Ixion sat down at his desk and readied his quill and book; the book, which he'd splotched 'Noble Path of a True King' on the front.
'Ah… what should the name of the first volume be?'
***
Volume I: Child of War
I don't remember much of my conception. Or anything around that time, really.
Largely in part because I was at the ripe age of negative one.
But I can tell you some of the stories Despair and my tragic mother told me.
Second-hand accounts, but accounts nonetheless.
Don't worry, I was spared from what a King and Queen do in the chambers! Not that they had chambers to do it in. Anyway, who the hell would want to tell that kind of story about their parents?!
'Ah…'
It was time to tell the story of how the bearing of one child led to the downfall of Catatran.
And later, the downfall of the world.
Of course, that baby was yours truly! The great, treacherous Ixion!
Though you can't blame baby Ixion for what happened, can you?
Well, the soldiers did. Apparently, my conception was my sin to bear!
How outrageous!
***
My mother, Queen Perimele of Catatran, was a queen of battle. She stood valiant on the frontlines, fighting back Scourge cluster after Scourge cluster.
Naturally, my father, King Antion of Catatran, was there as well. Near equally as strong.
Catatran was a country founded on the idea that all deserved the freedom to live as they pleased, without fearing that tomorrow would not come. An ideal that spread beyond even the people of Catatran, all truly meaning all — not that the people actually upheld it.
But, as with most ideals, it devolved into nothing more than a saying — a lie one fed their mind to stave off melancholy.
Still, it was an ideal that the King and Queen, as representatives of, were forced to chase. The ideal that dragged them from their thrones to Emena, the broken nation.
Emena had already mostly collapsed.
Even if the Scourge was pushed back — however unlikely — there would be too few Emenians left to reclaim it. All they had left was their name, a military, and a vendetta.
In short, further defense of Emena meant very little. But they were forced to defend it with all they had.
And this was before the tribes of the Chrys Commonwealth finished uniting! It was merely the leftovers of Emena, Catatran, various beast tribes, and Praxis (before it collapsed) holding the line.
Spoiler alert: Emena is no more! Apparently, a baby killed them!
Or so I heard…
In any case, my parents may have been dragged there because of ideals, but they weren't there just for show.
They were maybe the only two people in the world who could both claim and express it.
What a righteous duo!
As with most strong, righteous people, once their strength was noticed, people clung to them. And my were parents much too noble to deny them their grace. Eventually, they became the crux of the frontlines, for if they were on the battlefield, morale surged.
If they were absent, the soldiers knew nothing but surefire loss.
Being a hero wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but these monikers eventually forced my parents to split up and be stationed at different flashpoints.
Spreading power and all that.
Their rest was limited, seeing as battle was raging nearly all hours of all days.
Not the best of conditions.
My parents didn't particularly like being separated in such a hostile environment. From what mother told me before she finished going crazy, those were the most depressive times of her life; however, their paths did intersect from time to time.
Mother had quite the bashful look when she said that one…
From inference, I could assume I was a result of one of these happenstances.
'Ahem.'
All was well for a while. The line had been slightly pushed further into Emena territory, even reclaiming their capital!
What was left of it, at least.
As with most pregnancies, it wasn't even noticed for a few months. She continued to fight along the frontlines, not even knowing of baby Ixion the Greatly Terrible inside of her. The monster she'd one day unleash.
Her powers only grew after each battle, but her resolve fell as those around her perished.
There was even a time when she dropped her blade in the midst of battle and lifted her visor, almost allowing the corruption to splash her.
After that instance, she was granted a week's reprieve from the frontlines.
During that week, her body was studied as if it weren't possible for the gallant Queen of Catatran to look so disparaged.
It was also then that her pregnancy was discovered.
It didn't take long for the rumor of the demon child who decommissioned the Queen of War to spread.
She did take back to the frontlines for a few more months before it became too much for her. She was once again granted pardon from battle, allowed to rest.
Unbeknownst to her, that just meant Antion, my father, was being made to do twice the work.
Twice the work he put into upholding Catatran's ideal.
Twice the work his body couldn't handle…
My father's death was quite anticlimactic.
His detachment, while being relocated, was surrounded by a massive Scourge cluster and ambushed.
No corpses were found, all mutated; however, fallen swords and pieces of armor littered the path he was to walk.
As well as a lonely crown.
For some reason, the one thing the warriors of the frontline came to agree on was that they couldn't lose their other symbol.
They all kept his death a secret from my mother, knowing it would break her spirit.
It became the world's best-kept secret.
When she asked if he would visit her soon, they'd say:
"He'll come in a month or so. You know your husband, he's quite busy saving the people!"
"Unfortunately, another cluster was spotted up north. It will be another two months until he can visit."
A few soldiers even made a show of walking by my mother's tent and talking loud enough for her to overhear.
"What a glorious defense King Antion mounted!"
"Where would we be without him?!"
"He and Queen Mel are truly the world's grace!"
Maybe it would have been fine if holding that secret was the only thing they did to my mother.
But a few tried to poison my mother in a vain attempt to kill me so she would be back on the front lines sooner.
Still, despite the pushback, my mother was happy with her situation.
Pregnancy was a wondrous thing, y'know. What mother wouldn't be happy?!
The circumstances under which I would be born were something she didn't want, but my existence was the small bit of solace she would be allowed in her hellish world.
Her world, which had been consumed by the battlefield.
Sadly, if I learned anything from my mother's last words and moments, it was that the world was a cruel place, but people are crueler.
A world full of people so cruel that they could strip away a mother's love.