The morning of Guirith,
a new sun shines in the horizon of Silveria, The Royal Square hosts one of the most important markets in the land where people come from everywhere across the kingdom to share their products, and the shouts of Street vendors fill the Streets of the Market: "Silverian Fruits, fresh from the Gardens!!" , " Fresh Meat, Beef and Mutton !!" , "Hand Crafted Antiques, Rare Pieces to fancy your house", the people walk in all directions to either buy or inspect the goods, and amidst all this voices, Baron was walking through the market with a bag of Bread and Vegetables on his shoulder, careless about those around him and not a single thought on his mind, for he believes that overthinking is "a b***h",
A familiar figure appears from distance, a not-so-strange man walking towards Baron, "Heyyy, Baron, Long time no see, where were you at, Mr. Weaponsmith ?" said the man,
With a smirk on his face, Baron replied:
"The Weaponsmith you're talking to is jobless now, Vince, plus I didn't leave the city much lately",
the so called -Vince- as he was in a state of shock:
"You ?!, Jobless?!, How could that be ?, Did the royal guards catch you selling thorned weapons again ?"
-"There are 621,933 reasons for me to lose my jobs, and out of all those reason you picked this one ?, and why the hell would I make a weapon that wears out after a few swings ?, it wouldn't even make sense !"
-"Baron, I have known you since we were kids, an opportunistic like you would never let a chance to make profit like that slide"
-"Whatever, man, did you bring the goods?"
-"Ah yes, I got everything we need, the meat, the spices, some greens if you didn't bring any, and some other stuff we might need"
-"Let's head off then, We need to get there before sun down"
And from the crowded market of Guirith under the morning sun, Baron and Vince walked away, heading somewhere to the west.
"Around Five thousand and Two hundred years ago, Humanity was cursed by an outsider entity to lose their sanity and mutate into horrendous creatures that belonged to no kind, Eternal sand storms and clouds covered the sky over the world, submerging the world into darkness, and the Nation of Elkuurs who worshipped that entity emerged from the underground to take over earth, and Human civilization became nothing but a myth from the past, the two kinds switched places, as if the world turned upside down, The humans have wandered earth as separate groups, with no identity, no ambition, no Standards, Until the last descendant of the Vykan Empire, Divine Queen 'Niwa' with the Help of [ ] Sacrificed her Royal Blood to the Moon God to redeem humanity from this curse, Giving them a chance to fight back for their right to exist as the superior race they once were"
Said Vince as he and Baron were sitting around the bonfire they lit for their so called "weekly party", Vince, after closing the ancient history book in his hands, said "Yup, and this is our history so far, or -at least- what we know of it…"
Baron asked "So, first, who is this guy ?", Vince replied "Which man ?", Baron, clarifying his question, replied to Vince "that [ ] Guy ?"
-"Ah you mean THAT thing~"
-"what do you mean by THAT thing ? What was it ? Did IT have a name?"
-"Well, I don't know, in fact, nobody knows who this entity was, a human ?, a Terratile ?, a rogue Elkuurs ? Or maybe an archangel, who knows, but its identity and name were erased from our known history, only blanks are seen wherever it's mentioned"
-"Yeah, Whatever that thing was, anyways, the second thing is, What in the grace of Hydia does this have to do with the crimson brotherhood attacks ? It's better be something important here.."
-"Well, you see, The curse that The Divine Queen has casted away didn't completely vanish, It's still lingers somewhere in the world but it's inhibited by the Divine energy of the Queen, after she had died, She stored her energy in 8 physical artifacts to ensure that humanity could still survive after she passes away, those artifacts are called Tregoruses,so, as time passes, humanity built their civilization, each one around one of the Tregoruses"
-"And what do those artifacts have to do with the current war ?"
-"As I said before, those artifacts are what cast away the Ancient curse, and if a kingdom had its Tregorus stolen or destroyed, every soul within it is cursed to mutate and undie for eternity, or at least, until the Tregorus is retrieved, I guess you can conclude how those things are connected now"
-"I think I get it now, So what you're saying is.. The Crimson Brotherhood is seeking to Steal or destroy the 'Tregorus' in Silveria to Curse it again, right ?"
-"Bullseye ! , and apparently, from their pattern of attacks, they didn't identify the location of the Tregorus, yet"
-"And~, How are we supposed to fight against that ?, those Crimson Brotherhood lunatics are in thousands, They exist within our borders and attack multiple places simultaneously, if they ain't stopping until Our 'Tregorus' is destroyed then we're doomed"
-"The Silverian Army & the Royal Knights don't seem to be enough to fend them off, Heavy armors and 'Military Tactics' can't catch up with those assassins"
Baron sighed in disappointment, seeing how cornered they are against this threat, He chose to unburden his mind and enjoy this moment "Why don't we just ignore this matter since it's out of our power and just eat ?, I don't want to go home with a chronical headache", Vince replied as he was putting the book back in his bag "I agree, let's pretend it's someone else's problem..", They Decided that instead of Diving down into this complex matter, it's better to spend their weekly party doing barbeque and singing songs until the Night covered the sky of Silveria,
Hours later, Baron and Vince came back from their weekly Occasion, heading home. Baron Looked at the City's empty streets, "Looks like I have a lot of work to do tonight" He said, Vince, as he was looking at him, replied "Save the Hard work for later, We should now focus on fortifying ourselves as individuals", Agreeing with his statement, Baron replied "I guess that's the right thing to do for now, We don't know when the Next attack on the city might occur, I can't imagine walking down the street and having my throat slit by an ambushing Ass-"
Without giving him the time to finish his sentence, a Slashing sword came right through Baron's Throat out of nowhere, in Baron's Eyes, the world seemed to be extremely slow, observing his surroundings, Baron Saw the Crimson Eyes of the assassin staring right into his soul, and if it wasn't for his quick reflections to dodge that blade, his soul would be long gone, The Assassin Bounced back distancing himself from Baron who was looking at him shocked, his vision is now turned back to normal, The assassin charges again for a second attack, But Baron is locked in, is expression quickly change from shock to seriousness, He parries the assassin's blade with his bare hands and punched him with enough power to curve his fist into the face of the assassin, but this didn't seem to be enough to finish him off, the assassin stands tall and Looks at Baron with excitement saying "You're too strong for a blacksmith, I must say", Baron replied with an annoyed look "So you must be the punk who destroyed my shop, you bastards owe me money, where's my damn money Mr. Nobody ?" Vince, joining the conversation, said "Now that your money is on the stakes you will be dead serious from now on, huh, Baron ?", "Of course, my hard earned money is in danger, those punks will pay me every last penny, even if it meant atomizing every soul within their group",
The assassin leaped in the air and stood on the top of a building with his nose bleeding, he looked at Baron "Why worrying about wealth when you won't be alive to see tomorrow's sun ?, if you want your money, go get it from your royal masters, greedy one!"
"Talking a little too much for a dead man" Baron said as he was pulling a silver short sword from his pouch, and Vince did so as well, The assassin lifted his arms signaling for 4 other assassins to come out of the shadows, under the giant moon of the Silverian sky, five Judithian Assassins emerged for combat, Baron and Vince held their positions with their swords in their arms, The two forces clashed with a powerful force,
Three Assassins are grouped to fight Baron who is fighting back with an exceptional skill, an assassin takes the chance as Baron is busy repelling another one, He charge for a stab from behind, but his vision completely changed within a few blinks of an eye, a moment he sees his reaching forehand grabbed by Baron, and the next moment he sees himself being through back and forth at his own allies, when he once was holding a sword to fight against an enemy, now he has became the sword in the hands of that enemy, how sarcastic,
After many swings to fend off his "crimson brothers", Baron threw him across the street and the point of collision was the head of one of his colleagues who happened to land there, both assassins, the thrown and the receiver, died at the spot, for that assassin was thrown at an exceptionally high speed that the heads of the two assassins shattered on collision
The Three Remaining Assassins, the leading one included, Backed off of Baron and Vince after seeing what their brothers went through, Baron in the other hand, didn't look in the direction of his victim's corpse, instead, he looked at the living ones and announced:
"Sending a group of cowards to Kill someone like me is another level of disrespect, Now you and your 'Leader' owe me money and an apology for this mockery"
Vince Walked to stand next to Baron, as they both wanted to know, who would be sane enough to send those joke of assassins to kill 'Baron' and a master swordsman, Vince shouted
-"The Group that attacked yesterday was more fierce and violent than you guys, care to explain this 'Gap' in you performance ?",
Baron was puzzled by Vince's words, as he didn't expect Vince to know details about yesterday's attack "How did you know about that ? where you there when it happened?",
Vince replied "No, I 'Overheard' the guards in the royal square talking about it, rumors said that Commander Gideon Miraak Lost one of his arms",
Baron turned his gaze upon the assassins, "I was wondering, now that I know who those jesters are, I can figure out how a higher commander lost his hand" he said,
The leading assassin, standing between his two remaining colleagues on the top of the facing building said "Underestimating our powers is a bad idea, I'm telling you, Tomorrow you will regret it, handsome",
The Puzzled Baron replied out of mockery "What kind of powers do you have ?, wood boned fool, I barely touched your friend and he disassembled on the spot !!",
Vince interrupted him saying "No let's be honest, Baron, you went too far with that one, that was harsh",
"Hey, I was defending myself, it's kill or be killed !" Baron replied,
The assassins took the chance of the distracted Baron and Vince to attack their Blind spots, Two assassins from behind each of them, and the third one attacked from the front to target their throats,
The Surprise attack didn't get Much of Vince, as he was fast enough to dodge the front attack and parry from behind, But Baron in the other hand, even though he could move as fast as his friend, but he took both attacks from both sides, he got his throat slit and he was stabbed in the back, these were the last things in Baron's eyesight before everything went dark, sending his mind to oblivion,
THE ANCIENT HUNGER CALLED FROM WITHIN.
to be continued