"What the hell was that!?" exclaimed a shocked Nirvana. Nirvana Claudi was a 3rd year student at the Gravenloch Academy. As the son of Romeus Claudi, a Duke of the Helios Empire, and one of the strongest beings in the Empire, he was expected to be a prodigy. And he lived up to that expectation, and had ranked first in his year since the first time they were ranked. He had come to see the duels after hearing that Icarus Veyn had returned, and it was very worth it. "Not even the second year's top student could do that with that much ease. I don't even see him sweating!"
"You seem to be underestimating Nike," responded Krai, the perpetual second ranker of their batch. She was a commoner who had risen through the ranks over the years, and has shown enough talent to already be scouted by the Order of the Blue Lion, one of the top knight orders of Helios. "But I do agree, he almost lives up to the hype."
Unaware of the interests in him, Icarus adapted to his new life and settled into this new order of life. Classes in the morning, duels in the afternoon, training at night. Every once in a while he felt gazes at his back during his training but he didn't pay much heed to it, for that is the weight of the strong. This way, 6 months passed without much incident at the Academy. Outside, however, things were getting dreary. The Plains of Rethmar were acting up again with multiple choir drifts, and multiple cases of scavenger groups returning back hollow eyed and half dead. Ulysses Corvus had been made captain of the Rethmar Front after the previous captain passed away while defending against a choir drift, and ever since then, the choir drifts seem to have become weaker.
The main thing that happened in the academy was that the rankings of the first year were revealed. Icarus refused his ranking, and Orin ranked first, Lynaeus 3rd, Selene 8th. Then an assembly of the first years was called by the headmaster of the Gravenloch Academy, one of the 7 saints of the Helios Empire, Eleanore vi Grandi. She is also a Marquis of the Helios Empire. "Isn't it very rare for us to see the headmaster? We usually only see her at the induction ceremony," a few students whispered. This, of course, was true.
"Hello, my dear students," she spoke. Everyone stopped speaking, and an immediate silence ensued in the academy. "I know you probably didn't expect to see me here. Normally, you would just go to some of the controlled training sites for your year end examinations. However, this time onwards, it will be different," she spoke rather gravely. This clearly caused some panic among the students but nobody made a sound. "On orders from the Emperor himself, all the major academies are to conduct their year end examinations at the Plains of Rethmar, as it will give them some real-life experience in battling."
This should have made all the students start screaming or running away in fear. But nobody moved or uttered a phrase, for such was the power of the silence and restrain threads woven by the Headmaster. Nobody, except a certain black-haired boy, that is.
"You intend to send all the students straight to their deaths?" Icarus asked mockingly.
"Both you and I know there is not much I can do about the Emperor's orders. You might be a Duke yourself, and also have political immunity, but I have neither of those, and am forced to oblige to His Majesty's orders," she replied while glaring at him.
"Haha," he laughed right back at her face. "I'm sure you also know how useless my peerage of Duke is right now, Headmaster." The headmaster was slightly startled hearing this, as she did not expect such words to come out of his mouth.
"Remember this Veyn. A man cannot remake himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor," she then addressed everyone, rather than just Icarus.
"You are all students of the Gravenloch Academy, among the elite of the newer generation of the Helios Empire. From the moment you enrolled here, to the moment you lay lifeless on the ground, you are meant to fight. Fight. For your dreams. Fight. For your rights. Fight. For your family. You might not get any appreciation for it, but you must still do it. For this is your duty."
"Even if my knees were made from the heaviest metal buried within this world, I would not kneel for a country who has to send mere kids to their great battlefield, while the adults watch on from their estates. The Plains of Rethmar aren't a place where you can just stay at the back and learn by watching. They have constant choir drifts, which can cause aberrations in space and randomly teleport choir borns to the backlines or teleport the backlines forward. If such a thing happens, do you really think anyone here is capable of fending off such a creature alone?" Icarus glared at Eleanore.
"The greatest people in history weren't chosen because they were ready. They were ready because they were chosen," she then walked away dismissing any other dissent by any students. "Professors, prepare the first, second and third years to depart in 3 days."
She then immediately vanished somewhere. The panic ensued, which was expected for the first years who had no experience fighting. "3 days? She really intends to send us to our deaths as Veyn said," cried a student. "Shhh! She'll hear you," interjected another. Among all the panic though, one student seemed excited. It was Lynaeus, as he would finaly be able to see his father after a very long time. Ulysses, who had been shifted from his previous site to Rethmar, hadn't been home in a very long time. But the contributions he had made in his short time atyRethmar already had him in contention to icnrease his peerage.
Someone who wasn't as excited was Icarus. He really didn't like that place, as it only brought back trauma and horrible feelings. He also felt as if that place was different from the rest of the world somehow. It really didn't feel like it was just abnother battlefield. This was confirmed 3 days later when they reached the plains of Rethmar.
Huge, barren fields, glowing in a murky red color with occasional unexplained sparks of violet. The wind was dry, seemingly sucking the soul out of one's body. Add to this the fact that the terrain was extremely flat, foregoing any terrain advantages the soldiers might have. However, the reason the Plains of Rethmar came to be known as the Final Frontier are not any of these. In the Helios Empire, which places extreme importance on the Sun, and any user who can weave the Sun threads, a place which doesn't alow the Sun to be seen by the land at any point in the day or night can only be seen as cursed.
It is believed that before the Helios Empire and before even the New World, in the Old World, there existed a Kingdom. It wasn't very vast or rich, yet it was known for its righteous people. The people from this kingdom, who were of a race with 6 wings, were known to never act out in anger, not even in the face of injustice. This was the reason they garnered the respect of the whole world. They boomed as a business kingdom and a financial hub for the whole world.
Neighbouring them was another kingdom, or rather an Empire, vast, rich, everything completely opposite to the kingdom. As the kingdom grew in importance and status, the Empire felt vary, and out of their insecurities was born a scheme. A series of rumours and allegations were spread against the kingdom, leading to heavy losses to their reputation. Yet they didn't retaliate, such their beliefs.
The Emperor of the Empire, enraged further due to their lack of response, branded the whole kingdom as a heretic kingdom and declared a holy war. Months passed. Countless lives taken. The kingdom fell to its knees. The Foolish King of the Kingdom finally retaliated on the 108th day of the war. The war lasted another 13 days after that.
On the 108th day, the leadership shown by the Foolish King, earned him a second moniker alongside the Foolish King, the Broken Halo. Some of his words over the last 13 days of his life have been immortalized, so much so that they survived the ushering of the New World. As the war looked finished on the 108th day with only a portion of his army remaining, the Broken Halo said, "This is our Final Moment. This is where we choose. This is where we face extinction or die. March. Into the darkest depths. March. Until you see the light. No matter their numbers. We can't let them get past us. Protect it. With your life. With your soul. Give up eternity if you must. The Final Calamity is yet. And we stand as the last. The very last. So I say it once more. Die. Or face extinction." A platoon of just 34 soldiers and the Broken Halo himself, managed to kill all 2000 of the Empire's troops. A massacre so one sided it shook the Old World to its core.
But it didn't stop there. The platoon of 34 didn't stop at that. They marched on. Right into the heart of the Empire. They killed every single soldier and combatant they saw, letting all the non-combatatants go. Over the next 13 days, the Old World saw deaths on a scale it had yet to see, and would only be topped by the War of Revelation which would usher in the New World. The platoon of 34 massacred over 100 thousand soldiers of the Empire and its allies. The Empire and their entire alliance was essentially down to their last legs. The loss to the platoon? A mere 6 injuries, major, yet not life threatening to any. As they finally reached the heart of the Empire, they met their match. An elite guard of 500 masters, each capable of weaving 5 threads at once.
This final skirmish lasted a whole 2 days, with 447 of the 500 masters meeting their ends. All 34 of the platoon members lost their lives. As the Broken Halo was at his last breaths, he is famously known to have said, "Time is the flesh of our society. Pale and Fragile. You may heal the gaping wounds of our massacre. But the scars we have left will never truly heal. Know this, and ask yourself if it was even worth the effort to defeat me in the end. Only the impact of one of us will remain when we return to the dust that we came from."
The aftermath of this was the very reason the Plains are said to have become this cursed. As a retaliation, the Emperor took the master who were still alive and killed every single man, woman and child they saw in the kingdom. Each in exceedingly brutal ways. Some skewered by an earth spike in from the spine out from the mouth. Some tied to rocks with their hands maimed and kept half submerged in chilling water. Some left in a braindead state capable of feeling pain of being eaten alive but not being able to move in any way. Each one of the civilians cursed their Foolish King for not retaliating sooner, for not using their full force and waiting to take significant damages. They cursed their Foolish King. They cursed the Empire bastards. They cursed the Gods who let this happen. They cursed the whole world for existing. Alll the curses resonated with the excess of the curse thread already present at the site and turned Rethmar into what we see today. An unstable mess of an area, constantly causing tears in reality and choir drifts to occur.
"I think its a load of bull if you ask me," Nirvana tried initiating a conversation with Icarus, who proceeded to ignore him. Selene who was by his side though wanted to know more about the place. "Why do you think so, senior Claudi?" she asked.
"Well, first up, its impossible for just 35 weavers to massacre that many weavers."
"Maybe they were simply much stronger than the regular weavers. Or maybe they had a perfect team balance in terms of tetherers, choir conductors and jokers."
"Even so. I still believe the difference in numbers was too much. But lets say that wasn't the issue. While the current belief is that Old World weavers were much stronger but this feels like too much. Where weavers currently can't even go past 3 threads at a time without sacrificing possibly their entire lifespan as the tether, I find it hard to believe there ever existed folk who could weave 5 or possibly even more at the same time and stay alive after that too."
"Unless they were gods that is."
"Of course. I belive that is the most plausible option to explain this."
At this, Icarus finally spoke. "Do you know the most famous quote of the person most people consider a god? Well its famous in our family texts at least."
"You mean Varay? The god of War?" asked Selene.
"Yes. He is known as a fraud among the Veyns."
"There are records of him still present in the world?"
"Our family estate have them."
"What quote are you talking about?" asked Nirvana.
" 'You kneel before my throne, not knowing it was made of lies.' That is what he used to say."
There was no response from either as both were still processing it. "The reason I brought this up was to explain that just because you believe someone from the past couldn't have been that strong, doesnt mean they were gods. In the first place, even if a God existed, and all he wanted was your prayers, he would ave kept you to himself, not sent you here to kneel."
"Lets leave it at that, shall we?" interjected Nova, who was there to guide the first years.