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Deep in the forest, on a tree, there was a wanted poster that says Varian the Alchemist, with a little boy's face painted on it.
" This is the story of how I died... "
" Eugene. "
" Alright! Alright...heh, this is the story of how we all nearly died. "
" It was truly an unforgettable adventure of ours, and I hope we get into more! It was so exciting! "
" Yeah, can't say I fully agree with that, Blondie, but I won't lie, it was truly unforgettable...and pretty much complicated at the same time, that I can't actually tell when did it start...! "
" Well, you do remember that after the events in Old Corona we went to follow the path of the black rocks and- "
" That long, endless path of shadows and darkened dangerous mysteries..."
"Aw don't be too grumpy! I'm sure we're getting to its end soon! "
" We were halfway there and bam, evil destroyed our achievement! "
" That's true, but you can't forget about Varian and Caitriona. "
" Completely complicated! "
" Extremely extraordinary! "
A guard with a black mustache came by, took the poster off the tree, crumbled it and it was fed to a goat that followed the guard.
There was that dark time in the land of The Seven Kingdoms, when an ancient evil sorcerer found a way to take over the control of all the means of the dark magic in the land and used it to take over The Seven Kingdoms. Zhan Tiri used his powers to force people to obey his orders, collected wicked minions to apply his needs and summoned dark hideous creature to strengthen his army of evil forces. But there was that young but strong kingdom which fought against Zhan Tiri with all what it has, the bright Kingdom of Corona. The royals and folks of Corona refused to follow Zhan Tiri's orders, refused to be slaves under the hands of that being of wickedness, so the war between the two sides started with countless battles, and their leader in this war was the most intelligent engineer and inventor in all of the land, Lord Demanitus.
Demanitus used both science and magic to fight against Zhan Tiri, he used his brain to invite new machines and weapons to defeat his enemy, and the royals gave him the permission to be the one responsible for any magical aggressions against the kingdom, whether from Zhan Tiri or any magical being out there.
And it was a beautiful starry night, when Demanitus found the solution, the key to beat Zhan Tiri once and for good, or at least that what he thought.
Demanitus lived in a manor that he built in the borders of the land, where he and his fellows and disciples chose the spot to be their main base, for many reasons such as that is was abutting the new wall, in that night, he was working inside his lab, which was a special certainly-built room. There was no light coming from the windows, neither from candles or such, but from the many many chemicals that stood on the table he was standing in front of. Demanitus was holding two flasks of glowing liquids in his large gloved hands, shaking one of them slightly, his good eye examined the liquid carefully when it turned from dark crimson red into a light orange colour, he slowly put the flasks on the table and went to open a wooden cupboard standing by the wall, he came back with a small beautiful fist-sized dark pink jewel, it shimmered in his hand as he took out a wide open wooden plate, for he knew that wood would not have a reaction to his compounds, he held the orange chemical up and made sure to add only three drops onto the gem, he waited for the reaction, lowering his head hesitantly, the reflection of the glimmering pink figure and the glowing orange drops appearing on the the metallic triangle piece that cover the left side of his face. For seconds, he was surprised how his formula didn't case anything to the jewel, but then and to his relief the jewel started glowing brightly, a smile of satisfaction appeared on his face as the jewel broke the law of colours and turned into a light green shade, he paced across the room toward a big box, knelt on the ground and opened it, he carefully took out a magnificent device that was inside a capsule made of clear new glass, the capsule had a single hole on the top, this invention contained a thick marble pillar with a black base made of a special element that he himself created, the base, which the glass didn't cover, was made of three layers of that black stone, the upper one connected to the glass, the middle one was thin, it had hilts fixed to its sides, the lower layer was connected to a second wall of glass, under the base there were many gears that controlled the movements of the device, and under the gears there was a simple wooden base for the device to sit on the ground firmly. The upper part of the device was bigger, it held a circle standing horizontally, it was made of a red, light in weight, kind of stone. The circle was attached to a rectum made of dark brown metal, a small golden ball stood at the middle of the rectum, and at the tip it was shaped to hold the jewel. Demanitus paced back to his table with the invention in his hands, after putting in on the table he slowly took the glass capsule off the device and delicately placed the light green gemstone onto it, he put the glass capsule back on, took the device in his hand once again and stepped to the door, he walked outside his lab to an empty room, one dark empty room, the gem glowed brightly in the darkness that he didn't need to hold any lantern in hands, on the left side of the room there was a set of stairs, he walked upstairs to the next floor and was met by another large door at the end of the stairs, he then had to walk across another room, this room was dark as well, and it held a long large table with many chairs at each side and a bigger chair made of iron in the head.
Demanitus went up another staircase, his footsteps echoing in the calm ambience, it took him a while this time, for he was climbing up a tower, his paces finally came to a halt under a trapdoor, he pushed it open and stepped into a blank area with a low roof, he put the device in the middle of the room and grabbed a rope that was dangling aside, he started pulling it with both hands, causing the roof to gradually open. Level after level, the lots that covered the roof moved down and only its inner structure was left, revealing the sky and the wonderful view of the countless stars that lays upon the dark black carpet, and letting the cold night breeze brush against the old man's tired face. Demanitus took a deep breath of the cooling air and looked outside, the scene didn't impress him much, he had seen it many times by now. He knelt down next to his invention and used his fingers to click on the sides of the tiny hilts, causing them to turn in turn, he kept on pushing the small pieces consecutively, the gears started to roll slowly and so did the red circle that held the gem, everything started to go faster, and as the gem circled around the pillar bright green sparks started to come out of it, striking the glass roughly. The light got brighter and suddenly a strong blow of wind was sensed and a miniaturized tornado started to form out of the capsule's upper hole. Demanitus stood up when the device kept on working automatically, he took a few steps back and watched as the tornado got stronger and stronger with each second, and the wind was rapidly blowing the cloak he wore, the sound of it hitting his ears loudly, but the lord's concerns weren't on that, he focused on the gem and its orbit, his eyes narrowed and he raised his hand as a shield from light and wind. If everything went right, the device should keep working until Demanitus stops it by himself, if not, then the gem would glow brighter and brighter 'till it won't be able to hold more energy and it would shatter into tens of pieces. And to the inventor's dismays, that just happened. And the gemstone shattered after an explosion, destroying the glass with pieces of it spreading into the air, curse impact force, and all over the place. Demanitus shielded himself by his thick cloak, and after the smoke that the covered the place was gone he took a look at the mess before him, he mentally furrowed his eyebrows in frustration when he saw the bits of glass and jewels on the ground, but he couldn't deny his relief because the rest of the device was good and not harmed at all. His choice of elements wasn't fully successful.
Lord Demanitus gave a heavy desperate sigh and walked to his horribly looking invention, he bent down and gathered a few pieces of the jewel, his mind drifted into deep thoughts as he fiddled with them in his right hand, with a groan of exhaustion he clutched them tightly and stood up, he put his hands firmly behind his back and tried to distract himself by the view, distract himself from his constant failures.
" A few days, you could say, and then you'll need to pray, for the wind will make her way, to you and despite your may, will destroy everything you held, beware the wind! "
Those words echoed in his mind, those of Sugracha the Eternal's, he was warned, he knew what to do, but he just needed the right stone to complete his plan. He looked up at the stars and his brain started wandering through the formulas he had tried on different stones and gems, this caused him a slight headache, he messaged his temple with his left hand closing his eye shut for a moment. Suddenly, his rope of thoughts was cut by the cry of one of his men.
"Lord Demanitus!! Sir! You need to look Westwards!" He heard one of the guards calling for him, Demanitus looked down with surprise at the man for seconds, who was pointing with a panic look at something in the west of the sky, Demanitus looked up searching in the sky for what the man was referring to, it didn't take him a second, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped, so did the bits of jewel in his hand, at the sight of a large figure crossing the dark inky-blue horizon with a high unimaginable speed, glimmering with a breath taking icy-blue colour, making its way right towards the earth with a whitish blue aura around it.
"Merlin's beard..."
Demanitus couldn't believe his eye as the figure, which he assumed was a comet, passed right before him and fell into the woods with a great blast, blowing out many trees and causing some poor, actually lucky, frightened birds to fly away. Quicker than he actually intended, Demanitus found himself at the bottom of the stairs and rushing toward the gate.
"Tell the men to prepare the horses! I need five of you ready in minutes!" He shouted for the two guards who were standing there, staring with worry and astonished from the view , they snapped off their astonishment and ran to obey the orders. Demanitus wasn't sure if it was a natural case, or an unexpected attack from Zhan Tiri and his minions, so this was just a reconnoitring group. After a few moments, he was looking at the smoke coming out the place of explosion from far away, it was still glowing brightly in the distance.
"We're ready, sir." He heard sounds of hooves and whinnies behind, and turned to find his men ready on horses, and his own black stallion waiting for its rider, he quickly climbed up his horse and they all made their way to the darkness of the forest.
The loud sound of horses' hooves pounding against the ground filled the forest as Lord Demanitus and his men advanced toward the location where the comet crushed into, and when they reached the spot, one of them gasped softly at how wide and clear the area was, and there was a big crater-like hole in the ground where the alien rock fell. Demanitus and three of his men jumped down their horses, while two of them were kept on to watch around the area for any possible danger, the leader approached the huge rock slowly and the men followed behind after drawing out their swords, ready for whatever happens, and when reached the edge after their leader, they couldn't help but become all amazed at the sight. Now that he sees it clearly, Demanitus admired the fact that it wasn't actually a rock, but it was a fabulous diamond-like element shinning with life through hatches and holes, those were on a thick black cover of a charcoal-ly substance.
And as the light fell upon him, a million ideas appeared in his brilliant mind.
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Pretty proud of myself there, the thing is big.