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Black Knight
I was led to a massive, fancily decorated high-ceiling room of pillars, full of divine imagery on the walls and tinted windows. There was a raised wooden platform at the very center of the area.
And surrounding everywhere around it, were hordes of heroes meant to take down an entire kingdom.
"Ah, now this is a meeting room." Headmaster Chronisius remarked, as we both noticed the crowds upon crowds of different individuals, in the same gold-lined armour.
Meanwhile, I wore my own armour of dark metal unhelmeted. And as a Drownei of enemy territory followed behind the leader of the Chronicle Order, and his troops, everyone else took notice of us.
"Don't fret, everyone." The greyish-haired headmaster confidently replied to everyone's confused murmuring. "This Drownei has joined our quest for the greater good. Welcome the 'Black Knight'."
The soldiers still performed little bows to him as we passed by, moving themselves out of the way. Though they couldn't help but either glance or full-on stare at myself. With uncertainty on most of their stunned faces.
Was I really that bad?
There were groups of questers near the tall doorways leading outside, batched up into their own diverse squads. The troops hugged their own and said farewell, but didn't exit the building yet. People seemed to dress with leather and tunics instead of what I've seen so far.
Men carrying closed crates of supplies, I assumed, ran around excusing themselves to load the chariots the others would leave in.
"Huh." I felt everything I saw gave me more and more questions. "All of this for one quest. Do. . . I have a group like those?"
I continued following the headmaster, as he led us further into the huge, decorative meeting room.
"Seems the rest of your squad is yet to arrive with everyone else." Headmaster Chronisius commented to me, while my eyes remained staring around our surroundings.
After he examined the room briefly while narrowing his eyes, the robed leader apparently noticed someone in the corner.
"Ah, there's one of them."
I saw the human lady we approached embracing a little girl in her arms. Her child, I supposed. And next to them both, was a man wearing an apron while curiously looking at me with scrunched eyebrows.
The woman wore leather armour similiarly to everyone else, above a casual tunic-like dress. Rings of golden-like colour were worn on her fingers, like the soldiers before who threatened to use magic on me. The headmaster greeted her from the distance.
"By Niytri, the great Aziel Korr returns!"
Headmaster Chronisius and I went to her from afar as she turned to look, half-smiling at the leader with a friendly enough demeanor, then taking a double look at me as the smile slowly faded.
I glanced away, deciding there was nothing else for me to do but follow along.
Hazel, or Aziel, seeming around my age, gave her headmaster a head bow like everyone else would do.
"It has been a while, Headmaster Chronisius, hasn't it?" The woman said with a respectful smile. "Fate for all."
"Fate for all, indeed." He repeated."Now, I'd like you to meet our new squad member joining the quest." Then he moved out of the way, gesturing a hand to me as I stood holding my helmet to the side. "He goes by the codename of Black Knight."
"My only name, for now." I interposed to clarify with a straight tone. "I supposedly hit my head too hard to remember, and now I'm apparently a quester."
"Oh, I see."
She looked at me with a confused face. Her head slightly tilted down with skepticism. Me and this stranger both stood at arms length of each other, her little girl peeking out from behind the aproned man's leg.
I then stared around in the quietness, noticing that the headmaster wasn't beside us anymore, but was instead nearby busy greeting other questers alike, managing and overseeing throughout the room as well.
"So, Black Knight. . ." Aziel interrupted the silence, glancing at her equally unsure family, then approaching the moment again with a friendlier tone.
". . .you're from around here, then?"
"I still don't remember."
"Right, right." She adjusted her posture."Sorry."
We all heard the little child burst out giggling, and looked at her collectively.
"I thought you said Drownei can't be talking, Uncle An." The girl with her light dress looked up to tell the aproned man.
"Be talked to, Yuna." He corrected with a whisper not much louder than talking.
Then we were interrupted by a loud flapping through the wind, and we turned our heads above to the chandeliered ceilings.
A figure came down from the air. And the young-looking winged man landed his way right down next to us.
"I was told I'm late." The white-skinned chestplated person folded back his feathered wings freely. "So, what'd I miss, people?"
He scanned the rest of us silenty while standing in one spot, expecting our reaction. To seeing a figure with white feathered wings and a bit of scales somehow? I wasn't surprised by anything at this point.
"Oh, yeah. Vexx, by the way."
The winged person gestured to himself for introduction, while we all either exchanged looks at each other, or said a short hello back like Aziel did.
A leather-vested troop with pointy ears, from far behind him, went up to us after entering the massive room.
Without eyeing back, Vexx promptly asked him. "I am talking to the proper guys, right Toros?"
"Well." Toros stared at the rest of the group's faces, then settled when his eyes directed towards me. "They do have a Drownei here past our recently fortified defenses. So, yes. But. . . where is Headmaster Chronisius?"
"Attention, all questers!"
Someone else called out from the center platform raised before everyone watching. We all turned to look towards it, as the room went quiet to hear the headmaster speak.
He stood tall on the narrow stage, raised hands with cloaks like a priest. Behind him to his side was a similiarly dressed man, with golden decorative lines on their robes. A small banner portraying a book surrounded by flames, was fastened around the shoulder of his armour. The same logo as the organization.
"You fated heroes," Headmaster Chronisius continued in his clearest voice. "Have been called by the god of destiny themself, Niytri, for the world's revolution against our oppressors. Against the dark kingdom of Kyronia."
The crowds of noticeably hundreds cheered in unison. Even Aziel and her family joined in on the clapping. I followed everyone else and applauded lightly.
"The creator of destiny has given us their divine prophecy for this quest, told to his followers and written in scripture."
The headmaster concluded, moving to the side of the platform. Allowing the priest-like man to step forward. I noticed he held a rolled up, clean scroll in his hands, with wooden handles decorated with yellow glittering patterns.
Murmurs from the audience whispered reactions of excited questions. I was questioning everything.
"What's going on?" I decided to ask my squad, still locking my eyes towards the speakers. Maybe the priest man had importance. "Who is that with the scroll?"
"That's the prophet! He's going to read the prophecy." I overheard the freckled little girl, Yuna, exclaim to me. Then I saw as she looked up at Aziel. "Right, mama??"
Her mother was as focused as I was listening to the figures on the platform, until she was snapped out of it. "Sorry? Oh, yes, Yuna-"
"I am prophet Deonis, among the many Niytri speaks to." The figure beside the headmaster began his part of the speech, seemingly ordering a moment to talk. The people went quiet once again.
"The path we take has now been given." He unrolls the glistening scroll in both hands, for every person listening to see. "Here in my hands, fate is written."
I felt the weight of the room. The only remaining noises were the crinkles of the paper as it opened, and Deonis clearing his throat for impact.
Finally, the prophecy was revealed.
"Heroes of all kinds shall rise against a dark regime
The world helping on their shoulders to destroy those titled supreme
And one will retrieve the power of the crown trusting in each soul
To end the infinite cycle of contro-"
Then an earth-shattering explosion covered my eyes with piercing images of shattered rubble.
The back walls behind the platform crumbled down instantly. Sounds of gunfire and the unsheathing of blades surrounded the area. My hand immediately shifted over to the hilt of my double-edged sword, in an instinct.
My eyes glanced around to scan the chaos. Large spherical projectiles of iron hurdled towards the headmaster and Deonis, running from the crossfire. The troops surrounded in panic, firing back.
Vexx stood in a defensive crouched pose. Helmet on like me. Spreading his wings for launch while clutching onto his own firearm. Azel's golden finger rings glowed a bright earthy green, with her family kept close to her side.
I braced as more debris sprayed. The little girl holding her mother's hand was left defenseless. Behind us, the wall crashed apart to thick fog.
And I was swept over while grabbing the daughter, using the back of my heavy armour as a shield, against parts of the collapsing ruins.
The grey mist around us started to wither away. I found myself suddenly covering the girl like shelter, shaking off bits of stone wreckage.
She was clasping her hands onto her face. Noises of battle cries and swords clashing surrounded the room. The rest of us had barely any time to react, as more steel cannonballs and bullets fired from the smoke behind. After the mother took her child back, I hid behind one of the nearby stone pillars.
"Take cover!" I yelled to the others.
Aziel seemed to be glancing at me hesitantly, shook it off, and raised her fingers in formation towards the attackers.
Her glowing magic rings reached the brightest peak of green, and followed the will of her hands. From the marble-like floors, clusters of sprouted trees and solid bush formed a wall to block the gunfire.
"Damn it, Toros. . ."
I overheard Vexx say. While contemplating quick on what to do, I looked over to him. He was kneeling down to Toros' body, checking his pulse. Then he stood up with a straight face unaffected. Loading his pistol with bullets pulsating with enchanted white radiance.
Soldiers were rushing out from our concealment to charge, and others continued firing to barely any avail. Vexx led the offensive forward, flying between pillars and crate piles for an opening. The enhanced bullets from his pistol-like gun launched aggressors further back, as if it was harsh wind.
Aziel made circle movements with her fingers, sharp spikes created from summoned thorn bushes, and propelled at the enemy. Her family was now being escorted out by a squad she ordered.
Even with all the effort, barely anyone was fully ready for the ambush despite preparations, and we couldn't break through.
I gripped my said long double-edged sword of dark steel, having no idea what to do. Was I even that good of a fighter? I didn't even know if I could swing a punch. To me, I was pretty much useless.
Then a Chronicle Order soldier, with blood-stained soiled armour and a wound on his face, came up beside me to cover behind the pillar.
"The headmaster is unshielded back there! They're surrounding on both sides!" He yelled to us and the troops nearby, to hear through the chaos. "We need reinforcements against those Unity men!"
Some defeated silence hung around the air. Until those uninjured offered to join the limping man for the pushback. Then, I decided to step forward too.
"I'm in as well."
They stared at me as always with their hesitant scarred faces. But joining an attack squad was probably better than dying alone. Silently, they exchanged looks, and agreed to accept the help of a Drownei in a dire time.
So we left the hiding, running past doors to different rooms, through the broken decorated floors of shattered glass and stone. A few of us hid behind piles of them while projectiles shot. I noticed the soldier with the musket beside me, loading with his bullets that glowed a radiant red.
Then one of the iron-armoured enemy troops swept down with a light scepter in hand, landing right next to me. The human with no wings took off their broken helmet.
I moved out of the way immediately, as he controlled the hefty pieces of the ruined walls behind him, and hurled them at us. Some of our men were taken out instantly, but the one holding his musket continued to fire.
The human with the bright scepter was burned by the bullets. In one swoop, I unsheathed my double-sided longsword and whirled it towards to finish him off.
"We took down most of their ranged soldiers!" Another completely armoured person on our side bellowed out near us. "Push forward! Shield the headmaster!"
Headmaster Chronisius was rushed over to our covering, troops surrounding him as the others stormed the remaining attackers. His robes tattered and skin was stained with tiny scattered spots of blood. Like he's been through a whole war by himself.
"Yes, I'm alright. Thank Niytri." He reassured the questioning soldiers. There was only a few of us left, I noticed while glancing around.
Just then, a wave of water battered across from a door swung open. A lifeless unidentified body floated to us on the sudden pool. And from the open doorway beside us, someone helmeted stood, throwing away a mucky bluish staff as if he had just killed the wielder.
He took off his helmet for us to identify a scarred face, with an eyepatch blinding his right.
It was the first man that I woke up, and almost died to, with a flintlock to my head; Neri.
"Hurry, headmaster. Follow me and we'll escort you out." He said at once with Headmaster Chronisius beside myself.
My eyes darted around as the troops on both sides fell. The final soldiers next to us rushed into battle and didn't come back. I looked behind us, towards who were supposed to be my squad. Vexx and Aziel were still fighting relentlessly against survivors of the Unity, endlessly, using their magic and remaining men.
"How about everyone else?" I wondered out loud.
"It's no use. Everyone's dead doing what they came here for. The others have escaped for themselves, waiting for us." He stated quickly with a serious face. "We need Headmaster Chronisius out with them first and foremost."
The headmaster nodded in agreement. And wiped off the soot on his shiny stained uniform.
"I know a hidden area we'll escape through. Let's go." The leader concluded.
I stared back at the people remaining, and decided there was no more time to overthink.
The three of us ran out leaving the others. We followed Headmaster Chronisius through the unlocked door nearby.
Inside of the storage room was another doorway out. Both escapees made sure to look through the peephole.
"It's clear." Neri whispered. His flintlock in his hand held tightly within the holster of his waist.
I continued following behind our organization leader, and the gunman continued trailing behind us both.
Shortly, along the quiet empty hallways, we arrived at another seemingly office-looking room in the rear center of everything. The door frame was designed with swirls of gold, derived from the Chronicle Order's logo.
The headmaster unlocked the double-doored entrance with a golden key, as Neri and I stood on guard. The entry opened, as we all went in swiftly, locking the door behind us.
Headmaster Chronisius walked over to one of the smaller bookshelves, half of it filled with shining medallions of different material.
"Assist me in moving this to the side, boys." He told us both with our slightly hesitant and confused stance. After Neri, I grabbed the other end of the surprisingly lightweight polished wooden furniture, and we pushed forward where he pulled backwards.
Under the bookrack, a closed wooden trapdoor on the marble flooring was revealed. The headmaster casually opened the hatch. There was a ladder leading down a barely lit path in the underground, and he began mounting it anyway.
We stood doing nothing before it with a bit of surprise.
"Well?" He said midway through the opening, his head still out expectantly. "This remains the only safe exit here. They're waiting for us, are they not?"
Neri narrowed his eye around at our surroundings before admitting. "Better to have a place where no one can hear us."
They both started climbing the dimly lit ladder beneath the surface, and I trusted enough to continue following, making sure to firmly close the trapdoor after us.
As we continued going down, torchlight and hints of water were some of the only thing I could make out below. I assumed this was some kind of sewer system only permitted ones can access.
Eventually, we made it to the bottom, and landed down to the sidewalk.
Breathing was a bit more difficult to do around here. So I removed the steel helmet covering my scaly neck, and held it to the side.
I analyzed the area, with Neri behind and the headmaster leading. The wide and long stone tunnel had a still, shallow river in the middle. There seemed to be no way out but forward.
"How long is this passage?" I asked the two of them. "I can barely see light at the end."
I heard the metal pull of a reloading gun.
The same sound when I almost had been killed.
A piercing, echoing, familiar blare rippled throughout the underground.
Headmaster Chronisius fell to the ground, as his unarmoured leg was shot.
As I turned my head back, seeing Neri's finger on the trigger towards my face, I grabbed the flintlock and pushed it to the ground. He continued shooting stray bullets.
We wrestled with the firearm as the headmaster struggled to get off the ground, from the corner of my eye.
I pinned the armed man to the wall. Neri and I stood face to face, refusing to move from our positions. I held the bottom of the firearm upwards. He clutched onto the grip, gritting his teeth.
His old scars of experience was highlighted by the torches nearby. There was no mercy in his expression.
Yet his remaining eye without a patch was widened. Scared. Like it had seen too much.
"Why?" I simply questioned.
"Don't you understand?" Neri struggled."They're evil. You all are."
I paused. He worked for us. Why would he go this far with that belief?
No. I told myself. He's just trying to save himself.
"You're just a traitor." I argued back, unsheathing my dark-steel blade, until Neri kicked me down the hardest he could. My longsword fell out of my loose hand as I was knocked to the solid ground.
"Not even you Drownei associate with this anymore."
He said while I was incapacitated, kicking my sword off the edge into the waters. Then he loaded the chamber of his gun with a bullet, pointing the flintlock back at the headmaster, whose finger-rings flickered gold and failed from weakness.
I lunged back at Neri. As we both grappled with the firearm, I made sure not to pull the trigger yet.
"Don't you see you're working for the wrong side?" The man insisted in a rage. "He's using you all like they used us soldiers. People like him want the Gems' power for themselves."
"Don't listen. He's trying to. . . " Headmaster Chronisius, continuously struggling on the floor, managed to say. ". . . get in your head. They've killed thousands of innocents."
"I've seen it myself." I reassured with no hesitation, remembering the fallen soldiers. Neri and I were stuck in a heavy standstill as my mind ruminated. I questioned his actions in the few moments I met him. Searching for one good reason to cause all of this.
Then, I realized. "You were on gate duty. You're working for the Unity, letting the killers in."
I've seen that we've done nothing to them. Yet they still massacred those trying to save the world. There can't be a justified reason for it. As far as I knew, we were in the right.
I let go of the flintlock with one hand, keeping my other gripped, and punched him straight in the wounded face, no mercy in return.
He faltered backwards in the pain, holding a grazed hand to his cheek.
The gun dropped to the floor. I picked it up and pointed it at Neri.
His back was to the wall, blood beginning to trickle from his nose, as he slowly slid down to a defeated sitting position.
"You really want to. . . Neri coughed weakly, croaking out the words. ". . .join them as decievers. . .?"
"Midkyron is saved time and time again in our hands." The headmaster, on the opposite side, defended while holding his injured leg. "People like you kill heroes and their families for bounty."
"And you write your own prophecies. . . ignoring us affected. You tyrants." He stated back in a dangerously quieter tone.
"Even if the gods were real, fate wouldn't be controlled."
His voice was dried up, and was close to a whisper. A feeling told me he was starting to give up.
"Things happen. We can't just control what happens." Headmaster Chronisius continued, his inflection unwavering. "But we make the best out of destiny. That's why the order exists."
I continued holding the gun in my hands, gripping it harder as I shook. My arms slightly shifted it over to the headmaster's side. And for a moment, I thought further than what I saw.
Neri could be a lying traitor, or telling the truth. I could kill the headmaster.
Finally, the leader of the Chronicle Order turned his head to reassure me. His tilted warning look was a calm instead of angry.
He was probably used to this. Everybody else I met from him outwardly knew he told no lies. Why else would they trust him? It was foolish to end a person known for helping the betterment of the world Midkyron. That much I knew.
"Black Knight. Finish it." The headmaster's calm and wise tone renowned by all, spoke. "Do it for good."
I had one bullet. One decision.
"Do it, then." I heard from the other side.
Neri, from the pocket of his belt, slowly pulled out a piece of small paper without moving his eye. He stared at the object. "I have nothing else to live for here."
There was no more useless time for me to think. I needed to end this the only right way. I held the gun steadily to suppress the shaking.
My fingers began to press further onto the trigger, as if the individual I used to be was familiar to the sensation.
But I wasn't that person anymore. And everyone was waiting on the outside.
So I shot him in the head. The echo of the kill surrounded the dark tunnel.
And the man I wrestled with sat limp with open eyes and the hint of a smile, as if dying was mercy. The piece of paper remained beside him in a tiny pool of blood. I could only make out the bottom, with the top part beginning to drown in liquid.
'Your order's war is for good.
But I know if I can't make it out alive, there is a greater peace above.
Love, Carys.'
My eyes locked onto the letter. It was eventually covered and drenched with red, and I chose not to glance at the lifeless body.
Then I immediately shook off the feeling and dropped the gun.
I walked over to the shallow water, to sheath the double-edged blade back into my waist.
Afterwards, I ran over to Headmaster Chronisius, who already ripped a part of his delicate robes to use as a bandage, tying it around his leg.
"You did what was correct, Black Knight."
The headmaster noticed my unblinking demeanor, as I helped him up to standing position with both arms. The two of us limped over towards the end of the passageway. All of a sudden the dimming light wasn't that far.
I thought about thanking him, for some reason. Responding back respectfully as I should. But I found my mouth staying dead silent.
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"Black Knight has returned with the Headmaster!"
Is what some of the troops called out to the others. We arrived at the outside of the walls, after trudging through the long sewer, and leaving through the side of a hill.
It's the first time from what I remember I've been fully out, and red-orange skies were leading to a darkness above.
The soldiers now had scratches on their faces and soiled worn armour. But they had also prepared horse carriages, that escapees of all kinds were entering.
A few armed men rushed over to us, and continued to assist Headmaster Chronisius as I let my arms and body rest. I suppose even a Drownei needs it.
Then I observed the crowds of civilian survivors, and Chronicle Order members cheering for my heroism, despite my apparent kind.
I could base the circumstances all on luck. But I couldn't help but smile halfheartedly regardless.
So I continued walking towards the busy people as they saw me in a new light. Multiple of them were conversing, while ushering groups of the attacked into seperate vehicles.
"Did you hear?" I overheard one of the voices of a woman soldier say to another. My head turned as I passed the horse drivers, for any answer I could get.
"The man on the guardian beast was seen scouting villages, it's crazy. . ."
Her voice trailed off, as I walked speedily further ahead, to seek out the other carriers.
Guardian beast?
Yet again, that sounded all too familiar.
As the headmaster was taken into one of the slightly-dented iron carriages fit for a single person, I glanced around until I saw Vexx fly into one of the larger ones. The average-looking horse carrier seemed to be suitable for many.
So I peeked inside, seeing Aziel too, her escaped family, and a couple other soldiers. I thought it was fitting enough to join the squad of questers.
The carrier shook. And the clopping of horses replaced most sound. I sat down at the only empty spot of the long seating, next to Vexx.
As the open entrance suggested when I peeked out of it, we were now following the hordes of other chariots and armies, to another place.
"Hold on," I stared away from the sight, questioning the moment to the others in the vehicle. "Where are we even going now?"
"To one of our other bases, apparently. Reconvening and stuff while they fix this Thaussin base up." Vexx leaned back, trying to relax on the bench of polished wood, speaking up without a care. He had his helmet off too, revealing blue tiny fins on the backside of his neck.
"I mean, what else do they have prepare, anyway? I hope they at least bring drinks for the trip."
"Actually, we're heading to the Dwellven-led base of Valean." Aziel chimed in, in a tone against Vexx. "There's a few other questers to join us, I heard."
"Well, then, they better not be teenagers this time." The aproned uncle, whose name I remember was An, joked to perhaps lighten the atmosphere.
Even Vexx gave a little chaffed chuckle.
"Oh, stop." Aziel punched her sibling lightly, as he teased. "I'd be used to it at this point."
Her daughter slept peacefully on one of her shoulders. Still grimed slightly on her face by the attacks.
After An laughed off the banter, he glanced away from me to look at Yuna, and after a short second spoke up.
"Hey, uh." He cleared his throat. "Black Knight, is it? I know you're a Drownei and all. But my sister and I are. . ."
He then did a glance towards Aziel, with a hand on her cheek slowly turning her eyes away. As if mentioning a Drownei was a harsh topic to bring up. After seeking a response in himself, the messy uniformed man looked towards me again.
". . .happy. . . for what you did back there." An finalized.
I found myself pausing like always. Why did it have to be so hard to say things sometimes? It was like I had to step on fragile ice for the correct reply.
"Of course." I said truthfully. "It was the right thing to do."
He gave me a nod and a half-smile, before looking back at Vexx, who started another conversation out of said boredom.
The other voices in the quester carriage muffled away, as the outside of the shaking entryway distracted me for a moment.
There, in the far distance, was the burned down base of the Chronicle Order I woke up to. I had no clue at first why the sight seemed wrong now.
Even when we passed through more chopped forests and bustling villages, the image of the ruins under a darkened sky never left my mind.
I wondered how many more times these battles could happen. How many times it already has.
Surely, destiny wouldn't allow it. But a divine building held by prophecy was crumbled down. By the will of many.
Was it really fate for all?
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End of Episode I