Chapter 4. An unexpected event

After the Prince had found his inspiration, the next five years that followed were filled with hard work and sadness. The Prince had his idea crafted by one of the few black smiths that lived in the kingdom, in the form of a pair of metallic boots that had a set of metallic claws on the bottom to resemble that of the tiger’s that he had witnessed being drugged into the kingdom by Avorion. This item greatly improved his roof running and impressed Avorion with the enginuity alone. The teacher had professed that none before the prince himself had ever entertained the idea of making an item like this. However while his training was made more intense during the oncoming years, his family had fallen apart. His mother had gotten sick, and soon became bed ridden after contracting her illness. This has greatly affected his father as they interacted less and less, with his father remaining on his throne like some kind of living statue, unable to stand seeing the queen in such a sorry state.

On this particular day the prince woke up in a cold sweat, days where he awoke like this became more common after his mother became bed ridden, but reason this is remains unknown to him to this day. The teenage slowly sat up from his bed, before he gently propped pushes his right hand down on the bed, with his arm straight in order to help support him in this tired state, before gently wiping his soaked brow with his left arm. He then took a deep breath and sigh deeply before looking down exposed torso, gazing upon all the scars and bruises he accumulated throughout his training with Avorion. Injuries like these were to be expected, after all training with Avorion was incredibly strong, so in order to progress in his training he had to pay the price with his body. After a few moments of reminiscing he then slowly looked to his right as he stared through at his open window. I Hope that today will be better than the last.

“Today is gonna be better than the last”

The Prince said as he slowly got out of bed, he went through his daily routine of washing himself down in a separate room next to his own with two buckets of water that the aids had set out the previous night for him. These buckets of water had pedals of a few different flowers in order to give the harshly cold liquid a pleasant fragrance, the teen slowly looked down into the bucket staring at his own reflection that laid within the water for a few moments. The teen snapped out of his trance for a moment before taking a deep breath as he lowered his hands into the bucket, he put his hands together in order to bring up some water from the bucket and splash it onto his exposed body before gently rubbing the scented liquid around his body. He repeated this process until both buckets were completely empty, upon which he then walked back to his room and began to get dressed. The Prince wore a black fur like shirt that was made from a beast that Avorion brought back to the village when returning from one of his various hunts he went out on. The next thing that he put on his partially exposed body was a pair of metallic white gloves, with tips of the fingers having a slightly sharpened point, in order to resemble the same beast he modeled his boots after. Finally he has finished getting dressed, now wearing dark black pants that are made from black cloth, and his boots that he had especially made for training.

“Alright then, let's go see what Avorion has in store for me today.”

The Prince started walking down the long hallway, before looking out one of the massive open windows and began to prop himself to take a jump out of it, not fearing for the fall thanks to the training with Avorion, however before he could take that leap Navis approached him. He began to grow a bit flustered as over the years their interactions with each other began more regular then what it was ever supposed to be, due to his mother’s illness, and his father shutting the young Prince out. Each time they spoke the prince would be entranced by her beauty, her perfect complecture complimented by her darker skin tone. Her eyes were a dazzling cyan color, which contrasted with her short blond hair. However she began to speak, interrupting his analysis of her, as she took a small pouch from her waist and gave it to him.

“My liege, your mother wished to bequeath this to you when you were old enough to handle it.”

She gently took his hand, before gently opening his palm so she could hand him the pouch before gently taking her hands and having the Prince’s fingers gently hold it. It was at that moment he felt something faint through his gloves, within his palm he could feel the severe cold of a raging blizzard. The Prince seemed shocked at the intense sensation within his hand before opening the pouch and dumping the content within his hand to reveal a marvelous deep blue gem akin to that of a sapphire of some kind but before the Prince could question Navis about the gem she began to explain exactly what it was.

“Seeing how you were born a male your mother wanted to impart something of value to you my liege. That gem is the embodiment of frost, your mother poured in much of her power into this item for you to wield in your endeavors. All you need to do is insert it into a part of whatever weapon you wield that's capable of utilizing it. The rest, well, I can’t spoil it.”

Navis smiled and walked away from the Prince, leaving him alone with his gift. The Prince looked at her before putting the item back in the pouch and putting it in his back pocket, before leaping from the window with his arms out wide open as he embarrassed the free fall. This sensation was something profound to him as he could see all the little people of the Fortis Gelu living out their little lives which all seemed so mundane compared with the ecstasy of this feeling of the falling. The Prince shook this feeling of superiority quickly as he firmly grabbed onto a flag pole that was sticking out of the side of the lower castle, expertly using the momentum he gained from the fall to spin himself around the flagpole and onto the top of one of the taller buildings with the marketing district. Coming down from his ecstasy, the Prince thought about what he had learned while intensely watching the streets of bustling people below him.

Avorion soon appeared behind the Prince catching him off guard, not expecting his teacher to be there so suddenly. Avorion then slowly walked to his student’s side, placing his hand on the Prince’s shoulder before asking him.

“Have you noticed anything on your way down?”

The Prince shook his head before taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling with his warm breath being seen, before replying to his teacher in a disappointing tone.

“No Avorion, I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary so far.”

Avorion laughs a bit before giving his apprentice a light slap on his back.

“Don’t sound so disappointed, nothing wrong means that it’ll be an easy day for us.”

The Prince looked at the kingdom from the top of the building he and Avorion stood on, watching the snow fall onto the ground. The overview of the kingdom, and the sounds of it all put the Prince at ease, but there was something that's been pestering him over these years, and no matter how much he tried to bury this thought, it would eventually resurface itself in his mind. So in this moment of peace, he decided to finally pose the question to Avorion.

“..H-Hey Avorion can I ask you something that has been on my mind for a long time now.”

The Prince looked at Avorion, before taking a deep breath and staring at the ground. Avorion noticed the hesitance in his student’s voice, and turned to his left to see what was bothering his pupil, only to see his pupil looking down at the ground. Avorion had never had this kind of talk with anyone before, but he took a gamble and he did what any other teacher would do and tried his best to comfort his student. Avorion slowly kneels down on one knee, before extending his right arm and setting it on his pupil’s shoulder and speaking in a softer tone than usual.

“What's wrong my liege. It's unlike you to be down, what's weighing on your mind?”

The Prince took a deep breath as this would be him letting down his guard for his mentor and spoke in a hesitant tone.

“Do you think that my mother will get better Avorion? I admit I haven’t seen her since she was afflicted with her illness, each time I try I freeze in place as the suffering both her and my father must be going through is unimaginable. I want to try and a alleviate some of father’s pain b-”

Avorion pulled his student in his embrace, gently wrapping his arms around the Prince’s shoulder, before gently setting his hand on the back of his Prince’s head to further provide his liege with comfort. Avorion thought this would’ve been the best way to comfort his own child if he ever had the chance to do so, but over their years together his Prince grew to be like a surrogate son to Avorion and helped him fill the void that he wasn’t allowed to openly talk about.

“My Prince it's not my place to determine such things, as I am a humble body guard that traded his life away into servitude to provide for my family. I know this thought, both of your parents are incredibly strong, and I’m sure they’re proud of your efforts like I am.”

The Prince seemed shocked at Avorion’s words as his father once said something similar to him before, when they all had dinner together. The Prince took a deep breath before finally pulling away from Avorion and nodded at his teacher.

“Thanks Avorion. I needed to hear that, with father being distant and mother being sick. It’s just been difficult to deal with this over the years.”

Avorion slowly got up to his feet before he planted his hand on his Prince’s head, and started to gently rub the top of the adolescent teen’s head.

“Don’t mention it. As your teacher it's my job to increase your potential, light a fire in your belly and most importantly, clearing your head of any doubts.”

The two of them share a laugh together to cheer themselves up a bit. After their laughing session, both of them had their attention caught by the main gate alarm, which was being wrung by a few of the lower ranking knights that were stationed there, drawing the attention of other nearby knights as well. Avorion looked towards the direction of the alarm and back at his growing pupil before he spoke.

“Looks like I jinxed our day being easy huh? Well it I’m sure it's nothing out of the ordinary, probably a luggage check for a but let's go check out.”

Avorion leapt across the top of the taller buildings in the marketing district before the Prince followed his teacher, the two of them quickly made their way through the market before finally reaching the main gate that led straight into the heart of the kingdom itself. The Prince and Avorion landed behind the small group of knights that were talking amongst themselves. A single knight walked through the group of men, making his way over to Avorion which surprised his pupil as Avorion didn’t seem like the type of man to have any friends. The knight opens his arms wide as raising them into the air, not even noticing the Prince.

“Hey Avorion! I didn’t think I’d see you here so soon after getting myself stationed here!”

The knight spoke in an excited tone, with Avorion walking to the man with the same gesture before the two warriors embraced, undeniably solidifying their friendship. Before Avorion let out a powerful laughter, with the Prince looking at the two of them with his teacher standing beside the man with his hands on his waists.

“What did you do to get stationed here Jeremy, weren’t you supposed to be on the hunting team?”

The knight rubbed the back of his head in a sign of embarrassment, before replying to the question.

“Well yeah but when the captain’s daughter is asking for a night of passion, who am I to deny? In fact I’m sure it would’ve been rude if I didn’t!”

Avorion slapped him in the back of his head, before letting out a voice of disappointment..

“I warned you about that kind of stuff Jeremy.”

Jermey put his hands up in defence.

“I get it, I get it!”

Avorion shook his head in annoyance before walking back over to the Prince, catching the knight off guard as he never heard Avorion mention this boy in any of their conversations back when they went to the tavern.

“Hey Avorion? Who's the boy? Seems I don’t know, sort of off?”

Avorion punches Jeremy in the face, trying to not dent the armor as it would’ve come out of his friend’s pocket.

“That’s our Prince, you damn moron!”

Jeremy quickly puts two and two together before finally groveling on the ground.

“Please my lord, I beg of you. Please forgive me!”

Avorion just scoffs and kicks Jermey to the side, as he finds him unsightly despite being friends with him. Avorion and the Prince then looked around and slowly made their way through the group of knights before eventually finding the man who rang the alarm. The first thing that the Prince and Avorion noticed when they saw the knight was that they seemed worried, if not terrified, about something. Avorion walked up to worried knight, instantly catching the man’s attention and began to stutter out of sheer terror.

“L-L-Lord Avorion there's s-s-something out there beyond the gate, it doesn't seem right because just looking at it makes my stomach churn and knot up.”

Avorion seemed perplexed and made his way up the stairs to look at the top of the gate to see what was wrong, and what he saw was indeed more than meets the eye. What was standing there at the start of the snow covered path that led to the kingdom was a single knight that was just standing there. Avorion began to notice what made this so unsettling as he focused in on the figure that stood there. The arms were not symmetrical as the right shoulder was lower than the left, along with both of the knight’s legs profusely bleeding as there were chunks missing throughout its torso and both of its legs.

From the chunks of meat and metal that were missing from it. Avorion called out to the knight in a vain attempt to see if it was still human, knowing that it was fruitless to even do such a task.

“Warrior. I am Sir Avorion, head of the King’s Streak and I am demanding your name and status!”

The armored figure leaned in slowly, before gently lifting its head to look up at Avorion and the others that were standing on top of the gate before slowly crouching to get on all fours. Avorions eyes widened under his helmet and quickly turned around before looking down, trying to find the Prince in the crowd of men that was below him before shouting at the young lord and the lesser knights that were by him.

“Get away from here!!!”

The armored creature screams loudly before lunging at the massive gate with the ferocity of an animal that's having a huge rush of adrenaline. The men that were trying to hold the gate shut suddenly got launched back from the monstrous force of the creature colliding into the structure. The Prince had gotten knocked over by another knight, and pushed the man off of him as she got up and saw that the thing created a massive hold in the gate, with the thing’s upper torso being what made it past the gate itself. The three knights that were stationed at the top, quickly lept down from the top of the gate, letting out their battle cry with their short swords drawn and being aimed downward, ready to be plunged into the beast. The armored creature looked up at them, only to be met with frosted steel stabbing downward across its shoulder section. The knights leapt back from the attack, leaving their swords inside of the thing. The eight or so men that got knocked over quickly got back on its feet, and lunged at the stuck creature. However this would ultimately be the demise of these men, as the armored thing let out a guttural, distorted, high pitched screech that could only be described as the voice of man, mixed with a dozen wailing banshees. The noise made these eager warrior’s grab their heads in a vain attempt to stop the sound but it was pointless, as they soon all dropped on the floor with their thick and viscous blood oozing through their shining armor that had thankfully covered the warrior’s faces.

The Prince looked in horror as he just witnessed eight men just drop dead from this thing’s scream, his eyes darted around in a panic to see what else had happened when that thing screamed.

“What the hell was that?!?!”

He shouted to himself , noticing that the other men that didn’t die from the scream hold the side of their heads, huffing in pain while asking their fellow brothers in arms why can’t they hear. The Prince looked at Jeremy who offered him a hand up. The teen nodded and took the knight’s hand and tugged back up onto his feed. The Prince was shocked by the totality of what just happened, seeing that those men never stood a chance against an attack like that. Still these men had precious things to protect and this thing just robbed them of their lives, as if it were a thief in the night. The Prince clenched his fists and was thinking about charging at it, but luckily Jeremy had snapped him out of it.

“My liege, listen I know how you’re feeling right now! Served ten years of my life with those guys, but I know my responsibility is to protect you, so let's leave!”

Avorion shouted at the knights to hide the impared and go get people off of the area, before he leapt down from the top of the gate, landing before the Prince and Jermey. He picked Jeremy by his collar, looking at his friend dead in the eyes with the top of his helmet now clamped shut. Jeremy wasn’t able to see it, but he could tell that his friend was absolutely seething with rage. Avorion would look at his friend and say in an absolutely cold tone.

“Jeremy, can I trust that you’ll protect our lord?”

Jeremy nodded silently, looking at Avorion dead in the eyes, before Avorion set him down on the ground and looked over to the Prince.

“Listen my Prince, these are my possible last orders to you my young pupil, follow Jeremy to safety”

Avorion looked away from the student, as Jeremy took the Prince’s arm and dragged him away to try and get him to safety. The prince looked back at Avorion who was facing down that thing that had ripped itself through the hole it made in the gate. Once it was finally free, the thing looked at itself, noticing that it rendered most of the flesh from its torso, shocking Avorion with the sight that was before him. It was at that moment he realized that the thing standing before him was truly in all sense of the word inhuman. Avorion watched in sheer horror as the man shaped monster’s insides were black, with the armor of the man what once was, merely hanging onto the torso by a few strands of meat but what shocked him the most was a medialain that was hanging from the man’s neck.

“No it can’t be..”

The distorted knight began letting out a guttural laugh as it lifted his helmet, revealing his worst fear. The man underneath the helmet, had the area around his right eye rotting away to reveal the bone of the man. However the rest of the man’s face was undeniable, his dark eyes and hair were an exact match to his own. Undeniably making this twisted knight his own son. The twisted knight reaches out faintly to him.

“Fa-father, please don’t leave me again. I-It’s so c-c-cold.”

The unbreakable man that was Avorion for the first time in his life, felt his heart break. He clenched his fists in sheer anguish, and tried to hold it back so bad in fact that there was blood dripping from his hand. He wanted to ask so many things but only one thing mattered to him, as he spoke to his son for the first time.

“How did you get like this?! You were safe! Why did you do this?! Why Gabriel?!”

Avorion’s son faintly replied with his voice being distorted as it seemed like there was both a female and male echo.

“Well father, after you things got hard for us. Every man's mother tried to replace you and ended up beating her, abusing her, and doing other unsavory things. Eventually mom wasn't herself anymore, she was just not there anymore. As her soul left the lights on, but her mind had checked out long ago.”

Avorion’s heart was sinking even further, not only did he lose his son, but his wife was no longer there as well. However Avorion heard his son starting to laugh, as his son covered his eyes and began to smile, with blood leaking from his mouth, with his voice becoming deep in tone.

“Aw was that too much for you Sir. Avorion? If it makes you feel any better, he cried out for you every second that I was consuming him. His will was strong, sure, but we both know that when pushed enough, every man has their breaking point.”

The distorted voice laughs more as it lowers its helmet, seizing control of the body. As Avorion became dead serious, hardening his heart once more.

“I see, so that's what you are huh, I suppose it was only a matter of time before you decided to rattle your cage. Very well then, as compensation for your treachery against my line I Avorion shall meet you in combat and shall like my lord before me, shall be your warden, and give a death much more painful than anything you can possibly imagine. Oh Dark One.”

The creature puts up one finger to pause their bout before it even started, as it took one of the swords that where lunged in its back, and without hesitation sliced it’s head off, killing Gabrial right before Avorion’s eyes, as its started releasing a black pustule like substance from where the boy’s neck was as it shot into the air and showed the other dead bodies around it. Avorion watched this substance covered the bodies of the fallen knights, a few seconds after the substance was able to get a hold of the corpses with their bodies starting to absorbing the dark viscous substance like a sponge, with the unthinkable happening right in front the elite knight. Avorion watched the bodies of these men who he once knew convulse despite having their brains scrambled from the decimating scream beginning to rise again. The armor clanked as what was now in control of these bodies slowly got onto its feet, as if it was a newborn trying to stand for the first time. What stood before Avorion was plain and simple, he was nothing but eight monsters with the only title he could think to give them were Dark Harbingers.

Avorion stood his ground as three of Dark Harbingers darted for the impaired men, as only the screams of the men were heard, before silence fell on the area, with the three Dark Harbingers returning to the group with their imapired knights that were hidden soon joining their ranks as a total of twenty three of them stood before him.

Avorion watched as two beasts suddenly received swords in both of their heads, before dropping dead on the ground. Avorion looked to his right, being surprised as he saw a group of twenty knights led by the Prince and Jeremey; however at that moment they both felt Avorion’s irritation, and walked over to him too.

“I didn’t follow your orders b-”

Before Jeremy could finish his sentence, Avorion backhanded his friend while he was running to him, letting his anger boil over. For not only did he try to interfere with his battle, but put their Prince at risk, and thus possibly jeopardizing the promise Avorion had made oath to his king in making sure that the Prince was safe, and being so reckless on his student’s part would’ve thrown years of dedication away. Avorion’s friend fell on the ground from the force of his teacher’s slap, leaving the student looking at him a bit surprised that Jeremy got smacked for trying to help.

“Why did you disobey my orders?”

Avorion said in a sarcastic tone as he looked at the two fallen creatures that laid before him, silently inspecting the weapons that were thrown, and with only at a glance he was already able to tell that these were the short swords of the lesser knights that roamed the kingdom. Avorion would’ve normally scolded him for doing something so idotic, but Avorion had second thoughts, as what would’ve been the point of the training they’ve undergone together for the last four years. Plus he brought some reinforcements so he wasn’t charging into danger unprepared. Avorion sighs as he couldn't even believe that he was going to go against his better judgement for the first time, before offering his friend a hand, upon which Jeremy nodded and took, before Avorion helped him off the ground.

“I apologize for my outburst, at first I thought you and Jeremy came here to throw your lives away, but after a closer speculation you two came here with a small force to aid me.”

He stares at the creatures who were howling and hissing at him like a pack of animals, trying to show their dominance through their combined sound. While they’re creating deep scratches on the ground as a show of intimidation against the twenty knights that took their formation against them. The knight did not falter however; as they started stomping their feet in unison and began to hum in a low tone to rival the sounds of the beats. Avorion’s heart swelled, as he felt the rhythm of their nation’s song of war. Avorion slowly walked over to where the two other beasts fell behind where the chanting knights were standing. The elite gently tugged on the handles of the swords as they easily were removed from the heads of the accursed beast, with the thick and viscous blood dripping down the pair of weapons. Avorion looked over to the Prince before gently tossed them over to him, before he walked back to where he previously stood, to show these inferior beings that he was their opponent. Avorion then lowered his head, and began to speak to his pupil, while facing towards the horde of twisted monsters.

“I acknowledge the strength you accumulated over these past years, I personally think that you are a bit unprepared for this sort of task. However if Jeremy among these other knights of your strength is enough to march here with you leading them, then I’ll make the exception, but please understand this one very crucial thing my Prince. If you did think that those butter knives would be of any use to me, then you’re sadly mistaken but then again I suppose I can’t be picky about these sorts of things..”

The Prince looked a bit surprised by what Avorion had said, despite knowing that all the blades are finely crafted, it was just the materials involved in making it that set them apart. The adolescent lord would look at his teacher and notice that he has yet to draw his long sword. Avorion looked at his student’s curiosity rising as if he knew and was waiting for this moment to explain something to the Prince.

“I changed my mind my Prince, I order you to put the butter knives away and I’ll give you a real weapon to play with for the time being.”

The Prince was shocked, as he sheathed the short swords as instructed, looking at his mentor a bit confused, while Jeremy who was standing near them listening in looked a bit shocked that he would not let the Prince use his sword. He then walked over to two of them, as his voice sounded shocked.

“Avorion, buddy you can’t be serious. Don’t get me wrong I know he’s our Prince, but the King had those weapons forged for you and the other members of the King’s guard. So why are you willing to toss that weapon away in a sacred sword like, when we’re about to enter in a epic battle?”

Avorion shook his head, and took a deep breath, showing his frustration by the huge fog of smoke that was his warm breath meeting the cold air.

“While yes Jeremy. You are right in saying that the King had made these blades of us in his personal guard, but unlike the others. It was never my true weapon, my weapon was something so unreal that our King had me seal it away.”

“A-Alright but what will you use Avorion?”

Avorion only replies to the question by laughing aloud, meanwhile creatures in front of them began to growl in a tone, taking a defensive stance with the pressure of the air around Avorion and the Prince starting to get heavy. Avorion’s laughtered began to die down, which made the silence around them all the more chilling, as he quickly detached his hoster from his waist, and casually tossed his long sword to his pupil.

“Let me show you my weapon. A weapon so exquisite that it’ll make me seem like a god of war!”

Avorion slowly extends his forward, while also raising it above his head with his palm open wide. The mere presence of Avorion became suffocating to Jermey and the Prince, as they began to sweat profusely, gasping for air, with the simple act of breathing was like trying to do so with hands clenching around their throat. A tiger’s paw print suddenly appeared below on one of the tiles that were in front of the elite knight, to which the Prince’s teacher shouted in a loud tone.

“Come!’

The moment that word was finished, the tile was explosively repelled from the ground as a shining beam of light now stood in front of Avorion, upon which he would speak in a soft tone as if he was speaking to a dear lover of his.

“My my even after all this time you look as beautiful as the day I first laid eyes upon you, I’, glad to see that age hasn’t degraded both of us. Why don’t we put on a show for our liege why we’re number one amongst all of the knights in the Fortis Gelu.”