Chapter two:Oileanach na bana-bhuidsich(part-1)
458 AD, Location: Isle of skye
"It's been a long time since a living being came to these lands. You reek of the divine yet I can clearly see that you reside in a mortal coil. So, tell me demigod, why have you come to this god forsaken place. You don't look any older than 14 summers. Why have you come to this land? What madness possessed you, that despite being full of youth you would crawl into your own grave."
"Although despair is the only thing i have left and betrayal has been forced down on my throat thrice already, I haven't become suicidal yet. I haven't come here to die"
"Then do enlighten me. For I can't seem to divine the cause of such audacity"
"I have come here in search of wisdom"
"Wisdom you say, and pray tell what manner of wisdom can be found in one's own grave"
"The wisdom which can help you not go there earlier than your time, the wisdom to circumvent fate and destiny, the wisdom to make sure you can erect a mud wall between the grave of your loved one so they may not answer it's call sooner"
"Smooth talker, aren't you? I wonder with that kind of handsomeness and honey-coated words how many girls have you wooed"
"This body of mine has only felt the warmth of mine mother and mine lips have only kissed her hands alone"
"At least you are being truthful. Had you lied I would have driven a spear through your heart and fed your remains to the wraiths. If wisdom is the only thing you sought you would have gone to the incubus who fancies himself as a druid. Considering how much energy I sense in your being any druid worth their salt would have been eager to take you as a student, if not for bragging rights then so they could cut you open like a roasted pork and see if they could harvest your power. No, you have come for something more. So, what is it, my land? My weapons, My castle, my kingdom? Or are you one of those youths with delusions of grandeur, seeking this goddesses' hand in marriage?"
"Power, that is what i seek alongside wisdom"
"Power you say? wouldn't the fae or the boy king's incubus be a better option then, they too can give you power, can't they?"
"Certainly, they can, but not the kind of power i am seeking"
"And what kind of power do you seek?"
"The power to survive. Unlike men who are fighters, warriors and victors; women are survivors. Men go around and cause ruckus while women are left to pick up the pieces. Thus, I prefer a female mentor over male. My last mentor who was also my adopted father forced me to aid in his suicide. If there's anything a strong woman can teach you that's how to survive"
"... And what would you do after graining wisdom if I were to take you under my tutelage."
"... I will disseminate the knowledge across the globe, taking the role of a wandering sage"
"And when you grow weary of wandering, what will you do then?"
"I will make a family of my own and open my own hermitage where I would educate the new generation in both combat and mysticism"
"Well, at least you are not a fool with delusions of grandeur like those from Greece. Unlike some of the fools i taught in the past, coming to learn under me just for the sake of wooing a girl, seriously am I really that cheap? Unlike them you actually have a firm understanding over the harshness of reality…...Although, you have potential, you are a few centuries late. Teaching pupils for free seem to have made people think, everything regarding me is to be taken for granted. I won't be tutoring for free anymore"
"If it was riches you wanted, kings would have amassed mountains of it beneath your feet for the sake of your allegiance. If it was land you wanted none in green plains could have stopped you from creating an empire of which you would have been the immortal queen. You're highest authority in wisdom barring Odin in this region. Your empty castle tells the tale that you have no need for slaves, kins or servants. Nay, materialistic things like land, riches, slaves or tomes aren't what you seek"
"You are right. I seek none of those things mentioned by you. However, I will have my due. I have decided to be your mentor and at the end of your tutelage you will pay your due, that is if you survive till that long"
…..
A Campione—a Godslayer—is a supreme ruler.
Since he can kill a celestial being, he can therefore call on the sacrosanct, divine powers wielded by the gods.
A Campione—a Godslayer—is a lord.
Since the power to kill a deity is in his hands, he therefore looms over all mortals on Earth.
A Campione—a Godslayer—is a devil.
-Taken from the biography Italian mage and author Alberto Ricardo.
….
Witenagemot report submitted by field agent William Ericcson:
From myths and legends, they were born. The essence of the world and beyond, this is what comprises the supernatural core of them, thus lending form to these existences, the gods. But for some gods, the forms and nature of their myths becomes a burden, and they rebel against them, manifesting in the world, escaping from the myths and legends, also known as the Domain of Immortality, as Heretic Gods, and bringing disaster with them.
On June 20, 2001 AD In northern Scotland, in the island which during ancient time was called Isle of Skye or in Gaelic An t-Eilean Sgitheanach a heretic god descended at around 7 a.m. in the morning. By noon the weather condition worsened thus leading the resident field agents to believe a weather deity has descended. Considering the island's religious, historical and cultural value it naturally made the field agents concerned about its safety. On this matter it should be noted that isle of skye is the largest and innermost of major islands of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, and a popular tourist spot due to numerous cultural heritage sites spread around the entire island. Due to weather worsening further and thunderstorms and other natural phenomena associated with heretic gods, island guards decided to cancel the water bus trips around the islands and decided to relocate the visiting tourists to safety camps in relatively safe locations on high ground.
Our field agents located the god in question on the shore of the Island at around 3 p.m. Around 4 p.m. a humanoid shape figure was seen coming at the island from the mainland via flight. At first the present field agents thought the figure to be another heretic god.
Regardless of how many divination or scrying spells were cast they couldn't figure out the new figure's visage, facial image or trace his energy signature other than visual confirmation. Leading us to believe it's an authority of information concealment.
The figure and the weather deity engaged in a conversation of which only the heretic god's side of conversation could be heard. Due to appearance at a cultural heritage closely associated with Celtic pantheon, our agents at first assumed the figure to be Lugh-the Celtic god of light, storm, wind, craft and lightning. However, the god in question completely broke all our assumptions and declared he will destroy this "Pit of Pagan heresy" and revealed himself to be "Ramiel-The Thunder of God" At this point from what we could make out from their conversation the figure was requesting him to not destroy the island as someone very important to him was laid to final rest in the Island.
Apparently, the archangel refused to keep his request and further claimed that "Considering thou art my mortal enemy-a godslayer, further reason appears to purge this desecrated land where thy kindred one has been laid to rest " It was at this point our field agents realized that the new figure was actually a newborn yet unknown devil king and was desperately trying to protect a departed friend's memorial.
Despite repeatedly being requested to deter from such action The Thunder of god rebuked the devil king by calling him coward and proceeded to purge the greatest cultural landmark of Celtic history from earth. It was at this point the new king decided to take action and summoned several divine beasts. Who then proceeded to shower the archangel with various elemental attacks which merely proved to be a minor inconvenience to the archangel. However, the sheer number of divine beasts summoned into the shore proved to be an efficient strategy even though the archangel in question proved that he was a nimble user of Godspeed.
However soon the archangel grew annoyed and started hurling tornadoes and violent bursts of divine wind along with massive lightning bolts from the sky. As the battle proved to be too violent for the port, and several tourist fishing boats and water buses started to get destroyed, the young king activated another authority or at least we think it to be an authority which resulted in the disappearance of both the god and king in question. Probably it was an authority for teleportation or relocation in a previously prepared suitable terrain. With the disappearance of both the god and godslayer in question, weather calmed down and by 6 p.m. the sky became clear as well.
It was at this point the king reappeared in the port and to our astonishment started casting high ranking spells to restore the destroyed landmarks, properties and destroyed portions of the port and shore to pristine condition as if it never went through near Armageddon. However, before our agents could contact him, he left the place through another teleportation-however this time there appeared a magic circle proving, a spell was used this time for teleportation unlike previous method. When our local field agents approached the local civilians to find if any of them drifted too close to the port for any possible reason and might have witnessed the repair works or part of the previous battle, they proved clueless and asked as if such a light summer rain would be enough for property damage.
Clear sign of hypnosis cast by someone who is both skilled and well informed about fieldwork, hypnosis, memory modification spell and concealment magic. Astonishing the local field agent once again regarding the young king's skill and knowledge in spells, practical skill and concealment magic.
Apparently, several of the local field agents were injured through stray shards, shrapnel and debris. Although nothing serious, several novice agents and newcomers who went close enough, desiring to observe and record the battle first hand and gather enough information to secure a field promotion, apparently got injuries which might have handicapped them for life and in some cases left with a cane to properly walk, however soon after a light rain appeared and all those whose injuries were exposed to the rain begin healing at a rapid rate. Apparently one of our agents with Asian ancestry could discern the rain was actually a spell of Daoist arts and needed several hundred mages and skilled sages with immense vitality to pull off and was usually used to restore vitality of the near dead ley lines or create artificial ley lines so that crop production can be increased. This esoteric art was called "Mantra of Varuna" tracing its root both in Daoism and Indian tantra. And never was it revealed to anyone other than Her Eminence Luo Hao herself by the Daoist cults of china. However, the magical signature of the rainwater undoubtedly proved similar to the repaired port proving the new King to be the caster. Thanks to this spell many of our injured mages were able to recover in the shortest possible time, isle of skye will have a burst in flora and fauna as predicted through divination, surrounding islands too will receive this benefit and have an increased production of agricultural products and fisheries. The spell perfectly created an artificial yet stable leyline through isle of the skye's almost dried up leyline. Many mage families in Europe and Britain have already shown interest in procuring a real estate in the island and massive magi migration can already be expected. Several of the young mages even swore fealty to him, despite not knowing his name or even seeing his face
Since the king alone returned without the heretic god Ramiel and any further signs of heretic god's appearance was not evident it can be assumed that god has met his end against the king and his authority has been usurped. Although the stored water of the remnant of the spell "Mantra of Varuna '' can still be used for healing purposes any attempt to use divination and scrying, through the traces of magical energy found in the water or port proved to be futile and only reached a dead end. Whatever concealment magic was cast to conceal his appearance, magic signature and enshroud his majesty's authorities proved to be too strong for even veteran information brokers in the magical world.
Fully comprehending his desire to remain hidden and not to pry into this any further, We gave up trying to divine the nature of his authorities lest we incur his wrath and settle for speculations.
From here on all the analysis given below are based on speculations based on first hand observation.
Analysis on potential authorities, skills, powers and characteristics:
His Majesty's first authority or authorities (considering he was able to teleport the archangel, we are considering this an authority) seem to be related to some earth god who is related to beast or had many beasts under servitude. The one with such characteristics that comes in mind is Grecian deity Pan or Celtic deity Cernunnos. Even the deity Baphomet who was killed by the King of Hungary Sasha Dejanshtahl Voban around 1878 AD comes to mind. Numerous beasts such as bicorns, phoenixes, lions, eagles, serpents and even wyverns were summoned. All of which rained down the archangel with various elemental attacks. Some of the beasts were unassociated with the deities mentioned above. However, syncretism leaves much room for debate. By some agents even the ancient Rigvedic deity Pasupati: an aspect of the god of steel Shiva, due to modern syncretism; has been suggested.
However, whether his ability to teleport really is an authority or not leaves many rooms for assumptions as His Majesty had shown the capacity to teleport even with his hermetic style of magic. It is well known even with magic it is not possible to affect the gods barring the spells recorded in the grimoire "The Songs in Name of David's Praise" However Saint Raphaelo confirmed that there's no such spell in the grimoire related to teleportation in the grimoire and majority of the spells are oriented towards battle. Making us come to conclusion his majesty is capable of using teleportation through both his authority and hermetic style and use them alternatively depending on the situation.
Ramiel-the thunder of god is an archangel and in the apocryphal Book of Enoch has been called a fallen angel and a watcher of Grigorie. He is said to manipulate weather and on Lord's order laid waste to the army of sennacherib. However there has been the mention of another fallen angel said to hold the same domain known as Barakiel. Whose name meant lightning of god. Some theological scholars say both are essentially the name of the same angel. Ramiel is said to be a clairvoyant angel and is a giver of divine visions. He gives instructions to his fellow angels on behalf of the lord. Occasionally he is syncretized with archangel Uriel (Reference: Apocryphal Book of El Edras)
Although the archangel showed the authority of weather manipulation (manipulating wind, storm, lightning) and Godspeed, whether he used clairvoyance or not couldn't be confirmed. However, whether he possessed the authorities associated with archangel Uriel namely possible manipulation of divine fire, light, stellar energy manipulation- could not be confirmed due to relocation of their battle soon after. Any of the authorities mentioned above could have been his majesty's new authority.
He prefers to use magic as a mean of battle and has proved to be rather skilled in it if his act of restoring the entire port, landmarks and destroyed properties simultaneously in several minutes and casting a costly spell like "Mantra of Varuna" wasany indication. He seems to use both hermetic style of magic and oriental Daoist arts and equally skilled in both if his spatial manipulation through hermetic style were to be taken as an example. He seems well informed in the matters of the supernatural to immediately move to run damage control soon after battle.
He is well trained in concealment, memory modification and alchemic invocation type restoration magic to indicate he has been trained in field work. He is also well trained in Oriental ritualistic style magic if his high-speed invocation of a spell that requires several hundred skilled mages long incantations for several days, took several minutes to perform. His concealment spells can block even witenagemot's best divination expert and scrying masters. Even the best freelancing mages holding expertise in gathering information reached a dead end.
From his Majesty's physical stature (or at least what we could make out of his physical stature) he seemed to be young, at best a teenager if one were to assume. He (until the king's gender has been confirmed we will refer to the king with male pronouns) appears to be a man of few words and gets to the point at question without hesitating or honey-coating his words.
He seems to care about the populace. As he relocated during the battle to spare isle of sky from further damage. And soon after battle put effort into repair. He went so far as battle the archangel who purged the army of sennacherib simply to protect a departed friend's burial site. Considering his young age, it may be presumed that the friend's death might one way or another be related to the past heretic god/gods he killed. Probably a casualty of the god's rampage. The fact he went so far as healing our agents and bless the island with such boons show he cared for this friend enough to not only ensure the island's safety even if it meant going against a god but also bless the island with good fortune. In other words, he isn't completely heartless.
Although he seems to be antisocial in nature if his avoidance to our agents was any Indication. Whatever method he used to avoid scrying and divination seems to give validity to this statement. Or maybe he is not yet ready to make debut in the supernatural world yet and prefers solitude and serenity. Or maybe he just values his privacy above all else and thus went through all the effort in concealing his powers.
It is advised to approach with utter caution for all those seeking his patronage. Even though he has shown to be reasonable and only approach the archangel for the sake of deterring him destroying a friend's burial site and even tried negotiation to solve the crisis, he won't shy away from violence as he has shown. He has shown to retaliate if attacked and even without authorities capable of taking care of himself as shown by his magical capacity.
It is not known whether he has any restriction to his authorities. However, if his magical capabilities were to be taken into consideration, even without his authority he isn't completely helpless. We are assuming he has high magical combat capacity if his feats with magic were to be taken under consideration. So, it's better to be cautious when approaching him.
Prodigy of such nature would not remain hidden regardless of how much his family or mage associations try to cover up and considering mages' fame seeking characteristics they would have singing his praises far and wide for the sake of further fame and resources. Which leads us to the conclusion that he might be from one the isolated families who cut their ties with the world of supernatural several generations ago or from one the dying bloods whose magical potential was revived suddenly with His Majesty's birth. Or he could be the apprentice of some isolated mage of sorts.
Whatever the case maybe such abnormal talent and skill couldn't be created in such a short time.
The only thing we can hope is that the new king doesn't end up becoming someone similar to Marquis Voban or Her eminence Luo Hao. The last thing this world needs is another tyrant.
Author Note:
So he started his journey as a godslayer, however all the gods he will kill won't make debut in chronological order nor will all the battles will be described. Some will be mentioned in the form of flashbacks.
Speaking of which, Ramiel wasn't the second god he killed nor was he the third one