The dead of night left only the crickets chirping as a plethora of swift footsteps suddenly shot through the forest.
Above the mountains in front of the group... Lie an academy fit for the greatest students of the era, but the bright lights had gone out, as each window was hidden by the darkness of night.
Chase leaped over a large ravine in the ground as several others followed his every move.
He felt kinda giddy actually...
'Even though we are going to overthrow the place we had once called home... I am kind of excited if I am being completely honest!'
He thought, sliding underneath a branch, letting his wonderful new armor slickly brush against the leaves and branches below him.
Eventually they stopped at the steepest part of the mountain below the academy, where a group of people dressed in cloaks were silently tucked against the base of the west side of the mountain.
Chase put his right hand up, and began to use the moon in order to form a signal.
But just before he was about to use his shadow to make a bunny against the side of the mountain, he remembered that he had no shadow... In fact he was about to embarrass himself quite a bit.
"Never mind... Sup guys!"
He greeted the other half of the party with a grin.
Equan stepped up beside him, donned in a new set of light black archer armor, that was perfectly crafted for someone such as himself.
On his left, Poppy walked up, although she was not necessarily dressed for stealth in any way. But Chase would have lied if he said that she didn't look brilliant in her ivory armor underneath the moonlight.
A jacked guy with a cloak resting around his body walked up, slowly pulling his hood down, revealing long blue hair that glowed under the light of the stars.
"Where is Onyx? Also we got your leather, so we came early to get geared up..."
Lithica and Michael stepped up, carrying several black cases in their arms.
Lithica had refused any armor, and decided that his baggy white pants were more than enough protection against the soldiers of Rider.
Michael on the hand, had equipped a beautiful suit of warrior's armor of the finest steel money could buy, that had been infused with some sort of alloy made from compacted ice. He had even chosen a helmet...
It had two tusk like spikes sticking out of each corner of the mouthpiece of the armor, with a T-shaped whole for his eyes and nose.
As for underneath the eyeholes, he had a pair of square glasses that he had crafted himself with his own affinity for ice.
Michael handed everyone their personally tailored case, as Lithica handed each of his own to Michael as he sorted them for Michael to hand off.
Chase sighed.
"Onyx will be leading the frontlines... They are going to take the city of the sun with the fifty-some adventurers we gathered from The Frozen Forest. Mainly to buy us a damn good distraction..."
Neo grinned, and took his case in his arms, as every member of his team walked up behind him for greetings and their own new set of armor.
A large man with a ginormous frame walked up to Chase, pulling his cloak down swiftly...
Hans of House Gaia had made his appearance, with a grin on his face.
"Good to see you guys..."
Chase said happily, as Skylar stood beside the giant with the mask of a Panda resting in his large arms.
Still resting on the base of the mountain, Luke lit a cigarette under the night sky, as he let out a wistful exhale of smoke.
Chase picked up one of the cases on the ground, and tapped Equan on the shoulder.
"I think you should give him this..."
Equan's eyes dotted from the case and back to Chase's eyes several times.
"It would be an honor..."
Equan took the case and ran off towards Luke.
As a skinny figure with their cloak still resting over his head, took his own case- Chase pulled the hood down and wrapped his arms around him.
"Good to see you as well Envixity!"
Chase happily greeted his friend.
"Don't call me that please..."
Although Gabriel was clearly happy to see the heir of Phoenix just as much.
Chase waited for everyone to have their reunion, as he silently sat down underneath the night sky. Making sure not to forget the reason that he was here in the first place.
Poppy sat down next to him.
"You ready?"
She asked with a very serious look on her face, but Chase couldn't help but feel his own flush red.
He nodded silently, as he looked up at the moon, that had been actively charging his energy as the night deepened more and more.
"For Leander..."
...
Equan Of The House Of Lightning...
Equan quietly walked over to his mentor, feeling his nerves try to take the best of him.
But that couldn't happen, he was the actor after all...
He had to put on a front so that his allies could always be at their strongest... No matter what...
"Hey!"
Equan called out with a smile on his face.
Luke raised an eyebrow, lifting the cigarette to his mouth once more.
"I'm glad your alright... Bandit..."
Equan called him by his nickname, simply because it did indeed sound cool, and everyone should have their own codenames if he was being entirely honest.
Luke tried not too, but he did indeed smirk.
"Nice armor kid..."
Equan grinned.
"You haven't seen anything just yet..."
Equan set the black case down in front of Luke, and then clicking open the notch for his disabled mentor.
Opening the case without Luke seeing what was in it, Equan pulled the first thing he spotted from the comforts of the case. Feeling the fine craftsmanship of the perfectly mechanized piece of equipment that would no doubt suit Luke for the rest of his life...
Equan took a deep breath, still keeping the contents of the case hidden.
"Close your eyes Bandit..."
He rolled them first, but then did as the boy asked.
"Don't go doing anything weird... Last time I looked away from one of you idiots, you happened to destroy my entire classroom..."
Equan lifted the metal part, bringing it close to where Luke's hand had once been, gently pressing the metal against his bandaged flesh.
"Don't open them!"
He snapped, as Luke whined.
Strapping each piece together just as Ricardo had instructed him, Equan envisioned himself as if he were Gemini, working in the forges until the sun came up in the morning.
"What the-"
Equan clicked together the last piece and stepped back.
"Professor... Open your eyes..."
Luke slowly opened his eyes as he lifted his arm, and stretched the metallic fingers resting on his new prosthetic limb.
His eyes lit up...
"Kid..."
"Don't thank me yet. Check this out."
Equan gently kicked the corner of the case, spinning it around for Luke to see his own new set of armor within the black case...
Luke smiled, and for a moment, his eyes glistened with tears under the moonlight sky, but he quickly snapped them shut and looked up at Equan.
"I owe you kid..."
Equan shook his head.
"No. I owed you... For everything, and this is my way of paying you back..."
"Everybody! The King wishes to have thee attention!"
Justin yelled as his new medium-weight warrior's crimson armor sparkled in the light of the countless constellations.
Everyone stood up, and surrounded Chase who was the only one sitting...
For a moment all was silent, and Chase continued to sit, letting heavy breaths escape his lips.
He stood up, once he seen that everyone had equipped their armor and weapons.
Taking another hefty breath, no one spoke.
"My friends... My allies... My comrades..."
He spoke slow and with more command in his voice than ever.
He then put his hand on the flat surface of his shoulder plate where a patch of paper rested against his armor.
Just now noticing it, Equan realized that everyone had similar patches of paper on their own soldier plates.
He took a heavy breath once more, as the crickets chirped.
"Take a good look at each other... At ourselves... What are we...? Is what I asked myself in the darkness of my tent plenty of times over the past few weeks..."
Some of them nodded, and others looked down at the ground, revealing just how much sorrow they had to endure just to get here.
And if Equan was being entirely honest, "Here" wasn't even where they truly wanted to be...
Chase spoke up once again, this time instead of looking anyone in the eyes, he gazed at the academy above the clouds and the lifeless star that floated far too close to earth.
"Tonight... We climb this abyssal mountain... We breach the outer walls of the academy... We kill all who have invaded... We free those were held captive..."
He stopped, and took a look at everyone of his allies, then he looked down at the patch that his own hand covered.
"Tonight... We find out just who we are... Just who we are meant to be... And we pray to every single one of the gods that we do it in unison... Or so help me gods... I will strike down every last one of them for all of you, as I hope that you would all do for each other as well!"
He violently ripped the piece of paper off of his shoulder plate, revealing a sigil born from blood and love alike.
The marking that had been created on the evening of the last night they had visited Ricardo's shop...
Two swords crossed over the sunset of a grand kingdom...
Equan ripped his patch off.
Followed by Michael, then Gabriel, then Justin followed, then Gideon ripped his off, as well as Neveah.
Then it became an act of unison as this group of people united themselves under one cause.
"LEANDER DIED FOR US! AND US ALONE!"
He screamed into the sky, drawing a simple steel sword that had been crafted by Ricardo as a mere backup.
Equan clenched his teeth as shivers ran down his neck.
Then came the sounds of siege, as the bells of The City of the Sun echoed throughout the very lands.
Arrows rained down from the walls of academy above them as Onyx led the siege into the city they had once called home.
"OUR HOME WAS TAKEN FROM US! OUR PEOPLE WERE TAKEN FROM US!
And now... We take it back..."
He charged towards the base of the mountains as his cold yet quiet finish echoed through the cold autumn air.
And he embedded his sword into the base of the mountain...
And he started to climb...
So of course... 'We all followed...'