Tales of Revenants

Chapter 5 – Prophecy

When the Dark Wars emerged and presented the world to realize the true terror of what it would bring upon the cursed land, the Heavenly Heroes sweep the blighted battlefield to bring forth miracle and victory so that no more life is to relinquish.

Just the dawning light brought forth peace so does the darkness it brings cause the other heroes to suffer a great loss.

The Dark Wars ended in giving birth to newfound ignorance of the world and its inhabitants, all the while an equivalent dark essence of dusk corrupted another twelve heroes who used to protect all life.

Five of the corrupted heroes couldn't take the misery they underwent and committed suicide. Only seven of them remain and still live for others to witness the tale.

They fought off the Heavenly Heroes on an equal level. Each of them has incredible and immeasurable power, but tragically, they all had one thing significantly deprived of them.

The fallen heroes lost something important to them, totally erasing the very concept of what is wasted over what reality is.

Amongst the seven, while the four went missing, the other three of them brimming of malice and the unknown catalyst was notorious for their s******c behavior. Each of them was given a name based on what seem to act in accordance.

The first one, a ruthless and demonic genocider, not even showing any remorse as she takes life one after another, the messenger of death itself. Her crimson hair is exactly colored by crimson blood. A woman without irises that worded out and drained all her hope in this world means she lost all reasoning. Heavenly Heroes called her the Heartless Revenant, she who kills everyone by extracting the hearts in the chest of her victims.

The other was an unknown and mysterious figure, no one knows what kind of wraith the fallen became nor what gender it had. It's just they assumed he is a man. His body encompassed by an unparalleled dark essence as if he became a container for shadows. He is not violent like the other two, but all they knew is the moment he opens his mouth, without voice, the land and the surrounding returns to dust. They called him, the Voiceless Revenant, he who sings the songs of undeath.

Last but not least, an eccentric man who claims to be the leader of the Revenants. Wearing the white cape together with his knightly armor, they say he used to be a noble knight who defended the human realm. Now tainted by unknown forces, as blood moon shines the Dark Wars, the man wielding a sword engulfed in azure flames.

He feels the pain and anguish, yet he denies it using his unquestionable conviction, and when he equips his sword, he severs anyone and anything that he considers enemy without spilling a single drop of blood. His kind yet brutal method of partaking life earned him the name of Bloodless Revenant, he who kills to deliver them in heaven.

The Revenants all had something in common; that is to obtain the twelve Shards of Creation the Heavenly Heroes found and hid. The shards contain immeasurable magical energy, no one knows why the heroes have the shards.

The power is so strong that mages grit their teeth just by glaring at the shards. It could change the balance of the world yet no one was still able to wield its perpetual power, not even the Heavenly Heroes themselves.

It seems the Revenants found a way to control the power of the shards, that's why the Heavenly Heroes traveled across the world together with the Shard of Creation they hold to keep it from the hands of the fallen.

Up to the present day, Laken again unleashed his otherworldly strength to face Morgan; the current second Heavenly Hero, in order to steal the piece of shard he bears.

“You finally showed your true appearance, Bloodless Revenant!” Morgan exclaimed.

Two and three snaps of Morgan and a layer of defensive barrier materialized in thin air; a form of special castless magic spell.

“Had not you and Galahadum betrayed the world, my brethren won't endure such suffering. I shall reclaim what I have lost.” Laken's fully determined to murder Morgan.

His flaming fury melts the very foundation of the earth with each of his steps though it is kind to a feeble little flower. Morgan received the most terrifying glare he had in his entire life, but he won't falter either.

Laken firmly gripped his sword, ready to cut open Morgan's throat down to his heart while he only played defensively. His unstoppable fury break's his barriers one by one like it was a brittle wooden piece.

“Wait! Morgan let me go! I need to help him; don't you see his soul crying?” Luciella squirmed trying to reach him. Feeling pity for Laken's berserker condition.

“Don't princess! He'll kill you too if you move closer to him.” Morgan warned. He dodged Laken's strikes all the while carrying Luciella.

“Morgan!” Laken's howls as if a mad beast entered the kingdom. His voice reached even on the guild headquarters. Keira immediately realized his master is in danger so he went flashing to the royal mansion where the reverberation is coming.

“I can see it... I can feel it... His soul is begging for salvation... He helped me when I was wounded, so I at least wanted to repay what I could now.” Her kindness made Morgan questions his existence.

That even in the face of danger and death, Luciella still wants to help the raging beast that of became Laken.

Morgan was able to connect the fated encounter as well as why Laken the Bloodless Revenant, wanted to take the hand of the third princess of the Skyhaven Kingdom which appeared in his dreams of prophecy.

“Heh?” Morgan huffed positively. “I wished I could fathom why he wanted to protect you,” Morgan continually chanted multiple layers of different elemental shields just so he could speak with Luciella.

“What're you implying?” Luciella questions.

“You see, he is not furious because he met me again or he wanted to continue the fight decade ago. He's enraged 'cause he couldn't grasp what is in his sight, he couldn't take your hand like his primal goal.” Morgan began to cough blood as he is running out of mana.

Laken relentlessly strikes his blade non-stop plunging into Morgan's fortified shield like a thin metal scrap.

“Listen princess Luciella, I'll cast my strongest shield for you, in which during that time, do what you needed to do. Even if I'm a Heavenly Hero my strength is not enough to quell the Bloodless Revenant, I also seek answers,” with that in mind, Luciella too surmised the best action she must take.

“I will.” Luciella's determined.

He only helped her once, but Luciella deep in her heart, in that single frame she understands Laken's wish for a greater world was the same as what the Heavenly Heroes yearned for. Luciella's faith towards him couldn't be explained by mere words.

“Physis Elfaros Arcanum: Shield of the Divine Tree!” Morgan revealed a ten layered magic circle below Luciella where he stands, encapsulating her in a magical aura of the great tree of life, Yggdrasil.

The Shield of the Divine Tree is defensive magic only Morgan is able to use and his strongest shield magic that can take in any kind of form.

It is said that during the Dark Wars, his magic deflected the great Dimensional Canon of the Zargon Republic, a country that has the most advanced technomagic.

“Now! I'd try my best to hold the forth.” Morgan declared. “Thanks!” Luciella now moves towards Laken.

Morgan halted casting the broken barriers he continually invoked and focused his mana on protecting Luciella.

The blade of vengeance burning through the azure flames partially suspended and almost scorched her neck when Laken tries to s***h blindly given the fact that she was protected by Morgan's spell.

“Laken, listen to me,” Luciella called out to him. He lies stagnant of emotion.

“Don't make me remove you out of my sight,” Laken uttered sternly. However, what Luciella heard was someone weak pleading for help.

“I couldn't fathom how darkness corrupted you in the past, but it's okay now... Bring down your sword.” A light of blessing, a light so warm, Luciella tried to heal Laken using a simple Light Blessing just so he would relinquish him of the suffering he bears all alone in the hill of blood and dust.

Miraculously perhaps, the azure flames famished of vengeance began to wither, and the light enveloped Laken lifting him the impurities of being a Revenant.

“Luciella... you canceled his Metamorphosis?” Morgan was too mesmerized and absorbed. The light illuminated their bodies conjure such tranquility without malice or darkness.

Once a Revenant undergoes the Metamorphosis, they become so powerful to the point they lose control of themselves and their sanity, delivering annihilation and destruction to anything in their path.

They can't be controlled nor contain unless they kill themselves or they commit g******e enough for them to stop from rampaging.

The Heavenly Heroes failed to stop them, yet Luciella, with the light she cradles away, kindled their darkened destiny.

Within a moment when Laken awakens to his reasonable self, Morgan immediately knelt down, and a blink of an eye Laken's sword now almost connects to his Adam’s apple.

“I give up.” Morgan never felt disdain nor hatred. Rather he stood up carefully taking off his necklace with the pendant of diamond-shaped emerald. He snapped twice and the pendant became something so bright it turns out it's concealed in sealing magic.

Morgan willingly gave the Shard of Creation he had. “I won't say thanks and forever you shall regret the choice you made ten years ago.” Laken casually seized the shard and pulled Luciella towards him.

“Wait! Before you depart, I'll ask of something...” Now the tables have turned, Laken readily listened to Morgan.

“What is it?” Laken held Luciella tight.

“Be wary of Galahadum... He changed.” A reminder from the wise elf of the Arcanos Kingdom. Laken simply nodded and took his to advise into account. Now both Luciella and Laken prepared to leave.

“Remember when you asked me what would I do to the third princess?” This time Laken asked Luciella with his newfound conviction.

“Yes, and you'll kidnap me?” Luciella responded. A question for an answer.

“Then if you understand let's get out of here.” Just like how they went inside to infiltrate the mansion, Laken carried Luciella and went leaping on houses over houses until both could not be seen.

This time it's different, Laken held Luciella as if a prince has forcefully taken his destined princess.

They escaped Morgan; the second Heavenly Hero unscathed. Keira arrived only to watch Laken and Luciella escaped.

He reaches out to Morgan who sustains an extreme body shock from extracting too much mana in the air when he protected himself of Laken's impeccable swordsmanship.

“Master Morgan!” Keira gasped. “I'm sorry I arrived too late. I'll be back and capture the two.” He was about to follow the two when Morgan clutched his arm.

“No... Let them be.” He coughs blood. Letting Keira take care of him.

“Why did you gave him the shard?” Keira simply asked.

“I'm sure those two would accomplish something that even us mighty Heavenly Heroes failed to achieve...” He answered earnestly. Keira couldn't reply nor comment, he stayed dead silent.

Maybe his prophecy is not something to accept and see for it to happen, and rather it is something to change, is what he thought when he witnessed the warmth of Luciella's light illuminating a Revenant.

Keira carried Morgan on his back as he is no longer able to stand from exhaustion. Now both Luciella and Laken continued to venture towards their next destination.