Author's Note: This story was made after I had quit playing Ragnarok Online, on both private and public servers so the names of monsters may be spelt wrong, if so, tell me and I shall correct them. Also, this story will remain a work in progress for a very long time. I will update every time a new chapter is finished, biweekly is when this might happen. Also, read and review it, give me suggestions on what you think would be something to add to this story.
On an additional note, I'll probably need to get a few more characters in here on both the good and evil sides, so when I get the time, I'll post a character sheet thing in my profile and have everyone e-mail it to me.
Oblivion Chronicles
Chapter One: The Beginning of the End
In the gloomy, flickering torchlight a young high priestess wanders throughout the lower levels of the Pyramids. She was officially lost in the giant maze of stinky, slimy corridors in search of her sibling that she had been helping get stronger so that one day he could become a Lord Knight. With her length of bone with a magical creature's skull attached to the end of it gripped tightly in her right hand, she cautiously moved down the claustrophobic corridors, whose ceiling disappeared in a canvas of black nothingness. As she rounded a corner, a constantly shuffling of feet on the block flooring, warned her of oncoming hordes of mummies, and of her inevitable doom. Raising up her staff, she prepared for what was to come, her left hand's palm was placed out towards the corner with a white cross emblazed in the palm.
What came around the corner was something she hadn't expected, a taller male with white hair placed under the protection of what appeared to be a jester's hat. From her first judgment of the male, he was anything but funny. He had a scowl of an expression and he carried a large axe in his right hand with blood dripping from it's blade that never seemed to stop raining the ground with crimson drops. When he had turned to her, it was as though his blue eyes were peering right into her soul, draining her of energy and soul. He hadn't muttered a word, but she was already afraid of the male until his expression changed to a soothing toothy grin, giving Alicia a feeling of security around him.
"Miss Priest, may I ask for a simple heal? I'll pay you if it is required." He said in a mellow tone of voice, as he began to reach into the two-wheeled dull gray cart behind him rummaging around for his Zeny.
She swallowed back the lump in her throat, lowering her hands to their respected sides of her red gown. "My name is Alicia, sir. And I will gladly heal your wounds, no payment is required though." She replied with a sheepish smile on her face, when did priests start charging people for heals? She raised both of her hands up to his chest, her palms thrusted outwards at him. She let out a quiet sigh as blue beams of light encircled him, the magic healing any and all wounds he may have procured.
Feeling refreshed the male bowed his head towards her, "Thank you miss, that was very generous of you. May I ask why you are traveling alone; I thought priests traveled within a group of people?" He responded, with a tone of confusion in his mellow voice. It didn't appear that he was trying to be rude towards her, but more of quizzical at the most.
"I was traveling with my brother when we go separated..." She told him, before tears started to well up in her eyes at the thought of what these creatures could do to her brother. She was about ready to break down completely if he hadn't placed his left hand on her shoulder, that had calmed her more then anything right now.
"Ma'am, was he a swordsman?" The male asked sympathetically, his voice giving signs of sadness for her loss. Seeing as that was among the few people he had seen down here, and he had appeared to be the weakest.
Her head shot straight up and looked the male in his alluring blue eyes, nodding her head frantically. He looked towards the nothingness above in thought, allowing her to think that he had seen her sibling. "Please kind sir, where did you see him last?" She was about ready to start crying of joy, when he interrupted her with his statement.
"He was heading down to the next level, I saw him on the stairs up here. I'm sorry, but even I couldn't handle that area. Though what was odd, besides the fact that he was a swordsman, and down here alone, was that his eyes were glazed over as if in a trance." He removed his hand from her shoulder, and began to massage his chin in thought, "I tried to ask him if he was lost, but he kept marching on, I'm sorry, but I didn't make any moves to stop him."
"What do you mean by couldn't handle that area anyways?" She asked him, a tone of anger beginning to ember in her voice. It was sharp enough to penetrate one of these walls of rocks. This in turn made him back away from her as a subconscious precaution.
"I mean, the mummies and Drainilairs were far too organized for even me to get through them while defending myself, that's how I got this..." He pronounced, as he turned around showing her the gash in the back of his white vest that was stained red, allowing her to see the now formed scar on his muscular back. She gasped at the sight, and tried to apologize before he held up his hand to quiet her down. "It's alright, but if you can give support to me, I should be able to get down there, and I'll gladly help you..." He was cut off as a minion of the lord mummy Osiris jumped on to his back, his grip on his axe loosened allowing the large metallic object to go by the ways of gravity, and down towards the ground.
They were both cut off guard from the sudden attack by the bandaged up creature, but when she raised her hand up to cast her holy light, he had already begun engaging the undead monster by grappling on to the base of it's rag surrounded skull, and dragging it over his shoulder. His leather gauntlet hands with pieces of tempered steel on the back of them began to slam into the creatures head, immobilizing it momentarily. Grabbing a hold of it's skull with his left hand, he reached out with his right hand for his axe, holding it's head at an awkward angle that prevented it from attacking him in return.
Alicia stared in disbelief that this male was fighting with his bare hands, and winning against a creature that she was having trouble fighting with her brother, though neither of them were based around mass damage. As he reached out for the axe, she used her sandal covered foot to push it towards him, allowing him to grasp it in his hand. Raising the mighty weapon above his head, he started his slash attack down towards the neck of the creature, an instant kill if it wasn't for the fact that it had begun to struggle under his grasp which made him slam it into its upper back. Letting out a gurgling scream of agony, Alicia covered her ears with her hands, as he let another attack fall on its neck, decapitating its head from the grip of its body.
"There, done." He said as he stood up and began to dust off his leather clad fingers, looking towards her with his scowl again. "So, shall we go look for your brother?" He inquired as she replied with a nod of her head, turning around he grasped the cart with his hand and began to drag it behind him towards where the stairway downwards was. Hacking the bats in half, with a single swoop of his weapon, and killing off a mummy in a few swoops of the blade. It appeared that every few steps they seem to take there was a monster waiting for them everywhere. And she could see that the Whitesmith was getting drained from the constant smashing and bashing of the undead.
Through his heavy panting, he had reached into his cart and pulled out a flask of clear liquid and began to pour it over the top of his skull. Feeling refreshed, he grabbed a few more flasks and placed them inside the large leather pouch on the back of his belt. He looked over towards her, and crouched down placing his hand on the side of his cart, "Watch out." Warning her to step back, he teleported his cart back to his residence in the town of Comodo. She just looked at the now vanished cart full of goods, and just raised her right eyebrow.
"Can we keep looking now?" A looked of despair in her eyes, all she had wanted right now was to be able to hug her brother, Darius. When she looked down at him, he was staring at the ground probably thinking deeply. "Sir, I don't believe you've told me your name." She proclaimed, for the fact that she wouldn't have to call him "sir" anymore. When she had finished speaking her words, he had stood up and looked down upon her.
"Oh, well, Aerich Goehring at your services." He announced, with a large bow of his waist towards her, before standing back up to his full height, well above her own. "Alicia, like I had said earlier, I will stay here and help you till he's found. I'm not a very busy man anymore, so it won't be an inconvenience towards me, and I hope not to you either."
"Thank you Aerich, you don't know how much better that makes me feel, having a companion here to help me I mean." She muttered as a light shade of crimson began to form on the upper parts of her cheeks. She was very much thankful for the flickering torchlight, and even happier to fall behind him when they started towards the stone staircase in the middle of the room, which were thirty or so feet away with a horde of mummies in the way.
As they approached the undead beings, Aerich pulled out a few coins, otherwise known as Zeny, from his pouch and tossed them up in the air. Swinging his axe downward through the coins, it unleashed a massive power on the horde, and an even larger amount of power when his axe hit the solid stone bricks of the ground, a blast radiating from the bloody blade of his axe and engulfing the hordes. The mummies were quickly dispatched by the flames, falling down on to the ground, screaming in pain as their undead lives ended so abruptly. Melted into the ground were the coins, preserved perfectly in the rock like they were there since this place was built.
As they neared the staircase, Aerich took a deep breath and began to descend the staircase to a place where he knew they'd be outnumbered and outgunned, figuratively speaking. What skills he had, Alicia didn't know, but if they were as powerful as the last one she didn't think there would be a problem. Though she was mistaken as soon as she saw the hordes of Osiris' minions formed up into ranks at the bottom of the stairs as though they were soldiers in the legion, just waiting for another adventurer to come.
"Are you ready to do this Alicia?" Aerich asked over his shoulder as he placed both of his hands on the handle of his large weapon, gripping it tightly with his leather clad hands. She had raised both of her hands up again, her palms towards his backside as she sighed once more, unleashing the powers of the savior upon him. Once the spells had ceased lighting up the staircase, he had felt a hundred and fifty pounds lighter, but at the same time a lot stronger.
Briskly without a muttering of words, he charged towards the horde of creatures, jumping high into the air before coming back down upon the mummies, a large explosion ignited in the ground that surround him. The ones that were hit by the shockwave of energy were dispersed over the edge of the walkway into the void of black space that sank down into the floor, never to be heard from again. When he stood from his place, all that was around him was black burn marks embedded into the flooring, and about another two hundred zombies.
As he looked around himself, he saw a few of the creatures drop with the explosion of a large white cross as she walked towards him. A look of anger in her eyes as she continued to make the undead minions explode from the powers of holy magic. He then turned back towards the advancing beings and began to swing his mighty axe at them; the ones that weren't knocked off were quickly dispersed in the fashion of disembowelment from their limbs and of their heads. One-by-one they fell to the ground, the only sound heard was agonistic screams, the breaking of bones, and the sloshing of blood in the air.
Alicia saw that this was what he has trained for, and that his endurance wasn't wearing down as quickly as earlier because he had the benefits of their lord. He continued on with sheer determination in helping her find her lost sibling, since he knew what it was like to lose family, but she didn't need to know that he had lost a loved one as well. As they slowly began to fade, he hooked the leather thong that came off of the handle of his axe to a stub on his belt and turned to her, sweating profusely as he gasped for air heavily with both hands now placed on his knees.
"Well, Alicia, I think that was the majority of them. Shall we continue?" He asked as he pulled his weapon off of his belt and a flask from his leather pouch, drinking only half of it offering the rest towards her which she had politely decline. Shrugging, he placed the stopper back into it and returned it to the confines of leather box that it had come from.
Slowly growing in magnitude the moans of more undead creatures were making themselves heard to the adventurers. Aerich looked over his shoulder towards Alicia, then back into the darkness in front of them, were the sparse flickers of torchlight showed them an even larger horde of creatures coming. "Uh... Alicia, we've got more coming along. Are you ready for them?" He asked over his shoulder as he turned his head to the left to see her reply.
She took a deep breath and nodded; once again she called fourth the lord's blessings and made him stronger once more for a limited amount of time. "Let's go." Was all she said as they began to move forward, Aerich started to charge the creatures with money in hand so that he could do another explosive attack on the beings. As he neared the creatures, he threw the coins up, swinging his axe sideways to release the energy of it towards the creatures instead of down at the ground.
When the oridecon enforced blade made contact with the gold coins, a loud, thunderous sound was reverberating off the walls out of their eyesight as the blast knocked the creatures back while setting them aflame. Lowering his axe, Aerich watched as they fell to the ground rolling around to disperse the magical flames, but that had done nothing to stop it, only spread it better. As the two walked over the char-ridden walkway, they had to cover their mouths with their free hand to hopefully eviscerate the smell before it entered their nostrils, and well, it didn't work.
"I think we need to find a different way to kill these things." Was muffled through Alicia's hand as they crept on into the darkness, moving by a lone flickering torch as they went. All that Aerich did was shrug his shoulders in silence, not removing the mask of fingers from his face. Every time they passed a flickering light its vibrant colors would ricochet from the blade of Aerich's axe and into the darkness away from anyone's casual glances.
Since they've been down here, Alicia hasn't seen anyone from the King's Defense Regiment, which is just Paladins and Lord Knights that have busted their asses to be the best that Rune-Midgard has to offer. She figured that they would be down here investigating some disturbance that an adventurer reported to a guard. These were the people that you avoided, for every Lord Knight there was three Paladins to a group, since Lord Knights seem to be more then enough by themselves, they didn't need another in the group. Wherever there was a disturbance, count on that two or three of these groups securing the area, and if you found a way by them then you'd have to deal with the fact that there is probably ten of these groups inside of said area. Prontera Square, along with all of the people that helped them, a few years after the mass genocide of people had begun.
Though they've fought numerous battles that the public didn't even know of, constantly saving the lives of the people under King Tristan's rule. They have been working for the last ten years to regain their honor that was once lost, and many have died trying to do so. Alicia had met a few of the troops of this group and held them in the highest regards, and she has had the opportunity to work with these men and women, helping them out when Payon had a large fire which burned down their temple. She enjoyed their company, and wished very much that a group of these soldiers were down here, they could use their help. Though she didn't know if Aerich knew who they were, though from her perspective, he didn't seem like the kind of guy who had any real cares in the world, and was pretty much laid back about what he did. That was something that she admired about most of the smiths, they were the most laid back group of people, while her own class of people were always running around helping people, these people were setting up shops for their goods and earning money. And their priorities were extremely different from those of everyone else; they were the group of people that didn't waste any time whatsoever when it came to finding items to sell for a profit while the rest of the people of Rune-Midgard were very leisurely.
As the two moved on, a large cavernous door with markings loomed out from the darkness the surrounded the party of searchers. Aerich gently rested his left hand on the wall, running his bare fingertips over it as he inspected the doors hieroglyphics, trying to decipher their meaning. Stepping back, he looked over the door and the ground surrounding it, as he crouched down on the tips of his feet, he inspected a drag line on the floor; it looked as though it was done by a tip of a sword, though he was pretty much uncertain about it. Standing back up, he turned towards her and a look of worry on his face.
"Alicia, I'm sorry. Your brother is probably dead, because of what lies in the room behind this door will kill even me." Aerich told her as he peered back over towards the door, scanning it once more. "Osiris is down there, and I've lost friends and guild mates to that undead bastard, and he didn't even kill him, the Isis that guards him did all the work. They were able to handle them, until he summoned more and more till they were outnumbered and easily overcome." He sighed heavily as he remembered all of his friend's faces, knowing that he would get revenge for all their deaths, even if it took his own life to do so.
As she listened to him speak, she felt her knees begin to wobble and weaken almost instantaneously. As she was about to fall to the ground, the only thing that had hit it was his axe as he scooped her up in his arms, holding her up on her legs as she wailed into his chest. She balled up a fist and began to pound it on his vest covered shoulder, saying indescribable words in a low tone as the tears kept rolling down her cheeks. All Aerich could do was keep his arm around her, hoping that would be enough to calm her down.
As her crying began to cease, he kept his arm around her shoulders until it stopped completely. When she removed her tear soaked face from his shoulders, he smiled down at her in hopes of cheering her up. When he saw the tears building back up in his eyes he quickly frowned, letting her begin her cry of agony at the thought of her brother being gone forever. They stood there for what seemed like eternity, and nothing had dared to attack them for her would kill it and revive it again to kill it once more. She was in enough agony, there was no need to make it worse, though he still kept his eye peeled for anyone coming at them from the only way into this area and that's the way they walked in.
When he had seen a group of four walking through a torch a few hundred feet away, he picked up his axe and began to move back into the darkness, making soothing noises to her to stop her whimpers of loss, or at least quiet her down. Behind the ramp of the doorway that lead downwards, he placed her down in a sitting position, motioning that she be quiet with a finger over his lips. She saw it and nodded as he gripped his axe in his hand and crouched down to the ground to remain concealed in the shadows. Slowly he proceeded towards the group of four clad in armor, from a distance they looked like adventurers and he didn't understand why anyone would venture into here.
As he neared the four, they were standing in a torch lit area conversing on a subject that was out of earshot of him. It appeared that there were three Paladins and a Lord Knight, and the knight seemed to be giving orders to the group. Every now and then the three Paladins would nod their heads in unison as if agreeing to something. Puzzled, Aerich stayed put and kept a close eye on them as the moved out of the torchlight and into the darkness once more. Thinking twice about the group, he turned towards the priestess in hiding, but something caught his eye, it was a glowing blue insignia on their chest. The insignia was of an eagle with its wings spread out and around a sword and shield, Aerich had seen that insignia once, but he couldn't remember where though. Putting the thought into the back of his head, he stood up to his full height and proceeded to run towards Alicia, and not once did he turn to look at the group of soldiers. As he neared her location, he hung the axe from his belt once more and pulled out a glittery butterfly wing from the pouch on his right side.
Skidding around the corner, he jumped on to Alicia and crushed the wing in his grasp warping the both of them out in a blue shaft of light. They both landed in the town square of Prontera, and in a very compromising position. Looking up at all the passing Merchants, Blacksmiths and the occasional Whitesmith, he realized what this looked like. Her dress was hiked up around her waist and exposing her lower half greatly, but his chest and one of his legs was hiding her crotch from their view. Not only did his face redden, but he noticed that she was a very dark shade of crimson.
Apologizing to her, he stood up and helped her up. "I'm sorry, I saw four soldiers down there and they had a familiar insignia, but I can't remember where I've seen it..." He felt ashamed for his lack of memory when it was needed the most, but she only smiled and nodded, looking as though she was trying to figure out the right words to explain the situation to him, since her brow was scrunched up in though, her brown hair was spread out all of her shoulders and she didn't do anything to try and adjust it.
"Was this insignia that you saw glowing blue?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow, wrapping a piece of her hair around her index finger on her right hand; her left hand was rubbing the cross around her neck. When he nodded, she closed her eyes heavily, drooping her head as she sighed heavily. "Those are the KDR, or King's Defense Regiment, their emblem is an eagle wrapping its wings protectively around a sword and shield. The sword is to represent the Lord Knight's power to the group, and how they are able to take on anything with their help of their Paladins, hence the shield. They are the ones that will defend the group with their lives, I have heard many die trying to keep the Lord Knight alive, since their training is very hard to accomplish, and Lord Knights in themselves are hard to come by. Almost all of the known Lord Knights are in the KDR, and they are still out recruiting Lord Knights with positions that will give them enough money to support their family, parents, and friends for the rest of their lives. That is how prized these people are. Paladins on the other hand aren't so hard to train, they are easy to find a person with the right characteristics, such as; determination, protective, can take orders, is responsible, and so on. They are basically trained to use their thick armor and large shield to protect themselves and the other three they are with. I've yet to see anyone breach through a Paladin's handcrafted shield." She took a deep breath after explaining as easily as possible to him, basically telling what they were and what they did for each other. "Oh, I almost forgot, the KDR usually travels in groups of four because it is a sacred number to the king, representing his care and blessings to the lord, the land, the water, and the sun." As she said this she held up her left hand, raising a finger every time she named one of them off till her four fingers were up.
Aerich just nodded as he processed all the information, as his right hand went to his chin to begin rubbing it, he asked, "I've heard of them, but why exactly is everything I've heard of them negative?" She rolled her eyes, and shook her head. Taking his arm in her own arm, she began to drag him towards the bar in the southwestern corner of Prontera. "I guess you don't live around these parts?" She asked him, he shook his head in reply. Nodding, Alicia smiled and looked back up to the taller person, "Then I shall explain it over a nice drink, since I now know they are down there and they will find my brother. Though once I'm done, I have to leave and report to the Head Minister in the Church, and I must speak with King Tristan."
"Fair enough, I'll buy the drinks for us." He spoke down to her as the clouds above their heads began to darken into a very steel gray color. As they continued on towards the bar, a few drops of rain began to come down upon them, only when they neared the building it started to pour. Which in turn gave them enough motivation to run for the building, Aerich making it there first, he gladly held the door open for her. Once inside, he followed her in and they both took a seat by a large panoramic window, giving them a great view of the rain falling down to the city, a few flashes of lightning in the horizon over the castle. Upon ordering their drinks, Alicia began to explain the history of the King's Defense Regiment.