. And while she has one more ability of note, but I shall save it for later.

“It is worth mentioning that she is not just mighty, she is also cunning enough to dismantle the secret organization made by one of Scath’s puppets in a matter of days, infiltrating their most secret and important of locations, and destroying their objective, our objective, while making it appear as if it was still there just to toy with and mock them in their moment of glory. To be honest, if she wasn’t on the Goddess’ side, I would praise her.” Grinned Levina, showing a certain twisted appreciation for her enemy’s handiwork.

“Alas, she is. And she is not alone, for she is followed by a small yet powerful army of Maid Knights, as the mortals took to call them. Although, it is worth mentioning the name they gave themselves. The Knights of the Ever-Burning Will, just like that old Order. Some mortals even say that their strength matches them, as one of them even wields the legendary Rainbow Sword and another was strong enough to fight a colossus to a standstill. On their own.” To that, Siegnir licked his lips hungrily, his eyes said it all. This was just getting better and better for him.

Meanwhile, Xetant’s sustained lack of reaction to any of this information bothered and displeased her. ‘Not knowing what he does and does not know is such a headache,’ she thought. Just as she was proud of herself, she was proud of her information gathering network. After all, she considered it part of her power, she reveled in knowing and using said knowledge to toy with those lesser and their surroundings before she drowned them, but before Xetant and his own information gathering abilities, she could only guess if any of what she had mattered or was a waste of time. ‘Whatever. I shall keep going until I am done. If he does not like it, then so be it.’

And so, she took a deep breath and pushed on. “Lastly, while I already mentioned a few, she still has many feats. She purified our Benefactor’s Blood in Illumbee Village. She humiliated Eternal Winter by defeating her through breaking her magic. She teleported her entire army with no effort and then, as if that wasn’t enough, she stole one of Scath’s grimoires before their fight even properly started. Not only that, but the beings sealed within it immediately swore allegiance to her. Lastly, she burned Scath with an attack similar to Siegnir’s meteoric magic before disappearing with her and returning victorious.

“I must emphasize though, this ability to break and steal magic is the one I didn’t mention before and it is different from our taking ritual, as she attacks the magic itself and its bond with the caster, rather than consuming the caster to obtain the magic. It is possible that this is how she managed to defeat Scath, but there is no way for us to confirm this as we have been unable to locate her body.” As he heard this, Xetant closed his eyes and let himself be taken by his memories for an instant, all while Haife silently returned to the hall and hurried to his side.

There, in his mind’s eye, he saw her. ‘Teacher… Scath. Many winters ago you taught me many a thing. Many winters ago I failed to take you onto me and lost a horn for it. My biggest desire. My biggest failure. And now, you are gone,’ he thought as he seethed with not just simple wrath but something more… something deeper.

‘I saw everything leading up to your defeat, teacher. Everything. And yet… my [Shadow Sight] was unable to peer into that space where you fought. Haife would call this feeling, this wrath… this outrage… regret. But I do not regret not ending you with my hands. What I regret is the uselessness of your death. You could have summoned not just two, but all the Calamities in your thrall and brought about a catastrophe no mortal has seen since the Age of Legend.’ Such were his thoughts as images of the many calamitous beings trapped in her grimoires being used as weapons against him flashed through his mind, making his anger towards his teacher worsen.

‘Instead, when I finally saw you again, you were satisfied with wasting your last breath in nothing but a question to your killer. Pathetic. May the earthen tomb the King of Storms put you in crush you for an eternity, foolish teacher of mine.’ With that parting curse, Xetant let the instant expire and opened his eyes, giving his full attention once again to Levina, for better or for worse.

“Beyond that, she has a daughter named Ilya, but there is no information on her nor on her location. So we cannot exploit that weakness for the moment. All in all, I believe her message to us is quite clear. ‘We are here. You are next.’ And that is it, that is all I know about the person who handed us our first true defeat in this campaign against the world. I hope this was a satisfying answer to your query, Xetant.” she ended, respectfully. Or at least seemingly so, as she even lightly bowed towards her one-horned leader while still seating on her throne.

His response? An unimpressed, “it was adequate.” Vexing as it may have been, Levina took such response gracefully and simply nodded, the hall falling silent after that. But just for a moment, as Siegnir quickly crushed said silence.

“I must say that we’ve done it now! I already knew that she was strong since she killed that old, bored hag, but now with all this information about her, I cannot wait for the battles to come! She and her servants sound like they have the bite that I’ve been looking for! Hahahaha!” he cackled, exulted over the fact the fact that his life was now truly in danger unlike before. “Wait”—he suddenly stopped, having realized that something was missing—“what about the hag’s apprentice? What about Eternal Winter? You’ve barely mentioned her in all of this. What was her fate? Is she alive?”

The answer to his question came almost immediately in a simple, “yes. She is.” But it didn’t come from Levina. No. It came from Xetant, who raised his right hand from his throne and made a meaningful, grasping movement as he infused one of his claws with the tiniest speck of his mana. This simple motion caused all the shadows in the hall to stir and agglomerate upon the table, taking on a tar-like substance from which the shattered yet still frozen remains of a lesser dragon lord bubbled forth.

“She was gravely injured by one of the King of Storm’s subordinates. One that wields the moonlight attribute well enough to be vested with it”—Siegnir raised an eyebrow at this, his interest particularly piqued—“and was trapped within her spatial lair until I sent a peon of mine to free her. A peon that she killed as you can see.” Stated Xetant as he motioned his hand over the remains.

Yet, Siegnir was focused on the subordinate of the King of Storms that was mentioned. “And here I thought that that woman was the last user of such a fun attribute. Well, at least the last worthy of giving a crap about.” Siegnir smiled, savoring quite the sweet memories as he created a meteorite in his hand and crushed it. “Ahh, that was quite the good fight”—pleased with such brief remembrance, he nodded before turning back towards Xetant, his excited smile still there—“and now you tell me that Eternal Winter survived that? Is it because that Moon user was weak despite reaching that stage, or because they were both strong enough?”

Then, as if Siegnir’s excitement was contagious, Xetant made a light smile. “The latter. Both were of sufficient strength. Enough to warrant our attention as budding threats to winnow,” answered Xetant with a confidence that made both Levina and Siengir raise curious eyebrows.

“Oh my! Both? Does that mean what I think it means? Is Scath’s ever-loyal dog also our enemy now? How could this be? Huhuhu~,” she giggled amusedly before grabbing a piece of the shattered remains in front of her, one with an eye, and ate it as if it was a teatime snack.

“She openly defied me. Defied us. Knowing that I was watching from the shadows. She rejected the strength I offered for revenge. The Baptism that would have given her Violet Death’s seat with us Chosen. Instead, she opted to look for strength on her own. A choice that was not hers to make. Thus, we shall hunt her down. Crush her like all who oppose us. And harvest her strength for ourselves,” declared Xetant as he grabbed a piece of his frozen servant and turned it to ashes with a black flame.

“Heh,” grinned Siegnir, delighted at the idea of turning yet another one of their own into prey to be put down and consumed. “Leave hunting her to me then. I will find her no matter what.”

Xetant fell silent for a moment, thinking of Eternal Winter’s words to his peon, ‘Avenge... her? There is nothing... to avenge... She fought... a true battle… and lost... haa. My Master… she died on… gnn, her terms. She was… fulfilled and that… brings me joy.’ There it was again. The wrath. And with that feeling in his heart, he accepted Siegnir’s request. “Very well. Bring her to me. I care not in what state as far as she still draws breath.”

“You got it. I’ll even be discreet about it so as to not attract any undue attention in our search,” said Siegnir as he smacked his chest with his closed fist in a pledging gesture before continuing with a question. “Any info on her location?”

“After she disappeared into the mountain range her lair was tied to, my peons briefly sighted of her on an old, abandoned road that leads to the Empire before she vanished again. Doubtless through one of Violet Death’s old, undisclosed spatial gateways that only she can access.”

“Is that so? Good! I like it when my prey makes itself difficult to catch too, it gives me the perfect excuse to lean on some of my favorite mortals for help,” beamed Siegnir.

It was then that Levina interjected with something that had been bothering her for a while. “You know, you have always been someone who gets rather close with mortals, but the genuine respect you seem to have for them boggles my mind.”

To this, Siegnir shrugged. “What can I say? Mortals are interesting. I love building character into them by getting to know them and what they love most, only to crush it right in front of them. If they’re of the right kind, this makes them stronger, and much, much more fun to fight! Thanks to that I’ve gotten many interesting scars throughout the years,” gloated Siegnir as he proudly showed off all the scars in his bare chest and arms before pointing at one in particular, a tiny, almost unnoticeable scar on his left forearm.

“This is one of my favorites. A village kid managed to make it after I tore his father’s arm off. Man was both a fisher and the helmsman of his family’s fishing boat. Good at both things too. Kid idolized him. When he saw me tear the guy's arm off, he grabbed whatever was close, which was a sword much taller than him, and nicked me. Can you believe it?!” He said, trying to hold back the laughter before calming down. “Ahh, I left him with a nasty scar on the face as a reward for that. I wonder how he is right now. I hope he is still training as I taught him, kid had potential I tell you. Enough for me to let him live.” He smiled with a twisted sense of pride as he spoke of the kid’s tragedy like a proud teacher talking about a student’s achievement.

“Hmmm, yes.” Levina imagined it. She imagined the kid. His face. His tears. His rage. His feelings of betrayal. She imagined it all. She even imagined herself doing more than Siegnir by drowning the kid’s entire village before the kid himself. She found it so elating that she couldn’t help but lick her lips as she savored that image. “I must admit that it is an interesting way to toy with them.”

“Right?!” he jumped, elated that Levina was finally seeing things his way. However, that wouldn’t last for long.

“But I still do not see myself respecting them. After all, those beneath us are just meat meant for us to use however we want,” Levina insisted matter-of-factly as she casually grabbed yet another frozen piece of Xetant’s peon and ate it.

“Bah! That’s why you’re no fun!” sneered Siegnir before he moved on, disappointed by Levina’s stance. “Anyways, what are we gonna do about the King of Storms, Xetant?”

Levina echoed Siegnir’s question as she too turned towards Xetant, “I loathe to agree with the oaf, but yes, what shall we do about her? Should we go on the offensive ourselves? Or perhaps we should be a bit more cunning and send someone to infiltrate her forces and exploit her weaknesses that way? Hm?”

Confronted by these questions, Xetant simply shook his head and answered with a cold and commanding “nothing.”

““Nothing?! Why?!”” Exclaimed Levina and Siegnir at the same time as they stood up from their thrones and slammed their hands on the table, unable to hold back their surprise at their leader's apparent apathy and his out of character answer. In response, they were made to shut up and sit back down by said leader with nothing but his sharpened gaze and a guttural growl, only then did he begin to explain what he meant.

“We shall do nothing,” he emphasized, “but our Benefactor will.”

To be continued...