Me: Yo! I hope the wait's worth it for all you guys that wanted this. Welcome to the official start of The Code Knight!
Chapter 1: The Price of Life
The gray and solemn army of clouds littered rainwater all around the barren wasteland, as if the intensity of each raindrop that pounded the ground struggled desperately to restore it to the rich green plains it once was. The onslaught of rain against the muddled brown grass and dirt creating a saddening echo and giving life to the otherwise empty atmosphere. At the heart of the wasteland are seven figures all cloaked in dark black hoods over their clothes, hiding their facial expressions, all staring down at a simple slab of stone obviously placed there by one of them.
A murmured speech from the purple one, a teenaged girl dressed in a magician-like white and purple dress and a pink ribbon as the crest with her lavender hair tied to drape just over her petite shoulders above the aforementioned ribbon, was the only form of vocal speech that dare make a sound in the heavy grim atmosphere. The purple one's melancholic voice, reciting from a book rested on her two hands like a priest, drew on slowly and solemnly as if preaching for the poor soul inside the stone. Her pink and white angelic-looking staff conjured a blue force field surrounding the group of them from the rain as the water bounced and slid across it onto the grass outside of the thin aura, the clouds continuing to pour rain down on them as they delay and escape the inevitable liquid that will bite at their clothes and sting their skin.
The green one, a blonde ponytail-wearing elven woman wearing a green martial arts dress that stops just over her knees, knelt down and placed a nearly withered pink carnation atop the reburied dirt in front of the slab. She silently prayed for the being underneath the dirt to be received into the afterlife and the heavens. Remaining on her knees, the green woman softly whistled a soothing melody in a vain effort to ease the person's soul from the traumatic last moments of it's life. Despite her voice deaf to the ears of her intended listener she kept on going, in doing so only to constantly replenish the running water in her face with fresh new tears as each attempt kept on continuing.
SCHLUNK! The black figure, a dark-haired man in his late 20s with tanner skin from the rest of the figures' more creamy ones, slammed his katana-esque blade into the dirt beneath him, placing his hands on top of the handle to keep it steady. Unlike the other cloaks he merely lifted up the hood of his long white overcoat over his black sleek outfit and head. He silently gritted his teeth together as the hooded hazel eyes of his stared at the stone in gloom. Tears too rolled down his cheeks, albeit less obvious than the rest of the figures, as he bowed his head in respect and in anguish that once again, it was a comrade's time to move on too soon because the white-hooded man was too weak.
Next is a white figure, a doll-like "Queen of Nasods" regal woman looking and functioning around her teens, trying her best unsuccessfully to stand firm and unmoving emotionlessly. Despite her calm-looking exterior, complete with a silent bow in respect, her emotional motors clanged each other in conflict with one nearly overriding all the rest, a sense of longing. Longing for the captive little girl inside her to open up to the vast world around her once more with the boy who introduced her to it. And the desire to share more moments with that boy before his soul forever left the carcass buried underneath the dirt below the stone.
A cerulean-eyed person finished reburying and padding the dirt with the corpse of his fallen friend inside, bringing the worn down shovel to rest over the shoulders of his white armored hourglass-like body. Struggling to keep his waist-long cream hair inside his cloak with the same amount of hassle to fight back tears, the teenaged boy contrary to what his figure displays lamented deeply on his friend's death with the same weight from long ago. The boy, who promised to guard his friends like the Guardian he is, not only failed to protect his family from being consumed into darkness but also unwillingly allowed his "brother" figure fall victim into the clutches of death.
An orange figure, a young and good-mannered looking black-haired girl in a white dress with orange highlights bowed her head in respect, similar to the white figure, but also clasped her hands together in a praying position. A once magnificent orange spear now in desperate need of repairing strapped on her back, the golden-eyed woman brought her head closer to her praying hands as she muttered a few incomprehensible words to pass on the pour soul into the afterlife peacefully. Words pleading a white-haired god in the form of a spiritual Gumiho fox to please deliver her friend's soul from Purgatory into the heavens above.
Finally the red figure, a female crimson knight clad in a red dress and white thigh-high leggings stained by the dirt beneath her, completely lost her otherwise mature and adult composure into that of a sniveling child crying out for their loved ones. The woman's ruby irises flooding the most with welling tears, flowing water powerful enough that the red knight tossed aside her crimson blade and got down on her knees towards the dirt in front of the stone in desperation. She immediately flung herself at the grave and started digging with her bare hands forcing the two men to physically restrain her, the black figure at the left and the blue one at the right, in order to stop the woman from clawing her way to the corpse inside.
"LET GO!" The crimson figure shouted at her two restrainers, the rest of the girls finishing whatever action they were performing and merely watched in mutual sadness. "LET ME GO!" The red knight's voice cracked as she wildly struggled to break free in her despair. "GIVE HIM BACK, GIVE ME BACK MY LITTLE BROTHER YOU DAMN GODS!" She screamed skyward this time, daring to defy the deities themselves with her bold words.
"GIVE ME BACK ELSWORD!" The red figure yelled out one last time, only forcing herself one glimpse of the grave to avoid breaking down even more, before she finally stopped resisting, only to curl up in a little ball and whimper softly once the two no longer felt the need to restrain her. This moment of silence, only broken by the constant rain bouncing off the force field around them repeatedly, continued on for a while longer. Only until after the storm lightened up and drifted away entirely did the black figure grabbed and sheathed his sword and faced the opposite direction.
"Come on." A slightly hoarse but otherwise composed young male's voice ushered out of the black figure's mouth. "We still need to get back to town."
"But Raven shouldn't we stay a little longer?" The purple figure protested as she disbanded the force field and puts away her book inside her cloak. "I mean Elsword was our leader and we only stayed here for a few mo-"
"Aisha we can't let a comrade's death haunt us forever! Trust me I learned that the hard way!" Raven barked back at the purple magician, not even bothering to turn around. "After what happened at the Halls of Water we need to return to Hamel for any property damage need repairing!"
"Aren't you being a little harsh though?" The orange figure politely reminded the black figure of his harsh tone, helping up the sobbing red figure as she finished up her tears. "I mean Elsa here especially lost someone very important to her." She reasoned with him, glancing at the crimson knight who reached for her sword and sheathed it as well.
"He has a point though Ara." The blue figure noted to the black-haired girl helping up Elsword's older sister. "Don't worry though, we can always visit him again in another time." He tried his best at being optimistic despite the little funeral the seven of them attended to. "Isn't that right Rena?" The cerulean-eyed teen glimpsed at the green elven woman.
"As much as I dislike leaving a deceased friend so quickly, I agree with you Chung." She nodded at the blue teen's question. "For now we should attend to the needs of the living before going back to revisit those who already passed on." Rena concluded and, with her friends, the six sets of feet started walking the opposite direction towards the city of Hamel. Six sets of feet but seven people came to mourn the loss of Elsword. The group, formally known as the "Elgang" but now have no name, felt confused as they were missing someone. Someone else who mourned along with them but kept silent this whole time, their true emotions never spilled out. They all glanced backwards at the grave site at the missing person.
The white figure still stood where she was, unmoving from her spot as she continued to loom over Elsword's grave.
"Hey Eve." Raven called out to the Nasod girl. "Are you coming with us or not?"
"I will catch up with you later Raven." An instant monotonous response without so much as a change in her posture. "I still have some things I wish to speak to him privately before I forget them."
"Fine, we'll be in the usual place in Hamel, Eve. Look for us there." With the black-haired swordsman's farewell words all of them left the area, leaving Eve alone with the tombstone.
"Elsword..." The regal Nasod queen dirtied her white dress by kneeling on the ground, staring the written stone face to face, the stone engraved with the name Elsword Bladeheart. "Back then at King Nasod's quarters you were the only one who accepted me, even treating me as a friend." Eve started with an emotional speech despite her monotonous voice of delivering it. "After that the rest of us went on a series of adventures where no matter how grim the situation and how deeply in despair any of us were, you kept us going. Despite your own problems, you always put your friends in higher priority and that was something that I myself admired." She finally allowed a tear to escape from her golden pupils, succumbing her to more and more of them until the Nasod grieved even moreso than Elsa in the matter of a few moments.
"That's why..." Eve whispered to herself before finally giving in to the realization that he no longer walks among the living. "...why would you choose to end your life so soon?!"
Time rewinds mere hours earlier back in the aforementioned Halls of Water as the group of eight barged through the main hall after clearing a room full of demons. Seven of the figures appeared similar: the black figure Raven, the purple Aisha, green elf Rena, blue-eyed Chung, orange-wearing Ara, white regal dressed Eve, and crimson clad. However an eighth stood with them leading the entire team, a red teenaged boy clad in a similarly ruby colored knightly attire. A teenager in the red-colored Velder Knights uniform with metallic shoulder pads and boots, pointing at the shadowy figure in the throne chair with his blood red silver-tipped blade.
"There you are Ran!" The red-headed boy declared to the demon humorously looking down upon him and his team. "You and all of those demons who made everyone suffer! This tyrannical reign of yours ends today, with your death!" The crimson man who boasted a bold declaration to the demon, his name was Elsword.
"Haha! That phrase was so overused I was yawning with boredom when you said it to me lowly human!" Ran, the white-haired black-horned humanoid demon, humorously poked fun at the Red Knight's statement.
"Yeah well what about this phrase?! Get your cowardly ass down here now so we can repay you with blades of steel, magic, and heavy artillery for invading our home!" Elsword challenged him.
"Brother please, I know you're still in there!" Ara unsuccessfully pleaded to her brother's, Aren, spirit within the corrupted demon. To her (unsurprising) disbelief he merely laughed and appeared in front of the eight of them via dark teleportation, a purple sword identical to the crimson boy's in the demon's hand.
"Enough talk." Ran enchanted his blade and himself in flame-like dark magic, a pillar of darkness contrasting the eight bringers of holy and colorful light. "Now let's make this interesting shall we?" The demon chuckled and reached towards one of the pillars supporting the castle and summoning a shadow clone of himself with his open hand, the clone slicing through the base of the column with its similarly dark flaming blade. The end result is a slightly shorter pillar which is not only starting Hamel Castle into the process of a collapsing building but also leaving behind a trail of flames from both sides of the cut column, slowly but surely devouring said column and the rest of the (collapsing) castle like a swarm of starving termites. "Let's see how long it takes before this whole palace falls over."
"..." As the others shouted obscenities and declared the demon a "Coward", the cerulean-eyed boy converted his white armor into a "Beserk-like" enhancement complete with a wolf-like mask and long spiky blue hair. "Get out of here you guys, this just became personal." Chung commanded the rest of the team once they quieted down, his usually childlike voice now a vengeful middle aged man's. Ran stood there, amused at his actions and all the others and merely waiting for a challenger as Hamel Castle continued its crash course to just another demolished lot. The Iron Paladin started his way towards the demon...until a mechanical arm on his shoulder stopped his advance.
"Are you sure your armor can take all this rubble falling any minute? You can't just sacrifice your life just because of a petty blow against your pride." Raven stopped him with his cold eyes bearing deep inside the Guardian's mask. "I've already been through a near-death experience, I don't want any of my friends to go through that as well." The Blade Master reminded Chung of the death of his fiance and the downward spiral that occurred after, ultimately causing the latter to back down. The blade-wielding adult nodded at the blue-eyed boy's wise decision and turned to the rest of the team who in turn faced him...with the exception of one.
"Retreat for now!" He declared. "This is too dangerous to fight in! We'll just have to find Ran another time!" They all nodded and left the room starting with the purplenette magician, blonde elf, and the cream-haired boy. The two Red Knight siblings, Elsword and Elsa, along with the Nasod Queen Eve also agreed with their second-in-command's decision and headed for the door.
That was until that one other person stayed put where she stood. Ara, the sister of the human Ran possessed named Aren, was the only one to ignore and plead against that order. "But Raven! What if we don't get another chance?!"
"Ara, is now really the ti-"
"Yeah I'm going to stop you there." Ran yawned and aimed his sword at one of them. "Let's see who the lucky soul shall be to fight me to the death." After the words escaped his mouth Eve called upon her drones Moby and Remy while the trio of sword wielders drew their weapon. However the demon wasn't aiming for them. Instead he charged at the orange-wearing girl so eager to stay holding that spear of hers.
"ARA!" Clang! A flash of red armor intercepted the black-horned demon before he could harm Ara, blades of courageous red and darkness black clashing against one another. "Everyone else go! I'll take care of Ran!" The interceptor, Elsa, yelled from behind.
"Understood." Eve acknowledged her and, convincing Ara to do so as well, headed for the exit along with the others who already left.
Elsword on the other hand... "No!" The Lord Knight stood firm his ground this time and held his unsheathed blade. "Then I'm staying too-"
Tug! "Elsword we have no time to argue! We have to leave now!" His teacher, Raven, gripped him from the back of the collar and forced him outside the room with him with little difficulty.
"NO LET ME GO YOU DAMN IDIOT!" He futilely struggled against the older and stronger Blade Master, reaching with his free hand for his sister. "BUT ELSA! IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!"
The crimson-haired woman glanced backwards at her brother, fresh tears falling down his face, and allows him a glimpse of a thin smile on her lips. "Live, Elsword."
SHUT! Even as the building tumbles and crumbles Raven closed the grand door behind him and, holding a distraught Elsword over his shoulder, regrouped with the others outside a few feet from the entrance. Understandably everyone except the aforementioned red-head was chatty and worried about their sacrificial teammate still inside.
"Why was it necessary for us to leave someone behind?" Eve questioned. "We could've easily led Ran outside and dealt with him then."
"I know his kind Eve, prideful guy like him rather die fighting in harsh conditions rather than run away a coward. Isn't that right Ara?" Raven responded, glancing at the spearswoman.
"Mmm." She nodded quietly, feeling remorse that Elsword lost his sister from within the castle (would you believe me if I said it's STILL crumbling?).
"It's not safe here guys, we ought to move." Aisha suggested, her head down with an unreadable expression.
"Yeah I agree." Rena complied with the magician's suggestion as the Elgang, with the purplenette helping the disheartened Elsword up with a very worried look now readable on her face. Right as the Lord Knight finally got to his feet and they turned to leave, the little brother noticed a figure running towards outside from within the castle. The shadow bleeding crimson and hacking their way past the rubble, grounded and airborne alike, to get past the falling debris. The group readied their weapons in defense against the figure until a flash of scarlet hair ran through Elsword's eyes.
"SIS!" The Knight exclaimed in happiness that the Velder Knight is able to survive, or even win, her battle against the demon. His, and the others', proclamation of joy were short-lived however. Hamel Castle crumbled at a much faster pace forcing the whole team minus Raven and Elsword, the former aiding the others on guiding their arrow, fire, cannon, and electrical projectiles to blast the falling pieces Elsa couldn't slash through in. The latter however had other plans as a swift blue aura enveloped around him.
Meanwhile Rena's arrows failed to damage any of the debris her teammates later took care of, instead the elven woman opted to summon upon a healing fairy to draw upon a green flowing aura to increase her teammates' durability and overall speed. The others minus the aforementioned black swordsman took advantage by summoning a small chain of materialized lightning, a flurry of electron balls, and careful aimed cannon blasts by the purplenette Magician, silvernette Nasod, and cream-haired Guardian respectively. However many more replaced those destroyed, forming into one giant near unbreakable piece of stone crashing down at the entrance. No matter how much they threw at it the falling debris just seems to proceed through its crash course unscathed.
"Hmph can that really stop me?" Elsa muttered confidently in herself, despite exhaustion from her fight against Ran and getting rid of any castle pieces that threatened to crush her. As she approached the entrance, and therefore the giant falling "stone" meteor, the Red Knight enchanted her sword with a magical aura, erupting an orange aura-like magical sword to use the falling meteor to quickly jump out. Right as she put her plan into action...the weight of the debris was much heavier than she anticipated, partly due to her previous exhaustion. With all attacks against the meteor done to no avail with the crashing debris itself continuing its course onto Elsa, the Red Knight abandoned hope as her strength and grip on her weapon fell weaker and weaker.
This is when the blue aura fully emerged onto the other Crimson Knight. "I CALL UPON THEE! BLADE OF ARMAGEDDON!" Elsword pushed his sister out of the way once he summoned his similarly enhanced yet stronger aura-controlled blade. "Sis, I want you to live on. You're a much better Knight than I'll ever be." He admitted to his older sibling, trying to fight back against the overwhelming weight above as if God himself is pounding his judgment fist onto him.
"Elsword you idiot!?" Raven called out as the others unsuccessfully fired more shots on the column of debris on top of the aforementioned Crimson Knight. He yelled more but the crumbling pieces literally atop the Lord Knight tuned him out entirely.
"Elsword..." The surprised Elsa could only utter out after he surprise kicked her outside and out of the way. It wasn't until the Armageddon's aura vanished that she understood what was going on and stumbled her way towards him, her wounds opening up to slow her down. "No...ELSWORD WAIT!"
Despite her pleas the Lord Knight glanced back and smiled as his lips moved. No one understood what his last few words were as the ground stained red everywhere as Hamel Castle drove down to the ground. No one who would be around in Elsword's company ever again. A person who died with a smile on his face despite none of the team acknowledging or even hearing his final thoughts. One of them however was able to read his lips and understand it completely.
The shock-strucken Queen of the Nasods, Eve. As the others desperately dig their leader's body out of the rubble all the Code Empress can do is replay that memory again and again.
"Farewell, Sis and all my friends."
Time goes back to the present as the sulking Empress dried up the last of her tears and swiped her hands in front of her. Immediately two of her servants, one a male with a fencer-like physique and outfit and the other a female a robotic maid in a purple and white uniform to complement Eve's own, appeared from beside her.
"What is it our Mistress?" They went on their knees in honor of the Code Empress.
"Oberon I have a task for you." Eve commanded, swiping her hand through the air horizontally this time and brought up an electronic keyboard. Typing swift and efficiently the specified tool materialized from the particles stored in another dimension. Once the object fully loaded the silver-haired Nasod passed it onto the confused Nasod Butler's hands.
"M-My Queen? What am I to do with this?" Oberon questioned, carrying the object Eve typed in as a "S-H-O-V-E-L".
"You are to dig up that dirt and retrieve the contents inside, handing it over to me." She explained, pointing at Elsword's grave. The two servants reading the name, they immediately gasp in horror at what their Queen is about to commit.
"Ms. Eve!" Ophelia warned. "You wouldn't mean to-"
"Yes Ophelia. My comrade ended his life too soon. I believe that as a friend and as a personal wish of mine that Elsword's stay in the world of living be extended a little longer."
"But Mistress! Many attempted this before and none have successfully-"
"I know Oberon, but I'm the Queen of Nasods and have you two here by my side." Eve reasoned through her usual poker face, only ever dropping it whenever she was truly alone. "I only hope that was have the materials require for this to work." Her two servants nodded and Oberon started digging out the grave slowly.
"However if it does work, he shall become a true Human and Nasod hybrid." She ranted on before starting with her act. "Only then will I dub him the title of "Code Knight"."
Me: And break! If you noticed by now, I was pretty much inspired by works like FullMetal Alchemist and Attack on Titan what with all the value of human life and loss of it. Anyway if you guys liked it, feel free to leave any constructive criticism on the reviews so I can improve upon this story! For now see you guys for the next update!