—Prologue Part 2—
Mekkan, Western Basitin Kingdom, Y482
It's currently a stormy night in both kingdoms, normally, the happy-go-lucky western Basitins usually still go outside and do what makes them happy despite the rain.
But this one is different, this wasn't the normally expected rain the isles have, this one was even more intense, with lightning strikes appearing every few minutes at their waters, even at their shores which prevented Basitin fishing boats to gather fish, good thing they're not mostly wearing anything metal like their more militarized, stricter eastern counterpart.
Not only the storm is strange, but it also originated from an even stranger storm—being tethered by a thin line of smoke—that is currently raging far away from the eastern side of the isles—it was raining lightning all over the vast sea it's currently occupying, some feared that this "lightningrainstorm" might come over and would bring about the end of both kingdoms, while most of the residents are optimistically confident that it wouldn't.
Otreus leaned at the doorframe of his house, staring at the distant raging storm that's only been terrorizing that particular body of water, the poor fish living there must've already been burnt from their insides.
"Hmm..." humming to himself, his mind began making theories of how it was made, was it due to mana piling up in that specific location? And if so, does magic affect the weather? Breaking off from that tangent theory, he switched to a different kind, what if it's an attack from the Templars and somehow missed? What if they purposely missed and just wanted to show off their terrifying power? What if they were just testing their newfound weapon? He shuddered, immediately breaking off from that topic, lest he might jinx himself and doom everyone.
He would now think of positive things like he's glad that storm hadn't replaced this one that's currently terrorizing their waters albeit with milder lightning, glad that he gets to live another day like everyone, glad that this bad weather and its now stormy counterpart hadn't affected the mood of everyone as they were still chatting and having fun dancing together, it is one of the main reasons why he was glad that he was born as a western Basitin, the people here are unbothered of the storm and are still free to go outside.
'What is up with that storm?' he wondered, continuing to stare off into the horizon as his mind started making theories again, unaware that his friends were inviting him to join them for a drink, if only he was aware of what's happening to their eastern neighbor kingdom...
Eastern Basitin Kingdom, Main castle
(See link for reference: https/twokinds./comic/522/)
"No! All my hard work...! What have you done!?" The old senile Intelligence General Alabaster exclaimed as he witnessed the Templar Tower's core breaking, "What... Have I done?" He muttered, likely due to what little remained of his sanity, realized his mistake.
"Come on!" Natani exclaimed, trying to pick up Keith.
"Laura! RUN!!" Keith refused to get up as he tried reaching out to Laura, hoping that his ex-fiancé would escape in time.
"K-Keith..." Laura muttered as she stared up at the collapsing Templar Tower, the vixen keidran knew the blast would still reach her even if she ran, she would've hoped that she would miraculously survive, she wanted to live, but she had already signed up risking herself to give Natani a chance to fire the magic arrow at the tower, even if that chance might've killed her in the process.
As everyone but Laura and the old basitin general started to displace from the tower, it let out a resounding boom as it finally exploded, before a pillar of light blue pierced the clouds and the sky, signifying the draining of mana from the earth to the sky.
The beacon of mana would've gone up to the skies, if it hadn't been for the unnatural storm that is covering the isles as the mana touched it, instead of the mana piercing through, it was absorbed by it, causing a buildup of lightning around the stormy clouds, it eventually went to the thin line of smoke that leads to its more violent counterpart afar, it flowed through it like being conducted through a cable, and when it finally reached the edge of the raging storm, the rain of lightning it was currently letting out suddenly stopped, then after a moment of quiet and calmness, the clouds suddenly let out lightning from everywhere in its entire body at the same time, making it look like it released a giant beam of light as it made a sound of a thousand bombs, it looked majestic and terrifying at the same time as everyone who was able to see it didn't know what it is or why it was happening, not even the three masks that looked over this world knew.
Western Basitin Kingdom, Otreus's house
Otreus stared at the bright light that came from the direction of where the more violent storm came from in awe, he was heavily confused about why there was a blue pillar of light that came from the direction of their eastern neighbors, then the lightning flowing all over the stormy clouds, then went to the tethered storm that was raining lightning far away, then the light that came, it briefly blinded him but recovered seconds later.
The deafening sound that came a few seconds later inflicted pain to his long, already sensitive ears, causing him to be disoriented, but it caused everyone to look at the bright light in the distance in distress barring Otreus, replacing his confusion with interest earlier.
Theories rang in his head again while staring at the light, could it be that there's a great treasure that just resurfaced after the lightning destroyed the ocean bed there and shined so brightly as a miniature sun? Could it be a great omen of some kind? Did one of the masks bestow us a gift that would give us a fighting chance at the Human Empire that would eventually call to arms against us? He'll have to wait and see.
After all, research always takes time.
Tiger Territory, Southern Border
It was almost morning and everyone on the border shores was on high alert, the bright light at the far ocean was not the reason why, the sound that came after, it was a really unpleasant wake-up call for them, but it did make up an effective alarm clock as it woke most of everyone up.
They would've stared at it if not for something they noticed that came from the light as it ascended into the sky, it looked like the shape of something familiar, but they wouldn't know because the object that's currently traveling at fast speeds—like it was an object being thrown—is too high to be seen clearly as it is currently traveling towards their direction.
From a bird's point of view in the sky, the fast-moving object seems to be a critically damaged frigate with its hull upside down, small pieces of it going in different directions, and amidst the sound of the rushing wind, a man's voice can be heard inside screaming...
To be continued.
