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Chapter X

  They followed the trails of the beautiful gardens. It was quite

  clear that Heonmeyu was designed to look like the most beau-

  tiful and cherished dream of a mortal. Tall grass fields were

  spread out on the earth with an incredible variety of fruit trees

  and flowers. Wild animals were living in peace. Predators and

  prey were playing and drinking together from the enormous

  lakes that were put out to give the air a slight cool breeze. Before

  being interrupted by the invasion the angels were busy running

  around and playing in the fields with the joyful spirits of the

  deceased. It gave Alduin a bit of a nostalgia. It had been such a

  long time since he got to witness such innocent happiness. Such

  views. He felt mortal again and ached when he realized that his

  time in this dimension was short.

  At the end of every battle with the angels he would stop his mount and inhale the fresh air of Heonmeyu, before go-

  ing on yet another manslaughter. A few hours had passed and

  with them tens of thousands of angels were killed by the divine

  brethren. They were closing in on the capital and could spot the

  castle of Austomia.

  ‘Is this it?’ He asked.

  ‘This is Austomia’s palace, yes. Inside it we will probably

  encounter our siblings and have to fight them to the death. This

  will be incredibly difficult and the casualties will be severe. Brace

  yourselves, brothers!’ Kans yelled out.

  They started charging toward the castle, not even paying atten-

  tion to the hoard of guardian angels following them in flight.

  Finally, they reached the main gates.

  ‘This is Heona, the capital of Heonmeyu. In here reside

  Austomia, the Sarathiins and the spirits of the strongest mortals

  to ever live in Vanthea. Once we enter you should know that you

  mustn’t harm the spirits. Vaonie has respect for them and only

  wants us to avenge the injustice that had occurred. Not to inflict

  an entirely new one. Is that understood, Lodus? Ophiin?’ Fema

  asked.

  ‘Roger that!’ They all answered in unison.

  Kans opened his mouth and whispered a chant that made the

  gates to the city shatter and crumble onto the ground.

  ‘Charge!’ He yelled.

  Alduin was confused as to why Kans said the chants rather than

  simply thinking them like he had explained before.

  ‘Maybe saying the chants makes it simpler to focus,’ he

  thought.

  They went off their mounts and started running inside the cap-

  ital. Their mission was to kill anything that stood in their way

  apart from the mortals. Each Araqhaiit went on their own path.

  Alduin was now alone against the celestial enemies and had to

  hold his ground firmly. Angels were a bit simpler for him to kill as he had grown used to their battle tactics. His blood magic

  skills and flight had improved greatly as well. He was running

  from house to house, searching for angels or Sarathiins to kill.

  He opened the door slowly, it was creaking. Alduin stepped in

  the house and peeked inside to check who was living there. Vau-

  rcarya floated around him, ready to strike. Suddenly, he heard

  a familiar voice so he walked further inside slowly. A single peek

  at the living room made his jaw drop.

  ‘F-Father?!’

  ‘Alduin?! What are you doing here?!’

  His mother started sobbing.

  ‘What kept you so long? We thought that you were sent to

  Munesa, we were so worried!’

  She hugged him firmly.

  ‘It...It is difficult to explain... I am glad to see you both

  ended up in heaven...’

  ‘What of the village? Were you able to see?’

  ‘Probably completely destroyed... Abandoned. The Vaermiraiits killed everyone...’

  His sister heard his voice from upstairs and sprinted down to

  give him a hug. She screamed out of excitement and was smiling

  broadly.

  ‘I have missed you too, Veridia...’

  Alduin was sure he would cry from finally seeing his dead rela-

  tives, yet no tear dropped from his eyes.

  ‘Where is uncle? Is he here too? I would love to see him.’

  ‘I am not sure...’ Veridia said.

  ‘We have not seen him yet, just like it was with you,’ his

  mother said.

  ‘I saw him lying on the ground next to father. I am pretty

  sure that he died,’ Alduin said.

  ‘Probably in Tyronah... For all the needless shit he did,’

  Veridia said.

  He looked at his sister and shrugged. She read his body language

  perfectly, it said ‘I liked him though’.

  ‘Yes. Yes. I know,’ she smiled and hugged him one last time.

  ‘Are you leaving, son?’ His father asked, noticing he kept

  gazing at the door.

  ‘Yes. I must.’

  ‘I see. May I ask why?’

  ‘What? But you had only just arrived! Mom, tell him!’

  ‘I agree with your sister, Alduin. Where else would you be

  going anyway?’

  ‘It is very hard for me to explain, mother and father. I am

  sorry.’

  ‘When will you be back?’ His father asked.

  ‘I-... I don’t know,’ he said and gloomed.

  His sister cried, his father shook his hand firmly and his mother

  hugged him one last time. He set off.

  ‘I fucking needed that! Why do I have to leave?!’ He said to

  himself and punched the wall of a house standing directly to his

  left.

  It seemed he had forgotten just how powerful he was. The punch

  made a huge crack in the wall and with it came a loud noise. Too

  loud. Suddenly, a group of angels started flying towards. He

  found himself backed up against that same wall. Angels were

  not capable of sealing divines but they were capable of causing

  immense pain. Something which Alduin was most certainly not

  immune to. Not yet anyways. He knew he had to do something

  before getting humiliated and put to the ground by them. In-

  stead of taking turns like humans would usually do, these angels

  were actually attacking in a group, forcing him into corners and

  out of the ability to go on the offensive. As attacks were piling

  in he grew more desperate for a revelation. He did not come all this way just to lose to mere angels. He was given this chance by

  Vaonie to turn his life around completely and become one of the

  very few gods that had existed. He must not lose this fight.

  He raced his mind for ideas on how to escape his sorry state

  and it suddenly hit him! Angels were not used to Snow Elf magic

  and there was a variety of evasive spells that he was taught how

  to use had he ever found himself in a pickle such as this one. He

  decided to go for the ice clone technique that would summon a

  clone while also turning him invisible.

  ‘Nor din feni u uli. Dreem te uli,’ he whispered and imme-

  diately started running away.

  The angels continued attacking his exact replica not knowing

  that it was nothing but a fake. The endurance of the clone varied

  with the amount of Olons one would pour into it, and he poured

  quite a lot considering the direness of the situation. He ran and

  ran and ran until he came across a great fountain. It was utterly

  mesmerizing and was filled to the brim with gorgeous crystal-

  clear water. Surrounded by flowers and delightful bushes of

  berries. He wished to approach it but was suddenly staggered as

  his eyes met those of a stranger sitting by the water. He launched

  himself into a hiding spot in the bushes trying to figure out what

  to do.

  He raised his head just a bit in order to assess the situation

  and took a gander at the potentially dangerous enemy. It was a

  woman. An absolutely stunning woman. Her hair was long and

  scarlet red. She wore a long light-green dress with golden mark-

  ings and red buttons, a snow-white scarf and rings, bracelets,

  necklaces and knight boots all made of pure gold. He noticed

  her pupils were shining in the color of purple. She also had quite

  long ears that resembled those of an Elf.

  ‘She doesn’t look like an angel because she has no wings...

  Well, maybe angels don’t have to have wings... Do spirits’ eyes glow? I haven’t come across any that have those... Maybe she is

  a Sarathiin? But if she is then why is she so passive towards me?

  How did she not notice me?’ He wondered.

  Eventually while staring at her their eyes met again and his fear

  of the situation increased radically. They stared at each other

  for about a second before she disappeared abruptly into thin air.

  Alduin had no idea how a person could lock eyes with someone

  that was entirely invisible. In an instant he felt a hand grabbing

  him by the shoulder and lifting him up from behind.

  —

  Just before Austomia succeeded to banish Vaonie and the Araqhai-

  its, Vaonie had thought of one final grand scheme. They sep-

  arated the physical activations from their own Olons, trans-

  formed them into artifacts and spread them throughout Vanthea,

  hidden away in crypts and the like. The idea was to set the

  grounds for a future escape plan from Tyronah. The artifacts

  were spread randomly and vastly so it would be harder for the

  Sarathiin and Austomia to locate them. Plus, the plan also made

  it possible for mortals to come across said artifacts, unleashing

  the potential for further havoc and chaos upon Vanthea. Despite

  their great efforts Vaonie did not have enough time to hide a few

  of the last artifacts and just placed them all together in solar-

  systems 0x50-0xff. The dangers this could pose were unknown.

  In Tyronah, Vaonie took charge and decided on rules and laws

  for the Araqhaiits and Deovhaiits that were to live there. The

  demons were to torture the evildoers that died in Vanthea while

  the Araqhaiits were to continue the tasks they were assigned

  with before their banishment.

  Tyronah also served as a great place for the Araqhaiits

  to practice their abilities and train against each other. They

  eventually got used to life there. Their disdain for Austomia

  and the Sarathiins had been left to boil for a long time. They

  all hoped for a chance for vengeance. Many years later, in 1000

  BMDW to be exact, a black hole (an invention Austomia did

  not know about, courtesy of Vaonie) sucked in the entirety of

  solar-systems 0x50-0xff. However, as mentioned before, this

  meant that many artifacts that lied together were sucked in as

  well. This, by time, proved to be one of the most dangerous

  occurrences in the history of Vanthea.

  The sucking of so many artifacts all so close to each other

  into something like a black hole, caused the Olons of the arti-

  facts to merge and intertwine with the cosmic phenomenon of

  the black hole. One year later this had led to the creation of one

  of, if not the most, dangerous beings in Vanthea. ‘Rivalya’ was

  the creature’s name (the name given to the black hole that had

  given birth to it). It was a mutated non-pure Araqhaiit, born due

  to radiation and glitches in Vanthea’s systems. Rivalya’s ability

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  was to create even more black holes. After each time this hap-

  pened they would have to rest for at least a year. Also, after each

  time, the size and power of the summoned black holes would in-

  crease. Each and every time that Rivalya would wake from their

  slumber an uncanny thirst for destruction would engulf them,

  giving them motivation to go on yet another killing spree. At

  first they took out a whole village. Afterwards, a city. Then, a few

  cities, then a country, then a continent, then a few continents

  and then a planet and so forth. The size of the disaster grew each

  and every time. Eventually, Rivalya was able to destroy a solar

  system, a galaxy and eventually the entirety of solar-systems

  0x00-0x20. This tragedy occurred 953 years after their birth.

  Exactly forty-seven years after that Vaonie had finally de-

  cided to begin executing her scheme. They opened portals for the Deovhaiits to come through and sent them on a journey

  in Vanthea. The objective was collecting each and every artifact

  and combining them all into a solely physical version of Vaonie.

  This version would then be contacted by the original Vaonie in

  Tyronah which would begin a merging process, thus unlocking

  their way back into Vanthea and the outer realms. The demons

  began infiltrating each and every planet in Vanthea, killing any

  mortal that stood in their way. Some even decided to rape or

  destroy property for entertainment. The bloodshed had forced

  the mortals to grow a backbone and fight back. This event was

  later known as ‘The Mortal Demon War’ which had lasted for

  1023 long years (also known as "The Thousand Years War") - 0

  MDW. To add to the trouble, the ‘Vaermiraiit Plague’ had be-

  gun in 56 MDW. The end of this war marked the beginning of

  a new era also known as ‘The Renaissance’. For those history

  nerds out there, the war had occurred a few years after the failed

  assassination attempt on the Roman Emperor Commodus.

  The Sarathiins decided not to interfere with this as none of

  them had ever seen Deovhaiits and mistook them for other

  foul creations of Vaonie. After killing millions if not more of

  mortals the demons had gathered almost all of the artifacts.

  They were missing a few that could be not placed. The first one

  was Rivalya. When they found out about this they contacted the

  creature and with a lot of negotiation led by Vaonie, it finally

  decided to sacrifice itself for a greater cause. Rivalya would

  be systematically reincarnated later on as promised by Vaonie.

  The other ones were nowhere to be found and posed a great

  nuisance to the mission. Eventually the demons gave up and

  returned to Tyronah. The grand scheme had turned out to be

  a failure and Vaonie was the one to pay the price. There was no longer any hope for a way back to their previous life. No

  hope at all. As their one last wish Vaonie decided to return all

  of the artifacts to Vanthea and hand them to all to ‘Vaonical’

  worshippers. Vaermiraiits stood amongst them of course. The

  purpose of the artifacts was no longer to resurrect Vaonie but

  rather to find a suitable replacement for Lodus.

  —

  ‘Who are you? You don’t seem familiar! And you aren’t a

  spirit too. Speak!’ She yelled.

  He was unsure what to do. Should he explain the situation to

  her? Wasn’t she told that Heonmeyu was being raided by the

  Araqhaiits? His mind raced and he finally came into an answer:

  There was no right course of action. No matter what he would

  decide to do he would ultimately be in grave danger. This woman

  appeared way stronger and experienced than he was, that was

  what his gut feeling told him.

  ‘Please put me down first.’

  She nodded. He began falling but immediately levitated himself

  back into balance.

  ‘My name is Alduin Lodus Fa-...’ He started saying but was

  interrupted abruptly by a sudden change in the fierceness in the

  stranger’s eyes.

  ‘Lodus?! As in my brother Lodus?! You look nothing like

  him! Do not feed me those lies, he died a great time ago. Try

  again or I will feed you to my Nasyryl!’

  ‘Please relax, I speak the truth! I was appointed by Vaonie

  to be his successor, my name is Alduin Lodus Fa?li,’ he shouted.

  ‘Prove to me that you are not lying.’

  ‘How exactly?’

  ‘Show me your left hand. Lodus is the only one who is able

  to have this tattoo,’ she said and grabbed his hand angrily.

  In her shock she froze in place and was in utter terror of the

  situation.

  ‘Who are you?’ He asked in utter confusion.

  ‘M-My name is Hanali. I am one of the Sarathiins... Which

  I guess makes me your enemy... But I never wished it to be this

  way! I never wished to fight my brother. I never wished to kill

  him!’ She began sobbing.

  ‘You... You were the one who killed Lodus?’

  ‘Yes!’

  Alduin frowned.

  ‘In the great uprising of Vaonie I had to pick a side and

  fight the other. I was forced into a situation of treachery and

  go against my brothers and sisters. Against my own parent! I

  was left in nothing but terror and regret as I went against my

  own tenet of loyalty and break my vow of companionship to

  my brethren! I have yet to forgive myself for this crime despite

  Austomia’s continuous attempts to convince me that I’ve done

  nothing wrong.’

  ‘I... I am sorry to hear that... I too had my family taken

  away from me. I have nothing and no one left...’

  ‘S-So... You understand how lonely it feels to lose the ones

  you cherish... All because of one thing you had absolutely no

  control over...’

  ‘Yes.’

  She gathered her tears and got back to her dominant posture.

  ‘Thank you for granting me this short moment of peace.

  Now I must ask you a question.’

  ‘As you wish. I wouldn’t manage to escape even if I wanted

  to anyways...’

  ‘What are you doing here? You are an Araqhaiit. This is not

  your land!’

  ‘Vaonie has instructed me and your siblings to slaughter

  every celestial being in Heonmeyu as revenge for what was

  done to them. They want us to kill the angels and Sarathiins. I

  sincerely apologize but we have killed over fifty thousand angels

  already and maybe even more by now. I don’t know where the

  other Araqhaiits are so they probably have managed to defeat a

  few Sarathiins already...’

  ‘That... That is not possible! No more bloodshed! No more

  in-fighting! I cannot stand it! I must stop this before it escalates

  further... Follow me if you value your life, I am not scared to kill

  you.’

  ‘Fine.’

  She immediately started levitating and launched herself up into

  the air, trying to locate her siblings fighting with her sharp eye-

  sight. When she finally spotted them she yelled out in agony.

  ‘Brothers! Sisters! It is me. Hanali! Your elder sister! I beg

  of you to stop this foolish battle and listen to me! Come up and

  we discuss this instead of fighting for a cause that isn’t even your

  own to begin with!’

  Alduin was in utter shock as he witnessed her cry was answered

  with the utmost respect. The fighting diminished. The Sarathi-

  ins and Araqhaiits ended their battles and flew up to negotiate.

  The Sarathiins levitated and stood next to Hanali. They were also

  incredibly different from each other. He recalled their names

  were Astrugiel, Ayur?, Gonuiel, Kyyn and Jaone. The Araqhaiits

  stood in front of them, gazing at Alduin who was standing in

  the middle between the two groups. Kans wore a disappointed

  look on his face.

  ‘Hello sister... Did you miss us?’ Ophiin said and and laughed

  like a maniac.

  ‘Yes. I have. Deeply,’ she replied calmly not falling prey to

  his provocation.

  ‘Always so serious, huh?’ He responded.

  ‘What is it you want? We were in the middle of ridding

  Heonmeyu of these pests,’ Ayur? asked.

  ‘I called you here because I was told by this individual that

  the Araqhaiits have been tasked to end Austomia’s bloodline.’

  ‘And who might he be?’ Gonuiel asked with an observing

  gaze.

  ‘My name is Alduin Lodus Fa?li. I was chosen by Vaonie to

  continue your fallen brother’s legacy,’ Alduin responded.

  ‘Is that so?’

  ‘Yes, it is entirely correct and I find it blasphemous that

  Vaonie had decided yet again to turn us against one another!’

  Hanali said in agony.

  Ophiin smirked.

  ‘This is not funny Ophiin! Fighting between ourselves is

  incredibly foolish and unnecessary! We need not kill each other

  for a purpose that we do not even share!’

  ‘Well what else could we do besides to obey our lord, Hanali?

  We all know that Austomia and Vaonie are not to be disobeyed,’

  Kans asked.

  ‘Exactly,’ Astrugiel, Jaone and Fema agreed.

  ‘I know this is true and it pains me. But I have found a

  solution that may satisfy your lord. I will relinquish myself from

  the title of Sarathiin and leave Heonmeyu. Forever...’

  ‘Are you insane? Banishing yourself? You have done nothing

  wrong, sister!’ Astrugiel shouted.

  ‘You are way stupider than I remembered, sister...’ Ophiin

  laughed.

  ‘Why are you punishing yourself for the crimes of someone

  else?’ Alduin asked.

  ‘As the eldest I must take responsibility and protect my sib-

  lings. This is my decision and my decision alone! Now ask your

  master if this plan it to their liking!’

  ‘As you wish,’ Kans said.

  Kans raised his hands and chanted a communication portal

  to Tyronah in order to ask Vaonie about their opinion on the

  matter. At first, Vaonie was mad to see the Sarathiins still being

  alive... Eventually, they gave in to their curiosity and asked

  about the meaning of the interference. They were skeptical of

  the idea initially but eventually agreed to it.

  ‘Then it is settled! I will pay the price for the falling of Lodus.

  I hereby relinquish myself of my Sarathiin title and am now

  neutral in the cosmic purity scale. I have finally found peace

  for my actions!’ Hanali shouted and smiled for the first time in

  what seemed like years.

  Her eyes suddenly grew a bit redder and the purple seemed

  clearer than before. With their task complete Kans opened a

  teleportation portal back to Tyronah. This time seven entered

  it, not six. Hanali seemed determined to fulfill her remarkable

  solution for peace and her siblings seemed to be satisfied with

  the outcome entirely. It was a bright and brave choice for her to

  make and they valued her greatly for taking such a drastic step

  for harmony that she could have obtained via violence alone.

  The only one who had an odd expression on his face was

  Alduin. He was not only mesmerized by her beauty but also

  entirely breathtaken by her bravery and value for family and

  loyalty. He had grown fond of her because her nature was very

  ‘human’ in his eyes. She appeared to be a warm and caring in-

  dividual. He realized just how much he had been missing his

  mother and father. It seemed that he had only repressed the

  feelings of grief rather than actually dealing with them properly.

  Her face calmed his mind. Hanali noticed his gaze but decided

  to ignore it, letting out a smile uncontrollably.

  ----------

  Author's note - I hope to get reviews and feedback. Thank you :)

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