Prologue – The Animal
Darkness spreads across the land of Sylvarant, the many light of the stars begin to shine, each one casting it's own light, together in the sky they feel close and grouped. For many today had been a blessed day, 3 days ago marked the end of a drought and flowers could be seen blossoming again, the very first crops began to raise out of the land, and those animals who lived through the drought had sipped the precious liquid that had barely touched the backs of there throats in a long time.
The moon had shined brightly today, a full moon almost made the day perfect one to be remembered for many years to come. Though there was one man who would not think this day to be perfect, one who did not believe it should be remembered. The stars and moon whom shined so beautify for others, had only dared to shine upon the red liquid dripping from his skin. The man looked at the back of his palm, the blood slowly dripping down to the moist ground. He could not trace the source of much of the blood, whether it was his own or of others.
He had cast a small cleansing spell upon himself; he wanted to make sure he would be infected with daisies and sickness within the tainted blood. He sat under the shadow of a large tree, which had died from the drought, he had wished that he would've died on this day, or even earlier then that, the horrors he would have to face now are too great for a man to standby. In the darkness of a bush the man saw a movement, a human lying wounded in the bushes, he could not tell who the human was or why he was there.
Lifting his sword up as a cane our, "hero", hade lifted himself up from the shadow of the willow tree to see the human in the bushes. Leaning over to see the man, our "hero" found him to be one of the men who had accompanied him on his mission. The man in the bush's could barley be called a human at his state, Unable to escape the last few painful hours of his life, He was now no more wounded animal lying on the ground moaning out of pain. The man of the two had taken his sword and carefully aimed for the animal's heart, stabbing clearly and toughly stopping it and the animal's torture once and for all. For the last moment of its lift just as the sword pierced its heart, stopping both it and the pain, it allowed him to die as a man and not as a wounded beast.
The man could not stand to watch a man in such pain; He would endure the same amount in his lifetime due to the losses of this day, maybe even more in the never ending spiral of his existence. Something no amount of healing could fix, only the uniting death, which would bind his soul to the heavens and to the other's to come before him. In the wake of this thought he had taken a dagger he had hiding in a casing, lifted it and looked onto the blade as to a mirror, was he as the animal he had just slain, only to suffer the pain over a long time? He dropped the dagger, backing backwards attempting to think, only to crash into the tree that cast its shadow upon him before.
Chapter one – Recovery
The day that followed that one was not one to be recognized as a perfect day for all as the last one did, great storm clouds had gathered over the skies of Sylvarant distorting the stars and moon of early morning. By now the man we had seen before was sleeping, fainted by the sudden crash. Another man had passed by the area, a traveler coming through to see the forest, and to help the animals who were hurt by the drought.
After reaching about midway into the forest, the traveler had seen what no man should see. What looked like a large battlefield, shrunken down to a length of no more then 50 square meters, bodies on the ground below his feet; mostly these bodies belonged to a series of creatures detested by the humans of Sylvarant. These were the designs, a regime long known for torturing the humans of Sylvarant, Holding a large group of "Human Ranches" whom acted as there bases of operation.
And yet a few of the bodies belonged to a group he had seen before, passing through town only days beforehand. They were discreet about there goal not even giving there names to the townsfolk, and yet were welcomed by the people of the town with open arms. They seemed like strong men, well equipped to fight in any battle. The traveler had then noticed a particularly bloody body, laying next to a large tree With what seemed to be a large open wound on the lower part of his stomach. The traveler had noticed something very odd about this body, as he approached it; it seemed to release a large snore. The traveler had quickly approached the body and awoken the man, seeing that he was weak, he carried him back to his own township.
The traveler had gotten the man a room at an inn and explained to them what he saw, they allowed the man to stay as long as he would need to recover. The traveler had asked the man one day what his name was, The man replied that his name was Kratos Aurion, and that he had led the expedition in a failed attempt to save a group of humans held as design hostages. The traveler had come by once every few days, and eventually stopped visiting after a month. None of this though mattered to Kratos, He had felt a madness unleashed inside of him. The hostages he set out to save were no other then his wife and his son, both killed in the assault.
Many thousands of years ago, Kratos was truly a young man, who had fought in the greatest war he hade know. He fought alongside a great hero, named Mithos, whose anger over the death of a sister drove him to pure madness. Mithos had set out to destroy humanity and create an age of equality by murder and corruption. At first Kratos would not have joined Mithos in his goal, yet all those years ago, Mithos' men had kidnapped his first wife who's love he could only compare to the wife which he had lost today. He was forced watch as she was tortured in front of his eyes, slowly and painfully he eventually succumb and joined Mithos, yet when he left no more was left of his wife but a dying creature he was forced to slay out of mercy with his own hands.
During the period Mithos held him as his ally Kratos would succumb to the Ideals Mithos finding them to be a great cause to fight for. He would only defect twice from Mithos' army. Once about 19 years prior to the events of the day, he had fallen in love with another woman, a half elf of the bordering world known as Tethe'alla while he did not love her as much as his first wife or the one that had died not long ago. He still married her and had a child, she had died soon after of a sickness, and Kratos had given the child only 2 years old to a dear friend of hers whom he never saw again.
But the wife he had lost not long ago on that faithful day was his truest of loves, he originally saved her from a human ranch, and fell in love with her later. They eventually married and had there own son. The designs, ruled by extension by Mithos, had continually chased them for a long time. Until the faithful day when both she, and there son were killed.
Kratos wanted revenge for there deaths, he wished to kill Mithos with his own two hands, to watch as Mithos would suffer in pain as all of his victims. Yet Mithos stood on another word, another land, there would be no way he could be able to get there. Kratos had left the inn he was at and paid them for the time he spent there; He would now go on to a different town and try to find a way to get Mithos. As he went out of the city he met the traveler from before. The traveler invited him for a prayer at the church of Martel; he said that the Chosen had just set out for her journey and that they could pray for her success.
Kratos knew the religion this man and most people believed in was part of Mithos' plan, the goddess Martel, isn't really a goddess waiting to be revived by a selected chosen one. She was no other then Mithos' dead sister, whom this great chosen one would act a vessel for. That was it, he would need to find the chosen, use her as his bargaining chip. Kratos asked the traveler where the chosen was, the traveler told him that she was head towards Palmacoasta as her first destination. Kratos thanked the traveler, and ran off, for a second the traveler turned around, as if to ask a question, but by then Kratos was off.
-Tales of a Fan AKA djtjj