Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

1031 AF

It has now been eight years long.

In eight years of solitude and lonesomeness there is a lot of things Arial had done. But he only left the Library just a few times.

Arial only left the library to go swimming in Forked Serpent Lake, the lake is magnificent and clean, wander around King Square, and explore the magnificent Imperial Palace.

He even pretended those empty armor in the hallways of the Imperial Palace as his sparring partner.

He had spent so much time in the palace that, one by one, he had uncovered many secret doors and hidden passages.

Much to his delight he had found the famous passage in the Empress Quarters, the one used by Empress Leliana when she hid from the rebels during the reign of the First Emperor.

Arial had learned many things from the books in the Grand Library especially on history.

Arial had even discovered the prison where Darius Montblanc, better known as Darius the Cruel, sent any unfortunate citizen who dared to defy his orders.

It is kind of a fabled prison and a tale mothers tell their children to scare them to bed. But that is not all he has discovered.

Eight years in one place and you thought you knew everything. But this place keeps on giving.

He'd also stumbled upon a map describing in great detail the weapons and treasures hidden by the First Generation, the first ancestors of the Caelum Race, the most prominent race in the Human Continent.

There were many wild theories about the First Generation; rumor had it they came from another world and so used to be referred to with great wonder as the Sky People, a story which Arial thought was much too fantastic to be true.

The reason why they were so called Sky People is because in the myths and the stories surrounding their rise, they were described as descending down from the Sky in a white blinding light that night turns to day for a moment and they appear out of nowhere.

For most of the early history of the Sky People, they were referred as such before Levitia came and called the race Caelum which is descended down from the lineage of the Sky People.

Arial had also come across a strange runic mark in the library, for which he was pleased to find an activator beneath the ground floor, in a dusty workshop with a cloth belonging to an Archmage.

The Archmage must be the one who activated the rune, thought Arial.

He tried in vain to understand how it was done and how it was activated but its design was too unusual, and he eventually gave in, disappointed.

Empty weeks passed, and Arial grew restless with boredom other than his occasional reading while drinking some wine.

One dark and dreary day he went for a walk to inspect the borders, and as he gazed out over the land he sensed something.

A menacing sensation spread throughout his body and his stomach dropped. Squinting into the horizon, he saw figures advancing.

He approached closer to see more clearly and then what he saw make his eyes narrowed.

So, they have come, he thought. He could make out what looked like a unit of a hundred troops, led by elves.

There was no way Arial would be able to hide from them when they enter. He took a deep breath and his eyes become determined. He knew that his idyllic life is over.

He smiles bitterly at the thought.

Arial rushed back to the library and threw on his highest quality armor, pieces he had gathered during his many years at the Empire, and grabbed the flying daggers that had once belonged to William the Wise, and the sword of Louis the Pious.

Both were great emperors, both wise, and both dead for many years. Arial figured they wouldn't mind if he borrowed their weapons from the Imperial Vault.

Arial didn't wait to be found.

He had learned from the stacks of library books the importance of the element of surprise and so, as the troops arrived and spread through the streets like a plague, Arial lay in wait hidden in the shadows of an alley.

Before long a lone elf rounded the corner, while Arial look at him in the shadow. Opportunity comes and Arial attacked like a lightning bolt, slicing his throat with the emperor's blade.

The look of shock froze on the elves face as his life seeped away, blood splurging out of the elves neck like it is one of the fountains in the Imperial Palace

There was another scout nearby. Arial quickly subdued him and slit his throat with a blade with a trained movement.

Shush, he whispered while covering the scout mouth from making any noise. Arial also subdued his hand so he can't make any movements.

The scout is struggling to scream, struggling to live and survive as he tries to release himself from Arial grip

But Arial did not budge while the scout is slowly becoming weaker and weaker.

'Shush, the pain will fade' he whispered to the scout ears. And then slowly but surely, his life was snuffed out.

'Let the Light guide your way' Arial prayed.

'Or should I pray, Into the Darkness they go?' He thought to himself as the scout body falls to the ground lifeless.

Arial did not stop and wait. He needs to keep moving.

Arial moved on to the next alley, and the next, delivering silent and fatal blows to the elf soldiers, one by one, until the entire unit lay drenched in their own putrid blood.

His years of practice within the library had paid off, but he felt little relief as he sheathed his legendary weapons.

His face become hard and his entire clothes is soaked with blood.

They would return, with larger units and stronger troops. They no longer feared the Empire territory.

Arial had to be prepared.

He returned back to the Library of Levitia and learned everything he could from the masses of ancient books, and hid the journals inside a secret room of the Grand Library; if their knowledge fell into the wrong hands, it would mean greater and more brutal persecution for the humans.

He heard all about the massacre and indiscriminate killing that happens.

He doesn't always spend time in the border of the Vern Empire.

There are sometimes where he looks or watch in the distance at the Human Kingdom that has fallen.

Blood and death filled the once crowded road, corpses littered through the various Kingdom, eaten by beast.

Usually he sneaks outside, once in a while knowing the geography of the Kingdom from the maps but he usually only lingers for a while.

He prayed to whatever Gods that is listening, that even if he died here, he prayed that no demon would ever find the Library of Levitia.

He left the hiding place with a sigh.

A month after the elves had descended a unit of three hundred came, this time the dwarves came to finish the job.

Arial had been waiting for the next attack and this time he was well prepared as he could be

As night fell he crept into their camp and torched them with Asterosi fire he had found in the Imperial Vault.

They tried to doused it with water but Asterosi fire do not work like normal flames. Else, it would not be so rare.

The dwarves that escaped the flames fought him through the night, and Arial sliced them down with his much-practiced swordplay techniques.

By dawn just one dwarf stood, begging in the Old Tongue to be spared.

Arial decided the intruder did not deserve it, and silenced him with his blades.

Drenched in sweat and fatigue he stared at his work; blood splattered and soaked the ground, hundreds of dwarf bodies mangled and turned to ash.

Memories and visions drowned him once again, unwillingly replaying that awful day when he had returned home from Seren.

Blood that come out from his slain enemies make the street dyed in red. All Arial saw was blood.

All there was, was blood.

He shakes his head like he tries to shake the memories off. He notices his hands are trembling.

It is almost like a premonition. It was like he was once again in that rooms watching all of it in frozen fear.

He took a deep breath and everything moves again.

Arial tried to shake the thought from his head. His fear had been confirmed – they would keep coming, stronger, smarter, and with greater numbers.

Even though he has learned almost all of the swordplay in the Imperial Family Secret Vault, he surely can't defeat all of them.

Not to mention the swordplay that he learned does not use internal energy that much.

Even though his internal energy is almost at the level of a captain, it's not like he is the strongest person.

He would surely fall and die here. That is the fact. But it did not make him scared at all…. for the first time in his life, he is not that scared of dying.

And he smiles. Like the smile he used to smile in those sewer full of darkness all those years ago. A smile that even he did not know why he is smiling.

"When you walk to the edge of all the light you have, and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. You will fall, or you will be taught to fly." Arial remembered a Priest once lecturing him about obstacles and faith.

He scoffed.

Within a week a newly formed army came.

Arial stood on the front gate overlooking the horizon, watching the incoming threat with hawk-like eyes.

On a tower not far away from him he saw a raven and he chuckles. He remembered all those years ago, that he saw a raven outside his house when he ran from his village.

Depending on certain culture's in the Human Continent, seeing a raven could be a good luck or bad luck.

The raven flew away.

I guess we will see whether I will fall or fly then, he thought.

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