Hetalia - The Cold of War

Chapter 27! So inspiration hit and I managed to pump this out the same day as I posted the last chapter, but decided to keep hold of it. It's a pretty big reveal chapter, so I'm quite excited to see everyone's response to it and see who is able to piece the information together. I'm also delighted to inform you that I'm on a two week break from school, so chapter updates may come out quicker :)

Question Time!

Night of the Raining Flames asks: Do sorcerers just have a really long life span?

To answer the question, sorcerers live very different lives to regular humans and with them, ageing gets a little iffy. Part of their reason for being naturally solitary is that they have a vastly longer life span that regular humans. Unless they marry another supernatural creature that also has an extended life span, sorcerers will always outlive their partners. This has evolved to sorcerers choosing to stick to their own company for fear of becoming too attached in a relationship that is doomed to end in heartbreak.

Ageing for sorcerers can be very confusing. There's no exact scale by which their age can measured as a sorcerer's ageing process can slow, even stop during the years. Presently in our story, in human years Arthur is 23 and Allistor is 27; when in actuality, they are 100 and 150 years old respectively. It has been heavily speculated that sorcerers cannot die from old age, with nearly all accounted reasons of death being due to diseases, combative wounds and other accidents such as experimental magic failures.

Chiisaioni asks: Are Angels regarded to be creatures of myth? Thence why the Imperial soldiers were surprised when he spoke.

You are exactly correct. Angels were thought to be fictional and are regarded similarly as Gaia is as a Goddess; real only in religious teachings. So to hear that an Angel, which was not meant to exist in the first place, speak the human's common tongue was incredibly shocking for the soldiers.

With our question section out the way, I present to you the next chapter,

Enjoy!

The North, The Nordic Kingdom, The Dungeons

It had taken Allistor Kirkland a whole day to regain his sensibility, the sorcerer had been thoroughly embarrassed when he had been informed about his shameful actions. Only after promising Lukas he would never try to pull a similar stunt again, did the blind sorcerer agree that it was time they finally spoke with Vladimir. Later on that same evening, Allistor, Lukas, Alfred and Matthew had walked down into the Palace's underground dank, dripping dungeons; their footsteps echoing against the cold slated limestone floor. Vladimir's cell was at the end of the lowest corridor and it's steel vault door was guarded by three bulky guards who nodded respectfully when Lukas and company approached. The railed prison door had groaned as it slid open and allowed the men to step into the cell.

It was rectangular in shape, with a ceiling-to-floor set of iron bars that separated the cell into two to create a 'visitors' area. The air smelt faintly of mould and nipped with freezing bites. Inside the actual containment cell, a large purple magic circle had been painted central to the room while other confiding sigils and symbols patterned the walls; all restrictive warding glowed faintly as they fed off the prisoner's own mana. Vladimir Popescu kneeled with his head bowed at the centre of the magic circle, dense manacles enclosed his bony limbs and neck; his nose was still broken and bleeding from when Allistor had smacked his elbow into it. He minimally raised his head as the four stepped inside, and a humourless smile flitted on his bleeding chapped lips.

"Have you come to kill me, Allistor? At this point, I'd welcome it" Vlad whispered in a brittle voice, his weary eyes watched searchingly to see if Allistor would draw a weapon. Allistor lightly pushed Alfred and Lukas aside so that he could stand closest to Vlad with concentrated look on his stern face. Tension lay thick upon the air as the two men met one another's stares.

"I'm not here ta kill ya, Popescu," Allistor replied in a tightlipped voice, "though I won't deny how ma fingers itch to"

Lukas made a disapproving sound at the comment and Vladimir gave a dry chuckle, "So I see its torture first then? Brilliant, my vocal cords miss being torn" He sarcastically snarked, though a detectable layer of fear coloured his words. Sympathy pricked at Alfred and, despite agreeing to let Allistor and Lukas do the talking, he stepped forward to speak to the prisoner of war.

"We wouldn't do that dude, on my word as a hero" Alfred promised with his left hand held up and his right placed on his heart, the universal display of honest intents. Vladimir did not seemed moved and switched his reserved stare back to Allistor.

"If you aren't here to hurt me, then what are you here for?" He suspiciously asked with a sniff, his chains rattled at the jerking movement. Lukas shifted his position so that he stood side by side with Allistor.

"Vladimir, I don't know if you remember me, but my name is Lukas Bolshevik. We studied astrology under Master Mettimoto in The Restless City when we were nine years old" Lukas tried, his blindness prevented him from seeing the flicker of recognition that darted across Vlad's dirty face.

"Lukas? Gods, what happened to you? Your eyes…" Vlad paled as he peered closely at the band of black fabric that covered Lukas' missing eyes, his throat clenched around the lump that had thickly formed there.

"Yes, they were taken. It happened a few days after the purge began. My brother and I were fleeing for refuge in the North when we were ambushed. We would be taken back to the Capital if it had not been for the invaluable help of ex-Imperial Tino Väinämöinenave. He helped us escape and together, the three of us arrived north and His Majesty has shielded us ever since" Lukas explained, his voice low and sorrowful at the haunting memories of the past. Behind him, the twins felt a wave of pity for the sorcerers that had suffered at the targeted hands of the Emperor.

Vlad shuddered from Lukas' chilling story and at the dropping temperature of the cell. It occurred to Alfred that the man looked malnourished beneath his thin clothes that hung off him like a rag.

"I am sorry, Lukas. I wish that had not happened, no one deserves what the Emperor did to us. Allistor…," Vlad croaked, his voice began to crumble as moist droplets gathered in the corners of his eyes, "I'm sorry Allistor. I am so sorry, for the part I played in your brother's death and everything after. You have to know, that night, I truly didn't know it was you. You, Seamus, Dylan and Arthur, you were the ones everyone wanted to survive, were the ones who had the best chances of surviving. We all thought…if at least you survived, we could be avenged. Your family were the best hunters, your father was a legend among us…So when I saw that I had led the Empire right to you, I felt that I personally had caused our extinction".

Tears had began to freely pour down Vladimir's bruised and cut face. The empty spaces of the cell became filled by his tragic confession. Allistor stayed motionless, a statue of silence as he stared at the man who had unknowingly caused his family to be cleaved apart. It was a long time before he spoke.

"After Seamus' and Dylan's deaths an' Arthur's disappearance, I felt hollow like a puppet. When I was brought here, ma grief turned ta anger, an' that turned to hate. I directed that hate at you, so sure that you had betrayed us ta save yar own skin. I see now, that ma hate was misplaced," Allistor resounded, his tone ringing with clear acceptance and his bottomless Greek-fire green eyes poured into Vlad's; a surge of strength seemed to pass between the two. "I forgive you, Vladimir Popescu. So please, help me rescue Arthur, he's tha only family I hav' left"

To the surprise of everyone in that chamber, Vlad gasped and looked at Allistor with wide eyes; a shadow of hope shimmered inside them "I promise, but I must tell you now. You're wrong"

Allistor's eyes immediately narrowed,"What did y'ar say?" he growled in a dangerous pitch that raised all hairs on the back of everyone's necks.

"He, Arthur, is not the only family you have left. You see, when sorcerers were captured and brought before the Emperor, he decided if they were to be of any use to him. The ones who are obedient and gifted are spared while the other were…put to death. I- I was there when Seamus' body and Dylan were presented,". And Vladimir proceeded to tell his account with eyes that stared though Allistor and back into the pastime. All listeners were deadly still as they listened.

Six Years in the Past, The Winter Palace, The Emperor's Private Audience Chamber

Despair. Despair was all Vladimir was as he was forced to kneel to the right of Commander Edelstein, his entire upper body tightly chained and a stuffed ball of cloth gagged his mouth. He and the Commander were placed on the left wall of the french rococo audience hall, on the opposite wall to him was the Emperor's sister and a cluster of her preferred guards. The Emperor himself sat on a plush throne at the end of hall, a massive strained glass window behind him that shone through colours of sapphire blue, crimson and porcelain white onto the floor before him. Those nobles privileged enough had been invited to see the infamous Kirklands that the sorcerers' community whispered about. The sick excitement was high and even the reserved Emperor was sporting a rare satisfied smile.

Vlad felt sick, and so did Commander Roderick; the man was pale as bone and his forehead had acquired a waxy layer of sweat. The both of them knew that the mission had been a disastrous failure, and they were terrified. Four alive Kirklands were meant to be brought through those doors, but only one would draw breath. The event of his betrayal replayed in a constant loop in Vlad's mind, each time he heard the young Arthur's scream and saw the arrow pierce through Seamus' throat he felt his stomach churn and threaten to heave up bile on the spotless floor before him.

A sudden anticipated hush swept throughout the hall as the double doors were thrown open and four guards marched in, dragging two bodies between each pair of them. The silence shifted from anticipation to horrified tension as the bodies were laid out for display, only one of the chestnut haired youths struggled and showed signs of life. All panicked eyes jumped from the Kirklands to the Emperor to see his response. What was seen was a mask of nauseated trepidation.

"Where are the other two? Where is Arthur Kirkland?" The Emperor demanded in a stifled voice, his entire frame frozen and stiff as his violet irises' uncharacteristically shrank with fear. Upon his last words, the hall suddenly grew cold as if a inaudible blizzard had entered. The late afternoon sunlight visibly dimmed to a muted stormy grey and as the temperature plummeted, the people of the crowd dropped to the floor with their eyes rolling into the back of their skulls. The shadows in the corners of the subdued hall rose, loomed and converged together in front of the Emperor's throne. Vlad shrank within himself and he began to violently tremble as he felt something very wrong enter the hall. Something that was not of the earthly realm.

The thing, this Presence, was a figural mass of shadows that twisted and distorted. The space around it became a vacuum that pulled at the nearby nobles' life forces; the flames that were too weak to endear it's subzero gravity were snuffed out, leaving the once warm bodies empty of life. The presence whirled searchingly to look down at the Kirklands. When it saw what it was looking for was not there, a rapid torrent of angry hissing noises rippled out from it as it spun to confront the wavering Emperor. The man defensively sprang to his feet, a foreign expression of petrification gripped him. With a quivering finger he pointed at the Kirklands.

"No! It is not yet lost! The contract is still valid, we can still work with this. They are his brothers, ask!" The Emperor shouted at the mass of shadows, his chest heaved under distress. Vlad felt his heart battle to beat as the presence slowly turned. As it moved forward, it's shape sharpened so that it distinctly became that of a slender tall man with long smooth sheets of hair.

Laid out against the polished stone floor beside his dead brother, Dylan Kirkland tried to force his frantically hammering chest to calm, though the task was impossible when the presence in front of him radiated distilled malevolence down at him. It crouched, and a thin, almost skeletal, hand slipped and closed around Dylan's twitching Adam's-apple. The grip tightened as it raised him up by his throat, Dylan's head fell back as his strength left him. His lungs screamed for oxygen that he could not inhale.

The presence inclined it's head at Dylan before it said something in it's strange serpentine tongue. Barely able to draw breath, Dylan somehow managed to shake his head to indicate he did not understand and the presence's grip loosened it's tightness as though it realised it was preventing Dylan from replying. The second youngest Kirkland gasped hungrily as air rushed back down into his starved lungs, the nauseating black spots that had began to appear in his vision disappeared as his brain was slowly replenished with oxygen.

"You are Gisil's spawn?" The presence's warped molten voice interrogated in common tongue, it's hold squeezed threateningly as it raised Dylan so his bare feet were lifted off the floor. Dylan whimpered as the presence's clamping fingers dung painfully into his jaw. He weakly opened his mouth where his tongue was in danger of sliding back and choking him.

"Go..to hell" Dylan rasped as bravely as he could, his bravo seeping from him and he wasn't sure how long he would be able to keep up the act. The presence gave out a reverberating black chuckle and without warning, slammed Dylan down against the floor, the smoothed surface cracked from the brutal force and Dylan felt hot thick liquid wet and pool at the back of his head. "I'm going to die here" Dylan hopelessly resigned as the presence leaned down to speak again.

"So crude. Exactly like your maggot of a father," The presence disdained before it raised it's voice to address the Emperor without looking away, "The Fates smile on you, mortal. I see an opportunity in this turn of events. Have these bodies crystallised, I will have use for them at a later time"

Dylan stared up at the presence in panicked alarm and squirmed under it's clutches, "You..bastard. What do… you want from us?" He wheezed breathlessly, he could of sworn he felt the presence cruelly smile down at him.

It moved it head closer so that it was inches from Dylan's, "From you? Don't think yourselves so important. It's not what I want from you mud monkeys, but rather, your brothers". Dylan's breath hitched and his heart pounded against his ribcage as he thought of his other two brothers and their unknown fates.

"Wha-what, do you…want with..Allistor and..Arthur?" Dylan managed, his thick eyebrows furrowed when the presence actually shook from laughter before he spoke disturbingly in an exhilarated cooing voice, as if speaking of a lover.

"Ah, Arthur~, my little miracle given flesh. He was never meant to live among you swine, be touched by your filthy hands. As to what I desire from him is simple. I desire him, all of him in body, mind and spirit. Your brother belonged to me long before he was born. He. Is. Mine. And I will tear apart this wretched world and anyone who dares try to hide him from me, molecule by molecule" The presence tightened his grip on Dylan's throat, the Kirkland wriggled and writhed beneath the unbreakable grip. When the shadowy man above him spoke again, his voice dropped and dripped with pure acidic venom.

"As to the other one. The eldest, the one you name Allistor. He will die. Excruciatingly, painfully, and slowly. I going to shatter open his mind, vandalise his memories and all while, Gisil Kirkland will watch. I will tear him apart from within his own mind until he is but an empty shell of himself, before stripping him of his Name of Power from his broken form. It will be only when he begs for the sweet release of death, will I finally allow him to thrust a rusted pipe through his neck. Once I am done with him, I will do the same to you. And then, it will be Gisil's time. Each and every one of you will all die screaming in agony by my hand. This, is your unchangeable future"

Thick, hot tears spilled from the Dylan's peridot shimmering eyes. A quick death was kinder then what this presence had planned for him. Dylan's numb body seemed to shut out, completely unresponsive when the presence let go of his throat. Distantly Dylan heard the presence that had promised to eradicate his whole family repeat it's order before it turned back to look at him one last time.

"Goodnight, spawn of Gisil" It purred with a sharp snap of its fingers, and Dylan Kirkland dropped unconscious into an induced slumber. Barely able to hold on to reality any longer, Vlad felt his own eyelids unwillingly slide shut and eventually he to gave in to darkness. The next time he had awoken, he was in a cell and Seamus and Dylan Kirkland were no where to be seen.

The North, The Nordic Kingdom, Vladimir Popescu's cell

A drop of water fell, and landed in a bucket of water with a loud plop! The drop's echo bounced and refracted inside the imprisonment cell, the only movement, or even sign of life after Vladimir had finished his tale. All five men were motionless, minds struggling to process the information just told to them. Alfred was the first to speak.

"Holy shit," He breathed as fear clawed at him, nausea causing him to sway unsteadily on his feet, "Ho-ly shit". His words seemed to spur partially spur everyone out of the trance of shock, behind him, Matthew deeply inhaled a shaky breath and extended a hand to lean against the wall to steady himself.

Lukas reached out and gripped Allistor fiercely on the arm, his arm trembled uncontrollably, "Allistor, it can't be can it? It can't be". Alfred looked between the two and sensed something unspoken between them, something of monumental weight. It took Allistor a whole minute of staring lost into space before he responded.

"Lukas, lock tha door an' cast a noise sealing spell. No one outside these four walls must know of this" He whispered in a coarse voice with his back still away from everyone save Vladimir. Without a word, Lukas crossed the room and did as Allistor had instructed. He remained by the door when Allistor turned and walked to the left edge of the room to slump down with his head in his hands. There was a pregnant drawn out pause.

"Most of ya in this room by now know that Arthur is not merely a sorcerer like myself and Lukas, but a hybrid of Angel an' Human. The truth of how he came to be is unknown ta me. But I will tell you all of what happened the night his mother, Victoria, brought him ta Earth…". And Allistor told his story as Vladimir had told his. He spoke quietly of how the Seraph Archangel had suddenly arrived at their little cabin and made his old man promise to hide Arthur from those searching for him. He spoke of how the Archangels fought and how Victoria had threatened to unleash her Blade upon Haldis if he didn't retreat, how the traitorous Fallen Seraph had sworn that he would eventually claim Arthur as his. Allistor recounted his father's and the Seraph's departure softly, describing her beautiful golden features and otherworldly beauty with a certain fondness. When he had finished telling the calamitous romance, he took a deep breath and stared at the floor as he thought, unaware of his awestruck audience.

"To learn that the Emperor was under that devil's thumb along, " Allistor spat, "this causes some of the puzzle pieces fit together. Without a doubt, it was that bastard Angel's idea to have our people wiped out. It was the most effective way of tracking down Artie". When Allistor looked up to see why no one had said anything in response, he saw the gathered men with thunderstruck expressions. Vlad's story had confused them, Allistor's had blown their minds. Angels? Gods? A war between Heaven and Hell? It was too much to take in one go. Sighing heavily, Allistor got up to go to the door. He paused with his hand on the handle.

"I understand that this is a lot ta take in. Hell, I still can't completely wrap ma mind around it. Once ya come to terms with it, come find me. I have tha beginnings of a plan". With those parting words, Allistor Kirkland dispelled the locking and noise spell and yanked open the cell door, causing the posted guards outside to near jump out of their skin. He proceeded to strode back down the narrow corridor, his green cloak bellowed out around him and the cell he had left behind, remained silent long after he had returned above ground.

The some puzzle pieces begin to slide into place, while others become more jumbled. So, we learn of Dylan and Seamus' fate alongside a critical piece of information about the Emperor, what could this contract be that he spoke of?

I have faith that most of you readers will be bale to put together who the 'presence' is, particularly from their speech and language. I won't give away details, but I will say that what we see is a projection, not the actual thing.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you are liking this story and if to see it long continue, then please consider leaving a review telling me your thoughts, opinions and questions. Once again thank you for reading and as always,

until next time folks!