Author's notes
I've been keeping this story in my head for quite some time, developing the characters, storyline, the world itself... Now, I'm going to be writing it here, both in english and portuguese.
Everything presented here now and later is a work of fiction, and all of it is owned by myself. If you see someone doing something similar, they are copying from me. If you want to make a collab or ask for permission to use the world, characters or events, you can DM me and we talk about it.
Royalty chapter 1: The Five Faces of Visterra.
The time has come, that time when the clock points to the number one in the morning. At such a time, most of the population has readied their beds and went to sleep, waiting for the new day to begin. But, obviously, that's not the case for everyone. Some people stayed awake and roaming the streets, be it for working late or just for fun.
Mainly in this city, in this time of the year, when it's the eve of a major event. All must work as much as possible if they wish to watch such a popular event.
But not everybody work for preparations or to have free time later, no. Actually, there are certain... people... that now have to do it because it's their responsibility to do so. Speak of which, one of them is now here; inside a black limousine, driving through the city's streets. Their goal? The immeasurable tower built in the heart of the city, the country, the world! Even now, the driver could see the logo and name of the tower, "Aecor".
This vehicle carried three people inside; the driver, a man in black suit, black glasses and holding a handgun in his right hand, and the last passenger... A woman wearing a purple suit and crimson bowtie in her neck. In her right hand was a comb, which she used to fix her purple hair back into bangs that covered her right eye.
But soon she takes away the comb to grab a water bottle handled by the man in suit beside her. She opens it and take a long sip before closing it once again. The woman was actually really thirsty, though since they'd be arriving shortly at the tower, she decides to place the bottle in the cup support to her left. Soon they are face to face with the tower, so she signals the driver to stop where they are right now.
Since it's so late in the morning, no other cars were parked around, allowing the limo to park right in front of the tower's entrance. When the woman get out of the vehicle, she approaches the driver from the sidewalk. "I'll be here for some time, so don't wait for me." Lightly tap de car's roof and allows the driver to take off once again.
Both the man in suit and the woman climb the stairs leading to the door. It opens itself automatically once they approach, and inside was the dark reception desk, lightened only by the screen used by the receptionist; a man with hair black as coal.
He quickly turns to face the visiting guests, holding a pen and paper on each hand. Then, he speaks. "Always on time, mistress Sawry." The receptionist hands the paper and pen to the woman in purple before returning to his monitor.
"Are the others already here, Gustav?" She asks while signing the paper handed to her, which she returns to Gustav, the receptionist.
Slowly he nods to her. "All four of them are waiting for you in the meeting room."
"In this case, don't praise my punctuality." Says with a chuckle, before thanking him and walking towards the elevator on the end of the left hall. Inside, the man turns to the panel containing easily more than fifty base floors. Of course, not all of them were public, and one of the private ones is Sawry's destination. He presses the button marked with a "L", and then use the scanner with the ID handed to him by Sawry. The light over the scanner went from green to blue, signaling that the card was accepted.
Now, the elevator started moving up, even though neither of them felt any vibrations during the trip. That's just a simple example of their technological advance.
During the waiting, the woman kept impatiently knocking her shoe on the floor. Some time after, the elevator doors open to a long, empty, dark hall. Around it, there were exactly six doors, each with a different color. At the end, a black double door with a plaque, written "meeting room".
Though the bodyguard follows Sawry to the door, he stays behind, standing beside it while his boss enters alone to meet with her colleagues.
Behind these doors was a big, open room, with a large round table in the middle, big sofas around the corners and a huge screen on the other side of the room. Right now there were four people sitting around the table, two holding a cup of tea and the other two in relaxing positions.
The first that could be seen is a incredibly beautiful woman wearing a luxurious icy blue dress, fit for a queen. Holding the cup of tea, her hands are covered by dark blue gloves, going up to her elbow. Her black hair extended over her back, with blue painted lines going from tip to her head, which used a golden crown of three trident spikes. The middle spike is larger than the others, and right at the tip it bears a shining icy blue gem.
On the opposite side of the table is a woman of dark skin wearing typical indian clothing, with stomach and shoulders exposed and no dress, everything mixed in white and green. Atop her head is a silver tiara with a shining orange gem, quite similar to the fancy lady in blue. She, too, was holding a cup of tea.
To the left of the dark woman is a large dragon of green scales and big, closed wings. Parts of it's body were covered by tree roots and leaves, and shining on it's forehead is a emerald green gem, giving off a powerful aura, just like both the women.
And lastly, a man clad in a heavy armor, crossing his feet over the table. This armor had it's color mixed with black and red, the latter part being the most predominant. The helm had the head of a dragon, with huge horns on both sides, dark empty eyes and the mouth being the man's face. Like the others, he too had a shining gem, a red one on top of his right hand.
Now that Sawry finally arrived, she grabs the last chair and sits between the two other females, resting her arms on the table, using them as support for her head. "Thank you very much for coming all the way from your respective provinces, and so late at night, too."
"Your letter said about an important matter. Not coming would've been irresponsible." Says the fancy woman, her voice caring and firm like a mother's. "Therefore, shall we begin?"
"It is our duty to fix any serious problem, as Leaders of Visterra." Says the dark woman, with her eyes focused on the tea. Her voice is one with a serious, powerful tone.
With a small smile on her face, Sawry pulls an archive from her pocket. She puts the archive on the table, where she opens it to reveal the face of an attractive man of bright red eyes, snow white hair and a beautiful smile.
Of the four other Leaders, three of them look at the picture with horrified expressions, knowing full well who that man is. The one who didn't bother obviously was Cipher, the man in black armor.
"I suppose you all know where I'm going, riiight~?" Drops a quick laugh before picking the archive once again. "This is a serious case. Queen Vanessa, Your Majesty... I believe you're the one with more knowledge of him."
"Correct. Once I return to my castle, I'll gather all information on him as soon as possible." She answers, taking another sip of her tea.
"We'll search everywhere in our territories. Actually, I shall do so in Shidoo too, due to their usurper's incompetence." The black woman quietly eyes the armored man, clearly talking about him.
"What did you just call me, you sand-worm!?" He slams his firsts on the table, while also glaring at her.
"Do I need to spell if out for you? I said... U-S-U-R-P-E-R." Crossing her arms, she returns the glare, more sassy than aggressive. It's common sense that these two aren't exactly best friends, these fights are no news.
As usual, Cipher gets mad and shift his human hands into fiery dragon claws, holding themselves into fists as to not break the table with another slam. And as always, Lind is the one who stands between them, preventing any possible fights from happening.
"Stop fighting, you two. There's always a way to solve any problems peacefully." The big, green dragon hold both of them in their seats. Differently than what one would think, Lind is not an aggressive dragon, he is the true voice of reason among the five Leaders. "Specifically you, Emma! Every time it's you who starts provoking."
"What could you do, wrap me with vines?" She laughs internally for a second, before pulling the dragon's head with one hand and slowly petting him with the other. "You're a big softie, but that's why I love you so much." Just by looking anybody could say he had no reaction to this show of affection. However, Sawry knew them well enough to say that right now, Lind is blushing hard under his scales.
Finally, Vanessa snaps her fingers, diverting the other's attentions towards herself. "Tell me more about what happened. Is there any recording of it?" She covers her mouth using the left hand. Though she didn't show, Vanessa felt worried. Worried that she may regret asking it.
After listening to Her Majesty's request, Sawry cracks a big smile, bigger than any before. "To tell the truth, the whole thing was recorded by the cameras. Oh, and look, I have it with me!" She says, pulling a plastic bag from her suit, containing a disk. "Let's watch it!"
Even from the inside of his little cell, he could watch every step, every movement of the jail's guards. To keep patrol of more than a hundred cells with just three guards is not to anyone, clearly these went through good training. Plus, their highly advanced equipments.
Equipped not with common weapons, like rifles or pistols, no. But with huge, huge robotic suits of nearly three meters high, bearing big machine guns in the right arms and thick fists in the left arm. Their front is a small cockpit covered by black ballistic glass, where the guards themselves control these mechas.
The prison cells also are highly advanced, built with an energy barrier instead of bars, which can only be opened by authorized personnel. That way, no inmate had any chance of unlocking it, since the panel is a digital scanner.
However...
"Oh, look at it. It's time to leave this place." Wearing a charming expression, the man stands up, walking up to the barrier that keep him imprisoned. The barrier is made to give a high voltage shock to anyone that touch's it. Just enough to make a dragon faint. There's just one problem... Kutsu is not anyone.
Once the guards are a nice distance away, the man extend his arms to the barrier, touching them with both hands. Immediately, huge shock waves course through his body, giving him a tremendous amount of pain. But still, he didn't even look affected by it.
When the guards finally notice that, Kutsu was already out and opening the cell just beside his. That cell contained an ally of his; a living armor of silver and black, with a helm imitating a devilish smile with two red glowing eyes. After freed, they bow before Kutsu, until the first guard arrive at their location.
And then, the living armor gives a powerful push into the guard directly in front of it, knocking them on the floor with ease. "Red alert, red alert! Two inmates escaped their cells on floor five!" He signals over the radio, calling the other two for help.
Feeling danger, the silver armor grabs the human's arm, pulling him over his back before jumping straight to the first floor, creating a small crater upon landing. Due to it's unnatural strength, none of them gets hurt by the fall. The three mechas gather up in front of them, blocking the exit and preparing to fire.
"Dullahan, would you be so kind as to return my items?" The armor, referred to as Dullahan, then take his chest plate out, where a black suit and a shining green sword were stored. After returning these to Kutsu, he pulls another sword; a silver katana with black lining around the front of the blade. Only then does he puts back his chest.
The human steps away from the fighting, while Dullahan was now ready to confront the guards one-on-three. Immediately they open fire against him, shooting with incredible speed, and yet Dullahan managed to slice each and every bullet with ease.
He then ran towards the nearest mecha, sword ready to strike and avoiding his bullets by running in an unpredictable way. Once the distance is minimal between them, he jumps straight into the mecha, making it fall to the ground and unable to act. The armor raises his sword, ready to trust through the glass. But instead of slicing the human guard, he broke the mecha's control panel, so it wouldn't move for some time.
Still, the guard tried to get up. He pressed the buttons, pulled levers, did everything he could to try and continue. But in the end, the mecha stop moving and it's limbs fall apart from the cockpit.
Unfortunately, the desperate tries to get up distract the other two guards, allowing the silver armor to approach easily.
Once he did, he slashes at both mecha's machine gun arms, tearing them apart, now making them unable to fight at long distances. Their only option now is close range, which for this single foe is not advantageous.
The first of them to try and attack is the right guard, launching his fist at high speed toward the knight. In response to that, Dullahan slices the second arm too, then strikes the glass with a punch that shatters it. Next, he pulls the human by their shirt and throws them to another cell's energy barrier.
Once his body touched the barrier, the electric force circled through his entire body mercilessly. After he fell to the ground, he'd already fainted, with smoke coming out from their clothes. Even the cell's inmate was surprised.
Now being the last one standing, the last mecha, he uses the machine's legs to kick and stomp at the knight beside him. Or, at least, try, but Dullahan avoided every single attack.
But something's wrong. He's avoiding everything, but it's not counterattacking. Why? Suddenly, he even stood completely still in front of the guard, sheathing his katana and crossing arms.
Confused, the guard looks at him. "You're already dead." He says, but still didn't move. What is he doing, just waiting for an attack? If so, then that's what he'll get. He raises the mecha's fist, going to hit the knight right in the head with all his power.
But then... "... W-what?" The mecha's fist stopped just millimeters from hitting the knight, unable to proceed. It wasn't just the arm, the entire mechanical suit stopped working suddenly and he had no idea why. However, once he look outside, he saw a huge slice mark all over the suit, a slice that penetrated over the guard's own clothes.
For a second, he saw a human figure holding a shining green sword from afar. He saw, without a doubt, two red, evil eyes. Silently he lost consciousness, falling where he stood, near the knight's side.
"What an impressive display, Dullahan!" Kutsu said while approaching, holding his hands in his back. He is now wearing that black suit given to him.
"Why didn't you kill him?" He asks, looking over the mecha.
"His death is not necessary for us. Our objective is noble, so must be our actions toward people." He explained, tapping Dullahan's shoulder. "Anyway, let's get going. We have places to be." And so, Dullahan nodded before the two of them going away. Away from the cameras view, leaving only the destruction they did.
Finally, the recording ends, allowing the Leaders to process everything they've just seen. Sawry, as always, smiles at the other's reactions, seeing how both Lind and Vanessa were terrified. Meanwhile, Cipher seemed like he didn't care, and Emma remained serious.
That's when the video finally ends, with nothing more regarding the breakout. The purple dressed woman removes the disk and put it back into it's plastic bag and back to her pocket. "Those three guards are all alive and receiving medical aid." She says, to what she could hear a quiet, relieved sigh coming from the green dragon.
"I've seen enough. This is an emergency, but we need to keep quiet, otherwise our people might panic." Emma crosses her arms and legs, now directing her words to each and every Leader. "For now, I shall leave it to my assistant."
"Just as expected from Wige's lady Emma, always thinking of her people!" Sawry uses finger guns to point at the other woman in a more enthusiastic way. "By the way, there's another problem I wanted to talk about." Everyone turns their head over to Sawry, curious to hear. "Seems like it's happening only in Shok, but I should warn y'all. Some people are suddenly disappearing, leaving no trace. I can only think the worst out of this."
As she speak, she pulled an archive from the other side of her suit. By opening it on the table, she reveals pictures of many people, be them humans, dragons or other species. Other than the pictures, there was also a lot of papers full of details from investigating these disappearances. The Leaders are going be really busy...
The reunion went on for a little longer, just some more about questions that should be made, like " where is Kutsu?", "what is his plan?" and "who's responsible for the disappearances?". Coming to the end, they agreed to giving priority to Kutsu while Sawry looks into the sudden disappearances. And so, they go their separate ways, back to their homes and duties.
[By the name of Visterra, this vast and beautiful land is home to all living beings of the planet. A single land mass divided in five great provinces, and each with their own Leader figure.]
[Eighty years ago, a great disaster in world scale happened. Though much information was lost over time, the basic is undeniable; two powerful entities battled each other. This battle resulted in the destruction of the planet as it was once known, the extinction of an entire species and in ten whole years of isolation underneath the earth.]
[In short, the battle was catastrophic and long. One of it's consequences was the union of every landmass on the world, which is now known as Visterra, bringing with it a new, different and unique age. Nowadays, that battle is known as the End of an Era.]
The sounds of big and heavy steps echoes in the hallway, leaving only burn marks in the shape of boots all over the wooden floor. He'd already ordered to replace the floors with stones instead of wooden planks, considering that this is Visterra's hottest place.
The province known as Shidoo, honoring an old warrior of the same name that fought in the End of an Era. It's a vast territory covered in ashes and being home to the only volcano in the world. While active, the volcano hasn't erupted in more than fifty years. Still, it's not a safe place for people, only the strongest choose to live here, and those that are born in Shidoo are already adapted to the extreme heat.
"Those damm idiots still think I care about all that!" During all the way, he let out his hysterical laugh while walking down the hall, approaching a double red door. His arms, now morphed into a pair red dragon's claw, open the doors full of brutality, not caring if something break.
That's right. Even though he looks human all the time, Cipher's true identity is that of a gelatinous red thing known as metamorphs. This species is known for their incredible ability to morph into anything and anyone or even mixing to create a new form. Cipher, however, use only two forms: human during most of time, and that of a red dragon when fighting seriously.
The room he just entered is his throne room, a big and open place, decorated with wallpaper with the design of flames from bottom to top of the room, and a red carpet leading from the doors straight to the throne. The floor itself is made of wooden planks, with some stone pillars holding the roof following the carpet.
Standing besides the throne, there was a serpentine being with scaly humanoid torso and arms. It had a snake hood along it's neck and big red eyes. As for clothing, it is wearing a grey jacket, a necklace with a pink gem and a long purple scarf that reached the floor with both ends. "Welcome back, my lord Cipher. How was the meeting?" The snake asks while bowing down to his lord, exhibiting a perverse smile.
"Nothing but useless crap, things that I don't care about in the slightest." Waves his left hand to the servant, meaning to leave the subject. Then, the Leader sit down on his throne, crossing his legs and resting his head on the right claw. "An unbeatable terrorist? What a drama." Repeat multiple times inside his head. He could easily solve it.
After a little bit, the red-eyed nagi slithers over, standing directly in front of the metamorph lord, now making his devilish smile clear to him. "I have good news, my lord!" Raises his head, looking straight at Cipher's own eyes with that same smile. "Your most loyal servant – me, Sukar Arper – finally set everything to begin your master plan!"
Hearing Sukar's declaration, he couldn't help but laugh once again, "Excellent! When I'm finished, Visterra will be mine to rule and everyone that challenges me will be crushed beneath my feet!" but this time the laugh becomes much more evil, megalomaniacal, shared by both the lord and servant together.
This is my destiny! Become this world's supreme ruler... Undefeated by the rest of my life, marked in history! All will bow to me or I'm not Cipher, the Usurper of the Flame!
Alone, sitting on a small chair in front of a computer, while various 'tables' were coming from the walls. All these 'tables' are holding corpses of multiple people without a drop of life inside them. Their chests sewed, where the hearts are supposed to be.
But that didn't matter now, he's too busy to take care of these bodies, he can do it later anyway. In his computer, he pressed each key rapidly, already used to their positions by memory. In the screen, two small blue eyes watched him while writing some sort of code. The eyes blink a few times.
Suddenly, the door behind him opens, revealing two shadows who enter the mortuary and turn the lights on. The first is a pink-haired woman wearing black leather pants, pink shirt and a purple witch hat. The second being is a humanoid monster 2,3 meters tall, made completely of dark wood. His eyes shine in a pink glow when through his 'hair' of vines and sticks.
"Master, mistress Floke and Perpetual just arrived." A childish speaks through the computer speakers, while the screen eyes look at the newcomers over the man's shoulders.
With a short sigh, the 'master' turn around on the chair to face the other two in front of the door, while resting his left arm on the table. "Something happened to make you come annoy me?"
The woman named Floke walks over to a wall nearby, where she supports herself and cross her arms. She look at the man, analysing him. At the moment he wasn't wearing clothes, only a nanosuit and open helmet. The suit had two yellow scarfs coming out of each shoulder and going to the floor. "Just came to warn ya. Seems like the Leaders noticed our little kidnappings and are investigating. Though you'd like to know, doctor Nemesis." Although the news is problematic, the woman just kept smiling innocently like a child who received a so desired gift.
Hearing it, Nemesis's expression changes to that of worry, and suddenly becoming one of enthusiasm. "They may do as they wish, it's already too late. The robot revolution is ready to begin! And with the power of my science and your magic, nobody can stop us...
not even... A GOD!"
