Pinevale

"So this is Pinevale?" Kyle said entering the small village in Pinevale.

"Reminds me of Oakvale a bit" Connor said looking at the farmland.

"Actually they are kind of the same, from what I've learned Pinevale is the center of the trade system here in this part of Albion, they grow and sell their goods all across Albion" Isaac said.

"What about bandits?" Madison asked.

"Actually instead of guards protecting them they have some kind of knight system. Just beyond that hill is a temple, it looks like a school that train warriors into a knighthood you should check it out when you get the time."

"Sounds like something we should look into" Connor said.

"Nah you and Silver can check that place out I see a pub with my name on it" Kyle said.

"I better make sure he doesn't start any bar fight" Madison said following Kyle.

"While they do that I think I will survey the area I bet we hadn't seen the last of that Indolentor" Jacob said.

"Julie can come with me, we need to restock on our supplies" Rene said.

"Looks like it's just you and I again Silver, let's check out that temple" Connor said.

"Sound fun" Silver said as they headed up the hill towards the temple.

"Hmmm" Silver said sniffing the ground.

"What's up dog?" Connor asked.

"The soil it's kind of like the one at the Temple of Light at Oakvale" Silver said.

"You mean because of the Golden Oak?" Connor asked.

"Yeah the tree made the earth fertile and air fresh I am picking up the same vibe here" Silver said.

"Maybe there another Golden Oak-" Connor began before spotting a massive Golden Oak Tree in the center of the Temple, "it's bigger than the one in Oakvale!"

"Where are the knights?" Silver said as Connor picked up movement and in a blink of an eye pulled out his sword and blocked the swing from an armored knight sword.

"Force Push!" Connor yelled sending the knight flying away from him as knights surrounded them and Connor pointed his sword and powered an Inferno spell in the other and down below Silver growled and power a spell in his mouth.

"Wait!" a man yelled and from the temple doors a very elderly man slowly came down the stairs with a cane as Connor ran up and caught the man from falling.

"Easy there, I got you" Connor smiled.

The man looked at Connor and saw a flash of another hero before it reverted to Connor again, "William?"

"William? No my name is Connor Lionheart, Silve rand I didn't mean to intrude here you see...well it's a long story" Connor said.

"I see it, his blood runs in your veins" the man said touching the Will marking on Connor arm.

"You mean William Black? Yes he's my ancestor from what I understand" Connor said.

"It's been so long since I last seen our monarch."

"You knew William Black?" Connor asked as the man chuckled.

"I was his teacher" he said gesturing to the other knights to go about their business.

"What is this place?" Connor asked.

"This is the Temple of Avo's Knights. Many generations we trained warriors to defend the people of Albions from the evils that lurk in this world but when the Court of Blades came the temple lost many and all seemed lost until that man step foot in the crumbling walls of this black. William Black, he possessed a power unlike any I've seen he lived down in the village below you see, he protected it when the knights fell and the world suffered the Court Evil. He amazed the simple village folk with what we call Will now, he was determined to destroy the Court so he came to me, I warned him about it but I lead him to a tome then without warning he was suddenly transported from Albion into the Void. There he met Jack, who sat on a throne surrounded by ghastly figures. Jack tried to enslave William with the power of an ornate sword, but William fought back and managed to steal the sword before escaping the netherworld. Back in Albion the sword spoke to William. It called itself the Sword of Aeons, and it promised to help him defeat the Court, but only if William offered his soul in bondage. With the Sword of Aeons, William set off to find the Court" the elder said leading Connor into the Temple and toward a mural of William Black fighting the Court of Blades.

"What happened then?" Connor asked.

"William scaled the peak of Ruon, Albion's highest mountain and challenged the Court to combat. The Knight of Blades appeared first, and, wielding the Sword of Aeons, William destroyed him completely then Jack of Blades came and they fiercely stuck at one another until William broke Jack's body" he spoke.

"I know what happened with him, he was not destroyed Jack's slimy soul escaped and took refuge in his mask and waited till the Hero of Oakvale defeated him" Connor said.

"You must tell me more of what happened over the years but with both the Jack and Knight of Blades defeated the Queen of Blades was the last to face William. For weeks their battle raged across Albion. Mountains were raised and valleys were formed by their mighty blows. At last, William slew the Queen and freed the people from their yoke. They acclaimed William as their Archon."

"Then he was infected?" Connor said.

"Indeed without an enemy to vanquish, the Archons grew petty and cruel. They called themselves Heroes and used their powers of Will to terrorize the people. The first Archon might have stopped them, but his battle with the Queen and his time in the Void had infected his body and mind with a wasting illness. To combat this illness, he returned to the Void and cast it from his body, fearing that it would one day control him and use him to rule Albion and twist it to the dark wishes of the Void. William successfully managed to cast out most of this illness."

"And because of that it became a creature called the Corruption" Connor said.

"With remnants of the disease still decaying him, William wrapped his body in golden mail and a royal blue cloak before vanishing, never seen again" the man said.

"Who built the first spire?" Connor asked.

"William grandson constructed a great tower that stretched thousands of feet into the sky. This tower was named the Spire, and it had the power to concentrate all of Albion's Will into a single area. This caused a rift to open between the Void and Albion, a rift through which a beast calling himself the Crawler, the Corruptor's chief lieutenant, attempted to invade Albion through. Three Heroes, Stone, Sol, and Blaze responded by combining their power and targeting the Spire. Though they managed to imprison the Crawler within Shadelight dungeon in Aurora, the explosion also destroyed the Old Kingdom, wiping out the rest of Albion" the man said.

"That's not what happen" Connor said.

"What did happen?" the man asked.

"The explosion didn't destroy rest of Albion it hid all of this empire away for close to 1000 years what felt like a year or two was way longer for my side of the kingdom were in a new age that would blow your minds" Connor said.

"So much time passed then, are you the Archon of your region?" the man asked.

"We actually used another word. I'm King of Bowerstone and I fear something after whatever passed Glacier Valley" Connor said.

"The ruins of William Black Kingdom we call it the Archon's Ruins. After the Spire exploded destruction fell upon the William Black kingdom the heroes there at the time destoyred with the rest and what used to be a great city became covered in ice and snow and became what you call Glacier Valley, guarding the Archon's Ruins. No man can pass the cold storm to reach the ruins so no man know what's become of it."

Whatever there an evil come to Albion and we think it's after something there, what do you know could be at the ruins?" Connor asked.

"The key!" the man gasped rushing over to a desk covered in scrolls and began to search for something.

"Key? What key?" Connor asked.

"Long before the Court showed it vase there is a legend, Skorm and Avo two deities that battled for Albion fate, with the help of might heroes Avo sealed Skorm away in a prison and cast it into the sea. He entrusted the heroes with safe guarding the key the was placed in a mechanism by the heroes design, this device holds the keys and requires seven keys to open, those keys are scattered across Albion" the man said showing a diagram of the device.

"Those keys are masks?" Connor said looking at the devices.

"Indeed the heroes created a way so that no man shall ever open the device, each mask possess an important trait, what that trait is I do not know" the man said.

"There is no way our enemies could have collected the keys have they?" Connor asked.

"I pray to Avo they have not" the elder said.

"Then we need to get there and keep them from reaching this mechanism" Connor said.

"If you truly are an Archon's descendant then there is something our temple can offer" the man said.

"What is it?" Connor asked as the man pointed to the oak tree.

"Under the tree is a passage to our saccade cave, within it lays old tomes some of which were left behind by William himself his other living relative already come and learned its secrets now it's time for you as well."

"Come on Silver let's see what's down there" Connor said approaching the tree and opened a hatch in the side of it and looked to see stairs leading into darkness.

"I bet Hollow Men" Silver said.

"Hobbes" Connor said holding out his hand, "light" he said creating the spell in his hand and lead them in.

Down the steps Connor walked down a cave passage till he reached a large room where the roots layered the walls and a collection of bookshelves were covering the room.

"So these are the tomes" Connor said picking up on and unrolled it before frowning.

"What is it?" Silver asked.

"It's written in another language."

"Well that's not useful to us" Silver said.

"Hold on" Connor said approaching a single tome with a polishing aura, "yeah that scream magic."

"What do you think it does?" Silver asked sniffing the tome.

"Only one way to find out" Connor said picking it up and began to read it before it glowed brightly in his hand and Connor was sucked into the tome itself with Silver.

"AHHHHH!" Connor and Silver screamed before they ended up slamming hard onto a stone walkway.

"...what the hell man?" Silver groaned.

"Ow ow ow!" Connor groaned rubbing his neck and looked around to see they were in an empty alley.

"Where are we?" Silver asked.

"One way to find out" Connor said leaving the alley with Silver to see they stood in a large ancient kingdom and the castle stood a few feet away.

"Do you think this is the Archon's Kingdom?" Silver asked.

"Or it could be a memory, I bet that tome works just like that Snowglobe we got" Connor said.

"So there could be spirits here?" Silver asked.

"Maybe but if that Jessica person was here first she may have broken any curse on this place" Connor said.

"Not a curse" a woman spoke as the two turned to see a maid, "memories."

"Memories?" Connor repeated.

"Yes, the people here are nothing but fragments, memories of those passed and moved onto the next life" she said.

"What are we here for then?" Connor asked.

"To learn" the woman said walking away.

"To learn what?" Silver said as they walked out and spotted at the top of the stairs a man with long black hair and bear with blue eyes and will marks on his face wearing royal robes enter the castle.

"Was that William?" Connor said as they ran up the stairs after him.

Entering the castle they felt the ground shake as they saw the memories of people running in fear in all directions.

"Connor!" Silver said as they looked out the doors to see in the distance a light approaching.

"What the hell is that?!" Connor said as the light went of the castle and when the white vanished the castle remained but its people were gone.

"What was that?" Silver asked.

"The Spire first explosion" a man spoke as they turned to see William black.

"William Black" Connor said seeing the uncanny resemblances between the two.

"Not quite, this is what he used to be" William said walking down the steps with Connor and Silver following.

"William the Arch of Sins plots against Albion, they are after they key to Skorm prison" Connor said.

"Of course they are they seek to release Skorm and allow him to finish what he sought so long ago" William spoke.

"How do we fight a God William? You can't kill a god can you?" Connor asked.

"A god has his limits too, even I have no answer to slay a god, but Avo did" William said.

"How?" Silver asked as William held up three fingers.

"He divided his powers into three objects, weapons that can harm the god if these relics were to be rejoined the power of a god would lie in your hands" William spoke.

"Relics? I don't understand what are they?" Connor asked.

"You'll know when the time comes" William said.

"The Arch of Sins, none of my magic or attacks seemed to affect them what give?" Connor asked.

"Those from the void have a sort of protective essences on their bodies, Corruption but it can be burned easy with a strong enough light" William said.

"That Indolentor guy mentioned something about the sun and returning when it's gone down" Connor said.

"Some of the Arch of Sins have sensitive weak points on their bodies and some do not, find weak points and exploit them, use whatever means you can to defeat them" William said.

"So if I powered my Light spell to its max level" Connor said.

"You can harm the Arch of Sins, but they will not stand idly by and allow you to do so, you must be smart, fast and resourceful" William said.

"Anything else you can give me?" Connor asked.

"All I can offer you now is one more word of caution, some fights can't be won alone, some sacrifices should be made but always look for a way to overcome it all. Now I have a question for you, what do you fight for? Vengeance? Honor? To protect? To destroy? What is the path you chosen?"

"At first I fought just save my sister, then in a flash it ended up turning to seeking revenge? Somewhere down this road I walked I chose my family, my friends and family and all the citizens of Albion, I fight to protect them and I will die before I allow evil to take it away."

"Words spoken from a true hero of Albion, may Avo radiances protect you my friend" William said as he headed towards gates and his outfit turned to that of blue and gold before vanishing.

"So we have a way to kill Skorm then?" Silver said.

"Let's hope it won't have to come down to that, we can't let his prison be opened" Connor said.

Later that night Connor entered the town but quickly felt something hit his body as he felt his body begin to tire and yawned loudly.

"Why do I feel so tired?" Connor asked yawning again before looking ahead into the town to see all his friends lying on the ground out cold along with the rest of the village people.

"W-what...what...is this?" Silver said trying to keep on his four feet.

"Isn't it obvious?" the Indolentor spoke as the two saw the man leave the tavern with a wine glass in his hand.

"You...you...what?" Connor asked falling to his knees as his vision began to blur and the Indolentor approached.

"Night has fallen, now you can see my true powers hero, sleep your weary head on the ground you lie and enter my Dream Realm for all eternity" the Indolentor smirked as Connor blacked out along with Silver.

A.N. Please Review.