BON-BON
See and shape our souls?
What type of prank is this? Even if I did try to see with my eyes open, I don’t know what sort of trick the Virtue used to prevent us from being able to see through the darkness. But I did was they told me to do. What is my soul, what does that mean exactly?
Who am I? What am I? Am I Bon-Bon? Daughter of my mother and father? Or am I simply another living being that walks in the physical world?
Time, it doesn’t matter to someone like me no more, creation, or even to the other concepts. Life as Bon-Bon doesn’t matter in here, because I don’t understand the truth of what I’ve become. What makes me, me.
The time I began to raise these questions, I realized I wasn’t getting anywhere. Opening my eyes, I realized most of us weren’t able to really know what to do. Was that because each of us had to find the meaning of our existence?
Taking a few more breaths, I closed my eyes, and began to fall into my Cosmo. A dark blue and purple made most of the nebula that was the expansion of my power. As I viewed more closely, I began to see fragments, something that didn’t seem to fit the nebula. As I touched it, I began to find my memories, then my pain, and my joy.
The small fragments of my past began to take over my vision, and the first thing to appear was, my later mother. I was only five when she passed away. Hanuel Noe, my mother was the kindest lady I met since a child, and a true happy and painful memory that was kept deep inside me.
Her beautiful brown chestnut hair flowed like rich coffee, and her honey brown eyes never showed malice. A smile was always present, even in her last moments. Though her illness was one that was discovered two years prior, there was no cure, and her life went away in just under a year.
All I thought I forgot about her, was kept here, and because of that, I knew that I was the daughter of my mother. Since a child I knew I was given a chance to have a life because of her, and to be grateful to have met her before she passed away.
Something in the nebula beamed, and with a close eye, I spotted what appeared to be another memory. Taking the small fragment, I appeared in another memory, one that brought me another mixture of emotions. When my father had given me the news’s of him remarrying after 2 years of the death of my mother.
My life was in crisis as I didn’t know what would happen, and by that time, I was already trying to move on from my dear mother’s death. But I began to meet and get to know my stepmother, and her daughter who was six years older than me.
Memories, ones that I would take and begin to form the bridge to who I am. As my Cosmo took out more of my memories, I began to link with what I’m supposed to not remember. And, with the last one, I began to feel my body spin.
Before I could understand I woke up and began to fall. With a hard thump, I landed on my head and my brain moved as I saw stars.
“What just happened?” I asked more to myself. “Woah, you were doing so well BB, guess you cut the link by accident.” Grey said as she reached to touch my shoulder. As I opened my eyes, nebulas surrounded all around me. The ones all on my sides were green, brown, yellow or white. But Dae-Hyun, floated in the middle up top the pyramid shaped room, and his nebula glowed golden with white and stars of every color.
Struck in awe, I could see the stars align, forming such lines that reminded me a spiderweb. And in the strings, the stars beamed and began to grow into what I could say were, small pockets of colored gas.
“It seems he managed to integrate his soul. All his fragments seem to align correctly, now, he must sustain into forming his weapon.”
“How is he able to do it so quickly?” My eyes couldn’t leave the scene that floated above me. “This may sound quite funny or even unbelievable but, he is the one who was reborn with divinity.” Her words were left in the air for a moment, then she began again.
“You see, divinity is something that can’t be explained, especially with the Heroes, which sometimes appear with it every three or five generations apart. The divinity blessing is rare, and only one out of the whole group gets it, making him or her the prodigy or even chosen one.”
“I see. But just how does it pick someone?” I asked. “The first generation had one divine blessed Hero, and that was Miss Alicia. She did write some few notes in the historical database, explaining that divination comes from a outer source farther than those of the Primordials, and what could be said, the reason why our universe exists.”
“And outer source, like a higher god or something?”
She shook her head. “The outer source and what we could discover with our telescopes and celestial readers, was that the universe expands and has been doing so for eons now. But that we are being pushed and expanding far more than ever before.”
I was waiting for her next sentence, my mind just accepting all the knowledge she is giving me. “Miss Alicia did say that it was the reason why the Heroes obtain powers closer or far greater than the gods, and why she became a deity herself.” Turning her head to me, she said one word. “Gaia.”
As she did, Dae-Hyun glowed, and his hands extended with a what appeared to be a black hole forming in between them. Reality was pushing away to make room for what he was bringing out of his fragments.
As he frowned his brows, his eyelids tightened, and his fingers seemed to twitch with anticipation, his weapon pushing reality to come forth. The weapon swallowed all the darkness, the blackness creating a sword. As it did, stars began to be sucked inside, and the nebula let go of a portion of the golden light. Then his hands clapped, and opened once more, golden streams of lights along a shimmering black sword appeared.
The blade was straight with the tip not being pointy, but instead having it chiseled. Entirely black, similar to obsidian, and along the blade, golden intricate carvings, and small specks of white glowing on the edge of the blade. The handle was what appeared to be made of a black glass and was two-handed grip.
As he slowly descended, he was amazed by his weapon. I realized that moment, that everyone stopped their own training and fell in awe to his achievement. He landed right in front of the Virtue, who inspected his weapon, her fingers dancing on the carvings of the blade.
“As expected of the chosen Hero.” She said as she bowed to him. “Unlike the others before you Hero Dae-Hyun, you are quite the talented and gifted individual, as you took only nine hours to accomplish this task.”
We all just stood with surprise to hear that it's been nine hours since we were in this room. It felt as if only a few minutes passed. “Alright everybody,” Diane said as she waved her arms, “back to your training.”
The shock was enough to motivate some of the others, but I already knew what to do. Grey patted my shoulder and went back to where Crane and Diane were sitting. As she went away, I began to close my eyes, and with my memories all opened, I needed to assimilate them.
As I dove back into my Cosmo, the purple and blue nebula filled my surroundings, and I reached to my memories, each as a fragment of broken glass. As I took them, I extended each of the memories, almost as if reading scriptures, and began to insight the pieces.
The result, nothing. I had begun to understand that the memories were like a puzzle, almost like constructing a cube or even putting them in alphabetical order, however, it wasn’t working. I wondered how Dae-Hyun managed to do it so quickly.
Am I missing something? As I asked myself this, the shards of the memories began to emit a faint gas. The colored smokes consumed the memories, and I was taken back into a strange room where only mirrors were present.
As I stood in middle of those mirrors, I saw myself, not as the present me, but the child, teen and even shadows of what appear to me of the future.
“Was I always round as a toddler?” I asked as my voice echoed like in a cave. “Still green it seems.” One of the shadows said as they scoffed. “Still on the stage to evolve.” Another more mature and cold voice said as I began to look around.
“Who are you?” I asked, to which they all just stood silent. “That is the question.” The child said. My child form didn’t have brown honey hair or eyes, but the light blue hair and lavender eyes that I had right now. Her long blue hair fell to her cover her back, and her eyes stared at me.
“You’re my fragments.” They all nodded, not one of them speaking while doing so. “Fragments that you discarded because of negative emotions.” The teen me said as she slammed her leg on the mirror wall.
“But why are there shadows?” Turning to those three mirrors, I saw that the shadows were three shades darker. The one next to me was dark as night, while the one on the third mirror above it was a bit lighter. And the one right above me, was shown have a light tone, one that made me think of a peaceful shade during a summer day.
Lost in what I could say was my identity, they all began to look at me and question me instead. As they did, my memories all began to drown me, and I began to see through who I was.
I wasn’t Bon-Bon, I wasn’t a human anymore, but a mere being of pure energy that brings all forth what is my existence. I am my Cosmo, I am a Hero, and I am the child who shall freeze all my obstacles in order to achieve my freedom and break the shackles that restrain me from returning to those I love.
Ice began to freeze the mirror frames and began to break each one. My teen self and child both smiled and turned. As they did, the mirrors shatter and turned into snowflakes, hail taking over the bodies of the mirrors. But at the very last layer of mirrors, a shadow, one with horns and blue eyes stared at me, and his voice echoed, making me feel as if I was falling to euphoria.
His voice echoed in my mind, and I began to return to my Cosmo.
As I began to see my Cosmo, the nebula extended, and the colors began to turn into more, the purple mixed with pink, blue with indigo and white with some golden. The fragments began to create a spiderweb, the lines made of a lavender color and the fragments shining blue and pink.
As this continued, a notification appeared.
As I saw, my class was close to Mage, and I was compatible with a weapon such as Dae-Hyun, but what got my attention, was the process of what I could use. And at the final results, I learned that I was capable of creating a staff.
The link to my soul began to manifest what appeared to be the fragments I just managed to construct. Then, they began to place each other in front of me, their shapes becoming nothing but small pieces that reminded me of particles.
Through the process, I realized one thing, that the particles began to dance, as if in harmony with music, it went into a rhythm and that rhythm palpitated as following beats. Extending more my arms, the staff was beginning to form.
The small stream of particles began to create the staff, along it follows the length of the gap between my hands. The darkness around me was being swallowed, along one of the nebulas as well. The nebula fused and dyed into a lavender blue gradient that shined and formed into a small sphere.
The blackness began to form into a long but curved staff that was half my height and began to bloom with stars and even carvings in a silver-blue color. The carvings ran like swirls and divided into what appeared to be waves. As they did, I saw how the black wood began to manifest physically. It was beautiful. The girth was enough to fit my grip, along it being very light in weight.
As it said this my System, I then opened my eyes, and clapped my hands together, and with letting my hands open, my staff was branded into reality. Taking a few deep breaths, I overjoyed as I checked my Fragmental Essence.
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The staff curved from a few inches below where the orb of nebula was held, and was gripped by the roots of the staff, almost similar to claws. A branch curved like a guard around the orb with the shape of a blade. The shaft was hard and had intricate carvings and runes running all the way down. At the bottom, the staff was left on a tip that had a crystal glowing blue.
“You did it!” Grey’s voice cheered as she went to inspect my weapon. Her gaze took every inch and detail of the staff, along awing the orb made of nebula. “Truly fascinating. You really made quite the unique staff I must say.” Her smile never left her face, in which my joy filled what was left of my doubts.
“You only took two days. Very impressive BB.”
“Two days?!” I exclaimed. She nodded vigorously and patted my back. “Yep. Now that you completed in forging your weapon, you should go ahead and rest, or perhaps even check your weapon. It’s always better to get used to it before any more training.” Winking, she went to check on the others while I left the pyramid shaped room.
Walking to the dorms, I began to wonder for the last fragment that turned to look at me. I knew that the fragment was one to appear in my future, but why did it fill me with happiness and safety. As I tried to think of explanations, I saw Hwan. That lazy bastard was waiting in the lounge that was where the dorms for the girls' and boys' split.
He smiled and waved, but I ignored him as he was just a bother. “Hey now Bon-Bon, that’s no way to treat a guy.” He said in his cocky tone. Leaving to enter the girl’s dorms, he shoved his body in front of me and smirked. “Heard you managed to manifest your weapon,” he said trying to get closer, “congratulations.” My body felt ill and grossed out, to which my staff beamed with the nebula.
“You should really stop bothering me Hwan, like I said for the millionth time, I’m not interested.” Pushing him aside, he grabbed my arm, tightening his weak grip. Flexing my aura, it made his efforts look weak as he was pushed to the ground by the pressure.
“You should train more Hwan; your tantrums only make you less of a man.” He scoffed; his short messy brown hair had bits of dust on it and gave me a crimson glare.
“Take care Bon-Bon.” He said as he kicked the chair he was sitting on a moment ago. Sighing as I opened the door; I began to walk the round hall that had many doors apart from each other. The doors had runes and their translations underneath them, which were our names. Though we can read the runes, many had a difficult time adjusting to understanding the language and runes.
Lucky for me, mine was the sixth room, along it being on the first floor of the dorms. Pushing a bit of mana, the door clicked open and stepped inside. My ‘small’ dorm was enough to fit up around four people with queen sized beds and furniture, even enough to still walk around. It was rather a bit too much for me. The bed was neatly placed in the middle, along having eight pillows, three sheets and two blankets, one thin and a stuffed one.
A desk was placed in the far-right corner with a chair made of nanotechnology that could cushion or harden depending on how the user wishes. And on the left side, was a small hall of about five feet that was as well a closet wide enough to fill with clothes and accessories. And on the other side of the small corridor, was the bathroom, having two tubs, two toilets and three mirrors and sinks.
Surely this was even fancier than any hotel back in my city. As I put my staff on my bed, I began to remove the drenched shirt I had, and let out a long sigh of relief. It was very difficult to train and stay in wet clothes for two days.
Taking off my tight training pants and shoes, I saw how my body began to cool down. Though winter was here, in the palace was warm due to the artifact that comes from a lava rock that warms everywhere in the palace with the system that runs through the walls and even floor.
And for the summer, ice made of pure mana and from a glacier keeps it cool and prevents anyone from suffering any side effects of any kind when put in the system that purifies the mana.
Lying down on my bed, I began to move my fingers above my face, snowflakes glittering like silver. It was strange, how my affinity to ice was a shock, but later was explained that it was rare.
From the books, only two other Heroes had such element, and one of them went berserk and almost destroyed half of Joyce. This Hero was the same one to create the forged and unbreakable ice wall that goes between the Hero Empire and Joyce.
Ice elementals were known to lose their ‘humanity’, to which even the Hero who created that wall was killed to prevent her from destroying the entire world. My skin crawled with goosebumps and the ice began to take over my hands. As it did, I instinctively flexed my hand, dispersing the particles of ice. Tightening my fist, I tried to warm it up.
“I should probably take a shower.” Getting up from my bed, I began to head to the bathroom, where I began to undress and leave my clothes in a basket in the closet. Taking the few steps to reach the shower, I send a pulse of mana and began to run the water. Setting it to warm water, I waited a few seconds.
Taking my time, my body began to fill warmth, the sensation of the ice biting my skin gone.
“How can an element cause so much change to its user?” As my body soaked in the tub, I began to check my Cosmo. The radiant nebula was already returning to form as a brighter and bigger aura. The Cosmo was shown as a galaxy, but this was bigger than a galaxy. The Supernova Phases were truly way beyond just boosting our power, it caused us to have greater understanding of magic, the speed of activation and made time seem slower.
Trying to summon water or even fire, it took only two milliseconds to be summoned and one second to brighten and become powerful enough to heat up the bathroom. Trying to suppress a smirk, I knew my magic was higher than before.
Lifting myself from the bathtub, I began to make my way to the mirrors and wiped it. Lavender eyes stared back at me, but a tinge of yellow seemed to appear. Was that because of my upgrade?
Taking a better look, I saw that my body became more toned, but not muscular nor to buff. No, my body became more sensual, my hips standing out more, and my abdomen having volume as I flexed it. The piercing on my belly button I had since in my second year was still present. And my shoulders showed my training. I was standing a bit taller than before as well.
Great. I grew an inch or so taller, that makes me around 180 or 183 centimeters. Geez.
Drying my hair, I began to walk back to my bedroom, where I took out clothes to begin to dress. Steam left the bathroom and vaporized near the closet, the bed feeling soft and ready to be used. Drying my hair, I began to look at the staff. It was unbelievable to think it was forged from my soul.
Trying out something I saw in a movie, I lifted my hand, and began to call for it. The staff didn’t move, and I paused, lowering my eyes brows, I took a deep breath, and began to call it again. The staff wiggled, then instantly jumped to my hand.
Whistling, I threw it in the air, the staff floated above my hand as it fell. I smirked and my pride felt greater than before. Bon-Bon, you’re truly a talented woman.
Letting it fall in my hand, I tapped the tip of the staff on the ground, and nebula orb span with fluently. The orb shined and began to respond to my mana. A sudden pulse came out of the nebula, and my eyes began to glow. Blinking a few times, I realized I could see heat signatures of people all around me. Taking a look, I turned my gaze to the door, where a maid passed by with what appeared to be a basket of clothes.
Her heat signature was more of a mana signature detection, which I could tell she was a water elemental user, as her core was a beautiful blue-sky color, and her mana circuits ran with white mana that turned blue in her core.
Taking another look, I found another maid in the next room taking a basket, her signature was more of a yellow color, indicating she’s a earth elemental user. This was amazing, not did it allow me to see mana signatures, but it also allowed me to know what type of element they possessed. Releasing the skill, my System popped up a new message.
“Descry? What a strange name for it.” As I turned off my System, a knock came to my door. “Lady Bon-Bon, its Belle, may I come in?” A young and sweet voice sounded behind the wood. “Yes. Come in Belle.”
Sending a hint of mana on the door, the door clicked open. A young maid, 15 or 16 years old —with an attire that looked more like a nun than a maid— came in. Her blue robes along silver sleeves and veil that covered her mouth shined brightly like scales.
Her mouse brown hair and hazel eyes were the first thing to catch my eye. She is the maid that was assigned to me, a very cheerful but calm girl who comes from the countryside of Joyce, a small town known as Ben’Grail, a town that is close to Gran’Diosa Kingdom, which as well is the place where much of the wheat and most fine boots are found.
“Have you come to pick up the laundry?” I asked, she nodded and patted her sides. “Yes Lady Bon-Bon, I—,” lifting my hand and gestured with my brows, her maid-like demeanor broke and went in for a hug. “Y’know BB, its very difficult to act like a maid as your too open with me.” Smirking, I returned the hug.
“It’s because you’re young to be so formal and strict with yourself. Plus”, patting her head, I lifted her a bit in the air, “you remind very much of me when I was your age.” She tilted her head in confusion, and I put her back on the ground.
Heading together to grab the basket, she saw how little clothes I had in it. “You even to have been busy the past days.” Nodding, I put the basket in her arms, “True. The training is quite hard. Especially now that I need to break my limits.” She blinked and seemed to stare at the air, but I knew what she was trying to do.
“That is true, you can hide more your aura BB. Cool.” Taking the basket, I came to the door as well. “Aren’t you going to rest BB?” Squinting, I opened the door and replied. “I’m a bit hungry. I’m going to grab a snack.”
“Sure, I’ll take you there if you want.” Accepting her offer, I went to put on the robes that we used inside and closed the door behind me. “It seems that you and Seo-Ji and Si-Young are the only girls who have finished the training. And Sir Dae-Hyun is the only boy to be finished as well.”
“Yeah, seems like it.”
“Well, that’s the Divine blessed Hero for you.” Belle blushed, perhaps because she seems to have a little crush on Dae-Hyun. “Divine Heroes have only been seen once in the past 2 centuries, but its sad to believe that one who was blessed with light, end up being swallowed by darkness.”
Her cheerful smile faded as she turned to see the windows of the hall that was on the west of the palace. It showed the sea that was known as the Alta Ocean, which is between East and West of Cypher. It had a beautiful dark blue color, along the clouds moving with the breeze.
“Back in our world, the good and evil are always in every single person, some become better people through harsh times, while others, drown in the evil that consumes them little by little.”
“That’s a way to see it.” She said as she hugged the basket in her arms. As we walked, it seemed she was zoned out, somewhat thinking about what I told her.
“In your world, did the gods make you at their image?”
I turned and rose a brow. “Where did you hear that?”
She lifted a finger and said, “In the history books in the academy, one Hero said that they were children of God, and how God made them at his image. Something like that was written in the books.”
Taking a minute to think how to explain it, she began to speak again. “In Cypher, the Primordials were the gods that descended when our races were in a genocidal war. Back then, we were more like mana beasts than people.”
Taking a turn on the hall, where a giant garden was inside with glass covering above. The garden stood out as blue, white and even black flowers were stretched out in rows and shapes that were put in a neatly sort of way, along a cross-shaped cemented path to walk in.
“The Primordials saved the races, and have proven to give us their knowledge, and each race was given land to prosper and create the kingdoms.”
Taking a couple of stairs, we went up the fountain and began to head straight. “Because of their knowledge, war was as a rare as a rain of shoot stars.”
The stairs lead us to the the next floor of the palace, in which was the main floor. The palace was big enough to cover half the ruins of the volcano it was made on. As a result, the palace was on the edge, leading to the main floor being in the middle.
The main floor was where most of the main staff were already putting furniture and cooking food. As we entered further into the halls, the rich smell of meat came to sneak upon us, and my tummy was roaring.
Laughing slightly loud, Belle covered her mouth with the basket and coughed, as if trying to clear her throat. “It seems the beast has awakened.”
“Ha…ha…ha… very funny Belle. It’s something I can’t avoid, plus, having this Hero physique implies for me to eat more than the ordinary person.” Chuckling, Belle and I were already hearing the cooking stencils clank and voices echo with orders.
“It seems that Chef Henry has begun his work.” Belle began to rush after the door and opened them. The two golden doors open, and the smell of food rushed like a storm of meat and vegetables. My hunger growled and the chef and his team stopped as they heard it.
“By the Primordials, how such a beast can growl inside a beautiful woman.” Squinting and glaring as Chef Henry, he laughed along his team holding in their laughter. Then Belle let out a guffaw that made her wheeze.
Slapping her on her buttocks, she bunny hopped and cut off her laugh with a yelp. Laughing, Chef Henry wiped his tears of laughter and greeted me.
“Hello Bon-Bon, have you come for a snack?” As he said this, Belle lifted the basket and said, “well, I gotta get going, don’t want Madam Juliette get angry with me for being late to wash the laundry.”
Without even saying goodbye, she left. Henry just shook his head. “Honestly, she just like her sister. Now come in Lady Bon-Bon, I’ll make an appetizer.”
II
CRANE
Taking a small sip of my tea, I began to watch over the children that were still trying to manifest their Fragmental Essence. Out of the 23 students, only nine accomplished the Fragmental Essence and have gone to rest.
“It's been two weeks; they have managed to achieve the fragmentation.” Grey drank some wine while she said this. “Yes. Most of the Heroes take at least a month to completely integrate the fragments.”
Sipping down our drinks, one of the students, Eun-Ji seems to have finalized his Fragmental Essence. The nebula he had was a beautiful silver that shined with blue and green. As he floated in the air, his arms extended and a silver white blade began to form, though the edge was made of pure blackness.
The silver blade seemed to be quite long, same length as his arm, and as he finished, he fell to the ground with a thump. Squinting, we head to where he landed, and in his arms, was a glowing silver blade that had a long handle. It was peculiar.
Eun-Ji stared blankly at his blade, and blinked several times to check if it was real. “Did I make this?” He said with a gasp leaving his mouth.
“Congratulations Eun-Ji, you’ve achieved Fragmental Essence. Now that you manage to create a weapon you should rest.”
Eun-Ji was the quiet type, not responding to everything, but he was a good boy. “Now then off you—,” before Grey could finish her sentence, the sword of Eun-Ji seemed to split from the handle, and the blade turned into two. Shit!
Grey turned her eyes to the two swords and froze completely. My hand lifted and smacked against Grey’s eyes which caused her to howl in pain. Eun-Ji stared at me with a sudden fear, and had his sword in his hands.
“It seems your sword is rather two. Please do return to your room. I’ll ask Gram or Aegis to visit you later. Alright?”
Nodding furiously, he jumped to his feet and ran out the door, though he still smacked his head with the wall trying to look back. “That was unnecessary Crane.”
“You say that, but if I didn’t, you would’ve had a mental breakdown.” Massaging where I smacked her, she stared at the nebulas around us. “It’s around this month that he left us.”
Taking in a deep breath, my hand patted her back, something to relax her. “He’s okay, we just have to let him rest now.” Smiling, Grey turned and straightened her posture. “Yep, I know, truth is, I just wish he could have at least kept his promise in buying me that rare wine.”
Chuckling, we continued to watch over the rest. And three days later, the remaining Heroes managed to create their weapons. Because of that, the tradition was to celebrate. One week of rest plus in that week we would arrange a small party for the Heroes.
“So have we managed to check on each of their weapons?” I asked Gram and Aegis. Gram nodded as he ripped one of the legs of the chick beast. The smell of meat filled the small dinning room of ours. The small vegetables in my plate were almost gone, and with a small hint of mana, I sliced off a piece of breast off the chick beast and pinched it with my fork.
“As you said Crane, Eun-Ji and Dae-Hyun seem to possess quite the weapons.” Aegis took a sip of water, along using a napkin to wipe his mouth. “Yes, I heard Eun-Ji can split his sword into two, a regular sword and a small dagger.”
Diane swallowed as if she had no throat or even esophagus to worry to be choking. She truly was indeed the little sister of Aegis. “Yes, that is truly an impressive weapon, but dual wielding is very difficult for anyone.” Truth be told, only two people in our history have been dual wielders.
“But its possible for a Hero with two weapons, is it not?” Diane asked. Shaking her head, Grey began to explain. “For a human, elf or even any other race to learn the skill of dual wielding, they must first master using one weapon or even be able to master every weapon.”
Taking a bite of the tender white meat, I tasted the ingredients, each making my mouth water and my tummy fall into satisfaction. “Plus, the fact that the dual wielding mostly leads to the wielder not being able to defend or even have a complete advantage in attacking. Its rather very hard to master. Either its only taught for sparring or even spectate in the games or tournaments.”
Aegis nodded and Gram as well took a bite of the steaming leg of the beast. “True, the first to show us the mastery of the dual wielding was the Hero Sword Saint.”
Cutting off, he turned and clarified. “I mean the first Sword Saint, not S—”
Grey shook her head and smiled to him. “It’s alright Aegis, I know who you mean.” Taking a bite off her ham, she gestured for them to continue.
“The first Sword Saint was really a master in such skill, even have shown the world of Cypher how to fight with swords. Sadly, she went on to wander.”
The myth and legend of the first Sword Saint was truly something to be intrigued of. First generation and the first female Hero to wield not one sword but two. Though it was known that she carried three. The third was never used as she never found an opponent strong enough.
Much of her sword style was taught through a book known as the The Higher and Lower Heaven. But only one person in these past hundreds of years managed to learn and even probably create his own sword style from it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t here with us any longer.
“But that is a fact, the first Sword Saint truly became a legend, probably more of a myth to the children of today, however, her style was never mastered again by anyone.”
“That’s not true.” Grey said with her mouth stuffed with food. Taking a big gulp and downing her wine. She wiped her mouth and said, “my boy managed to perfect that style.” We all smiled and grinned, which made her even more smug.
Everyone laughed and giggled, which even I let out a chuckle. “Quite the rare one is Eun-Ji.”
“Gram, I’ve heard that you’ll be sent to Gran’Dal tomorrow, are you going to check up on the kingdom?” He nodded with a piece of bread stuck in his mouth. Gulping down the bread, he chuckled.
“Yep, it appears that the troops are moving to make the travels through sea. Hope I can at least see them go off by the time I reach the kingdom.” Everyone lifted their glasses of wine, and Aegis his water.
“To Joyce, may the Primordials bless you and everyone in their travels.” Taking one sip, I saw how everyone was enjoy their time, something I rarely saw by the time the war broke out.
But one thing that never was expected, was what would happen the day Gram returned from his mission to Gran’Dal.
The reports of a great disaster were relayed through all the channels of communication in all Joyce. Gran’Dal had an earthquake that killed 1200 innocent people and it was caused by the Heroes of Tokyo.
The earthquake was made by a beast beneath the ground, and what we thought was a mere monster, resulted in the worst of nightmares to run through our minds.
The tunnels that were dug by the beast were big enough to make water flood below and create holes that would cause problems for travels. As a result of the flooding, Gran’Dal was evacuated and sent to the refuges of Gran’Diosa. The reports stated that even the ships of our soldiers were sunk by projectiles.
At the end, Gram had to take down many of the enemy troops of the Hero Empire and managed to stop them from invading, along having help from a former comrade of ours in assisting in the defense and preventing a full-scale invasion of the city.
Because of this, the king of Joyce and his successor have informed all the royals to start a meeting to prepare for war. For us, this news was already alarming, knowing that an assault will be put in order to put out to the Heroes of Tokyo that we won’t hold back.
We could all just hope that the war goes to our favor.