Unable to get away, the collar was forcefully attached to my neck, its form soon smoothing over, covering the latch and preventing removal. The sudden trauma to my neck knocked me down to my knees, a mind-splitting headache appearing suddenly, attacking every cell within my brain.
"See feels good to have his gaze always on you, right?"
"No! Ahhh!"
A flurry of screams echoed throughout the valley surrounding us. No matter how much I tried to shake the headache off, it wouldn't work, only increasing the pain. And the collar refused to remove itself, staying stuck to my neck, refusing to yield to my strength.
My vision of the surrounding lilac and golden fields was quickly fading into black until not a single petal remained. Oddly enough, I wasn't unconscious, just blinded and still able to move my limbs.
My vision soon returned, but it wasn't showing what it had a moment before; an empty throne room now stood in the meadow's place. A single girl of small stature lazily sat on the throne, eating a handful of grapes.
She soon hopped off the throne and swiftly jogged over to my position, her six gleaming white wings drawing my imminent attention. Dwarfing her small size, easily tripling her actual size.
"Interesting. My band has rejected someone and has transported their mind to my throne, how odd. This was a thing I set up as a line of defense, not something I would actually expect to happen."
Her azure, messy hair soon appeared directly in front of my vision, tilting her head slightly. I saw the curious eyes of a child peering down at me. Intrigue and hesitation running wild in her gaze, she hadn't made up her mind on what to actually do with me.
"Ickni?"
"He, he. You called me my name to my face. You are definitely not from around here, are you? But I suppose it's a pleasant change from just being the Custodian, such a dull name."
Ickni grabbed hold of the sacred band, which was tightly fixed around my neck.
"112247, Break."
With her words, the band scattered into multiple pieces, freeing my mind from its endless assault, freeing my thoughts from the overwhelming pain.
"Thank you."
"It would have broken anyway; it was unable to chain whatever power slumbers within you, so it tried to kill you instead. If you can't be controlled, then you should just die, in my opinion, but I'll permit your existence for now. Something interests me about you."
Ickni's hideous laughter drowned out all positive thoughts forming around her, causing an unsettling anxiety to creep over my mind before my vision returned to the surrounding meadows.
"Ehhhh?! It broke? Hey! Stop looking at me like that!"
"Stop shouting, have no respect for my ears! And why didn't you tell me you are ruled by a child!"
"Huh… Child? What do you mean? The almighty custodian leads us, not some child. Did the sacred band take the rest of your intelligence alongside it?"
"Have you ever seen your beloved custodian?"
"Of course not. I'm only a Second String; only First and Divine Strings have the right to request an audience with the Custodian. I'm not worthy of my beloved custodian's gaze yet."
Lilia briefly succumbed to her lust and admiration for the custodian, who took the form of a child. She was a certified creep, and it didn't matter that she didn't know of Ickni's childlike form. She was still a creep.
"Stop rubbing up against your spear, you pervert! Go away!"
Swiftly picking myself up from the ground, I began to walk away from the pervert, aiming to clear as much distance as I could while she was still entertaining her fantasies. The memories of Ickni were still fresh within my mind, the hideous grin plastered on Ickni's face replaying over and over again, inducing bouts of terror and anxiety to dance along my nerves.
The shimmering lances hovered above my body, dwarfing me under their immense size, emanating a shining light, acting as a beacon to my location. They sat idly, following my every move, awaiting a command or any sign of immediate danger.
However, their threat detection skills were seemingly terrible, not even moving an inch when Lilia forcefully put the collar of Ickni around my neck.
"Tskk."
"Why so gloomy, wingless? Is it because our great custodian rejected you? I'm truly sorry, just blame it on that poor intellect of yours."
We started to walk towards the giant citadel looming in the distance, my attempts to shake off Liliac were in vain. Her wings made her much faster than me, unable to get away. I just returned to my normal pace accepting her annoying presence.
"Why won't you leave me alone? You were just calling me vermin a moment ago. What's with the change?"
"Well, even if you are wingless, I can't abandon a clearly mentally deficient angel in their time of need, can I?
"I'm not mentally deficient!"
"Oh, don't be so angry. You clearly don't have it so bad; these spears of light are clearly quite powerful and act as centuries. But I've never seen such a spell before. Do you have an Edict of Light, or is it something else?"
"Um, I don't know what that is."
"Stop being so dense, you must have hit your head. Everyone knows what an Edict is, even the wingless pests."
Lilia didn't seem to believe a word that I didn't know an Edict was brushing it off as a joke, waiting for me to correct myself, staring into my eyes, expecting an answer I couldn't give.
"Could you just enlighten my stupidity then?"
While I didn't want to go along with Lilia's train of thought that I was stupid and lesser, if it helped me find more about this world, then I would just have to bear her remarks.
"Ugh, fine, I guess you are lesser after all. An edict is something that acts as a medium for your power within you. There are many different edicts around eight in total. Depending on the colour of your soul and your personality, you'll receive an edict that correlates to your soul. From those spears of light, you most likely have an edict of light or creation."
While her little retorts are extremely annoying, I listened dutifully to her explanation, soaking in all the knowledge within her words.
"Here's an example of an Edict, look at my left hand."
I did as she asked. On her left hand was an elaborate mark, also like a tattoo, but its design was much more detailed than any tattoo I had ever seen. Its form mimicked a roaring phoenix soaring through the sky, surrounded by a sea of flames.
Its black colouring started to enlighten, turning scarlet, slowly emitting steam and small traces of flames. Whirling in the air, the traces of flames collected within her palm, creating a small fireball swirling serenely in her grasp, completely in control of its every move.
"Wow, I've never seen anything like that. It's amazing."
The fireball was very familiar, as it was a common occurrence in fantasy books and TV shows from Earth. But despite this, it still amazed me that seeing it in person was much more intriguing than watching or reading about it.
"So you have an Edict of Flames, or Fire then, Lilia?"
"Pretty cool, right? While that's a good guess, it isn't exactly what my Edict is."
"Huh?"
"All Edicts revolve around the key concepts and constellations of this world. Such as Stars, Moon, Nature, and Light. My Edict actually uses the power of the Sun to create the flames you see in my hands."
"So it is fire then? The Sun is just a big ball of fire, so I'm actually right."
"No! It is the Sun, not some lowly fire. The Sun is a vast, proud ball of pride and honor, don't compare it to some little spark."
I didn't respond to her declaration, rolling my eyes. I increased my pace, trying to shake the annoyance off me.
Panicking, she flew towards to catch up after my sudden retreat, she was too busy with her insults to notice I had even left. Her expression was filled with worry and slight annoyance at my actions.
"Are you stupid or something?"
"What!?"
"How do you expect to get to Grandheart on foot? It would take days to cross this area, if you ask me, you should just bend the knee and beg me to carry you there. If you don't, you'll surely die of exhaustion in these lands; you don't get a break with the vast amount of forsaken lurking in the shadows."
From our position, it didn't seem like the citadel was too far away, only a couple of miles away. By my estimation, it seemed to be a couple of hours' walk, not a couple of days.
"But that doesn't make any sense; it doesn't appear to be days away. Only a couple of hours."
"Grandheart is just that big; it doesn't matter where you are, it'll always appear as a looming tower watching your every move. It's another one of my beloved creations, ensuring peace and harmony in the lands."
"It doesn't matter where you are? Even if you are on the edge of the Order Dominion, you can still see it?"
"Yes, exactly right. Rather impressive, don't you think?"
These lands were much more dangerous than I first thought. The forsaken creature was my first taste of these perilous lands, but it seems that Ickni and her whole dominion are a prison designed specifically for control.
An uncontrollable cold sweat appeared all over my body at the thought of being the odd one out in a shackled world. My lack of a sacred band would only invite trouble into my newfound life; if I stayed in this Dominion, it would only mean despair.
My mind was growing more desperate by the second. I didn't want to experience any more brutality, and I certainly didn't want to be confined and used for whatever power slumbers deep within me.
Ickni, the Dominion of Order. The one who would most definitely only invite despair into my life if I continued down the path towards Grandheart. I had to escape Lilia while she wasn't awful to be around, to be honest, she was still a servant of Ickni and couldn't be trusted.
"Um, I think I'm going to go this way instead. I'll just head to the new Dominion. I don't have a sacred band afterall and… Don't want to be a burden…"
"... … …"
"No, no, no. You can't leave now, you either come with me or I'll kill you. I'll give you five seconds to decide."
Lilia was smiling, but the joy didn't reach her eyes; they were totally hollow, as if the earlier energetic Lilia had been completely erased and replaced with an obedient machine. Her hand was firmly secured around the pommel of her sword, awaiting the opportunity to split me in two.
"Don't even think about it. If you command those spears to protect or kill, I'll reduce your time to zero. While they are unknown, I don't believe they'll pose much threat at the moment."
"They will move in response to threats. How can you be so confident?"
While I appeared confident on the outside, I was anything but, taking anything I had to not break out into shivers and drop to my knees at Lilia's hostility and malice, overwhelming any part of my body.
"Four."
She didn't respond to my question; she was absolutely confident in her own abilities and knew that my newfound centuries wouldn't pose any real threat to her. Her confidence was expected after all, they didn't move to protect me when she collared me, also destroying my mind.
"Three."
Lilia's body shifted towards her sword, preparing to cleave me in two in one fluid motion. Her training and expertise were blatant even to my untrained eyes. In an actual battle, I won't last a second against her.
On Earth, I had never seen a sliver of combat, always keeping away from the public eye and keeping to myself. Due to my normal features, I never caught the gaze of any bullies or criminals. So my combat experience was at a perfect zero in the face of Lilia. I was no match; she and I knew that.
"Fine. I'll come with you, I surrender."
The joyful persona of Lilia soon returned in full, a wide smile appearing on her face, looking relieved and slightly amused. The machine built for killing was completely gone, the light swirling within her eyes being testament to her switch.
"Good. Perhaps you aren't that stupid after all. Well then, shall we get going?"
Lilia outstretched her arms, waiting for me to jump into them, apparently adamant on carrying me to Grandheart. I didn't feel practically inclined to accept her proposal, not wanting to ruin my reputation as a man. Luckily, my mind wasn't so dense as Lilia suggested; ideas about getting there were already running through my mind.
"No. I will not be carried like a newborn. I have another idea on how to get there."
"Huh? What else but me carrying you? It's not like you can just sprout wings when you want. I wish I could put these inconveniences away sometimes."
Can't they put their wings away? How odd. Most of the stories I've read about angels involve them disguising themselves as humans, but these angels seem different, not allowed to hide their divinity. Although from her earlier words, I doubt anyone would willingly want to put them away.
Being reduced to a wingless vermin was most likely worse than death in this world. And unfortunately for me, I was one of those wingless vermin.
"I can't possibly see any other solution to your wingless status."
Shutting out Lilia's words, I concentrated on controlling the floating spears above me, commanding them to lie parallel to the ground. It took quite a while until they obeyed my commands; the spears of pure light eventually lowered to the ground.
Although they were gigantic, I still felt that I would be able to jump on top of the pommel of one of them, allowing it to carry me to Grandheart. While I didn't consider this a noble solution to my troubles, looking frankly ridiculous, it was still better than being carried like some child.
Thankfully, I was able to climb on top of it using the small gaps as leverage. From the spear top, I had a much better view of the surroundings, seeing a meadow filled with golden and lilac trees. Never had I seen such a majestic sight; it was truly fitting for a land of the divine.
"So how are you gonna move it if you aren't moving? They are sentries, aren't they?"
Without responding to Lilia, I focused solely on the spears, willing them to move, acting as my carriage. Much to my surprise, they gave no resistance to my orders, launching back into the air, heading towards Grandheart at a staggering speed, nearly knocking me off. It took everything I had to stay rooted to the colossal spear.
Just like that, I had saved myself the embarrassment of being held like a child heading towards Grandheart with my own power. But could I really stay mine? This power isn't something that was originally mine, so can I truly call this power mine?