"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green"
-Francis Bacon
***
The planet of Yan-Ahar was a vast one, and within its mana ample biosphere were four vast continents. The Humans, the Xenias, the Yanos, and the Polathros ruled these continents. Over the past 500,000 years of civilisation on this medium-sized planet, countless wars have been fought between the four races, and numerous skirmishes still occur till today.
Each race had its own inheritance, its own cultivation systems, its own hierarchies, and its own strengths and weaknesses.
Each ruling race was made of one official empire with countless smaller provinces under it; the provinces wanted the safety from their sovereigns, and the sovereigns, in turn, wanted more talent and manpower; it was a fair deal, but practically the entirety of the ruling power of the race rested in the emperor's hands.
There was a curious province under the human empire named the Duskblade province after the ruling family of Duskblades. Their main fighting power lay in their blades, and their indestructible blade intents that shone like the rays of sunlight at dusk.
They were one of the warring provinces which believed in martial strength above anything else, no matter the other redeeming qualities a person may have; the Duskblades believed that the martial strength of a person reigned supreme.
After all, even if you were a good diplomat, a good artist, a good mana crafter or even a good mana herbalist, if you didn't have the necessary strength to go along with your other skills, you wouldn't ever be respected and feared; either it may be from other strong warriors, strong beasts, or even the empire itself.
The Duskblades were one of the founding families of the human empire. They were the empire's generals, the strategists and, more importantly, the heavy hitters in any war, either internal or external.
For thousands of years, the Duskblades obeyed the empire, fought for it and bled for it; but who would've known that the loyalty they had shown the empire would be returned with betrayal.
In just one night, the entire Duskblade province, which only had the warriors with Duskblade blood running through their veins, was wiped off the face of the empire.
The reason being, the emperor had seen no real need for the Duskblades any longer, he had their mana techniques, they had researched their so called 'peerless' blade intents, thus he no longer needed a force that could turn on his rule any time in the future; using the guise of a racial diplomatic meeting, their patriarch and matriarch had been called to the border with the Yanos territory and had been backstabbed by the emperor along with the Yanos king who was amused and in destain of the humans emperor's foolish actions.
The Yanos king would've only benefited from this deal, no matter the outcome.
But the Duskblades were battle-hungry beasts first and civilised humans next, thus the patriarch and the matriarch had detonated their respective Blade hazes and taken the emperor, along with the Yanos king, to the afterlife.
The title of emperor thus fell to the next in line. Fortunately, the crown prince wasn't as idiotic as his father and managed to calm the upheaval in the human empire down after a few years, caused due to riots and attacks from the other three races.
The crown prince was a charismatic as well as a pragmatic ruler. Seeing the distraught provinces under him, he swiftly ordered a decree that the next in line for the patriarch of the provinces could fight for the right to marry his only daughter and thus could be crowned the next emperor. In truth, this was all just to give a false hope to all the next patriarchs of the provinces so that they wouldn't band together, and a faint crack of distrust would be planted between them.
While the whole of the human empire continued on with their lives, the higher-ups of the provinces were still wary of the young emperor, because a weapon capable of destroying an entire province had not been seen in the entirety of the empire's existence till now.
In truth, the reason why the former emperor was even capable of eradicating a province wasn't because of his own power, but because of the power of their Guardian spirit.
Every race had one guardian spirit, which was present on the planet even before life had emerged on Yan-Ahar.
The guardian spirits had decided to protect these little empires, but in compensation, they wanted the nourishment from powerful mana ascenders from their respective 'pet' race.
For these mighty beings, they might have been just a single ascendant level above the emperors and kings of the four races, but the thousands of years of cultivation and accumulation had made them practically gods on this planet.
Every 10,000 years or so, these beings would go on a 'feast' and eat till their bellies were full and their minds satisfied; after all, why wouldn't they use their seemingly godly powers if not to use the 'lessers' as cattle for them?
The previous emperor had beseeched the guardian spirit to devour every Duskblade, to fulfil its hunger, and it naturally did so, without any hesitation. Why would a thousand-year-early meal displease the spirit? It naturally wouldn't.
After that, the being went back to its sleep as if it hadn't done anything out of order; it simply followed its instinct and ate the delicious meal prepared for it.
The only thing that the world didn't know was that the Duskblades also knew about the guardian spirits, as they were the butchers who prepared the feast for the spirits, namely, by battling and killing the ascenders from the other races and storing their mana and life force within specially curated quintessence stones, and presenting them to the spirits.
Similar to the Duskblades, other families tasked with the same duty were present in the other races.
The only reason the former emperor decided to wipe the Duskblades out was that the Duskblades' political and martial might was approaching the level of the royal line, and thus they had to be culled; thus, a new family of butchers would have to be created from the start.
But, with the techniques of the Duskblades, it would be an easy matter, would it not?
But there was a huge miscalculation in this whole planning; that being, a lone young man from the Duskblades had survived the ordeal, because his father had sent him on a reconnaissance mission in the enemy territory as his last test before crowning him their scion officially.
That young man was the next-in-patriarch of the Duskblades, Rya-al-sar.
.
.
.
.
CULTIVATION REALMS.... DUSKBLADE REALMS
1) Mana entanglement ...1) Blade harmony
2) Mana intent ....2) Blade intent
3) Mana infusion... 3) Blade heart
4) Mana enlightenment ....4) Blade phantom
5) Mana law .....5) Blade haze
6) Mana soul ....6) Blade soul
7) Mana will ...7) Blade will
.
[Cultivation realms depend on the path taken; normal realms and individual provinces' cultivation realms' names are interchangeable].
.
.
[A/N]
Comment down below your thoughts