Chapter 1 - Edward Skysword

Edward Skysword was the youngest prince of Lyria Empire, born from the first wife of the emperor, he was considered a genius because of his talent in both politics and combat, making him most suitable for being the next ruler of the nation. Unfortunately, during awakening ceremony, he was found to have no aptitude for magic, which greatly saddened the emperor, nevertheless, the emperor still treated well like before. Edward, who loves his father so much felt that he let down his father, so he decided to make up for it by earning a great achievement, he decide to uncover the mystery of 'Cursed Land', an unknown ruin in neighbouring land, it was said that anyone who went there, never returned, causing the place to labelled as a forbidden zone by all the nations. Edward despite his lack of magic, decided to uncover the mystery of the land, due to his confidence in his skills, despite all the pleas of his mother and sister, he decided to go there, along with a group of regular knights, magic knights, mages and servents.

At the border

"Your highness, are you sure you go to that accursed land?"

"Yeah, I am confident"

"I think you should reconsider, your highness, it is land where many magic knights and mages disappeared, and you don't even possess magic, plus you even brought regular knight as well, look how they are scared.

"I agree with William, this journey is almost a suicide, you should reconsider"

"It's fine, if something happens, I will take the responsibility"

"*Trembling in fear* Your highness, I think you should really reconsider, we don't what's there, and your decision could lead everyone including yourself in danger"

"*Anglily* I don't care! I know what am I doing, besides we have return stone, that allow us to teleport back to the palace, if something happens we will use that artifact"

"*Sigh* Unerstood"

"Your highness..."

The group knows fully well that prince Edward was heartbroken by the fact that he possess no magic, an that he believes that he let down his father, the emperor, furthermore, his half-siblings and stepmothers mock him everyday for lacking magical powers. At first Edward, buried himself in books, in hope to find the way to acquire magic, but after realising that it is impossible, he decided to atleast make a name for himself to make his father proud, even if that path he chose is suicidal.

After travelling some distance in the Cursed Land, the group decided to set up a camp and rest. In midnight a strange noise came.

"We are attacked prepare your weapons!"

"Mages! Use your magic to help the knights!"

Soon regular knights and magic knight prepared their weapon to fight with the mages as support. A group of human like creature appeared.

"Looks, like we are attacked by undeads"

"Yeah, looks that way"

"Well, if it's just some undeads there's nothing to fear"

"Wait...Something is not right, why I can't feel any magic from them"

"There's no time to see that focus on your spells"

"Urm...Yeah, Understood"

The group fought the undeads, which was not much threat to them, soon all the undeads are killed.

"Well, that was easy"

But just when the group thought they are safe, a large hideous creature appeared.

"Mages, attack that creature, use your fireballs"

"Roger that"

But just when mages are about to use their magic, the creature released a strange energy, causing mages to feel dizzy as well them unable to use magic, the magic knights also felt sick, unable to fight, only regular knights and prince Edward was still fine.

"Those you are unaffected, save your comrades, kill that monster"

"Yes, your highness!!!"

The regular knights and Edward fought the creature while dodging it's attacks, eventually the creature dies. The mages and magic knights, now no longer feel sick got up.

"What was that?"

"*Contemplating* Whatever that was, it affected all the magic users"

"A creature that could weaken the magic users, no wonder many mages and magic knights who came to this land dissapeared"

"Now do mention it, all group who participated in early expenditure to this land came to this land were the group containing only mages and magic knights, there were no non-magic users amongst them.

"Looks like, I made right decision to bring non-magical knight to this journey, thank to them and me, we escaped the total annihilation of our group"

"*Nodded*"

"But what was this creature? I don't sense any magic from him but it clearly had supernatural powers"

"Yeah, what is this creature?"

"*Observing the creature* This creature it doesn't seem to be a normal undead, it is not even a product of necromancy, and since there is no other magic trace aside from those of our group, it is clear that there was no necromancer involved"

"Also this creature doesn't had any magical trace, so it must be a non-magical undead"

"A non-magical undead, how it's possible?"

"Can an undead appear without the assistance of magic"

"Could it has something to do with this accursed place"

The servants were discussing among themselves, the others who listened to their converstion also believed the same thing.

"Let's move forward, perhaps, we could find the source of this non-magical undeads"

"Yes, your highness"

The group now curious moved forward, they found and fought more undeads including the one that can weaken magic users. Nevertheless, without any serious causualities, they managed to reach a ruins.

"Looks like some kind of civilization"

"I wonder what's inside"

The group, thanks to the broken walls and doors entered the ruin. The place seemed to some kind of checkpoint, they also found barbed wires, corpse with strange outfit and strange rusted weapons.

"Looks like some kind of guards of the borders of this strange civilization, but they aren't wearing any armor, and what kind of weapons are these, aside from the knives, none of these I recognize"

"Me too, perhaps I use restoration magic on them"

Thomas used restoration magic, but it didn't work.

"I am sorry your highness, it seems they are millennia old, which explains why my magic didn't work"

"Let's move forward, maybe we can find what happened here"

The group move foreward in the ruins to investigate the place.