The Amber Sword

v3c358
Requiem(8)

There were definitely a few events in Vaunte’s long history that were destined to shine like bright stars in the night sky, but the most glorious of these was undoubtedly the legend in the Pale Poem about the Azure Knight who started the age of mortals with his lance.

The Kirrultz people wrote about the beginning of the world in a historical poem, a world that was born from imagination.

At the beginning of everything, the world was in a state of chaos, surrounded by water and wind, fire and lightning. The first creatures were born in the water and multiplied on land. They were then blessed by the wind and given wisdom by the fire.

From her mouth, Marsha uttered the name Nainta. The six elements that surrounded the world were light, darkness, wind, water, fire, and earth. Fourteen thousand gods were also formed in the original rules to govern everything.

Everything was a success.

In the first epoch before the glory, the gods built kingdoms above the clouded earth, and giant towers through the heavens connected the kingdoms of mortals and gods.

But then, all hell broke loose.

An actual divine weapon.

The Eternal Holy Lance.

He hesitated and asked cautiously, ”Your Highness, I get what you’re trying to say but how long do you think it would take if we were to take this holy lance down?”

The princess looked at him, puzzled. “Can’t we just take it?”

Brendel suddenly realized that the princess seemed to know nothing about it. But then again, how could a mortal have many opportunities to learn about divine weapons? Those things seem to be some illusory, unattainable existence.

He had no choice but to explain it to her. “More or less. First of all, the divine weapon has its own will. Secondly, this hall is definitely filled with traps, and collecting the divine weapon is an extremely dangerous and time-consuming thing unless someone can resonate with it and make it automatically recognize its master.”

“Do we have that much time to waste?” Princess Gryphine couldn’t help but frown. Hearing Brendel’s reasoning, she also seemed to realize that the problem was that they didn’t have that much time to waste on this place.

“I’m just afraid not.” Brendel shook his head as expected.

The crux of the matter wasn’t this; acquiring the divine weapon was a very dangerous job. If they were successful in this gamble, all their problems would naturally be solved. With a divine weapon such as the Azure Lance, once its power was mastered, it would be effortless to drive those demons and cavemen on the surface back to their homeland.

But the problem was that if they fail, there would be no chance for Aouine to start again.

The wise princess obviously thought of this as well and she immediately thought of another question. “Brendel, how about the cavemen outside?”

Brendel knew she meant to ask if the cavemen out there had come for this too. Suddenly it seemed plausible to him, but where did the demons get the news from?

“So is it safe to put it here?” After thinking about it for a moment, Her Royal Highness still gritted her teeth and somewhat reluctantly asked.

Brendel could only look to Babasha when it came to this question.

The old witch also felt uneasy as she was unsure as well. It was the Holy Lance of Heaven, a weapon that existed countless centuries ago and was mythical enough to defeat the Darkness Dragon. In that era, the Silver Race was only cannon fodder. It might have been even earlier in time, when the gods still roamed the earth.

Still, she steadied herself and nodded. “My lord, no one but us can come in here.”

That was enough. Of all the people present, Brendel was certainly the most qualified one. The player in him could only see the Holy Lance of Heaven as a mere weapon with great power. So what if it was a divine weapon? In the end, it was just a piece of equipment.

Of course with that being said, Brendel still wasn’t fully confident in his decision. He could only turn back and try not to look at the thing. “In that case, everyone just forget about it for now,” he told everyone,

He glanced sternly at those present, especially the knights of Lantonilan. He wasn’t afraid of the Azure Lance falling into the hands of the cavemen of Jorgendy Ridge. But if this news were to get out, Aouine could be in hot water.

The knights understood Brendel’s decision and vowed never to spread the word. Brendel didn’t really pay attention to their vows since he already knew how to handle it when everything finally calmed down.

A player’s means was not something these guys could imagine.

Brendel then led the crowd out of the hall but everyone looked distracted. The shock of seeing the Azure Lance was beyond words. Even Brendel had a hard time understanding the special feelings the first settlers held for that piece of history.

It was as though figures from those myths suddenly appeared before his very eyes and told him that everything in the past had truly happened.

He could faintly see the same implication from the thoughtful eyes of the Princess.

As he was about to leave the hall, Brendel suddenly remembered something else. To his knowledge, the power of divine artifacts were capable of changing history and they would only appear when history was at a major turning point.

In recent history, the Flame King acquired the Flaming Blade Oderfeiss at the Great Plains and subsequently forged a Holy Covenant with the Wise Beings to rebel against the Darkness Dragon’s rule.

So what did the appearance of the Azure Lance in Aouine indicate? At least he knew that the fate carried by the Azure Lance would never be to save this ancient kingdom.

However, Brendel was terrified.

Just as Lady Medusa Lysemeka was unaware of the great change that had been birthed in the underground of this vast harbor, Brendel was equally unaware of the situation above ground.

The beautiful lady raised her head and looked into the rainy sky to see a golden-red glow float up before the bull-headed Minotaur and her.

Her beautifully prismatic pupils reflected a magnificent red color. A huge light gate cut across half the sky, forming a giant Door of Flame tens of meters in diameter in the pouring rain.

Then, a demon with three heads, a pair of huge fleshy wings and a flaming red body slowly stepped out from behind the door. Even though the portal was huge, the demon had to hunch its back and squeeze through the portal. In fact, its massive horns could barely even get through.

Lysmeka looked cautiously at the behemoth then respectfully greeted it. “Honorable Lord Mesika, you have finally arrived. Lord Varab has been waiting for a long time.”

The massive demon looked at her, revealing an expression that could hardly be described as a smile and replied gruffly. “What about the preparations by that bunch of bugbears?”

“Naturally, it is ready my lord.”

The Min’er language. Vaunte did not refer to the first and second epoch of the Kirrultz calendar. The first era, which according to the players testimony, should precede the Chaotic Ages. And the beginning of the second era was the beginning of the Chaotic Ages.

But a different name was adopted by the other races, one that seemed far more tranquil than humanity’s definition.

Pale Sky.